The GardenDespatches from The Satyrs’ Forest

Page 15

Autumn

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A small covered shelter in a park surrounded by auburn-leaved trees.
Jesmond Dene in the autumn, courtesy of Newcastle Libraries.

It often feels like, as soon as the calendar ticks over from 22 to 23 September, that autumn, having hidden its face for months upon months, all of a sudden decides to come out all at once. Auburn leaves begin to fall, telling the time until winter like an hourglass; the days get shorter and the nights come earlier, the air gets that particular autumn crispness, and, of course, it begins to rain.i

Not that i’m complaining. Autumn is, in my view, the most wonderful season of the year: yes, summer is nice and warm, and winter is the time for comfort and gezelligheid with family and friends, but autumn is when our festivities are perhaps the closest to how they were millennia ago. Echoes of the last harvest festivals of the year still ring (school assemblies for the young, pumpkin spice for the jaded), and whatever you want to call it — Hallowe’en, All Hallows’ Eve, Samh­ain, Day of the Dead — the atmosphere about that midautumn celebration beats even Christmas for the best time of the year; for a whole month, the western world lets itself get a little morbid for a changeii, and the celebrations have the good sense to get out of the way quietly once November shuffles along.

So. Happy autumn, everyone! Enjoy it while it lasts.

Links for the 27th of September

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It's been far too long, hasn't it? (Rest assured, i have been continuing my walk along the Blyth and Tyne railway — just at a rather glacial pace…)

Walking the Blyth and Tyne, part one: Northumberland Park to Seghill

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Last time on The Garden: the axe falls on the Blyth and Tyne line, and i foolhardily decide to walk its length…

A modern looking metro station divided into two platforms, opening up to the sky above.

Our journey begins at North­um­ber­land Park, in North Tyneside. Though it’s the first station we’ll be visiting, it was the last to be constructed, having only opened in 2005 — and it’s quite easy to tell, even after sixteen years of wear and tear; the place is outfitted with modern amenities, lifts, ticket machines flush with the wall, and, more lately, pandemic-themed graffiti opposite the platform. This unassuming metro station will, according to the county council’s plans, serve as the interchange between the old and new lines, heavy rail and metro meeting one last time before splitting apart and going their separate ways.

A colourful graffito of the word "Pandemik", spelt with a K for reasons unknown.
A modern car park with frosted glass panels juts into the cloudy sky.

Setting off from there, the first thing that caught my eye were twin giants: a frosted glass-covered car park and a red-brick Sainsbury’s, unexpected icons of the modern British condition. It didn’t get much better from there; down the road lies an American-style strip mall lined with bookmakers trying to get people to piss away all their money.

A shopping trolley lies half submerged in a sorry looking scummy stream.
This sorry-looking trolley was, i presume, abandoned from the local Sainsbury’s.

This southernmost tip of North­um­ber­land is criss-crossed by innumerable public footpaths, cycle paths, bridleways, and other routes for non-metal-box-related transport; ducking onto one of the reclaimed “waggonways” once used to transport coal, i found myself on the site of the second station on the list.

Twin rail tracks stretch into the background.

The leafy suburb of Backworth has a habit of burying its history. A hoard of offerings from Roman times was found underground in the 1810s, the last vestiges of the colliery that once was are long gone, and the tale of this sorry ex-station is rather similar. Opened in 1864 to replace a nearby station closing the same day, Back­worth station served its community for over 100 years, surviving the Beeching cuts. But when the Tyne and Wear Metro was announced to come to town, the old station finally closed… for good. It wasn’t until the opening of North­um­ber­land Park that there would be a replacement.

As i wandered through the village's verdant streets, i couldn’t help but think of its resemblance to the straight, cycle-friendly streets of my old hometown. A little greenery can go a long way.

Behind wire fences and train tracks, a van belonging to Network Rail is visible.
A jet-dark pedestrian underpass, its entrance covered in graffiti.
The graffiti reads “Monty Brown is a grass”. I would never say such unkind things about Mr Brown.

