Dylan Thomas Lived Here

EASTERN AIRWAYS IN-FLIGHT

46 | New Year 2014

DYLAN THOMAS LIVED HERE Celebrating the centenary of the legendary Welsh poet’s birth ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: DISCOVERING RICHARD III SECRET SIGHTS GUIDE INVEST IN TEES VALLEY SUPPLEMENT

This is your complimentary in-flight magazine, to read now or to take home

WELCOME SGIOBA EASTERN chluinntinn. t-seirbheis againn, is mu ar n-iris, a an-còmhnaidh toilichte ur beachdan mun beagan eadar-dhealaichte – tha sinn seirbheis, an dà chuid, cùramach agus Tha sinn an dòchas gum meas sibh ar làn-sheirbheisean adhair clàraichte na RA. Tha Eastern Airways am measg prìomh agus an Roinn Eòrp. luchd-cleachdaidh gu lèir bho Bhreatainn Tha Eastern Airways a’ cur fàilte air ar FÀILTE known countryviews,whileExplorationExpress takesa Our Essential Guide takes a look at some of our less well- beloved York. on whetherheshouldbereburied inLeicesterorhis the BattleofBosworthField,andaboutherownthoughts England mighthavelookedhadRichard notlosthislifeat woman whodrove thatremarkable discovery, abouthow a carparkinLeicester. We talktoPhilippaLangley, the Richard III,whoseremains were recovered from beneath Someone whomaybeonthemovein2014isKing Olympic cyclingheroine, VictorianPendleton. this momentousevent,webringyouaninterviewwith France inearlysummer. Asourowncurtain-raiser to in Yorkshire, whichwillhostthestartofTour de The newyearlookslikebeinganexcitingone,notleast your leisure. and thatyou’lltakeyourmagazinehomeenjoyitat We hope2014willbeagoodoneforallourcustomers Christmas and seeing inthe New Year. of Eastern Magazine, Airways spanning flight Airways and welcome to this issue Welcome on board your Eastern TÎM EASTERN gwasanaeth ac am ein cylchgrawn. amser yn falch o gael eich sylwadau am ein ychydig bach yn wahanol – rydyn ni bob chi fod ein gwasanaeth yn un gofalus ac lawn o wasanaethau. Gobeithio y gwelwch awyrennau yn y DU sy’n cynnig amserlen Mae Eastern Airways ymhlith y prif gwmnïau Fawr ac Ewrop. un o’n cwsmeriaid ym mhob rhan o Brydain Croeso gan Eastern Airways magazine, i bob CROESO enjoyment ofourserviceonboardAirways. Eastern success andprosperity and–ofcourseyourcontinued So let’s raiseaglassto2014.Mayitbringyouhealth, whisky onourPuzzlePage. to winabottleofaward-winning Chapter6English or spartreatments andEuropcar hire car;andthechance the five-starStAndrews Resort,withcomplimentarygolf We havetwogreat competitionsthistime:twonightsat the investmentopportunitiesinTees Valley. Our specialsupplementinthisissuetakesagoodlookat distillery andanaquavittasting. We getintoaseasonalframeofmind,withvisitsto on ourTVscreens inMasterchef: TheProfessionals. of theYear andofitsnewExecutiveChef,aladycurrently there, wesamplethebestofScotland’s Romantic Hotel different angleonthatoldfavourite,RoyalDeeside. While THE EASTERN TEAM EASTERN-TEAMET om både servicen og magasinet. setter alltid pris på å motta dine kommentarer deg det lille ekstra som er prikken over i-en. Vi fornøyd med servicen vår – og at den tilbyr ledende ruteflyselskap. Vi håper at du vil være Eastern Airways er et av Storbritannias kunder i Storbritannia og Europa velkommen. Eastern Airways magasinet ønsker våre VELKOMMEN

CONTENTS CONTENTS

26 RETURN OF THE KING 34 GLAMOUR GIRLS 17 CLASSIC CUISINE

REGULARS COMPETITIONS FEATURES 07 BUSINESS NEWS 13 PUZZLE PAGE 15 AQUAVIT What’s happening in the business Solve the puzzle and you could A seasonal toast to Norway’s world around Eastern Airways WIN a bottle of English whisky favourite spirit destinations 20 COLD SNAP 17 EXPLORATION EXPRESS Top tips on photographing the There’s plenty to warm to in a Northern Lights chilly Royal Deeside including dinner at the Raemoir and a visit 23 THE ORIGINAL DYLAN to the Royal Lochnagar distillery Celebrating 100 years of legendary Welsh poet, Dylan 36 BARE ESSENTIALS Thomas Eastern Airways’ network map, passenger information, essential 26 RAISING RICHARD goings on and destination guides We meet the woman who’s incredible hunch led to the 46 ESSENTIAL GUIDE: discovery of Richard III SECRET SIGHTS 33 SENSATIONAL STAY Places you may never know AT ST ANDREWS 30 VICTORIA PENDLETON existed – all within easy reach of WIN a fantastic five-star break Cycling’s golden girl on life after Eastern Airways destinations at Fairmont St Andrews Resort the Olympics

50 THE LAST WORD 34 TAKING A RISQUÉ It’s a dog’s life for pigeons says INVEST IN Burlesque is the new salsa Harry Pearson TEESAN EASTERN AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT VALLEY IN ASSOCIATION WITH TEES VALLEY UNLIMITED | NEW YEAR 2014

A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY Your guide to investing, living and working in the Tees Valley SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Fly easternairways.com i INVEST IN TEES VALLEY

Eastern Airways in-flight magazine is published for © December 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this Eastern Airways, Schiphol House, Humberside Eastern Airways by Gravity Magazines, Abbey Business magazine may be reproduced by any means, without International Airport, Kirmington, North Lincolnshire Centre, Abbey Road, Pity Me, Durham, DH1 5JZ prior written permission of the copyright owners. DN39 6YH www.gravity-consulting.com Although every effort has been made to ensure the Communications Manager: Darren Roberts e-mail: [email protected] accuracy of the information in this magazine, neither Tel: +44 (0)191 383 2838 the publisher, nor Eastern Airways can accept any Telephone: + 44 (0)8703 669669 liability for errors or omissions. Reservations: + 44 (0)8703 669100 Publisher: Stan Abbott www.easternairways.com Design: Barbara Allen ISSN: 2044-7124 For magazine comments: Front cover by Foundedcover Front by Print: Buxton Press Previously known as e-magazine, ISSN 1477-3031. [email protected]

