Open Your Eyes

Many public sector workers are on strike today in protest against Government plans to alter their pension entitlements. Protest 'camps' have also sprung up in various city centres, including a small one at the base of Grey's Monument in Newcastle, where this picture was taken.

Newburn Church

Newburn  is about 5 miles to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne and  has a long history dating back to Roman times during which it was the most easterly fordable spot on the River Tyne. There has been a church on the site since at least the 11th Century.

mushrooms

mushrooms in Blaydon Burn Nature Reserve, a few miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne

Clara Vale War Memorial

Clara Vale  is a small former coal mining village to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne . Its war memorial is unusual as it refers to the dead 'of  the colliery' rather than the dead of the village.The memorial bears the names of the 56 men employed at the Colliery who were killed during the Great War. The site was a gift from the Stella Coal Company which owned the colliery. The memorial also lists the names of two men from the village who died during the Second World War

navigation lights

Navigation Lights on the River Tyne near Bill Quay

VR

this is an old Victorian, now unused, post box on the International Paints site at Gateshead on the River Tyne. International paints are part of the AzkoNobel Group which is a Global Fortune 500 company.

Clara Vale Lodge Banner

 

In 1889 two shafts of Clara Vale Pit ,in County Durham, were sunk by the Stella Coal Company. In 1897 the pit produced 180,000 tons of coal and at its height employed nearly a thousand men.  The pit was nationalised in 1947and  was closed in 1966 for economic reasons. The old lodge banner hangs in the Community hall which was once the village school.