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The next part of the BoBS anti-Oleon storyline!
Just as soon as Guy K. Wyndzon heard the news of King Fernando’s rash attack on Oleon, he knew his presence would be absolutely necessary in Terreli. So he sailed off on the fastest ship that could be found.
Halfway across the Brick Seas, they were hailed by another Eslandian ship carrying the latest news of the Mardierian reaction to the Eslandian offensive.
As they stopped for fresh supplies at Weelond on their way, the townsfolk came bustling out, full of the news from Nellissa, where Román Esteban Fontonajo had declared independence from the crown.
On all sides, Guy was beset with questions. What did the High Council think of the King’s actions? Would there be war with Oleon? How about Corrington? What measures would be taken to stop the King? Would the colonies establish a new government, closer to home?
Throughout it all, diplomatic messengers flew back and forth between nations, taxing Guy’s letter-writing capabilities to the utmost.
Nor was he completely free from rumbling mutters of discontent and distrust. Who could be sure that the High Council wouldn’t simply use this opportunity to increase its own power?
Really, his prophecy that without Uncle things would fall to pieces had been fulfilled beyond his wildest nightmares.
Speaking of nightmares, the last leg of the journey took them through rough waters. Sea-sickness combined with the turbulent diplomatic situation really ought to be enough excuse for anyone to have a few bad dreams.
Well, be that all as it may, Guy arrived late one night at the MCTC headquarters in Terreli. There to greet him was an impromptu gathering of friends and business connections.
There was E. T. W. de Chauncourtois, darting excited glances out from under his impeccable wig.
There was Captain Whiffo, pacing the room violently and tapping his massive sword on his hook.
There was Lord Maximillian Damaximus, looking fresh, new, and important in his faultless black suit.
There was Governor Guilder, of Weelond, waiting patiently to broach his own ideas and concerns.
Guy looked as though he would much rather no one had showed up until tomorrow, but, stifling a yawn, he proceeded to business.
“First of all, gentlemen… but, in truth, there is so much to discuss, I’m not sure what ought to be first. I’ll take suggestions.”
“To my mind, the thing that calls most desperately for amendment is the colorscheme of this building. It is completely out of the fashion!” Captain Whiffo drew himself up to his full height (six feet seven, if you included the plume of his hat) as he said this.
There was a bit of a laugh, and Captain Whiffo seemed disappointed to find that no one took him seriously.
“Well,” Governor Guilder began, “perhaps we ought to take things in chronological order?”
“An excellent plan, Governor,” Lord Damaximus interjected. “First let us discuss the policy of the King in attacking Oleon.”
“There can scarcely be aught to discuss in that regard,” Guy replied. “It was a clearly illegal move, completely without declaration of war. We must apologize formally to Oleon as soon as possible. Moreover, we must take measures to ensure that such a thing will never happen again.”
“Which brings us to the more pressing point, I think,” E. T. W. spoke up. “Far too many Eslandians have shown a desire to take the law into their own hands. Revolution is the most dangerous thing that could happen! We cannot permit this to continue unchecked!”
“Certainly not,” Captain Whiffo agreed. “Yet something must be done.”
“The King,” Governor Guilder suggested, “ought to give security to us, making it impossible for him to attack Oleon or any other nation, or take any other important measure, without the consent of the High Council.”
“Of course. But what King in his right mind would sign away his power like that?”
“King Fernando may not be in his right mind,” Captain Whiffo interjected suggestively.
“And how is that going to satisfy these revolutionary spirits?” Guy asked, ignoring the insinuation.
“Satisfy?! Do you want to satisfy such lawbreakers?” E. T. W. sounded quite indignant.
“But not all of them are so radical. And there is much that is true in what they say.” Guy drummed his fingers on the table. “The fact is, this government, so far from the colonies, is not quite capable of understanding all the exigencies of its subjects located so remotely. Consider for instance the case of Mardier. We, in the colonies, were able to realize the necessity for active exertion once we discovered the close proximity of an island claimed by Mardier. Yet we were hindered by the King’s orders to relocate the troops against Oleon.”
“Hardly hindered,” Lord Damaximus pointed out, “since we didn’t obey.”