To advertise in Eastern Airways Magazine, call Liz Reekie on +44 (0) 7563 796103 / +44 (0) 1434 240947 or email [email protected] Using your smartphone, scan the QR code to visit our dedicated industrial website

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Sector specialist recruitment www.nigelwright.com NEWS FROM EASTERN AIRWAYS DESTINATIONS A three monthconsultation, including on thesite. the retention ofarestaurant andspa will replace it.Theplansalsoinclude occupy the200,000sqftbuildingthat Statoil iswidelytippedasfavouriteto Hotel andSpawillbedemolished The existing41-bedroom Marcliffe firm. the headquarters of a major international an office complex, which could house with a £90 million development including replace the North Deeside Road venue by developer Gibson McArtney Ltd to is to retire and plans are being submitted hospitality trade, owner Stewart Spence After more than half a century in the to close. hotel, theMarcliffe atPitfodels,isset Gorbachev, Aberdeen’s onlyfive-star by formerSovietPresident Mikhail Twenty-one yearsafteritwasopened PROFITABLE MARCLIFFE TO CLOSE PROFITABLEMARCLIFFE NEWS carrier. CLIC Sargent provides a range of clinical,Eastern Airways,practical, which financial operates and more emotional aircraft support. movements young people from andAberdeen their Internationalfamilies. The Airport’sfundraiser wasrunwayairport’s organised than any runwayby other George and backWalker again. Event The Managementevent raised Theand £14,000 Easternsponsored Airwaysfor CLICby Runway Sargent, Run, thefeatured national in cancerour last charity issue forgave children 50 runners and the opportunity to run the length of Aberdeen EASTERN AIRWAYS FUN RUN RAISES £14,000 AIRWAYS RAISES RUN FUN EASTERN Pitfodels Marcliffe at The five-star cartoon’s unveiling Simon’s son Sam atthe

colleagues among Eastern Airways air crew and engineers.The caricature was unveiled on the apron at Newcastle Airport,idea watched of colleagues by Simon’s at the airline. Riff Raff, and it is in this role that he is rememberedAway from in his the day caricature, job, however, which was Simon the was the drummer in anrespected AC/DC tribute pilots. band, Simon Rawcliffe, who was the airline’s Head ofside Training of one the and airline’s one of the industry’sJetstream 41 aircraft.most Passengers The graphic on Eastern design Airways is in memoryflights of may have noticed a striking caricature on the FLYING ROCK STAR SIMON REMEMBERED The ChesterResidence,inEdinburgh. luxury of Gillian and Graha to replicate the award-winning five-star Hotel, on Queen’s Road, which aims opening in January of The Chester but the blow will be softened by the It will be a significant loss to Aberdeen has remained on the market since. the funding could not be raised and it bedrooms and a conference centre, but when it was planned to add 200 luxury to in 2009 for a reported £17million, The hotel was close to being sold £7.8 million. tax profits for Pitfodels Holdings rising to successful in the hotel’s history, with pre-The past 12 months have been the most “a year of celebration ahead”. honoured until November 30, 2014, with business as usual, with all bookings Stewart Spence said it would be a public exhibition, is currently underway. m Wood’s Lincolnshire and Yorkshire region.” service to Scandinavia from the Humber, will be providing the only non-stop, direct Humberside International Airport as we route to Copenhagen is great news for Director, added: “A new high-profile Paul Litten, the airport’s Commercial Denmark and the Nordic region.” is the perfect time to strengthen ties with renewable energy capital of the UK, now the area on its way to becoming the area of development for SAS. And with region is an important northern hub and within reach of the airport, the Humber more than three million people living Manager Western Europe, said: “With Hans Dyhrfort, SAS’s Regional General operated by Scandinavian Airlines. weekly direct service to Copenhagen, the launch in October of a new owns Eastern Airways – is in 2012 by the Eastern Group, which also Humberside AIRPORT SUCCESS AIRPORT Copenhagen Frederiksholm Canal,

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+44 (0)845 504 0040 [email protected] www.nortechoilandgas.com BUSINESS NEWS FROM EASTERN AIRWAYS DESTINATIONS NEW CONFERENCE CENTRE FOR ABERDEEN airways.fr www.eastern at bookable are Flights city. largest second country’s and France, east-central in region Rhone–Alps the of capital the is Lyon passenger port. fishing port,industrialportand with itsmilitaryport,yachtingmarina, repairs andis“thetownoffiveports” naval baseforconstructionand Lorient isalsothecountry’s main thalasso spas activities, including sailing, golf and and the area offers numerous leisure tors. automobile and food processing sec with Lyon in the electronics, telecoms, Lorient have strong industrial links and fishing region. The region and ern Brittany, an important agricultural Lorient is located in the heart of south Dijon basetoBordeaux andToulouse. France, where itoperatesfrom its adding toitsexistingnetworkin weekday andaSundayservice, The airlineoffers twoflightseach Lorient, in southern Brittany, and Lyon. provide scheduled services between important new contract in France to Eastern Airways has been awarded an CONTRACT WINS NEW FRENCH EASTERN AIRWAYS understood tobethefactthat A keyfactorinthedecisionis selected todrivetheproject forward. developer HenryBoothasbeen on landnearAberdeen Airportand The £200mdevelopmentwouldbe existing facilitiesatBridgeofDon. exhibition centre toreplace the plans foranewconference and Aberdeen hasannouncedambitious winning English whisky –James English whisky winning Barrowman, Bo’ness and Kyle Bathgate. Gibson, Cults, Aberdeen; golfing break two-night Sutton, courtesyofVisitAberdeen Gonzalez, –Amie bottles Norfolk; ofChapter 6 award- Magazine breakEastern two-night Airways 45competition issue winners: at Norfolk Mead Hotel, –Stanley near Fraser, Norwich The coast attracts many visitors, . the the - - enjoyed byGlasgowandEdinburgh. inlinewiththat Scottish Government, support foranewvenuefrom the and thecouncilisnowlobbyingfor subsidy from Aberdeen CityCouncil AECC hasreceived adiminishing but oneeventin2017. venue isneededintimeforthenext AECC siteandanewfit-for-purpose exhibition hasnowoutgrown the Offshore Europe conference and the LawAwards of Scotland 2013. Family LawFirmoftheYear honour at firm, are pictured left receiving the Buchan, foundersandpartners atthe events. IainPatienceandLorna Scottish legalprofession’s topaward prestigious accoladeatone ofthe Patience andBuchanhaswona n oldfields-pantry and quoting code EA50. visiting www.oldfieldseatinghouse.com/ their first month’s meals at half price by Eastern Airways customers can enjoy restaurant food. the same as Oldfields’ award-winning and thoroughly British meals – exactly £39.95, secures the delivery of ten frozen An inclusive monthly price, starting at simple monthly subscription. door to anywhere in the UK in return for a deliver high quality meals direct to the restaurant, Oldfields Eating House, will Celebrated North East England alone. “Are they eating properly?” who may have elderly relatives living worries thousands of busy executives 21st century answer to a question that writer Bill Oldfield has come up with a Durham-based restaurateur and food TO THE DOOR GOURMET FOOD Aberdeen-based familylaw practice

