NORTH EAST JEWELS - A FOREIGN TAKE ON THIS REGION........one from the archives of this site. If only we had a proper tourist budget, and vision, is all i will say...........................anyway, the foreign visitors take........on our North East Jewels.......................Cheers. Brian... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NORTH EAST JEWELS A small article to describe just what old Northumbria, a previously independent kingdom, and still a very distinct region stretching from Berwick to the Boro and just beyond, offers. Canny difficult task. The idea of a brief piece on our region came from a contribution made to a Southern Spanish tourist brochure about Granada, which allowed some space to introduce aspects of our own culture, and history, in its various forms. Writing that reminded me of my own frustrations, in old Malaga city when I saw brochures on Britain, with no mention of the North East, and even worse,of a boat journey from Sweden, where catalogues appeared, on the way home to North Shields itself, mentioniing that people should see London, Oxford, Scotland, Wales, you name it, adding instructions on how to get on the UK motorway or rail system to do so. Again, no mention of Northumberland or Durham - I did my best on that one, and persuaded a couple of Dutch tourists that there was a canny bit to do and see as soon as you popped into North Shields, with its rich history, and then used Newcastle as a base to wander around our hidden jewel. Lack of material about our place was not the fault of our people who try to promote the North East. Our budget for such publicity was, and still is, pathetic. Anyway, we all have our own different views on the beauties, the endless sites, the music, the buzz, of Northumbria, so it is perhaps best to listen to the opinions of those from places far south of the Watford Gap. Foreign friends, former workmates, Spanish, Germans, Swedes, and others, who visited us over the years. Naturally, they were fascinated by Hadrians Wall. and by Holy Island, original home to our Lindisfarne Gospels written by The Venerable Bede, which were nicked by Henry the Eighth, and still remain unreturned from London. Hans, a Swede, could not believe the amount of castles around, some intact, some in ruins. I had to tell him that part of the reason for all the forts was down to the fact that it was not much fun in those days living in a Border Region between the English and the Jocks. Evi, a German lass, was astonished by the beauty of the Cheviots, and was interested in the history of the Border Reiver clans, the Milburns, the Charltons, and I could not resist, given my surname, the Halls - though had to admit that our side of that family just had a small zone near Wooler all those centuries ago. Horst liked to wander around Druridge Bay, whereas some of the others preferred beaches further down the North East coast. An American ex-girlfriend loved Whitley Bay, but confusion arose in a pub there as she was from Washington DC. Overhearing her, a friendly but fairly inebriated local misunderstood, and said he knew Washington well, as he used to work in the pits there. Inevitably, the Spanish in particular were pretty reluctant to venture into our North Sea. They all visited Beamish - Carlos ventured down the pit itself there - and some later saw Woodhorn Colliery Museum at Ashington. They found reminders of an industrial heritage, when the region was an economic powerhouse and wealth creator for Britain and its Empire. King Coal ruled, with its assistants - shipbuilding, steel, and engineering, and learnt of the terrible cost to the lives of all those who worked in such places. One took a major interest in the huge waves of immigration which took place in those days, and learnt from friends of the emigration too, in harder times, in search of work. Alongside this lay a history of inventions, too many to mention. Suffice to say astonishment broke out, again, at the bridge at Causey Arch and the Bowes Rail Museum with its pulley system remnants, the early carrier of King Coal. Anna discovered the Railway Stephensons, the Stockton and Darlington track, and even found out that the Edision Light Bulb was not created by the American, but by a Gateshead bloke, Joseph Swan, with a school now apppropriately named after him. In the Land of the 3 Rivers, there was clearly much to impress them all. Not least the people themselves - the common strand if you like.. All knew some of the endless list of famous people, but the welcome they received from the so-called ordinary folk was the thing that hit them. All these foreign visitors knew English, to varying degrees, but were totally baffled by our accent, dialect, and its speed - the Spanish were reminded of home on that one. Horst got totally confused by my Mam - not by her accent, as she spoke to him in the slowest tones ever heard from her - but by her invitation to him for a cup of tea. He expected the cup, only to find that it was accompanied by pit heaps of cakes, stotties, and rock buns - he did his best, as he had previously eaten a couple of giant burgers in Durham before the visit. He also met the local humour on that occasion in Mams sheltered housing flat. When he arrived, she met him at the entrance and introduced the tall German, 6ft 7 actually, to an old bloke sitting near the main draw. The latter stood up, he was about 5ft 4, informed of Horsts nationality, and said Thank God, The Buggars A Met werent your bloody height!! Horst laughed, and they shook hands, cracked on for a bit, and invited him to come down the Club anytime. All guests over the years were captivated by the majestic Durham Cathedral itself and the Spanish even managed to see the Miners Gala one July. Hans stood on top of Penshaw Monument, looking at the County landscape, no longer dominated by pit after pit. He saw Sunderland, ancient home of shipbuilding and glass-making, South Shields town hall clock, home to a proud maritime tradition and to Fitzgerald, the hero of Gallipoli in World War One and honoured every year in his adopted Australia, and the top of Gateshead, including the area where the miners of the region met on Black Fell in the 19th century to help form a union. He saw all ths from that Monument - it was a clear day by the way. They saw Fog on the Tyne, the bridges, the buildings, and not least took in the buzz. The Bigg Market did cause some bother between Carlos and his wife Angelica on one of their earlier visits. Looking very Spanish, the local lasses found him a novelty, much to the delight of Carlos, and after a good hour or so, Angelica insisted that she preferred a game of dominoes in the Azure Blue in Bensham. She loved the game, and the attention given her to by young and old in the bar there, but probably had another motive too. To get her husband out of that Bigg Market. Hans was intrigued when, further south, he saw the Transporter Bridge, the famous engineering feat taking cars over the river, and the Swede was then up Teesdale and High Force. Crossing over, he found himself in Weardale to discover the Killhope lead mine centre and returned later to use the increasingly world famous bike tracks which emerged from the old railways. The latest arrival was Pilar, a niece of Carlos. She fell in love with the North East as well, taking in the old and the new. Like the rest, she loved the people, and saw the regeneration of the rivers, from the Millennium Bridge, the Baltic, the Sage to Hartlepool Marina. She proudly has a photo of her next to the Angel, which did not a Shearer strip on that day. She plunged into the vast music range - she preferred the wide variety of modern stuff available across the region but did like the Northumbrian Pipes. She also had an inclination for the cafes, bars, and night club scene, and there was plenty of that available for her. She had arrived to improve her English for 3 months - which did cause some amusement - and stayed for 13 months or more, before she was finally booted onto a plane to continue her studies back in Spain. She still remembers it all, from the night life to the passion for sport, where King Footy rules that particular jungle. She saw a match at one of our excellent footy stadiums, St James Park. She still has a SJP, NE1 magnet on her fridge in Seville. Grudging apologies to Boro and SAFC fans by the way, but her host was not going to take her there! She did make to Durhams Cricket ground though. All of those guests realised that our region is no paradise - it has its social problems, obvious and well-documented, but this article is clearly not about that side of our life. They clearly felt that they were somewhere very different, very special. Maybe Horst was right after all, and maybe that pathetic tourist budget means that London is actually helping us. As he stood at Dunstanburgh Castle, after his visit in search for Craster Kippers, he said - keep this Jewel of a region quiet, otherwise you will be swamped by a massive tourist invasion. Mind you, he hasnt kept it all that quiet. He is coming back with his son in October. To watch Newcastle United against Doncaster. And at least he knows what to expect for tea the day afore. tarah. Brian............and so very, very proud of this region, in a helluva lot of ways. Not least, so many of its peoples.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 16:59:54 +0000
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