1284 Ferry Across the River and Resistence

Glorious, glorious, glorious day. I say it three times to mark the three days of continuous sunshine there has been from shortly after day break until late afternoon when dusk set. My original intention was to include another walk of an hour or more as part of a day of the final stages of coming up to date with the 100.75 project, and completing the current work in relation to my mother before commencing my main writing project for 2008. I did not get off to a good start because as I was about to create artman development cards, having recently completed 2000 development sets, a millennium stone, or two to be more precise, and stopped symbolically at 2008 I realised that the card numbering did not make sense because the numbers were in the 4700's and it should have been self evident that 2000 times 24 is 48000. Now I need to check back to find out for how long the error has been made. I usually check card numbering every few sets with a computer calculator but hopefully was just carried away with completing 2000 sets that it is just a small mistake in terms of numbering work to be revised. Usually having discovered something like this I continue until the matter is rectified, however I had already decided to go out make the most of what was said to be the last of these days of joyous beingness, with tomorrow cloud and lower temperatures beginning for the rest of the week. Moreover I had decide to make the trip considered yesterday, as I stood at the end of the pier at South Shields and saw what looked like a pocket Cathedral building and which for the Tyneside map looked to be located more at Cullercoats than Tynemouth. Before reporting on this most satisfactory experience which involved some five miles of walking, the Metro and a bus, in addition to ferry rides across the Tyne to North Tyneside and back, returning home at 4pm, I must begin with what could have been a great humiliation and disaster.

The cost of the ferry ride is 50p for those entitled to free bus travel and who have then paid the annual sum of £12 for free travel on the Metro system, after 9.30 am weekends. The adult fare is £2 return or £1.10 for a single journey. Around 1.15 in North Tyneside shopping centre I passed the second gentleman's hair dressers in quick succession and thought why not, not realising that the sign on the door said closed, which was confirmed as I entered. There was yet another barber's but this was full so I decided on a cup of tea and perhaps a cake in the shopping centre. There was a modest queue and the assistant apologised for a short delay while she cleared used crockery. It was at this point that I discovered that I only had about £1.50 in coin and no banknotes. My thought at the time is that for the second time in living memory I had given about £50 of notes a good wash and dry, with the garment on the list for ironing later in the day. I could afford a cup of tea and the return Ferry fare but nothing else until I found a bank. The medium size tea was served in a giant mug so I wonder was you get for the large size. I continued to explore this part of the shopping centre and turned a corner to find two banks, with my own around the corner on the outside, I was therefore cash solvent. What would have happened if I had the hair cut and then discovered I did not have the cash funds to pay for it!

It was before 11 am when I set off having prepared two rolls and placed a portion of defrosted prawns in a carton after drying them with paper towels. The internally hard green bananas had yellowed so I took one although later it proved as inedible as the others. I also made another mistake in choosing the route to the ferry, adding a couple of hundred yards. The most direct route is down the hill to the roadway outside Asda, then across to below the Metro station, through high street to Market Square, across Market Square and then across the road to the entrance to the Ferry Landing on a pontoon in the river. The advantage of this route today is that with the absence of foliage that it was possible to look down as well as across the river and to where the ferry was just setting off from the North Tyneside landing. Usually this time of the year there is just one ferry operating a half hour service but today there were two, unloading passengers as I reached the landing on my side of the river. I stopped to take some photos of the artwork silver sailing ships in one of the former docks now surrounded by yuppie dwellings. There was a wave effect which I have not seen before and which was not created by wind as there was none. The sign said 1 mile to the Arbeia fort although I would have said the distance was less until giving some thought.

I enjoyed the brief crossing of the river, noticing that the three section building adjacent to the former docks development appears to be more than a new block of residential units. Must investigate further. From the ferry I decided to go towards the Fish Quay where the former Newcastle fishing fleet was moved, but where the number of vessel has significantly reduced. The fish Quay is long with an inner dock and on the other side of the road there are now several large fish restaurants, two Italian and one Inn with another across the way. There are also several fresh fish and sea food outlets and a small commercial centre with at least two fish production units. Staff from one of these appeared to be eating fish and chips outside a pub which is similar to taking coals to Newcastle, which is of course what also happens to day. What surprised me was that as soon as lunchtime arrived the restaurants were packed. I do not know if this is a daily occurrence or because of the unseasonal weather.

Yesterday I recounted how a passer by had commented that it was a great day to be alive so day when I was greeted by a man as he also looked back up above the quay to the various developments taking place, I made the same comment to him, and he responded, I was just thinking that myself. Beyond the fish quay there is a promenade around a sandy bay which provide yet another perspective to the mouth of the river, Someone had set up a camera on a tripod. One of the difficulties of taking pictures today was the penetrating brightness of the sun making the constant changing of directions and angles, or just missing out on a picture because I knew the result would be unsatisfactory because of my failure to master the digital technology.

From the bench were I sat for my lunch it looked possible to walk the continuation of the promenade under the elongated building which has become flats, perhaps they always were, and which dominates, in an unattractive way, the skyline at this point, along to the Collinwood monument, the castle and ruined priory and then the north pier. It was a long way, a mile and half to two miles I speculated, but not a distance which could not be tackled.

Although there are ongoing industrial and commercial enterprises along this part of the Tyneside river bank as there are further inland at Shields, with many derelict, the sites are being cleared and warehousing converted into attractive residential lofts, or new properties created on the cleared space and hillside viewpoints.

My mind however was on other things and a trip to Cullercoats and the church I had viewed from the end of the pier at South Shield the previous morning. Although I had not breakfast I eat the prawns with one roll. The banana was too hard still. I resisted the temptation offered by the ice cream seller and went in search of the next public art work. I had viewed the first listed on the North Tyneside published art walk, one of nine included in a booklet. A full size, painted wooden dolly in oak wood, by Martyn and Jane Grubb. This replaced the figurehead from a collier brig in 1781 and stands by an inn. The second work was closer than I had appreciated, outside another public house called the Dolphin, This work is the Dolphin Mooring post made of timber, brick and metal with a bird drying its wings at the top. The structure is based on the many Staiths that used to exist in the Tyne, remnants of which now only remain. I had also seen part of Naters Bank seascape, a mixture of stone, concrete ceramics, a collective effort led by Maggie Howarth. On my way back I decided to take the stairway to look down on the Wooden Dolly set against the Prince of Wales Inn, and then decided to use the steps, some 100, which led to a small to a small square next to the Maritime building from which there is a spectacular view back across the full width of the Tyne,

Another man was looking at the same view and he commented that he had never seen the perspective before having also used the ferry to come and purchase fresh fish from the Quay for the family tea. Fish is not cheap these days even if it is good for you. Live everyone encountered he too wished to share in the joy of this great burst of late spring in winter time.

I decided not to look for the statue of Stan Laurel by Robert Olley 1992 outside the residence where he lived from 1897 to 1991 between the ages of seven and eleven years. I now have a photograph of the Admiral Lord Collingwood, Nelson's second in Command at Trafalgar on its plinth eternally watchful over the mouth of the Tyne, shot from a distance with the inbuilt telescopic lens. I had also seen close hand the listed Queen Victoria statue when on my visit to Tynemouth for the mouth of the Tyne Festival last summer. On this part of my venture I noted three others, including group of two with cameras, who appeared to be following the same trail.

I considered a cup of tea as I made my way into the town centre from its eastern end in search of the Metro station, tempted to a cup of tea, although all the establishments passed were full of lunchtime custom eating meals, I was feeling a little tired as I had been on my feet for over an hour and half with a brief sit on the ferry and then some fifteen to twenty minutes on the bench. It was then the near humiliations of having the haircut without being able to make payment occurred and over my cup of tea I remembered the film about a boxer, titled Someone up there Likes me and on this day someone was. The chosen tea shop was part of a covered walkway of shops and stores.

The first part is a bakers and sandwich provider with cakes, some with icing, some with cream, very enticing There is also an eat in sales counter offering, soup, breakfast filled rolls and toast with a small row of tables the length of the shop and a double row at the far end. There is one of this chain of shops in Wallington where I would go for a breakfast roll, midmorning coffee with toast and read the supplied newspapers and there were similar in South Shields, two in close proximity which I have used from time to time in early morning shopping, perhaps when going for the free Metro weekday paper supplied at the metro and bus station. There were three tables vacant and two individuals in the queue. I went in search of bank note as I knew I had less than two pounds in coin from paying for the ferry crossing. I could find no notes, not a problem with sufficient for the tea and there was bound to be a bank or two nearby. However what would have been the situation had the barber's not been in the process of closing and I had the hair cut then found I did not have the immediate means to pay for the service?

