Fredericke Street

A good title for this piece is fishy tales of Fredricke Street. When I arrived to work in South Shields Fredericke was a thriving mixture of local shops, second-hand stores and specialist enterprises. Now half the buildings at the southern end of this long street perhaps with 100 business opportunities have become vacant and the buildings themselves showing every symptom of dereliction. At the northern end there is the post office, some public houses and some take aways to serve a lower income community of rented accommodation inhabited by Muslims who worship at a Mosque where Mohamed Ali had a marriage ceremony with a few days of the visit of Queen Elizabeth to mark her year on the throne. The reason for the decay has been the closure of the Plessey Factory then its reopening by another hi tech firm, then its gradually reduction of staffing through a management out to its present demise, and the rebuilding of part of the area with lower income home ownership with cars to use Asa at Shields or Morrison's at Jarrow.

(I am writing this against a background of Broadway to Bob Fosse musical theatre choreographer who died in 1987 at the comparatively early age of sixty Pyjama Game. Damn Yankees, Big Spender from Sweet Charity and my favourite where I watch the film version once a year Cabaret which he directed but was not involved with the stage production. He was involved with Chicago but had died before the film version. He was also responsible for Kiss me Kate on screen, Lenny and all that Jazz. An early musical involvement was The Bells are ringing (for me and my gal).

At the northern end of Fredericke was the Green Street L shaped area of post war development of look alike shops with flat above and which recently have an a make over and anew lease of life, although the transfusion of a mini supermarket was necessary which involved demolition of one side of Green Street to accommodate the building and car park. The advertising of the Lidl store which opened in mid December has been intensive. Lidl goes in for special offer weeks of everything from kitchen equipment to back to school and office equipment at exceptional discount price. However my interest was not in the special offer low cost staple food fare but their low cost special offer of luxury items especially fish and cured meats.

Tonight I purchased a pack of four Sea Bream for 6.49 and four sea vase at 6.99 with two packs of 200 grams of smoked salmon each 1.69. Tonight I commenced to enjoy the thick cut slices with a twist of lemon on crackers. The Italian ham slices are also excellent value but the great surprise was to find that they had a stock of Spanish Turron at 1.49 where both my British and Spanish suppliers charge around £4 for the same slab. I shall stock up for a year or two. Commencing the first Thursday of January there is to be a sale of office supplies and my eye fixed on photographic paper.

The smoked salmon was delicious in what became a fishy day as with a cup of tea on returning home I had a carton of shell on prawns and then later a defrosted bass which had been the only fish planned for the day. The main purpose of the afternoon shopping was to collect my suit from the dry cleaners after not remembering where I had put the ticket for several hours. I managed a little work but late evening was given over to two films. I have not seen Ray Barrett the Australian actor for at least ten years, the last occasion was an Aussi film which had a wild aspect but more than that I cannot remember. My first cultural encounter with Ray was when he came over the UK but again what for? This evening he was in an Australian Graham Greenish Raymond Chandler offering with a good script in which he provided the thoughtful commentary on the events of an attempted coup for commercial interests.

Then I did some research the first shock is that Ray is now 80 12 years my senior and the film Goodbye Paradise is some 20 years old and the second is that he had a role in Emergency Ward 10 as well appearing in everything that was popular during the late 50's, 60's and early 70's, Dixon of Dock Green, Thunderbirds, Dr Who, Till death do us part, Play of the month and armchair theatre. However I knew most for the over 100 appearances in the series The Troubleshooters 1965-1972 in which appeared with Geoffrey Keen and Brian Latham. And the wild film, well it was for 1976, Don's Party. Despite his age he continues to act, mostly on TV but he has a part in a major film due for release in 2008 Australia which stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Good on you Ray, I mourned the fact that you went home after making your name in the UK.