“Foul! I call foul! Royalty cannot be disregarded in that fashion! If this continues it will spell the end of the old regime, and quite possibly the end of law and order as well!” E. T. W. had sprung from his chair and begun to pound the table.
“Softly, softly, sir.” Governor Guilder’s peaceful voice was heard. “Law and order must be maintained, certainly. Yet they must be maintained in the face of an illegal monarch quite as stringently as in the face of an unruly mob.”
“True,” E. T. W. conceded. “Neither King nor people can disobey the law. I must own, however, that one tyrant seems to me preferable to several hundred, a fickle mob.”
“I trust it has not come to that choice for us. Even in Nellissa, where matters have progressed furthest, the mob has not strictly come into control. Rather, the natural leaders have advanced farther than desirable in shaking off the King’s authority. Yet who can blame them? Something had to be done. I for one am sure that a satisfactory conclusion can be reached with them once we have resolved the problem in hand.” Guy stared thoughtfully at the floor.
“Yes? And what was the problem in hand, again?” Captain Whiffo asked.
“How are we to get the King to sign this… what shall we call it? – Magna Charta? How are we to get him to sign the Magna Charta without being guilty of lawbreaking ourselves?”
“Oh!” E. T. W. interjected. “Is that all? Pshaw. I’ll handle that. Good night. Sweet dreams!” So saying, he bowed to the company, took up his hat, and left.
Lord Damaximus was the first to break the silence. “Well, that appears to have been settled.”
“Indeed. I wonder what his plan is?” Governor Guilder added.
Captain Whiffo spoke up quickly. “Ten to one he’s going to try to k…”
“Hush!” Guy interrupted. “I don’t want to know what he’s going to do!”
“But I was only going to say that if he m…”
Guy clapped his hands over his ears. “Stop! Stop, I say! Tell me nothing that might conflict with my duties as Secretary of State! Besides, you really don’t know what he plans to do, right?”
“Oh, no, no, of course, not exactly. We were only throwing around some ideas this morning. –No, don’t worry, I shan’t go into details. No Kings will be harmed in the making of this charter… at least, not very many. And Chauncourtois is so strict for law and order, too.”
“Well, however he does it, so long as he does it, I’ll be pleased.” Lord Damaximus rose from his seat. “Have matters been settled satisfactorily?”
“Not quite,” Governor Guilder replied. “Many people desire a new, Colonial Government. How ought that to be structured?”
“The structure ought to be left to the people themselves, by representation of course,” suggested Guy. “I move that the Charta include a clause allowing for the establishment of this new government.”
“I second that,” Captain Whiffo added.
Lord Damaximus spoke up. “It seems like a good proposal to me. Captain Whiffo, you will take care to inform de Chauncourtois?”
“Naturally.”
Guy gave a sigh of relief. “Then this meeting can adjourn. Thank you for your assistance, gentlemen. With a new structure, I have faith that we will make Eslandola great again!”
As Guy went to bed that night, he wondered what Uncle might be up to. It really wasn’t like him not to have a hand in such a pie as this. “I’ll bet we’ll find out that he’s been behind the scenes somewhere or another. He couldn’t stay away from such a mess! I wonder how soon he’ll show up?”
KORF (Norfolk International Airport) - 26 FEB 2017
"Southwest 3736" taxiing to RWY 23 for depature to Chicago Midway International Airport (KMDW).
Production Site: Renton (RNT)
Rollout: 20 JAN 2006
First flight: 01 FEB 2006
Delivery to Southwest Airlines: 14 FEB 2006 as N230WN
"Colorado ONE" scheme introduced AUG 2012
Fleet number: 230
Configuration: Y143
Engines: 2x CFMI CFM56-7B24
5,000th Boeing 737
CN 4727 & CN 4134 are wearing two generations of paint schemes as they lead CN 500 into the Port of Montreal.
Yep, I'm a bit of a control freak. And a bit afraid of spontaniety in certain areas...
I don't know what I'd do without Photoshop (or more importantly, without Katherine, my superstar coiffeur)!!
Open issues:
- Will the shorter-hair make my butt look big?
- Is the cut too hipster-ish?
- Will the new 'do make my butt look big?
- Can the lousy wiring in my apartment handle a blowdryer being used regularly?
