I assure you I am alive and well, though right now in recovery from a

vasectomy. A great many things have prevented much building as of late,

but I have been doing a lot *WITH* LEGO.

 

As some of you may know, I lead and teach at many area libraries' LEGO

clubs for various age groups. I also teach my daughter. I even hosted a

LEGO birthday party for a 4 year-old recently.

 

Aside from the other many things keeping me from working on MOCs, LEGO life

is sweet. I am feeling really excited about my builds coming along for Rose

City Comic Con and BrickCon.

 

The aforementioned disconnection of my greebles is allowing for some

excellent building time. What you see here is a little playground I made

with my daughter. She turned 3 last month and is really into minifigs and

playing and helping me while building sets:)

 

Can you tell she likes the animals??

Working with primary school aged children from a low socioeconomic region in Western Australia for over 6 years, I have been witnessing a gradual but systematic decline in the value and respect of the station of the child, the station of parenting both mothering and fathering. The station of family has completely imploded and shattered beyond recognition in many homes.

-

During these 6 years I have observed Governments and institutions pulling and squeezing at every level of these grassroots people’s lives. Gradual decline in low cost housing availability resulting with families sliding into “coach surfing” at relative of friends’ homes; finally being homeless and forced into cars or onto the streets. Husbands and wives forced to split up so the young children and the mother can be taken into women’s refuges but husband and older children with nowhere to go but homelessness.

-

Many families now with both parents addicted to some form of pain avoidance medication such as substance or drug abuse, both illegal and prescription. Increasing at a very rapid rate is the addiction to online gambling as well as “gaming” addictions and pornography (both for parents and children). Rapid increase of children playing over 18 years of age violent computer “games” throughout all year levels. Workaholic behaviour is also on the increase with the over stretched mothers.

-

You also have a lot of parents attempting to hold their family together but with no skills as both parents were raised in full time day-care.

-

As consecutive Governments continue to believe in privatising the elderly and childcare and now motherhood has been their latest sell to a very struggling generation still believing the answers will come from some institutional pen mark on some piece of paper.

-

The effects of all these crumbled families are being played out in school rooms throughout our communities. Teachers, amazing teachers doing everything they can to assist the children to have at least a functioning healthy and supportive learning experience.

-

My role as mentor means I get to hear and see the effects of these crumbling, imploded family units and the effects this is having on the children first hand. I hear how parents are stretched to breaking points and still trying to go it alone full of shame and guilt. Tragic situations where there is no room for criticism, disapproval, judgement or blame.

-

As my daughter is working at the Baha’i World Centre, Haifa Israel, at present I was given the amazing blessing to be able to go and stay with her.

-

My wish and yearning was to be able to spend many hours walking and meditating in the stunning and awe inspiring Baha’i gardens on Mt Carmel Haifa and Bahji, Akko. To be able to be on the other side of the planet to view all my concerns and issues from a distance and attempt to find guidance to assist the children and their mothers and fathers and families to find pathways out of this endless spiraling down destructive trajectory.

-

A spiritual retreat while also serving and enjoying my daughters company was profoundly on offer with the added opportunities to spend many hours in prayer, reflection and pondering in the Shrines surrounded by those extraordinary gardens.

-

My wishes and dreams were exceeded at every level and the guidance was abundant. Overflowing insights to all my concerns were being laid out in front of me like fruit hanging on lush trees in an endless orchard.

-

At its core was the guidance to look within one’s self and find one’s own nobility. But what shocked me the most was where I found the main keys to this understanding and what old concepts I had to shake off and leave behind before I could seek the next level of understandings to these horrendous issues we are all being affected by one way or another.

-

Right in the middle of the Baha’i Administration Center on the side of the ancient Mt Carmel sits the Memorial Gardens. As I sat and walked and reflected and read profound sacred texts within these gardens it dawned on me that this critical central point, that all other profound aspects and parts radiate out from this central point are dependent on and succeed because of the condition and state of how we view, act and think about the station of the feminine, the station of women, the station of mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and children throughout all communities around the entire world.

-

To stand there and realise how some part of me had accepted the main stream society’s value of the equality of men and women as being enough and that others around the world just had to get to our level and all would be fine. No!

-

Without realising it and just coming to the awareness that those Memorial gardens were dedicated to some of the noblest figures in the history of the early years of the Baha’i Faith and they were mothers, or sisters, or wives, or daughters, or children shook me to my very bone.

-

How did I miss this critical reality? How had I settled for such a low level view of the importance of the station of the feminine?

-

This reality showed me if I had quietly accepted what the society around me had sold me at such a low level of value of the station of the feminine then the rest of that society had also bought into that paradigm. And all paradigms are meant to be shattered at some point in time.

-

Every other insight and guidance I was able to see and understand during my stay in Haifa was built on this new profound awareness. I had no idea how or what I was going to do when I returned but the way I now was looking at the reality had changed completely.

-

Shortly after my return to Perth Western Australia with all these new understandings and insights, plus 14,000 images of those majestic gardens and sacred places, I was taking part in a Skype study group which was exploring ways to support and accompany people as they work and serve within a community development setting and one of the readings was directed to the need of understand what paternalism was.

-

Again I found myself back in the same state I had found myself in the Memorial Gardens in Haifa and realising how I had also missed that the majority of women since the 60s had believed throwing out the feminine and embracing being paternalistic gave them equality with their male partners or work colleagues. No!

-

I had completely missed that the actions of others, both men and women which I had witnessed as unhealthy was the out of balance male role of paternalism. What is the negative out of balance feminine energy? What are the healthy balanced actions of a noble human being with both feminine and masculine selves developed?

-

Where do we seek role models and heroes that can guide us towards living such a new way of life? How do we inform these mums and dads that they are noble and have hidden within them immense capacities as yet unimagined?

-

How do you let families know the vision inside their own minds need to grow towards beauty and love so we can all step up and aspire to our own station of nobility and that families and men and women and children and the elderly are once again valued and sacrifices for the betterment of each other will change the downward trajectory of disconnection and destruction into a spiraling ascending powerhouse that humanity has not yet seen the likes of.

-

I have no answers past this point except a vision and an understanding of what is possible and the only other reality I know to be true is now I have to find all opportunities to raise this awareness and create spaces for conversations where we can all look within at our own understanding of our true capacity and nobility and what does a healthy masculine and feminine self look like?

-

How can we build families that are resilient and flourishing and the true station of the varied roles be understood in this new light of understanding?

-

These answers are not going to come from any Government or institution but only from social action at the grassroots of every community worldwide. All social realities that have been out grown by an ever advancing and maturing humanity have to grow up also and it has always been through social action at grassroots that the changes have happened.

this photo was a complete accident, as i'm sure you can tell by the somewhat odd look on my face. the sun was shining brightly and as we all know blinding sun and phone screen are not a winning combination.

my first instinct was to delete this photo. send it into whatever oblivion horrible photos we take of ourselves accumulate and quietly weep together in bitter pools of faible amour propre.

the thing is, when you take enough photos of yourself (and this is part of the reason i don't do this so much anymore) you learn what makes you look magazine worthy good, and inevitably what makes you look like a something inbred that crawled out of a swamp on it's belly.

 

and it's easy to fall into a trap of seeing yourself a certain way because "delete" is such an

easy button to push.

(what's harder to accept is a photo of you that someone else has taken that doesn't match up with the image you've created of yourself. this can be devestating because you start to wonder if that horrible creature you see is how other people see you and if you've been fooling yourself this entire time...because the delete button is just.so.easy.to.push. when you have control of it.)

 

everyonceinawhile, though, there are photos like this. the real ones. the ones unplanned, unposed. the accidental shot that captures the reality of the moment. the one offs that show who you really are. they aren't ugly, they aren't gorgeous.

 

they are far worse than either of those extremes.

 

they are vulnerable and intimate, and not in a planned, manipulated, pouty, pity me sort of way. they are real. real glimpses into the truth of who you are and how you perceive yourself.

 

this one took some effort to post, mostly due to me having to give up a certain element of control over how the audience

 

(or "kids" as i affectionately like to call y'all - and i don't say that as an insult of a top down sort of thing, because "kids" to me means all of us, myself included. we never really grow up - we're just "kids" forced into adult roles. so it has an air of freedom, and an air of sadness when i use it. mostly it's an inclusive term for all of us as i feel that "audience" is polarizing, and always tends to place the "artist" on a superior platform above those he is performing for. if you're here and reading this, i want you next to me, sharing it with me, even if you don't fully understand. i don't want you over there and me here. that sucks. disconnection always sucks.)

 

perceives me. in the era of facebook and social media, twitter, et al. everyone's life is a highlight reel. someone's either ecstatically happy, or suicidally sad, or someone ate, cooked, or bought something, or someone just ran 8000 miles in 3 hours or bench pressed

a buick while teaching blind kids to read, or someone just broke up with the love of their life that they met a month ago, or someone's verbally assaulting you with their inflammable political ideologies.

there is no vulnerability that's real, that's human. it's all manipulated to elicit a certain response. and it's addictive to get that response. it kicks up the dopamine. it makes you feel good to be paid attention to, to think that someone cared enough to respond.

 

but it's not real.

it's not real if you're not real.

 

i have been out many a night and ended up talking to complete strangers about very deep and thought provoking issues and ideas for hours. inevitably, i never see them again.

there is a certain charm in that, but there is also an extreme sadness. the charm is understanding the meaning of the conversation afterwards - that nothing in the world can ever change those few hours spent with those people. that block of time is frozen in memory forever. the sadness comes from knowing you'll never see those people again, never know if their lives change, if they carry your words with them like you do theirs, and if they think of you once in a while and wonder.

 

i have a saying about this: i've made a thousand friends, the kind i'll never see again.

 

i think it's because people find it easier to be themselves with a stranger they know isn't going to be part of their daily or even weekly lives.

it's because we become these facsimilies of ourselves with the people we see on the daily. family, friends, co-workers, lovers. there is a facade we all have, and we spend an inordinate amount of our time and energy maintaining that facade.

 

sometimes i see these facades and it makes me physically hurt because if i stare at someone long enough two things happen: i see them as they'd be if they were very old, and i see them as they were when they were children. and in strange bizarre cases, i see them as they were in other lifetimes (but that's another topic for another time).

i look at people and wonder "what's their motivation for getting up in the morning?"

why do they keep living and breathing? is it kids, a job? what?

 

sometimes i don't understand my own motivation for doing anything, but here i am - day after day after day, waking up in the morning and doing what i do, eating healthy, running, studying, - and ultimately...what for?

 

as i used to say before: it's not the how that'll kill you. it's the why.

 

but the thing is, we all keep doing it. just like our hearts keep pumping even though we don't consciously compel them to. we all keep waking up in the morning and doing what we do.

i keep feeding the stray outdoor kitty, i keep running almost every day, i keep watching netflix, i keep staying up too late and waking up too early, i keep making stupid jokes, i keep oscillating between happiness and sadness, i keep wondering where i went wrong,

and i keep receiving subtle signs from the universe that make me wonder, and smile, and

have hope that everything will turn out just fine in the end.

 

not that everything is falling to pieces now or anything. it's just that old friend "existential crisis" that rears it's lovely wobbly head once in a while.

 

everyone has this. and if they say they don't, they're lying.

 

i tend to think the above picture says all of this and more.

there's a sadness mingling with hope in the eyes mixing with a bit of misunderstood mischeviousness.

and the smile is forced or completely natural depending on your own emotional resonance.

 

it's at once a facade and a complete deep down core soul exposure.

 

i'm either about to tell you a really inappropriate but hella funny joke, or i'm about to

crack in a million pieces.

 

i either love being here, being me - or i wish i was another person on another planet.

 

my eyes are brimming over with frustration and silent sarcasm or they are filled with

 

peace, and hope, and love that's about to burst forth in a super cheesy happy smile.

 

and therein lies the vulnerability.

  

/on a drive recently, the existential crisis kicked into high gear, and

i did what i normally do when i don't want to think - plug in mp3p0 and

turn up the sound so loud it's hard to think.

first came the sign, then came the sound.

a song that mp3p0 hasn't picked in years.

and for a few minutes i felt completely understood.

In Australia, there is a monopoly Telco called Telstra, who owns/manages the connections to 99% of Australian homes.

 

You can get phone and internet through many other providers, but at the end of the day, Telstra still has to be involved to make the connection at the local telephone exchange.

 

I recently decided to change providers, and when I proposed this to Mrs Mail, the response was You can choose whatever you like, it doesn't matter to me.

 

So I applied for the home phone and internet service to be moved to a new provider, and it was impressively seamless and pain free, much to my surprise.

 

There is a process here called "number porting" where the new provider initiates a process, where they take over ownership of my service, and provide the old supplier with some advice that the service is transferred. This means the consumer doesn't have to worry about the technicalities. If you don't do this you end with a new telephone number etc.

 

After it was all done and dusted, I logged into my account with the provider I was saying goodbye to, just to check that everything was shutdown, and realisising that there would be some final bills to take care of.

 

I found that the home phone and mobile services were appropriately gone but the internet was still listed. I suspect you are now getting the drift of the story.

 

So I rang the call centre that happens to be in the Phillipines, and advised that my old internet had not been shutdown and so it needed to be cancelled so the billing would stop.

 

BUT, I said, be absolutely careful that you not issue any cancellation notice that could be misinterpreted by anyone as a network cancellaton. This piece of conversation actually took quite a while as there was a hint of language based incomprehension, and I had a nagging feeling that she was just giving me answers written on a cheat sheet.

 

Well, it was the next day when I discovered that I had been surgically separated from the WWW, and raised a case with my new provider who over a few phone calls made me do everything possible to ensure that it was not my fault, otherwise the presence of a man in a truck finding there was no network problem, would hand me a bill for $220.

 

The following day was a public holiday, and I had done everything possible to verify that there was no fault at my end.

 

The next day I convinced my provider that the network was broken, and as I work for a company that provides the network I was using (not Telstra) I had access to information behind the scenes, not normally accessable to Joe Blow user.

 

My old provider had lodge a cancellation that was interpreted by Telstra as a full disconnection. Wonderful.

 

My new provider now has to reapply for a new service to get Testra to reinstall my connection, a job that itself would take no longer than it would take to drink a cup of coffee, but the administration overhead might take up to 5 working days.

 

I am gritting my teeth and biting my tongue to remain calm as I try to get used to a world that seems to have stopped spinning and isolated me.

 

What did we do before the internet.

 

I won't go into what Mrs Mail said, and will just put it down to her lack of knowledge about how these simple processes are SUPPOSED to work.

 

Please bear with me as I have a very poor connection on a 3G modem with marginal signal strength. I will try to catch up with you all when I am older, hopefully not much older.

 

I miss you all.

 

BTW - this wind generation was a spinning blur, and I took it at 1/8000 sec to freeze it when visiting Nautical Nancy at the marina.

From my 2014 series, 'Sanctuary', created for my final year of studies.

 

"I think that my love for photography was first kindled during long stints in hospital, photographing flowers that my mother had brought me. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with my mental and physical health, and nature was a sanctuary and escape for me. I lament the disconnection between our everyday lives and the natural world. The vulnerability, hope and suffering that I experienced, combined with the beauty and majesty of nature, inspired this body of work."

 

– instagram

 

– facebook

 

– website

IN 1995 West Yorkshire ran out of water. Pennine reservoirs serving the county ran dry as the sun blazed and rain failed to fall.

 

As water levels fell, old hamlets which had been flooded to create the reservoirs, emerged, ghost-like, from the depths.

 

Reservoir beds turned into stretches of wrinkled, dried mud. Disaster loomed for the cities of Leeds and Bradford, the towns of Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield and dozens of smaller communities.

 

Yorkshire Water, the company which took over when the Thatcher government privatised the water supply industry in 1989, had introduced a hosepipe ban, which was about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

 

The company told the worst-threatened communities, Bradford and Halifax, that it was to install standpipes in the streets. It said there would be day-on day-off water disconnections.

 

It installed a token standpipe in one Bradford street to demonstrate the system.

 

Then an irate pensioner ran from her home and told a quivering public relations man that if her water went off she would “stick the standpipe up your arse” — her words. It was on TV that night.

 

At a weekly media conference staged by Yorkshire Water at its headquarters in Leeds, chief executive Trevor Newton announced that, in the interests of saving water, he had not had a bath or shower for three months. The journalists sitting at the table leaned away from him.

 

He staged a televised demonstration in his bathroom at home showing how to have a “good wash” using half a basin of water.

 

Then it emerged that he had relatives in the north-east, which had plentiful supplies of water, and was nipping up there regularly for a nice soak in the bath.

 

In the east of Yorkshire there was plenty of water, but there was no way of transporting it to the west. The company had failed to invest in a much-needed countywide distribution system to transfer supplies to areas in need.

 

In desperation, Yorkshire Water hired 1,000 tankers to do the job.

 

The tankers thundered along the roads day and night, from east to west and back again, with drivers working rotating eight-hour shifts. It went on for weeks.

 

The company asked the government for permission to increase the maximum amount of water it could take from Yorkshire rivers.