Network Rail were hard at work at the site of the aforementioned original Back­worth station, whose plot of land now sits vacant, marking the city’s last hurrah; the further i walked along the dirt back roads, the further the sounds of bustling cars receded, until, ducking under a shady underpass, i found myself utterly alone amongst pastoral fields (and the overwhelming scent of manure).

Hay bales cover a rolling field of wheat.

That peace and quiet was swiftly interrupted by a troupe of boy racers on motorcycles and quad-bikes, but you can’t win them all, you know?

The border between Northumberland and North Tyneside is highlighted in the middle of an unmarked dirt path.
After the county borders were hacked up in 1974, this line became the divider between rural Northumberland and ostensibly-urban Tyne and Wear.

The (post-1974) border town of Seghill occupies only the tiniest fragment of the collective English consciousness, popping up briefly in an anti-scab miners’ folk song called “Blackleg Miner”:

It’s in the evening after dark,
when the blackleg miner creeps to work
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt
there gans the blackleg miner!

[...]

So, divvint gan near the Seghill mine
Across the way they stretch a line,
to catch the throat and break the spine
of the dirty blackleg miner

[...]

So join the union while you may
Divvint wait till your dying day,
for that may not be far away,
you dirty blackleg miner!

A corner shop by the name of "Station House Stores"

For our purposes, it’s chiefly notable for the fact that it’s the first disused station on the list whose buildings are still intact and in use, this time as a corner shop, from which i of course bought a copy of the local rag — prominently including a Q&A about the restoration of service on the line, which i thought a fitting reminder of why i set out on this silly old journey in the first place.

After getting some well deserved rest, i headed on off towards the next town over, awaiting what fresh stories i would find...

Next time on “Walking the Blyth and Tyne”: your author is reminded of her own mortality, finds himself in the company of a noble family, and shudders at the thought of having to go to Blyth, of all places on Gods’ green Earth

Langs de Blyth en Tyne: een introductie

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Langs de Blyth en Tyne: een treinodyssee te voet
Foto’s: Martin Beek, Reading Tom, bazzadarambler, yellow book

Maart, 1963. Groot-Brittannië zit in de greep van de koudste winter in twintig jaar, een nieuwe gezicht bestuurt de Arbeiderspartij, The Beatles hebben net hun debuutalbum uitgebracht, en diep in de krochten van Westminster zit Dr. Richard Beeching een verslag te schrijven — een verslag die het bindweefsel van het land voor altijd zal veranderen.

Dr. Beeching is voorzitter van de Britse Spoorwegen, een staatsbedrijf belast met de exploitatie van het spoorwegvervoer, en zij hebben een klein financiëel probleempje. De BS beheren ongeveer 25.000 kilometer spoor tussen 4.500 stations, en de enige manier waarop ze zo’n grote operatie kunnen runnen is met royale subsidies van de overheid - iets waar de regerende Conservatieven nooit erg blij mee zijn.

Dus legt hij, met een pen in de hand, zijn metaforische bijl aan het netwerk. Duizenden stations zijn klaar om te sluiten. Het is niet prettig, maar het moet gebeuren — mensen kunnen toch gewoon de auto nemen naar de dichtbijste station.i

Een kaart van de stations van de oude spoorweg.

Zo reden een jaar later de laatste passagiertreinen over 8.000 km spoorlijn door het hele eiland. Dat omvatte de lijnen tussen de mijnsteden van het industriĂŤle hart van Northumberland. De Tyne & Wear Metro opende in 1980 en liet sommige heropenen in de buitenwijken van Newcastle en (relatief) welvarende kustplaatsen. Maar een paar km noord ligt de oude Blyth- en Tynespoorweg, al die jaren later nog steeds dicht. Tot nu.

