I have lived, and worked, close to the Rivers Tyne and the Wear, and the seven miles of picturesque coastline for thirty years, half my lifetime, and during this period I have witnessed the attempts of the local authorities to meet the challenges created by the demise of shipbuilding, coal and steel, and which together with the River Tees made the North East of England, the industrial capital of the world. I am not an economic or social historian or claim to have studied the history of the North East and its peoples in any depth, but I am confident that academics of the future will applaud the action taken over the past decade to begin the transformation of the region into one of the most interesting and exciting cultural, educational and tourist areas for young people and their families.
I believe I can demonstrate through pictures and simple words that commencing with the ancient Cathedral and University city of Durham, to the former industrial port of Sunderland beside the banks and mouth of the river Wear, and then along a coast to rival that of Devon and Cornwall, and then inland once more with the twin beacons of the ruins of Tynemouth Castle and Priory on the north bank and the now hidden ruins of the what was once the biggest Roman supply fort in Europe on the other, and onto what has already become the great tourist city centres outside of London in the United Kingdom, Newcastle with its twin local authority Gateshead this area can now claim to have become the Northern Rivera.
Durham, Sunderland, South Shields, Tynemouth, Newcastle and Gateshead, are all also excellent places from which to explore the region with to the North, the deserted coast of Northumberland and the film set Castle at Bamburgh, overlooking the dawn of British Christianity at Lindisfarne and the other Farne Islands, and in land the vast forests and sheep lands, and the grand reservoir lake of Keilder, merging into lowlands of Scotland, with its capital city, an hour away by train, and to the immediate west the Cumbrian Pennines and northern Lakes, with in the south west the country towns and wild open hill lands of Durham on over the mountains to Southern Lakeland, while in the South there are pretty villages of the North Yorkshire Moors, the land of Heartbeat and leading to the picturesque Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby, with the former Northern Rivera seaside spectacular of Scarborough, and the extraordinary city of York Minister to South, also an hour away by train.
For 2007 I have concentrated on the northern bank of the river Wear from main road and pedestrian Bridge into the City centre, to the new Roker Marina Village at its mouth, stopping first at the new university of Sunderland Campus, then the National Glass Centre and then the proposed world heritage sites of Wearmouth St Peters-St Paul's Jarrow where the journey will end, then along the beaches of Roker and the perfect Victorian style Roker Park, and then to Seaburn, where I lived for three decades, with a detour to Fullwell Mill and onto to the picturesque former mining community of Whitburn, and its coastal park from where over one hundred men and boys as young as twelve perished under the sea before the creation of the National Coal Board, in 1948, passed the Souter Lighthouse to the former Smugglers hideaway of Marsden Grotto where there are several bird sanctuary Rock stacks, with detours inland to the Cleaden village and hills, and to the vast Temple Park with its indoor leisure complex, and then back along the two miles of sweeping cliff topped grassland, the Leas, to the mile long sandy beaches of South Shields with its three month summer festival of free entertainments from local rock bands at the beachside amphitheatre to international entertainers commanding crowds over 10000 in one of three attractive adjacent parks, on up to the Lawe Top and the Arbeia fort where I live, and then back down the Tyne River bank to the new Ferry landing and the theatre cinema arts complex created from the former Custom's house, and on through the imaginative and boldly planned redevelopment of the riverside to Tyne Dock and Bedeworld at St Paul's.
In future years I will travel and part walk the length of the Tyne, stopping to cover the extraordinary developments at Newcastle and Gateshead all the way to Keilder, and then concentrate on the City of Sunderland to Durham.
These walks and travels are part of a contemporary art installation project 101 in which I am reflecting on my lifelong experience in the form of A 4 size cards, one for each hour until the age of 65, over 600000 cards in over 20000 sets representing each day, with between a quarter and a third of the work completed, divided between material which will be accessible and that which is confidential and will remain private, plus photographs with 260000 completed, 100 audio tapes and over 20 hours of unedited digital film.
I believe I can demonstrate through pictures and simple words that commencing with the ancient Cathedral and University city of Durham, to the former industrial port of Sunderland beside the banks and mouth of the river Wear, and then along a coast to rival that of Devon and Cornwall, and then inland once more with the twin beacons of the ruins of Tynemouth Castle and Priory on the north bank and the now hidden ruins of the what was once the biggest Roman supply fort in Europe on the other, and onto what has already become the great tourist city centres outside of London in the United Kingdom, Newcastle with its twin local authority Gateshead this area can now claim to have become the Northern Rivera.
Durham, Sunderland, South Shields, Tynemouth, Newcastle and Gateshead, are all also excellent places from which to explore the region with to the North, the deserted coast of Northumberland and the film set Castle at Bamburgh, overlooking the dawn of British Christianity at Lindisfarne and the other Farne Islands, and in land the vast forests and sheep lands, and the grand reservoir lake of Keilder, merging into lowlands of Scotland, with its capital city, an hour away by train, and to the immediate west the Cumbrian Pennines and northern Lakes, with in the south west the country towns and wild open hill lands of Durham on over the mountains to Southern Lakeland, while in the South there are pretty villages of the North Yorkshire Moors, the land of Heartbeat and leading to the picturesque Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby, with the former Northern Rivera seaside spectacular of Scarborough, and the extraordinary city of York Minister to South, also an hour away by train.
For 2007 I have concentrated on the northern bank of the river Wear from main road and pedestrian Bridge into the City centre, to the new Roker Marina Village at its mouth, stopping first at the new university of Sunderland Campus, then the National Glass Centre and then the proposed world heritage sites of Wearmouth St Peters-St Paul's Jarrow where the journey will end, then along the beaches of Roker and the perfect Victorian style Roker Park, and then to Seaburn, where I lived for three decades, with a detour to Fullwell Mill and onto to the picturesque former mining community of Whitburn, and its coastal park from where over one hundred men and boys as young as twelve perished under the sea before the creation of the National Coal Board, in 1948, passed the Souter Lighthouse to the former Smugglers hideaway of Marsden Grotto where there are several bird sanctuary Rock stacks, with detours inland to the Cleaden village and hills, and to the vast Temple Park with its indoor leisure complex, and then back along the two miles of sweeping cliff topped grassland, the Leas, to the mile long sandy beaches of South Shields with its three month summer festival of free entertainments from local rock bands at the beachside amphitheatre to international entertainers commanding crowds over 10000 in one of three attractive adjacent parks, on up to the Lawe Top and the Arbeia fort where I live, and then back down the Tyne River bank to the new Ferry landing and the theatre cinema arts complex created from the former Custom's house, and on through the imaginative and boldly planned redevelopment of the riverside to Tyne Dock and Bedeworld at St Paul's.
In future years I will travel and part walk the length of the Tyne, stopping to cover the extraordinary developments at Newcastle and Gateshead all the way to Keilder, and then concentrate on the City of Sunderland to Durham.
These walks and travels are part of a contemporary art installation project 101 in which I am reflecting on my lifelong experience in the form of A 4 size cards, one for each hour until the age of 65, over 600000 cards in over 20000 sets representing each day, with between a quarter and a third of the work completed, divided between material which will be accessible and that which is confidential and will remain private, plus photographs with 260000 completed, 100 audio tapes and over 20 hours of unedited digital film.
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