 

The government hastily agreed, acutely aware of the damage being done to its boasts of “increased efficiency” in the water supply industry under privatisation.

 

But environmentalists and conservationists raised the alarm, saying the rivers’ aquatic life was under threat, with images of fish flapping helplessly in a trickle of river water.

 

Throughout the crisis numerous statistics emerged relating to it: the capacity of local reservoirs; daily consumption in West Yorkshire; which areas used most, etc.

 

But the two statistics that stuck in the public’s minds were these: first, their water bills had increased by 60 per cent in the six years since Yorkshire Water took over; second, Yorkshire Water was losing 34 per cent — more than a third — of its treated water supplies through leaking pipes.

 

Instead of investing to reduce the level of leaks, Yorkshire Water handed out its profits in bonuses to directors and dividends to shareholders.

 

There’s no wonder the old lady in Bradford told them what she would do with their standpipe.

 

Bradford, with a population of 300,000, was down to one week’s supply. Neighbouring Halifax was down to 10 days.

 

In preparation Yorkshire Water stacked warehouses with hundreds of thousands of cases of bottled water.

 

Emergency services, the NHS and others held urgent meetings on what to do.

 

Then it rained. The reservoirs slowly filled.

 

Although the crisis was over, public anger remained. So Yorkshire Water staged its own two-week “independent” public inquiry into how the crisis came about. It was held in Leeds Town Hall.

 

Media interest was intense. Each day journalists were handed a huge pile of papers relevant to that day’s business. It was impossible to wade through them.

 

But one journalist found a document buried in the pile. It was a proposal to evacuate the city of Bradford. That’s 300,000 residents, hospitals, care homes, universities and colleges, factories, businesses, the lot.

 

The fact that evacuation didn’t happen didn’t matter. It illustrated the level of catastrophe faced by the people of West Yorkshire thanks to the greed and incompetence of Yorkshire Water.

 

After the inquiry Yorkshire Water installed a pumping system to transfer water from one part of Yorkshire to another, and from the giant Kielder Water reservoir in Northumberland, in the event of a recurrence.

 

If the company had invested its fat profits such a scheme in the first place — along with mending its leaking pipes — there would have been no supply crisis in West Yorkshire in 1995.

 

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/how-people-west-yorkshire...

Lucky Super 200

Asahi Pentax K1000

 

Napoles. A name which will be forever infamous here in the Philippines. The crime you ask. Was the stealing billions of taxpayers money by setting up fake NGOs pocketing contributions and giving a % back to the pockets of those who contributed. There was even a 10 million PHP reward for her capture from the President but she ended up surrendering. Majority of the money came from the pork barrel of the government. A budget given to politicians to do what they will for the country. I thought it was funny that they called it that and wondered why would they call themselves pigs. I found out its origins eventually, however i think the pig theory is fitting with the corruption and behaviour by those involved.

 

In a country which has alot of poverty and sub standard infrastructure, where clean drinking water and electricity is not available to all, such corruption is sickening. There is alot of outcry from the masses and so there should be. I left this country when I was 12 and moved to Australia. Usually when you return to a place of memory, changes are inevitable and you feel a certain disconnection from the strangely familiar feeling of place. Here a certain regression has occured. Nothing has moved forward. Corruption is worse. There is a war in the island of Mindanao between the Philippine military and the MNLF. Floods still occur in my hometown and the Rivers are still full of ash from the Mount Pinatubo volcano eruption from 1991. Construction practices have not developed. Food products are overtly unhealthy yet approved by the government in particular a popular cheese spread that has been around since I was a child. Its 30g serving already has 540mg of salt! Its no wonder hypertension is so high here. Alot more things need to be done. The problems all seeming to come from a lack of education.

 

“The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.”

 

― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

  

freehand design panel with piecey disconnection around face and baby fringe

Más / More tikorphotography.com | Facebook

Along with two friends I made my way to Dover Marine (it was actually Dover Western Docks by this date but will always be The Marine to us of a certain generation) to see the arrival of the very last Night Ferry from London Victoria to Brussels and Paris.

The train was handled by BR(S) Class 33 No 33043 with Dover driver Jack Heath and Dover secondman Paul Thomas in charge.

Here we see the train at Platform 4 and with the disconnection completed the crew get ready to leave the cab.

 

Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," painted in 1942, is a masterpiece of American realist art. This iconic painting offers a stark portrayal of urban life, featuring a group of patrons in a late-night diner. The setting is desolate, and the use of light and shadow creates an eerie atmosphere, emphasizing the isolation and disconnection of the individuals within. "Nighthawks" is renowned for its ability to evoke a sense of quiet desperation, reflecting the alienation and solitude often experienced in the modern city. Hopper's work continues to captivate viewers with its enigmatic narrative and masterful use of light and composition.

"Is this the party to whom I'm speaking?" ~ Lily Tomlin as, Ernestine the Operator

 

It's no party... "And that's the truth... Pbbbt!" ~ Lily Tomlin as, Edith Ann

  

Dissed and Pissed...

 

Backstory:

We lost our internet connection this past Saturday. Bellsouth (headquartered in Atlanta) was our ISP. AT&T now owns Bellsouth.

I tried phoning the "800" number for "Customer Service" with a question: "Is the internet service down in my area?" and, if so, I would like to report it being down.

After several minutes of navigating through numerous promts, I was fiinally connected to the Customer Service Department... in India.

The CSR's "script" didn't anticipate my question, and after being called "ma'am" repeatedly, I was told "there is no record of your account."

Of course, this isn't the first time I have reached customer "service" in India.

 

After spending 1 1/2 hours, speaking to 5 customer service reps, 2 supervisors and being transferred to INDIA 7 times, (after asking over and over, "please don't transfer me to India") I was finally able to reach a customer service rep that was able to answer my question. "Is there an outage in my area?"

 

I decided to do a little homework....

 

Edward E Whitacre Jr was the CEO of AT&T. He made $19.46 million in 2006 according to Forbes. (some sources report $35 million)

 

Randall Stephenson, AT&T's current CEO makes: $1,346,167.00 per year

 

A Customer Service Rep in INDIA makes 96,000 Rupees a year. ($2,400.00)

Yes... That's per year! (about $45.00 per week or 2 decent cups Starbuck's coffee a day)

 

An hour and a half of Whitacre's time: $13,703.00 (based on a 40 hour work week)

An hour and a half of CSR in India's time: $1.70 (based on a 40 hour work week)

My time: Somewhere in between (sadly, closer to the CSR's)

 

Whitacre's Retirement Package: $158.5 Million +

 

median CEO-to-worker pay ratio 2007: 179:1

 

I find myself wonderfing: why are jobs being outsourced to other countries when we have American cities with high unemployment rates? (many cities with historic buildings and infrastructure already in place) More importantly, since there are more of "us" than "them," why are we putting up with it?

 

Unempoyment rates in:

Rockford, IL - 7.1

Springfield, OH - 7.3

Detroit, MI - 8.0

Sumpter, SC - 8.6

Yuma, AZ - 12.4

El Centro, CA - 17.9

 

Soapbox all gone now... It's a good thing that I think with my stomach more than I think with my head. After all of this frustration, I'm finding myself craving a nice, hot plate of jhinga vindalloo!

   

Socially connected with their reflections

In ‘The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House’, Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh invites visitors to explore his large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings in this major survey exhibition.

Is home a place, a feeling, or an idea? Suh asks timely questions about the enigma of home, identity and how we move through and inhabit the world around us.

With immersive artworks exploring belonging, collectivity and individuality, connection and disconnection, Suh examines the intricate relationship between architecture, space, the body, and the memories and the moments that make us who we are.

Source: www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/the-genesis-exhibiti...

 

Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul (2024)

 

The outline of this work is based on a 1:1 form of the interior of Suh’s present home in London, following his migration here in the 2010s. Inside ‘Perfect Home’ reveals fixtures and appliances from multiple places Suh and his family have inhabited over the years. These light switches, doorknobs and other small elements of our dwelling spaces, touched constantly over time, contribute to our understanding of home. Almost subconsciously, we remember how to reach for these well-used items. Suh color-codes the objects based on their location or origin, and places them at their original height, resulting in a dizzling accumulation of places and time zones within the work.

 

Source: Info in the exhibition, right next to the work

 

I was walking down an alleyway when I saw these perculiar objects sitting on a concrete roadblock. Without changing the setup at all, I wanted to record this trace of recent history that seems to allude to a group of friends sharing a carefree moment. Or perhaps it was an act of a depressed individual, with the old remote and phone that seems to suggest a disconnection from reality.

 

I was lucky to have light reflected off a nearby glass building that wasn't there initially. It felt like I was there at the right place and time to capture this scene.

by thejourneguy ift.tt/1UXk7gg

It was still clear, so I mounted a 200mm lens (Nikkor-Q Auto 1:4 f=20cm "ai'd"). This manual focus lens was made in about 1962.

 

All of the other parameters are the same as the 100mm below.

The comet's tail shows a kink which is a result of a solar magnetic field disconnection event that shears it off and makes it grow a new one.

Nishat Bagh is a terraced Mughal garden built on the eastern side of the Dal Lake, close to Srinagar in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. ‘Nishat Bagh’ is Urdu, and means the "Garden of Joy," "Garden of Gladness" and "Garden of Delight."

 

Located on the bank of the Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains as its backdrop, Nishat Bagh is a garden with views of the lake beneath the Pir Panjal mountain range. The Bagh was designed and built in 1633 by Asif Khan, elder brother of Nur Jehan.

 

When Shah Jahan saw the garden, after its completion in 1633, he expressed great appreciation of its grandeur and beauty. He is believed to have expressed his delight three times to Asif Khan, his father-in-law, in the hope that he would make a gift of it to him. As no such offer was forthcoming from Asif Khan, however, Shah Jahan was piqued and ordered that the water supply to the garden should be cut off. Then, for some time, the garden was deserted. Asif Khan was desolate and heartbroken. When he was resting under the shade of a tree, in one of the terraces, his servant was bold enough to turn on the water supply source from the Shalimar Bagh. When Asif Khan heard the sound of water and the fountains in action he was startled and immediately ordered the disconnection of the water supply as he feared the worst reaction from the Emperor for this wanton act of disobedience. Fortunately Shah Jahan, who heard about this incident at the garden, was not annoyed by the disobedience of his orders. Instead, he approved of the servant’s loyal service to his master and then ordered the full restoration rights for the supply of water to the garden to Asif Khan, his Prime Minister and father-in-law.

 

The Mughal Princess Zuhra Begum, the daughter of the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II, and granddaughter of the Emperor Jahandar Shah, was buried in the garden.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens @ f/16, ISO 400, six seconds exposure using full manual, tripod. Cropped and white balanced using Aperture 3.

 

This is our home theater core; a Marantz AV7005, which is a preamp / processor unit, and nine MA700 monoblock amplifiers configured for 2,000 watts RMS.

 

The AV7005 is a current (as of the end of 2011) model; the MA700's are a generation back, but still work with the AV7005's remote control system (D-Bus.)

 

I've set it all up as a 7.1 system with center, fronts, surrounds and backs at 8 ohms and 200 watts RMS each, while the sub is a pair of series-parallel units presenting eight ohms, with a bridged pair of MA700s dedicated to them capable of 600 watts RMS.

 

—

 

I wasn't actually ready to go and do this, but our Denon receiver in the library was "gifted" with some cat vomit through the top cooling vents; I didn't know it had happened, because the back of the receiver was through-wall and in a closet. So the Denon just kept on working until eventually, the acid in the vomit actually ate through some of the Denon's wiring. Nice, eh? Silly cat. So the Denon went downstairs into my shop, where it will likely sit until the weather warms up (our basement is cold! [finally got around to fixing it, March of 2013]), my Sony receiver moved from the theater to the library, and I picked up the Marantz gear to serve in the theater. I can't say I'm depressed over the upgrade, but this wasn't exactly how I thought it would come about. :)

 

AV7005

----------

The AV7005 is an 9.1 / 7.1 / 5.1 / stereo preamp-processor. It offers USB, XPort, six HDMI inputs, two HDMI outputs, four component inputs, two component outputs, five composite inputs, three composite outputs, two coaxial audio inputs, two optical audio inputs, an optical audio output for recording, a 7.1 channel "aux" input, AM, FM, HD/AM and HD/FM, Internet radio, Pandora client, upnp/DLNA media client, Rhapsody client, iPod/iPad client, Sirius satellite radio client, Apple Airplay client, USB media client, balanced and unbalanced outputs, D-Bus remote control, RS-232 remote control for automation, and 12v trigger in and out for things like screen drop/retract automation, dual front panel displays (one may be hidden), and an illuminated learning remote. It pulls about 60 watts maximum, or 0.2 watts on standby, with a linear power supply that eliminates RFI problems associated with switchers. It uses a wired Ethernet connection for its network functions, may be configured for DHCP or static network connections, and can be remote controlled from a web page provided by an on-board web server, or via a telnet connection if you want to handle things programatically. Both full-page and iPod sized web control systems are provided. It can drive two video zones and three audio zones. It features Audyssey room measurement and compensation, along with by-mode and by-input channel level, tone and equalization. It also has a built-in high end headphone amp (very useful on a unit that has no main amplifiers.) DTS: [HD Master&High Res. Audio/ES/96/24/Discrete&Matrix6.1/Neo:6/Express] Dolby: [True HD/Digital Plus&EX/Pro Logic IIz, IIx, II/Virtual Speaker/Headphone] SACD decode. 192 KHz / 24-bit D/A and A/D conversion. Freq. Response 10 Hz-100 KHz +1/-3 dB. FM mono, 78 dB s/n. FM stereo, 68 dB s/n. HD radio (AM or FM) 85 dB s/n. Component video response, 5 Hz-60 MHz, +0/-3 dB. 22 lbs. Marantz provides a 3-year warranty for the unit to the original purchaser. An optional add-on, the RX101, allows the AV7005 to serve as a bluetooth client. System firmware upgrades are done via Ethernet, and take about five minutes on my 30 Mb/sec connection.

 

MA700

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200 watts RMS into 8 ohms, 300 watts RMS into 4 ohms, or 600 watts RMS, bridged pair, into 8 ohms. Maximum .02% THD at full rated power, or less. Similar amplifier topology to the Marantz 15 amplifier designed by Sid Smith, except the MA700 adds a JFET differential pair cascoded with bipolar devices. D-Bus remote control; THX reference gain setting, THX certified. Unbalanced inputs, binding post outputs. Frequency response is -0.1 dB at 10 Hz, -0.07 dB at 20 KHz, and -0.5 dB at 85 KHz, all measured at one watt. Channel separation is unmeasurable and channel power vampirism is zero (monoblocks FTW), noise is 110 dB down. Absolute noise floor with input shorted is in the 5-75 uV range up to 200 KHz, except between 10 Hz and 40 Hz, where it is in the 420 nV-4uV range. Outputs are triple-parallel bipolar power devices. Power supply is classical linear, so no RFI issues. Protection is smart, with the amp choosing between protection options that include a lower voltage output winding on the power transformer, muting, speaker disconnection, or AC disconnection, depending on the problem type. Sensors monitor DC levels in the signal path, output voltage, and amplifier temperature. D-Bus remote start incorporates a 100 ms delay before passing the signal on, resulting in time-sequenced power up of multiple amplifiers and consequent lower peak source current draw. Standby (red), operate (green), settling (flashing green) LED indicators and hard power switch on front panel.

 

Configuring two MA700's as a bridged pair is easy: Using the provided switch, set one as master, the other as slave; plug the master's inverted audio output into the slave's normal audio input; jumper the (-) speaker terminals together; wire the speaker (+) to the master (+) and the speaker (-) to the slave (+), plug the preamp output into the master's audio input, and you're done.

  

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone;

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

 

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, from "Solitude"

 

~~~

 

"When had I first learned this bit of rhyme? I must have written it down from memory — the original poem speaks of 'borrowing' mirth, but here I'd written 'bury' — how old was I then? Still young enough to write in crayons. Next to the words is a wobbly, waxy drawing of a blue-green world. I find myself imagining a planet utterly tired of weeping, so exhausted that its woes have become almost laughable. As if Mother Earth has decided she's had enough of all this sadness and turned her attention instead to some old secret, buried away within her like a belly laugh that must be kept quiet at a funeral."

 

- from "Landscape in Ink, With Horse" (SageWoman No. 87)

 

~~~

 

I keep coming across these weird but well-intentioned articles on social media that boldly list: What You Should Never To Say To A Depressed Person. They always include things like, "Everything happens for a reason," and, "Suffering is how we grow wise." Don't ever say that, we're cautioned, it's obnoxious. It just shows how clueless and callous we really are.

 

I get why people are fed up with their sorrow being hijacked by the Law of Attraction/Gospel of Prosperity best-of-all-possible-worlds crowd. I get it, I do. I've read Voltaire's Candide. (In the original French, in fact.)

 

Still, when I see these lists a part of me can't help but snark, "Yeah, just let me wallow in the pointlessness of my misery. How dare you try to help me find meaning in my life. Jerk."

