North East England visit – Day 1

Hello again people and pooches. Joe the Cocker here after a short visit to North East England with my human. We went to visit my dad’s friend Dave, who lives in Blyth, a bit north of Newcastle. My human picked a Shepherd’s Hut for us to stay in for two nights. The drive to the accommodation took us four hours during which I slept most of the time while my human listened to and sang along with nothing but Joy Division on Spotify. Thankfully, I can sleep through his awful attempts at being a front man in a post-punk band. He should know better at his age.

The Airbnb was on a working sheep farm near Consett in County Durham. We loved it as soon as we first saw it. It was beautifully constructed and painted. The interior was cosy and warm with a double bed, a small kitchen area, a beautiful shower room, and was spotlessly clean. I was quite impressed with my human’s choice. Well, that was after I had a good mooch around the farmyard. There were so many new and different smells. Pooch paradise!

We had an early check-in so that we could drop our stuff off and then continue on our journey to Blyth. After another hour, we pulled up at Dave’s door. I was made very welcome by Dave and his wife as they gave me treats and a bowl of water. I was probably a bit overexcited and had one of my mad moments, which involved a bit of screeching and toddler style rolling around. My human tells me off for this, saying that I am an embarrassment. Sorry, but it’s the Cocker Spaniel puppy in me!

So, after the humans had eaten filled bread rolls and cake and chatted for a while, Dave’s daughter arrived home. She was lovely, and I made friends with her straight away. I was made a fuss of by all three of my new friends but, I think that she was my favourite. I took turns snuggling up to each of them. I managed to be the centre of attention as usual. Just as it should be!

It was time for a walk around Blyth with my human and Dave. We had a walk around Ridley Park before heading to Blyth Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was originally on the coast yet nowadays it is 100 metres inland. It was initially 35 feet tall when it was built in 1788. It has been added to in sections since and now stands at 61.5 feet high. It was in operation until 1985 and became a listed building shortly afterwards.

Internally, the structure is unsafe mainly due to its deteriorating spiral staircase, so public access is sadly unavailable. What is available is Dave’s artwork of the lighthouse in various styles and on a variety of items such as prints, t-shirts, phone cases, greetings cards, etc. Just click on the links under his pictures, and it will take you to his Redbubble.com page.

Close by is the Rocket House. During the 19th century, if a ship became grounded near the shore or in the river, a rocket would be fired at it from this building with a line attached. The sailors in trouble would set up a breeches bouy on a thicker line with a breeches bouy attached. Essentially, a pair of shorts for the stranded sailors to be hauled to shore in. It sounds bizarre, but it was very effective, and over 300 such stations were set up around the coast.

‘I listened to the story about saving the sailors, dad, but it sounds like one of your made-up tales’. My human said that it’s true!

Moving on, we walked along Quay Road and Quayside until we came to the William Smith memorial. He captained a ship that took a detour around Cape Horn in 1819 to avoid a storm and accidentally discovered islands off the coast of Antarctica, later called the South Shetland Islands. The British government didn’t believe him. He returned as a pilot on a second voyage to prove the existence of the island. But, one of his previous crew had stayed behind in Chile, and hundreds of ships headed south to massacre the seal population for their pelts. Smith was also involved in this trade. Was he really the first person to discover Antarctica?

We continued along Quayside, where I was off-lead for a while. Dave was a bit nervous of me falling off the wooden quay into the briney. As they say in Blyth, ‘I’m a canny lad’, so I don’t go too near the edge. The walk along the staithes was where trains would run to supply coal directly onto the waiting ships. Both coal and shipping/ship building were the major industries in the area until relatively recently.

Ahead was the Spirit of the Staithes, which is a large sculpture that depicts the trains that delivered the coal to the ships in the harbour.

It’s not obvious what is depicted until it is viewed from the right angle from Wellington Street East.

When viewed from inland, the train and tender are clearly visible. The height of the train in the sculpture would have been the height that the real trains would have run on wooden staithes.

From our whistle-stop tour of Blyth Harbour, we headed back to Dave’s house through Blyth town centre. The shopping area is currently undergoing major redevelopment with a new shopping precinct and cinema in the process of being built.

We took a short drive to Seaton Sluice, a small village at the mouth of the Seaton Burn, on the coast. The harbour was once busy in the export of coal and salt, but it was prone to silting up.

The problem was ingeniously solved in the 17th century by Sir Ralph Delaval, a wealthy local land owner who had a pier and sluice gates constructed. The harbour would fill with sea water at high tide, and the sluice gates would be dropped, thus trapping the water in the harbour. At low tide, the sluice gates would be opened, and the accumulated silt would be flushed away.

‘The Cut’ was a later addition that was built to enable loading of ships regardless of the tide level.

We spent some time walking around the area, and I took advantage of being allowed to run off-lead and to water the plants. Seaton Sluice is now my territory!

I was intrigued by the odd pieces of sculpture that I spotted in the area.

If you zoom in, you will see a mermaid on the harbour wall and a girl on a swing, dangling from the pipe at the bottom of the picture. I asked my human what they were. He didn’t know, so he asked Dave.

Dave told us that they were created by Tom Newstead of Shanti Art. His workshop is at the rear of the King’s Arms. The workshop was closed, but examples of his quirky pieces could be seen dotted around the area.

My dad told me that it was Humpty Dumpty sat on the pub wall. He is a numpty!

We took one last look at the sculpture before we headed back to the car. The light was starting to fade, and we had one more place to visit before we returned to Dave’s house.

We drove to the Hester Pit Disaster Memorial Garden in New Hartley. The disaster happened when two shifts were in the mine on 25th January 1862. The iron beam of the pumping engine snapped and blocked the only entrance and exit shaft to the mine. 204 men and boys were trapped and perished underground. From that day, all British coal mines had to have two shafts.

The garden is the site of the shaft to the Hester Pit. It’s a sad and solemn place. The path bears the name and age of all who died in the disaster. It is awful to see the number of families that were victims and the age of some of the boys is just as shocking. We paid our respects and returned back to Dave’s house.

After a lovely meal, it was time for our drive back to Jessie’s Hut for the night. Tomorrow was to be a full day sightseeing with Dave. I slept all the way back and then fell asleep as soon as we were back in our cosy hut. My human watched some nonsense or other on the TV and kept disturbing me. But, I managed to sleep OK after my tough day of being chauffeured around.

Till tomorrow!