Things Can Only Get Wetter

I recently spent a very hectic but enjoyable bank holiday weekend back in my native North East England. The trip was planned around shooting some film clips for my next project, and I’d planned an interesting and varied schedule.

Step Back in Tyne

It all kicked off Saturday morning, when I drove up the A1 to my first port of call – literally – as I wanted to get some photographs of dawn breaking over Roker, at the Port of Sunderland. The weather cooperated, except for a fierce wind that made filming from the tripod a tad tricky.


Once I had all I wanted, I jumped back in the car for the short trip up to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne. Here I was also after some early morning shots, and as a North Sea ferry was due in around 08:30, I stuck around to film the arrival.

The Groyne Lighthouse at South Shields

Then back into the car to return to Sunderland and my digs for the duration – my mother’s house, of course. No matter how old and grumpy you get, your mother always thinks that you are 12 years old and therefore require looking after, so you are constantly plied with food and drink. I’m all in favour of this, especially as it entailed tucking into a full English breakfast before hitting the road again, this time to the open-air museum at Beamish, while I left a pair of trousers that required some new fly-buttons sewing on for repair. Old habits die hard.


Beamish calls itself The Living Museum of the North, and it lives up to this in every respect. At Beamish, you don’t visit a museum in the accepted sense – you go back in time to a period around the turn of the century. There is far too much going on to do it justice here, but everything from a town High Street, coal mine, farm, tramway, school ….. etc, etc, has been recreated in full and working order, so that the visitor can experience a slice of life from a time gone by.

The coal mine, restored in working order.

Sunderland tram 16 runs at Beamish. The route on the destination blind reads ‘Circle’ which was a suburban route in Sunderland that I used frequently as a boy – although it was buses in my day – how old do you think I look?! My mother recalls her days of riding these trams as an everyday occurrence. When the tram reached its destination, she and her friends would wait until the conductor had set the destination display and gone downstairs before they’d wind the handles round so that it would read somewhere completely different. Then they would flip all the reversible seats on the top deck so that they faced the wrong way round. And you thought teenage hooligans were a recent phenomenon!

I’ve visited Beamish before, and knew exactly what I wanted to see and film before moving on to my next location in the afternoon. But as always, there was just so much to see that I stayed all day until closing time. I returned to a home cooked dinner, and also was happy to find that my trousers had been repaired in the intervening hours, I’m pleased to say. I'd planned to return to South Shields for some evening filming, but in the event the weather turned nasty, as as I was pretty shattered from the rather full day I'd had, was pleased to call it quits and rest up instead.

As Tyne Goes By

Sunday would be a very different experience, as I was planning to do a lot of filming along the banks of the Tyne. After another full English breakfast, I took the excellent Metro to Hebburn, and planned to work my way downstream to South Shields via the various photo stops I’d worked out with Google maps and suggestions from friends and family in the area. Then I’d cross the river by the ferry to North Shields for filming at Tynemouth, and gradually work upstream as far as Howdon before jumping on the Metro to visit Newcastle Quayside.

Things started well, with a pleasant Metro ride and walk down to the lovely Riverside Park at Hebburn. As I steadily plodded downstream, I began to realise that I’d been a tad over ambitious with my schedule. Firstly, although I had my maps with me, some places I’d planned to visit turned out to be hopeless for photography, or located within private property. All of these were at the end of long, steep roads, of course. So I’d retrace my steps to the main road and keep going. Naturally, I had some pleasant surprises as well – footpaths would appear from nowhere, and following some of them brought me to a couple of fantastic locations. But it all took a lot longer than I anticipated, and it didn’t help that that it was a very humid and sticky day, even with the fresh wind blowing in at exposed places – by exposed, I naturally mean anywhere that I set up the tripod.

Drilling Rig supply ships are serviced on theTyne.

Around the area of Tyne Dock, things got busy, as this is the last remaining area of the once thriving cargo docks. Access is predictably denied to the public, so after a very long walk I jumped onto another Metro once I finally found the well-hidden station at Bede, and alighted at South Shields.