 

Has this ever happened to you? You're absolutely devastated, heart-broken, ripped open by unrelenting grief..... and you find yourself laughing. There's a point past which even your own sorrow becomes grotesque, ridiculous. You feel yourself shaking with sobs, and suddenly they shift into hiccupy giggles. Maybe you've even felt ashamed, horrified by your own body's refusal to stay stuck in pain. Numb disconnection would be better than this, you might think. How can I be smiling when the world hurts this much?

 

But there it is: deep in the shit of suffering, the seed of joy.

 

I don't know why. All I know is, I'm tired of policing my own pain, insisting that it make sense. And I'm tired of policing other people's compassion, demanding that it serve my needs perfectly when I cannot even always tell what those needs really are.

 

Today's words -- smile/suffering -- leave me in a disjointed place, grappling with schizophrenic juxtaposition. The candle flame and the burnt-out match. The weeping joyful Earth Mother. The first flower blossom of spring, and the dead dried petals, their sweet-sickly smell of rot. The great gray-blue ocean of sorrow -- and the last red sheep of El Dorado, still following in my wake.

 

~~~

 

#UULent #suffering #smile #philosophy #optimism #altar #meditation

 

Canon EOS 1100D www.facebook.com/OlgaFerrerPhotography

Tokyo, Japan

: : C.Malcom : :

: : Entry Two : :

 

I was just leaving Birmingham when I heard shouts and surpressed gunfire. The fighting was coming from a close by railway station. There was another scream and a sound of splintering wood as I rounded the corner of the ticket booth.Screaming will not save you... That Drone was so incredibly wrong. I un-holstered my shotgun and ran onto Platform 2 jumping the crowd fence and letting off a round straight into the chest of a Rehuxa Stalker. A brilliant blue bolt leapt from its chest and it lay motionless on the platform. A fimiliar face poked out from behind a wooden supply crate, white with fear. As I got closer I realised it was a young woman. The head turned and her eyes met mine. She lept up hugging me catching me off gaurd. "Oh thank god its you! Chris!". She took a step back and I clearly saw her face. It was Linda, an old School friend of mine. I couldnt belive it after all this time, after everything had happened, she still had survived. I was dumbstruck completely befuddled by how we had managed to cross paths. She stood there, close to tears now. Clearly scared for her life. "Small world I guess?!" I finally said.

 

Its now a couple of hours since we met again. We're settled down in an old hotel for the night. Im standing guard and recording this, just trying to make sense of it all. Linda had told me all about how she had taken her car out of the city and hid in her basement while evreyone ran aound and paniced. When her provissions had run out she decided to leave and see who else had made it out, That is when she met the drone. This was the first physical contact I have had with another human being in nearly 2 weeks. I'm glad its her I used to really like her in High school...

 

: :Buffering... : :

: : /// Disconnection /// : :

: : /// Host lost /// : :

: : Document saved! : :

this year the word i want to guide me is connection... as i think about what brings me the most joy, it's when i feel a connection with others, with myself, my spirit, my faith, my body... when i feel frustrated or full of anxiety i've come to see it's because of a disconnection in one or more of these areas. already i have seen a difference in choices i make based on this word. it keeps coming up in podcasts, in books, in blog posts, in conversations... the importance of looking into the eyes of those around you and listening... connecting.

The High Level Bridge is a road and railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in North East England. It is considered the most notable historical engineering work in the city. It was built by the Hawks family from 5,050 tons of iron. George Hawks, Mayor of Gateshead, drove in the last key of the structure on 7 June 1849, and the bridge was officially opened by Queen Victoria later that year.

 

It was designed by Robert Stephenson to form a rail link towards Scotland for the developing English railway network; a carriageway for road vehicles and pedestrians was incorporated to generate additional revenue. The main structural elements are tied cast-iron arches.

 

Notwithstanding the considerable increase in the weight of railway vehicles since it was designed, it continues to carry rail traffic, although the King Edward bridge nearby was opened in 1906 to ease congestion. The roadway is also still in use, although with a weight restriction. It is a Grade I listed structure.

 

In 1835, the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (N&CR) Act authorised the line to approach Newcastle to a terminus at Redheugh, on the south bank of the River Tyne, close to the end of the present-day New Redheugh Bridge. The Act also authorised a crossing of the Tyne there, giving rail access to the north shore quays. The river was shallow at this point, and the bridge would have been at a low level, only 20 ft (6.1 m) above high water. The line would then have climbed to a terminus at the Spital, near Neville Street and the east end of the present-day Newcastle Central station. The climb was to be at a gradient of 1 in 22 and would have been operated by a stationary steam engine with rope haulage.

 

Hitherto railways in the region had had a local focus, but now the Great North of England Railway (GNER) obtained authorising Acts to build from Newcastle to York, forming part of a continuous trunk railway network to connect to London; the project was controlled by George Hudson, the so-called Railway King. At first the GNER was content to get access to the N&CR Newcastle terminus, by connecting with the N&CR at Redheugh and running over its line across the Tyne and up to the Spital. This had the advantage of avoiding a separate, and expensive, crossing of the river, but would have meant a steep descent to Redheugh as the GNER line approached on high ground from the Team Valley, only to climb once again to the Spital. Moreover, William Brandling had made known his intention to reach Newcastle from his line by running at a high level through Gateshead. On 25 April 1837, the N&CR decided to build to their south side, low-level terminus at Redheugh, but to leave the issue of the Tyne crossing open.

 

Richard Grainger was a developer in Newcastle, and had acquired lands at Elswick (on the north bank of the Tyne west of the proposed Redheugh crossing). In 1836, he published a pamphlet recommending a crossing of the Tyne there, and the formation of spacious railway terminal accommodation there. Drawing attention to the limited scope for extending eastwards from the Spital, and "in the event of an Edinburgh Railway also terminating in this situation, the interchange of passengers, goods, and cattle would be greatly increased".

 

Grainger's plan was not adopted, and the Brandling Junction Railway reached Gateshead in 1839. The GNER ran out of money and it was superseded in Hudson's railway empire by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway, which opened its line using the Brandling Junction Railway from the south east instead of through the Team Valley. The Brandling Junction line had a terminus in Gateshead at Greenesfield at a high level, and the N&CR line was built climbing on an inclined plane at a gradient of 1 in 23 from Redheugh to reach that. The Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway opened its line from the south to Pelaw, allowing its trains to reach Gateshead over the Brandling Junction line, in 1844. The tables had been turned, and indeed for a while Greenesfield was the de facto main station for the conurbation of Newcastle and Gateshead.

 

John and Benjamin Green were a father and son architectural practice active in Newcastle. In 1841 Benjamin Green had proposed a high level bridge for road traffic, substantially on the alignment of the actual High Level Bridge; and sensing the commercial climate he explained how it could be adapted for railway use. He failed to get any financial support, but in 1843 George Hudson was looking for ways to extend his railway network northwards, and the Greens' scheme fitted with his takeover of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway; the line got its authorising Act on 22 May 1844, and the Act included the road bridge.

 

The Newcastle and North Shields Railway had opened in 1839 from its own terminus at Carliol Square, on the north-east edge of Newcastle. As a purely local concern, the disconnection was not important, but interest gathered in a railway to central Scotland; the "Edinburgh Railway" foreseen by Grainger. A Scottish concern, the North British Railway, had got its Act of Parliament the previous year to build as far south as Berwick (later known as Berwick-upon-Tweed.

 

Now Hudson was intent on capturing the line to Edinburgh for his empire, and he encouraged the development of railway plans to get there; the route such a line might take continued to generate considerable controversy. There was still ambiguity about Hudson's intentions for the bridge—an easier crossing point at Bill Quay, two miles downstream had been considered—and Newcastle Town Council sought undertakings from him. In addition, he promised a footway crossing; this was apparently not a sweetener to the Town Council, but a commercial decision, expected to bring in £250 a week. The footway crossing was later extended to include horse-drawn vehicles.

 

Finally, the Newcastle and Berwick Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament of 31 July 1845. The line would cross the Greens' high level bridge, starting from the Gateshead Greenesfield station, and commitments made to the building of a bridge by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway were transferred to the Newcastle and Berwick Railway.

 

The bridge was to be designed by Robert Stephenson; T E Harrison did the detailed design work.

 

The height of the railway, at about 120 ft (37 m) above high water, was determined by the level of the Brandling Junction line in Gateshead. A double-deck configuration was selected because of road levels on the approaches, and to avoid the excess width of foundations which a side-by-side arrangement would require. The deck width was determined by the useful roadway width plus the width of structural members, which gave the railway deck the width for three tracks.

 

The foundations were to be difficult because of the poor ground conditions in the river, and this ruled out an all-masonry structure, so cast iron or wrought iron was inevitable for the superstructure. A tied arch (or bow-string) design was favoured because the outward thrust imposed by an arch is contained by the tie; no abutments capable of resisting the thrust could be provided here.

 

Stephenson had used this configuration before; he recorded that, "The earliest railway bridge on the bowstring principle is that over the Regent's Canal, near Chalk Farm, on the London and Birmingham Railway".

 

The arch would consist of iron ribs. Fawcett says, "The reasons for not using wrought iron was due to some engineers' distrust of rivetting, the relatively small size of wrought iron plates then available, and the higher cost… On 1 October 1845 when the Newcastle and Berwick Board instructed T E Harrison for their bridges, none of the uses of wrought iron had been developed far enough to be considered as an alternative to cast iron for the High Level Bridge. A tubular bridge might have been considered by Robert Stephenson but the distance between solid and reasonably shallow foundations would have given a span much larger than the Britannia Bridge."

 

The depth of rock in the riverbed resulted in a height of 140 ft (43 m) from there to the superstructure. Three river piers were permitted by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners, and therefore four river spans of 125 ft (38 m) were decided on; there were additional subsidiary spans on the shore.

 

The cast iron arch ribs are 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) deep at the crown, increasing to 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) at the springing, with 12-inch (30 cm) flanges; the flanges and webs were three inches thick; in the case of the inner ribs, and two inches for the outer ribs. The rise was 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m), determined by the desired geometry to confine the horizontal thrust within bounds. Each arch was cast in five sections, bolted together.

 

Stephenson described the tie bars:

 

The ties consist of flat wrought-iron bars, 7 inches by 1 inch of best scrap iron, with eyes of 3½ inches diameter, bored out of the solid, and pins turned and fitted closely. Each external rib is tied by four of these bars, and each internal rib by eight. The sectional area of each external tie is 28 [square] inches, and of each internal tie 56 [square] inches, giving a total area of 168 square inches. These bars were all tested to 9 tons on the square inch.

 

The rail deck is supported above the arches by twelve 14-inch (360 mm) square columns at 9 feet 11 inches (3.02 m) centres. Suspension rods supported the road deck, and both decks had two layers of diagonally laid three-inch deck timbers on suitable wrought iron cross girders (and rail-bearers in the case of the rail deck).

 

The main contractors for the ironwork were Hawks, Crawshay, and Sons, who were assisted by John Abbot and Co., of Gateshead Park Works, and Losh Wilson and Bell, of Walker Ironworks, in the production of the castings. The tender was accepted at £112,000. The contract for the bridge piers and land arches and for the Newcastle Viaduct were won by John Rush and Benjamin Lawton of York for £94,000 and £82,500 respectively. The total cost of the contracts at 1999 prices would be over £30 million.

 

The first masonry was laid on 12 January 1847. A temporary timber viaduct on the east side was ready on 20 August 1848.

 

Timber coffer dams were constructed; they were 76 ft 6 in (23.32 m) by 29 ft (8.8 m) with two skins, the space between being filled with puddle clay. James Nasmyth had a novel design of steam pile driver; it had first been used in Devonport Docks in 1845; it could deliver 60 to 70 blows a minute; the cycle time with the hand-operated pile drivers formerly in use was four minutes. The drop weight was 1½ tons and its stroke was 2 ft 9 in (0.84 m); one was purchased from Nasmyth.

 

The ground gave considerable trouble during construction; Stephenson recorded:

 

Many difficulties occurred in driving the piles which considerably retarded the progress of the work, and, among others, the peculiar effect of ebb and flow during this operation is worthy of note. At flood-tide, the sand became so hard as almost totally to resist the utmost efforts of driving, while at ebb the sand was quite loose, and allowed of doing so with facility. It was therefore found necessary to abandon the driving on many occasions during high water. The difference between high and low water is 11 feet 6 inches. Another difficulty arose from the quicksands beneath the foundations. Although the piles were driven to the rock bottom, the water forced its way up, baffling the attempts to fill in between them; this, however, was remedied by using a concrete made of broken stone and Roman cement, which was continually thrown in until the bottom was found to be secure.

 

The arch ribs were erected in section by travelling crane; each arch was temporarily erected at the contractor’s works. The first was placed on 10 July 1848, and the erection of the ironwork was quick.

 

Already on 29 August 1848, it was possible to pass a special train over the first arch, and over a temporary structure for the rest of the crossing:

 

The High Level Bridge Over the Tyne: This important junction between the York and Newcastle and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway has been completed, and the event was celebrated on Tuesday last. In the afternoon of that day, a train of [specially invited] passengers passed along the temporary timber viaduct from the station at Gateshead to the station at Newcastle. Mr Hudson and several other Directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick line, who had been visiting Sunderland ... proceeded in a special train from that town to Gateshead... Several carriages were then added to the special train, and an open truck placed at each end, in which bands of music were stationed. The shrill sound of the whistle gave the signal for a royal salute, under the booming of which the train passed along the line, the band playing, and the thousands assembled to witness the event, rending the air with joyous acclamation Upon reaching the bridge, the bands struck up the well-known local air of "The Keel Row" which they continued till the train had reached the solid ground on the northern side of the river... The train proceeded to the Newcastle and Berwick station, where the company alighted and walked in procession to the Queen’s Head Inn, where a magnificent entertainment had been provided for the Directors and their friends, by the Mayor of Newcastle.

 

[From the south abutment of the High Level Bridge] and the river pier on the south side, the cast iron arch and road-way are nearly completed, and the second arch will be in progress in the course of a few weeks. From the middle of the first arch, the line curves to a temporary timber viaduct erected along the west side of the intended bridge. The height of this viaduct is one hundred and twenty feet to the level of the rails; it is built upon piles, which are driven between thirty and forty feet into the bed of the river. Its stability was sufficiently tested on Monday, when Captain Leffan (sic), the Government Inspector of Railways, examined it preparatory to the opening. On that day, two powerful engines weighing upwards of seventy tons, traversed it at different degrees of speed for between two and three hours; the weight would be about one ton to a foot, being four or five times greater than the temporary structure will ever be required to bear, and the result was, in the highest degree, satisfactory.

 

Among the company in the train were four ladies, who are deserving of honourable mention, from the courage they displayed in accompanying it, namely, Mrs Nichs. Wood, and Miss F. Wood, Mrs I. L. Bell, and her sister, Miss Pattinson of Washington. As the train passed steadily over the bridge the anxiety of the immense multitude seemed intense, and the scene was truly exciting, yet fearful—not only from the lofty eminence occupied by the train but, from the apparent narrowness and nakedness of the platform on which it rolled along. It seemed from its noiselessness, rather an aerial flight, than the rattling sweep of the iron horse.

 

Ordinary traffic appears to have used the temporary single line structure after this date.

 

The eastern track was ready for an inspection by Captain Laffan, Inspecting Office for the Board of Trade, when he visited on 11 August 1849; a load test with four tender locomotives and eighteen wagons loaded with ballast, a total weight of 200 tons. Laffan approved the bridge:

 

I believe all the works of the bridge are completed, and that I believe it to be perfectly secure and safe. The Company have as yet only laid one line of rails over this structure, and I beg to recommend that permission be given to open that one line.

 

The first passenger train crossed the completed structure on the morning of 15 August 1849.

 

Queen Victoria formally inaugurated the bridge on passing through by train on 28 September 1849.

 

The Queen at Newcastle: Her Majesty yesterday honoured this ancient borough with her presence. The event was one of universal and all-engrossing interest... The morning, unfortunately, was dull and the weather unsettled, giving forebodings of a wet and uncomfortable day... Notwithstanding, however, the unfavourable weather dense crowds assembled at every spot in this locality, where a view of the royal carriage could be obtained, and many remained for hours exposed to the weather in order that they might retain the places which at an earlier period of the morning they had secured. The bridge was densely lined with people, and the platform was well covered, though not inconveniently crowded. A profusion of banners were displayed on this elegant and substantial structure, and from nearly all the public and many of the private buildings both in Newcastle and Gateshead. The vessels in the river hoisted their flags mast-high on the occasion, and the church bells of the two towns rung many a merry peal in honour of the royal visit... Pursuant to a request issued by the Mayor, most of the shops were closed about 11 o’clock, and the manufacturers were desired by our worthy chief magistrate "not to produce smoke between that hour and one," with which we believe, they generally complied... At precisely twenty minutes past twelve, the royal carriage appeared in sight, and when it reached the Spital, a splendid locomotive, built by the celebrated house of Stephenson and Co., gaily decorated and bearing on its front "God save the Queen" surmounted by a crown, and a suitable inscription encircling the boiler, was attached to the train. It then slowly proceeded to the centre of the colossal fabric, amidst bursts of loud and rapturous cheering from the assembled thousands, her Majesty repeatedly acknowledging these marked demonstrations of loyalty and affection from her faithful and attached subjects.

 

