A day in Newcastle

A day in Newcastle, and of course, across the river to Gateshead.

Linking the City of Newcastle with the town of Gateshead, the Tyne Bridge is the most celebrated of all the Tyne bridges. Though only opened in 1928, it quickly won a place in the hearts of local people. It is an icon, both a symbol of Tyneside's industrial past and its recent re-generation. It has featured in films, on television and been the subject of thousands of photographs. Ships from all over the world have tied up in sight of its massive steel arch and millions have passed over it, by car, lorry, bus, tram, motorcycle, bicycle and on foot.

There are other similar bridges, one at nearby Wylam and famous ones in Sydney and New York but none of these can match the Tyne Bridge in the affections of Tyneside's. A new bridge had been proposed many times but in 1923 serious plans were afoot in the two councils on either side of the river to obtain the necessary powers. The bridge was by then urgently needed to accommodate increasing vehicular and tram traffic, and providing employment for hundreds of men at a time of increased unemployment was also a factor. The corporations of Newcastle and Gateshead sought an Act of Parliament in 1924 and with government financial help construction began in 1925. Navigational clearance was always a factor to be considered in bridge building on the Tyne and this is reflected in its height above water. Dorman Long of Middlesbrough were the contractors and Mott, Hay and Anderson the designers, using a modified design based on the Sydney Harbour Bridge*, already under construction for 7 months by the time work commenced on Tyneside, and completed in 1932, over 3 years after the Tyne Bridge

Gateshead Millennium Bridge 

In 1996 Gateshead Council launched a competition to find a bridge that would link developments on both sides of the River Tyne and also complement the existing six bridges crossing the river.

There were over 150 entries. Gateshead residents voted for their favourite design from a shortlist of leading architectural companies.

It is estimated that 36,000 people lined the banks of the River Tyne to watch the bridge tilt for the first time on 28 June 2001

The idea of the BALTIC began in 1991 when Northern Arts (now Arts Council England North East) announced its ambition to achieve ‘major new capital facilities for the Contemporary Visual Arts in Central Tyneside’. 

Construction began in 1998: only the south and north facades of the original 1950s building were retained. It was a redevelopment from a flour mill into the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. 

A new structure consisting of six main floors and three mezzanines was secured between the facades which contained 3000 sqm of arts space (four galleries and a flexible performance space), artists' studios, cinema/lecture space, shop, a library and archive for the study of contemporary art and the Rooftop Restaurant on Level 6. An additional two-storey structure: The Riverside Building, was constructed to the west of the main building, providing the main entrance into BALTIC, which looks out across Baltic Square and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. 

The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art opened on Saturday 13 July 2002. 

The Baltic Flour Mill or, as it is now, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art 

The Blacksmith`s needle - A slim cone-shaped tower of open metal-work, with cast-iron objects welded all over the frame. There are six layers to the 'Needle' and the objects are themed within each, according to a bodily sense. Finished in a lustrous blue patina, the 'Needle' is set on the walkway in front of contemporaneous office buildings and opposite the Baltic Flour Mills on the south bank of the Tyne. 

'Blacksmiths' Needle' was created from six sections made at public 'forge-ins' around the country. Each section represents one of the senses - including what was described as 'the mysterious sixth sense'. There are such a multitude of objects depicted that listing them becomes a game for passing families. However, the items have a predominately maritime theme, so the sculpture fits in with the overall concept for the quayside area. The 'Needle' was ceremonially inaugurated by the percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who clanked a bell that hangs inside it. The rope that made this possible broke off not long afterwards, but there is another bell attached to the outside which can still be used. 

Sage Gateshead is a concert venue and also a centre for musical education, located in Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in North East England. It opened in 2004 and is occupied by the North Music Trust.

The venue is part of the Gateshead Quays development, which also includes the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. 

The Sage, Gateshead

I liked the top of this building which turned out to be Newcastle Civic Centre and is a local government building located in the Haymarket area of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the main administrative and ceremonial centre for Newcastle City Council. I believe we were on a bus tour when I took this shot. 

The "The Response" is a war memorial in the gardens by Newcastle Civic Centre, off Barras Bridge. The sculpture was designed by Sir W. Goscombe John and unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 5th July 1923. It depicts the Territorial Army "Pals" of the Northumberland Fusiliers marching off to the First World War. 

Another view of the Sage but this time from the Newcastle side of the Tyne. 

