caroline will have to come back to you as my details are all home

FOUND IT!
http://www.coast-and-castles.co.uk/consett.html

Thanks Bilbo - but these are part of the directions for the C2C bike trail, so not sure how accessible this stuff will be for a non-cyclist, or how worthwhile for a serious art-lover - the Tony Cragg works should be worth a look, though.

P.S. This site looks interesting, for those & other public artworks in NE England - http://www.commissionsnorth.org/publ..._CN+Book+1.pdf

Well, semi-accurate... one hopes !!>>>


Well the one on Waterloo Bridge was completely accurate (actually - not true to life as it was a cold day)

Meat but no veg, I thought ?

A couple of years ago when my daughter was 16 and we had a week in England, Anwick was top of her list - because she's a Harry Potter fan. It was fun to go on the Harry Potter tour (which included a good bit of history of the castle), the inside of the castle was great to see, and I enjoyed the gardens very much. As a gardener the "Poison Garden" is what got my attention. The treehouse restaurant was very unique and a lot of fun too, which lots of places to explore and climb. When my kids were a little younger they would have been in heaven there. I can definitely see why British families would make a day of it and visit Alwick.

I wasn't looking *that* closely. It would look a bit odd on Waterloo Bridge to be inspecting a statue's tackle..

:-)

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland inherited unexpectedly, after the death of the heir, his elder brother, apparently due to a drug overdose. One of the reasons for the Poison Garden is its educational purpose which I believe is related to that.
The castle and grounds cost an enormous amount to upkeep. The unemployment rate for the north of England is very high. Jane Percy, the Duchess decided to create a popular tourist attraction to help bring in the funds to maintain the castle and grounds and to give locals employment. They have spent some $40 million pounds so far and employ hundreds of locals as well as keeping local hostelries, B and Bs and eating places busy. The gardens are entirely wheel chair friendly - as are the restaurants and cafes in the tree house, the woodland walk, the toilets and the garden. And would you believe - the swing bridges. We saw delighted adults and children unable to walk laughing with delight as they were wheeled across.
Activities programs are run for the local people especially the elderly, the handicapped and children. Jamie Oliver has a kitchen for his healthy cooking classes there too. Everything in the garden and all the facilities are maintained to the highest standard with lots of innovative ideas (check out the lights on the glass basins in the downstairs toilets) and there are many local residents who volunteer as they admire her work so much. I am an Australian who visited there twice earlier this year. I have visited gardens all over Europe, America and the UK and I have never seen any that have impressed me so much.

I was also bowled over by the beauty, and the intelligence of the fountains - the seven in the Serpent Walk are designed to show the different principles of the physics of water. School children learn and the littlies play in the water. The main fountain is I think the most complex to be built in the last 100 years. It is computer controlled and simply amazing.
Enormous thought, money and effort has gone into these modern gardens. I thought some of the comments about the Duchess were cheap shots, but hopefully they were made in ignorance. Hats off to Jane Percy I say. She has my husband and my total admiration and respect.