The Mayors of Newcastle and Gateshead presented a formal address. The queen travelled in the royal carriage belonging to the London and North Western Railway.

 

In other carriages were members of her Majesty’s suite and the directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway. The engine drawing the royal train was under the direction of Mr T. E. Harrison, the resident engineer, and driven by Mr Thos. Carr... After staying altogether from five to ten minutes, the train was again put in motion, and amidst firing of artillery and rapturous plaudits from the dense throng, proceeded en route to Darlington.

 

The bridge and its immediate approaches had cost £243,000.

 

The road deck was re-opened only in a southbound (towards Gateshead) direction and carries only buses and taxis; the one-way operation is required because of width considerations after protection to the structural members was inserted. Pedestrians and cyclists use the bridge freely. Railway traffic continues in full use of the bridge, although the majority of mainline trains use the King Edward VII bridge for reasons of convenience.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

Presenting a series of photographs to try to question the connection and disconnection we see in our society.

On the first day of 2009 when I was only twenty-one, I got a message from a girl who'd stumbled over my writing in passing. She wrote from some distant suburb of Chicago, in breathless and fearless paragraphs of passion, pages of wild emotion. Her name was Susy, and a grainy webcam video of me reading an early poem called "Zipper Catches Skin" had caught her in its wake. She wanted me to know just how it moved her; a deeply shaking, heartwaking hit that she'd rarely felt before. My chest felt tight while reading her message, caught in a nervous fascination that someone could feel so freely. I'd never read such honest ebullience, almost too much to be believed.

 

I took a scatter-shot approach, in restrained replies to each of her incredible essays of emotion. Every small encouragement I gave her came back in bigger expressions, another message that ran off the page. Susy overwhelmed my concept of naked individuality, painting herself with the wide brush of world adventurer, absorber of cultures and art, telling tales from a Cuban childhood. Her first ten years as the daughter of a foreign country took me back to book-bound journeys my heart had carried decades earlier. She made my imagination real, and I couldn't believe it, like she was a living story I'd spent a lifetime writing, come alive and telling itself back to me. Susy's words on the screen were like hearing the speaking of my smallest self, a young joy with no fears of growing older. She was a deep feeler, like me, but spoke of a faith unrestrained, not squirming and doubting like the one I held.

 

When words in text began to fail me, I asked for her phone number. She gave it up with no hesitation, and we set a time to speak. I tapped my toes in a nervous wait, as my clock traded numbers till 10:00 PM. I entered her area code at the second that 59 flipped to double 00s, never more eager to hear a voice for the first time. When the sound of Susy came live and human in my ears, it tore through in a way that nothing had. She was girlish and energetic, easily laughing, kind in the margins no matter what words she was saying. Her warmth gently burned off the blackness of bleak midwinter, and for all I knew, it could have been summer outside my bedroom window. That conversation swallowed all of me, broke down the distance I'd felt forever. Everything between us was asked and answered, saying thoughts out loud I'd barely admitted to myself. We talked until night ran out, around the bend of morning before passing out together.

 

I woke with the phone still stuck to my face, impatient dial tone whining that I was still wide open. I sat on my bed in blue light sifting through the blinds, and out to the street corner, black silhouettes of power poles cut up a bloody sky. I felt drained out, passionately splattered like some willing victim of crucifixion. It made hurting worth it, there was finally an upside to being myself. I slipped on some protection from the chill, and took my camera down Inglewood in the calm before dawn. The echo was worth hearing, each swish of my sneakers shifting depending on which sleepy home or tree I passed. I walked to the space where no structures or power poles stood, and let myself be still with the naked fields. Everything seemed backwards in the coming morning, I hadn't seen a dawn in years. The sun set in reverse, and all my hopes stood on their head so smoothly. Wind was absent in the open, swaying with hands in my pockets, listening for birds singing in tongues.

 

For nearly every day after, I wrote poems as a reason to pick up the phone, new words as excuses for communion with Susy from Chicago. She was a strange salvation in the inadequate night, a voice of pure soul with no distraction from the face-to-face. I'd seen her now in scattered pictures over the wires, but for most of the distance, she was a ghost in my mind (love at first listen). When we talked, I felt a drunkenness I'd only known alone, at the brightest moments of self-expression. I found joy in the easy clichés, passion when I'd never felt it, proof that I was more than the personification of total isolation. Susy gave me everything, for as many hours as I needed, until I finally shattered and fell apart so often that the places I was broken were perfectly apparent. It gave me the energy to see deeper in pictures, write more than my fingers could handle, exist absolutely in the aching open. For once, I listened without waiting to be heard.

 

I fell in love with Susy, but kept it close in metaphors and codes of poems, locked in explicit secrets. I wrote a line that said: "You can't take it with you, I can't take it without you." I asked myself what love really was, and finally settled on no doubt. For her, I had no uncertainty remaining. I couldn't imagine an end coming, no death of a friendship pending.

 

This storm of emotion between us kept growing until summer 2010, when we pulled together every penny, and flew Susy to Nova Scotia for a ten-day vacation. The sunset showed the way to greet her; on a buzzing drive, two hours east, light fading as excitement rose to the end of the highway. I stood aching at the gates of the Halifax airport, swaying from toe to toe, shaken like some sci-fi scientist who'd just discovered how to electrify imagination to life.

 

Susy was different and familiar coming out of the crowd, moving and breathing and beautiful. She came down the stairs in waves of curly black hair, greeting me with an honest smile and dark eyes flashing sharply. She was nearly a full foot shorter than me, but I didn't mind the distance. I could never hope to contain her. I led her suitcase from the airport like I was dreaming, pinching away in case I'd inherited my schizophrenic uncle's paranoid fantasies. The city was gone in minutes, streetlights spreading out as we sped back to the Annapolis Valley, each town getting smaller in passing. Susy rolled down the window and leaned out on the highway, seeing more stars than since a distant Caribbean childhood. We pulled up to the dark Hampton Mountain lookoff near home, swayed backlit against the million points shining, then again at the Fundy shore. She put her toes in the summer ocean, laughed at the joy of it, and her white smile was the only thing I saw in shadow.

 

When everything was over but a long-delayed sleep, we stood in my living room under almost-darkness. Susy came close as she could with her eyes still in focus, and all I wanted was a method to fuse the shards of friendship, blur away the difference of being apart and together. I said, "I know how", and wrapped my arms around her, holding tight until the space between us felt seamless. I held my heart to her heart and felt them stutter strangely until they both began to beat together. We lost words for minutes until one of us kissed the other. I couldn't tell which, with no certainty of individuality, none of the desperate disconnection I'd always felt. There was one thing about us, her as much as me. I finally said it, maybe I asked: "You know I love you?"

 

Susy whispered every affirmative, in waves of dark joy, overwhelming a background blackness that I'd never lived without. We lost time like the distant nights before, sitting close in soft silence until the hot sun rose with the August dawn. I walked barefoot beside her on warming asphalt, drunk on human company, better than being alone for the first time ever. I felt saved, not by the abstract concept of a distant deity, but with incredible, irreplicable closeness. It swapped being loved for feeling loved, last gasps of a drowning doubt. Words from one of her own poems wormed into my brain, and I was gentled by the echo.

 

He whispered in my ear:

"You're so normal, Kiddo, so frail,

So much that you fade into walls."

I no longer crash into them.

 

September 13, 2025

Beaconsfield, Nova Scotia

 

Year 18, Day 6516 of my daily journal.

 

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The High Level Bridge is a road and railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in North East England. It is considered the most notable historical engineering work in the city. It was built by the Hawks family from 5,050 tons of iron. George Hawks, Mayor of Gateshead, drove in the last key of the structure on 7 June 1849, and the bridge was officially opened by Queen Victoria later that year.

 

It was designed by Robert Stephenson to form a rail link towards Scotland for the developing English railway network; a carriageway for road vehicles and pedestrians was incorporated to generate additional revenue. The main structural elements are tied cast-iron arches.

 

Notwithstanding the considerable increase in the weight of railway vehicles since it was designed, it continues to carry rail traffic, although the King Edward bridge nearby was opened in 1906 to ease congestion. The roadway is also still in use, although with a weight restriction. It is a Grade I listed structure.

 

In 1835, the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (N&CR) Act authorised the line to approach Newcastle to a terminus at Redheugh, on the south bank of the River Tyne, close to the end of the present-day New Redheugh Bridge. The Act also authorised a crossing of the Tyne there, giving rail access to the north shore quays. The river was shallow at this point, and the bridge would have been at a low level, only 20 ft (6.1 m) above high water. The line would then have climbed to a terminus at the Spital, near Neville Street and the east end of the present-day Newcastle Central station. The climb was to be at a gradient of 1 in 22 and would have been operated by a stationary steam engine with rope haulage.

 

Hitherto railways in the region had had a local focus, but now the Great North of England Railway (GNER) obtained authorising Acts to build from Newcastle to York, forming part of a continuous trunk railway network to connect to London; the project was controlled by George Hudson, the so-called Railway King. At first the GNER was content to get access to the N&CR Newcastle terminus, by connecting with the N&CR at Redheugh and running over its line across the Tyne and up to the Spital. This had the advantage of avoiding a separate, and expensive, crossing of the river, but would have meant a steep descent to Redheugh as the GNER line approached on high ground from the Team Valley, only to climb once again to the Spital. Moreover, William Brandling had made known his intention to reach Newcastle from his line by running at a high level through Gateshead. On 25 April 1837, the N&CR decided to build to their south side, low-level terminus at Redheugh, but to leave the issue of the Tyne crossing open.

 

Richard Grainger was a developer in Newcastle, and had acquired lands at Elswick (on the north bank of the Tyne west of the proposed Redheugh crossing). In 1836, he published a pamphlet recommending a crossing of the Tyne there, and the formation of spacious railway terminal accommodation there. Drawing attention to the limited scope for extending eastwards from the Spital, and "in the event of an Edinburgh Railway also terminating in this situation, the interchange of passengers, goods, and cattle would be greatly increased".

 

Grainger's plan was not adopted, and the Brandling Junction Railway reached Gateshead in 1839. The GNER ran out of money and it was superseded in Hudson's railway empire by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway, which opened its line using the Brandling Junction Railway from the south east instead of through the Team Valley. The Brandling Junction line had a terminus in Gateshead at Greenesfield at a high level, and the N&CR line was built climbing on an inclined plane at a gradient of 1 in 23 from Redheugh to reach that. The Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway opened its line from the south to Pelaw, allowing its trains to reach Gateshead over the Brandling Junction line, in 1844. The tables had been turned, and indeed for a while Greenesfield was the de facto main station for the conurbation of Newcastle and Gateshead.

 

John and Benjamin Green were a father and son architectural practice active in Newcastle. In 1841 Benjamin Green had proposed a high level bridge for road traffic, substantially on the alignment of the actual High Level Bridge; and sensing the commercial climate he explained how it could be adapted for railway use. He failed to get any financial support, but in 1843 George Hudson was looking for ways to extend his railway network northwards, and the Greens' scheme fitted with his takeover of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway; the line got its authorising Act on 22 May 1844, and the Act included the road bridge.

 

The Newcastle and North Shields Railway had opened in 1839 from its own terminus at Carliol Square, on the north-east edge of Newcastle. As a purely local concern, the disconnection was not important, but interest gathered in a railway to central Scotland; the "Edinburgh Railway" foreseen by Grainger. A Scottish concern, the North British Railway, had got its Act of Parliament the previous year to build as far south as Berwick (later known as Berwick-upon-Tweed.

 

Now Hudson was intent on capturing the line to Edinburgh for his empire, and he encouraged the development of railway plans to get there; the route such a line might take continued to generate considerable controversy. There was still ambiguity about Hudson's intentions for the bridge—an easier crossing point at Bill Quay, two miles downstream had been considered—and Newcastle Town Council sought undertakings from him. In addition, he promised a footway crossing; this was apparently not a sweetener to the Town Council, but a commercial decision, expected to bring in £250 a week. The footway crossing was later extended to include horse-drawn vehicles.

 

Finally, the Newcastle and Berwick Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament of 31 July 1845. The line would cross the Greens' high level bridge, starting from the Gateshead Greenesfield station, and commitments made to the building of a bridge by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway were transferred to the Newcastle and Berwick Railway.

 

The bridge was to be designed by Robert Stephenson; T E Harrison did the detailed design work.

 

The height of the railway, at about 120 ft (37 m) above high water, was determined by the level of the Brandling Junction line in Gateshead. A double-deck configuration was selected because of road levels on the approaches, and to avoid the excess width of foundations which a side-by-side arrangement would require. The deck width was determined by the useful roadway width plus the width of structural members, which gave the railway deck the width for three tracks.

 

The foundations were to be difficult because of the poor ground conditions in the river, and this ruled out an all-masonry structure, so cast iron or wrought iron was inevitable for the superstructure. A tied arch (or bow-string) design was favoured because the outward thrust imposed by an arch is contained by the tie; no abutments capable of resisting the thrust could be provided here.

 

Stephenson had used this configuration before; he recorded that, "The earliest railway bridge on the bowstring principle is that over the Regent's Canal, near Chalk Farm, on the London and Birmingham Railway".

 

The arch would consist of iron ribs. Fawcett says, "The reasons for not using wrought iron was due to some engineers' distrust of rivetting, the relatively small size of wrought iron plates then available, and the higher cost… On 1 October 1845 when the Newcastle and Berwick Board instructed T E Harrison for their bridges, none of the uses of wrought iron had been developed far enough to be considered as an alternative to cast iron for the High Level Bridge. A tubular bridge might have been considered by Robert Stephenson but the distance between solid and reasonably shallow foundations would have given a span much larger than the Britannia Bridge."

 

The depth of rock in the riverbed resulted in a height of 140 ft (43 m) from there to the superstructure. Three river piers were permitted by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners, and therefore four river spans of 125 ft (38 m) were decided on; there were additional subsidiary spans on the shore.

 

The cast iron arch ribs are 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) deep at the crown, increasing to 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) at the springing, with 12-inch (30 cm) flanges; the flanges and webs were three inches thick; in the case of the inner ribs, and two inches for the outer ribs. The rise was 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m), determined by the desired geometry to confine the horizontal thrust within bounds. Each arch was cast in five sections, bolted together.

 

Stephenson described the tie bars:

 

The ties consist of flat wrought-iron bars, 7 inches by 1 inch of best scrap iron, with eyes of 3½ inches diameter, bored out of the solid, and pins turned and fitted closely. Each external rib is tied by four of these bars, and each internal rib by eight. The sectional area of each external tie is 28 [square] inches, and of each internal tie 56 [square] inches, giving a total area of 168 square inches. These bars were all tested to 9 tons on the square inch.

 

The rail deck is supported above the arches by twelve 14-inch (360 mm) square columns at 9 feet 11 inches (3.02 m) centres. Suspension rods supported the road deck, and both decks had two layers of diagonally laid three-inch deck timbers on suitable wrought iron cross girders (and rail-bearers in the case of the rail deck).

 

The main contractors for the ironwork were Hawks, Crawshay, and Sons, who were assisted by John Abbot and Co., of Gateshead Park Works, and Losh Wilson and Bell, of Walker Ironworks, in the production of the castings. The tender was accepted at £112,000. The contract for the bridge piers and land arches and for the Newcastle Viaduct were won by John Rush and Benjamin Lawton of York for £94,000 and £82,500 respectively. The total cost of the contracts at 1999 prices would be over £30 million.

 

The first masonry was laid on 12 January 1847. A temporary timber viaduct on the east side was ready on 20 August 1848.

 

Timber coffer dams were constructed; they were 76 ft 6 in (23.32 m) by 29 ft (8.8 m) with two skins, the space between being filled with puddle clay. James Nasmyth had a novel design of steam pile driver; it had first been used in Devonport Docks in 1845; it could deliver 60 to 70 blows a minute; the cycle time with the hand-operated pile drivers formerly in use was four minutes. The drop weight was 1½ tons and its stroke was 2 ft 9 in (0.84 m); one was purchased from Nasmyth.

 

The ground gave considerable trouble during construction; Stephenson recorded:

 

Many difficulties occurred in driving the piles which considerably retarded the progress of the work, and, among others, the peculiar effect of ebb and flow during this operation is worthy of note. At flood-tide, the sand became so hard as almost totally to resist the utmost efforts of driving, while at ebb the sand was quite loose, and allowed of doing so with facility. It was therefore found necessary to abandon the driving on many occasions during high water. The difference between high and low water is 11 feet 6 inches. Another difficulty arose from the quicksands beneath the foundations. Although the piles were driven to the rock bottom, the water forced its way up, baffling the attempts to fill in between them; this, however, was remedied by using a concrete made of broken stone and Roman cement, which was continually thrown in until the bottom was found to be secure.

 

The arch ribs were erected in section by travelling crane; each arch was temporarily erected at the contractor’s works. The first was placed on 10 July 1848, and the erection of the ironwork was quick.

 

