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Northumberland

Winding lanes weave slowly through
this land of every coloured hue
grasses jealously guard the roadside
letting wild flowers burst with pride

Trees bow gently as I pass
below like an eager child
to see what is round the next corner
as the countryside slowly unwinds

And in a distant cornfield
lie the makings of summer hay
Farmers toiling long in the fields
on this glorious summer day

Life goes on in Northumberland
as it has for centuries past
let no one be in any doubt
it must remain steadfast

Unspoilt for now, long may it be so
let it’s beauty and peace always be
perpetually untouched by urban sprawl
Northumberland - be forever free!

My heart aches for this wondrous place
when I am no longer here
I’m not complete when I leave her behind
and I always shed a tear

This perfect well kept secret
this balm to soothe the soul
this free and open landscape
I want to call my own

For this is where I want to be
here, and nowhere else
Northumberland is my paradise
And where I take my rest

Northumberland, this precious jewel
Set deep in England’s county crown

© E.V. Rose 110108

Winters Gibbet
Which still stands between Elsdon &
Cambo on the Northumberland Moors.

Across the lonely stretches
of the moor land way up here
stands a gibbet weather beaten
and its message still sounds clear

Where a murderer was taken
to hang for what he’d done
his body left to fester
underneath the summer sun

And many years later
when the body was no more
a wooden replication
hung there to ensure

His crimes would be remembered
and a warning signal to
those who might come after
and what they might one day do

Nature led the destruction
and shouldn’t be held to blame
for the effigy rotting slowly
till only the head remains

To serve as a reminder
on this bleak deserted hill
of it’s gruesome wicked malevolence
which can still evoke a chill

So if you come upon it
and you wonder what its for
this is Winter’s Gibbet
and it isn’t just folklore.

© E.V. Rose 270308

Winter’s Gibbet still stands atop these moors and was the final chapter in the life of William Winter, who along with two sisters he met on the road, murdered someone who lived alone in the wilds of the countryside. They were eventually caught and executed in Newcastle. His body was hung at the gibbet while theirs were left to the medical science of the time.