East until its abolition. regional development agency One North Entrepreneurs’ Forum and chaired 1979. He also founded the successful software group, which he founded in Callaghan is Chairman of the Leighton drive that success.” is fundamental in helping to shape and and NewcastleGateshead Initiative’s role NewcastleGateshead must be successful East is to be successful, then important conurbation. If the North is the region’s capital and its most team said: “NewcastleGateshead and lifelong fan of the city’s football The Sunderland-based entrepreneur Initiative. NewcastleGateshead investment agency, destination and inward is the new Chair of n challenges. returning, but members are aware of the Confidence in the Libyan market is also UAE, Saudi Arabia, Norway and Canada. – along with the USA, Russia, Qatar, the looking to for future export opportunities although it is Brazil that members are top of the list of current export markets, Norway has reclaimed its place at the supply chain companies. the top international markets served by members’ export activities and highlights The annual survey tracks NOF Energy future market. cent indicating that this is a potential from members, with more than 60 per market has also generated a lot of interest longer term. The emerging shale gas however, also remain important in the five years. Offshore wind and nuclear, will be their main priority for the next cent of members say that oil and gas According to the survey, almost 70 per Business Services. services, reports Clare Weirs, Director organisation’s business development members and their opinions on the activities of its 440 UK and international NOF Energy’s Annual Survey charts the sector for their businesses. far the most important by its members as by gas market is still seen revealed that the oil and renewables sectors – has gas, nuclear and offshore organisation for the oil, business development n Paul Callaghan, CBE, NOF Energy – the Clare Weirs 9 While teaming up with SPX Bolting Systems, HTL supply a huge range of Topside and Subsea Bolt Tensioners!

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Think Commissioning Think mcgregorconsultants.com Well Engineering Recruitment SPONSORED EDITORIAL / NEWS FROM EASTERN AIRWAYS DESTINATIONS Engineer career your with PEOPLE POWER POWER PEOPLE their long-term futures. Moving people to other departmentsdifferent departments, in line with employee ambitionstraining for needs. Moves can be vertical or horizontaltheir into careers and the skills gaps can be filled byAnnual identifying appraisals help people get to the next steps in enhancing their roles to keep them varied and interesting.they still aspire to be developed in their currentwish jobs to bymove up the career ladder and for those whoThere don’t, is a need for visible succession planning for those who them opportunities for career development. two-way communication; develop and train staff; andpersonnel give development are simple: treat staff fairly;talent. foster Employee engagement is crucial and the basicsadditional of element in the drive to attract and retainthe employmentthe best market is very buoyant, adding an quality of our business. In the energy sector in in.particular, At Intertek, the quality of our people is integralto get to the the best out of your people and attain theirpassion. buy- To get the best out of your organisation,The strength you have of any business comes down to people and clocked up 298 years at Intertek. extensive expertise; in fact, we have 13 people whothe have sector. There are a number of employees whothe haveworld. We have harnessed a wealth of knowledgewhich in is exported to our other labs, and to clients,Our allAberdeen over base is central to the oil and gas expertise, strives to nurture talent and skills and retain keymultifaceted personnel. energy industry, in which Intertekevolving continually organisation. This applies particularly industriesto the it serves around the globe, Intertek isResponding a constantly to the demands of the many ever-changingworldwide, working across sectors from food to oilIntertek and gas. is a leading quality solutions provider to industries

experience delivering integrated, multi-disciplinary engineering design and analysis consultancy services worldwide. engineeringdesignandanalysis consultancyservices experience deliveringintegrated,multi-disciplinary is aglobalproviderofengineeringsolutions totheoil,gasandrenewableenergysectors,withover13years’ PROSPECT Whether developing aconcept,workingthrough detaileddesignoroptimisingon-going operations, Prospect’s yourengineeringprojectdelivers, ontimeandbudget. expertisewillensure , an independent subsidiary of the Wild Well Company, ControlgroupandSuperior Energy Services oftheWild , anindependentsubsidiary Unit 3BradleyCourt, Trent Lane, CastleDonington,DE742UT+44 (1332)223999 DERBY•ABERDEEN •HOUSTON by

Margo Maxwell, Regional HR Executive at Intertek the people, so investment in them is key for futureteams. success. When it comes down to business, all the powerneed is to in come together to make cohesive and committedthan ten years. All of the elements of employee engagementIntertek, 14 per cent of our team have been with usasset for –more its people. Holding on to expertise is vitalthemes and inat making the most of a company’s most importantpeople development are a continual process, thereWhile are transitionkey and changes in corporate cultures and education qualifications to advance their careers. online learning, to supporting employees in obtainingTraining further is also key, from development programmesto share and ideas and experiences for people development.the organisation. It is vital to bring managementunderstand together where their career aspirations could fitessential within and helped staff engage with the new structureappraisals and and performance management workshops – Standardisingwas procedures and processes – such as which posed challenges in the creation of a unifiedcompanies team. to come together under one name and one Intertekroof, in Aberdeen merged from seven teams andcohesive different team makes a credible, strong team. Lastof year, this is also down to a compatible workforce, becauseto play a a part in the success of their organisation.involved Much in and enthusiastic about their work and anreally organisational want culture in which employees aresector, fully therefore employee engagement is vital.Staff This retention means is a huge challenge in Aberdeen’s energy losing that vital talent in the company. means that different career ambitions can be met without [email protected]; www.intertek.com/careersquality solutions provider to industries worldwide.Margo Email: Maxwell margo. is Regional HR Executive at Intertek, the leading www.prospect-fs.com 11 Scotland we’ve got it covered

