Tag: visit north east
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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: 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…
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Visit North East: Etruscan Pottery
The Great North Museum has so many fascinating artefacts that it’s hard to choose one. I was tempted to pick something from their extensive Roman collection, which includes a replica Hadrian’s Wall and tombstones amongst other things, but I resisted. Instead, I’ve chosen this vase from their collection of Etruscan pottery. I like it because…
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Visit North East: Great North Museum
The Great North Museum, previously known as the Hancock, sits on a small hill at the Haymarket at the top end of Newcastle. When I was a child, the Hancock seemed like a ‘proper’ museum – we had to pay to visit, and it had an old-fashioned feel to it. I distinctly remember a school…
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Visit North East: The Town Hutch
The Discovery Museum has so many brilliant artefacts that it’s almost impossible to single one out. However, the museum helped me out, as they’ve chosen their own ‘Top 10’ to highlight, so I’ve picked number two, the town hutch, to look at here. The Town Hutch The hutch is a large oak box, bound with…