Period drama.....

.....another one from the 35mm slide vaults (it's pouring down outside, scanning a few more won out over a not-essential-until-tomorrow-maybe-I'll-just-live-on-scraps wet shopping trip by a drippy mile!) and it just so happens I can date this one precisely.....it was March 10th 1974 (thank you, oh thank you gods of the internet!)

Five of us shared an attic flat in Percy Gardens, Tynemouth at the time (it was a bit of a squeeze, luckily we got on!), so it was within easy brisk-trotting-even-with-a-hangover-distance (it being a Sunday) to the grassy banks overlooking The Black Middens near the mouth of the Tyne when we heard the maroons go up after the Oregis, and later the rescue tug Northlander ran aground on the rocks. The full news story is here (posted 40 years on in March 2014) and there's another slide scan from the day here (not very good but it at least shows the boats involved in the REAL unfolding drama;-))

I think, no I'm SURE, we went for a pint or three in the Turks Head Stuffed Dog afterwards (though it was definitely 'The Dead Dog' in those days).......hair of the taxidermied canine and all that........