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ORGANISED BY COMPETITION www.englishwhisky.co.uk malt whisky free shop). duty (also airport on sale inNorwich of bottles oneChapter oftwo 6, England’s award-winning finest single Welcome to the Eastern page puzzle Airways and your chance to win PUZZLE PAGE PUZZLE Sponsored by England’s finest whisky by Yves Du Sault 13 GATEWAY TO OPPORTUNITY OF TYNE 2kmOF OFFshORE-REAdY qUAY 365dAYs lOck FREE AccEss hEcTAREs30 OF AvAIlAblE lANd WITh ENTERPRIsE zONE sTATUs ANd sUPPORT

NORTh EAsT bUsINEss OF ThE YEAR WWW.OFFshORETYNE.cOm DRINK glass ofNorway’s favourite spirit… joins the Norwegian-British Smith ChamberGraeme ofCommerce to raise a A DRINK THAT TRAVELSWELL DRINK A of shipsatsea. somewhere intheworldondecks there willbe1,000barrels ofaquavit centuries on,atanygiventime, never beensuccessfulso,two byscientificmeanshave journey Efforts toreplicate the effect ofthe was born. been tastedbefore andLinie Aquavit the aquavitwasbetterthanhadever in December1807itwasdiscovered Trondheim. Whentheywere opened and thebarrels were brought backto captain failedtosellhiscargo ofspirit headed forAustralia.Howeverthe five casksofNorwegianaquavita laden withfish,hams,cheesesand accident: in1805,acargo vessel Linie Aquavitwasdiscovered by He toldushowtherichflavourof potatoes. was considered more valuablethan the early19thcentury, whengrain back tothewidespread faminein choice prevails inNorwayanddates either grainorpotatoes.Thelatter Like vodka,aquavitisdistilledfrom famous AquavitLiniemakes. thateverybottleofNorway’sjourney by aircompared withthelongsea enjoys visitingScotland,ashorthop As agolfandwhiskyenthusiasthe Chamber. and tastingformembersofthe Aberdeen toleadanaquavitseminar Stavanger’s VictoriaHotel,whovisited manager oftheHolmenBarat fromThis muchIlearned PaulLithun, those from Norway. none aswelltravelledsomeof “aqua vitae”–distilledspiritbut Several countrieshavetheirown of aquavit–the“waterlife”. toast theseasonwithaglassortwo celebrations, manyNorwegianswill for centuriesas,partofthetraditional This Christmas,astheyhavedone of Limejuiceand 3ozofSprite. of Lysholmer Linie,1ozofvodka, “mountain stream”, ismadefrom 1oz The refreshing mix, which means by thetopbarman. brand, andaFjellbekkcocktail mixed Sommer Aquavit,alightertasting given theopportunitytotryLoitens Aquavit, Chambermemberswere As wellasthefamousLysolm Linie to Christmas. the annualtotalissoldinrun-up round asadigestif,more thanhalfof Although aquavitisenjoyedyear- individual seajourney. per centproof bottlebears alogofits The reverse ofthelabel each80 a longwarmaftertaste. Chamber membersdiscovered, leaves enhance thedrink,which,as all worktheirmagictosmoothand motion oftheshipswirlingbarrels, along withthesaltyseaairand temperature andhumidityvariations, During thelongseajourney, the ham dumplings.” special dish,evenkumla–Norwegian than 20aquavitsthatare madefora of food,”hesaid.“Icountedmore aquavits are madeforindividualtypes makes itspecialandalotofour slightly different intherecipe, which “Almost everyaquavithassomething a sure indicatorofVikingsettlement. angelica, theherbwhosepresence is flavour. IntheFaroe Islands,theyadd giving different brandstheirindividual including cumin,aniseedanddill, that manyotherherbsare added, mandatory ingredient ofaquavitbut Paul explainedthatcarawayisa hue andhintofvanillaflavour. sherry casks,whichgivesitagolden aquavits becauseitismatured in month journey, differs from other “the line”(equator)twiceonitsfour- Linie, socalledbecauseitcrosses 15 JOIN THE NEXEN GENERATION

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EXPLORATION EXPRESS EXPLORATION with a little help from an award-winning hotel and a fine old malt

I’d travelled to Raemoir House with three Chef of the Year at third time of asking, Raemoir owner, Neil tasks in mind: to experience this multi- Rae,with chef Alex Hay having been a finalist in both 2009 and award winning country house hotel; to 2011, and – as Neil and Julie got to grips sample the culinary delights of its chef, with their refurbishment programme recently named Scotland’s Chef of the – Raemoir was crowned Scotland’s Year; and to test the theory that this Country House Hotel of the Year in 2011 might just provide a home-from-home and 2012, and, in this year’s revamped for visiting executives wanting a quick awards, won the regional and Romantic and easy escape each evening from the Hotel of the Year awards. bustle of downtown Aberdeen. With that, Neil decided, it was time The best laid schemes of mice and men, to stop “chasing bits of paper” and however, oft gang agley, as the Scottish sharpen the focus on continually raising Bard put it, and I learned on arrival Raemoir’s game, and building both that said chef, David Littlewood, had reputation and business in a way that departed a month previously for another would make it less susceptible to the Deeside establishment. fluctuations of the offshore oil and gas cycle. But the aptly-named hotel owner, Neil Rae, was quick to dismiss my That translates into exclusive-use concerns, with his fulsome praise for weddings, using the large single-span while progressively bringing the Mr Littlewood’s successor. Indeed, not marquee, and growth in exclusive-use accommodation up to scratch. only is Alexandria (Alex) Hay among the corporate bookings from the oil majors. It country’s leading female chefs, but she And why not? Neil’s background was also struck me that Raemoir’s roaring log has also enjoyed some success on BBC in oil engineering, but the couple had fires, friendly service, and wide choice TV’s Masterchef: The Professionals. successfully launched the Milton of single malts must appeal to business Brasserie, just outside nearby Banchory. people away from home. So let’s begin, then, with the food: when Raemoir duly added Grampian Neil and his wife Julie acquired the then “Yes, we have a lot of regulars through Restaurant of the Year to its AA two down-at-heel hotel a little over three the week, and Westhill is only minutes rosette and Michelin accreditations. years ago, they immediately made it away,” says Neil. Aberdeen Airport, their mission to focus on the restaurant, David Littlewood was named Scottish too, is only 30 minutes cross-country >>

