It’s Grim Up The North-East
Sunderland lost two-one at home to lowly Notts County, Middlesbrough lost by the same score to Burton Albion and then in the late match Newcastle lost three-one at Stevenage. When I last looked at the map, Stevenage was in that hotbed of football, Hertfordshire.
Only a few footballers appear to have been born in the county and but they do include Dave Kitson, Kevin Phillips, Vinnie Jones, Jack Wilshere, Ian Walker, Iain Dowie, Rodney Marsh, Dean Ashton, John Radford and Ashley Young. The last incidentally was in the same class at school in Stevenage as Lewis Hamilton and his brother, Lewis, was also on the bench today for Burton Albion.
So there might be some mild celebrations just to the north of the M25. But don’t insult the county by calling them soft Southerners or something similar or they’ll get Vinnie Jones to show you the errors of your ways.
Areas Worst Placed to Survive the Recession
The BBC has made a list of how areas of the UK can survive the recession.
It would appear that Middlesbrough is at the bottom of the list. And no wonder!
I went there to see Ipswich play their first match of the season and although I enjoyed the visit, I got the impression, that the town was doing little to pull itself up by its bootstraps. I was an occassional tourist and I think that they don’t believe they have anything to offer visitors and that Government must do more to help. As an example, the Tall Ships Race was on at Hartlepool across the river and if I’d known then I’d have stayed another day. But it wasn’t mentioned on either the town or the football club’s website, so I didn’t go! There were no posters either! I suspect that certain football clubs would have got in on the act if it had been local to them, by perhaps introducing some of the foreign sailors before the match. If nothing, it would have been good publicity.
Either they learn to live without subsidy from the rest of the UK, or it will get a lot worse! But how do you wean areas like Middlesbrough off their addiction to subsidy?
If they don’t manage it, then towns like Middlesbrough will suffer the same fate as large parts of the former East Germany. There anybody with skills have moved on and it has got to such a state, that the birth-rate has declined to almost zero, as young women just can’t see any point in bringing up children in such an environment.
Middlesbrough has a lot to offer, but it is doing a very bad job in selling itself to the rest of the UK, except by handing out a begging bowl for more subsidy!
Remember, one man’s subsidy is somebody else’s tax! Certain politician’s will always argue that you can tax the rich, but then many in the higher wealth levels can easily move to other countries to live or work!
New Readers
I was given a write-up in the Ipswich Town program today and some people who visit, may have been directed from the program.
Don’t take anything I say too seriously, as underneath it all I try to amuse and inform. Remember too, I have other interests outside Ipswich Town, like art, architecture, engineering and trains. I also feel that one of the ways we’re going to get this country out of the mess it’s in, is by appreciating what we’ve got here in these Isles and enjoying it. Who would have thought that a visit to Middlesbrough or Crewe could be so enjoyable. But they genuinely were and I shall be visiting other places in the next few months, that might be equally unpromising. Hopefully, they’ll be equally enjoyable, even if Town don’t win or the trip has nothing to do with football.
The next trips will be Portsmouth and Scunthorpe.
Feel free to post comments. I reserve the right to remove those that are not constructive!
Middlesbrough as a Tourist Destination
I enjoyed my day on the Tees and at the football, but really, I do think that Middlesbrough fails on several counts.
- There was no bus map on the Middlebrough web site, or was it just invisible. Perhaps no-one uses buses in the town, as taxis are affordable.
- None of the web sites I viewed mentioned the Tall Ships Race. I would have liked to have gone. But then people said that the race was in Hartlepool and that was across the water.
- Signage to the railway station was poor, but not as bad as some places I’ve visited.
- There was no paper shop open in the station when I left at ten o’clock on the Sunday morning. That is only a small point, but I always like to travel with something to read.
- The football club, the vtown and the area should work together so that visitors enjoy their visit to the full.
Councils have got to realise that visitors are one way are going to make their town or borough prosperous and they have to provide information, as every extra night someone stays is money into local pockets.
But I did enjoy the weekend, all the same.
I hope that the next time, I come to the town, things are better.
The Tees Bridges and Barrage
Although the bridges across the Tees at Middlesbrough, are not as numerous as those across the Tyne at Newcastle, they are more impressive and also include a unique flood protection barrier.
Travelling down the river fropm the mouth pf the River Tees, the bridges are as follows
The Transporter Bridge is one of the most unusual, unique and impressive bridges in England.
Foot Passengers on the Transporter Bridge
On Saturday, the bridge was closed, but they were still allowing foot passengers to cross over in the gondola slung from the bridge. A scene from Billy Elliot was shot in the gondola. So we just took a few photos and moved on.
It could be argued that the Newport Bridge is just as unique as its more famous brother. It is a vertical lift bridge and only one of four in the United Kingdom.
The Newport Lifting Bridge
The bridge is no longer raised, as large ships rarely go past it these days. It must have been a marvellous sight to see it being raised.
