June 01, 2010 Cycling View Tyneside Bridges

This is the view I get cycling into town across the Redheugh Bridge on the way  into Newcastle - the eagle eyed will be able to spot in order - The King Edward Bridge, The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, The High Level Bridge, The Swing Bridge, The Tyne Bridge and the Millenium Bridge.

May 09, 2010

Another view across the mouth of the Tyne from North Shields looking towards the groyne at South Shields and the pier beyond. The foreground buoy is an old navigational aid removed from the river and now used to mark the route of the National Cycle Network Route 72.
NCN 72 is Hadrians Cycleway and runs from Ravenglass in Cumbria to Tynemouth.

May 03, 2010 William Lisle Blenkinsopp Coulson

William Lisle Blenkinsopp Coulson (1840-1911) was a prominent figure in the area, known for his 'untiring efforts for the kindly treatment of animals' and for the unusual plaid that he habitually dressed in. Born in Haltwhistle, he served in the army from 1860 to 1892, retiring as a colonel. Subsequently he served as a magistrate and on the boards of many charities concerning themselves with child and animal welfare. He toured schools and borstals throughout the country giving lectures on morality, and published essays on the welfare of children and women, and 'Musings on Moor and Fell'.(1)He died in Newbrough, Northumberland, leaving a wife and daughter.
This statue is situated at the eastern end of the Quayside at Newcastle near the top of Horatio Street and the view is looking east along the Tyne - the large white building you can see in the distance is Spillars Mill which stands on Spillars Wharf which is a large area of Quayside which has been used for mooring the Tall Ships at the Tall Ships Race as well as navy ships on visits. It also hosts the Evolution Music Festival along with the Baltic Square in Gateshead which is an annual Music Festival along the riverside and takes place on May 30th & 31st  and features The Futureheads, Paolo Nutini, Calvin Harris, De La Soul, Donovan,Enter Shikari, The Horrors, Hadouken!, Frankmusik, Tinchy Stryder,Ellie Goulding, Delphic, Benga, Field Music, Slow Club, Dananananaykroyd, Rusko,Example, Fake Blood, Filthy Dukes, King Creosote, Scratch Perverts, James Hunter,Lissie, I Blame Coco, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Everything Everything, LoneLady,Cosmo Jarvis, Frankie & the Heartstrings, Egyptian Hip Hop, The Unthanks, Mirrors,Minnaars, Ben Howard, SMOOVE & TURRELL, John Smith, Baskery, Danny And The Champions Of The World, Jaymo, Doorly, BeardyMan, Twenty Twenty, Jaymo & Andy George, People Get Real, Retriever, Po Girl, Polarsets, Eskimo Twins, Natalie Findlay,Let's Buy Happiness, JT Nero and DawnLandes

May 01,2010 Hebburn Marina & Segedunum

This is the view from the marina at Hebburn looking across the river towards Wallsend and the Segedunum Roman Museum which has been built on the site of the Walls End at Wallsend !
Segedunum Roman Fort is the eastern most fort on the Wall and this part of the site is dedicated to it. Roman history in this country is one of the most interesting periods of time to study simply because of the vastness and wealth of their empire, the fascination of the folk and their life’s habits who ultimately lived and died during that time and of course the wonderful archaeology they leave behind for us. The sheer majesty of their architecture and the scale of it. The brutality that went alongside it all. Their legal system, the elections, the different levels of society, their entertainment. Virtually everything they had can be drawn as a parallel to our society today! The ultimate willingness of the locals to welcome the habits and living standards of Rome’s own people eventually helped this tiny little outpost which lay at the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall become a major defence frontier. Now, of course, it is a major tourist attraction and rightly so. While other sites along the Wall were being excavated and finds were being dug up by their hundreds poor little Segedunum lay almost lost because of a total lack of funds to do anything about it. 

Tower and Restaurant

But, the millennium was creeping up on us all and the ’Let's do something for the year 2000...’ cries were being heard and so, now, Segedunum takes its rightful place among the best sites to visit along the whole stretch of the Wall. Enjoy your visit to Segedunum here on this site and someday hopefully to Segedunum itself.

April 17, 2010 Two Reds - Two Shields

A view across the River Tyne from North Shields to South Shields where two red objects can be seen.

The Red Buoy in the foreground is on the North Shileds side just along from the Fish Quay - Four huge red shipping buoys salvaged from the river have been installed on the land to the east of the fort, reclaimed in the nineteenth century. These are also acting as markers at the confluence of two national and one regional cycle routes.

The red object on the South Shields side is the Groyne which dates back to the 19th century - 1866 - South Shields Volunteer Life Brigade is formed, using the watch house on the South pier as their base. They were the first brigade to make a rescue using the breeches buoy. Also this year an outbreak of cholera badly affects the town.

April 08, 2010 Two Rivers

Jarrow actually has two rivers - It sits on the south bank of the River Tyne but the town is disected North to South by the River Don.
This picture is taken at the confluence where the Don runs into the Tyne - in this picture as well as a colouful jib you can see a large pylon on the south of the Tyne which carries power cables across the river at a fantastic height.
below it and behind the white fence is the River Don.
There is a River Don Walk which runs from this point right up to St Nicholas Church in Boldon which is about 5 - 6 miles.