17 A crisp early November frost coated the lawn at Raemoir as the mist hung low over the River Dee beneath a fresh, clear sky. A dusting of snow on the high Cairngorms completed the reminder that – besides boasting some of the country’s cleanest, freshest air – it also has, in Braemar, the UK’s coldest place. This is in part because, heading west up the river from Aberdeen, the road rises steadily for nearly 60 miles to more than 1,000ft at Braemar. My whistle-stop day was set to begin with a date – a date with a calendar to be precise. I headed for Crathes Castle, where – I had just read – archaeologists had recently uncovered said 10,000-year-old Mesolithic calendar. The imposing turreted castle itself stays open on quiet roads: compare that with 30 through winter, but not on this particular Monday. minutes through traffic to the city centre. Its walled garden, however, was a hive of activity, With rack rates starting at £120 for a as staff pruned and tidied for winter. One of them single, to £230 for a superior double, it knew quite a lot about the luni-solar calendar, surely makes sense. which might just be the place where measurement For Neil and Julie, investment is a of time itself was invented. She shared my perpetual imperative: “We have a few disappointment that there is, just weeks after its bedrooms to be upgraded to four-star,” discovery, precisely nothing to see of this hugely says Neil. The hotel currently enjoys a important find, it having been no sooner dug up three-star rating and the couple face a than reburied, in line with current archaeological dilemma, with six rooms across the yard practice. There is not so much as plaque to look in the 18th century Ha’Hoose. Neil is at… unsure Historic Scottish Heritage would At nearby Milton of Crathes, 17th century stone share his views on the merits of a glazed farm steadings have been restored to provide link that might also replace the marquee. accommodation for a variety of small businesses, That, of course is for the future. Right including the uplifting Milton Art Gallery (I now, in the kitchen, Alex – who moved particularly enjoyed Kathleen Buchan’s multi- from the Milton as sous-chef when coloured landscapes), Rustiques home décor, Wee Raemoir was acquired – has taken to her Boorachie crafts and the Milton Brasserie, which Executive Chef role like a duck to water. was initially established by Neil and Julie Rae, now Readers may have seen her on TV, where owners of the Raemoir Hotel. she was tasked with interpreting “old It is Deeside’s popularity with both tourists and school” for a panel comprising Michel Aberdeen’s well-heeled day-trippers that ensures Roux Junior, Monica Galetti and Gregg there’s business for arty-crafty outlets, even Wallace. through Winter. Born in Fettercairn and a graduate Angus College, in Arbroath, Alex’s influence is evident across the simple but exquisite menu. I selected kidneys with red onion jam and Merlot jus to start: the kidneys were light years from what you’d find in a traditional steak and kidney pie – soft and succulent, rather than tough and dry. A butternut squash and Parmesan soup amuse-bouche proved an enjoyable interlude before locally sourced lamb chump, perfectly presented with Eastern Airways flies to Aberdeen braised red cabbage. To complete the experience, I chose a brulée, with warm from Stavanger, Scatsta, Sumburgh, almond tart, berry compôte and Cassis sorbet: heaven on a plate. Stornoway, Wick John O’Groats, With a Fettercairn malt – which I chose in Newcastle, Durham Tees Valley, the chef’s honour – sipped on the deep Leeds Bradford, Humberside, East sofa by the log fire, what more could a man (or woman) want? FROM TOP Raemoir exterior, bar, Midlands, Norwich, Southampton 18 www.raemoir.com bedroom and lounge and Cardiff. Butterworth Gallery

IT IS DEESIDE’S

Crathes Castle POPULARITY WITH BOTH TOURISTS AND Milton of Crathes is also the terminus of the describe: “A rich nose of Christmas pudding, Royal Deeside Railway, whose dedicated ABERDEEN’S WELL- dried fruit, nuts and antique furniture polish. volunteers have been working for a decade The palate is both sweet and dry with treacle to restore part of the old line from Aberdeen HEELED DAY-TRIPPERS toffee, Brazil nuts and chocolate orange.” An to Ballater. It currently runs part of the way extra £3 on your tour fee will permit you to to nearby Banchory on weekends (winter share these enticing flavours! excluded, except Santa specials). THAT ENSURES THERE’S The distillery is not only just down the road Now, if this line had not been axed by the BUSINESS FOR ARTY- from the Royal Balmoral Castle, but is infamous Dr Beeching back in 1966, just also overlooked by one of the very many imagine the price that Deeside properties CRAFTY OUTLETS, EVEN memorials to Victoria’s beloved Albert, would be fetching nowadays! the hilltop to the west being a favourite picnic spot of the Queen and her consort. Banchory bears the epithet, Gateway to THROUGH WINTER. Beneath that hill we can imagine the home Royal Deeside, and is a thriving town of of the hermit, the Old Man of Lochnagar, a some 8,000, where I was impressed by at Raemoir the previous evening. creation of the imagination of Victoria’s great the Woodend Barn arts centre, bistro and Although part of the vast Diageo drinks grandson, Prince Charles. cinema, run by a collective from converted empire, Royal Lochnagar remains a small buildings on the edge of town. The valley and its many castles and gardens and traditional distillery. Just in time for the are as enduring today as Victoria’s love of West of Banchory, I crossed the river, 2pm tour, I learned that its specialities include the landscape and, indeed, of the monument forsaking the A93 for the much quieter road a long (110 hours) fermentation process, itself. that winds its way through the forests on the designed to deliver a “grassy” rather than a southern side of the Dee. First stop was the “nutty” finish. Aficionados will also note the Crathes Castle: tinyurl.com/po5752x Butterworth Gallery, formerly the old Ballogie open mash tubs and drool at vapours from Royal Lochnagar Distillery: tinyurl. village shop and post office, complete with the aged casks in the dark store room. com/29loud rustic petrol pump and telephone box. It’s Royal Lochnagar’s pride is its Select now home to the prolific output of artist Reserve, created on September 12 each Howard Butterworth and his daughter Mary year, on the anniversary of the visit by Queen Louise. Victoria that led to its Royal Charter. The Thence to the Royal Lochnagar Distillery, to Select Reserve is a blend of whisky from which I was inexorably drawn, following a casks carefully selected by a team of top wee dram of its fine 12-year-old single malt tasters. It retails at £150 and tasting notes