The barber I have used three or four times over the past year, had a similar experience last autumn, however the individual who said they were off to the cash dispenser never returned. What if news of this event has crossed the Tyne, what then? Only within the past week or so the regional news programme had featured a man from North Tyneside who had gone to his local B and Q store to try and replace a sink plug, taking the old one with him which he had returned to his pocket under the eye of a security guard who assumed he was stealing, apprehended him, and he was taken to the police station in handcuffs where he was able to demonstrate that the plug was his own and in fact was not stocked at the store. The most recent reference was to the decision of the store to send flowers and a £100 purchase voucher, not an unreasonable gesture, but the man, a couple of years older than me was so incensed that he had instructed lawyers to seek a more appropriate level of compensation. Earlier over lunch and again over my mug of tea I read and re read the front page story on the free Metro daily, IPLODS being the headline, about a commuter who had been arrested by an armed team, had his DNA and fingerprints taken before being released when it was realised that the gun a passer by had reported seeing him bring out and point was no more than his black MP3 player while waiting for the bus. However one wonders what he did to arouse such suspicion and provoke a call to the police?

Only over the past couple of days did I hear a radio discussion about the need of the general public to assist the police more in anti crime measures rather than attempting to intervene directly. This followed the sentencing of youths who murdered a householder for complaining that they were damaging cars. However despite mistakes, and even with the Oval police shooting to death, the most notorious incident, our situation is a long way from that of the Australian film the previous night called Resistance, the second of recent months about a state of emergency being called in that country. In this instance it features a rural outback location where groups of itinerant workers move to areas recruiting season workers on an regular annual basis. This group of ladies are notorious for hard drinking and man chasing as well as for hard work, with one returning for the first time in a year to visit her aboriginal mother and sister who were encamped nearby to the a fuel, rest and restaurant station near to the job supplier, who this year required less than a third of the usual number because of a work programme using men from a nearby prison establishment. He makes a false promise to go back to the original contract after 24 hours when he has been warned a state of emergency has been declared.

For some reason which is not properly explained in the film, this is the very spot where the government decides to set up a road block checkpoint with the latest surveillance techniques, and in addition to the use of the army and local police, brings in some ruthless, trigger happy bullies who would have done well in Nazi Germany or under Stalin. The film is about a series of unwarranted outrages in which people are brutally killed or assaulted and the situation is covered up, until the locals learn to fight back with the assistance of a member of the army. While the behaviour of most of the participants in the film is significantly over the top there was a horrible ring of truth about how people can behave when given power, especially with the abolition of the normal protections and restraints of the rule of law and citizen rights. It is to the credit of the British that there was such panic on mainland UK with the Irish troubles but I suspect it will take only a handful of new terrorist outrages to swing substantial public support behind states of emergency as the national mood swings to the right. The showing of the film coincided with the apology of the new Australian Prime Minister to the aboriginal people for the action during the last century when children were removed from their parents and made to live indoors and be educated according to the white man's ways. This is a welcome first step to the making of appropriate reparation.

The finding of a bank nearby and the Metro Station together with the continuing sunshine put these thoughts to one side as I made the short trip from North Tyneside to Tynemouth and Cullercoats. Although the covering and metal work of the old railway platforms before the present Metro platforms and main station building at Tynemouth have become dilapidated and an eye sore, the rest of station will be worth a closer examination on another occasion.

Cullercoats is only a recent community between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay, as there was nothing but a few agricultural dwellings until coal was discovered and mined briefly for a couple of generations in the 18h century. Then the community turned to the sea and at the commencement of the twentieth century there would have been hundreds of small craft in the bay below the cliff. However since world war 2 and the creation of a European Fishing policy to protect dwindling stocks for future generations, the number of commercial fishermen and vessels has rapidly reduced. Nor is Cullercoats ideally placed to be other than a day trip seaside resort although there are good sands below the cliff from the southern end of the community to the Tynemouth promontory.

It is also at the Southern end that the mini Cathedral of St George stands, built only from the 1880's when the sixth Duke of Northumberland built the church as a monument to his father, named George, the fifth Duke. I have used the word spectacular much in recent days and this building full justifies its use once more. Last year I visited the early Christian Churches at Wearmouth and Jarrow, built by a former Northumbrian nobleman converted and influenced by the buildings and presentation of devotion by his visit to Rome. St George's surpasses them internally and externally and I can recollect only a handful of instances where I have been affected by the building before, Iona, Scotland, Mont St Michael, Cornwall, at Bezier in South France and a few others. It was a wondrous experience. Glorious, glorious, glorious and Gloria.

1255 Rivera Coastline

I live within a day's walking of the most varied and attractive coastline as anywhere in the British Islands. Sure its lacks the isolation of Scottish shores, the rolling sands of Southport, or the seaside of Scarborough, but I can experience aspects of all three, enjoy fish and chips from the voted best restaurant in the North or a quality three course meal at the National Glass centre.

I am fortunate to be able to have the time and the means to do this as I share the environment with some of the most economically and socially deprived people in Britain. The problem is not the lack of political will or effort at local and national level. The reality is that it has become cheaper to important coal for our power stations and only a minority of domestic households burn coal, while ships are built in other places, as is much of the steel. It is cheaper and more environmentally friendly and consumer popular to have Scampi sent half way across the world to be hand shelled and then returned home to be packed for the supermarket shelves, or for our Christmas time decorations to be made in China, than locally.

Various actions have and are being taken to change the local economy to the modern world, and tourism is one of these. However the task is how to ensure an increase in the all year number of visitors staying in the wide range of hotels and guest houses, or taking a good meal in the dozens of restaurants, pubs and cafes, along or close to coast and riversides, without destroying the special nature of the environmental mixture.

Seaside South Shields
The stretch of wide sands between the Tyne river mouth and the south harbour pier wall is known as Little Haven, and this is the name of the purpose built 62 room modern hotel at the beginning of the coastline. Here you can a couple can stay for £64 at weekends, including full English Breakfast, or for £94 with two children in a family room, or for that special treat the Penthouse Suite at £180 a night. Between the hotel and the pier wall there are public care and coach parks and a wide beach overlooking the river mouth, which is used for those who wish to keep close to the funfair and fish and chip outlets.

The amusement arcades at the Ocean Park Fun Fare are open all year and the rides from Easter until September from 10 am until late. Part of the Funfair is the Dunes complex which includes a pub restaurant, a ten pin bowling centre and billiard tables, as well as traditional amusements. There are several fish and chips restaurants, tea rooms and ice cream outlets. To one side of the Amusement Park there are beachside homes and between the park and the beach the Local authority has developed an all weather outdoor centre for skate boarding, football and other sports.

The depth of the sands of the beach is extraordinary, with an area of dunes and a small row of beach chalets homes which have been improved to the extent that they are hired out for both week and weekend holiday homes at reasonable rates. Next to the chalets is a popular Italian restaurant which incorporates two railway carriages. Along this stretch of costal main road there are two other restaurants bars with the popular Sand Dancer recently renovated to create a beach bar atmosphere. There is also the amphitheatre with entertainments for family, teenagers and children throughout the summer months of July to August. There is also a covered walk way which doubles as a band space and entertainment area if it rains and from the top there are great views in all directions. There are glorious banks of flowers on the other side of coast road and a former wall of fountains is also used for flowers. The three parks, the caravan and camping site and the football recreation pitches are all on the other side of the road, together with the amateur theatre, the original Life boat, the Sea Hotel and the Ocean Road parade of restaurants and guest house hotels.

Trow Rocks, Frenchman's Creek and Marsden Grotto. At present the Sand Dancer and the old Bandstand marks the end of Seaside South Shields, with the former New Crown Hotel across the coast road to Sunderland. There are plans to convert the bandstand into a café and build a hotel and conference centre on the Gypsies Green Stadium, and which each year becomes part of the end of Great North Run facilities. The land between the beach road, used for emergency and public vehicles, and the Coast Road widens considerably at this point, all the way to the former Trow Quarry and Rocks, above which sit's the former World War 1 gun emplacement.

The beach can be used for sunbathing but swimming is prohibited as this is the designed area for water sports and at different times of the year the surfing is highly regarded.

It is from a recently closed beachside restaurant before the former Quarry that the coast line changes with the majority of the bays and inlets hidden from the Coast Road and from parts of the Leas. It was coincidental that on an early day of my summer walking, a three mastered and rigged sailing ship was anchored off the entrance to the River Tyne, reminding of former times when such vessels would anchor off shore and lower boats to bring in contraband. The most famous location is the cave inside the cliffs at Marsden Bay, subsequently turned into a restaurant and bar.

The story begins with an Allenhead miner and his wife who decided to live in the cave when he retired aged 80 with the consequence that gentle folk came on horse and in their carriages to look at this phenomenon, and couple had the great idea of providing refreshments. The cave was then developed into an Inn and a smuggler was shot with his ghost haunting the place ever since and a pint is left out each evening and is sometimes drunk. Another man who betrayed his comrades was imprisoned in a barrel which was held by the winch which took the contraband up to the cliff top through a cave shaft.

