When the Boat Comes In

Still on Tyneside, my work meeting finished at lunch time so I took an opportunistic half day's leave and headed to the coast. Narrowly missing @meancoast land, I alighted at Cullercoats and walked down Long Sands to the Priory at Tynemouth.

Going back ten and fifteen years, this would have been a typical weekend jaunt for me. Many a time it would be a sunny day in Newcastle, shorts and t-shirts would be donned, and we'd head off to Whitley Bay or Tynemouth on the metro, only to find when we got there that a thick North Sea fret had settled in, and we'd shiver our way back home again.

No fret today, just unbroken sunshine, so I continued my walk with an exploration of the North Tyneside blue plaque trail, which took me along to North Shields and back along the river to the mouth of the Tyne, via various historic landmarks, associated with Stan Laurel and the children's writer Robert Westall among many others. I resisted checking to see if the world's greatest second hand bookshop was still operating in North Shields as I would have stayed there for hours and returned with too much to carry.

It was above the fish quay in North Shields that I saw the Port of Tyne tugs heading out, and looking out to sea this great blue and white monster, the Marvelous Ace, sliding into the river mouth from Rotterdam. It's this sort of scene that gives the mouth of the Tyne such a strong sense of place. In the foreground is the North Shields New Low Light, erected by Trinity House in 1808-10 and over the other side of the river is the distinctive red Groyne Lighthouse of South Shields.

Apologies for the rather obvious title.