The Tees Barrier is many things to different people; a road and foot bridge, a white water canoe slalom course, a flood barrier a barge lock and even a test facility for turbines and a fish ladder to allow salmon to pass upstream.
The Tees Barrage
I liked the barrier a lot. It just shows how if you use your imagination, you can create something that serves a number of purposes well.
The Infinity Bridge was the last one we saw and is a foot and cycle bridge in a very clean design.
The Infinity Bridge
All of these bridges can be visited by just walking. There is a detailed walk on the AA’s web site.
Temenos
Temenos is impressive and towers over everything in the dock area of Middlesbrough, except for the transporter bridge.
Temenos and the Transporter Bridge
I like Temenos and feel that it is beautifully sited and paired with the nearly hundred years old bridge, that is still in full working order, despite what you saw in Auf Weidersehn Pet.
We need more structures like Temenos and the transporter bridge, as I think they make people and especially children think about engineering and how to build things. In recent years London has gained the Millennium bridge and the Hungerford footbridges, Newcastle has the winking bridge, but poor old Ipswich has gained nothing at all. Properly built these types of structures last generations, as so many of our Victorian bridges have shown.
Perhaps after the match, we should have all gone had paid homage at Temenos, which in ancient Greece was a place to worship gods., as the structure is very close to the Riverside Stadium. But I suspect if we’d tried, the Middlesbrough Police wouldn’t have understood the joke. These Middlesbrough fans don’t look too happy as they trudge home in the shadow of Temenos.
Temenos, the Transporter Bridge and Middlesbrough Fans After The Game
I said that Tenemos was impressive, but so was the quality of the water in the dock below. Terry pointed out a salmon, which are nhow comon in the Tees. How many were there, when the bridge was built?
A Weekend in Middlesbrough
As I said in Travels with My Stroke, the first trip outside London would be one to Middlesbrough. Some of my friends thought I was slightly unhinged to be going there, but then you don’t have to be mad or stupid to be an Ipswich supporter, but it does help.
So it was with a certain amount of anticipation, that I boarded the train at Peterborough for the journey to York, where I changed for Middlesbrough. It was a pleasant and uneventful journey that was completed by a short taxi ride to a clean and comfortable B&B called Chadwick Guest House, run by a charming young Sardinian, who had come to the UK to learn English a few years ago and had stayed.
Also staying in the same guest house, were some Town fans from Oslo in Norway, who after the match were going to Exeter for the Carling Cup.
I should say that I was going to be shown round Middlesbrough by a lady, Liz, who subscribes to the coeliac group on the Internet that I moderate, and her husband, Terry.
So on the morning of the match, they showed me around Middlesbrough and gave me lunch. One of the reasons, I’d come was north was to see the new Anish Kapoor installation, Temenos, and the various amazing bridges across the Tees. They have the famous Transporter Bridge, an enormous lifting bridge, a modern stylish footbridge and a barrage to prevent flooding of the town. We even saw some salmon leaping up the salmon ladder past the barrage alongside the canoe slalom course.
It was a very interesting couple of hours before the match and the walks along the Tees are very much to be recommended.
I won’t say too much about the match, except to say my fears and those of the other several hundred travelling fans were not fulfilled.
Perhaps, we should have all gone had paid homage at Temenos, which in ancient Greece was a place to worship gods, after the match., as the structure is very close to the Riverside Stadium, but I suspect if we’d tried, the Middlesbrough Police wouldn’t have understood the joke.
Did I have any regrets about going? Only one! Sunday marked the start of the Tall Ships Race, just over the Tees at Hartlepool. If I’d known about it, I’d have gone. But neither the Middlesbrough Council or Football Club web sites had mentioned this was happening. Instead I took the train back to Bury St. Edmunds in a much more optimistic mood in more ways than one, to the one I’d started out on Friday.
I will return to the Tall Ships Race. Surely, in these times of austerity, we should do everything we can to encourage visitors and make their visits as enjoyable as possible. If just a few Town fans had stayed over to see the unique race, at least they would have had a meal and a few beers to help the local economy.
Remember too, that many football fans are interested in other things. I was in Milan, when Town fans showed how to support the team away in style. It was the first time, I actually had managed to get to see Leonardo’s Last Supper, in the city. One of the guides told me, that she’d never seen so many football fans viewing one of the world’s most famous paintings.
But then Town fans are different and long may it stay that way!
Anyone for a weekend in Scunthorpe?
Tourism Will Increase by 60%
This report was on the Press Association web site.
The value of tourism to the UK economy is set to rise by more than 60% to £188 billion by 2020, according to a report.
The number of jobs supported by tourism is predicted to increase by 264,000 to 2.89 million in the next 10 years, the report commissioned by VisitBritain added.
The amount of spending per year by overseas residents is likely to almost double from £16 billion now to £31 billion in 2020.