The main development of the cave into a major building occurred between 1828 and 1874 resulting in eight rooms including a kitchen, ballroom and bedrooms. The facility was then aquired by the Whitburn Mining Company, which in turn became the Harton Mining Company and a barrister was installed as tenant whose main interest was gambling. Tenant after tenant followed and the establishment degenerated. In 1898 the lease was acquired by Vaux, the former Sunderland brewing and hotel owning company, and became the freehold owners in 1939. The Marsden Grotto has a lift alongside the cliff which takes visitors down to the first floor dining room, or the lower bar with beach veranda where snack meals can also be purchased. Towards the end of the twentieth century the fortunes of Vaux changed and the establishment closed its doors. The vast River Wearside plant was demolished and has remained vacant for over half a decade because of an ongoing dispute about its future use. Oxford Hotels acquired the Grotto in 2006 and it has been developed into a fish restaurant with the lower level now Jack's bar.

It was a bright sunny day when I made the walk down the pathway from the Leas, and then across the rocks and sands to the Inn. There are also two sets of public steep stairs, leading to he beach, although one was closed for safety reasons. It is wise not to walk too closely below the cliffs because of the risk of falling rocks. I arrived at midday and was able to take the last vacant table on the veranda, enjoying an overflowing prawn baguette with a little salad for £5.50. An accompanying full salad costs an additional £2. I spent a pleasant hour overlooking the famous Marsden Rock, once arched, until it too began to fragment so it had to be blown up to prevent serious injuries to the many young and old who like to explore at the base.

My journey exploring the rocky coast land was only halfway.

1752 For Northumbrian towns on a hot day

And so Thursday July 2nd, Mediterranean Hot reached the North East and enveloped Tyneside for twelve hours of the day. It was the kind of day to inspire into action and not the day to stay inside pretending it was just another day. It was a day which reminded of why I had once wanted to create a new life in a climate where such days are the norm. Unfortunately the weather forecast for us was that heavy rain would following during Friday. I was uncertain how to enjoy this reminder of what might have been

It was not until 11 am that I ventured out deciding to take fitness walk but accepting my age and condition sufficiently to take the car down the hill and parking just before Ocean Road. I went down to the front to look at where the Council is proposing to build a new swimming pool. There was no estimate of when it would be completed but hopefully I will live to see it finished and in a physical condition to use. There will be no excuse then although I assume that during weekdays especially in term time there will be school parties and it will be necessary to get up early or go late afternoon or early evening. I still have to lose another stone before considering such activity.

The new Italian Restaurant appears to have become established as it remains open until late at night. It offers a three course lunch for just under £8 which includes a choice of any Pizza or past on the menu with prices around £7 to £8 which means that one gets a limited choice of special starters. and ice cream or coffee for free. Then there is usually a drink to start with, so call it £10 a person. I wondered how many takers they have. However it compares favourably with the pubs offering two main courses for between £7 and £9, because if you add a starter drink, a food starter and pudding or coffee to finish the final tally will be closer to £10 than the£5 I used to pay when I eat out regularly at midday several times a week between twenty and ten years ago.
I climbed the sand dune behind Dunes, well the link was with Las Vegas, but it is a good dune giving a different perspective on the Bay as from the Hill the view is obscured by the trees in the parks. There was a refreshing strong breeze coming off the sea and one longer for many more such days, although my on going work would be more seriously affected than it has been since taking the decision to make my seventieth a different experience from the sixty nine beforehand, and if possible sufficiently memorable to help me through the ordeals and processes of increasing old age.

As I walked down the other side of the dune I re-jigged what had been in my mind when I set off and walked as far as the Amphitheatre. If the weather held I would attend the first free evening gig of the year having missed all the eight held during June for one reason or another. I walked back though the park commenting to myself that the Council had made a mistake in not recreating a Victorian tea room to replace the popular facility which had existed before, no doubt under pressure from the nearby outlets on the sea front who wanted the custom.

I was home just after midday and checked the score at Durham. As I had anticipated Worcestershire had not collapsed in the same way as Durham and the match was likely to go into its fourth day. I had a lunch of smoked mackerel salad with the rest of the cherries and checked the score at the midday interval 60 for 2 and judged that my assumption of a fourth day was accurate. I would go on an explore into Northumberland in search of Wilkinson stores and black display folders and found the locations of three others at Cramlington, Ashington and Blyth to that at North Tyneside where I knew where it was located from having gone in search of a cup of tea on a previous explore of the town centre.

In forty years I have previously driven through Ashington once. This is a medium size town of under 30000 people situation three miles from the coast and was once the heart of the Northumberland coalfields. It still regards itself as a village with its own dialect which is a variant of Geordie and Mackem

It is also the birthplace of a number of internationally known professional footballers who all played for the Ashington Football Club. The best known are the Charlton Brothers of Bobby and Jackie. Bobby survived the Munich air crash and went on to play for England and become the ambassador of British Football and his beloved Manchester United. Jackie made his name at Leeds had less of an international career as a player but went onto manage both Newcastle and Middlesborough and the Northern Ireland National side. Both players were part of the 1966 successful World Cup squad.

In Ashington’s pedestrian town centre there is a statue of one footballer, Wor Jackie Milburn who scored 238 goals for Newcastle, a club record to this day. Others includes Peter Ramage who also played for Newcastle but has since moved to a London Club in a lower division. The two present day outstanding sportsmen are Cricketers, former World number one fast Bowler Steve Harmison and his brother Ben were also born in the town. The Former owner of Newcastle who built the largest indoor shopping mall at Gateshead, the Metro centre and developed St James Park into the present stadium Sir John Hall was also born in the town. I once took a party of Councillors from Wuppertal to meet Sir John and tour the Metro Centre. He spent an hour explaining the importance of the centre to the North East. I had told him in advance that their Council had voted to prevent a shopping centre in or near their town. I then met his son and son in law for a drink while the visitors went shopping. Among others from the town was the first head of Scotland Yard’s bomb squad, an astrologer, an opera singer and an author and architect.

Ashington survives but it still has the look of a town with a past rather than a future. There are approved plans for an open cast coal field outside the town with will provide 60 jobs where once thousands were employed in the central coalmines and those in neighbouring communities such as Ellington, Linton. Woodhorn and, North Seaton. I found the car park tucked away at one end of the high street behind the now closed and grim looking building which was once converted into a Netto supermarket but had a prior history lost except to the oldies none of whom were about so I could ask. Wilkinson is located at the other end of the High Street in a new building close to the railway station which is now only used for freight trains. It is sad but Ashington is not a place anyone would chose live or even visit. You received an education which hopefully took you away from the pit and to Newcastle, or down south or across the world. It is not surprising that there was also the emphasis on sport. Another outlet used to be painting as a hobby and the work of Ashington Pitmen Painters has become internationally known.

Whereas Ashington is struggling to survive, Blyth about he same distance from Newcastle as South Shields presents a very different face. Yet Like Ashington it was once the centre for coal mining, the transport of coal, ship building larger than on the Tyne or Wear. and fishing and is located on the river Blyth as it reaches the North East Sea. It is medium size town with around 35000 yet as a superior shopping centre to South Shields over twice its size. While there were some shuttered establishments in side streets the feel of the town centre is very different and this is also reflected by the port remaining in use bringing in pulp from Scandinavia for the newspaper industry. The Quay area had been developed with new buildings and sculptures and a wind farm of nine turbines. However a large number of resident now work on North Tyneside and Newcastle to use the tunnel to the South Tyneside and Sunderland. A superficial reaction but I immediately had the sense of a town with a future and an identity fit for the 21st century.

In between these two towns is Cramlington, a new town created around a former village. It is an artificial community bland without character. The town is bigger than either Ashington or Blyth and comprising large wide avenues of new semi detached and detached housing around a functional indoor shopping centre. There are several large industrial zone separate from the housing with an emphasis on pharmaceuticals. It gives the impression of being a model town for the 21st century, souless, colourless, cultureless.

As for the purpose of the visits, Cramlington provide four black display folders and Ashington 3 whereas Blyth had only one green 40 page folder in stock. The reason why none of the stores has ordered more of the 40 page volumes is that no one is buying the 20 page and all the stores have two or three boxes of these and obviously hope once the 40 page editions have sold out people will take the 20 page size.

The treat of the afternoon was to visit Newbiggin by the sea, an attractive town with straddles a large bay Although once a small port for shipping grain and for coal mining reflected in some of the housing away from the high street, the atmosphere is very different from the others town visited. It is in fact a large village with a population of around 7000. I parked at the far end of the main road which ends at two car parks and the church. One belongs to the golf club and the second is public and free and headland to a grass covered headland with a stone monument created for the millennium under which there is a time capsule containing creations by local school children. From here you have a commanding view of the bay and its fine sands. The sand is new as the former beach eroded and £10million of new sand had to be imported with additional works to prevent further erosion. On this warm day the bay was a splendid sight. There is none of the usual seaside attractions here. The Parish church is imposing and originates from the 14 century. There is small heritage centre nearby. John Braine the author of Room and Life at the top wrote his first novel while working here at Newbiggin public library 1954-1956.

Looking at the time I decided I would not attempt to go to North Shields where I knew parking would be a problem and head for the Tyne Tunnel before the rush hour. I was tired on returning home but resisted sleep listening to the Worcester radio commentary on the game at the Riverside. Durham had bowled out Worcestershire for a lower total than anticipated and pressed ahead with scoring runs in their second innings closing the day with 120 odd runs to win and 9 wickets in tact. It was then I remembered that it was Thursday and there was a concert at the amphitheatre and the sun was still shinning.