Het lot heeft beslist dat de graafschapsraad en Westminster nu akkoord zijn om deze steden opnieuw te verbinden met de metropool. De Blyth- en Tynespoorweg, nu bekend als de Northumberlandlijn, zal, als alles volgens plan verloopt, in 2024 weer open gaan. Om dit historische moment te vieren, dacht ik te kijken wat er geworden is van deze oude stations. Ik heb er veertien geĂŻdentificeerd, verleden, heden en toekomst. Ik zal tussen elk van hen lopen en elk van hun verhalen vertellen. De lijst bevat:

  • Northumberland Park, een metrostation dat klaar is om het knooppunt van de nieuwe lijn te worden
  • Backworth de tweede
  • Backworth de eerste, al lang gesloten tijdens de bijl van Beeching
  • Seghill
  • Seaton Delaval, gepland om te heropenen
  • Hartley Pit/Hartley, twee oude stations slechts en paar meter van elkaar
  • Newsham, gepland om te heropenen
  • Blyth, op een oude aftakking
  • Blyth Bebside, gepland om te heropenen
  • Bedlington, gepland om te heropenen
  • Noord-Seaton
  • Ashington, gepland om te heropenen
  • Woodhorn: stond op de eerste plannen voor heropening, maar is sindsdien mysterious verdwenen
  • Newbiggin: het station bestaat niet meer, maar de route is veilig gesteld voor het geval

Walking the Blyth and Tyne: an introduction

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A montage of scenes around Northumberland, with the caption: "Walking the Blyth and Tyne (a railway odyssey on foot)"
Photo credits: Martin Beek, Reading Tom, bazzadarambler, yellow book

It’s March of 1963. The island of Great Britain is in the throes of its coldest winter in two decades, senior frontbench MP Harold Wilson was recently handed the reins of the Labour party, the Beatles have just released their debut album, and, somewhere in the bowels of Whitehall, Dr Richard Beeching is writing a report that will change the country’s connecting tissue forever.

Dr Beeching, you see, is the chairman of British Railways, the state-owned company in charge of rail transport, and they’re in a spot of financial trouble. British Railways are in charge of running fifteen thousand miles of track shuttling between about four and a half thousand stations, and the only way they can do that is via generous subsidies from Her Majesty’s Government — something which the governing Conservatives, as a rule, are never too happy about.

So, pen in hand, he takes a metaphorical axe to the network, marking about half of the island’s stations for closure. It’s not pleasant, but it has to be done — and, after all, people can just take the car to their nearest station if their town’s is shut.i I’m sure it won’t be too bad.

An old map displaying the former lines of the Blyth and Tyne Railway, along the coast of southern Northumberland

That's how, a year later, the last passenger trains ran along 5,000 miles of railway across England, Scotland, and Wales, including those connecting the mining heartland of industrial Northumberland. The Tyne and Wear Metro, opened in 1980, allowed some of these lines to reopen in Newcastle’s suburbs and (relatively) affluent coastal communities. But just a few miles north, the former Blyth and Tyne Railway has lain dormant ever since the axe fell… until now.

In recent years, the stars have aligned, and both the county council and Westminster have agreed to reopen the line, finally bringing these proud towns back together. The Blyth and Tyne Railway, now rechristened by the more attractive name of the Northumberland Line, is set to reopen by 2024. To celebrate this historic moment, i thought i’d see what has become of the stations and towns that were. I’ve identified fourteen stations, past, present, and future, along the line, and i’ll be walking between each of them in turn, seeing what stories they tell. The list includes:

  • Northumberland Park, the metro station ready and waiting to become the new line’s interchange
  • Backworth (the second)
  • Backworth (the first), already long closed by the time the axe fell
  • Seghill
  • Seaton Delaval, planned for reopening
  • Hartley Pit / Hartley, two old stations just metres apart
  • Newsham, planned for reopening
  • Blyth, on an old branch line
  • Blyth Bebside, planned for reopening
  • Bedlington, planned for reopening
  • North Seaton, now subsumed within Ashington’s town area
  • Ashington, planned for reopening
  • Woodhorn, listed on early plans for reopening but mysteriously disappeared since
  • Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, no longer in existence but with the route there safeguarded just in case

Won’t you join me?

Recap augustus 2021

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Als de maand endigt en de zomer ten einde loopt is het weer tijd voor de maandelijk recap van alles dat is gebeurd. Dit was augustus.