April 01, 2010

South Shields ferry landing with the Tyne Pride ferry berthed - you can see the Customs House at South Shields just on the extreme left and the view down the river looking east (upstream) to the Readhead Shipyard at Tynedock.
The Oilrig 'AH001' is at the McNulty yard on the river for repair.

March 31, 2010 Copthorne Hotel

Taken on this mornings ride into work, the Copthorne Hotel on the Newcastle Quayside taken from the Gateshead side of the river just near the High Level Bridge.
The hotel sits between the High level and Queen Elizabeth (Metro) bridge.
You can see lots of flotsam on the river from the big storm that passed through the Upper Tyne valley yesterday swelling the River to a point where it nearly flooded the Quayside in Newcastle - It did wash lots of material down the river and out to sea.

March 23, 2010 Scotswood Bridge

The Scotswood Bridge which crosses the river Tyne in the west end of the City.This is a replacement for the original bridge which was a chain stayed suspension bridge known as the Chain Bridge and made famous in the Geordie Ridley song which became the Tyneside anthem 'The Blaydon Races'.

March 14, 2010 Tyne Ferry

Two Ferries in fact taken from North Shields Ferry Landing this afternoon - the little one is the
Cross Tyne Ferry which runs from South Shields to North Shields every 15 minutes on the hour and half hour heading South and on the quarter hours heading North.
The big ferry is heading for Isjmuiden which is the Port of Amsterdam

March 13, 2010 Cormorant on Tyne

Anyone who visits the Tyne regularly will be familiar with the sight of cormorants flying up & down the river. I managed to capture this one resting on a platform in the river near to Dunston Staithes.

March 12, 2010 Bill Quay Farm

This is Bill quay City farm and these are Longhorn Cattle which are raised at the farm.The farm was set up in the mid 1980's and is situated between Hebburn and Gateshead on the South Bank of the Tyne with stunning views across to Walker & Wallsend.

March 11, 2010 Dunston Staithes

Dunston Staithes were opened in 1893 as a structure for loading coal from the North Durham coalfield onto ships. In the 1920s 140,000 tons of coal per week were loaded from the Staiths, and they continued to be used until the 1970s. They were finally closed and partially dismantled in 1980.



Dunston Staithes are a listed building and a scheduled Ancient Monument - unfortunately a section was burned down in 2003 and public access has been stopped since the 1990s however at least 3/4 of the staithes remain.

March 09, 2010 Goose & Elephant

Taken yesterday on a lovely morning - this is the marina at Felling on the river Tyne - for those who know the area its just near the Elephant on Tyne and behind the Friars Goose.
Friars Goose was on old Chemical Works in the last Century producing glass and soap from whale oil amongst other things. Part of the old alkali works remains which I will post sometime.

March 07, 2010 Byker wall

A bit of an ecclectic view from the Sage car park in Gateshead - you can see on the left the back of the Sage and the very end of the Baltic art gallery - a glimpse of the River Tyne with what looks like a big red & white ski jump behind it that is past of the Byker wall. The apartments on the right are new developments on the Gateshead Quayside. The Byker Wall is currently to be revamped having been built in mid 1970s by the architect Ralf Erskine - the Evening Chronicle published this article on the Wall which features some excellent photographs of old pictures of the wall.

February 28, 2010 South Shields Groyne

South Shields groyne on a stormy High Tide - the waves where sweeping over the piers and you can see inside the piers the sea was still quite rough.
In the distance across the river you can see Tynemouth Priory and the statue to Lord Collingwood who took command of the British fleet after the death of Nelson at Trafalgar.

February 27, 2010 HMS Ark Royal

HMS Ark Royal is the flagship of the Royal Navy and is currently visiting the Tyne and is berthed at North Shields Commisioners Quay.
The Ark Royal is the fifth ship to bear that name in the Royal Navy, the first being in 1587 built to the order of Walter Raleigh for Queen Elizabeth.
The current Ark Royal was built in 1978 in the Wallsend yard by Swan Hunters and has a displacement of 20,235 tonnes and is nearly 700 feet long. It is the sister ship of HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious which was also built on the Tyne.

February 14, 2010 Blinking Eye

The Gateshead Millenium Bridge unlike many Millenium projects did actually open in 2000.
It is affectionately called the blinking eye because it looks like an eye - the cables resembling eyelashes - anyway here it is in Full Blink !!

February 10, 2010 Karaoke

This is a nightime view of the Gateshead Millenium Bridge taken from the Newcastle Quayside. It's a much photographed scene and a well respected member of the South Shields Photographic Society that is now known as PPFUK describes such scenes as karaoke photography .....

I'll let you decide !

February 6, 2010 Great North

This is the view at the finish of the Great North Run lloking from the tented village out to the piers at the mouth of the Tyne at South Shields and Tynemouth. The Great North Run is the largest participation race in Europe and the biggest half marathon in the world.

Oh and I've done every one - all 29