Reading by candlelight1/25/2024 There are 70 houses in the terrace, all without power for six nights. Hugh Penney is a potter who lives with his cat, Pippikin, in a small early 19th-century former miner’s cottage in the village of Waterhouses, County Durham. In the Cheviot Centre in nearby Wooler volunteers work long hours coordinating visits to the most vulnerable, a huge team effort involving fire, police, paramedics, mountain rescue and council staff – a picture replicated across affected areas. Marshall said the community spirit, everybody helping each other, had been amazing and humbling. “People might say: ‘Well you chose to live in the countryside’ … Well, farmers do as well, the reason being they have farms and without farms you are not going to eat.” “People don’t understand remoteness in this country,” she said. Marshall is one of many people to think that if such power cuts had happened in the south-east it would have been a bigger story, declared a national emergency. “I’m fairly resilient in my life, I’ve had to be. “We have become so used to putting a switch on, turning the heating up, going online, getting what you want when you want it and none of it is there now. More than anything, it has been really boring. Marshall has had no landline and because masts were brought down too, no mobile signal until she gets in the car and drives to where she can get one. “She’s just wondering why it’s dark all of the time.” Her 10-year-old Bedlington terrier, Daisy, is out of sorts too. “My deep freeze is a disaster, everyone’s will be. Her week has involved going to bed early and not being able to wash properly. It’s not brilliant, it heats the chimney rather than the room but it is there.” You try to read a book, but actually you can’t really read a book by candlelight, it’s extremely difficult. “I’ve got candles, but I’m getting through them. ![]() There are a lot of elderly people in this part of the world. It is so difficult for people living in the valleys without any power. ![]() I’m driving around charging my phone, I’m going to the pub for food, but an awful lot of people aren’t. “Because I am a fairly able person I’ve been getting out. Marshall, whose job is helping horse trainers and owners, counts herself as one of the luckier ones. Members of the armed forces carry care packs to hand to residents in St John’s Chapel in County Durham. Local radio stations have this week been full of callers telling their stories, from parents feeling guilty for not being able to keep their children warm to others who were just desperate for a hot shower. The army was deployed in Aberdeenshire and Durham to help people affected. Day by day, more households were switched on but on Friday a relatively small proportion – fewer than 10,000 – were still without power. Marshall was one of tens of thousands of people in a similar situation after Storm Arwen wreaked the worst havoc to power lines for nearly 20 years. “My water comes from a spring which is run by an electricity pump, so I’ve got no water and no heating and no power.” It must be a such a wonderful place to live. ![]() Opposite is a field where once stood the royal summer palace of Anglo-Saxon kings and queens of Northumbria. On top of the hill are stunning views, the largest iron age hillfort in northern England, and on occasion you might even see friendly groups of wild Cheviot goats.
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