The second film is a Spanish Mexican rites of passage film featuring the relationship between two young upper class Mexican teens around 17 18 before going to university and their holiday adventure with a newly wed in law whose wedding party they attend along with the President Y Tu Mama Tambien. At one level this is well trodden story as the teenagers vie for the attention and affection of the older girl whose husband has admitted an act of infidelity while away on a conference, as they head for an idyllic beach. What they do not know, nor did the husband when he phoned his admission, is that the young woman has just been told she has an incurable disease. The relationship between the young men changes when she gives herself to one of them but even when she decides to balance up it is too late and the final scene is reminiscent of so many other films, usually about college life, where a group become close but they go their separate ways, never to recapture past moments of collective harmony and shared visions and sometimes shared loves.

There is also a is a reminder that everything has its season and it is wise to accept this is so and not attempt to journey back or stay fixed at any point within one's time span, in Goodbye Paradise as Ray says goodbye to his young companion and settle for being an ex was somebody once.

Northern Rivera Cleadon Hills and Whitburn

3. The Leas, the Cleadon Hills and Temple Park
The Leas is an open space of grasses between the A183 Coast Road at the Groyne, South Shields and the Souter Lighthouse at Marsden, and includes the site of the former village which I have included in the section under History. The Leas are several kilometres in length with a width which varies from 500 meters to under 50.

The land is now the responsibility of the National Trust handed over by South Tyneside Council to prevent possible use for other purposes in the future and because maintenance had proved a cost problem. First impression when driving along the coast road is of a flat surface whereas there are different levels nearer the cliff edge and in parts the grass is left coarse because of wild flowers.

There is a full length gravel cycle path and bicycles can be hired for half or a full day with protective gear, from the information centre on the promenade by the covered walk way. There is roadside parking along most of the length of the Leas and off road car parks at Marsden Bay. There is also parking beach side between Gypsies Green Sports Ground and Trow Rocks which is reached by a road from the Coast Road which also takes one to the former Water's Edge Restaurant and Bar.

At Trow Point there is the gun emplacement on the highest point with commanding views of the South Shields beach and the mouth of the Tyne and here rock has been quarried but is now grassed over.

The cliffs are dangerous from crumbling rocks and there are clear markings which should be strictly adhered to. Within view of each other there are red signs each numbered for the purposes of summoning help in an emergency and at more frequent intervals there are simple benches with a plaque, donated by family or friends. Each one tells a story and it is good to sit and think about the lives remembered, some short, some on behalf of those who moved away from the area, while others were regular walkers through their long lifetimes.

There are three Leas, Trow, Frenchman's and Marsden. There are Housing developments on the other side of the Coast Road and above the bank for a short distance after the junction with the A1300,and then there is a banked mobile home site, the former Lime Kilns and a working Quarry. Behind this area of coast there is a vast area of almost continuous countryside with two adjacent golf courses, the Whitburn and the South Shields courses, active agricultural land, and the protected Cleadon Hill nature reserve from which there are panoramic views across Sunderland to the South and into Durham to the West and across Gateshead and Newcastle into Northumberland to the North West. There is then the Cleadon Parkland as part of the Cleadon Park residential area although from the Cleadon Hills through Agricultural land there is direct access to the vast usually deserted area of Temple Park, a space lager than Green or St James Park in London but left as a natural space with trees and shrubs although there is a lighted walkway and off the main inland road between South Shields and Sunderland there is an indoor Swimming Pool, three large indoor sports courts and a range of other indoor leisure facilities as well as outside all weather pitches and a skate board area.

There is continuing controversy about the purpose of Temple Memorial Park, especially since a fire station was built at the road side opposite the entrance to the General Hospital. There is a commitment not to build housing, business or industrial premises although making better use of the space for recreational purposes would seem sensible as there were only one or two other people when I went for walking breaks while visiting my mother at the hospital.

This volume closes with five pages of photographs of the Leas. Three further pages, and photographs of the area of Cleadon Hill, the Italianate former Waterworks' Tower and pumping station and Temple Park will open the second volume of Rivera 2007.

Northern Rivera South Shields Riverside

The Open spaces

1 North Marine Park

Outside of central London where three parks interconnect, St James onto Green Park and Green Park onto Hyde Park, and where the great space of Regents Park is not too far away. I know of nowhere other than the coastal area between South Shields and north Sunderland where there is so much open space, and formal parkland, and here within moments from my front door there is the immeasurable bonus of the sea and a coastline of rocks, inlets and bays. Find me somewhere else in the United Kingdom which has so much to offer in such a compact area?