Already on 29 August 1848, it was possible to pass a special train over the first arch, and over a temporary structure for the rest of the crossing:

 

The High Level Bridge Over the Tyne: This important junction between the York and Newcastle and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway has been completed, and the event was celebrated on Tuesday last. In the afternoon of that day, a train of [specially invited] passengers passed along the temporary timber viaduct from the station at Gateshead to the station at Newcastle. Mr Hudson and several other Directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick line, who had been visiting Sunderland ... proceeded in a special train from that town to Gateshead... Several carriages were then added to the special train, and an open truck placed at each end, in which bands of music were stationed. The shrill sound of the whistle gave the signal for a royal salute, under the booming of which the train passed along the line, the band playing, and the thousands assembled to witness the event, rending the air with joyous acclamation Upon reaching the bridge, the bands struck up the well-known local air of "The Keel Row" which they continued till the train had reached the solid ground on the northern side of the river... The train proceeded to the Newcastle and Berwick station, where the company alighted and walked in procession to the Queen’s Head Inn, where a magnificent entertainment had been provided for the Directors and their friends, by the Mayor of Newcastle.

 

[From the south abutment of the High Level Bridge] and the river pier on the south side, the cast iron arch and road-way are nearly completed, and the second arch will be in progress in the course of a few weeks. From the middle of the first arch, the line curves to a temporary timber viaduct erected along the west side of the intended bridge. The height of this viaduct is one hundred and twenty feet to the level of the rails; it is built upon piles, which are driven between thirty and forty feet into the bed of the river. Its stability was sufficiently tested on Monday, when Captain Leffan (sic), the Government Inspector of Railways, examined it preparatory to the opening. On that day, two powerful engines weighing upwards of seventy tons, traversed it at different degrees of speed for between two and three hours; the weight would be about one ton to a foot, being four or five times greater than the temporary structure will ever be required to bear, and the result was, in the highest degree, satisfactory.

 

Among the company in the train were four ladies, who are deserving of honourable mention, from the courage they displayed in accompanying it, namely, Mrs Nichs. Wood, and Miss F. Wood, Mrs I. L. Bell, and her sister, Miss Pattinson of Washington. As the train passed steadily over the bridge the anxiety of the immense multitude seemed intense, and the scene was truly exciting, yet fearful—not only from the lofty eminence occupied by the train but, from the apparent narrowness and nakedness of the platform on which it rolled along. It seemed from its noiselessness, rather an aerial flight, than the rattling sweep of the iron horse.

 

Ordinary traffic appears to have used the temporary single line structure after this date.

 

The eastern track was ready for an inspection by Captain Laffan, Inspecting Office for the Board of Trade, when he visited on 11 August 1849; a load test with four tender locomotives and eighteen wagons loaded with ballast, a total weight of 200 tons. Laffan approved the bridge:

 

I believe all the works of the bridge are completed, and that I believe it to be perfectly secure and safe. The Company have as yet only laid one line of rails over this structure, and I beg to recommend that permission be given to open that one line.

 

The first passenger train crossed the completed structure on the morning of 15 August 1849.

 

Queen Victoria formally inaugurated the bridge on passing through by train on 28 September 1849.

 

The Queen at Newcastle: Her Majesty yesterday honoured this ancient borough with her presence. The event was one of universal and all-engrossing interest... The morning, unfortunately, was dull and the weather unsettled, giving forebodings of a wet and uncomfortable day... Notwithstanding, however, the unfavourable weather dense crowds assembled at every spot in this locality, where a view of the royal carriage could be obtained, and many remained for hours exposed to the weather in order that they might retain the places which at an earlier period of the morning they had secured. The bridge was densely lined with people, and the platform was well covered, though not inconveniently crowded. A profusion of banners were displayed on this elegant and substantial structure, and from nearly all the public and many of the private buildings both in Newcastle and Gateshead. The vessels in the river hoisted their flags mast-high on the occasion, and the church bells of the two towns rung many a merry peal in honour of the royal visit... Pursuant to a request issued by the Mayor, most of the shops were closed about 11 o’clock, and the manufacturers were desired by our worthy chief magistrate "not to produce smoke between that hour and one," with which we believe, they generally complied... At precisely twenty minutes past twelve, the royal carriage appeared in sight, and when it reached the Spital, a splendid locomotive, built by the celebrated house of Stephenson and Co., gaily decorated and bearing on its front "God save the Queen" surmounted by a crown, and a suitable inscription encircling the boiler, was attached to the train. It then slowly proceeded to the centre of the colossal fabric, amidst bursts of loud and rapturous cheering from the assembled thousands, her Majesty repeatedly acknowledging these marked demonstrations of loyalty and affection from her faithful and attached subjects.

 

The Mayors of Newcastle and Gateshead presented a formal address. The queen travelled in the royal carriage belonging to the London and North Western Railway.

 

In other carriages were members of her Majesty’s suite and the directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway. The engine drawing the royal train was under the direction of Mr T. E. Harrison, the resident engineer, and driven by Mr Thos. Carr... After staying altogether from five to ten minutes, the train was again put in motion, and amidst firing of artillery and rapturous plaudits from the dense throng, proceeded en route to Darlington.

 

The bridge and its immediate approaches had cost £243,000.

 

The road deck was re-opened only in a southbound (towards Gateshead) direction and carries only buses and taxis; the one-way operation is required because of width considerations after protection to the structural members was inserted. Pedestrians and cyclists use the bridge freely. Railway traffic continues in full use of the bridge, although the majority of mainline trains use the King Edward VII bridge for reasons of convenience.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

Bowen Park Totems Before Disconnection (1991) - 2 (of 5) - Epson V500 scan of 35mm Negative - Photographer Russell McNeil PhD (Physics) lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where he works as a writer.

The mail rarely bears letters. Mostly it’s not letters. Buy this or pay for that, that’s the mail. The exceptions are the letters from my brother. He is in a prison in Texas. Handwritten on school notebook paper with an ink pen. He tells me about the lockdowns, the intense heat all day, most days, about the typewriter I helped him buy from the commissary. This is a typewriter I have never personally seen evidence of in a letter. He is saving the ribbons, he says. I hope he is saving the ribbon for his novel. I send him surfing magazine subscriptions and he will tear out the best curls from Indonesia or Chile. These are real gifts since he won’t be able to get them back. He sends me his best photos and catches me up on the news.

 

He hasn’t joined a gang and that has cost him at times. He says he mostly stays to himself, works out and eats tuna fish, again from the commissary, at every meal. The food in prison is the lowest common denominator of edible material. I have walked through a prison. Lunch smelled like something burnt and rotten. It looked that way too. He is one of the lucky ones with a family who can help subsidize tuna and new tennis shoes from time to time, a typewriter, fresh undershirts, better soap.

 

Most days his mail bears nothing, of course. I send him letters via email through a special service. He gets a print out of it. Sometimes I will send him the latest photos from Bend Light or of the kiddo. He does love that, I think, because it is a real letter as much as anything, but my letters are mostly pathetic. I don’t know what to write. I catch him up on the news, on how work is (I am yawning even as I write that), etc. I put myself where he is and I wonder what I would care to hear? Everything? Nothing? My personality might tender to want to hear nothing. What I would need to hear though, is everything. The worst part about prison must be the disconnection. Humans get sick when they are alone. Prison, I imagine, makes being with a whole lot of people in very tight quarters feel like being the most alone. I usually end with a paragraph to remind him that he is not alone in this world, that we are connected. These words connect us, brother. When it is night and hot and lonely, read this: I love you. After the meaningless bills and the ads, and the promos and the catalogues and the work and the long day, the thing that will make sleep come and the morning seem ok and worth getting up for is that someone loves me and that I am not alone. I hope that works for him too.

_____________

 

please tell a friend about my blog at

www.bendlight.me/2011/08/the-mail/

Transforming themes of metamorphosis into visual art .

isolation, disconnection, death .

This is the aftermath in one of our local shopping centres a week after a gas blast on March 25. 'Griffith's' was a local butcher that sold the most amazing ham sandwiches and pies. Its demise makes starvation of Wirral workmen a real possibility. A few doors down, by the 'Open' sign is the remains of a Chinese restaurant that was full of diners at the time of the blast. Amazingly, nobody was killed and serious injuries were limited to two, one of whom is still critical.

 

The real devastation was to the right of this shot where a funeral parlour, charity shop and dance studio (full of kids an hour before the blast) have been totally demolished. The cause of the blast is still officially unknown, but police spent three weeks investigating. Copper thefts without turning off the gas supply have been known in the area, as have been meter disconnections. In the fullness of time it was discovered that the blast was caused by attempted insurance fraud which has subsequently resulted in the conviction of one of the shop owners.

 

We were in Silverdale at the time of the blast so heard nothing. Our neighbours reported that they feared the windows were coming in.

From my 2014 series, 'Sanctuary', created for my final year of studies.

 

"I think that my love for photography was first kindled during long stints in hospital, photographing flowers that my mother had brought me. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with my mental and physical health, and nature was a sanctuary and escape for me. I lament the disconnection between our everyday lives and the natural world. The vulnerability, hope and suffering that I experienced, combined with the beauty and majesty of nature, inspired this body of work."

 

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Vanessa da Mata e Ben Harper

Boa Sorte / Good Luck

 

É só isso

Não tem mais jeito

Acabou, boa sorte

 

Não tenho o que dizer

São só palavras

E o que eu sinto

Não mudará

 

Tudo o que quer me dar

É demais

É pesado

Não há paz

 

Tudo o que quer de mim

Irreais

Expectativas

Desleais

 

That’s it

There's no way

It's over, Good luck

 

I have nothing else to say

It’s only words

And what l feel

Won’t change

 

Tudo o que quer me dar / Everything you want to give me

É demais / It's too much

É pesado / It’s heavy

Não há paz / There is no peace

 

Tudo o que quer de mim / All you want from me

Irreais / Isn’t real

Expectativas / that Expectations

Desleais

 

Mesmo, se segure

Quero que se cure

Dessa pessoa

Que o aconselha

 

Há um desencontro

Veja por esse ponto

Há tantas pessoas especiais

 

Now even if you hold yourself

I want you to get cured

From this person

Who advises you

 

There is a disconnection

See through this point of view

There are so many special people in the world

So many special people in the world in the world

All you want

All you want

 

Tudo o que quer me dar / Everything you want to give me

É demais / It's too much

É pesado / It’s heavy

Não há paz / There's no peace

 

Tudo o que quer de mim / All you want from me

Irreais / isn’t real

Expectativas / that Expectations

Desleais

 

Now we're falling, falling, falling , falling into the night, into the night

Falling, falling, falling, falling into the night

Um bom encontro é de dois

Now we're falling, falling, falling , falling into the night, into the night

Falling, falling, falling, falling into the night

Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the artist, but in the process of research.

    

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People are shocked when I say I don't usually carry my mobile phone and I don't give away my number.

They look at me as if I had just emerged from the stone age.

    

From a Motel 6 no.153, by Yo La Tengo from Painful

 

You shouldn't hide but you always do

Because even when you're gone, I can see right through

You want disconnection

You want me there enough for two

 

Pull a woolen blanket across my eyes

Dream a quiet place for us to fight

Oh no, your heart is broken

Don't you think that's a little trite?

 

I climb where I can see

You're close but I won't reach

Blank stare at the TV

CNN's on channel three

 

In the passing lane on 1 and 9

Stuck in sad, car stuck in drive

Oh no, your heart is broken

Well, you can have what's left of mine

 

Car Imagery by Peer Lawther www.flickr.com/photos/peerlawther/8155697148/in/faves-der...

Rotted car lot by Becky www.flickr.com/photos/beckymullane/6584333531/in/faves-de...

Click here youtu.be/u36GXnvLTA8 to hear full track

Click here songmeanings.com/songs/view/66157/ for full song lyrics

 

My 365 art project, where I create a year’s worth [yep, 365] of digital collages, with indie songs as my subject

The High Level Bridge is a road and railway bridge spanning the River Tyne between Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in North East England. It is considered the most notable historical engineering work in the city. It was built by the Hawks family from 5,050 tons of iron. George Hawks, Mayor of Gateshead, drove in the last key of the structure on 7 June 1849, and the bridge was officially opened by Queen Victoria later that year.

 

It was designed by Robert Stephenson to form a rail link towards Scotland for the developing English railway network; a carriageway for road vehicles and pedestrians was incorporated to generate additional revenue. The main structural elements are tied cast-iron arches.

 

Notwithstanding the considerable increase in the weight of railway vehicles since it was designed, it continues to carry rail traffic, although the King Edward bridge nearby was opened in 1906 to ease congestion. The roadway is also still in use, although with a weight restriction. It is a Grade I listed structure.

 

In 1835, the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (N&CR) Act authorised the line to approach Newcastle to a terminus at Redheugh, on the south bank of the River Tyne, close to the end of the present-day New Redheugh Bridge. The Act also authorised a crossing of the Tyne there, giving rail access to the north shore quays. The river was shallow at this point, and the bridge would have been at a low level, only 20 ft (6.1 m) above high water. The line would then have climbed to a terminus at the Spital, near Neville Street and the east end of the present-day Newcastle Central station. The climb was to be at a gradient of 1 in 22 and would have been operated by a stationary steam engine with rope haulage.

 

Hitherto railways in the region had had a local focus, but now the Great North of England Railway (GNER) obtained authorising Acts to build from Newcastle to York, forming part of a continuous trunk railway network to connect to London; the project was controlled by George Hudson, the so-called Railway King. At first the GNER was content to get access to the N&CR Newcastle terminus, by connecting with the N&CR at Redheugh and running over its line across the Tyne and up to the Spital. This had the advantage of avoiding a separate, and expensive, crossing of the river, but would have meant a steep descent to Redheugh as the GNER line approached on high ground from the Team Valley, only to climb once again to the Spital. Moreover, William Brandling had made known his intention to reach Newcastle from his line by running at a high level through Gateshead. On 25 April 1837, the N&CR decided to build to their south side, low-level terminus at Redheugh, but to leave the issue of the Tyne crossing open.

 

Richard Grainger was a developer in Newcastle, and had acquired lands at Elswick (on the north bank of the Tyne west of the proposed Redheugh crossing). In 1836, he published a pamphlet recommending a crossing of the Tyne there, and the formation of spacious railway terminal accommodation there. Drawing attention to the limited scope for extending eastwards from the Spital, and "in the event of an Edinburgh Railway also terminating in this situation, the interchange of passengers, goods, and cattle would be greatly increased".

 

Grainger's plan was not adopted, and the Brandling Junction Railway reached Gateshead in 1839. The GNER ran out of money and it was superseded in Hudson's railway empire by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway, which opened its line using the Brandling Junction Railway from the south east instead of through the Team Valley. The Brandling Junction line had a terminus in Gateshead at Greenesfield at a high level, and the N&CR line was built climbing on an inclined plane at a gradient of 1 in 23 from Redheugh to reach that. The Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway opened its line from the south to Pelaw, allowing its trains to reach Gateshead over the Brandling Junction line, in 1844. The tables had been turned, and indeed for a while Greenesfield was the de facto main station for the conurbation of Newcastle and Gateshead.

 

John and Benjamin Green were a father and son architectural practice active in Newcastle. In 1841 Benjamin Green had proposed a high level bridge for road traffic, substantially on the alignment of the actual High Level Bridge; and sensing the commercial climate he explained how it could be adapted for railway use. He failed to get any financial support, but in 1843 George Hudson was looking for ways to extend his railway network northwards, and the Greens' scheme fitted with his takeover of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway; the line got its authorising Act on 22 May 1844, and the Act included the road bridge.

 

The Newcastle and North Shields Railway had opened in 1839 from its own terminus at Carliol Square, on the north-east edge of Newcastle. As a purely local concern, the disconnection was not important, but interest gathered in a railway to central Scotland; the "Edinburgh Railway" foreseen by Grainger. A Scottish concern, the North British Railway, had got its Act of Parliament the previous year to build as far south as Berwick (later known as Berwick-upon-Tweed.

 

Now Hudson was intent on capturing the line to Edinburgh for his empire, and he encouraged the development of railway plans to get there; the route such a line might take continued to generate considerable controversy. There was still ambiguity about Hudson's intentions for the bridge—an easier crossing point at Bill Quay, two miles downstream had been considered—and Newcastle Town Council sought undertakings from him. In addition, he promised a footway crossing; this was apparently not a sweetener to the Town Council, but a commercial decision, expected to bring in £250 a week. The footway crossing was later extended to include horse-drawn vehicles.

 

Finally, the Newcastle and Berwick Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament of 31 July 1845. The line would cross the Greens' high level bridge, starting from the Gateshead Greenesfield station, and commitments made to the building of a bridge by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway were transferred to the Newcastle and Berwick Railway.

 

The bridge was to be designed by Robert Stephenson; T E Harrison did the detailed design work.

 

The height of the railway, at about 120 ft (37 m) above high water, was determined by the level of the Brandling Junction line in Gateshead. A double-deck configuration was selected because of road levels on the approaches, and to avoid the excess width of foundations which a side-by-side arrangement would require. The deck width was determined by the useful roadway width plus the width of structural members, which gave the railway deck the width for three tracks.

 