- Am I freakishly neurotic?
- Is my butt just plain big?
(NOTE: THIS IS A PHOTOSHOP MOCKUP, not an actual haircut!)
Seaboard Coast Line GE U36B locomotive 1776, seen wearing the American red, white & blue paint scheme, in the station area at Dade City, Florida, 4-4-1976, Fred Clark, Jr. Both Fred and I were at Dade City and we both took photos of this specially painted locomotive. When we took our photos the paint scheme was not in perfect condition because the locomotive had been in service for several months.
This photo is from the Fred Clark Jr. photo collection, courtesy of Mark Zelinski. Any credit for this photo must be provided to the original photographer Fred Clark Jr.
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
#ALAD053 Beastie Boys - Sabotage
This is my everyday project for 2010. Taking one lyric from a song every day and creating art or taking a photo inspired from that lyric.
"American 110" to Chicago (KORD) climbs away from 25R in Los Angeles sporting the Reno Air retro paint scheme
Seaboard Air Line West Coast section of the Silver Meteor, led by EMD E7 # 3036, wearing the citrus paint scheme, prepares for an AM departure at station in Saint Petersburg, Florida, March 1952, W.B.Cox - Krambles-Peterson Col, photo Courtesy, Tom Pavluvcik.
This photo brings back found memories of the SAL passenger train operations in Saint Petersburg, with the use of Second Avenue South, constructed of brick, as the station platform. The building to the left is part of the Webb's City Drug Store Complex. The West Coast Section of the Silver Meteor during the winter months typically was operated with six to seven cars, however, on occasion it could be longer. The typical consist normally would include a heavyweight combine (baggage coach), two sleepers, a diner and two to three coaches, however, by demand extra sleepers were at times added. The view of the train in this photo only shows 5 cars, but there is more coach behind the last visible coach, The straight main track can hold approximately 11 cars, along with two locomotives. This train meets the larger Miami East Coast Section of the Silver Meteor in Wildwood, Florida, where the two trains are combined, however, the heavyweight combine normally returns on the afternoon West Coast Section of the Silver Meteor to Saint Petersburg. If the need arises, extra cars may be added in Jacksonville to the combined train. At this time the name of the original photographer that captured this image on film is unknown to me. This version of the SAL EMD E7 locomotive is my favorite, because it has the double headlight installation, the louvered electrical panel vents located directly behind the cab doors, plus it has the "F" style number boards installed, along with the great citrus paint scheme. An ABA set of these locomotives really looks great to me.
To view more Tampa Bay Area railroad photos, visit Tom Pavluvcik's Flickr web-site: www.flickr.com/photos/palmateer/
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Preserved C class loco C501 leads C502,C503,C508 on the short run from Goulburn workshops to the Goulburn station to be displayed for the Thru Runners tour on 20-10-18
3 BNSF Loco's with different heritage paint scheme's pass at Alva Rd near Rochelle,IL. 975 with Heritage I paint, The trailing unit with Heritage II paint and 7423 with Heritage III paint.
Back in the day when you could see Ryanair at T2 at Manchester, here is EI-CJF which they took in 1994 from Britannia Airways where it had been G-BKFH, and G-BTZF.. It was broken up in 2005 at Prestwick. Here it is in the 1996 Christmas scheme. Alan Lord Collection
Two BNSF SD70MACs in the BN 'Executive' paint scheme sit coupled nose to nose while in the siding at El Pleasant, Texas, on January 12, 2020. A recent downturn in the coal economy has rendered these large locomotives surplus so the pair sits here in storage riding out the recession.
Read more about the 2020 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program: www.railphoto-art.org/connections-2020/
Happy coincidence of a secondary color scheme (orange, purple, and green)! A skipper (male Fiery Skipper I think? ID help always appreciated) visits a floss flower at the Huntsville Botanical Garden in Alabama.
Я тут сделала схемку самых распространенных (которые у меня есть, бгг) чипов, копирующих классическую форму 20 линий.
С помощью этой схемки вы будете более менее точно знать, что за чип у вас в руках, если это, конечно, понадобится.
Схемка сделана на глазок и наспех, но я не хочу заморачиваться.
