This has been a day of contrasting emotions. On my way to visit my mother after an excellent walk in the Whitburn coastal park and a cup tea and a slice of lemon meringue pie I approached the Marsden junction on the coast road where I turn inland, I could see two fire engines, not an unusual sight because as previously mentioned the cliff here is used for training purposes. However as I turned the corner I was able to see two police cars and a coastal rescue vehicle. It was still possible that this was training exercise but as I continued to cut across the southern part of South Shields two more fire engines came past at speed with sirens and lights on, and then an ambulance. It still could have been a training exercise and there was nothing on the local news, and teletext checked at 9.15pm.
On the evening regional TV news which I viewed with my mother, there was a heart rendering story of the effort of parents to create a fund which will provide a two year old with the artificial hands after she lost both from meningitis. Tonight a local footballer is using his testimonial game with a Newcastle eleven for the fund. The main item on local news was a return visit to some of the farmers who were affected by the last outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease including a couple who had taken every precaution but had still to put down all their animals. The farmer explained that her used to get up in all weathers looking forward to his day until the losing the animals. Earlier this year they had decided to sell up and move to New Zealand and the news of the outbreak, even though its source had been identified and contained, had affected them again and reinforced their decision to emigrate.
There was a different kind of story which warmed the heart last week when another two year old who has spent the greater part of her brief time on life support because of heart problems and had become dependent on an artificial heart having experienced half a dozen heart attacks, was then put to the top of the European transplant list and a suitable donor heart had been made available about a month ago. The programme showed the girl who was about to return home with her parents, together with the surgeon who had performed the operation. The behaviour and smile of the child was magical, unaffected joy at being with her parents, but the surgeon stole the show in the nicest possible way when he described what he regarded as a miracle, the extent of her recovery, adding that if it had been him he would be still flat on his back. The child smiled oblivious to the all the fuss, or so it seemed.
I have walked through the Whitburn Coastal Park before, once when walking from my former home to the Sand Dancer at South Shields and once with a friend exercising his dog. On returning to my car had stopped near to the gate way and a young woman appeared to be paying close attention to my arrival and then enquired if I had a dog with me which I did not. She then released three dogs from the back of her car who were exceptionally lively one of whom came playfully towards and at me, although had I been a child or someone frail I could have been knocked over.
I can remember when the Northern offices of the National Coal Board were a little way back from the roadside but the pit had closed for good in 1968 having lasted just under 100 years during which time 139 men and boys died but none after Nationalization in 1948. Before then one 12 year old, one 13 year old and four 14 years olds were among those who died in the mine. They were all individual deaths but no disasters
In 1894 the Whitburn Colliery Village was described as an area of mining, quarrying and farming, with the latter two continuing to this day. There were two shafts one 115 fathoms and the other 180 and one mile under the sea. The seams were four feet to six feet and production was 1500 tons a day with 1600 males employed. The number working below ground reached just under 3000 between 1920 and 1930.
The present Park in an area about the size of Green Park in London, perhaps greater, but with small wooded hills, on the coast and with a rocky and sandy bay which can be reached by two pathways. There is one road way into the park with two car parks close to the light house to the North and the other close to the Cliff edge to the southern point but both landscaped from long view. Around the perimeter of the little hills there are now mature flowering shrubs. Since the coastal walk was created wooden benches have been placed at regular intervals each dedicated to a loved one and these merit close attention. While many are for those who had full lives of many years I have come across several in remembrance of those in their twenties, several loved to walk the pathway and some although living in other parts of the UK are remembered for once being part of local communities. I did not see any memorial to those who had died in the mine and just as many a war memorial have a statue of some soldier, that of a miner would be appropriate, perhaps sitting on one the benches looking out to the see where so many men perished, both below and above the waves. Along the 26 miles of coast from the River Tyne to the River Tees there are an average of 44 shipwrecks for each mile, some 1150 sunken vessels. The most famous event occurred on 17th October 1940 when a group of destroyers heading for the Tyne ran aground in the mist on the rocks at Whitburn. Then men, the ammunition and the supplies were all removed as a priority because they were sitting targets for enemy bombers, but the ships were re-floated and taken to the Tyne for repairs, Locals had feared that the invasion by Germany had commenced. Their fear were not unjustified because of the regular experience of bombing raid on the docks at Sunderland and that early on bombs had fallen on the Whitburn Fisherman's Cottages
On August 9th 67 years ago, on a sunny day, as today, a 14 year old girl, Ada, came out of the air raid shelter with her mother and joined other villagers to the cliff edge just behind the present territorial army shooting ranges to watch as a Heinkel HE111H-3 and ditched into the sea at 11.52. The crew were picked up by a Royal Naval Patrol Boat. Many years later, Ada, when Mrs Berry, used a two way radio to guide Major Alastair McCluskey and his team of divers to the spot where she remembered the bomber had sunk below the waves. They were able to retrieve a small piece of wreckage.