I made an evening meal of salmon fish fingers and mixed beans in tomato sauce and then took the car to the sea front to find somewhere to park. It was very busy with a constant stream of traffic in both directions along the sea front and similarly pedestrians. mainly young. I found a space on the road itself before realising that the charge was 1 pence a minute or 90 pence until the free time from 8.30. I went on to the public car park at the Sanddancer but it was full so made an exit and came back around the roundabout and on to the parking area on the grass on the other side of the roadway. I parked opposite Minchella’s and the show off motorcyclists and went off to investigate the parking charges at the only ticket machine at the entrance tot he site which extend the length of the fromt from the caravan and camping site to the Gypsy Green stadium. The charge is 70p a hour or £2.30 all day which is very reasonable. There was a stiff cool breeze and although still warm from the evening sunshine I chose to remain in the car with the windows open listening to the music, although shortly after eight I closed the one on my side of the car which gave the best of both worlds, warmth and the music from the passenger side window.

There were about thirty five motorcycles when I arrived and this increased to fifty at one point with constant comings and goings and around 100 calling during my period of stay. It was difficult to work why they went coming and going with some only stay for a short while after finding who was there and exchanging a few words. What was interesting is that no one paid for parking and only some joined the queues for service from the cafe.

There were two bands. The First Eureka machine was formed in 1972 and is Leeds based, playing a traditional form of hard rock. I rate them as OK. I have been unable to find out about Mugshots the second band of the evening. I did prefer their sound better but around 8.30 I grew tired and returned. I was in bed by 10pm and went immediately to sleep.

1710 A shopping expedition to Mid Tyne, National Politics and American Idol Semi Final

As forecast the weather around the country has changed with long periods of rain overnight and continuing in places.

Yesterday the government suffered an unexpected defeat in the House of Commons as a number of Labour backbenchers voted for a Liberal Democrat, Conservative supported motion against their approach to allowing retired Ghurkha soldiers and their families to have an automatic right to live in the UK should they wish. A number of others abstained bring the total discontented on the government supporting Party benches to 100.

The government side party administrators were clearly stunned by the result. This morning the Daily Mail said the Home Secretary was blamed for underestimating the opposition and a government member tried to explain that the problem was opposition from within the Ministry of Defence. I thought the Minister of Defence and the Government ran the country not the military brass or Civil Servants at the Defence Ministry. What a pathetic response if accurate from a government Party in charge for over a decade.

Usually in such a situation irrespective of its merits the House of Commons Party managers know in advance who is likely to abstain and vote against and has prepared a series of concessions to announce as the debate progresses if the vote looks like being lost. It appears that this time the concessions were circulated too late and individuals who might have reacted were not informed. Others suggests that the rebels were not interested and sensed blood. This suggests incompetence or does it? I tend to see something more Machiavellian here as a warning shot to the Prime Minister that he does not have the clear run into leading the Party into the next election as he might want to believe.
That the government has got itself into a corner over the claims of the Ghurkhas is extraordinary and does reveal either incompetence in not understanding public feelings or shameful bloody mindedness. It is true that previous administrations were reluctant to make changes to the situation because of the financial and political implications of allowing the Ghurkhas and their families any right to come and live here when their period of service ended. With the regiment now based in the UK this means that without settlement rights the whole family is required to leave unless they meet the present and recently proposed revised criteria.

The government has improved the position and proposed to do so again after a legal judgment that the present situation was unfair and should be immediately changed. However what it has failed to recognise is the immorality of the position that people who are prepared to die for this country should be given not just equal rights to everyone else but should be better treated. The situation is even more extraordinary given the rights of anyone from any of the members states of the EEC to live and work here and is again different from members of the Commonwealth who have also fought alongside the UK.

While there is a strong anti ECC and foreigners mentality among British workers and the trade unions this does not apply to fighting men or the Ghurkhas in particular.

Later on Thursday it emerged that the Government has indicated it will respect the views of the Commons although one suspects formal implementation will be dragged out. Hilary Benn on Question Time attempted to place what has happened in context but all he did was damaged his own standing and reputation as well as digging a bigger hole for the Prime Minister. Whatever he does now it will be difficult to remedy the damage. There is a death wish emerging.

There was the prospect of further humiliation and embarrassing difficulties during Thursday when the House considered proposals of the Prime Minister for changing the situation of expenses payment and second Home allowances in particular. The background is illuminating. The Prime Minister was hostile to the whole issue of the details of Parliamentary payments being disclosed and his solution has been a single payment for those living outside Greater London who attend, again without Members having to disclose the details of how the money is used. This smacks to me that he knows that the Government is going to have a series of major embarrassments when the details of receipts for the past few years are released over the summer and papers, lacking the usual political in fighting to report because of the recess will study every document in the hope of finding anything on which to attack politicians over their gravy train. The Conservatives also appear to have reluctant agreed to the disclosure of incomes form sources outside employment within the House of Commons. One Shadow Minister on Question Time admitted that four months ago he started to received £24000 a year for attending Board meetings as the non executive director of a business which he did not identify arguing this was because he wanted to learn at first hand the problems which business faced. The incredulity on the faces of the audience was a joy to behold. One presumes the invitation would not have been made had the business in question not felt they would be getting value for money in establishing links with someone who was likely to be a member of the next Government. It is customary for all such links to be severed once a member of the House becomes the member of at the links, the contacts will have been established and it is unlikely the Minister would then ignore requests for a meeting or personal telephone calls after any Ministerial appointment, or perhaps a holiday or visit to the Opera or some sporting event. Was he serious suggesting that the firm were shelling out 24 grand a year in order to giving him information about current business issues?
It was evident that the Government Minister and the Conservative Shadow Minister still do not get it. The public has had enough. Both main parties should find this out at the next Euro Elections this month, the public are like to demonstrate their contempt by a vote strike and the Liberal Democrats, anti EEC candidates and others will be the beneficiaries. On the bright side Labour Party Members of the House of Commons realising they are doomed to lose their jobs at the General Election will start to vote according to conscience.

There was no cricket Thursday morning which meant that in theory there was opportunity to attend to other matters.

Priority was my feet where the skin has become rough and I had been intended to apply some special cream in the hope that at the end of the course the position will be improved. I have the tendency to go about in stockinged feet such is the quality of the carpeting and since covering the kitchen tiles with wood flooring. About a week ago I clattered my left big toe into the exercise bike which had been moved from its usual position in order to find something in the unit cupboard adjacent. It has been painful, and awkward to avoid pain when in bed. I have gone out wearing sandals which have more comfortable than show although required due care with the exposed damaged toe.

I was right about the cricket in that there was little play, fortunately everywhere, so that most teams playing the fist division will only draw. I was also right that it would be difficult for Durham to repeat their success on Wednesday and Marcus Trescothick and James Hildreth added nearly one hundred runs to reach 170 runs without the loss of their wickets.

In the evening I enjoyed American Idol where there were some stunning performances of ballad type numbers with Jamie Foxx the tutor. On Friday evening the result of 45 million voting calls was announced Throughout the series Adam Lambart has produced spectacular numbers highly theatrical and confident and reminding me of Rhydian who has gone on to have a career on the West End stage and to make an album to-date. He is appearing at the Apollo Hammersmith this Sunday and last minute discount tickets are available! The surprise was that Adam was not in the top two and finished fourth to Matt who had been saved by a judges vote towards the end of the series and had been in the bottom three before.

Adam is aged 26 and grew up in San Diego California and attended Mr Carmel High. His main interest was the theatre and becoming an Actor although he sang in the choir and played in the school jazz band. He moved to Los Angeles to further his career and before beings elected for the American Idol series he had moderate success. He has been the best supported of all the last ten by all four judges and therefore his relegation to being an outsider in the final came as a shock to many.

Not a shock was the placement of Danny Gokey in the top two this week. First his performance Come Rain or Shine was outstanding and showed a stage presence not revealed before and where the role of Jamie Foxx appears to have been crucial. There were two other reasons why he is evidently commanding votes in their millions. The first is his personal story Danny grew up in Milwaukee party of a large family with four sister and one brother. At the age of 17 he met his future wife and they had a long engagement before their marriage in 2004. He was aware that his wife had congenital heart diseases and had required several operations and four weeks before the first audition for American Idol his wife unexpectedly died from a routine operation. Thus through his performance he has communicated a man who has known great sorrow. The other reason si that Danny is not just a strong Christian but has been an active member of the Faith Builders International Ministry and is presently Worship director for his evangelical church. One suspects that Danny could sing the phone book badly and still command significant support. However he is a brilliant singer and open forecast he will have a great career, tinged with sadness.