The Cathedral Church of St Nicholas is a Church of England cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Newcastle and is the mother church of the Diocese of Newcastle, the most northerly diocese of the Anglican Church in England, which reaches from the River Tyne as far north as Berwick-upon-Tweed and as far west as Alston in Cumbria.

Founded in 1091 during the same period as the nearby castle, the Norman church was destroyed by fire in 1216 and the current building was completed in 1350, so is mostly of the Perpendicular style of the 14th century. Its tower is noted for its 15th-century lantern spire. Heavily restored in 1777, the building was raised to cathedral status in 1882, when it became known as the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas. 

The first mention of a clock at the Cathedral was in 1565. There have been other clocks at the cathedral but the present clock was installed in 1895. 

It was made by William Potts & Sons of Leeds. It has the largest clock movement in Newcastle and is protected by glass doors. William Potts still maintain the contract for winding, regulating, oiling and maintaining the clock. It used to require winding every day until an electric motor was fitted in 1960. The dial measures six feet six inches in diameter. The clock uses four bells of the peal of twelve for the chimes and the Major Bell to strike the hour.

The clock has a white face, with black hands, Roman numerals and minute markers around the circumference of the dial, and is housed in an ornamental red wooden box with golden decoration and a sharply pointed roof.

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Along parts of Hadrian's Wall

One of our main aims for this holiday was to see some of Hadrian's Wall, and so two days were spent doing just that! Traveling along the A39, we visited, and enjoyed a fair stretch of it. Unfortunately, many of the images were taken during the brightest part of the day and are rather de-saturated. At least some record shots!

In A.D. 122 the Emperor Hadrian ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Scotland. The wall ran from Wallsend in the east to Bowness on the Solway Firth. You can still walk along parts of Hadrian's Wall today. In A.D. 140, the Romans added another wall further north. It's called the Antonine Wall.

The area called Steel Rigg is along some of the most scenic sections of Hadrian’s Wall. 

Part of the Roman Fort at Birdoswald, with (BELOW), some beautiful scenery nearby. 

A few facts about Birdoswald: 

Birdoswald was once an area of bog and forest. The Romans had to clear and drain the land before building work could begin. 

The defences of Birdoswald are extremely well preserved and the site is one of the best places to see the very first Hadrian’s Wall, which was built of turf. 

The military unit that left the most enduring legacy at Birdoswald were the Dacians, who travelled with the Roman army from modern-day Romania. They carved symbols from their homeland into the fort walls and worshipped local deities as well as Roman gods. 

Several burial urns were recently excavated from a Roman cemetery at Birdoswald. Studies have revealed the cremated remains of women and children as well as male soldiers. 

Walltown Crags 

The wall along Walltown Crags. Quite a feat to build on the top of these crags, I would think, also showing how advanced the Romans really were. 

Vindolanda is one of Europe's most important Roman archaeological sites. It is situated on the Stanegate Road, one mile south of Hadrian’s Wall and is managed and owned by The Vindolanda Charitable Trust. 

The site itself comprises nine forts built on top of each other. Soldiers from all over the Roman Empire, including Belgium, Germany and France were garrisoned here. The visible stone fort dates to the third century and the impressive remains include the fort walls, the headquarters building, the Commanding Officer’s house, granaries and barracks. Extensive remains of the extramural settlement lie just west of the fort with buildings lining a main street. These include houses, shops, a tavern and a bath house. 

The top find from the site, and also on display in the museum are the Vindolanda writing tablets – voted Britain’s ‘Top Treasure’. The small wooden postcard sized documents recorded the daily life of people who used to live here including letters from soldiers asking for socks and underwear, a birthday party invitation to the Commanding Officer’s wife, requests for payment, lists of goods supplied and troop deployments. 

While we stood watching, this ring was unearthed. 

Housesteads Roman Fort (below) was a large infantry fort constructed along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. It was garrisoned by a regiment recruited from Belgium and remained occupied for around 300 years. 

A fort was built in stone at the Housesteads Roman Fort site around AD 124 overlying the original Broad Wall foundation and Turret 36B. The fort was repaired and rebuilt several times, its northern defences being particularly prone to collapse. 

By the end of Hadrian’s reign (AD 138), the great Wall was complete, and Housesteads was one of 15 forts and part of a total garrison of nearly 10,000 men along its length. The surviving plan of the main buildings and barracks dates largely to this time. 

Within four years of Hadrian’s death, however, his successor, Antoninus Pius (r.138–61), began the construction of a second wall (the Antonine Wall), across the Forth–Clyde isthmus in central Scotland. It is often thought that Hadrian’s Wall was then abandoned, but recent excavations from Housesteads found no evidence for this. 