Mist over the lawn at Raemoir 20

IN THE SPOTLIGHT THE NORTHERN LIGHTS that isforecast to continue through thiswinter and next. brilliance fluctuatewith the sun’s cycle and winterlastown marked ahighpoint interaction and the ofsolarearth’s activity magnetic theirfrequency and field, and it’sgifts makingworth sure you see them in your lifetime. Produced by the AuroraThe Borealis, Lights, or Northern are one of nature’s most spectacular Although sometimes witnessed in the UK, northern Norway is currently top of the Northern Lights pops. Recording nature’s firework display on their own camera is everyone’s ambition. Here are some tips: n Learn how to set your digital SLR camera manually and practise before travelling n Use a tripod n Use your shutter delay setting to eliminate camera-shake n Learn where the infinity setting on your camera is during daylight – it may not be simply the furthest you can turn the lens n Set the ISO to 400 or even 800 n Take off your UV filter n Choose a wide angle zoom lens – f/2.8 n Experiment with exposures of at least 15 seconds This picture was taken by Stan Abbott at Camp Tamok, in Norwegian Lapland, two hours’ drive from Tromsø.

EASTERN AIRWAYS FLIES FROM ABERDEEN AND NEWCASTLE TO STAVANGER MMS Half page 2013 MJ Output A.pdf 12/11/13 15:32:02

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Call for information: Don’t miss your chance to exhibit at this event: 01493 446535 www.eeegr.com/events THE ORIGINAL BEAT POET Victoria Trott anticipates the 2014 centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas, the iconic figure of Welsh literature… DYLAN THOMAS CENTENARY Mention Swansea and what immediately Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in the springs to mind? A Premier League football Uplands area of Swansea on October 27 team? A Hollywood actress? A stunningly- 1914. The schoolmaster’s son, whose located university? In 2014 it is hoped that colourful private life was arguably better the main association will be with a short, known to most people than his works pudgy, whisky-slugging, womanising, (which included the poem Do Not Go former local newspaper journalist who has Gentle and the “play for voices” Under been dead for 60 years – but who also Milk Wood), will have the centenary of his happens to be Wales’s greatest ever (and birth celebrated with a year-long festival of most controversial) poet. events in Wales, England and abroad. >>

Dylan by John Doubleday 23 Clockwise from top left: Front room at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea Marina, front bedroom where Thomas was born, Cwmdonkin Park.

Says Professor Peter Stead, founder of Highlights of Dylan Thomas 100 include: an Dylan’s fiery wife (Caitlin Thomas’s Aeron the annual Dylan Thomas Prize for writers exhibition of Sir Peter Blake’s illustrations of Valley: The Ponies and The Red Lion) on July under 30: “People are mainly aware of Dylan Under Milk Wood at the National Museum 5. Dr Bronwen Price, Senior Project Manager Thomas because of his infamy, but he was of Wales, in Cardiff (until March 16) – see at Literature Wales, says: “Dylan’s life underestimated, not least in Wales. However, Essential Goings On, page 39; an exhibition created his works and we want to show how a group of scholars at Swansea University of the writer’s personal items and Notebook connected his work is with the landscapes have shown him to be a major poet and a Poems, at the National Library of Wales, of his life: little pubs, childhood fights, those great influence. With the Dylan Thomas 100 in Aberystwyth (June 28-December 20); kinds of day-to-day things. festival, we want to make sure that the world and the world premiere of Karl Jenkins’s “We are striving to give people an appreciates his work. Three Images from Dylan Thomas, with the understanding of that by engaging with them Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, at in an interesting way, which is why we are “But 2014 is also aimed at producing new Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall on October 18. offering some tours on horseback and in Dylans. In post-industrial Wales we need to canoes. There is something to interest most focus on individual fulfilment more than ever. Literature Wales has developed a series of people, not just staunch fans.” We are a country of writers and artists and literary tours, A Dylan Odyssey, ranging from the creative arts are a very important part of one to six days, in Wales, Oxford, London Dylan’s Swansea landscapes have changed our economy. and New York – where the writer died in considerably since he lived there: much 1953. Dylan’s granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, of Wales’s second city was flattened by “Dylan wrote most of his poems before the will be accompanying tours in Laugharne – German bombs during a three-night blitz in age of 20, so along with Literature Wales where Dylan spent the last four years of his 1941. The Kardomah café, where he used – the agency that promotes Welsh and life – (The Thomas Children’s Laugharne: to meet friends, including the poet Vernon English-language literature in Wales – we The Rats and Mably the Dog) on May 17 Watkins, the artist Alfred Janes, and the have created a schools programme called and Swansea (Dylan Thomas’s Swansea composer Daniel Jones, has moved from Developing Dylan, in which selected writers Uplands: The Boy and the Young Dog) on Castle Street to Portland Street. His first (and will run workshops with children to introduce July 12. While National Poet of Wales Gillian only) employer, the South Wales Daily Post, them to Thomas’s characters, poetry and Clarke will be exploring the Aeron Valley, in which became the South Wales Evening prose.” Ceredigion, on horseback in the tracks of Post, moved from Wind Street (now famous “ MOST PEOPLE BUY BOOKS ABOUT DYLAN RATHER THAN HIS WORKS, AS THEY ARE ATTRACTED TO HIM AS THIS BOHEMIAN ARTIST.” Dylan Thomas Theatre, Dylan Thomas Centre (top), the “Boathouse” at Laugharne, Carmarthenshire where Thomas spent his last years.