The foundations were to be difficult because of the poor ground conditions in the river, and this ruled out an all-masonry structure, so cast iron or wrought iron was inevitable for the superstructure. A tied arch (or bow-string) design was favoured because the outward thrust imposed by an arch is contained by the tie; no abutments capable of resisting the thrust could be provided here.

 

Stephenson had used this configuration before; he recorded that, "The earliest railway bridge on the bowstring principle is that over the Regent's Canal, near Chalk Farm, on the London and Birmingham Railway".

 

The arch would consist of iron ribs. Fawcett says, "The reasons for not using wrought iron was due to some engineers' distrust of rivetting, the relatively small size of wrought iron plates then available, and the higher cost… On 1 October 1845 when the Newcastle and Berwick Board instructed T E Harrison for their bridges, none of the uses of wrought iron had been developed far enough to be considered as an alternative to cast iron for the High Level Bridge. A tubular bridge might have been considered by Robert Stephenson but the distance between solid and reasonably shallow foundations would have given a span much larger than the Britannia Bridge."

 

The depth of rock in the riverbed resulted in a height of 140 ft (43 m) from there to the superstructure. Three river piers were permitted by the Tyne Improvement Commissioners, and therefore four river spans of 125 ft (38 m) were decided on; there were additional subsidiary spans on the shore.

 

The cast iron arch ribs are 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) deep at the crown, increasing to 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) at the springing, with 12-inch (30 cm) flanges; the flanges and webs were three inches thick; in the case of the inner ribs, and two inches for the outer ribs. The rise was 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m), determined by the desired geometry to confine the horizontal thrust within bounds. Each arch was cast in five sections, bolted together.

 

Stephenson described the tie bars:

 

The ties consist of flat wrought-iron bars, 7 inches by 1 inch of best scrap iron, with eyes of 3½ inches diameter, bored out of the solid, and pins turned and fitted closely. Each external rib is tied by four of these bars, and each internal rib by eight. The sectional area of each external tie is 28 [square] inches, and of each internal tie 56 [square] inches, giving a total area of 168 square inches. These bars were all tested to 9 tons on the square inch.

 

The rail deck is supported above the arches by twelve 14-inch (360 mm) square columns at 9 feet 11 inches (3.02 m) centres. Suspension rods supported the road deck, and both decks had two layers of diagonally laid three-inch deck timbers on suitable wrought iron cross girders (and rail-bearers in the case of the rail deck).

 

The main contractors for the ironwork were Hawks, Crawshay, and Sons, who were assisted by John Abbot and Co., of Gateshead Park Works, and Losh Wilson and Bell, of Walker Ironworks, in the production of the castings. The tender was accepted at £112,000. The contract for the bridge piers and land arches and for the Newcastle Viaduct were won by John Rush and Benjamin Lawton of York for £94,000 and £82,500 respectively. The total cost of the contracts at 1999 prices would be over £30 million.

 

The first masonry was laid on 12 January 1847. A temporary timber viaduct on the east side was ready on 20 August 1848.

 

Timber coffer dams were constructed; they were 76 ft 6 in (23.32 m) by 29 ft (8.8 m) with two skins, the space between being filled with puddle clay. James Nasmyth had a novel design of steam pile driver; it had first been used in Devonport Docks in 1845; it could deliver 60 to 70 blows a minute; the cycle time with the hand-operated pile drivers formerly in use was four minutes. The drop weight was 1½ tons and its stroke was 2 ft 9 in (0.84 m); one was purchased from Nasmyth.

 

The ground gave considerable trouble during construction; Stephenson recorded:

 

Many difficulties occurred in driving the piles which considerably retarded the progress of the work, and, among others, the peculiar effect of ebb and flow during this operation is worthy of note. At flood-tide, the sand became so hard as almost totally to resist the utmost efforts of driving, while at ebb the sand was quite loose, and allowed of doing so with facility. It was therefore found necessary to abandon the driving on many occasions during high water. The difference between high and low water is 11 feet 6 inches. Another difficulty arose from the quicksands beneath the foundations. Although the piles were driven to the rock bottom, the water forced its way up, baffling the attempts to fill in between them; this, however, was remedied by using a concrete made of broken stone and Roman cement, which was continually thrown in until the bottom was found to be secure.

 

The arch ribs were erected in section by travelling crane; each arch was temporarily erected at the contractor’s works. The first was placed on 10 July 1848, and the erection of the ironwork was quick.

 

Already on 29 August 1848, it was possible to pass a special train over the first arch, and over a temporary structure for the rest of the crossing:

 

The High Level Bridge Over the Tyne: This important junction between the York and Newcastle and the Newcastle and Berwick Railway has been completed, and the event was celebrated on Tuesday last. In the afternoon of that day, a train of [specially invited] passengers passed along the temporary timber viaduct from the station at Gateshead to the station at Newcastle. Mr Hudson and several other Directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick line, who had been visiting Sunderland ... proceeded in a special train from that town to Gateshead... Several carriages were then added to the special train, and an open truck placed at each end, in which bands of music were stationed. The shrill sound of the whistle gave the signal for a royal salute, under the booming of which the train passed along the line, the band playing, and the thousands assembled to witness the event, rending the air with joyous acclamation Upon reaching the bridge, the bands struck up the well-known local air of "The Keel Row" which they continued till the train had reached the solid ground on the northern side of the river... The train proceeded to the Newcastle and Berwick station, where the company alighted and walked in procession to the Queen’s Head Inn, where a magnificent entertainment had been provided for the Directors and their friends, by the Mayor of Newcastle.

 

[From the south abutment of the High Level Bridge] and the river pier on the south side, the cast iron arch and road-way are nearly completed, and the second arch will be in progress in the course of a few weeks. From the middle of the first arch, the line curves to a temporary timber viaduct erected along the west side of the intended bridge. The height of this viaduct is one hundred and twenty feet to the level of the rails; it is built upon piles, which are driven between thirty and forty feet into the bed of the river. Its stability was sufficiently tested on Monday, when Captain Leffan (sic), the Government Inspector of Railways, examined it preparatory to the opening. On that day, two powerful engines weighing upwards of seventy tons, traversed it at different degrees of speed for between two and three hours; the weight would be about one ton to a foot, being four or five times greater than the temporary structure will ever be required to bear, and the result was, in the highest degree, satisfactory.

 

Among the company in the train were four ladies, who are deserving of honourable mention, from the courage they displayed in accompanying it, namely, Mrs Nichs. Wood, and Miss F. Wood, Mrs I. L. Bell, and her sister, Miss Pattinson of Washington. As the train passed steadily over the bridge the anxiety of the immense multitude seemed intense, and the scene was truly exciting, yet fearful—not only from the lofty eminence occupied by the train but, from the apparent narrowness and nakedness of the platform on which it rolled along. It seemed from its noiselessness, rather an aerial flight, than the rattling sweep of the iron horse.

 

Ordinary traffic appears to have used the temporary single line structure after this date.

 

The eastern track was ready for an inspection by Captain Laffan, Inspecting Office for the Board of Trade, when he visited on 11 August 1849; a load test with four tender locomotives and eighteen wagons loaded with ballast, a total weight of 200 tons. Laffan approved the bridge:

 

I believe all the works of the bridge are completed, and that I believe it to be perfectly secure and safe. The Company have as yet only laid one line of rails over this structure, and I beg to recommend that permission be given to open that one line.

 

The first passenger train crossed the completed structure on the morning of 15 August 1849.

 

Queen Victoria formally inaugurated the bridge on passing through by train on 28 September 1849.

 

The Queen at Newcastle: Her Majesty yesterday honoured this ancient borough with her presence. The event was one of universal and all-engrossing interest... The morning, unfortunately, was dull and the weather unsettled, giving forebodings of a wet and uncomfortable day... Notwithstanding, however, the unfavourable weather dense crowds assembled at every spot in this locality, where a view of the royal carriage could be obtained, and many remained for hours exposed to the weather in order that they might retain the places which at an earlier period of the morning they had secured. The bridge was densely lined with people, and the platform was well covered, though not inconveniently crowded. A profusion of banners were displayed on this elegant and substantial structure, and from nearly all the public and many of the private buildings both in Newcastle and Gateshead. The vessels in the river hoisted their flags mast-high on the occasion, and the church bells of the two towns rung many a merry peal in honour of the royal visit... Pursuant to a request issued by the Mayor, most of the shops were closed about 11 o’clock, and the manufacturers were desired by our worthy chief magistrate "not to produce smoke between that hour and one," with which we believe, they generally complied... At precisely twenty minutes past twelve, the royal carriage appeared in sight, and when it reached the Spital, a splendid locomotive, built by the celebrated house of Stephenson and Co., gaily decorated and bearing on its front "God save the Queen" surmounted by a crown, and a suitable inscription encircling the boiler, was attached to the train. It then slowly proceeded to the centre of the colossal fabric, amidst bursts of loud and rapturous cheering from the assembled thousands, her Majesty repeatedly acknowledging these marked demonstrations of loyalty and affection from her faithful and attached subjects.

 

The Mayors of Newcastle and Gateshead presented a formal address. The queen travelled in the royal carriage belonging to the London and North Western Railway.

 

In other carriages were members of her Majesty’s suite and the directors of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway. The engine drawing the royal train was under the direction of Mr T. E. Harrison, the resident engineer, and driven by Mr Thos. Carr... After staying altogether from five to ten minutes, the train was again put in motion, and amidst firing of artillery and rapturous plaudits from the dense throng, proceeded en route to Darlington.

 

The bridge and its immediate approaches had cost £243,000.

 

The road deck was re-opened only in a southbound (towards Gateshead) direction and carries only buses and taxis; the one-way operation is required because of width considerations after protection to the structural members was inserted. Pedestrians and cyclists use the bridge freely. Railway traffic continues in full use of the bridge, although the majority of mainline trains use the King Edward VII bridge for reasons of convenience.

 

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Historically part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council.

 

In the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 120,046 while the wider borough had 200,214.

 

History

Gateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae ("at the goat's head"). This interpretation is consistent with the later English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued (c. 1190), literally "goat's head" but in the context of a place-name meaning 'headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats'. Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this that is given by the standard authorities.

 

A Brittonic predecessor, named with the element *gabro-, 'goat' (c.f. Welsh gafr), may underlie the name. Gateshead might have been the Roman-British fort of Gabrosentum.

 

Early

There has been a settlement on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne, around the old river crossing where the Swing Bridge now stands, since Roman times.

 

The first recorded mention of Gateshead is in the writings of the Venerable Bede who referred to an Abbot of Gateshead called Utta in 623. In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated the forces of Edgar the Ætheling and Malcolm king of Scotland (Shakespeare's Malcolm) on Gateshead Fell (now Low Fell and Sheriff Hill).

 

During medieval times Gateshead was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham. At this time the area was largely forest with some agricultural land. The forest was the subject of Gateshead's first charter, granted in the 12th century by Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham. An alternative spelling may be "Gatishevede", as seen in a legal record, dated 1430.

 

Industrial revolution

Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly; between 1801 and 1901 the increase was over 100,000. This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town.

 

In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

 

Sir Joseph Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead from 1869 to 1883, where his experiments led to the invention of the electric light bulb. The house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light.

 

In the 1889 one of the largest employers (Hawks, Crawshay and Company) closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the Second World War there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work. The depression years of the 1920s and 1930s created even more joblessness and the Team Valley Trading Estate was built in the mid-1930s to alleviate the situation.

 

Regeneration

In the late noughties, Gateshead Council started to regenerate the town, with the long-term aim of making Gateshead a city. The most extensive transformation occurred in the Quayside, with almost all the structures there being constructed or refurbished in this time.

 

In the early 2010s, regeneration refocused on the town centre. The £150 million Trinity Square development opened in May 2013, it incorporates student accommodation, a cinema, health centre and shops. It was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup in September 2014. The cup was however awarded to another development which involved Tesco, Woolwich Central.

 

Governance

In 1835, Gateshead was established as a municipal borough and in 1889 it was made a county borough, independent from Durham County Council.

 

In 1870, the Old Town Hall was built, designed by John Johnstone who also designed the previously built Newcastle Town Hall. The ornamental clock in front of the old town hall was presented to Gateshead in 1892 by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time. He was also one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria. The old town hall also served as a magistrate's court and one of Gateshead's police stations.

 

Current

In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the County Borough of Gateshead was merged with the urban districts of Felling, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton and part of the rural district of Chester-le-Street to create the much larger Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

 

Geography

The town of Gateshead is in the North East of England in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, and within the historic boundaries of County Durham. It is located on the southern bank of the River Tyne at a latitude of 54.57° N and a longitude of 1.35° W. Gateshead experiences a temperate climate which is considerably warmer than some other locations at similar latitudes as a result of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream (via the North Atlantic drift). It is located in the rain shadow of the North Pennines and is therefore in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom.

 

One of the most distinguishing features of Gateshead is its topography. The land rises 230 feet from Gateshead Quays to the town centre and continues rising to a height of 525 feet at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sheriff Hill. This is in contrast to the flat and low lying Team Valley located on the western edges of town. The high elevations allow for impressive views over the Tyne valley into Newcastle and across Tyneside to Sunderland and the North Sea from lookouts in Windmill Hills and Windy Nook respectively.

 

The Office for National Statistics defines the town as an urban sub-division. The latest (2011) ONS urban sub-division of Gateshead contains the historical County Borough together with areas that the town has absorbed, including Dunston, Felling, Heworth, Pelaw and Bill Quay.

 

Given the proximity of Gateshead to Newcastle, just south of the River Tyne from the city centre, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as being a part of Newcastle. Gateshead Council and Newcastle City Council teamed up in 2000 to create a unified marketing brand name, NewcastleGateshead, to better promote the whole of the Tyneside conurbation.

 

Economy

Gateshead is home to the MetroCentre, the largest shopping mall in the UK until 2008; and the Team Valley Trading Estate, once the largest and still one of the larger purpose-built commercial estates in the UK.

 

Arts

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art has been established in a converted flour mill. The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, previously The Sage, a Norman Foster-designed venue for music and the performing arts opened on 17 December 2004. Gateshead also hosted the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990, rejuvenating 200 acres (0.81 km2) of derelict land (now mostly replaced with housing). The Angel of the North, a famous sculpture in nearby Lamesley, is visible from the A1 to the south of Gateshead, as well as from the East Coast Main Line. Other public art include works by Richard Deacon, Colin Rose, Sally Matthews, Andy Goldsworthy, Gordon Young and Michael Winstone.

 

Traditional and former

The earliest recorded coal mining in the Gateshead area is dated to 1344. As trade on the Tyne prospered there were several attempts by the burghers of Newcastle to annex Gateshead. In 1576 a small group of Newcastle merchants acquired the 'Grand Lease' of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham. In the hundred years from 1574 coal shipments from Newcastle increased elevenfold while the population of Gateshead doubled to approximately 5,500. However, the lease and the abundant coal supplies ended in 1680. The pits were shallow as problems of ventilation and flooding defeated attempts to mine coal from the deeper seams.

 

'William Cotesworth (1668-1726) was a prominent merchant based in Gateshead, where he was a leader in coal and international trade. Cotesworth began as the son of a yeoman and apprentice to a tallow - candler. He ended as an esquire, having been mayor, Justice of the Peace and sheriff of Northumberland. He collected tallow from all over England and sold it across the globe. He imported dyes from the Indies, as well as flax, wine, and grain. He sold tea, sugar, chocolate, and tobacco. He operated the largest coal mines in the area, and was a leading salt producer. As the government's principal agent in the North country, he was in contact with leading ministers.

 

William Hawks originally a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. eventually became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between 'Hawks' Blacks' and 'Crowley's Crew'. The famous 'Hawks' men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie song and story.

 

In 1831 a locomotive works was established by the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, later part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In 1854 the works moved to the Greenesfield site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1909, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington and the rest of the works were closed in 1932.

 

Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A worldwide industry of wire-drawing resulted. The submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta-percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover–Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the brake-drum and cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, and his giant 25-inch (640 mm) telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence, in 1871.

 

Architecture

JB Priestley, writing of Gateshead in his 1934 travelogue English Journey, said that "no true civilisation could have produced such a town", adding that it appeared to have been designed "by an enemy of the human race".

 

Victorian

William Wailes the celebrated stained-glass maker, lived at South Dene from 1853 to 1860. In 1860, he designed Saltwell Towers as a fairy-tale palace for himself. It is an imposing Victorian mansion in its own park with a romantic skyline of turrets and battlements. It was originally furnished sumptuously by Gerrard Robinson. Some of the panelling installed by Robinson was later moved to the Shipley Art gallery. Wailes sold Saltwell Towers to the corporation in 1876 for use as a public park, provided he could use the house for the rest of his life. For many years the structure was essentially an empty shell but following a restoration programme it was reopened to the public in 2004.

 

Post millennium

The council sponsored the development of a Gateshead Quays cultural quarter. The development includes the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, erected in 2001, which won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2002.

 

Former brutalism

The brutalist Trinity Centre Car Park, which was designed by Owen Luder, dominated the town centre for many years until its demolition in 2010. A product of attempts to regenerate the area in the 1960s, the car park gained an iconic status due to its appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. An unsuccessful campaign to have the structure listed was backed by Sylvester Stallone, who played the main role in the 2000 remake of the film. The car park was scheduled for demolition in 2009, but this was delayed as a result of a disagreement between Tesco, who re-developed the site, and Gateshead Council. The council had not been given firm assurances that Tesco would build the previously envisioned town centre development which was to include a Tesco mega-store as well as shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, offices and student accommodation. The council effectively used the car park as a bargaining tool to ensure that the company adhered to the original proposals and blocked its demolition until they submitted a suitable planning application. Demolition finally took place in July–August 2010.

 

The Derwent Tower, another well known example of brutalist architecture, was also designed by Owen Luder and stood in the neighbourhood of Dunston. Like the Trinity Car Park it also failed in its bid to become a listed building and was demolished in 2012. Also located in this area are the Grade II listed Dunston Staithes which were built in 1890. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £420,000 restoration of the structure is expected to begin in April 2014.

 

Sport

Gateshead International Stadium regularly holds international athletics meetings over the summer months, and is home of the Gateshead Harriers athletics club. It is also host to rugby league fixtures, and the home ground of Gateshead Football Club. Gateshead Thunder Rugby League Football Club played at Gateshead International Stadium until its purchase by Newcastle Rugby Limited and the subsequent rebranding as Newcastle Thunder. Both clubs have had their problems: Gateshead A.F.C. were controversially voted out of the Football League in 1960 in favour of Peterborough United, whilst Gateshead Thunder lost their place in Super League as a result of a takeover (officially termed a merger) by Hull F.C. Both Gateshead clubs continue to ply their trade at lower levels in their respective sports, thanks mainly to the efforts of their supporters. The Gateshead Senators American Football team also use the International Stadium, as well as this it was used in the 2006 Northern Conference champions in the British American Football League.

 

Gateshead Leisure Centre is home to the Gateshead Phoenix Basketball Team. The team currently plays in EBL League Division 4. Home games are usually on a Sunday afternoon during the season, which runs from September to March. The team was formed in 2013 and ended their initial season well placed to progress after defeating local rivals Newcastle Eagles II and promotion chasing Kingston Panthers.

 

In Low Fell there is a cricket club and a rugby club adjacent to each other on Eastwood Gardens. These are Gateshead Fell Cricket Club and Gateshead Rugby Club. Gateshead Rugby Club was formed in 1998 following the merger of Gateshead Fell Rugby Club and North Durham Rugby Club.

 

Transport

Gateshead is served by the following rail transport stations with some being operated by National Rail and some being Tyne & Wear Metro stations: Dunston, Felling, Gateshead Interchange, Gateshead Stadium, Heworth Interchange, MetroCentre and Pelaw.

 

Tyne & Wear Metro stations at Gateshead Interchange and Gateshead Stadium provide direct light-rail access to Newcastle Central, Newcastle Airport , Sunderland, Tynemouth and South Shields Interchange.

 

National Rail services are provided by Northern at Dunston and MetroCentre stations. The East Coast Main Line, which runs from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, cuts directly through the town on its way between Newcastle Central and Chester-le-Street stations. There are presently no stations on this line within Gateshead, as Low Fell, Bensham and Gateshead West stations were closed in 1952, 1954 and 1965 respectively.

 

Road

Several major road links pass through Gateshead, including the A1 which links London to Edinburgh and the A184 which connects the town to Sunderland.

 

Gateshead Interchange is the busiest bus station in Tyne & Wear and was used by 3.9 million bus passengers in 2008.

 

Cycle routes

Various bicycle trails traverse the town; most notably is the recreational Keelmans Way (National Cycle Route 14), which is located on the south bank of the Tyne and takes riders along the entire Gateshead foreshore. Other prominent routes include the East Gateshead Cycleway, which connects to Felling, the West Gateshead Cycleway, which links the town centre to Dunston and the MetroCentre, and routes along both the old and new Durham roads, which take cyclists to Birtley, Wrekenton and the Angel of the North.

 

Religion

Christianity has been present in the town since at least the 7th century, when Bede mentioned a monastery in Gateshead. A church in the town was burned down in 1080 with the Bishop of Durham inside.[citation needed] St Mary's Church was built near to the site of that building, and was the only church in the town until the 1820s. Undoubtedly the oldest building on the Quayside, St Mary's has now re-opened to the public as the town's first heritage centre.

 

Many of the Anglican churches in the town date from the 19th century, when the population of the town grew dramatically and expanded into new areas. The town presently has a number of notable and large churches of many denominations.

 

Judaism

The Bensham district is home to a community of hundreds of Jewish families and used to be known as "Little Jerusalem". Within the community is the Gateshead Yeshiva, founded in 1929, and other Jewish educational institutions with international enrolments. These include two seminaries: Beis Medrash L'Morot and Beis Chaya Rochel seminary, colloquially known together as Gateshead "old" and "new" seminaries.

 

Many yeshivot and kollels also are active. Yeshivat Beer Hatorah, Sunderland Yeshiva, Nesivos Hatorah, Nezer Hatorah and Yeshiva Ketana make up some of the list.

 

Islam

Islam is practised by a large community of people in Gateshead and there are 2 mosques located in the Bensham area (in Ely Street and Villa Place).

 

Twinning

Gateshead is twinned with the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in France, and the city of Komatsu in Japan.

 

Notable people

Eliezer Adler – founder of Jewish Community

Marcus Bentley – narrator of Big Brother

Catherine Booth – wife of William Booth, known as the Mother of The Salvation Army

William Booth – founder of the Salvation Army

Mary Bowes – the Unhappy Countess, author and celebrity

Ian Branfoot – footballer and manager (Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton)

Andy Carroll – footballer (Newcastle United, Liverpool and West Ham United)

Frank Clark – footballer and manager (Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest)

David Clelland – Labour politician and MP

Derek Conway – former Conservative politician and MP

Joseph Cowen – Radical politician

Steve Cram – athlete (middle-distance runner)

Emily Davies – educational reformer and feminist, founder of Girton College, Cambridge

Daniel Defoe – writer and government agent

Ruth Dodds – politician, writer and co-founder of the Little Theatre

Jonathan Edwards – athlete (triple jumper) and television presenter

Sammy Johnson – actor (Spender)

George Elliot – industrialist and MP

Paul Gascoigne – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesbrough)

Alex Glasgow – singer/songwriter

Avrohom Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Leib Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Jill Halfpenny – actress (Coronation Street and EastEnders)

Chelsea Halfpenny – actress (Emmerdale)

David Hodgson – footballer and manager (Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Sunderland)

Sharon Hodgson – Labour politician and MP

Norman Hunter – footballer (Leeds United and member of 1966 World Cup-winning England squad)

Don Hutchison – footballer (Liverpool, West Ham United, Everton and Sunderland)

Brian Johnson – AC/DC frontman

Tommy Johnson – footballer (Aston Villa and Celtic)

Riley Jones - actor

Howard Kendall – footballer and manager (Preston North End and Everton)

J. Thomas Looney – Shakespeare scholar

Gary Madine – footballer (Sheffield Wednesday)

Justin McDonald – actor (Distant Shores)

Lawrie McMenemy – football manager (Southampton and Northern Ireland) and pundit

Thomas Mein – professional cyclist (Canyon DHB p/b Soreen)

Robert Stirling Newall – industrialist

Bezalel Rakow – communal rabbi

John William Rayner – flying ace and war hero

James Renforth – oarsman

Mariam Rezaei – musician and artist

Sir Tom Shakespeare - baronet, sociologist and disability rights campaigner

William Shield – Master of the King's Musick

Christina Stead – Australian novelist

John Steel – drummer (The Animals)

Henry Spencer Stephenson – chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

Steve Stone – footballer (Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Portsmouth)

Chris Swailes – footballer (Ipswich Town)

Sir Joseph Swan – inventor of the incandescent light bulb

Nicholas Trainor – cricketer (Gloucestershire)

Chris Waddle – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday)

William Wailes – stained glass maker

Taylor Wane – adult entertainer

Robert Spence Watson – public benefactor

Sylvia Waugh – author of The Mennyms series for children

Chris Wilkie – guitarist (Dubstar)

John Wilson - orchestral conductor

Peter Wilson – footballer (Gateshead, captain of Australia)

Thomas Wilson – poet/school founder

Robert Wood – Australian politician

Crop of RAW FITS data showing the L band image data and the start of the disconnection event in Comet Lovejoy imaged on Jan 8th 2015

 

This shot shows a family seated together at a famous fast-food restaurant, viewed through a window. Although they share a table and a meal, each person appears absorbed in their own activity.

 

The window frame divides the group into compartments, fragmenting what is ostensibly a shared experience. The photograph is not about joy or celebration; it is about routine, consumption, and quiet disconnection within togetherness.

 

The “meal” is shared in space but not fully in attention making the moment appear ordinary, slightly weary, and observational rather than warm.

 

Taken using Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2 lens on my LUMIX G9II, developed with DxO PhotoLab 9 and stylised using ON1 PhotoRAW MAX 2026.

 

Copyright © Dave Sexton. All Rights Reserved.

 

This image and the associated Flickr photostream are protected by international copyright laws and agreements. No part of this image, or any content within the photostream, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

From my 2014 series, 'Sanctuary', created for my final year of studies.

 

"I think that my love for photography was first kindled during long stints in hospital, photographing flowers that my mother had brought me. Throughout my adolescence I struggled with my mental and physical health, and nature was a sanctuary and escape for me. I lament the disconnection between our everyday lives and the natural world. The vulnerability, hope and suffering that I experienced, combined with the beauty and majesty of nature, inspired this body of work."

 

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Fresco in the funeral chapel of the Church of Chora in Istanbul.

 

The Harrowing of Hell / The Anastasis

 

The Paschal icon most often painted by iconographers and most frequently found in Orthodox churches and homes is the Anastasis — Christ's Descent into Hell. It is also the first Paschal icon to be displayed in the center of the church each year, for it is venerated on Great and Holy Saturday.

 

The Apostles' Creed proclaims that, before rising from the dead, Christ "descended into hell." This is what the icon shows us. Beneath his feet, falling into a pit of darkness, are the broken gates of hell, often shown as a cruciform platform upholding the Savior. "You have descended into the abyss of the earth, O Christ," the Church sings at Pascha, "and have broken down the eternal doors which imprison those who are bound, and like Jonah after three days in the whale, You have risen from the tomb."

 

The gates that seemed capable of imprisoning the dead throughout eternity are, through Christ's death on the cross, reduced to ruins. All others who have died have come to the land of death as captives, but Christ — in a white or golden robe and surrounded by a mandorla, a symbol of glory and radiant truth — comes as conqueror and rescuer. (In some versions of the icon, there is a scroll in his left hand. When the inscription is shown, it reads, "The record of Adam is torn up, the power of darkness is shattered.") Beneath the gates of hell, Satan is seen falling into his kingdom of night and disconnection.

 

The principal figures to the left and right of Christ being raised from their tombs are the parents of the human race, Adam and Eve, while behind them are gathered kings, prophets and the righteous of Israel, among them David and Solomon, Moses, Daniel, Zechariah and John the Baptist.

 

Second only to Christ in the icon are Adam and Eve, our mysterious original ancestors — so much like us! We live in a culture in which we're encouraged to find others to blame (and maybe sue) for our troubles — parents, teachers, neighbors, pastors, doctors, spouses, Hollywood, the mass media, big business, the government. But self-justification by finger pointing is nothing new — Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake.

 

While not forgetting that there is truly much wrong with the structures we live in and thus much that we need to resist and reform in this world, a very different way of looking at things is to focus, first of all, on our own failings.

 

One of the tougher prayers in the Orthodox Church is the prayer we recite before receiving Communion. It begins, "I believe, O Lord, that you are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first."

 

Perhaps no historian will be tempted to list me among the all-time great sinners, but such a prayer challenges me to stop making myself look relatively good by comparing myself to people who impress me as being much worse — a nice method for finding myself not guilty by reason of comparative innocence.

 

If the failure of Adam and Eve in Paradise represents the primary catastrophe in human history, the event at the roots of time from which all alienation, division and cruelty has its source, surely this image of divine mercy toward them must be a source of consolation to everyone living in hope of God's mercy. "Delivered from her chains," comments an ancient Paschal hymn, "Eve cries out in her joy" — and so may we.

 

It is only after his conquest of hell that Christ returns to his despairing disciples. "When He had freed those who were bound from the beginning of time," wrote Saint John of Damascus, "Christ returned from among the dead, having opened for us the way of resurrection."

 

The icon of Christ's Descent into Hell can be linked with our prayer not to live a fear-driven life. We live in what is often a terrifying world. Being fearful seems to be a reasonable state to be in — fear of violent crime, fear of terrorists, fear of job loss, fear of failure, fear of illness, fear for the well-being of people we love, fear of collapse of our pollution-burdened environment, fear of war, and finally fear of death. A great deal of what we see and hear seems to have no other function than to push us deeper into a state of dread. There were many elderly people who died in a heat wave in Chicago one summer simply because they didn't dare leave their apartments in order to get to the air-conditioned shelters the city had provided. Anxious about being mugged, they died of fear.

 

We can easily get ourselves into a paralyzing state of fear that is truly hellish. The icon reminds us that Christ can enter not just some other hell but the particular hell we happen to be in, grab us by the hands, and lift us out of our tombs.

 

– Jim Forest

extract from “Praying with Icons,” revised edition (Orbis Books, 2008)

Several Years ago, I would follow the CSX Local Freight from Safety Harbor, FL to the Southernmost Point in Clearwater, FL. Sometimes the Train would proceed all the way to Downtown Saint Petersburg, FL. On other occasions, I would drive South on Fort Harrison Ave. to the Southernmost Point in Clearwater to see which CSX Locomotives were Parked on a Siding new the Morton Plant Hospital. This siding was located in the same general area as the the Mt. Olive Methodist Baptist Church and the Clearwater Water Tower. On the other side of the Water Tower is he Ross Norton Recreation & Aquatic Center.

 

The Ross Norton Recreation Center is located at 1426 South Martin Luther King Junior Avenue, Clearwater Florida 33756.

 

The Mount Olive Methodist Baptist Church is located at 1124 Hardy's Lane, Clearwater, Florida 33756.

A family at a local park. Together, but each occupied with their separate worlds. May be connected with the networks to the outer worlds, but disconnected within.

Nishat Bagh is a terraced Mughal garden built on the eastern side of the Dal Lake, close to Srinagar in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. ‘Nishat Bagh’ is Urdu, and means the "Garden of Joy," "Garden of Gladness" and "Garden of Delight."

 

Located on the bank of the Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains as its backdrop, Nishat Bagh is a garden with views of the lake beneath the Pir Panjal mountain range. The Bagh was designed and built in 1633 by Asif Khan, elder brother of Nur Jehan.

 

When Shah Jahan saw the garden, after its completion in 1633, he expressed great appreciation of its grandeur and beauty. He is believed to have expressed his delight three times to Asif Khan, his father-in-law, in the hope that he would make a gift of it to him. As no such offer was forthcoming from Asif Khan, however, Shah Jahan was piqued and ordered that the water supply to the garden should be cut off. Then, for some time, the garden was deserted. Asif Khan was desolate and heartbroken. When he was resting under the shade of a tree, in one of the terraces, his servant was bold enough to turn on the water supply source from the Shalimar Bagh. When Asif Khan heard the sound of water and the fountains in action he was startled and immediately ordered the disconnection of the water supply as he feared the worst reaction from the Emperor for this wanton act of disobedience. Fortunately Shah Jahan, who heard about this incident at the garden, was not annoyed by the disobedience of his orders. Instead, he approved of the servant’s loyal service to his master and then ordered the full restoration rights for the supply of water to the garden to Asif Khan, his Prime Minister and father-in-law.

 

The Mughal Princess Zuhra Begum, the daughter of the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II, and granddaughter of the Emperor Jahandar Shah, was buried in the garden.

happy holidays from muni & why life-after-death theories are societal dangers that allow USURERS to abuse other people, scott richard

PRESS PLAY

wishful thinking

wilco

 

one of the saddest things about the majority of the human population is their belief in "life after death."

 

it's bad enough that so many weak-minded people already believe that a virgin had a baby. there is something psychotic in this INCREDIBLY SILLY scenario.

 