The second surprise of the evening is that eh shared the top two spot with Allison Iraheta who has just turned 17 years. Although also living in Los Angeles she is of Salvadorian descent and ahs already own a talent show with a monetary prize and a recording contract when she only 14. Her voice has a maturity way above her years and Simon in particular has been critical because of lack of confidence and super star stage presence. He predicted she would not survive this round after her performance. In addition to gaining the non white vote and the youth vote she has been the only female among five, then four and now three males.

The fourth finalist Kris Allen is also an evangelical Christian who has undertaken missionary work in Burma, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Spain and Thailand although he is only 24 years old. He self taught himself to play the guitar at thirteen and can also play the piano, viola and the ukulele. In the autumn of last year his married a long standing girl friend. He had recorded three songs with limited success before appearing on the show.



There was also an interesting new Taggart in which one of the team finds out the hard way the peril of mixing business with pleasure as to villains, one a big villain are shot in the head by a besotted but vulnerable casual bed partner. Such is life.

Friday started sunny and warm and I decided to undertake a shopping expedition in search of a replacement Cafetiere and a travel alarm clock as well as more black folders. Originally I was just going to Morrison’s at Jarrow but then decided to take the Metro to Gateshead Interchange centre where I found the Get Carter car park surrounded by hoardings but not yet demolished. The visit was a great success finding a six cup Cafetiere in an attractive stainless steel holder for £10 and then as a bonus two new thermos in steel but with a two for £5 offer with one having a blue and the other a crimson red attractive covering. One of my existing ones had become smelly and he other did not function as I liked if used for and these two cost less than one of the originals. Now I shall use the original for cold which appears to work and one of the new for coffee and the other for soup with perhaps a fourth later for tea. I also obtained four of the black set folders. However I forgot to look out for a simple travel alarm clock but made a note to call in at the Jarrow Wilkinsons which I would pass on the way back.

At Gateshead you enter the bus station to reach the Metro station which is two flights of moving staircases below and I spotted a number 27 bus calling at Jarrow. However instead of taking the main route through from Gateshead Town centre passed the Gateshead Stadium we went South and then on a parallel Road to Howarth Interchange which I have used in the past but where most of the older terraced housing running down to the Metro line has been demolished without any sign of replacement building. From there we took the expected route by Pelaw until the outskirts of Hebburn where instead of continuing the bus turned South passing the Hebburn branch of South Tyneside College and the Catholic senior school. Hebburn is a mini Northern Ireland in reverse where there remains a strong traditional and predominant Catholic community which never elected a non Catholic to the Borough Council for years. The Hebburn Catholic Club which I have visited was a large modern building whereas the Conservative and Unionist building was much smaller and dilapidated. Today it is unashamedly the Orange Order Club.

The bus continued southward towards the road heading for the AIM when by a splendid sport pub restaurant it turned into the adjacent Housing estate. I know the pub well because for many year I would often call in for a meal before or after watching Newcastle play at home. They had an excellent menu full of 2 for the price of 1 offers and a large screen to watch whatever match was being shown by Sky.

I knew of the estate and many of the names including the main road of Finchale Avenue. It is a wide avenue and there are plenty of open space giving a very different perspective to the former Borough in term a of being a former local authority owned and managed housing estate. I had never had cause to visit this area as we had no establishment located. The road back, having travelled in a large oblong took us past the former Council Borough Council offices where we had an Adult Training centre which continues to exist and the second major swimming pool in South Tyneside. There were public bather in Jarrow but these are long since closed and demolished. Not so Palmer’s Memorial Hospital which I was asked to supp0rt the campaign to keep open when the District health Authority became an enthusiast for centralization. Now brand new purpose designed health centres with day surgery facilities are springing up all over the place.

I found an inexpensive alarm clock and bought two more packs of Strawberries and one of grapes at the green grocers where I called in a couple of days before and then faced the Morrison‘s shop which was packed out, presumably because of a Bank Holiday on Monday although it may be like this every Friday. I was able to purchase everything on my list. On the way out I had called in at Lidl who had advertised a sale of alarm clock among their special offers and which had triggered the idea of getting one when I found the offers where scheduled to start on Monday.

The skies darkened as I returned and it commenced to rain heavily. I thought this was a bad omen for the cricket and I was not wrong.

1230 Northern Rivera South Shields Riverside

The Open spaces

1 North Marine Park

Outside of central London where three parks interconnect, St James onto Green Park and Green Park onto Hyde Park, and where the great space of Regents Park is not too far away. I know of nowhere other than the coastal area between South Shields and north Sunderland where there is so much open space, and formal parkland, and here within moments from my front door there is the immeasurable bonus of the sea and a coastline of rocks, inlets and bays. Find me somewhere else in the United Kingdom which has so much to offer in such a compact area?

North Marine Park is a combination of three spaces on a Hill overlooking the mouth of the river Tyne. The middle space is open grass which runs from the top of the hill from where trees and shrubs obscure the river as it reaches the wide estuary of Little Haven Bay artificially created by the two long piers, one from the north bank headland of Tynemouth Priory and Castle and the other from the southern base of the south bank hill known as the Lawe Top, which as I discovered, some who live in South Shields do not know its name or ever have cause to visit, except perhaps once to the Arbeia Roman Fort.

There is a children's play area on the middle space, compensation for the lack of gardens in the former three storey terraced villas which were once the homes of the sea captains and their officers. The first space, is hidden space, a pathway surrounded by trees and shrubs from the top end of the hill to where the middle space sweeps down a steep bank to the car parks and promenade of Little Haven Bay. It is this area where consultants have suggested the local authority builds a visitor's centre and restaurant for Arbeia and construct a beacon observation tower to signal the existence of the former fort and supply depot. The edge of the bank is where a crowd sometimes assemble, a mixture of locals and visitors according to the sudden disappearance of car parking spaces, usually to watch fireworks on or around November 5th, or as part of the new Mouth of the Tyne Festival over a weekend in July, or on the two occasions when the Tall ships arrived on the river to visit Newcastle and then paraded as they left to race their next leg, or as in this year, to greet the arrival of the QE2 to the Tyne.

To mark the increasing significance of the Fort and occasions for visitors to assemble, there is now a splendid stairway down this part of the bank to the car parks and beach with the Yacht club and Little Haven Hotel at one end and the entrance to the pier at the other. At this lower level it is possible to also enter the third and main space of North Marine Park, a traditional but varied parkland which commences with trees and shrubbed walks down the hill to several bowling greens towards the sea shore, to pleasant walkways, some lined with rose bushes, other flowers and flowering shrubs, to secluded picnic areas which are given an oriental feel because of archways and a pagoda like building on a little hill. Within this area there is what appears to be the basics of the hull of a ship, a pirates' ship perhaps, and when weather permits, a putting course.

The park ends at Ocean Road, which was once a tributary of the Tyne thus the Lawe Top was an island and from here you can cross the road into South Marine Park, or walk into or from the town centre enjoying a meal at the best fish and chippy in the North East, or at one of the score of oriental and Mediterranean restaurants and take ways, having had an enjoyable bed and breakfast in the score of little hotels and guest houses, or after a good night at the Custom's House which can be reached at the far end of this road through the pedestrianised shopping area, passing the linked metro and bus station and crossing Market Square and the road to Mill Dam, perhaps then going to one of the late opening bars or night clubs which are now concentrated half way between the river and the beach.

The road between the North and South Marine Parks is always a busy one as visitors by car and motorbike make their way to the beachside car parks, the amusement park, and the sea front restaurants. It is a popular area for young people to congregate regardless of the weather, or time of year.

2 North Marine Park
Bents Park
Bents Recreation Ground

Across Ocean Road is South Marine Park, which is undergoing a multi million make over, recreating its former Victorian originality, but with the latest features. This is also a park on a hill, with a wide walkway with flower beds on either side, commencing from the lower entrance gate climbing to its southern point, from where one can look down over the park and the coast. At the upper level there are statues which once adorned the front of the Town Hall, a water feature an a series of grassy steps and this is one of the areas of the park where improvements and changes are already underway.

At the lower level there is also an area of walks among flower beds and a small wood before the main area which is more popular with local families than the beach. There is a boating lake full of swans, about eighty at the last count, and a little train with circumnavigates. There is a small open air café where I have enjoyed an early morning bacon butty and coffee, but from midday on good weather days, it is rare to find a spare seat, especially since the government introduced the welcome smoking ban in all cafés, restaurants and bars.

A new feature of the park to south west of the lake is two large children's play areas to the latest standards of safety, one for the younger children and infants, and one for the older and more adventuresome. From here, sweeping up the slope to the top is a picnic area with suitable spaced picnic tables with integral seats. During what is becoming the annual Mouth of the Tyne Festival the park is given over to entertainments on stages and walkabouts.