Розовые линии показывают высоту подъема двадцати линий, чем больше их подъем, тем, по сути, можно добиться эффекта большей глубины цвета за счет меньшей площади отражения света.
BL-EBL - это чипы с самым длинным черенком, кстати, их конец черенка идеально плоский, даже слега с выемкой, если посмотреть на чип сбоку прямо, как на рисунке, то подъем линий почти не выглядывает из желоба, виднеются только самые кончики линий, уходящие в черенок. Эти чипы самостоятельно не способны передать глубину цвета, но в сочетании с черным ободком глаз БЛ и ЕБЛ выглядят очень интересно, линии фактически служат цветными полосками между чернотой покрашенных глаз и отражают свет постоянно, вне зависимости от угла освещения. Предположительно, выемки полосок матовые. Самое близкое, что я видела из похожего - отражатели фар.
Обычные чипы SBL-RBL-FBL - это уже, предположительно, копия чипов Кеннер. Черенок уже не такой длинный, с закруглением на конце, подъем линий очень высокий, у чипов хорошая глубина цвета и линии отражают свет только в определенном месте, при обычном освещении сверху отражение света попадает на нижнюю часть чипа, в то время как блик - на верхнюю, довольно красиво.
Brainworm - по сути, нечто среднее между чипами BL-EBL и обычными Такара, но ближе к обычным. Я очень люблю эти чипы, но их палитра очень скудная, постоянно скатывающаяся в серые дымчатые оттенки, мне не жаль, что там редки пронзительные цвета, но там нет и глубоких.
CoolCat II - Их черенок обычной длины, не такой длинный, как у BL-EBL, с плоским концом. Подъем линий небольшой и чипы постоянно сверкают под любым углом довольно большой площадью. Оттого, что у этих чипов линии лежат очень близко к поверхности, а толщина кромки чипа стандартная, то свет отражает еще и широкая кромка, создавая совершенно лишние, на мой взгляд, блики. Цвета у этих чипов развеселенькие и местами даже ядовитые. Однако есть просто отличные оттенки (например, коричневого, красного). Очень обидно, что при такой форме чипов и их ужасном блеске я не смогу их оценить.
I had no intentions in going to New Jersey this weekend. With autumn leaves at peak in the north country I had intended to head back to New Hampshire or upstate New York. But on Wednesday night I got word from a friend that Saturday was shaping up to be the big hospital train move off the long defunct New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in Passaic. These moves would constitute one of the very last on the line as it had been condemned and was going to be entirely removed.
What makes the old NYGL special is that they were the operators of the former Conrail (originally Erie) railroad Dundee Spur that included one of the longest stretches of street running left in the east for 3/10ths of a mile down Monroe Street. Much has been written about this line over the years and I'd known about it for decades thanks to seeing photos and reading about it in Railpace magazine. This street running while popular with railfans has long been a sore spot with the city of Garfield that has tried for decades to restrict or remove railroad operations. In fact their efforts even made a story in the New York Times decades ago: www.nytimes.com/1978/07/08/archives/new-jersey-pages-judg...
Conrail operated the route until 1996 when much to the delight of the city they petitioned for abandonment. But the line's one remaining shipper objected and it was sold and became the shortline NYGL. For a while they were able to grow business and seemed successful giving the line a new lease on life and delighting fans with a roster of vintage motive power wearing a pseudo Erie Railroad scheme.
But the lines major shipper closed for good in 2009, and the railroad ceased all operations in 2012. Having sat in limbo for half a decade with its connection to the outside world severed (where the line met NJT's ex Erie Bergen County Line) its future was uncertain. Seized due to unpaid taxes the railroad finally relinquished all rights in 2019 and allowed it to be cleared abandoned. The new owner of the property swapped land with the city of Passaic so that the location of Island Yard could be revitalized from a homeless camp into a waterfront park.
In February of this year the collection of former NYGL equipment was moved up the line from their one time shop and trans load facility at Dundee Yard up to Island Yard so that track removal and site clearing could begin on the lower portion. There it sat until this past Saturday when a special move contracted to the Morristown and Erie Railroad took place. The M&E used their SW1500 to shuttle the hospital train out to the NJT main where they made the short trip north to deliver it to the NYSW's yard. The equipment has been donated to Operation Toy Train and would be headed to Honesdale, PA for safe keeping via an NYSW special on Sunday to Lackawaxen and the connection with the Stourbridge Line.