North Marine Park is a combination of three spaces on a Hill overlooking the mouth of the river Tyne. The middle space is open grass which runs from the top of the hill from where trees and shrubs obscure the river as it reaches the wide estuary of Little Haven Bay artificially created by the two long piers, one from the north bank headland of Tynemouth Priory and Castle and the other from the southern base of the south bank hill known as the Lawe Top, which as I discovered, some who live in South Shields do not know its name or ever have cause to visit, except perhaps once to the Arbeia Roman Fort.
There is a children's play area on the middle space, compensation for the lack of gardens in the former three storey terraced villas which were once the homes of the sea captains and their officers. The first space, is hidden space, a pathway surrounded by trees and shrubs from the top end of the hill to where the middle space sweeps down a steep bank to the car parks and promenade of Little Haven Bay. It is this area where consultants have suggested the local authority builds a visitor's centre and restaurant for Arbeia and construct a beacon observation tower to signal the existence of the former fort and supply depot. The edge of the bank is where a crowd sometimes assemble, a mixture of locals and visitors according to the sudden disappearance of car parking spaces, usually to watch fireworks on or around November 5th, or as part of the new Mouth of the Tyne Festival over a weekend in July, or on the two occasions when the Tall ships arrived on the river to visit Newcastle and then paraded as they left to race their next leg, or as in this year, to greet the arrival of the QE2 to the Tyne.

To mark the increasing significance of the Fort and occasions for visitors to assemble, there is now a splendid stairway down this part of the bank to the car parks and beach with the Yacht club and Little Haven Hotel at one end and the entrance to the pier at the other. At this lower level it is possible to also enter the third and main space of North Marine Park, a traditional but varied parkland which commences with trees and shrubbed walks down the hill to several bowling greens towards the sea shore, to pleasant walkways, some lined with rose bushes, other flowers and flowering shrubs, to secluded picnic areas which are given an oriental feel because of archways and a pagoda like building on a little hill. Within this area there is what appears to be the basics of the hull of a ship, a pirates' ship perhaps, and when weather permits, a putting course.

The park ends at Ocean Road, which was once a tributary of the Tyne thus the Lawe Top was an island and from here you can cross the road into South Marine Park, or walk into or from the town centre enjoying a meal at the best fish and chippy in the North East, or at one of the score of oriental and Mediterranean restaurants and take ways, having had an enjoyable bed and breakfast in the score of little hotels and guest houses, or after a good night at the Custom's House which can be reached at the far end of this road through the pedestrianised shopping area, passing the linked metro and bus station and crossing Market Square and the road to Mill Dam, perhaps then going to one of the late opening bars or night clubs which are now concentrated half way between the river and the beach.

The road between the North and South Marine Parks is always a busy one as visitors by car and motorbike make their way to the beachside car parks, the amusement park, and the sea front restaurants. It is a popular area for young people to congregate regardless of the weather, or time of year.

2 North Marine Park
Bents Park
Bents Recreation Ground

Across Ocean Road is South Marine Park, which is undergoing a multi million make over, recreating its former Victorian originality, but with the latest features. This is also a park on a hill, with a wide walkway with flower beds on either side, commencing from the lower entrance gate climbing to its southern point, from where one can look down over the park and the coast. At the upper level there are statues which once adorned the front of the Town Hall, a water feature an a series of grassy steps and this is one of the areas of the park where improvements and changes are already underway.
At the lower level there is also an area of walks among flower beds and a small wood before the main area which is more popular with local families than the beach. There is a boating lake full of swans, about eighty at the last count, and a little train with circumnavigates. There is a small open air café where I have enjoyed an early morning bacon butty and coffee, but from midday on good weather days, it is rare to find a spare seat, especially since the government introduced the welcome smoking ban in all cafés, restaurants and bars.

A new feature of the park to south west of the lake is two large children's play areas to the latest standards of safety, one for the younger children and infants, and one for the older and more adventuresome. From here, sweeping up the slope to the top is a picnic area with suitable spaced picnic tables with integral seats. During what is becoming the annual Mouth of the Tyne Festival the park is given over to entertainments on stages and walkabouts.