Across the road is the third separate Bents parkland consisting of a large open space which in July is used for what has become a major regional event with four free concerts on Sunday afternoons, but with two stages, on both the Saturday and the Sunday of the Mouth of the Tyne festival. For this event the park, together with the area of Tynemouth Prior and Castle, is covered with large flags. While the Sunday afternoon concerts attract artists of the calibre of Cliff Richard, sixties bands such as the Animals and the latest X Factor idol such as Ben Mills, the Festival includes performers from around the world which this year included Maori group Te Masterae Kapa Haka, and from India, the Jaipur Kawa Contemporary Brass band, traditional jazz from Norway, from France the Les Snob Glissssendo and Les Osieaux de Lux, from Brazil Alumino Rootsa Reggae and from Holland or was it Germany the Jo Bithune Fanfare, a kind of thirties Oomph band with dancing and from Spain, La Tal. There was New Yorker singer songwriter, Dean Friedman and regarded as a leading contemporary jazz artist Courtney Pine although the local interest was with the legendry Lindisfarne hero Billy Mitchell and there was strong support for the Blockheads which were once fronted by Ian Dury. The space is sometimes used for exhibitions but for most of the year it is a public recreation area across from the main beach.

Screened by trees and shrubs there is fixed mobile home/ caravan site, with space for touring caravans, motor homes and tents. On the other side of this official site there is the Bents recreation space, an enormous flat open area used for a dozen football games on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with on its beachside space for over flow car parking which is taken up during the summer, particular when there are special events. Across the road at the far end of the Bents Recreation space there is the Gypsies Green Stadium and the beginning of the Leas.

The Gypsies Green stadium is where there is to be a new hotel and conference centre and where Her Majesty the Queen was guest of honour at an event to mark her 25th anniversary of succession.

1230 Northern Rivera South Shields Riverside

My main occupation overnight was review existing information and undertake further research for Rivera the South Shields riverside section. This was a frustrating as I could not find two pieces of information, he number of merchant seamen from the town killed during World War Two together with the percentage of these who were Muslims. The other was the number of vehicles which used to be transported across the Tyne by the ferries compared with those now using the road Tunnel, given that preliminary work for the second Tunnel has commenced. Deciding on the photographs was enjoyable and the selection governed the structure of the writing which spilled on to four pages which affected the subsequent layout. I will do those on rocks and inlets next.

South Shields Riverside

Although there has been a port on the river Tyne for 2000 years it was not until 1850 that Newcastle's monopoly was shared with Gateshead. Tynemouth, South Shields and the Admiralty. The main use of the Port during the industrial revolution was coal with 23 millions tons transported when production of the Northumbria and Durham mines was at their peak and the joke about taking coals to Newcastle has been turned around with coal being imported..
My focus for 2007 has been on the mouth of the river where I live at South Shields, although a visit was made by ferry to the other side to listen to jazz on a Sunday afternoon, and where by coincidence the stage was set to one side of the Rock of Gibraltar, a few metres away from the ruins of Tynemouth Priory and Castle, and which is the first photograph taken from an open part of North Bents Park on the Lawe Top, and can also be seen in the third photo at the Eastern end of the Hill, featuring the Beacon erected as a navigation aid in 1832.

One of the first tasks of the Port of Tyne Commissioners was to commence the creation of the two long masonry piers which enabled shipping to avoid the notorious Black Middens Rocks and Herd Sand. The second photo on this page shows the South Shields Pier and every year there is a run between this pier and that at Sunderland, arranged by the Sunderland and the South Shields Running clubs, a distance of about seven and a half miles. The fourth photo on the page shows the new mouth of the river hotel overlooked by a long block of flats on the opposite bank. The length of the piers at South Shields and Tynemouth, together with storm damage, meant that it was fifty years before the piers were completed.

The second set of photographs includes the new Ferry Landing at South Shields, with one of the three ferries also shown on this page and in addition to the all year crossings, the ferries are also used for Summer trip 1s to Newcastle and for private functions. Before the opening of the first Tyne Tunnel, the ferries were the main way to cross the river by car without having to travel the dozen miles to Gateshead There are known to have been crossings from the fourteenth century and in Victorian times paddle steamers made twenty one stops between Newcastle and South Shields. In 2001 there was a proposal to create a new river bus service with seventeen landing stages but it can be assumed that lack of public support led the idea to being dropped. Preliminary work on a second Tyne Tunnel has commenced. There is also a cycle and pedestrian tunnel crossing at Jarrow.

This set of photographs shows the important sea rescue and safety training station, and the Marine Training courses at South Tyneside College are moving from their present location to become part of the imaginative and comprehensive development of major stretches of the South Tyneside river bank, from South Shields, Jarrow and Hebburn to Gateshead.

It was not until 1859 that docks were created in South Shields and these stretched along the whole of the river in three areas. Below the Lawe Top where fuel storage tanks dominated the skyline there is now a little village of terraced housing and flats and just before the ferry landing there is a second new development around former docks which includes a set of beautiful model sailing ships built from steel, and other public artworks have been placed on little piers and boardwalks. Opposite the ferry landing stage on a post war building at one end of Market Square a mural fills the entire wall space.

The land from the roadway to the ferry landing stage and along Harton Low Staiths to the former Customs House has been cleared and this provides spectacular views across and up the river, so much so that during lunch times local workers and families sit on the grassy banks and picnic while river watching or waiting for the next ferry. The transfer of a major supermarket within the town to a nearby site together with proposals for other cultural developments should further improve the use of this space.

It was not until 1828 that the Tyne Commission Quay was built on the opposite bank of the river and Bergen and Olsen Lines commenced passenger trips to Scandinavia. DFDS Seaways now operate a daily passenger, vehicle and goods service, from the impressive new terminal which includes automated baggage handling, six check in desks and covered walkways. 2000 passengers are catered for in a turn around service with over three quarters of a million passengers a year. The daily services are presently to Amsterdam and two or three times a weeks there are services to Bergen, Stevanger and Huaghesend, according to weather. The highlight of 2007 was the arrival of Queen Elizabeth 2 to the new Quay, and a second visit is planned on her farewell tour before becoming a Hotel in Dubai.

In some respects the heyday of the Rivermouth as a port was after the Great War. In 1936, at Jarrow, a shipping staith for timber was created and the timber yards remain a prominent and thriving enterprises to this day. In the 1950's the decision was taken to concentrate shipping to the river mouth and away from Newcastle, and Gateshead and where in the latter part of the century the Quayside has developed into an area for culture, recreation, residential accommodation and the new Law Courts and legal services, and more recently for the new Gateshead College.

In 1953 an iron ore import handling terminal was created at South Shields, and even as late as 1985 the Queen mother opened a new Coal Terminal. Both have vanished along with the railway network to and from the pits. The adaptation to changing economic circumstances has continued with the Port of Tyne and Middlesbrough mow used for the transport of completed cars from the Nissan plant at Washington, Sunderland. The photograph of the Heogh Autoliner shows the size of vessels which still use this part of the Tyne river. Other photographs show a drilling rig being repaired at the McNulty yard at Tyne Dock.

The social life of the port used be located at Milldam with the former Customs House now an important cultural centre providing a 440 seat multi media use theatre with the most comfortable seating ever encountered. There is a separate 145 seat cinema studio, three art Gallery areas, and in the adjacent building, in the process of being physically linked. there is a rehearsal/dance studio/meeting area with a lighting rig and wall to wall mirrors, and a separate new community use area. There is a large restaurant and bar, the Green room, which can also provide entertainments.

Approaching Mill Dam from the town centre one crosses onto an amusing area of public artwork consisting of bar/nightclub stands on a site where once a lively night club existed before such facilities were centralized in another part of the town. On the road to the Customs House there are three public houses which now offer TV sports and live music to attract customers. Other buildings including a church have been turned into private flats and dwellings, although the Mission to Seamen also retains a facility.

A reminder of the extent to which this was a seafaring town is the statue unveiled by Lady Mountbatten in 1990 adjacent to the Customs House. The number of merchant men who lost their lives was considerable, including many from North Africa as seamen and their families from the Yemen, Aden, and Somalia, as well as African, India and Asia made their home in the town in early part of the twentieth century and just before the outbreak of World War II there were 2000 of them living and working from South Shields. The strength of the Muslim Community has been such that in the same week that Her Majesty, the Queen, celebrated her 25th anniversary to the throne, Mohamed Ali, the World Heavyweight Champion Boxer participated in marriage at the Mosque, attracting vast crowds and was guest of honour at a lunch at the Town Hall which I attended and witnessed the impact of his charisma on the ladies of all ages present.

The rear Customs House car park is the best place to view the line of white silhouette artworks with a marine theme which have been attached to a wall out of reach of the graffiti artists

In between Mill Dam and Middle Dock and between Middle Dock and Tyne Dock (the modern Port of Tyne docks and Port Authority) the local authority has published a comprehensive strategy and plan for the development of these riverside districts with housing of various kinds, commercial enterprises, and recreational and cultural facilities which will complement those in and around the Ocean Road area. There has been a series of public consultations and presentations. The transformation is underway with the announcement of a new call centre providing 1000 badly needed new jobs.