My earliest of recollections is being in air raid shelter, of watching a V2 Rocket flying overhead and engine cutting out and going to look at the the hole in the ground where a hosue had once stood, one of several in our immediate area in the vicinity of London's airport Croydon which in fact was at Waddon with Wallington to one side and Purley on the other.
Across from the Territorial Camp is the Whitburn Windmill which is known to have first existed in 1779. The Mill remained in being until 1896 following the introduction of steam driven mills so within a few years all that remained was the tower shell. It was used as lookout post for enemy aircraft during World War 2. The Church Commissioners passed the Mill to the Durham County area local authority in 1960 and this passed over to South Tyneside when it was created in 1974. A restoration was made between 1990 and 1991. With help of a Lottery fund grant Fullwell Mill two miles away was restored to a complete working 19 century mill while on the Cleaden Hills between South Shields and the Cleaden village there are the remains of the original 1820 tower of a third mill in the area and which is said to be haunted by a miller's daughter, Elizabeth Gibbon who died of a broken heart.
The present Whitburn Village green is more attractive than most I have known from my cycling days around Surrey, or from working in Oxford in an area bordering the Cotswolds, in Cheshire and West Yorkshire. Around the Green is a variety of attractive dwellings from stone cottages to grand houses in grounds. There are villages pubs and a couple of antique shops on the coast road into Sunderland with a development of post war individual styled houses on the small area of Leas which mark the end of Whitburn and commencement, of Seaburn Sunderland. Across the road is the Whitburn Cricket Club ground which is next to the South Bents Park which has tennis courts and attractive areas of picturesque flower beds. Between the park and agricultural land there is a walk way through fields which lead to the outskirts of Cleaden Village and on to the Bolden wetlands, or along to where the Sunderland Football Club has its Academy and training grounds, and onto Fullwell and back on the seafront at Seaburn to be covered in my next phases of the walk. From Souter lighthouse to Whitburn is three and a half miles with half the area covered in a wide circular walk today and the rest later in the week.
On the evening regional TV news which I viewed with my mother, there was a heart rendering story of the effort of parents to create a fund which will provide a two year old with the artificial hands after she lost both from meningitis. Tonight a local footballer is using his testimonial game with a Newcastle eleven for the fund. The main item on local news was a return visit to some of the farmers who were affected by the last outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease including a couple who had taken every precaution but had still to put down all their animals. The farmer explained that her used to get up in all weathers looking forward to his day until the losing the animals. Earlier this year they had decided to sell up and move to New Zealand and the news of the outbreak, even though its source had been identified and contained, had affected them again and reinforced their decision to emigrate.
There was a different kind of story which warmed the heart last week when another two year old who has spent the greater part of her brief time on life support because of heart problems and had become dependent on an artificial heart having experienced half a dozen heart attacks, was then put to the top of the European transplant list and a suitable donor heart had been made available about a month ago. The programme showed the girl who was about to return home with her parents, together with the surgeon who had performed the operation. The behaviour and smile of the child was magical, unaffected joy at being with her parents, but the surgeon stole the show in the nicest possible way when he described what he regarded as a miracle, the extent of her recovery, adding that if it had been him he would be still flat on his back. The child smiled oblivious to the all the fuss, or so it seemed.
I have walked through the Whitburn Coastal Park before, once when walking from my former home to the Sand Dancer at South Shields and once with a friend exercising his dog. On returning to my car had stopped near to the gate way and a young woman appeared to be paying close attention to my arrival and then enquired if I had a dog with me which I did not. She then released three dogs from the back of her car who were exceptionally lively one of whom came playfully towards and at me, although had I been a child or someone frail I could have been knocked over.
I can remember when the Northern offices of the National Coal Board were a little way back from the roadside but the pit had closed for good in 1968 having lasted just under 100 years during which time 139 men and boys died but none after Nationalization in 1948. Before then one 12 year old, one 13 year old and four 14 years olds were among those who died in the mine. They were all individual deaths but no disasters
In 1894 the Whitburn Colliery Village was described as an area of mining, quarrying and farming, with the latter two continuing to this day. There were two shafts one 115 fathoms and the other 180 and one mile under the sea. The seams were four feet to six feet and production was 1500 tons a day with 1600 males employed. The number working below ground reached just under 3000 between 1920 and 1930.
