northernvicarwalks – Beside the Tyne to Dunston Staithes

After a morning in Newcastle we crossed the Tyne and had a late lunch at the Sage. Then Julie sat with a book, and I went for a walk. I did about 5 miles west along the river to Dunston Staithes and back. As I blog it I need to go back and add up what I really did in 2018 – and the total was 500 miles exactly. I last recorded it at the end of August when the total was 408. In September I managed 32 miles, October was 24, November 17 and December 19. That makes 500 – so I am a Proclaimer. I managed 2 miles on 4 January, and now 5 miles on 18 January. So that is 9 miles in the first month of the year … . Could do better.

I walked down from the Sage under the Tyne Bridge, by the Swing Bridge, and under the High Level Bridge. The old oil terminal has been derelict for years, but we have some modern art – this is called Rise and Fall, and is by Lulu Quinn (2007). I wonder if it is still “animated with white light”.

Under the King Edward Bridge and the Redheugh Bridge. The art on the old bridge parapet is called Once upon a Tyne, Richard Deacon 1990.

I continued along, past the nice flats, many of which were built after the 1990 National Garden Festival was held here in Gateshead, to Dunston Staithes. These were built in 1893 for the North Eastern Railway. Here trucks of coal from the Durham coalfield were loaded onto colliers on the Tyne. 5.5 millions tons of coal at its peak. They closed in 1977 – much more information at https://www.ourgateshead.org/news/dunston-staithes and http://www.dunstonstaiths.org.uk/. They are open in the summer months, so I must come back for another explore.

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