This spa escape is everything your soul needs right now. Liz Connor visits Rockliffe Hall and finds a smart couple’s wellness retreat in County Durham’s epic countryside. Everything about this 18th-century country house is grand, from the gothic redbrick architecture to the acres of manicured lawns surrounding it. Set in the quiet village of Hurworth, in the green sticks of Darlington and County Durham, it’s a private retreat that fringes a pretty stretch of the River Tees. The fact that the main hotel has been closed for months due to government restrictions adds to its bygone feel, and in-line with rules, I’m staying in a self-catered apartment set away from the main hotel (Rockliffe has four-bedroomed Woodland Mews homes, and Armstrong House, with six apartments featuring kitchenettes).
The Northern Echo’s report on the daredevil grandfather Gordon Smith, 81, from Richmond, did his first skydive at the weekend along with his 19-year-old grandson Cameron Smith. The teenager was raising cash for the Duke of Edinburgh Award and collected his Gold Award from Buckingham Palace. The pair did their jump at Durham Tees Valley Airport in Middleton St George. Mr Smith, a retired Army Major, said at the time his family were not particularly surprised by his intention to leap from a plane, but he confessed they did think he was “mad”. “Cameron has completed his Gold Award and I’m accompanying him to Buckingham Palace, he said at the time. I’m very proud of what he has achieved through the scheme, not least gaining his glider licence and scuba dive qualification.
MAYFLIGHT! Mayflight! Nuclear capable bomber coming into land at RAF Middleton St George – and despite its earth juddering noise, the precise presence of V Force has been largely shrouded in secrecy since the Cold War. In Memories 517, we told how RAF Middleton St George – now Teesside International Airport – had been one of the “dispersal bases” for Britain’s nuclear bombers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Just as you should never put all your eggs in one basket, so you should not keep all of your nuclear bombers under one hangar. Therefore Britain’s V Force, made up of Valiant, Vulcan and Victor bombers equipped to carry long range nuclear missiles, had ten main airbases and also another 26 airfields dotted around the country which were ready for them in a case of emergency.
The two-seater propeller-driven light aircraft came down in a field north of the air park as firefighters from High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, and Wycombe Air Park s own fire crew all dashed to the scene to help. The pilot was left in the care of the ambulance service but Bucks Fire and Rescue said they were not believed to have been injured. Here we have taken a look at some of the past aircraft crashed that have happened in Bucks in recent years.
Wycombe Air Park plane crash - 2011 A light aircraft crashed as it was taking off from Wycombe Air Park in June 2011.
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