Why do I live up here
People ask me why I moved up here.
I tell them about the reputation for it being cold and they just shiver and tell me they’d not move somewhere like that.
Well to be frank the main two reasons for moving up here are that I’m near my daughter and that the house for what it is, is cheap. I’ve always aspired to a house that has some gravitas and that’s detached – try living in a flat with sideways, cross the corridor, down the corridor, up above and down below neighbours and you might appreciate what I mean. Here though it is so quiet, a night here is blissful, the odd tractor rumbling in the distance or car rarely rolling through, it’s just unbelievably silent.
But the fake shivering and all I don’t get it, sure it’s cold and yes the Wikipedia entry does mention something about it being:
“Because of its height above sea-level, around the 1,000 ft contour, and position in the north-east, this station is often one of the coldest in England with high incidences of ground frosts and snowfalls.”
Well that’s a bit scary, but hey if you want to quibble the station is further up in the next village of Woodland, my bit is only 865ft above sea level and it’s yet to snow or get frosty. Driving to work and the temp’ gauge only heats up a degree or so on the drop, so what’s the fuss. But hey why should I fuss when the rest of the country is being shattered by floods and high winds. Also:
“However, the higher Pennines can also create a local strong and gusty effect if the wind blows from the west-south-west. This is called the Pennine Lee Wave and can appear suddenly and disappear just as quickly.”
Well it’s windy but no windier yet than anywhere else that I’ve been to recently. Quite frankly when the rest of the country is being brought to a halt through high winds, well up here it’s been a bit gusty.
Still this all might be the exception, I might have been here for the mildest winter in years in this area but hey… bring it on. To me the pile of stone that I’ve bought is built for it, it’s not been built to sidle around the countryside looking all chocolate boxy, this is a house with attitude and it’s built for rough weather. It’s prominent in the village and sitting at 800+ feet above sea level it’s not going to flood. The walls are Scottish castle thick and even with the single glazed windows it can be blowing up a storm outside and I barely notice it till I step outside.
The snow might prove a problem but I’ve lived up here on and off in a village a hundred feet lower and generally snow up here can mean trouble. I think though that getting snowed in is quite romantic and if you have to go to the shops people and facilities are prepped for the weather. The snow ploughs trundle around regularly, the gritters grit and my logic on driving in snow is that you could be in a Range Rover but your car will only traverse the snow as quickly as the car in front of you. The cars in front up here are tricked out old Landies with old ladies behind the wheels who drive like Finnish rally drivers.
I also fancy the appeal of learning to snowboard in my own back garden, going off to a hillock, grooming some snow and getting down on the Alpine banks of Durham, well it’s a thought for those days I get snowed in…. if I had a snowboard that is. Flying on fancy I think.
Anyway, the cold what’s the big deal, I might whinge about it being cold here, well it was pretty nippy before I got the fires on. But cold is a state of mind, it’s a thing to overcome, once you get used to it it’s just a feeling and only in the coldest moments can it really cause you discomfort. Once I get the heating proper working I’ll be sat in my undies all day wondering what all the fuss is.
What’s really the thing for me though, well apart from the bit of developing a house that I’ve wanted to do all my life, is that I’m living in a slab of stone, a monolith, that fortress home that Charlton Heston lived in in the Omega Man. It’s a proper statement piece zombie proof castle, it stands battered by the wind, the snow and the frost and with its best Paddington stare it just shrugs them all off. It’s no semi in Darlington, a fake detached Georgian in Newcastle, it’s a proper toughie house with big shoulders and a proper heritage, built by craftsmen for what would have been the big boss in the village, it chews nails and spits rust.
That’s why I live up here, why do you live where you live?