Category: North East England
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Visit North East: George Stephenson’s ‘Billy’
The Killingworth Colliery The engineer George Stephenson went to work for Killingworth Colliery, owned by Lord Ravensworth, in 1812. The area had several pits, with Ravensworth’s the best known. The town, purpose-built in the 1960s, is to the north of Newcastle and sits on the site of the former village that Stephenson would have been…
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Visit North East: Stephenson Railway Museum
*DISCLAIMER: I intended to visit the Stephenson Railway Museum to take my own photographs & learn more. I will be updating this post after the Covid19 lockdown has ended* Introduction The final blog in our series on places to visit in the north east of England (and managed by the Tyne and Wear Archives and…
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Visit North East: Unit’s Standard
The Roman fort at Segedunum has an amazing collection of army uniforms and equipment, along with statues, busts and replica buildings. The legion’s standard display though, is particularly eye-catching, and I was interested to learn more about them. There isn’t a specific ‘Visit North East’ blog to accompany this post, as Segedunum was included in…
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Visit North East: Commanding Officer’s Quarters
Initially I was going to focus on one specific item from the commanding officer quarters – his desk – but there are so many amazing things on display that I thought I’d give an overview of the most luxurious part of the Arbeia barracks. There isn’t a specific ‘Visit North East’ blog to accompany…
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Visit North East: William Jobling’s Gibbet
*DISCLAIMER: I intended to visit the South Shields Museum to take my own photographs & learn more. I will be updating this post after the Covid19 lockdown has ended* The South Shields Museum has a piece of the gibbet used to execute murderer William Jobling in its collection, and a grisly recreation of what that…
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Visit North East: South Shields Museum
*DISCLAIMER: I intended to visit the South Shields Museum to take my own photographs & learn more. I will be updating this post after the Covid19 lockdown has ended* Introduction The South Shields Museum is a huge, beautiful, stone-fronted building with white plaster features on the windows. It sits right in the centre of the…
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Visit North East: A Dutch Fruit Seller
Dominicus van Tol The painting ‘A Dutch Fruit Seller’, showing a bonneted old lady handing out fruit to a golden-haired little boy, was painted by Dominicus van Tol sometime in the 17th century, although there is no exact date given. Van Tol was born in around 1635 in Bodegraven, a town (formerly a municipality) in…
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Visit North East: Shipley Art Gallery
The Shipley Art Gallery is a large, imposing sandstone-coloured building, which sits by itself on a main street – Prince Consort Road, named in honour of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. Over the road from the gallery is the town library, and beyond that the leisure centre. The gallery has a large entranceway and two…
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Visit North East: Merz Barn Wall
The Merz Barn Wall Artist Kurt Schwitters began the Merz Barn Wall in Ambleside in 1947, working in a building on the Cylinders Estate belonging to architect Harry Pierce. He met Pierce earlier in the year when he was commissioned to paint his portrait. Pierce gave Schwitters the use of the barn for £1 per…
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Visit North East: Hatton Gallery
The Hatton Gallery is a two-minute walk from the Great North Museum, and there’s a handy signpost to show you the way. If you didn’t know the gallery was within the Newcastle University campus, you could easily miss it altogether. However, it’s opposite the Northern Stage, which is quite noticeable. The History of the University…