Across the road is the third separate Bents parkland consisting of a large open space which in July is used for what has become a major regional event with four free concerts on Sunday afternoons, but with two stages, on both the Saturday and the Sunday of the Mouth of the Tyne festival. For this event the park, together with the area of Tynemouth Prior and Castle, is covered with large flags. While the Sunday afternoon concerts attract artists of the calibre of Cliff Richard, sixties bands such as the Animals and the latest X Factor idol such as Ben Mills, the Festival includes performers from around the world which this year included Maori group Te Masterae Kapa Haka, and from India, the Jaipur Kawa Contemporary Brass band, traditional jazz from Norway, from France the Les Snob Glissssendo and Les Osieaux de Lux, from Brazil Alumino Rootsa Reggae and from Holland or was it Germany the Jo Bithune Fanfare, a kind of thirties Oomph band with dancing and from Spain, La Tal. There was New Yorker singer songwriter, Dean Friedman and regarded as a leading contemporary jazz artist Courtney Pine although the local interest was with the legendry Lindisfarne hero Billy Mitchell and there was strong support for the Blockheads which were once fronted by Ian Dury. The space is sometimes used for exhibitions but for most of the year it is a public recreation area across from the main beach.

Screened by trees and shrubs there is fixed mobile home/ caravan site, with space for touring caravans, motor homes and tents. On the other side of this official site there is the Bents recreation space, an enormous flat open area used for a dozen football games on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with on its beachside space for over flow car parking which is taken up during the summer, particular when there are special events. Across the road at the far end of the Bents Recreation space there is the Gypsies Green Stadium and the beginning of the Leas.

The Gypsies Green stadium is where there is to be a new hotel and conference centre and where Her Majesty the Queen was guest of honour at an event to mark her 25th anniversary of succession.

1172 WOW QE2 but cruising?

They came from Durham, from Washington and Sunderland, from Gateshead, Hebburn and Jarrow and from all parts of South Shields. I had forgotten they were coming.

As I returned home from hospital for an evening meal and a washing, drying, ironing cycle to get underway, turning left from Ocean Rd into Lawe Road, I remembered why they had all come as the road way was full of cars ahead of me, coming in the opposite direction and parked on either side. The great Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 I was visiting the Tyne overnight on its 40th Anniversary Journey around the United Kingdom.

Now I must begin with a confession, I have never been into this cruise ship thing. I cannot see the point. I mean so much time spent at sea and all that food and then when you get anywhere it is such a great rush to see anything, and it is non stop extra costs if you do. But there is the romance of the great Atlantic crossings for the rich and the famous, and then there were the slave ships and the Titanic.

I was not best pleased by the great difficulty reaching my house and fortunately there was one parking space in my back lane. I unloaded and then taking my camera made my way along with a stream of other local residents and visitors across to the North Bents Park fairway where I could see over the heads of those standing on the hillside banking out beyond the piers to where the great ship was circling. There were tugs and ferry boats and other craft filling the water alongside the narrow entrance to the river and lots of bright red banners and school children holding red flags. It did not take long to work out that the problem was the fierce wind and the darkening clouds suggested that rain was shortly at hand. There was little point in waiting so I went back home.

First the washing and then an evening meal, two chicken breasts wrapped with bacon and cheese, breaking off after three quarters of hour when the local radio said that onlookers phoning in were saying the vessel was on the move again. I went out but this was a false alarm as it was making another circle along the coast.

I returned to watch England losing at cricket on the TV. I cannot remember what it was that made me look up through the window to the sky and notice it had lightened with smidgens of blue, and the wind appeared to have dropped a little. I grabbed my camera and heard the firework begin and could see the ship head on for the entrance between the piers. As it moved between the piers its horn was deep, long and powerful, the first of several blasts to make sure everyone in the town would know, and before it a special ship launched salvo after salvo of rockets and fire crackers to emphasise the point. . The once fastest and perhaps the greatest of the transatlantic liners was beginning the last cycle of farewell voyages before going on show in retirement at Dubai in 2009 as a floating hotel purchased by its government for 100 million dollars.
She was the Cunard flagship between 1969 and 2004 when succeeded by the Queen Mary.