The river ferry is located a mere five minutes away from the station, and the all-day Metro ticket I’d bought for a mere £3.90 was also valid on the boat. This is a quick and easy method of crossing the Tyne, and after a 10 minute cruise I alighted at North Shields. I was a good couple of hours adrift on my timetable by now, so decided to miss out Tynemouth and just nip down to the Fish Quay for some pictures. Then the long hike to film from the north side of the river began, which really was a major disappointment. Vast amounts of former dockland are now in the hands of developers, so the whole area was fenced off. I went down several long, steep roads that looked very promising on Google maps, as they led to old staiths and docks – but frustratingly, all of them ended up against big fences with bigger gates and threatening signs.


This magnificent pub is one of very few buildings still standing in the Percy Main riverside area - but I suspect its days are numbered. Given the vast number of unaffordable houses and apartments springing up in this area, surely it would make financial sense to restore this building and use it for its intended purpose? Although when you see the size of mortagage repayments, a pint's out of the question...

Time was ticking on at an alarming rate, and I realised that there was now no chance of getting to Newcastle Quays for a photoshoot and then back home in time for tea - I did say earlier that mothers regard you as being 12 years old, and that includes getting home in time for tea! I’d booked tea at a specific time, because I needed to drive back to South Shields in the evening to photograph a departing cruise ship – I mentioned before that my schedule was a bit on the ambitious side …

Rather than rush the job and spoil it, I decided to simply take the Metro into Newcastle, change trains and proceed directly to Sunderland on another one. My legs were protesting about all the walking anyway, and hobbling around the Quayside didn’t appeal. My initial plan had been to leave Sunderland and return to Grantham during Monday morning; I reckoned that if I waited until the evening I could then use the extra day to catch up.

Consequently, I made it to home on time, and was able to get my dinner while it was hot. A quick cuppa, then off to South Shields again. The weather, which up till now had been very pleasant if rather windy and humid, decided that as it was Bank Holiday, we needed some rain. What happened next depends on where you live in the UK. In the North East, we got what we call ‘a spot of weather.’ Londoners would say they got flooded out in a torrential rainstorm. But did that stop me filming? No way! I’ve got this far, so I’ll keep going. I had my raincoat, so set up the tripod close to the car on St Hilda’s Bridge as this commanded a great view of the Northumbrian Quay where the ship, Athena, was berthed.

Cruise ship Athena, pictured earlier in the day from Custom House.

It was simply a matter of waiting for the right moment, then jump out of the car, attach camera to tripod and shoot. As Athena was moving downstream quite slowly, I decided to leap back to the car, and race down to the pier at the river mouth. I say race; obviously I drove courteously and carefully, observing all the road signs and traffic lights and keeping well within the posted speed limits. Would you expect anything less? Actually, I had to keep it moderate as my mother had come with me to see the ship, and I didn’t want any tutting coming from the passenger seat. I must have driven reasonably well as there were only two intakes of breath, and that bollard has always been at that strange angle. Really.

I dumped the car in the nearest available carpark and legged it onto the pier. A pair of fishermen encouraged my rapid progress, “Gan along bonny lad, be quick or yer’ll miss it!” Another lightning set up and I banged off some film as Athena cruised sedately by – I’m sure Spielberg doesn’t work like this. The marathon dash took its toll, and as I packed up the camera I hobbled back past the fisherman. “Did ya gerrit, mate?”
“Oh aye, but I can tell you, mate – I’m getting too bloody old for this lark!”

I have to say that in my younger day I would regularly make a mad dash to photograph a train and try to beat an interesting loco from one location to another – but I never dreamed that by the time I reached the Grumpy Years, I’d be running after a bloody ship!

The Bridge on the River Tyne

Monday was therefore to become catch-up day. Naturally the first task was to get through another full English breakfast. Suitably fortified, I set off on the short drive to Ryhope, just south of Sunderland, in order to visit The Ryhope Engines Museum. This is based at Ryhope Pumping Station, which was built in 1868 to supply water to the Sunderland area. The station ceased operation in 1967 after 100 years of continuous use.

