Today's County in the Spotlight:Part 2

[NewcastleFalcon]

Another bit of industrial history down at Govan and the Shipbuilding demise in the UK.

Govan: A shipbuilding history



REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just a little bit more Govan and its derelict dry docks and I'm done for today's contributions.




Ready to move on and its the final use of the random number generator on the thread.

Is it going to be Kent of Durham which has the honour of being the last to be selected at random

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

__________Renfrewshire Done__________

Time to select Sundays's County of the day

Only 2 left now...
1 Durham
2 Kent

Random Selection number/County 1 Durham for Sunday

Definitive map
https://wikishire.co.uk/map/#County%20D ... 751/zoom=9

Our definitive map confirms County Durham includes Gateshead/ Hebburn/Jarrow/South Shields/Sunderland/Hartlepool/Stockton/Darlington

Bounded by the Tyne and the Tees for the most part.

Underneath the Tyne in the Pedestrian and Cycle tunnel the border is in the Middle, picked out in glazed tiles.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

A slightly nautical feel about the Durham flag:

BFTW

Details here.

The location:

BFTW

and some places to consider but Neil has listed the ones not shown on this map:

BFTW

[mickthemaverick]

To get the ball rolling here are a couple of UP's which I have come across while searching for other counties

BFTW

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

The map is pretty truncated Mick, it missed out the entirety of Weardale upstream from Crook, all of Northwest Durham, and the entirety of Teesdale which you mooched around on your September stroll . I think it must have been put together by former University Challenge Students from Durham University

When you enter County Durham from whatever direction you maybe greeted by probably the worst example of County branding in the entire United Kingdom.

Now I am a Durham Lad, and appreciate more than most the wild beauty of the Durham Dales.

Can't quite understand how this type of awful signage has become de rigueur, and its not just the County sign at every entrance to the County over the remotest of moorland roads, the villages and towns announce their presence with garish blue signs.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.78350 ... 312!8i6656

Yes if the link works, it shows the "County Durham-Land of the Prince Bishops" sign coming over the "border" from Cumbria into Weardale on the A689.

Oh, and should you be a fan of "Prince Bishops" you are going to be disappointed. You will have arrived in Durham a few centuries too late to actually see one .

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I know the Vehicle Registrations for Durham County without looking them up.

The main County Durham ones are UP (already with a couple of examples from Mick) and PT

Others are Gateshead CN Darlington HN Sunderland BR and GR, South Shields CU Hartlepool EF

Most of them meaningless codes, but CU for South Shields refers back to the ancient name for the town Caer Urfa.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Latest venture over the Tyne into the Historic County of Durham, was to Sports Direct at the Metrocentre Retail Park. Wasn't tempted to click the shutter there , although if you mooch around Swalwell and the riverside just behind it there are some interesting photo opportunities.

20 minutes in there was quite enough of "retail therapy torture" for me, so headed for a nice little oasis just along the river at a location which used to be a centre of riverside industrial activity on a grand scale, Dunston Staithes.

REgards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I like your use of the word mooch Neil, I said I was just mooching in a store in Washington (The USA one) my daughter said, "Shush, Dad, mooching here means loitering with the intent to steal."

[mickthemaverick]

I have passed through Durham on a few different trips over the years but the only time I can claim to have been to Durham was my one week's summer school at the university. Unfortunately I did not take the opportunity to look round the city because on the day we arrived I volunteered to join a group of other mathematicians who were helping with the number crunching for experiments being conducted at the CERN particle accelerator, known as a Hadron Collider:

BFTW

They were gathering data continuously and sending it to the team at Durham, and many other parallel teams in labs and universities all round the world, for collation and evaluation It seemed too good an opportunity to be involved with real science to miss so I signed up and spent virtually all my spare time in the maths department cogitating. If you are curious you can follow this link for more information.

So I am afraid I have nothing to say about Durham other than I saw the prison and the river!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

I think you did it the County justice on your September Stroll Mick when you took the Country route up to High Force and over the moors road between Teesdale and Weardale, and even ended up at Pontop Pike if I recall right

Low Force is nice too

River Tees...Durham Side....Low Force

and there's a socket to plug your car in

REgards Neil

[myglaren]

Eldest grandson graduated from Durham Uni on Thursday. Off to Newcastle for his Masters.
One of the granddaughters who lives in County Durham is also off to Newcastle Uni.

Joe

Turned up here at midnight last night, fast asleep still

[NewcastleFalcon]

An original assemblage with the page of Simon Jenkins' "Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations", open at Durham.
The approach from the South over the viaduct directly into Durham Station, provides one of the best views out of a train window in the UK.

Consett is perched on top of a windy hill but when the Consett Iron Company was in its pomp the town was covered in red dust. The steelworks and the dust have long gone now, and the only red dust left is a strange nostalgia in a named beer from Consett Ale Works.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Yes the well known "Angel of the North" large piece of public art is withing our historic County in the Spotlight, but there is also the Angel of Ryhope near Sunderland which makes an appearance on sunny days.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

... and when a Rover Owners Club make an appearance at the Ryhope engines museum it provides the perfect spotting opportunity for a HN, registration area code. (Darlington Co Durham)

NF original Rover 100 (P4)

Regards Neil