The present Park in an area about the size of Green Park in London, perhaps greater, but with small wooded hills, on the coast and with a rocky and sandy bay which can be reached by two pathways. There is one road way into the park with two car parks close to the light house to the North and the other close to the Cliff edge to the southern point but both landscaped from long view. Around the perimeter of the little hills there are now mature flowering shrubs. Since the coastal walk was created wooden benches have been placed at regular intervals each dedicated to a loved one and these merit close attention. While many are for those who had full lives of many years I have come across several in remembrance of those in their twenties, several loved to walk the pathway and some although living in other parts of the UK are remembered for once being part of local communities. I did not see any memorial to those who had died in the mine and just as many a war memorial have a statue of some soldier, that of a miner would be appropriate, perhaps sitting on one the benches looking out to the see where so many men perished, both below and above the waves. Along the 26 miles of coast from the River Tyne to the River Tees there are an average of 44 shipwrecks for each mile, some 1150 sunken vessels. The most famous event occurred on 17th October 1940 when a group of destroyers heading for the Tyne ran aground in the mist on the rocks at Whitburn. Then men, the ammunition and the supplies were all removed as a priority because they were sitting targets for enemy bombers, but the ships were re-floated and taken to the Tyne for repairs, Locals had feared that the invasion by Germany had commenced. Their fear were not unjustified because of the regular experience of bombing raid on the docks at Sunderland and that early on bombs had fallen on the Whitburn Fisherman's Cottages
On August 9th 67 years ago, on a sunny day, as today, a 14 year old girl, Ada, came out of the air raid shelter with her mother and joined other villagers to the cliff edge just behind the present territorial army shooting ranges to watch as a Heinkel HE111H-3 and ditched into the sea at 11.52. The crew were picked up by a Royal Naval Patrol Boat. Many years later, Ada, when Mrs Berry, used a two way radio to guide Major Alastair McCluskey and his team of divers to the spot where she remembered the bomber had sunk below the waves. They were able to retrieve a small piece of wreckage.
My earliest of recollections is being in air raid shelter, of watching a V2 Rocket flying overhead and engine cutting out and going to look at the the hole in the ground where a hosue had once stood, one of several in our immediate area in the vicinity of London's airport Croydon which in fact was at Waddon with Wallington to one side and Purley on the other.
Across from the Territorial Camp is the Whitburn Windmill which is known to have first existed in 1779. The Mill remained in being until 1896 following the introduction of steam driven mills so within a few years all that remained was the tower shell. It was used as lookout post for enemy aircraft during World War 2. The Church Commissioners passed the Mill to the Durham County area local authority in 1960 and this passed over to South Tyneside when it was created in 1974. A restoration was made between 1990 and 1991. With help of a Lottery fund grant Fullwell Mill two miles away was restored to a complete working 19 century mill while on the Cleaden Hills between South Shields and the Cleaden village there are the remains of the original 1820 tower of a third mill in the area and which is said to be haunted by a miller's daughter, Elizabeth Gibbon who died of a broken heart.
The present Whitburn Village green is more attractive than most I have known from my cycling days around Surrey, or from working in Oxford in an area bordering the Cotswolds, in Cheshire and West Yorkshire. Around the Green is a variety of attractive dwellings from stone cottages to grand houses in grounds. There are villages pubs and a couple of antique shops on the coast road into Sunderland with a development of post war individual styled houses on the small area of Leas which mark the end of Whitburn and commencement, of Seaburn Sunderland. Across the road is the Whitburn Cricket Club ground which is next to the South Bents Park which has tennis courts and attractive areas of picturesque flower beds. Between the park and agricultural land there is a walk way through fields which lead to the outskirts of Cleaden Village and on to the Bolden wetlands, or along to where the Sunderland Football Club has its Academy and training grounds, and onto Fullwell and back on the seafront at Seaburn to be covered in my next phases of the walk. From Souter lighthouse to Whitburn is three and a half miles with half the area covered in a wide circular walk today and the rest later in the week.
Just as the painter Lowry used to take tea with a former owner of my former home at Seaburn, Lewis Carroll. the author of Alice in Wonderland was a regular visitor to his cousin Margaret Wilcox who was the wife of the Sunderland collector of customs. It is known that at Whitburn in 1855 he composed familiar opening verses to Jabberwocky which was first published in Through the Looking Glass in 1872. He also visited Lady Hedworth Williamson at Whitburn Hall, the second cousin to Alice Liddell to whom Carroll's most famous books are dedicated. Some have suggested that in the Walrus and the Carpenter he makes references to walking along a beach and seeing "Such quantities of sand." The belief is that this refers to the sands of Whitburn. There is a magnificent Bronze statue of a Walrus in Mowbray Park, one of the other parks in South Shields I am yet to write about. Carroll's sister Mary married the Rev Charles Collingwood at Southwick, Sunderland. There is a statue of Lewis at the Whitburn Library.
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