The Museum is now regarded as one of the finest industrial monuments in the North East of England and is a fascinating, if little known, place to visit. Although the station no longer pumps water, the two 100 horsepower beam engines are kept in working order by volunteer members of the Ryhope Engines Trust, and steamed periodically for visitors. In fact, steaming takes place only about five times a year, so it was a huge stroke of luck that I’d chosen this weekend to visit.

In addition to the beam engines are three Lancashire boilers of 1908, two of which are in regular use, a blacksmith's forge, a waterwheel, numerous steam engines and pumps, a replica plumber's shop, waterworks accessories such as depth recorders, and many items concerned with the distribution and uses of water in home and industry.


I was principally concerned with filming the steam beam engines, and decided to pop in for opening time at 10 for some quick shots before carrying on with my programme. But did it work like that? I was first to arrive, which was great for getting exterior shots without McFamillies getting in the way. The friendly volunteers who crew the museum on open days said they were getting up steam, as the engines would start around 11 a.m. They suggested going to the café to pass the time, which was an excellent idea, and I pottered around the place as there was so much to see. In the end I stayed until midday; everyone was so friendly and informative that it was a shame to leave. But needs must, so I drove home, dumped the car and walked to Sunderland to take a Metro so that I could carry out the planned filming of the Newcastle Quays.


This area has undergone what must be one of the best-executed city regeneration programmes in the country. When I was growing up, the quays were falling into disuse and neglect was all around. Now the old industrial buildings have been restored and redeveloped as flats, offices and restaurants, whilst brand new buildings have filled the gaps. The overall appearance is superb, and really enhances the riverside. It’s not often that old and new architecture can sit side-by-side, but Newcastle has managed it. Both sides of the quays have an excellent bus service that connects with the Metro stations within Newcastle and Gateshead, so getting around was simplicity itself – far more relaxing than trying to drive and park up.


I had about an hour at the Quays before taking another Metro all the way down to Tynemouth, which was part of yesterday’s aborted programme. The area is quite high up where the river runs out into the North Sea, and has some commanding views of shipping arriving and departing from the Tyne. I wanted some general shots of the area, but in particular, the cruise ship Boudicca was departing at 5 p.m., closely followed by a DFDS ferry to Ijmuiden and it would make some great footage. I scouted out my chosen location, and had about an hour to wait. No worries, time for a cuppa while watching the goings on in the river. Once again, as if on cue, the weather had other ideas. While I’d been waking around, the nice pretty fluffy white clouds had gradually been elbowed aside by a huge black monster that hovered over Tynemouth like something from War of The Worlds. I knew what was coming, and legged it. I made it as far as Roy’s Café in the main street and watched as a monster downpour was unleashed. The rain was heavy enough for South Shields pier opposite me to disappear completely. This really was quite a spot of weather. I wanted to film it, but only had 10 minutes of space left on the SD card in the camera and needed that for the ship departures – always assuming I could see them leave, of course.

The cloud dumped the annual rainfall of Norway over Tynemouth in 15 minutes, and then got bored. It ceased as quickly as it had started, and then set off over the North Sea to annoy Holland. After a coffee and a green cake thing with lots of cream, I set off back to my vantage point to see the ships. The sky was still threatening, as can be seen here, but this was a baby compared to what had just passed over. Well, I’d come this far to see these ships, so I wasn’t giving in now! As it turned out, I was able to film both ships and was on my way back to the Metro when the rain returned – and this time, it returned with a vengeance.

The gleaming white paint of departing Boudicca contrasts strongly with the leaden skies above. This was a 40 minute break between spots of weather - I suffer for my art.

Overall I was delighted with my weekend of filming. I’d got most of what I’d come for and a lot more besides. It was a fascinating visit, and no doubt I’ll be returning soon - but in the meantime, it must be Tyne to say goodbye!