She weighs over 70000 tons and is nearly 1000 feet in length 294 metres and has a top speed of 34 knots. Her height is over 154 feet over 50 metres. She take over 1750 passengers and over 100 officers and crew. Originally constructed for £29 million the company has spent over fifteen times this amount on refits. The Atlantic crossing was 4 days. 16 hours 35mins on the maiden voyage and Prince Charles the first civilian board on her voyage from the Clydebank shipyard to dry-dock at Greenock. In 1970 she made a record crossing in 3 days 20 hours and 42 mins.

When the ship attended the 25th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel Libyan President Gaddafi ordered an Egyptian submarine to torpedo the vessel but this was countermanded by Sadat.

In 1982 she transported 3000 troops and 600 volunteer drew to the Falklands, refitted at Southampton with three helicopter pads and the public lounges into dormitories.
In 1992 the hull was damaged as she ran aground off Cuttyhunk(?) Island Cape Cod

The ships has travelled more than another 13 times to the moon and back, completing 24 full world cruisers with over 2 million guests.

The 40th anniversary cruise of 8 nights was sold out commencing at 5 pm Saturday and was scheduled to arrive Newcastle at 4pm will depart at 6pm tomorrow, making for Edinburgh and then after cruising the North Sea to Glasgow on 20th where the ship had been built and then to Liverpool 21st the original official home of Cunard where on her previous visit it is estimated one million people viewed her arrival and departure. She arrives back at Southampton on 23rd. Fares started at £1000 to £12500 for a grand suite.

As someone who regular experiences the north sea ferries towering the river entrance on their entrances and exits twice a day the arrival of a large ship is no longer a novelty but one could not help being caught up with the excitement as this awe inspiring vessel entered the narrow river entrance and towered above us. Having reduced speed to enable the four tugs to edge it safely into mooring at North Tyneside it was possible to following its journey up the river and join the crowds who had remained with cars parked on every conceivable space and with all the windows of riverside homes filled with families and their friends. No one was complaining about the length of wait now although the local radio had been inundated with northern humour. It was a memorable WOW.

The local press and the TV gave prominence to the recent with special editions and interviews and this was a fitting moment for the Port of Tyne which covers facilities on both banks at South Shields/Jarrow and North Shields/Wallsend. So I am converted to the concept. Alas no. Take for example the sold out 15 night Mediterranean Odyssey in October 2008, where if you have a reasonable getting up and breakfast you have about 6 at the most 7 hours at Naples and Athens and three hours or so in a morning's stop at Gibraltar and there are only 9 places visited with five 24 hour periods at sea. And the costs. The cheapest single occupancy outside room is £5000 up to £11.500. But I am in a minority of opinion. The Carnival Line has 18 ships, Costa 11, Cunard 3, Fred Olsen 5 Hebridean 2, Holland 14, Island 2, MSC 9, Norwegian 14, Ocean2, Oceana 3. Orient 1, P and Q 6, Princess 18, Regent 4, Royal Caribbean 21, Seabourn 3, Sea Dream 2, Silversea 4, Spirit of Adventure1, Swan1, Thomson 4, Windstar 3, just under 150 vessels. You can share the experience with 6000 other passengers although the vessel is yet to make its first sailing and a three month round the world adventure will set you back from £50000, On one web site listing some 150 the largest cruise ships the majority were build in Finland France Italy and Germany, the UK half a dozen and surprisingly Japan 4 and the US 1. There are 35 under construction to commence sailing over the next 3 years and among the attractions on offer in addition to large theatres, cinemas, choice of a dozen restaurants and a dozen bars and pubs there will be a two storey library, nine hole golf course, a rock climbing wall, and ice skating rink, wedding chapel and of course internet data ports in every state room for Myspace surfing.

Postscript in 2002 there were 25 outbreaks of a virus in cruise ships affecting 2648 passengers, and in January of this year 17% of passengers on board the QE2 went sick.

I had hoped to relearn how to insert photos into Blogs but failed although I did manage to do so in a bulletin