North East England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers Northumberland, County Durham and Wear, the area of the former county of Cleveland in North Yorkshire; the region is home to three large conurbations: Teesside and Tyneside, the last of, the largest of the three and the eighth most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom. There are three cities in the region: Newcastle upon Tyne, the largest, with a population of just under 280,000. Other large towns include Darlington, Hartlepool, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees and Washington; the region is hilly and sparsely populated in the North and West, urban and arable in the East and South. The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in the Cheviot Hills, at 815 metres; the region contains the urban centres of Tyneside and Teesside, is noted for the rich natural beauty of its coastline, Northumberland National Park, the section of the Pennines that includes Teesdale and Weardale.
The regions historic importance is displayed by Northumberland's ancient castles, the two World Heritage Sites of Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, Hadrian's Wall one of the frontiers of the Roman Empire. In fact, Roman archaeology can be found across the region and a special exhibition based around the Roman Fort of Segedunum at Wallsend and the other forts along Hadrian's Wall are complemented by the numerous artifacts that are displayed in the Great North Museum Hancock in Newcastle. St. Peter's Church in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland and St. Pauls in Jarrow hold significant historical value and have a joint bid to become a World Heritage Site; the area has a strong religious past, as can be seen in works such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The work of the 7th-century Cuthbert and Hilda of Whitby were hugely influential in the early church, are still venerated by some today; these saints are associated with the monasteries on the island of Lindisfarne, Wearmouth – Jarrow, the Abbey at Whitby, though they are associated with many other religious sites in the region.
Bede is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar. He worked at the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, translating some forty books on all areas of knowledge, including nature, astronomy and theological matters such as the lives of the saints, his best known work is "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People". One of the most famous pieces of art and literature created in the region is the Lindisfarne Gospels, are thought to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698; this body of work is thought to have been created in honour of Cuthbert, around 710–720. On 6 June 793 the Vikings arrived on the shores of north-east England with a raiding party from Norway who attacked the monastic settlement on Lindisfarne; the monks fled or were slaughtered, Bishop Higbald sought refuge on the mainland. A chronicler recorded: "On the 8th June, the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God's church by rapine and slaughter." There were three hundred years of Viking raids and settlement until William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at Hastings in 1066.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes the change from raiding to settlement when it records that in 876 the Vikings "Shared out the land of the Northumbrians and they proceeded to plough and support themselves" The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria extended from the Scottish borders at the Firth of Forth to the north, to the south of York, its capital, down to the Humber. The last independent Northumbrian king from 947–8 was Eric Bloodaxe, who died at the Battle of Stainmore, Westmorland, in 954. After Eric Bloodaxe's death, all England was ruled by the grandson of Alfred the Great. Today the Viking legacy can still be found in the language and place names of north-east England and in the DNA of its people; the name Newcastle comes from the castle built shortly after the conquest in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror's eldest son. North East England has an oceanic climate with narrower temperature ranges than the south of England. Summers and winters are mild rather than hot or cold, due to the strong maritime influence of the North Atlantic Current of the Gulf Stream.