After delivering the derelict equipment the SW1500 would return to Garfield and make a second trip light engine down the street to pick up five loaded flats and gons of salvaged rail and hardware before making a third trip shoving north (railroad west) this time back to the NJT main before taking that back to their shop at at Morristown via their trackage rights over NJT.
I never made it to see the Dundee Spur in CR or NYGL days and the line died before I moved back east. So when the opportunity arose on my day off to get one truly last chance at photographing this iconic piece of east coast Street trackage I knew I had to go. Considering I'd recently traveled all over the midwest seeking out street trackage, to have this chance come up relatively close to home was truly a gift and to not attempt it would be just wrong, So,despite the throngs of easily 200 fans out chasing it was a day for the ages with good friends absolutely worth the effort!
There will probably be only one more set of runs down and back up the street with the last of the rail, but I won't be able to make it whenever that happens. So, let's take a look at nearly the last gasp of the old Erie Railroad line down Monroe Street and over halfmoon trestle into Passaic. I have dozens of photos to share but here is one to start.
Making the first move of the day on the line, ME SW1500 (EMD blt. Oct. 1966 as RFP 91) leads a long hospital train of derelict former NYGL equipment up Monroe Street headed to the NJT Bergen County Line connection. They are being walked up the street with a railroad and police escort as they approach the intersection of Cambridge street with the Albanian American Islamic Center mosque providing an interesting backdrop.
Garfield, New Jersey
Saturday October 4, 2020
Part of The Galloway Water Power Scheme - one of a tremendous series of power stations.The Modernist design was by Scottish Civil Engineer Sir Alexander Gibb. You can see the dam in the distance on the right.
Madison, GA's two railroads meet as Q125 blasts by the tied down Cater Parrot power both exhibiting very questionable choice in paint schemes.
Action from the 2015 Circuit of Ireland rally, Which took place over easter weekend and was based around Belfast, Northern Ireland
New scheme 738 departing in some great weather. The vast majority of their 737s are the -800 variant.
We used to get the 767s in the past, but that’s no longer the case.
Ferronor 322 at Baquebano, Chile, August 11, 2008. I believe this was a new Ferronor paint scheme at the time. Photo by Joe McMillan.
It Friday afternoon and commuter trains are ready to bring people back to the suburbs. At the Chicago OTC we see the F59PHI in CNW colors.
Chicago, IL - 2024-11-22
Pattaya is a city in Eastern Thailand, the second-largest city in Chonburi province and the eighth-largest city in Thailand. It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) southeast of Bangkok, and has a population of 328,961 as of 2021.
Pattaya City (Thai: เมืองพัทยา, RTGS: Mueang Phatthaya, pronounced [mɯ̄a̯ŋ pʰát.tʰā.jāː]) is a special local government organization area within Bang Lamung district and has a population of 119,532. It covers the tambons of Nong Prue and Na Klua and parts of Huai Yai and Nong Pla Lai. Pattaya City has grown into all adjacent sub-districts and accounts for the largest population percentage in the district, making it de facto a part of the "Pattaya-Bang Lamung-Jomtien" area, otherwise known as "Greater Pattaya".
The city is in the industrial Eastern seaboard zone, along with Si Racha, Laem Chabang, and Chonburi. Pattaya is at the center of the Pattaya-Chonburi Metropolitan Area (a conurbation in Chonburi Province with a population of 1,000,000), which forms the third largest metropolitan area in Thailand.
The main sweep of the bay area is divided into two principal beachfronts. Pattaya Beach lies parallel to the city centre, and runs about 2.7 km long from Pattaya Nuea (North) south along the coast to Pattaya Tai (South) which is the entrance to Walking Street. The beach, which used to be 35 m wide, suffers from erosion and in some places was reduced to a width of only two to three meters. A 429 million baht beach restoration scheme was implemented in 2018. It will take 360,000 m3 of sand from Ko Rang Kwian offshore to increase the beach width to 50 m.
