River Tyne

I always seem to gravitate to the river.  It was a very dull morning but as it wasn't raining Mr YB and I decided to do one of our favourite walks beside the Tyne at Dunston where we pass the Staithes,  Staithes is another word for a wharf and is a place where ships load and unload their cargo.  

Opened in 1893 it is believed to be the largest timber structure in Europe and was opened by the North East Railway Company to allow coal from the Durham Coalfields to be loaded directly onto ships and taken to customers in London and abroad.  At its peak, 5.5 million tons of cold was moved this way each year.

As the coal industry declined so did the Staithes and it fell into disrepair.  A reprieve came in 1990 when the National Garden Festival was held in Gateshead and extensive renovation work was done to it.

There is now a nice path to walk along by the river which leads to Newcastle Quayside and there are housing developments enroute.  Sadly, in recent years there have been a couple of bad fires at the Staithes - acts of vandalism - which has damaged the structure.  

On a personal note my great grandfather John Joseph worked at the Staithes as a trimmer - his job was to ensure that the coal was evenly distributed on the ship.  When I'm walking by the river I often wish I could go back 100 years and see what it was like then.  No doubt it would be very different to how it looks today.