Bekeken films

Een ticketstompje voor The Suicide Squad
  • Wes Andersons The grand Budapest hotel (2014) — Ik wil binnenin deze film wonen, en als dat niet mogelijk is, zal ik een manier vinden om het hele film aan mijn muur te hangen. Een sterke kanshebber voor mijn tweede favoriete film allertijden. (A+)
  • Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious basterds (2009) — Ik moest me wel afvragen of hun Duits en Frans eigenlijk wel goed was. (A)
  • Ilya Naishullers Nobody (2021) — Een goed actiefilmpje met leuke scènes die ik vermoedelijk zal vergeten binnen de jaar. (C)
  • James Gunns The suicide squad (2021) — Ik ging naar de bioscoop voor de eerste keer sinds de pandemie begon om dit te zien - ik zou alles geaccepteerd hebben! (B)

Beluisterde albums

Diverse foto’s en video’s

Boven een boerderij vol paarden verrijzen voorstedelijke gebouwen, waaronder een pub en een flatgebouw.
De saaie — maar uitstekend fotografeerbare — stad Bedlington.
Op het dak van een gebouw in een drukke stad, een paar stoelen, een plastic tafel, en een ladder naar een klein houten platform.
Genomen vanaf de Tyne Bridge. Ik kan alleen maar hopen dat de winkeleigenaar me niet gaat aanklagen.
Het reuzenetiket van metrostation Monument strekt zich uit naar de achtergrond.
Het prachtige uitzicht vanuit de metro over de rivier Tyne.
Een mozaĂŻek van wolken met uitzicht op een berg is aangebracht boven de bewegwijzering van het metrostation van Gateshead.

August 2021 recap

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As the month winds up and summer draws to a close, it's time again for the menstrual (not that kind!) look back on the month that was.

Films watched

A ticket stub for The Suicide Squad
  • Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) — I want to live inside of this film, and if that is not possible, i will somehow find a way to hang the entire thing on my wall. A strong contender for my second favourite film ever. (A+)
  • Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) — You do have to wonder if their German and French was actually any good. (A)
  • Ilya Naishuller’s Nobody (2021) — A good action film with fun setpieces which i’ll probably forget i ever watched. (C)
  • James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) — I went to the cinema for the first time since the pandemic began to watch this — I think i would have taken just about anything! (B)

Albums listened to

  • The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — I am not entirely sure i could give this album an objective ranking after all these years of it being talked up, so, uh, (Classic/10) [Best track: A Day in the Life]
  • Chvrches’ Screen Violence — It’s.... fine, i guess? Not their best, not their worst. (C) [Best track: Better If You Don’t]
  • Lucy Dacus’s Home Video — Beautiful. Just beautiful. (B+) [Best track: Triple Dog Dare]
  • Green Day’s American Idiot — By the end of it it all starts sounding a bit same-y. (C+) [Best track: American Idiot]
  • Will Wood’s The Normal Album — Chaotic good. (A-) [Best track: I / Me / Myself]

Miscellaneous photos and videos

Suburban buildings rise from above a farm full of horses, including a pub and a block of flats.
The dull but eminently photographable town of Bedlington.
On the roof of a building in a crowded city, some chairs, a plastic table, and a ladder up to a small wooden platform.
Surreptitiously taken from the Tyne Bridge. I can only hope the shop owner isn’t going to sue me.
The giant label of Monument metro station stretches into the background.
The beautiful view from the Metro over the river Tyne.
A mosaic of clouds overlooking a mountain is set above the signage at Gateshead's underground station.

Links for the 28th of August

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Can you guess the Radiohead song from under a second of audio?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5h7nQdWhKg

Best i could do was 8 out of 15, only one better than the gentleman in the video.

You could make a good webpage out of quizzes like these — i don’t know if i’d be willing to risk the copyright claims, but if anyone else wants a go at it, you’re very welcome to the idea.