Without intervention Pattaya will likely see its beaches disappear in roughly ten years according to Chulalongkorn University researchers. Within a month of the completion of the restoration of the first 400 m of Pattaya Beach, the work was "seriously damaged" by flooding. The beach is the first in the country to use imported sand to compensate for coastal erosion. An official said, "...the longer it is left without the flood damage being repaired, the worse it will get."
Scotswood Bridge is one of the main bridges crossing the River Tyne in North East England. It links the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank of the river with the MetroCentre and Blaydon in Gateshead on the south bank. It is situated 5.2 km (3.2 mi) upstream of the better-known city centre bridges.
The Chain Bridge
Scotswood Bridge over River Tyne Act 1829
The first bridge across the river at this location was the Old Scotswood Bridge, or "The Chain Bridge" as it was known locally. It was a suspension bridge with two stone towers, from which the road deck was suspended by chains. An act to authorise the building of the bridge was passed by Parliament in 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. x) and designed by John Green, with construction beginning that year. It was opened on 16 April 1831.
The toll to cross the bridge was abolished on 18 March 1907. In 1931 the bridge needed to be strengthened and widened. The width was increased from 17 ft (5.2 m) to 19.5 ft (5.9 m) with two 6 ft (1.8 m) footpaths. The suspension cables and decking were also strengthened, allowing the weight limit to be raised to 10 tonnes (9.842 long tons; 11.02 short tons). The bridge eventually proved too narrow for the traffic it needed to carry and its increasing repair costs proved too much. After standing for 136 years, it was closed and demolished in 1967 after its replacement had been completed.
Current bridge
Scotswood Bridge Act 1962
A replacement for the Chain Bridge had been proposed as early as 1941. Permission was finally granted in 1960, and authorised by an act of Parliament, the Scotswood Bridge Act 1962. A new bridge was designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson and built by Mitchell Construction and Dorman Long. Construction commenced on 18 September 1964. It was built 43 m upstream of the Chain Bridge, which continued operating during the new bridge's construction. The bridge was opened on 20 March 1967. It is a box girder bridge, supported by two piers in the river and carries a dual carriageway road. Combined costs for demolition of the old bridge and construction of the new one were £2.5 million.
Scotswood Bridge carried the traffic of the Gateshead A69 western by-pass from 1970 up until the construction of Blaydon Bridge and the new A1 in 1990. Between June 1971 and January 1974 traffic on the bridge was limited to single file to enable strengthening work to take place, which was needed to address design concerns. It has required further strengthening and repairs a number of times since; between 1979 and 1980, in 1983 and in 1990.
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.
Lava House is a modern home with a colour scheme inspired by the 1970's and hot lava. Dark orange, dark red, reddish brown and black are dominant colours.
The house is situated on a volcano shaped rock surrounded by a stream of water and sand. In some way it reminds me of Calmwater Cliff House MOC, but it is still very different.
Inside the house you find a fully furnished living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom downstairs and TV corner upstairs.
The grille tiled roof can easily be lifted off in order to display the interior.
My plan is to display Lava House at a Swebrick exhibition in Hässleholm, Sweden, in the middle of August 2018.
American postcard by American Postcard Company, no. 3900, 1998. Photo: New Line Cinema. Publicity still for Polyester (John Waters, 1981). Caption: Divine as "Francine Fishpaw," and STIV BATORS as "Bo-Bo Belsinger" in John Waters' Polyester, 1981. The film introduced "ODORAMA" which allowed the audience to share in 10-of the more penetrating odors that plagued poor "Francine".
Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage name Divine (1945-1988), was an American actor, singer, and drag queen. He was closely associated with the independent filmmaker John Waters. Divine became the international icon of bad taste cinema.
Harris Glenn Milstead was born in 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland to a conservative middle-class family. His parents were Harris Bernard Milstead and Frances Milstead (née Vukovich). Their only child, his parents lavished almost anything that he wanted upon him, including food. He became overweight, a condition he lived with for the rest of his life. Divine preferred to use his middle name, Glenn, to distinguish himself from his father, and was referred to as such by his parents and friends. When he was 17, his parents sent him to a psychiatrist, where he first realised his sexual attraction to men as well as women, something then taboo in conventional American society. In 1963, he began attending the Marinella Beauty School, where he learned hair styling and, after completing his studies, gained employment at a couple of local salons, specialising in the creation of beehives and other upswept hairstyles.