for its pubs and bars) to Adelaide Street, and “As a lifelong fan of Dylan I was very sorry to dealer, Chairman of The Dylan Thomas recently to modern premises in regenerated see the state the house was in when I visited Society of Great Britain, and author of the High Street. The docks have been turned during the Dylan Thomas Festival one year, recently published Dylan Thomas: The Pubs. into a smart marina lined by apartments, then when the lease came up I was the only He says: “There are two aspects to Dylan: including Wales’s tallest building (Meridian person who was interested in taking it!” says the writer and the legend. Most people Tower), cafés and the National Waterfront Geoff. Museum, where visitors can learn about the buy books about Dylan rather than his maritime and industrial history of Swansea “The first task was to research the house. works, as they are attracted to him as this and Wales. The Thomas family lived here from 1914 to bohemian artist. He only lived for 39 years 1937; then another teacher owned it until but he hung out with so many writers, artists But traces of Dylan abound here. From the the 1970s. Afterwards it was briefly used as and celebrities, especially on his hugely Dylan Thomas Theatre, home of Swansea a B&B, then as student bedsits. We actually successful lecture tours of America. He was Little Theatre, of which he was a member, found a maid who had worked here when ‘cool’ – he stayed at The Chelsea Hotel in and the bronze statue of a seated Dylan, by Dylan was a teenager so she could tell us New York and he died young after a drinking John Doubleday, just outside, to the Dylan all about the house, such as what belonged session. He paved the way for the Beat Thomas Centre, home of the annual Dylan where. We also read Dylan’s letters and Generation. Then a Jewish American folk Thomas Festival, and a permanent exhibition stories for clues as to how the house looked. singer called Robert Zimmerman changed on Thomas’s life and work. The Queens in his name to Bob Dylan around 1959 and the Gloucester Place, the last of the old docks “Amazingly, all the original features were still legend lived on.” pubs, one of Dylan’s favourite watering intact, even the original wall colours were holes, is still open for a drink. underneath the wallpaper, so we had those Who needs footballers and film stars when copied. The Edwardian furniture came from Swansea spawned the original Beat Poet? Two places that Dylan would definitely charity shops, car boot sales and auctions. www.dylanthomas100.org recognise are Cwmdonkin Park, where he Now, we offer guided tours, musical and www.dylanthomas.com; www.literaturewales.org used to play as a boy, and which features in literary events; we organise Edwardian- www.5cwmdonkindrive.com his poem The Hunchback in the Park and, themed dinners and people can also stay www.dylans.com; www.visitswanseabay.com nearby, 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, his childhood here on a B&B or self-catering basis.” home. The house was rescued from near- Eastern Airways flies to Cardiff from dereliction in 2005 by local businessman So just why is it that people are so fascinated Newcastle and Aberdeen Geoff Haden, who spent three years with Dylan Thomas? The best person to returning it to its Edwardian origins, before ask is Jeff Towns, one of the world’s leading

Boathouse image: LinguisticDemographer: en.wikipedia opening it to the public in 2008. Dylan Thomas experts, antiquarian book 25 A trolley, a trolley, my kingdom for a trolley! The remains of King SPECIAL FEATURE Richard III were famously found beneath a car park in Leicester. Stan Abbott meets the woman whose uncanny hunch led to the remarkable discovery…

26 Facial reconstruction of Richard. Darlow Smithson Productions It’s a familiar story: attractive, solvent, intelligent woman – to the Tudor, whose monarchs assumed dismay of friends and colleagues – announces she’s to wed the the crown after Richard. However, lazy, feckless young man who can’t hold down a job and who was it was Shakespeare who really did written off by everyone years ago. for Richard, creating of him one of his vilest characters: a power- We all remember the collective I-told-you-so’s and tut-tuts when crazed despot, and “foule hunch- friends and family survey a trail of mutual destruction when Mr backt toade”. Feckless behaves true to type. Like fellow members of the Philippa Langley bristles at the unfairness of some suggestions Richard III Society, Philippa that her interest in “rescuing” Richard III has been obsessive. always maintained that there were “Some people like to think I’m ‘obsessed’,” she says. “It puts me two great untruths about Richard: in an easier box, but the reality is that I am passionate about this he was not the evil demon of period of history. My interest in the reputation of Richard III began Shakespearian drama; and his in 1998 when I read Paul Murray Kendall’s biography. Kendall’s remains were never, as claimed work challenged negative views of Richard.” by most accounts, tossed unceremoniously into the River Richard’s death in battle seems, in hindsight, to have been no PASSIONATE ABOUT HISTORY Soar, at Leicester, at the time of Philippa Langley more than the start of his troubles. But Philippa’s own research the dissolution of the Monasteries. confirmed a better side to the monarch remembered by history as the evil slayer of the young Princes in the Tower. For that, she Having spent a significant period maintains, we can blame the propaganda machine of the House of of my life not far from Richard’s northern headquarters, at Middleham, in Wensleydale, I was intrigued when news broke in 2012 that someone was digging up a car park to try and find his remains. It conjured up visions of a Tesco wasteland. I couldn’t imagine Richard having shopped at Tesco, much less having died in battle under its car park. When, just a day or two later (or so it seemed) the announcement came that bones, believed to be those of Richard, had indeed been unearthed in Leicester, the nation and I wiped the collective smirk off our faces. And when, in February 2013, the whole story of Philippa and her quest for the truth about Richard was told in a TV documentary, it proved to be the most compelling viewing. I was gripped as Philippa’s earnest blue eyes turned to camera and spoke of the overwhelming sensation that Richard would be found here, near the letter R (for “Reserved”) in the Leicester Social Services car park. And then came the tears of anticipation after her seven-year quest, when human remains were unearthed; of excitement when the skeleton showed evidence of the scoliosis (curvature of the spine) with which Richard had been afflicted; and finally of joy, relief and vindication when proof came that these were, beyond reasonable doubt, the bones of the last Plantagenet king. Much has been written about Philippa and colleagues’ extraordinary discovery, not least her own book – The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III – co-authored with military historian and Richard III expert, Michael Jones. So I travelled to Edinburgh, where Philippa is Secretary of the Scottish branch of the Richard III Society, intent on exploring other themes: what was it that had made her sure she was digging in the right place? what was it that so drove her in her quest to have Richard seen in a better light? how might a Richard victory at Bosworth have altered history and the very shape of the England we now know? and what were her views on the York challenge to a Leicester reburial for the king’s remains? Philippa Langley was born in Kenya and moved to England with her parents, settling in Darlington aged two. She attended Hummersknott School, choosing a busy career in marketing and advertising over going to university, and eventually settling in Edinburgh. But in late 1992, aged 30, she became seriously ill and subsequently chose to slow down: “It changed my perspective on life,” she reflects. “I had always been fascinated by history and the stories that history gives us.” But, she adds: “So many of the stories are never told. We repeat stories all the time and don’t tell original stories. I started reading more because I was ill and it was through starting to work as a screenwriter and coming across Richard’s story, that it all started to gel.” >> This meant that, in the event that Richard’s remains could be found, DNA sequencing could be used to identify them with near certainty. “I just thought this is a discovery that could be huge, if Richard was indeed buried there.” Philippa encouraged Dr Ashdown-Hill to write to Channel 4’s Time