Although most of the Tungrians are indeed known to have occupied Castlecary Fort on the Antonine Wall, it seems that part of the garrison may have remained here. An altar to Jupiter and the god Cocidius from Housesteads, dedicated by soldiers of the Second Augustan Legion said to be on ‘garrison duty’, may date to this period. 

Sycamore Gap - it's become an iconic image associated with Hadrian's Wall. The familiar gaps along Hadrian’s Wall in the Whin Sill are essentially channels, naturally chipped away by vast amounts of meltwater flowing beneath the ice sheets that once covered the area. 

Nowadays, the tree has become something of a star. Most notably as the scene-stealer in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner, TV series Vera starring Brenda Blethyn and Robson Green’s More Tales from Northumberland. 

If it's there, someone has to climb it! 

More Housesteads. 

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To Northumberland we go!

On the start of our Northumberland holiday, I guess that this icon needs no introduction! However, a little history is in order.

The Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture, designed by Antony Gormley, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.

Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres (66 ft) tall, with wings measuring 54 metres (177 ft) across. The wings do not stand straight sideways, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward; Gormley did this to create "a sense of embrace". The angel, like much of Gormley's other work, is based on a cast of his own body.

It stands on the hill of Birtley, at Low Eighton in Lamesley, overlooking the A1 and A167 roads into Tyneside, and the East Coast Main Line rail route, south of the site of Team Colliery.

Work began on the project in 1994, and cost £800,000. Most of the project funding was provided by the National Lottery. The Angel was installed on 15 February 1998.

Due to its exposed location, the sculpture was built to withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Thus, foundations containing 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons) of concrete anchor the sculpture to rock 70 feet (21 m) below. The sculpture was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd using COR-TEN weather-resistant steel. It was made in three parts—with the body weighing 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) and two wings weighing 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons) each—then brought to its site by road. The components were transported in convoy—the body on a 48-wheel trailer—from their construction site in Hartlepool, up the A19 road to the installation site 28 miles (45 km) away; the nighttime journey took five hours and attracted large crowds.

The Angel aroused some controversy in British newspapers, at first, including a "Gateshead stop the statue" campaign, while local councillor Martin Callanan was especially strong in his opposition. However, it has since been considered to be a landmark for North East England and has been listed by one organisation as an "Icon of England". It has often been used in film and television to represent Tyneside, as are other local landmarks such as the Tyne Bridge and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Kielder Forest is a large forestry plantation in Northumberland, England, surrounding Kielder village and the Kielder Water reservoir. It is the largest man-made woodland in England with three-quarters of its 250 square miles (650 km2) covered by forest.The majority of the forest lies within the Border Forest Park, with the southern tip known as Wark Forest lying within Northumberland National Park.

We spent some time walking around part of the reservoir and then visited an area where we were fortunate to see some Red squirrels.

And then onto Bellingham, famous as a stopping point on the Pennine Way trail and popular with walkers and cyclists, this is where we had our cottage for the first few days.

The Grade-I listed St Cuthbert's Church (13th-century, substantially reconstructed in the early 17th century) is described as 'almost unique in England' owing to its stone barrel vault, which runs the length of the nave and extends into the south transept.

Within the churchyard on the north side is "The Lang Pack", purportedly the grave of a burglar who attempted to infiltrate a local house by hiding in a beggar's pack, but was discovered after he suffered an ill-timed coughing fit, and was promptly run through with the sword of the house's proprietor.

The Grade-I listed St Cuthbert's Church (13th-century, substantially reconstructed in the early 17th century) is described as 'almost unique in England' owing to its stone barrel vault, which runs the length of the nave and extends into the south transept.

Another church we visited was at Edlingham 

St John the Baptist is a mediaeval (11th century) church in Edlingham in the English county of Northumberland. The church is mostly Norman, from two periods, the late 11th – early 12th Century and late 12th century The chancel arch and the south porch, with its rare Norman tunnel vault, are late 11th century, and the north aisle arcade is from the late 12th century. The columns are circular and the capitals are scalloped with bands of nail-head. The defensible west tower may also have been begun in the late 12th century, but completed later.

The church is adjacent to Edlingham Castle, a 13th-century castle with 16th-century battlements and defences.

Edlingham Castle dates mainly from the 14th century, although a manor house of the 13th century is probably concealed beneath the later building. The earliest standing remains are those of the hall house, built about in 1300 by Sir William Felton at a time when Northumberland was relatively peaceful.