1228 Wearmouth and Wartime

This has been a good Sunday with Saturday becoming better as the day progressed. I became excited about work after selecting 36 photographs in pages of 4 to communicate the changing nature of Sunderland riverside from its mouth to the Wear side Bridge. I was less satisfied with the accompanying words

River Wearmouth
"For two decades I walked the beaches of Seaburn and Roker, Sunderland, but infrequently, and even less to the mouth of the river Wear, and never the embankments from the estuary to the Wearmouth Bridge. Since the Millennium I have explored the new marina and village created around the inner harbour which looks across to the gates which guard the entrance to Port of Sunderland on the south bank(13). Only in the summer of 2007, I explored all the new developments.

As with the Tyne, the Wear, or Vedra, its classical name, is said to have been used by the Romans to transport supplies to its army, encamped at Chester Le Street. In the sixteenth century coal was transported from the port but was affected by the competition from Newcastle. However because Newcastle had to remain Royalist in the Civil War, because of its garrison, Sunderland through choice as well as expediency, was strongly Parliamentarian, and was consequently rewarded with a monopoly of coal shipping. The life of the port boomed and with the formation of a Commission for the river Wear in 1717, the development continued until its further expansion during the industrial revolution, which included shipbuilding which is known to have started in the 14th century, and which in turn led to the growth and prosperity of the town, which became a city in 1992, after winning a competition to mark the 40th anniversary of Elizabeth becoming the Queen. The town continues to have no Cathedral.

In 1972 the local authority took over responsibility for the port which along with the rest of town was suffering from the decline in ship building, the decline in coal output and shipment, and from the revolution in merchant shipping. It is to the credit of the local council, that the port is playing a key role in the regeneration of the district and the city, and which will continue as the vast areas of derelict and underused land are brought into economic effectiveness. The new port authority building, the restoration of Old Sunderland High Street, the new fish quay and public sales building, the University complex, the National Glass centre and new residential complexes, particularly the iconic new apartment block at the Wearmouth Bridge are no more than the beginning of development which I hope to witness during the rest of my lifetime."

Although I have planned the structure of this project I had hoped its size would be governed by the 40 pocket albums (80 page) on hand but I begin to think sixty 120 pages will be required as I am yet to tackle the Tyne River Mouth, the coast with the seashore and the rocky bays, or the six parks and the four other major open spaces

I write this, stopping from time to time to listen to the Manchester born singer song writer David Gray performing at St Luke's. It was a similar session two years ago that I first heard Damian Rice, also then unfamiliar to me, but with whom it is said by Wikipedia David has appeared on stage. His most popular songs reaching the top ten were Babylon and The One I love.

On Saturday I wrote Wartimes for the Rivera 2007 album of photographs and words with six photos on three pages as the last section on the historical aspects of the walks.

"As I walked close to the river mouths of the Tyne and the river Wear and along to coastal areas in between, there were few reminders of what is was like to live in this area during the Great War of 1914-1918 and the second World War which I remember so vividly; my mother and her sisters praying in the air raid shelter, near London's main airport, Croydon. I can still feel their fear, and mine, but also the fascination of watching a V1 flying overhead as we made our way to the shelter in daylight, and then the engine cutting out, and a few days later going to look at the crater where housing had been. I remember a telegram arriving about one cousin who was not to return from a Japanese POW camp, and one who did from Germany, liberated by the Russians. As a schoolboy I read the official reports of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials of Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, and in my first work at the age of sixteen I was attached to a section of six men, one navy and two airmen and three army, one of whom had lost part of his leg in the Great War.

There are the War memorials, and the buildings around the market Square South Shields have that look of post Second World War functionalism, reminders that in the war of my generation destruction and death marked the cities and town of Europe, especially in the industrial centres and the sea ports and shipbuilding towns. This is an area where the young men, and now young women, answer our continuous call for the sacrifice of their blood. There are often recruiting caravans in the South Shields shopping centre and the annual Sunderland Airshow, provides the opportunity for all the branches of the services to make appeal. Recently experiencing the 26 episodes of the BBC series of films about the Great War one memorable moment was the sight of Durham miners en masse walking out of their pits to enlist. As the war progressed it became necessary to halt this movement and mining work and shipbuilding became protected occupations, as in both wars we struggled to match the preparations and the might of the German war machine.

There is a gun on the cliff overlooking the bay of South Shields and cannons on Lawe Top, a notice explains that Cleadon Mill was used as target practice, while another tells of the bomber that ditched in the sea at Whitburn close to present day firing ranges."

The writing made me think more of my experiences and approach to the concept of war as a solution and the difference between a personal viewpoint and being in government. Of course if one became Prime Minister it would be difficult to separate the two and this clearly was an issue for Tony Blair, as further revealed in the second of three riveting programmes about his Premiership. There are two distinct types of Prime Minister. The first tries to satisfy the role of Primus inter Pares, the First among Cabinet Equals. He listen to everyone. His Cabinet colleagues in the government, his back benchers, his political party, the political opposition, the media and in relation to international affairs, the views of the interested nations, and attempts to achieve a consensus and balance this with what he believes to be best. If there is doubt he hesitates and if necessary postpones or abandons and leaves it to others to work out how to present the change or failure to progress to the best party political advantage. The problem with this style is that there is tendency to play safe, not take risks and maintain the status quo. This is appropriate in a time of stability and where there are no major threats. It was for this reason that with the ending of the cold war between the Soviets, and the rest of Europe and the USA, that a Conservative government commenced to accept Britain reducing influence in the world and saw the British forces as a small specialist force which could be a part of Nato and world policing activities and also provide training and set standards for others within the umbrella of a nuclear, technological and mechanised defence system. Forces were not expected to engage in personal combat on the kind of scale which reached its zenith in the Great War with over ten million dead, but which also was a major part of the Second World War along with direct attacks on the civilian population which Britain and America had not experienced in the Great War but which had remained a feature of all other wars with blockades, raping and pillaging of opponents, their families and their children.

The other kind of Premier is the shaper leader who has a clear view of how the world and life should be. Stalin, Hitler, and Churchill were similar men of my childhood who possessed single minded visions, albeit diametrically opposed positions within very different political systems. Since then in the UK with have had two examples of cometh the hour cometh the man, or woman, with first Margaret Thatcher and then Tony Blair. It can be argued that both came and held onto power because of the failure of the main opposition but the fact remains that a majority of the voting British people supported them not once but twice after they had found out what they were really like and stood for. They were individuals with personal charisma who people loved as well as hated

In the instance of Tony Blair the accusation during his first period of office was that he was not a man of substance but bent according to opinion pools and focus groups together with the shameless use of presentation and spin.

Then there was Kosovo, where he achieved what Margaret Thatcher did in relation to the Falklands but which was not about British self interest and which saved the lives of millions as mass killing, rape and the uprooting of lives began to engulf the middle of Europe. That Tony remains a hero in that land to this day indicates the magnitude of what was accomplished, although as he admits what turned a stand into victory was the willingness of America to put his forces on the ground, although this did not prove necessary, just its threat to do so. What Kosovo also established was the ability of Tony Blair to go out an convince others, as he was able to do in relation to Northern Ireland and to a great extent in Afghanistan meeting with President Putin and also having effective communication with Iran. However what appears to have changed his position and moving from personal leadership in a democratic context to proceeding because of personal conviction regardless of the opposition was 9/11 and the awareness that this kind of terrorism was just the tip of the iceberg of a fundamentalism which if left to develop would engulf the world as had Communism and Fascism but with the added and more serious threat of a belief system in which life was willingly sacrificed for the greater good of others and the belief in a self aware further existence.

In this respect I am probably closer to President Bush than Tony Blair if the decision to intervene in Iraq was layered in a hierarchical structure. The regime was a dictatorship and not a democracy. The regime was ruthless towards opposition using torture and extermination. The regime posed a threat to the rest of the Middle East and the wider world because it had developed and used weapons of mass destruction and attempted to go nuclear and the means of universal delivery and was known to be a safe heaven training for terrorism, although in fairness the regime was not religious fundamentalist If a stand about religious fundament then Iraq was a good place to make that stand. I a not sure if President Bush would go as far a sharing my view that religious or political fundamentalism which argues that it is the only truth and life system including political and social life, and justifies the extermination of anyone who disagrees or refuses to follow cannot be compromised with, you have to stop it, and in my case, I could not accept such fundamentalism even if it was agreed by a democratic majority. However I do not accept that the way to stop such a development is to the unscrupulous methods and tactics, but this is a personal position as a citizen and which would be different if I was in government, or the government as a President or Prime Minister can be said to be.

