From hosting an annual arts festival to setting fire to sandcastles on the beach, Alnmouth finds plenty of activities to keep its residents occupied and attract visitors from far and wide. STEWART BONNEY met some of the people who keep it thriving.

Despite today’s profusion of bypasses, motorways and interchanges, you’re never too far from an older, often concealed pattern of roads and paths well trodden by our ancestors, as JOHN GRUNDY discovered.

JOHN STEELE outlines some of the valuable maintenance work undertaken by a team of volunteers on National Trust coastal land.