February 23rd to 28th
It had been a long time since I’d last visited Newcastle-upon-Tyne. That was on a Saturday afternoon in July 1981 having just walked most of Hadrian’s Wall and we were only there while waiting for the 10.30 pm coach back to London. A return visit seemed due. I’d stay for five nights this time rather than five hours.
Monday
I wouldn’t be doing with cramped long distance buses but the relative comfort of the 1214 Lumo train from London Kings Cross. I’ve travelled with Lumo before (to Edinburgh). Their one-class service is much cheaper than LNER, the service on board is good, and for a modern UK train the seats and legroom are not bad at all even if you are 6’5”. The train arrived at Newcastle Central at five minutes past three for a convenient check-in at the adjacent Royal Station Hotel. Good job I’d remembered to bring my passport which they insisted on seeing at check-in. Newcastle must have separated from the rest of the UK at some point in the last 45 years 😀
Once settled in I set off for a walk around the city and to get something to eat and drink, heading first down to the Quayside to see the famous bridges.
Later I went into the Victoria Comet pub opposite the railway station for a pint of bitter. In a thin glass. Their web site claims Our pub is well known for appearing in the cult gangster film classic ‘Get Carter’, as the first stop for Michael Caine’s hitman character when he arrives in Newcastle. Sources elsewhere on the internet (so it must be true) suggest that the pub Carter goes to opposite the station when he first arrives in Newcastle was The Long Bar and that that was demolished not long after the 1971 film was made. I don’t know who is right but everyone was certainly drinking from thin glasses, mostly Italian lager. Fortunately they also had a fairly good range of cask ales to ensure that I’d return. Interestingly I did not see one person drinking Newcastle Brown Ale the entire time I was up there. Not even with a bottle and a half-pint glass. What happened to regional stereotypes?
Tuesday
Back in 1981 when we approached the outskirts of Newcastle after a week of walking in hot weather (we were all sunburnt on the right hand side only) our party split in two. The completists would carry on walking through to Wallsend. Those who had had enough caught a train into the city and found a suitable pub in which to wait before reuniting with the others for the bus home. The latter idea appealed more to 18 year-old me so I’d never seen the Eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. Forty-five years on I still didn’t fancy the walk. Instead having breakfasted on a local delicacy consisting of sausage meat encased in flaky pastry, retailed by a Mr. Gregg, I hopped on the Metro train to Wallsend. I got an Adult Day Saver ticket for £6.70 which would allow me unlimited travel all over the Metro Network plus the Shields Ferry for the day. To put that into context that 90p less than a single 22 minute ride from my local station to Reading.
It’s a short walk from Wallsend railway station to the Segedunum Roman Fort museum which marks the end of Hadrian’s Wall next to the River Tyne. A space age Viewing Tower 35 metres tall overlooks the site of the Roman fort, now visible only as lines where the walls stood, the actual buildings long gone, becoming a convenient quarry for local builders.
The site became the Wallsend Colliery and from the 1880s the fort area was covered by streets of terraced houses for the workers in the shipyards. The museum displays cover two main stories of things that have gone. The Roman occupation and life in the fort is the larger subject. The other story is that of the famous Swan Hunter shipyard which grew up in Wallsend. Between 1842 and 2006 over 1600 ships were built here including RMS Mauretania (1906) and the former flagship of the Royal Navy, HMS Ark Royal (1981), as well as many tankers. I must admit the Swan Hunter side of things was more interesting to me, perhaps because it’s from within my lifetime. Even more so the former shipbuilder who was showing his grandson around the museum and reflecting on the change in the scene since the yards closed.
I did at last get to see the end (or the start) of Hadrian’s Wall where a small part of it remains, poking out toward the river through the railings surrounding the fort site.
I wonder whether the completists from our 1981 group saw much? At the time the shipyards were still here and the houses still covered the fort.
From Wallsend I took a train to Whitley Bay, the North East’s big seaside resort, now somewhat diminished. But for Dire Straits fans the famous Spanish City is still there and still looking pretty as mentioned in the 1980 song Tunnel of Love although now flanked by a Premier Inn.
I had a coffee on the seafront surrounded by fearless and noisy starlings and then got a train to Tynemouth. As I arrived the sun came out and bathed the Priory and Castle in golden light. I walked up to Admiral Lord Collingwood’s memorial on the headland where it was very, very windy but afforded great views across the mouth of the Tyne to South Shields and back up the river towards Newcastle.
Then I headed back on the train to the city.
36 Flickr Photos of Whitley Bay and Tynemouth (opens in new window)
Wednesday
Another day, another Metro Day Saver ticket. This one took me back to the coast. It was a nice day for it too. First I went to South Shields. My Nan (paternal grandmother) was born in South Shields although I wasn’t really sure of that fact until a few years ago so I sort of have roots in Tyneside, albeit very shallow ones. Nan was born in 1896, making her an actual Victorian and died when I was still a child. I recall her as a small but formidable woman, quite strict, who had raised four sons and two daughters - probably explains the strict part - and it’s only looking back now that I can recognise that she had retained her North East accent despite moving to Suffolk, Pembrokeshire, West London, and back to Suffolk. Anyway I can at last say that I’ve been to Nan’s birthplace and very nice it is too with sandy beaches and a picturesque red lighthouse.