It is at this point that what happened in Iraq was complex. On one hand President Bush admitted in the programme, as did others, that having decided to take action, they did not believe or want to delay action to achieve a second UN resolution, or to make a commitment to a resolution of the Israel Palestinian Question a pre condition. They believed they were right and the record of the UN was such that achieving agreement was unlikely. President Bush was also a realist he did not want regime change in he UK and told Tony that if that was a likely possibility, which it was, then he would prefer to go it alone. This is where I believe Tony made his mistake, he should have accepted that he had failed to convince his political party and the country at large. If there was million on the streets of London then this was likely to represent ten, twenty and even thirty times that number in the UK and at that point, even if they were wrong, and the issue of fundamentalism would have to be confronted at some point, at home as well as abroad, anything less that immediate and comprehensive vindication would end in disaster. He should have backed down when given the opportunity. I have never had the view that the government manufactured or lied about the evidence of weapons of mass destruction because with victory in Iraq the truth would be revealed, as it was, but I share the view that the form of words used when making the case to the Commons in the crucial debate was wrong and did mislead whatever the personal intention and he should have known they would come to haunt him whatever the outcome as the sinking of the Belgrano by Margaret Thatcher. One can be forgiven for making the wrong decision for the right reasons but one is never for the right decision taken for the wrong reasons. Admittedly it is always easier to criticise with hindsight than ensure that a decision is the right one for the right reasons at the time

At this point I stop and erase the rest of my notes for rewriting and do not go back and confirm my thinking or correct the writing because the allocated time has run out and I am significantly behind in my plan for the rest of Monday and week ahead. If it does not make sense, is inconsistent, it has to be and hopefully there will be opportunity to revisit the subject and what I have written sometime soon.

1227 Industrial Heritage

Wintry weather was not ideal to go out to take some pictures required for the industrial section of the chapter on past times of the Northern Rivera and the feeling of negative omens about the day continued as I listened to the pre-match building of Newcastle playing Liverpool at home, waking that the game being shown live on Sky but having the feeling that all was not going to go well. The 50000 crowd could be heard to boo Stephen Gerrard the disgraced English team, a response of away fans to any English team players wherever they were playing. For decades I have berated fellow home fans for booing away players because it only winds them up and true to experience Gerrard unleashed an unstoppable free kick.

I switched on the TV back home but felt in the need for warm comfort food and made an omelette with prawns and olives and then settled to enjoy the rest of the game and I have not seen Newcastle play as woefully as this since the dark days of last year. Worse was to come and although the loss was 3.0 it should have been five or six. Well Sunderland would cheer me up, wouldn't they but this proved just as bad, perhaps more so giving away sloppy goals and showing no indication of changing the 3.0 disaster by half time, and then wow we score so it is 3.1

Yesterday was not a good working day, in part because I was affected by reviewing previous research about the number of those who had lost their lives in four of the five mines on or close to the coast between the rivers Tyne and the Wear, where information has been collated, over 100, of the 600 recorded deaths, about one fifth, were aged sixteen years or younger as low as 9, 10, 11 and 12. We are losing 6.1 at this point and the game is not over. My reaction yesterday was to watch films. I saw Dreamgirls in theatre and enjoyed the performance of Jennifer Hudson of American Idol, so added it to my mail order Internet list and although the musical has serious themes it brightened the evening. I also enjoyed the quirkiness of Alice Through the looking glass, a Daily Mail provided DVD which has an excellent cast going through the four main sequences of Jabberwocky. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Walrus and the Carpenter, and Humpty Dumpty. Before this I watched a made for TV movie with a title something like Solomon’s choice about an adolescent who needed bone marrow transplant which could be provided by her younger brother who has just recovered from life threatening illness himself and where his mother does not want to risk his life bring about marital disharmony and separation. Both children survive and there is the suggestion that the relationship of their parents revives, making a good example of well motivated risk taking producing a good outcome, so why did I forget to buy my Euro Lottery ticket, and I have yet checked to find out if I would have won or saved a couple of pounds.

Industrial Realities
I have spoken with coal miners, about their lives, since being a young man, and in 1961 I visited the headquarters of the Scottish Miner's Union to replay the fines, met from union funds, because Direct Action Committee Marchers from London to Holy Loch had insisted on walking along Princess Street in Edinburgh (8). I have never met a miner who wanted his children to have to go down a pit. I lived and studied alongside former miners during my two years at Ruskin College and worked for a year in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and leant something of the mining communities within the local authority areas responsible for Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham, so I had some preparation for coming to the North East in 1974 and where coal mining and shipbuilding were still the core industries which formed community and civic culture. One of my earliest long play folk records, the Industrial Muse, has one side of songs about Miners, including the Durham Lockout

In 1984 I attended an international residential four week senior management course during the Miner's strike and in the concluding exercise, the teams in which we had separately worked, were asked to represent the fuel interests, electricity, gas, oil, nuclear, coal, and alternative sources, in determining a national policy, and I was a member of the group allocated coal. For the first part of the week we researched the industry, the demand, manpower, output and costs and we could not avoid the reality that because a number of countries were able to supply the majority of domestic requirements at significantly less cost, the contraction of the industry was inevitable, although not as drastic as subsequently happened in practice. This is where my experience of working in a political environment came to the fore and I arranged with the college for a special delivery letter to be delivered to the chairman of the advisory group, formed to present an agreed energy strategy to the responsible Minister. The communication explained that it the national interest to limit and avoid further industrial conflict and bring to an end social hardship, the output from coal had to be kept at a level significantly higher than commercial considerations indicated. It was the style of the college that the letter was delivered by a special messenger on motorcycle and this persuaded the advisory chairman that it was official, in the sense, an intervention by the college, rather than a self interest manoeuvre by coal and the miners. Alas while this could have happened in reality and the demise of the British Industry taken place at a slower rate, there was the clash of incompatible ideologies between Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill. The consequence for South Tyneside and Sunderland is clear to see two decades later at the sites of Whitburn, Westoe and Wearmouth collieries.

At Whitburn, located between Westoe and Wearmouth, the end came in 1968 after 111 years with 3000 men working under the North Sea in 1914 2000 in 1950 and 1000 at closure. 139 men and boys died in the mine (138 before the creation of the National Coal Board) of which nineteen were aged sixteen years or younger (twelve)(10). As the photographs reveal, with the closure of the Northern offices of the coalboard, the site was cleared to create a coastal park to one side of the Souter Point Lighthouse. On the other side there is now no trace of Marsden Village built to house the miners, 135 houses population 700, Church, Methodist Chapel, Coop store, post office, school and Miners Recreational Institute (11).

At Westoe, overlooking one of three parks and an a large area of playing fields, before the beaches of South Shields, the end did not come until 1993, and in 1914 only 108 men were employed rising to 1000 in 1940 and 2500 in the 1980's, doubling in manpower following the closure of Whitburn. Two men were killed after 1948, in 1966 and 1983. Today there is a development of contemporary terraced housing with the last phase underway.

The most impressive new development is at the former Wearmouth Colliery. The pit opened in 1824 and reached its peak in manpower in 1914 with over 2500, and there were still over 2000 employed at closure in 1991. Considerable local controversy surrounded the future use of the site with understandably many residents seeking low cost housing and job creation projects. However the majority are more than content with one of the great football stadiums of Europe with a capacity of 49000, and adjacent, an Olympic size swimming pool, is now in the last stages of construction. The Stadium of Light(12) is marked by a large Miner's lamp which is kept lit. 281 men and boys are known to have died in this mine with some forty aged sixteen and younger, including a ten year old and several aged twelve. One man died in 1947 and none after.

Not far inland from the coast at South Shields was the Harton Colliery which employed over 3400 men in 1921 and closed in 1960 with 1400. 92 men and boys are known to have died here of which 20 were boys sixteen and younger (91 before creation of NCB), and the St Hilda's Colliery 2000 men in 1914 and 1000 when it closed in 1930 with 116 dead of which over a quarter were aged sixteen and younger including two aged nine years. I will leave information on other pits close to the rivers of the Tyne and the Wear for future walks.

Although the ship yards at South Shields, Hebburn and Wallsend on the Tyne and Monkwearmouth Sunderland continued to build and repair ships throughout the twentieth century, it was the closure of Palmers at Jarrow in the 1930's which had become part of industrial and Labour heritage and folklore. This was because Jarrow was created as a shipbuilding town and when the yard failed as did many others throughout Europe, the people were promised a steel making plant which was then denied despite available funding, and in desperation the men decided on a peaceful protest Crusade for work. As has been chronicled by Matt Perry, The Jarrow Crusade Protest and Legend, University of Sunderland Press, the march ended in failure as it was World War II which brought and end to a decade of mass unemployment. Nor did the Trade Union Congress and the British Labour Party support the primary objective. As the marchers and media record reveals the reception given to them varied, with sometimes more help provided by middle class interests. Nor was support from religious interests wholehearted. The Jarrow Crusade was of great interest to me because together with the salt marches of Gandhi it was the inspiration for a protest idea taken up by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, a march which commenced at the end of an Aldermaston March in Trafalgar Square in 1961 to Holy Loch on the Clyde where the Polaris Submarine was being based. As chief Marshall at the beginning of the March I met with Home Office and Scotland Yard officials and later received a warning letter from the Commander, Flag Ship Scotland, following discussions with various local police chiefs along both banks of the Clyde and at Dunoon, about our intentions for non violent protest. The march received a mixed reception from political, trade union and religious interests. In the later 1960's I was introduced to a former Jarrow Crusade marcher and his wife who were honoured members of a local Labour Party in outer West London where they had settled and made good lives for themselves and family.

Final Score Everton 7 Sunderland 1
Newcastle 0 Liverpool 3
Middlesbrough 0 Aston Villa 3
North East 1 others 13.