Felton was a member of an important family with estates in Norfolk and Shropshire but he had made his fortune independently through military service, royal favour and marriage to a Northumberland heiress, Constance de Pontrop.

His successors made extensive improvements to the manor house. In about 1340–50 his son, also named William, improved domestic comfort by building a magnificent solar tower, the best preserved part of the castle. As the Anglo-Scottish wars continued, he also strengthened the defences with a gate tower and stone curtain wall. Towards the end of the 14th century William’s grandson, John, completed the enclosure walls and enlarged the gatehouse.

Later owners of the estate included the Hastings and Swinburne families. The Feltons had traditionally been royal officials and soldiers but their successors were primarily local gentry, with less need for military display or effective defence. 

The castle was abandoned as a dwelling in the mid-17th century and by the 1660s was being quarried for building stone. At the end of the 19th century only the tower was still visible amid grassy mounds. Since 1975 the remains have been in the guardianship and ownership of the state. They were excavated between 1978 and 1982. 

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Lavenham, Monks Eleigh and Flatford. A local tour.

These images were taken over a weekend when we did a tour of these local villages. You can see what a wonderful part of the world in which we live!. The Lavenham houses are not all named but give a sample of the village in general. Unfortunately, because of tourism, the streets are often clogged with traffic but that is the price we pay in today's world. Lavenham is one of the United Kingdom’s best-kept medieval villages with over three hundred listed buildings. 

The Crooked House

The Swan Hotel. The building started life as a guildhall. It belonged to the Guild of the Blessed Virgin, one of the four medieval guilds in Lavenham. It was converted into a Wool Hall in the late seventeenth century. It was restored by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll around 1911 who then transferred it to Mrs Culver and it became the Railway Women's Convalescent Home. It was incorporated into the Swan Hotel in 1963.

The Guildhall, also known as the Guildhall of Corpus Christi, was originally one of five guilds in Lavenham. It was probably the most exclusive, holding prime position in the market square.

More Tudor timbered buildings

The Green at Monks Eleigh with the old pump still in place.

There is no documentary evidence for the foundation of the Chapel of St James the Apostle at Lindsey. The earliest parts visible today date from the 13th century, but worked stones reused in the present building suggest a previous building on the site from about the middle of the 12th century: the west wall contains several characteristically Norman fragments.

The chapel was almost certainly built to serve the nearby Castle of Lindsey, the earthwork remains of which are visible some 250 metres to the south-east, and it was probably founded by the de Cockfield family.

In 1240 Nesta de Cockfield gave the churches of Kersey and Lindsey to Kersey Priory, but reserved the right to appoint the clergy for Lindsey, all of which suggests the present chapel was well established by that time. In 1242 she imposed a special tithe on parts of Cockfield – known as the Lindsey Tithes – to sustain continuous lighting in the chapel. 

Lindsey Castle appears to have been abandoned before the end of the 13th century but St James’s Chapel continued in use. The manor and the right to appoint the warden of the chapel eventually passed to the Sampson family who appointed wardens in 1375, 1400 and 1408. Late in the 15th or early in the 16th century the chapel was repaired, and perhaps shortened, and the existing roof replaced the previous higher one. It remained in use until the Dissolution, though in somewhat reduced circumstances. 

In 1547 the King’s Commissioners reported that its yearly value was £5, and it was one of the numerous ‘free’ chapels that were dissolved the same year. The king eventually granted the chapel to Thomas Turner and thereafter it was used as a barn until 1930. 

Flatford Mill is a Grade I listed watermill on the River Stour at Flatford in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. According to the date-stone the mill was built in 1733, but some of the structure may be earlier. Attached to the mill is a 17th-century miller's cottage which is also Grade I listed. The property is in Dedham Vale, a typically English rural landscape.

The mill was owned by the artist John Constable's father and is noted, along with its immediate surroundings as the location for many of Constable's works. It is referred to in the title of one of his most iconic paintings, Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River), and mentioned in the title or is the subject of several others including: Flatford Mill from a lock on the river Stour; Flatford Mill from the lock (A water mill); The Lock. The Hay Wain, which features Willy Lott's Cottage, was painted from the front of the mill.

The mill is located downstream from Bridge Cottage (below) which, along with neighbouring Valley Farm and Willy Lott's Cottage, are leased to the Field Studies Council, a group that uses them as locations for arts, ecology and natural history based courses. 

Bridge Cottage is a 16th-century thatched cottage

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