The Met Office operates several weather stations in the region and are able they show the regional variations in temperature and its relation to the distance from the North Sea. The warmest summers in the region are found in Stockton-on-Tees and the Middlesbrough area, with a 1981-2010 July average high of 20.4 °C. Precipitation is low by English standards, in spite of the low levels of sunshine, with Stockton-on-Tees averaging only 574.2 millimetres annually, with the seaside town of Tynemouth recording 597.2 millimetres annually. The summers on the northern coastlines are cooler than in the southern and central inland areas: Tynemouth is only just above 18 °C in July. Further inland, frosts during winter are more common, due to the higher elevations and distance from the sea. After more than 2,000 years of industrial activity as a result of abundant minerals such as salt and coal the chemical industry of the Northeast England is today spread across the whole of the region with pharmaceuticals being produced in the north of the region and fine chemicals spread across the middle of the region and commodity chemicals and petrochemicals on Teessi
New York, Tyne and Wear
New York is a small village situated in Tyne and Wear in the North East of England and is part of the urban conurbation of North Tyneside. Shiremoor Metro station Media related to New York and Wear at Wikimedia Commons
Howdon
Howdon is a residential area in the eastern part of Wallsend and Wear, much of the High Howdon area of, called Willington prior to post-World War II urbanisation. The North Tyneside ward population at the 2011 Census was 11,129. Howdon was an industrial settlement on the north bank of the River Tyne estuary, to the north of Howdon Pans and to the north-east of Willington Quay. In the mid-nineteenth century, it consisted of Old Howdon Pit situated on what is now the northern toll area of the Tyne Tunnel. A separate area, High Howdon was built after the Second World War, as the consequence of a drive for improved, low-cost housing for working-class families; this housing was in the public sector, being owned and maintained by the local council. It was built on what had been agricultural land to the north of the main railway line, to separate the new council housing from the earlier Howdon Pit and Hill Top sites locations, from the older, industrial area of Willington Quay, where a great deal of housing had either been destroyed by wartime bombing, or by programmes of slum clearance.
Since right-to-buy legislation was introduced in the 1980s, many former council tenants have bought their homes, which has resulted in a large percentage of former council properties becoming owned. Apart from the railway, High Howdon was separated from the industry of Willington Quay by Howdon Park, that featured tennis courts, bowling greens, a children's play area and flower beds; this fell into disarray but was restored, due to pressure from the local community, during the 1990s. Early education is provided by Denbigh Community Primary School and Stephenson Memorial Primary School; the local high school is Churchill Community College. Known as Willington High School, it was built on derelict land in Churchill Street in the 1960s. A Community Centre was founded on the site of the former Willington Middle School on Denbigh Avenue. Other amenities in High Howdon include a small library, shops along Tynemouth Road and at the southern end of Churchill Street. Close to the library was a set of dwellings that were once used to house police officers and their families.
It once functioned as a police station. A former maternity hospital, named Willington Quay Maternity Hospital, was closed in the 1970s. Before World War II, the north end of Churchill Street was divided between colliery and agricultural land. During WW2, a secret military installation was said to exist in this area; the Willington Square flats were built here. These three tower blocks became a Tyneside landmark, were featured in the film version of the BBC sitcom Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?. They were demolished in the 1990s to make way for low-lying housing; the area is bordered by the areas of Rosehill and Holy Cross to the west, Hadrian Park and New York to the north and North Shields and Percy Main to the east, as well as Willington Quay to the south. There is a small community suburb called East Howdon, located between Percy Main and the Tyne River. Since being bypassed it is quite isolated; as such it has a close community feel with one local restaurant, two social clubs and a community centre all belonging to three streets.
High Howdon is served by Howdon Metro station on the Wear Metro. This station replaced the original one from the Newcastle & North Shields Railway of 1839, demolished; the footbridge was preserved at Goathland railway station. The social reformer Francis Herbert Stead was born in Howdon in 1857, his brother William Thomas Stead lived in the settlement
Monkseaton
Monkseaton is a village absorbed into Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, in the North East of England. It is in the north-east of the borough, 3⁄4 mile from the North Sea coast and 1 1⁄2 miles north of the River Tyne at North Shields. A mile to the north of Monkseaton, the extensive built-up areas of North Tyneside change abruptly into green belt stretching north into south-east Northumberland; the village is at an elevation of 130 feet above sea-level. Monkseaton pre-dates the Tyneside coastal resort of Whitley Bay recorded as land owned by the Priory of Tynemouth; the first documentary references to Monkseaton medieval village date from the early 12th century when Henry I granted Seton to be renamed Monkseaton, to Tynemouth Priory. It was a substantial village in the late 13th century, when Monkseaton Manor was one of ten manors of Tynemouth Priory, with fifteen bondsmen, ten cotmen and three freeholds listed in 1292; the remains of a medieval brewery wall are still to be seen alongside the Monkseaton Arms public house.