I joined the small crowd on the pier and watched a giant vehicle carrier ship come in from the North Sea and shepherded by a tugboat make its way between Tynemouth and South Shields and disappear up the Tyne. Then I walked along the seafront and through the town to take the ferry to North Shields. This plan was promptly scuppered because the Shields Ferry was suspended due to the north landing being damaged by a storm. Bugger.
37 Flickr Photos from South Shields (opens in new window)
Plan B. Train to Sunderland. I have a vague recollection of stopping for supplies at Sunderland once on a road trip to the Scottish Borders. This time I walked from the station to the Wearmouth Bridge, crossed the river and saw a sign pointing to “St Peter’s Church AD674” and decided to go there. Only the west wall and tower are Anglo-Saxon, the rest having been rebuilt, added to, and restored over the subsequent centuries. I guess Bede would still recognise some of it though.
I looked at the map and decided to carry on to Seaburn railway station. Then I remembered that a sign on the platform at Seaburn had said it was only 15 minutes walk from the beach so I had the bright idea of walking there via the seafront at Roker. The flag-shaggers had been out to adorn the lamp posts of Monkwearmouth but apart from that it wasn’t too tiresome a walk down to the front at Roker. For a Wednesday afternoon in February it was even quite busy.
Wrong time of year for guided tours of the pier tunnel and lighthouse though unfortunately. I walked along the front, up through Roker Park, and threaded my way through the residential area to Seaburn Station where I was surprised to sea an unexpected windmill sticking up above the houses. With excellent timing a train back to Newcastle showed up almost immediately.
24 Flickr Photos from Sunderland and Roker (opens in new window)
Later that evening I took a stroll across the High Level Bridge and back via the Swing Bridge just for the opportunity to get photos of the Tyne bridges at night.
Thursday
I couldn’t visit Newcastle without visiting the actual castle really so after breakfast I did just that. I arrived shortly after it opened for the day and it was quiet. Shortly after that the party of (possibly Portuguese) school students arrived and it was… less quiet. On the plus side I could eavesdrop on their guided tour. What remains of the castle is divided into two sites, the Black Gate and The Castle Keep. They are separated by a bloody great railway viaduct carrying the East Coast Main Line above you. This is not immediately obvious when you come out of the Black Gate back into the street. Some signage might help since you can’t see one building from the other.
I was a bit disappointed that the roof level of the Keep was locked off due to “risk of dangerous winds”. Especially since you only found this out after climbing the ninety-ish uneven stairs to the locked gate at the top. The rest of it was still worth it though.
12 Flickr Photos of Newcastle Castle (opens in new window)
Next stop was St. Nicholas Cathedral which was very cathedral like.
There are a lot of grand old buildings in Newcastle, coal and shipping used to pay well. There are as you’d expect a good many statues too. Behind the cathedral you can find probably the oddest. High on a wall above an ornate doorway into the back of Cathedral Buildings The Vampire Rabbit stares down at you. Totally black save for the staring eyes and red, bloody fangs and claws you might miss it as you walk by. Be sure it will be watching you though. There’s a panel on the wall giving a couple of stories to try to explain this strange apparition, including the idea that it might be a hare with its ears on backwards. Which just raises more questions.
12 Flickr Photos from Newcastle Cathedral (opens in new window)
I also visited the Laing Art Gallery, the ornate Central Arcade, the large covered Grainger Market, had a general explore of the city centre, and later dined at the Victoria Comet before wandering back down to the castle for a really nice pint in the Bridge Hotel opposite the keep and right alongside the High Level Bridge. I think there was live jazz upstairs which was clearly audible downstairs. Either that or they have a very eclectic jukebox.
Friday
All the walking around over the last three days was beginning to tell on my joints. So I elected for a gentle ride on a train. Durham or Hexham? I flipped a coin, Hexham it was. The better outcome I think in the end. About half an hour on the train and I stepped out into a sunny Hexham. I walked slowly up the hill from the station to the market place, then through a park with masses of crocuses in bloom to Hexham Abbey.
You cannot help but look up when you enter the abbey - it’s designed that way. I think it is an even more impressive space than the Cathedral in Newcastle. So much carving, so much painting, so many stained glass windows, so tall. Also two very worn tomb effigies, almost faceless so that they reminded me of The Auditors in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.
After the abbey I had coffee at a Buster's near the Moot House, wandered the lanes of the town centre and failed to resist the temptation of the delightful smell coming out of Paxton’s Fish and Chip shop on the Market Square. Sat on a bench on the market in the sunshine eating cod and chips. In February.
I went back down the hill, got a cold drink and something for lunch on the train home the next day (I do like hotel rooms with fridges, even if this one only had three of its four feet) and with plenty of time to spare sat next to the River Tyne by the stone many-arched road bridge. It was so nice that I did sweet FA for the next half an hour.
Until it clouded over and sent down a few spots of rain to remind me that this was The North and February. I got the train back to Newcastle. Had an afternoon nap. Watched Top of the Pops. Watched Endeavour. Packed. Slept.
45 Flickr Photos from Hexham (opens in new window)
Saturday
Train - Tube - Train - Train - Walk - Home. No train dramas for a change.
What a good adventure that was.
The Big Trip To Tyneside Flickr Album, 247 photos (opens in new window)
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