It is all good news, but are places like Middlesbrough ready for it. In my travels recently, London, East Suffolk and Newcastle certainly are.
The Thunder of Three-Thousand Three-Hundred Horses
I think it was Paul Theroux, who wrote about waking up to the sound of the railroad. At home in Cockfosters, I used to hear the sound of the steam trains travelling north towards the North and Scotland, as they ran through Oakleigh Park and New Barnet. From about eight I used to cycle to the line to collect train numbers. It was towards the end of the steam age, and I can still see and smell, Gresley‘s magnificent A4 Pacifics as they roared through Hadley Wood, where we used to put pennies on the line, so they were squashed flat. I also broke a front tooth at Oakleigh Park, when I fell off my bike. It has been capped twice, so hopefully it is a good omen for the rest of my body.
Everything started to change in 1955, when an interloper arrived on the scene, in the shape of English Electric’s Deltic prototype, which I could hear as it raced north once a day. It was called Deltic after its lightweight and very compact Napier diesel engine of the same name. At the time, the 3,300 bhp made them the most powerful railway engine in the world. The diesel engines had originally been developed during the Second World War to power ships like MTBs and mine hunters, but found their fame in the powerful railway engine. Some of the engines even ended up in fast patrol boats in the US Navy.
The Deltic signalled the end of an era and by the time I went to Liverpool University in 1965, all the formidable A4s had gone to be replaced by the production Deltics or Class 55s, as they are more correctly called.
When I worked for ICI at Welwyn Garden City in the very early seventies, I travelled north a few times to the manufacturing site at Wilton on Teesside behind the Class 55s.
One of the most memorable train journeys I have ever experienced, if not the most memorable, was on one of the return trips from Teesside.
I had finished my work at Wilton that day, when I was rung by the Transport Office, who asked if I ‘d mind being taken to Darlington early to catch the London train, as they had a VIP, who wanted to go early for the train to Bristol. I said yes, as that would mean a car journey in comfort instead of the local train from Eaglescliffe, through the hell-like landscape of the steelworks.
In the end, I arrived at Darlington with about an hour to wait for my train. After looking at Locomotion No. 1, which in those days was displayed on the platform, I retired to the bar for a pint. Just as I was settling in a chair, an announcement said that the train now arriving was the delayed Talisman for London. I asked if I should board the train and if I did would I get to London early. I got a double yes, left my pint and got on the train, which at that time was running forty-five minutes late, as a generator slung under a carriage had disintegrated and they’d had to stop to leave the offending carriage behind.
There is an interesting aside here about Locomotion No. 1, in that Hunter Davies saw the engine on the station and then went into W. H. Smith on the station to buy a book for the journey back to London. As he had just seen the engine, he looked for a biography of its creator, George Stephenson , only to be told that no-one had written one. Later he supposedly checked this with his agent, who then suggested that he write the book. So that is why an author of popular biographies of the such of the Beatles and Wayne Rooney, ended up writing the first biography of the only engineer, known to nearly everybody.
At the time of my return trip, the fastest Darlington to Kings Cross trains took three hours, whereas today a time of two hours forty-five minutes is about average, with the fastest ones taking about two hours twenty-five minutes. I should say that Darlington is 232 miles from Kings Cross.
My train that day had a clear run, as it had delayed everything behind it, so the driver was able to open up those Napier Deltic engines to try to regain the lost forty-five minutes.
And regain them he did!
Despite stops at probably York, Doncaster, Newark and Peterborough, he was able to keep the speed to such a level, that by the time we stopped in London, he was on time. So that means he probably took two hours fifteen minutes, which worked out as an average speed of just over 103 miles per hour including stops. Not bad for a train with a maximum speed of just 100. I actually timed the train at about this speed, just north of Peterborough.
Train journeys are not like that today. I remember eating dinner on the train and it was possibly the worst-served meal, I’ve ever had on a train, as the waiter had difficulty walking up and down, as the train bumped and lurched. The guard also kept passing through, announcing the latest estimate of our arrival time in Kings Cross.
I sometimes think that time has enlivened this story, but it was a wonderful thrill to find out what a properly-driven Deltic could do. Eurostars, TGVs and the other modern fast trains don’t give that same feeling! Certainly my trip to Middlesbrough behind a Class 91 for part of the way will not be so exciting.
The Invisible Bus Map of Middlesbrough
As my trip to Middlesbrough is only at the end of next week, I felt it would be sensible to make sure that I can find my way around. It looks like the B & B, where I will be staying is within walking distance of the Riverside Stadium and the station, but it would be nice to have a bus map, so that I can perhaps get about quicker. After all, I have a pass for all buses in the UK, so I should probably use it.
But there would appear to be no map on the Internet of Middlesbrough buses. Perhaps everybody who travels always knows where they are going or uses their own car. But compare the city, to Cambridge and Ipswich, both of which have excellent maps giving all you need.
The Anonymous Widower 