In the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1872, the population was recorded as 421 in 80 houses. It was described as having several collieries. Although Monkseaton has been subsumed in the urban developments of the 20th century, it still retains much of the character of the village it once was. Churchill Playing Fields are located within the vicinity and the North Tyneside International Youth Football Tournament takes place here every year. Bowling greens, tennis courts and a cricket pavilion accompany the park. Monkseaton Metro station was moved to its current position in 1915 and the tennis courts in Souter Park South are now where the station was located; the station is one of the village's two stops on the circular Tyne and Wear Metro which connects it to Newcastle, the other being West Monkseaton. Another rail route, heading north up the coast, is now disused and has been adapted into a footpath and cycle route leading to the A190 road that links Seaton Sluice to the town of Seaton Delaval.
Monkseaton has three centrally-located pubs situated close to each other on the north side of Front Street, the main thoroughfare of the village. Heading west from Monkseaton station, the first of these is the Monkseaton Arms, next is the Black Horse, set back from the street somewhat, is the Ship Inn. Two other pubs, the Hunting Lodge and the Beacon, are located west and north not far from West Monkseaton Metro station. There are several local schools, including Monkseaton Middle School, Valley Gardens Middle School, Monkseaton High School and Whitley Bay High School. In 1989, one person was killed and 14 others injured in the Monkseaton shootings. On Thursday 28 June 2012 the village suffered flash flooding following torrential rainfall in the North East of England. Roads were closed causing traffic chaos, many properties and buildings were flooded, including Langley First School, closed for three weeks; the heavy rainfall made an embankment on the Tyne and Wear Metro line collapse, causing houses in Brantwood Avenue to be evacuated and West Monkseaton Metro station to be temporarily closed.
Many residents suffered significant flood damage to their possessions. Ian La Frenais – comedic writer, of e.g. The Likely Lads Denise Welch – actress and television presenter Gladstone Adams – inventor and former chairman of Whitley Bay Urban District Whitley Bay Monkseaton Village Website Restaurants and Cafes in Monkseaton Monkseaton Conservation Area
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Meadow Well Metro station
Meadow Well Metro station is on the yellow line of the Tyne and Wear Metro in the UK, within the Meadow Well area of North Shields. Named Smith's Park, the station was purpose built for the Metro and opened on 14 November 1982; the station is located on the housing estate where the Meadow Well Riots took place in 1991, although the area has improved since it still suffers from crime and social problems and the station has been the scene of a number of criminal acts. Much work, however, is being delivered on the Estate to tackle to root causes of poverty on the Estate through the interventions of the Cedarwood Trust. After the redevelopment of the Meadow Well and Royal Quays areas, the station was reopened on 10 October 1994 with the name Meadow Well. Train times and station information for Meadow Well Metro station from Nexus
Earsdon
Earsdon is a village in the borough of North Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It sits on the border of Northumberland, which it is part of, is two miles from Whitley Bay; the village had a population of 613 in 2011. Earsdon was an urban district from 1894 to 1935, consisting of the four parishes of Earsdon, Backworth and Murton, it was split between Seaton Valley and Whitley and Monkseaton, with Seaton Valley taking the bulk of the population of both the district and Earsdon parish. The graveyard of St Alban's Anglican church is home to a memorial to the 204 men and boys killed in the Hartley Colliery Disaster of 1862, at the nearby village of New Hartley. There is a war memorial in the village. A second church, Earsdon Methodist Chapel, is located within a former quarry. There is a disused coal. After closure, the heap spontaneously combusted underground and was burning internally until work started to reclaim the land; the reclamation work started in 2009 and was completed in September 2010.
The children's television series Supergran was filmed in part in the village. The Beehive Inn near Earsdon was used for the filming of the 1976 film The Likely Lads. Genuki.bpaers.org.uk, accessed November 10, 2008
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