Milstead developed an early interest in drag while working as a women's hairdresser. He eventually gave up his job and for a while was financially supported by his parents, who catered to his expensive taste in clothes and cars. They reluctantly paid the many bills that he ran up financing lavish parties where he would dress up in drag as his favourite celebrity, actress Elizabeth Taylor. By the mid-1960s he had embraced the city's countercultural scene. His friend from high school, John Waters gave him the name 'Divine' and the tagline of 'the most beautiful woman in the world, almost'. Waters later remarked that he had borrowed the name Divine from a character in Jean Genet's novel Our Lady of the Flowers (1943). Along with his friend David Lochary, Divine joined Waters' acting troupe, the Dreamlanders (which also included Mary Vivian Pearce and Mink Stole), and adopted female roles for their experimental short films. The first was Roman Candles (John Waters, 1966), which was shown 'triple projected' on three 8mm projectors running simultaneously but was never released commercially. Divine starred in drag as a smoking nun. Other short films were Eat Your Makeup (John Waters, 1968), and The Diane Linkletter Story (John Waters, 1969), filmed on Sunday afternoons. Again in drag, he took a lead role in Waters' first full-length film, Mondo Trasho (John Waters, 1969) Divine as an unnamed blonde woman who drives around town and runs over a hitchhiker. In their review of the film, the Los Angeles Free Press exclaimed that "The 300-pound (140 kg) sex-symbol Divine is undoubtedly some sort of discovery." In 1970, he travelled to San Francisco, California, a city which had a large gay subculture that attracted Divine, who was then embracing his homosexuality. Divine played the role of Lady Divine, the operator of an exhibit known as The Cavalcade of Perversion who turns to murdering visitors in Waters's film Multiple Maniacs. The film contained several controversial scenes, notably one which involved Lady Divine masturbating using a rosary while sitting inside a church. In another, Lady Divine kills her boyfriend and proceeds to eat his heart; in actuality, Divine bit into a cow's heart which had gone rotten from being left out on the set all day. At the end of the film, Lady Divine is raped by a giant lobster named Lobstora, an act that drives her into madness; she subsequently goes on a killing spree in Fell's Point before being shot down by the National Guard. Due to its controversial nature, Waters feared that the film would be banned and confiscated by the Maryland Censor Board, so avoided their jurisdiction by only screening it at non-commercial venues, namely rented church premises. Multiple Maniacs was the first of Waters's films to receive widespread attention, as did Divine; KSFX remarked that "Divine is incredible! Could start a whole new trend in films." Following his San Francisco sojourn, Divine returned to Baltimore and participated in Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972). Designed by Waters to be an exercise in poor taste, the film featured Divine as Babs Johnson, living in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son and voyeuristic daughter. Babs claims to be 'the filthiest person alive' and she is forced to prove her right to the title from challengers, Connie (Mink Stole) and Raymond Marble (David Lochary). In one scene, the Marbles send Babs a turd in a box as a birthday present, and in order to enact this scene, Divine defecated into the box the night before. The final scene in the film proved particularly infamous, involving Babs eating fresh dog feces; Divine later told a reporter, "I followed that dog around for three hours just zooming in on its asshole," waiting for it to empty its bowels so that they could film the scene. The scene became one of the most notable moments of Divine's acting career, and he later complained of people thinking that "I run around doing it all the time". The film proved a hit on the U.S. midnight movie circuit, became a cult classic, and established Divine's fame within the American counterculture.
