Or at least it starts to feel like it. 🙂 Third time this year for me, fourth for Mrs. No Name and as we now approach these visits like some sort of ritual the posts are going to get increasingly repetitive. Especially as on this occasion we revisited an increasingly familiar haunt on our return, as well as the usual stop off on the way up.
In brief then, starting with our overnight stop at Wentbridge House Hotel (upgraded once again) – lovely evening meal and breakfast, all very much the norm for them and then on to S&G’s to ‘adopt’ the cats for a week. They were of course distraught as they had been left for all of three hours or so as S&G had set off for their annual ‘family’ holiday earlier the same day. In all fairness, both cats were perfectly behaved for the whole week and were even more affectionate than usual. By affectionate, I do of course mean they quickly commandeered the appropriate knees / legs / chest and proceeded to settle down on them for hours at a time. We swear if we didn’t have to move occasionally to avoid early onset rigor mortis they would happily stay there all day. Anyway, enough of this pifle and on to a brief synopsis of the week, which involved no car driving whatsoever.
We managed a couple of decent walks during the stay, including any early visit to Mowbray Park, where we caught a little bit of the Sunderland Lit & Phil society (very much a thing for the amateur poets in the family and that is so obviously not me by the way) before moving into town and by chance coming across Angelo’s Ristorante & Cocktail Bar. As we entered, we thought it looked empty for a Saturday, but as we moved through to the restaurant proper and realised it was packed and we had secured one of the last tables. I thought it was excellent but Mrs. No Name was far less impressed. I would say it was just an unfortunate choice of main course, but she had a slice of my pizza and was not a fan of that either – she is a lady of impeccable standards. We also strolled over to the Barnes pub to take advantage of the Carvery and, although a completely different experience, we both thought it very good with the added advantage of ‘proper’ apple pie for desert; a genuine treat for me as it is long considered passé in the more upmarket, potentially pretentious establishments.
We also took the opportunity to walk into town and into the Sheepfolds area via the relatively new pedestrian bridge. In fact,the Keel Crossing is also a cycle bridge that first opened temporarily (for one day) on 22 August 2025 for the opening match of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, opening permanently on 18 October 2025. It’s taken me nigh on a year to make the trip! Sheepfolds Stables itself is a great destination for food, drink, and events, although originally it was home to working horses for the Monkwearmouth Junction Line. We originally intended to eat at the Ember restaurant (or perhaps Vito’s Osterias o imagine my surprise when Mrs. No Name suggested a beer from the tap room and burgers from HERD. As the blurb says, “everything’s made fresh and built to satisfy, no faff, just proper good burgers“. I’d like to think I’ve convinced her, but I think she was just very hungry.
After welcoming back S&G from the family holiday, we said goodbye to the very well behaved cats and set off down to Belton Woods Hotel and Spa for a two night stopover en-route to home. We had excellent evening meals and breakfasts whilst we were there, although we are keeping a watchful eye on our credit cards bills with a degree of wariness following a mix up (hotel cock up) on our bill at checkout – so watch this space for any further developments. On Sunday we took the opportunity to walk over to Belton Estate (and House), where we again sauntered around the house, although it has to be said little has changed since our previous visit in September 2025. Nevertheless, a collage (snapshots really) of this visit is presented for your delectation!
One final breakfast and on back home (via a now traditional visit to Downtown) where purchases were made by Mrs. No Name. One detour on the way up and one minor traffic jam on the way back were the main holdups on this particular visit and the horses were always spared!!