especially when we all fundamentally know that the odds of virgin birth are MYTHICAL.

 

but ATHENA beat mary to the punch.

and she sprang FULLY FORMED from ZEUS' forehead.

 

plus, you don't have to be a genius to figure out that "child of god" was a contemporary vernacularism for BASTARD OFFSPRING.

 

even the allegedly associated prophecies xians site from isaiah indicate that the "messiah" will be born from the lowest place in society...

 

but xians can't handle GROWN UP SEXUAL POLITICKS. it's just one of their intellectual failures.

 

and it is from this SEXUAL IMMATURITY that xianity develops its neo-imperialism.

 

the bastard child becomes triumphant by being deified. and then you make up stories about the mysterious birth. it becomes the fundament.

 

but is this really a great role model for civil society?

 

it sounds like a rocknroll suicide to me.

and it leaves women in the position of whore or mother, which must be so boring. who wouldn't want to be both if you only had two choices?

 

but, i've known a bunch of whores who became mothers. or, as i sadly say, we used to be friends, now they're boring as fk. i'm kidding, they were all sort of weirdly asexual if i'm being honest. the women i knew who slept around a lot more did end up single and childless. sexual contact teaches us many, many things about life that sexual inexperience never will. another good reason why the sexually inexperienced should listen to the sexually experienced. experience is not indecipherable, but the way it changes people is permanent. and discussion is the easiest way to share experiences without having the experience. so i'm a fan of a lot more discussion. too many people are sexually immature and believe that sexual maturity is a moral issue instead of a PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL issue. they don't understand that abstinence and frigidity and disconnection is PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY worse than debauchery and disease. and admittedly, it does seem like there are intuitive and counter-intuitive forces at play.

 

but shying away from the forces is DIRECT social yielding. it is protective and an outgrowth of fear and cowardice. it ELIMINATES opportunity and positive growth with its expectations and presets. abstinence, frigidity and disconnection are all signs of abuse, infractions and shame. they are TOTALLY NORMAL in the united states' framework of acceptable sexual roles. many religious operating systems hijack personal sexuality and force it into the community decision making process.

 

some call it repression, but it is a forced hostility onto the spirit of sexuality and NON-SEXUAL relationshipping. it is an ATTACK against people, not a repression of something.

 

it has LONG TERM GOALS in mind, though so many of the true lessons of human sexuality teach us that LONG TERM GOALS = SLAVERY and monetized behavioral systems of control and restriction. we have almost EVERY human civilization with records to demonstrate this consistency.

 

and from this deep SICKNESS of spirit and physicality, HOMOLOATHING is fostered by the debt givers, our dear friends who give loans to family cycle logic -- homes and education & their insurance/health scam buddies who sell security and promises of safety.

 

so let's not pretend that these things called ABSTINENCE, FRIGIDITY and DISCONNECTION aren't HOSTILE ANTI-HUMAN FORCES. and they are currently allowed to do whatever they want even in the wake of such terrible children who are being force-fed poisons that will indebt them PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY to the vampire health system.

 

and a great french playwright crafted a fine play about it called TARTUFFE. it alleged that there is NOTHING WORSE than an aging hypocrite who has cheated and lied their way through life.

 

way to go bill cosby and all your fellow like -- you are far too numerous to count -- but you get the TARTUFFE award this decade for all the decades of work you did.

 

though i suppose, instead we should champion the very few men who haven't done the same...

 

and let's not forget a huuuuuuuuuge congrats to all the women along the way who helped cosby and trump become the legends they are right now and for a bit on how they will be known in a decade or so.

 

ah, sex and experience lead the man into temptation. but how many of the women loved it and wanted it and haven't spoken up about it?? GOT THE JOB BECAUSE OF IT!!!!!! THAT'S WHY THEY MAKE YOU SUCK DCK, DUMMY. SO THEY CAN TELL EVERYONE LATER.

 

SO HONESTLY, how many women haven't stood up and said, hey i sucked. i did it.== way too many fking women sucked and won't admit it. they GENERATED THE SAME CRASS STRUGGLE, lol. it was a two-way sex communion. just like usury. the powerful indebt the weak through promises and promotions/loans.

 

[trump blows loudly!!]

those who never sucked, please stand over here...

[the room remained motionless, not a single person moved, man or woman.]

 

besides, the way liars and cheaters work, cosby will get roasted and reinstated by 2030. but people like this make shtty husbands and the social battering their women take can't be good for any economic level of society.

 

call me SINIKAL if you like, but there is the obvious "life beyond hashtag" HER 3 moment. or, if people actually still waste time tweeting in a year or two, if will just be the #HER3 movement. you're welcome.

 

and i'll never understand why women put up with their lousy husbands or vice versa. and i don't like to be reminded of these unions.

 

some of these lady "friends" still call me up every year to get my mailing address so they can show off their family accomplishments each year -- the xmas card somehow the symbol of their year long creativity.

 

but somehow i can't help noticing that that fantastic ALBUM or PAINTING or POEM or NOVEL never got made and that these women were never going to become the person they so devoutly claimed they were going to be when we chose a friendship together.

 

and i was INTENTIONALLY biased. i literally CHOSE my friends based on their desire to propagate and create a family. if they were going in that direction, i parted ways. i grew up on hip hop and the first rule of hip hop is NEVER DATE A SINGLE MOM. if you cross translate this to reason, the embedded information can be decoded:

 

women with children will almost always prioritize their relationships AFTER their kids. kids get top billing.

 

and if they don't, that's almost worst, literally. it's a more fkt up situation if they don't really like their kids.

 

second, this prioritization precedes any relationship no matter what the historical longevity or nature of the association.

 

third, you won't get anything out it because it's a lopsided amago.

 

and men were way more into the idea of doing it so i ended up knowing a lot of women instead who were ADAMANTLY against bearing adam's seed. they were violently opposed to motherhood and the way it would steal their lives.

 

then, one-by-one, they all got knocked up or stalked husbands or finally said yes to the one guy who wouldn't stop bothering them. which was very" 1:30 a.m. in the bar", if you know what i mean. it was random and unprepared bipolar fk-uppery if you can imagine. these ladies just seemed to grab the most available dude around and bang out a carbon copy of themself.

 

terrifyingly for me, some of them even tried to use my seed or hit me up sexually. talk about a "friendship" shifter...

 

but i rode with the bipolar shift for several years with each of these women -- feeling more and more like an overgrown male cheerleader at a nursery school basketball game on a wednesday afternoon. and as time went on, it became clear that i would never get to hang out solo with any of them again until they had made it through their children's childhoods.

 

it became obvious since i knew so many women who were stricken so suddenly with this permanent and transformative condition people call motherhood. it was a slavery and they were trying to drag me through it with them, each with their own clever ways of masking their loss of freedom and associations with other sane adults.

 

each of them had self-generated these games that they would play and it altered their dance of social connection with everyone they had known before. for example, they would only reach out when they needed an "escape" from the drudgery. weirdly, they were in no mood or condition to actually escape. so their "reaching out" effort was more than a cry for help. it was a misery that they wanted to share with someone else who wasn't miserable. and that is grounds for boredom and rejection and resentment and disconnection.

 

they were ALL beat down and dumbed out by the mind-numbing effects of a "CONSTANT NEED" addition that was suddenly at the center of their new lifestyle. this hardly stopped ANY of them from filling out the cycle by having another child within two years of the first child. lucky for their generation they had the know-how to get the crawler walking before the new infant is born.

 

when i had lived in santa fe, new mexico, my partner had several girlfriends who also swore they were never having babies. one of them had just succumbed to the LATE BIRTHING DISORDER and had popped out a precious little copy of herself. she was the first person i watched going through this cycle.

 

and it was new for me to "be there" for someone who was socially plagued by a living creature. i've known "pet people" who have to constantly talk about their relationship with an animal like it's a person and chose them and aren't they so great because a dog or a cat tolerates them... and i generally terminate these relationships.

 

bestiality is a much greater sin than the RED MEAT INDUSTRY would want you to believe. it isn't just about having sex with animals. bestiality at its more immature and shallow and stupid state is PEOPLE HAVING SEX WITH ANIMALS. but the actual economic and social aspects of bestiality are what really led to the laws against what applies to the 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of humanity which doesn't have sex with animals!!!!!

 

so let's start with basic definitions:

 

bestiality is when you become actively involved in the reproduction SEX cycle of an animal. this includes spaying/neutering, any kind of fertility enhancement or hormones or antibiotics.

 

bestiality is an ancient idea that forbids the enslavement of animals and the control of their reproduction cycle.

 

i didn't make this up. like i said, it's FKING ANCIENT.

 

anyway, pets and the ownership of pets is BESTIALITY. and i'm not blaming or judging, i'm just pointing out that there is a A LOT OF MODERN DELUSION about what bestiality is.

 

anyway, being a mom with a living creature that you made is life changing. in our society we naively believe that this is a change ALL women who give birth should go through.

 

whatta fking joke!!!

 

that is a lie made up by a bank clerk or a school don or a car salesman.

 

i can picture a world in which the beautiful and amazingly talented women i used to know before they had babies and made babies such a portion of their lives were allowed to become the women they were becoming.

 

instead, their family development decisions beat the crp out of them. and still do.

 

i finally told one of them (she has no idea that i know no so many cookie clone cut outs of her that made the same disastrous decision to hijack motherhood) that she didn't need to send me xmas cards since i'm not a xian and i don't believe in santa claus. nor do i give a fk about her life. and i know this is hard for her, but she didn't give a fk about her life either.

 

she acted like a man acts when he needs to blow a load and it gets so bad he's gonna almost rape his way into getting rid of the energy. and there's something sadly animalistic about this that defies our "social contracts" about being "human".

 

but why should women have to pay for this with the rest of their lives?

 

or rather, maybe women should stop FAKING like they can escape this syndrome that settles on them as the "biological clock" starts ticking in their heads.

 

in my opinion, fake monogamy and the family engineering FRONT that is currently in place works great for cheaters, liars and usurers.

 

but is it good for the OFFSPRING?

 

do the offspring benefit from being in these tense families of future divorce? the shotgun wedding was more like an AK47 showdown where the man was hunted down like prey. and in each case, the relationship wasn't the actual motivation for the union. it was babies.

 

and maybe giving birth to babies makes people wish they could live forever.

 

maybe there is just something so precious about having a baby. i've heard men and women both proclaim arrogantly that there is no deeper love or union than holding your own little creation.

 

but these are the same people who can take no note of the wall of beauty that is life which is always surrounding us. they perhaps needed the responsibility of another life to find meaning in their own existence, to find love within themself.

 

after a very strange showdown in 2009 with one of these ladies, i began to retract myself from these relationships. worse, i began to see them in similarity. you know how it is when something is happening and there are a myriad of sources and reasons and predicaments for which things can be attributed.

 

then the mirror effect begins to happen and you start to see that it is the "condition" that is creating the effect, not the people involved. the people involved are adversely affected by the condition, but they can't control it or bypass or reroute and relocate. i mean you can try. you can set aside time and make an effort to preserve "what you had.".

 

but what i had with all of these ladies was a fun and frolicking friendship based on getting out into the world and bouncing around and making contact with the unknown and the unfamiliar. having adventures!!! that's why one should go outside, imo.

 

instead, there would be kid-sits where you go with kids and sit somewhere while your girlfriend tries her best to pay attention to anything besides the kids. which she invariably can't and then becomes disappointed in herself and the condition, which as i've mentioned can't be changed unless you can make time to see your "friends" without your kids.

 

but even when that works, the human mind is relentless and the mother constantly circles back to the most prominent issues in her world -- her kids.

 

you can see quite clearly how LIFE AFTE DEATH could be a waking fantasy for people caught in this nightmare of joyous parenting.

 

you can see how they would lie to everyone and start to cheat on each other and fk around. you can see how the RISK of losing everything could become a secret addiction. and you can flip the coin and say, "yeah, the dad's prolly cheating on you already..." sheesh, i can't tell you the number of straight dudes having sex with gays. i started asking upfront so that i didn't waste my time crutching those losers, "so, are you married or cheating on anyone?" it made me feel like a loser for having to ask, but it sure saves time not having to listed to those sorry ass men married to women and so bored of them.

 

i say this because sometimes when your biological clock is ticking you can accidentally marry a gay guy who is too afraid to come out of the closet. i know someone like that. maybe two people. and before i made my "no married men" rule for casual sex, i won't even tell you the number of married men i've gone on "coffee dates" with... and 75% of them were misleading about their situation in one way or another so it was something i found out about later, further down the line after more of these "infidelities" had passed between us -- as a true american i don't support any kind of marriage. so i used to not care about people's marital status in anyway. i remained neutral and mostly unknowing. it was generally something that would be talked about later during future encounters. but over time, i realized that it wasn't my behavior that mattered as much as it was how my behavior aided-and-abetted their behavior -- cheating and lying on everyone ironically, the one person it didn't seem like the person was cheating with was me, which was a "known lie" right up front.

 

but again, not really my problem. i wasn't looking for any kind of relationship. just a non-solo sexual event.

an athletic romp, not a history lesson.

and i know for a FACT that any real man deals with this messed up paradigm for decades of their life. the inner rapist is a sexual energy that talks to us like the spirits of alcohol can talk or the addictive demons can speak. but this isn't religious if you cut open a body and see that which you should never see --

the inner workings/animals within us.

there's all this inner life going on with its own rules of exchange and commerce and distribution that is oddly reminiscent of the same rules of exchange and commerce and distribution that we use between our own kind.

 

but for a man, when he's sexually raging, the insanity of sexual deprivation can scream louder than all moral codes or manners or sensibilities. perhaps religions come out of this very seminal and ontological idea -- man is the rapist. women are to be raped.

 

seems weird to me, but i'm weird to everyone.

yes, i think REAL DOLLS will be a WORLDWIDE game changer and if i was in it to win it i would be figuring out how to buy into ABYSS stock or get lined up to buy them ASAP because they or whomever buys them will kick start the revolution. once REAL DOLLS are in distribution, autokar will get abundant go-aheads. the SHEER REDUCTION OF MALE MENTAL SEXUAL INSTABILITY will be noticeable everywhere.

 

and after that, women will lose their STRANGULATING sexhold over men and the hostile force of marriage will lift off of us at the same time that the spirit of USURY becomes more visible and EXTRACTABLE.

 

like a poison, it will be removed -- no longer controlling our SEX ORGANS AND REPRODUCTION cycles and agendas.

 

we will care for things differently when this oppression is ended/relieved. and the shame will lift.

 

so i guess if we're being honest, doesn't it seem like CHEATING AND INFIDELITY are the most obvious outcomes of monogamy? this often will start even before the child breeding part starts. divorce is typical solution at some point in the cycle. often when the children leave the home.

 

how much human awesomeness is LOST in this process?

how much human creativity is LOST in this process.

how many LITERAL years of these women's lives were devoted to the strange practice of INDEPENDENT CHILD REARING?

 

and don't we all know for a FACT that independent child rearing has disastrous effects on the children? especially children who suffer from too much attention, too little attention, too little resources, too many resources, too many disadvantages like PSYCHOTIC PARENTS and their friends or too few advantages like only ONE psychotic parent, bad schools, bad neighborhoods, bad opportunities and access to life threatening drugs and diseases.

 

as an american, i do wonder if fellow americans realize that it is the AMERiCAN DUTY to make sure that those disadvantages don't end up on the shoulders of american children.

 

lastly, let's not forget that it is the USURERS who benefit the most from the after-life theory.

 

after-life theories help to create the ZERO point in life theories.

 

but there is no ZERO point. this is abstract drivel. it's literally a PLACE CARD to demark a grammar construction problem. there is no way to "account" for everything.

 

the usurers know this and have skirted that issue by creating a ZERO POINT in time construct.

 

so many people are seduced by these false abstract concepts in the same way that they are seduced by santa claus and "death with headphones".

 

neither of these things "exist" but they have taken on physical form nonetheless.

 

in money loans and profiteering, the heist works the same way. if you can establish a ZERO point, you can create DEBT and PUNISHMENT for not paying DEBT.

 

this is transactional theology when it comes to "religions". and most religions are about transacting with others. religious texts provide transactional codes of social behavior and responsibiilities.

 

i'm not sure why religions get preference in this country anymore. the original ideas were FREEDOM FROM OTHER PEOPLE'S RELIGIOUS VIEWS, not FREEDOM TO HAVE ANY RELIGIOUS VIEWS YOU WANT. and this is used against our VAST population compared with the scarcity of the founding father population.

 

and still, today, we need freedom from RELIGION's codes and conducts. and people who are religious need to decide if they are AMERICANS first. if they aren't, they don't belong in this country. and this is hard because we have religious/cult groups who form their own economic empires in this country. and it's been allowed to expand, outside investors are seeing how these "religious" groups have used these NONEXISTENT LOOPHOLES ("loopholes" about things which are merely unmentioned and therefore NO RULING is translated by exploiters into a legal crooks' festival until the slow moving litigators catch up, but EVERYONE KNOWS that these aren't "loopholes". it's just more people cheating on others.)

 

but maybe you shouldn't worry so much about all of this.

you'll do better in the next world...