Divine returned to San Francisco, where he and Mink Stole starred in a number of small-budget plays at the Palace Theater as part of drag troupe The Cockettes, including Divine and Her Stimulating Studs, Divine Saves the World, Vice Palace, Journey to the Center of Uranus and The Heartbreak of Psoriasis. In 1974, Divine returned to Baltimore to film Waters's next motion picture, Female Trouble, in which he played the lead role. Divine was unable to appear in Waters's next feature, Desperate Living (John Waters, 1977), despite the fact that the role of Mole McHenry had been written for him. This was because he had returned to working in the theatre as the scheming prison matron Pauline in Tom Eyen's play Women Behind Bars and its sequel, The Neon Woman. While in London in 1978, Divine attended as the guest of honour at the fourth Alternative Miss World pageant, a 'mock' event founded by Andrew Logan in 1972 in which 'drag queens' – including men, women and children – competed for the prize. The event was filmed by director Richard Gayer, whose subsequent film, entitled Alternative Miss World, premiered at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square as well as featuring at the Cannes Film Festival, both events which were attended by Divine. Continuing his cinematic work, he starred in Polyester (John Waters, 1981) as Francine Fishpaw. Unlike earlier roles, Fishpaw was not a strong female but a meek and victimized woman who falls in love with her dream lover, Todd Tomorrow, played by Tab Hunter. The film was released in 'Odorama', accompanied by 'scratch 'n' sniff' cards for the audience to smell at key points in the film. In 1981, Divine embarked on a career in the disco industry by producing a number of Hi-NRG tracks, most of which were written by Bobby Orlando. He achieved international chart success with hits like 'You Think You're a Man', 'I'm So Beautiful', and 'Walk Like a Man', all of which were performed in drag. The next Divine film, Lust in the Dust (Paul Bartel, 1985), reunited him with Tab Hunter and was Divine's first film not directed by John Waters. Set in the Wild West during the nineteenth century, the film was a sex comedy that starred Divine as Rosie Velez, a promiscuous woman who works as a singer in saloons and competes for the love of Abel Wood (Tab Hunter) against another woman (Lainie Kazan). A parody of the Western Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the film was a moderate critical success. Divine followed this production with a very different role, that of gay male gangster Hilly Blue in Trouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph, 1985), starring Kris Kristofferson and Keith Carradine. The script was written with Divine in mind. Although not a major character in the film, Divine had been eager to play the part because he wished to perform in more male roles and leave behind the stereotype of simply being a female impersonator. Reviews of the film were mixed, as were the evaluations of Divine's performance. The he reunited with John Waters for Hairspray (John Waters, 1988), which represented his breakthrough into mainstream cinema. Set in Baltimore during the 1960s, Hairspray revolved around self-proclaimed "pleasantly plump" teenager Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local television show and rallies against racial segregation. As he had in Female Trouble, Divine took on two roles in the film, one of which was female and the other male. The first of these, Edna Turnblad, was Tracy's loving mother; the other was the racist head of the station that airs the Corny Collins show. Hairspray was only a moderate success upon its initial theatrical release, earning a modest gross of $8 million. However, it managed to attract a larger audience on home video in the early 1990s and became a cult classic. Divine's final film role was in the low-budget comedy horror Out of the Dark (Michael Schroeder, 1989), produced with the same crew as Lust in the Dust. Appearing in only one scene within the film, he played the character of Detective Langella, a foulmouthed policeman investigating the murders of a killer clown. Out of the Dark would be released the year after Divine's death. On 7 March 1988, three weeks after Hairspray was released nationwide, Divine was staying at the Regency Plaza Suites Hotel in Los Angeles. He was scheduled to film a guest appearance the following day as Uncle Otto on the Fox network's television series Married... with Children in the second season wrap-up episode. Shortly before midnight, he died in his sleep, at age 42, of an enlarged heart (according to Wikipdia or respiratory failure caused by sleep apnea (according to IMDb). It was probably a combination. Described by People magazine as the 'Drag Queen of the Century', Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly within the LGBT community, and has provided the inspiration for fictional characters, artworks, and songs. Various books and documentary films devoted to his life have also been produced, including Divine Trash (1998) and I Am Divine (2013), written by Divine's manager and friend Bernard Jay. Frances Milstead subsequently cowrote her own book about Divine, entitled My Son Divine (2001), with Kevin Heffernan and Steve Yeager. His mother's continued relationship with the gay community was later documented in a film Frances: A Mother Divine (Tim Dunn, Michael O'Quinn, 2010)
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
N3761R, a Boeing 737-832, on approach to runway 24L at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario.
It was arriving as DAL2957 (Delta Air Lines, Inc.) from Atlanta, Georgia.
Serial number 29628 first flew on September 21, 2001 and was delivered to Delta on December 20, 2001.
It is seen here wearing the special SkyTeam Airline Alliance livery. Delta became a founding member of that major airline alliance on June 22, 2000.