The Victoria Tunnel

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The Victoria Tunnel runs beneath the streets of Newcastle, from the Tyne up to the Town Moor. It traverses not only space, but time, through nearly every corner of England’s history: built to transport coal in the Industrial Revolution, on the site of an old Roman spring, it was used during the second world war to house those fleeing German bombs. It was even considered for use in the cold war, before the government realised that some musty old coal tunnels would probably not provide the greatest protection against a nuclear blast.

And now you can go down it. In 2007, Newcastle City Council decided to refurbish the tunnel and open a small stretch of it — the rest is either unsafe for sending humans down or currently in use as a sewer — up for public tours. Entry is via a side street along the Ouseburn, where the guides will cheerfully show you a map and some old photographs of the entrance. Once you get inside the tunnel itself, hard hats and torches are compulsory, and covid restrictions are still in full force. This was both a benefit and a malefit: yes, the tour was shorter than it would otherwise be, and masks get quite uncomfortable when you’re wearing them for an hour in a dank, dark tunnel, but on the other hand, our small group of family and friends got the place practically all to ourselves, without having to be shepherded alongside other members of the public.

The water from the ancient Roman spring is directed through a side channel, to avoid it getting all over the tunnel floor. Sometimes it even works!

The tunnel is just barely wide enough to fit three people side-by-side, and if, like me, you’re of a certain height, bumping your head on the roof is practically guaranteed. By every blast door, there’s a plaque about what’s above you, and how it factors into the tunnel and the city’s history, stories with which the guides will gladly regale visitors (including some rather grim tragedies).

Coming back out the entrance, i felt more informed about this wonderful county’s industrial history — just in time to pop over to a gentrified vegan “superfood pub”. The wonders of modern life.

Information for prospective visitors

  • Tours can be booked on the Ouseburn Trust’s website.
  • Price: ÂŁ9–11 per adult depending on the length of the tour; ÂŁ4 per child
  • Address:
    Victoria Tunnel Entrance, Ouse St., Valley, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2PF
    — just next to the CrossFit gym.
  • Accessibility: The tunnel was built in the 19th century and without accessibility in mind, so is not wheelchair-accessible. The Ouseburn Trust do, due to the pandemic, offer a virtual tour.
  • Getting there: The Q3 bus from the centre of town stops nearby; otherwise, getting there poses a bit of a hike, due to its location.

Links for the 20th of August

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Links for the 14th of August

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High Force

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Verborgen tussen de heidevelden en Penninsche pieken van County Durham ligt de machtigste waterval in Engeland. Het water van High Force tuimelt over 22 meter en 300 miljoen jaar rots naar het poel beneden. De waterval is ontstaan waar de rivier de Tees de Whin Sill kruist, een harde plaat van stollingsgesteente die een groot deel van het noorden van Engeland bedekt.

Als het waterpeil hoog genoeg is splitst de kracht zich in twee stromen, waarvan er een de andere kant op gaat rond de rotsen — na stormen kan het zelfs het hele plateau overstromen. Helaas, mijn groep had niet zoveel geluk, ondanks recente regenbuien.

De familie Raby, de eigenaars van het landgoed, vragen £5 om het uitzicht vanaf de voet van de waterval te mogen bewonderen. De waterval torent boven degene die durft naar beneden te gaan… en die niet zal missen dat er enkele mensen staan boven aan de rotsen. Die hebben helemaal niets betaald, want zij wandelde langs de gratis Penninische Weg. Verdorie.

Informatie voor bezoekers

  • Adres:
    High Force, Forest-in-Teesdale, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 0XH, Verenigd Koninkrijk.
  • Bereikbaarheid: Openbaar vervoer is schaars in dit deel van het land, dus u kunt het beste een schilderachtige autorit maken door de Pennines en het negentiende-eeuwse dorp Middleton-in-Teesdale.
  • Prijs: Het Raby landgoed rekent ÂŁ5 voor toegang via de bodem, maar de top is gratis toegankelijk door een wandeling langs de Penninische Weg.
  • Toe­gan­ke­lijk­heid en faciliteiten: Het pad is, voor zover ik weet, niet rol­stoel­toe­gan­ke­lijk. De familie Raby houden toiletten en een hotel voor wie wil overnachten.