Darlow Smithson Productions Smithson Darlow Team with a view to their filming an excavation of the Greyfriars area

beneath the social services car park. For Time Team, it turned out to be the one that got away as the dig was turned down on the basis that the car park area was simply too big. “If they had dug where I asked them they would have found Richard on the first day,” says Philippa, ruefully. That left Philippa to raise the funds to sponsor her own excavation. But with just a few weeks to go, the funds pledged were thousands short of the £35,000 needed. Naturally, she turned to her colleagues in the Richard III Society, whose purpose is summed up by the Duke of Gloucester, its Patron: Philippa and John Ashdown-Hill remove the remains “The purpose – and indeed the strength – of the Richard III Society Thus began a compulsion to bring Richard’s “alternative story” into derives from the belief that the truth is more powerful than lies; a faith the daylight and reverse the wrongs done to him by history in general that even after all these centuries the truth is important. It is proof of and Shakespeare in particular. our sense of civilised values that something as esoteric and as fragile as reputation is worth campaigning for.” What was it, I wondered, that had moved her to tell the world, on Some £17,000 flooded in from Society members, many of them in camera, that she was standing right above the remains of Richard? America, and the dig duly started in August 2012. “I suppose it was really a strong intuitive feeling. I really felt I was When human remains were soon discovered beside the letter R, the standing on his grave in this particular place, and it did become the possibility they belonged to the former monarch became more real driver and the catalyst.” as the curvature of the skeleton’s spine became evident. DNA testing Of course, Philippa can not explain her powerful intuition through confirmed that ownership with as near as damn it absolute certainty. the laws of science as we understand them, but points instead to But what does all this tell us? evidence that she is not, as they say, “alone”. She invites me to “With the discovery, we now know a lot more about Richard’s last examine the discovery of the Sutton Hoo Treasure, dubbed “one minutes, his last day and how he was buried,” says Philippa. “It does of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time”. It was only not look like they gave him much in the way of a service or anything because of the conviction of the landowner, Edith Pretty, that the and they certainly didn’t prepare his body for reburial properly, mounds near Sutton Hoo House, in Suffolk, contained some kind because it looks like he was placed in a grave that was too short for of treasure, that archaeologists were persuaded to conduct a dig him and with his hands possibly tied as well.” in the 1930s. The numerous wounds to Richard’s head – initially delivered from Then, as in Leicester, the archaeologists were initially sure they knew behind – confirmed some contemporary accounts of his courageous better precisely where to dig than Mrs Pretty, who claimed to have death. dreamed of a funeral procession and a vision of an armed warrior before commissioning a dowser, who is said to have located gold. Now Philippa believes the extraordinary discovery has already swung the pendulum of history in Richard’s favour: she speaks In her endeavours to find an explanation for her own and Mrs Pretty’s of a “paradigm shift” in Richard’s reputation, with the journalistic intuition, Philippa also cites the work of John William Dunne, the Irish shorthand for the last Plantagenet no longer “evil villain” but the aeronautical engineer and parapsychologist whose published work neutral “Medieval King”. before his death in 1949 suggested that our experience of time as “linear” is actually an illusion. He argued that past, present and future “People can see there is a lot more to this man than we currently were in fact simultaneous and sleep, he suggested, could release the know,” she says. “Everyone now knows about Richard III and that’s mind to experience events in the past or the future. very interesting in terms of future research that will now be done.” But we digress: what, I wondered, had been the effect for Philippa Philippa herself hopes to sponsor research that might delve into the of the peculiar feeling she experienced in the car park of Leicester countless family and other archives that still exist, both in England Social Services? and in countries including France, the Low Countries and the Vatican. “I was a screenwriter: I was interested in Richard’s life, not his death. I “I am absolutely confident that there is a major discovery to be did a 180° from being fascinated by his life to being fascinated by his made about Richard III.” There might even exist evidence that could death because of the visit to the car park. What then followed from exonerate him for the supposed killing of the Princes in the Tower. that moment in 2004 was four years of research.” Meanwhile, with the identification of the bones from Greyfriars, came That research increasingly began to persuade Philippa of the pos- moves to deliver to Richard what he didn’t enjoy after Bosworth: a sibility that the king’s remains might indeed lie here, but it was a dis- proper burial befitting a monarch. covery soon afterwards by another Richard III Society member, histo- When Leicester City Council first granted Philippa permission for her rian Dr John Ashdown-Hill, that would prove the real game-changer. dig, it was on the understanding that – were Richard to be found – his Having traced an all-female line of descent from Richard’s sister, final resting place would be in a suitable shrine in the city’s Cathedral. Anne of York, to Joy Ibsen, an elderly lady living in Canada, Dr Ash- down-Hill was able to identify a rare mitochondrial DNA sequence. But that was to reckon without the passion with which Richard is 28 “RICHARD BROUGHT ORDER AND PEACE AND PEOPLE RESPECTED HIM. YOU GET A CLEAR SENSE THAT HE WAS VERY WELL RESPECTED AND LOVED THE NORTH, SO HE CHANGED IT IN MANY WAYS.” still remembered in his Yorkist heartland. The Plantagenet Alliance – a “Richard formed a large collegiate church at Middleham and had big group of supporters claiming descent from the monarch – challenged plans for it. He also loved music and reading and was very much for the plans to re-bury him in Leicester and won a judicial review on making books open to everybody so people could read more. So he the grounds that the correct consultation procedures had not been was clearly very interested in people being able to access books and followed. As we went to press, the court battle that will decide the law. whether the remains of the king are buried in Leicester or York had “The sense I get of Richard is that he did want to level the playing field been deferred. The High Court in London in November granted a bit, which – for the feudal age and feudal system – is actually quite Leicester City Council more time to prepare its case before the full something. Judicial Review is heard. “Quite a few writers on the period have discussed whether York would I wondered where Philippa’s sympathies lay: “The landowner, have become the capital of England. We certainly know that he had Leicester City Council, gave me permission to dig the car park on plans for York and was going to look after the city in a good way. From the basis that, if found, Richard would be buried in Leicester,” she his own written information it says ‘I am going to make sure that York stresses. “But I am from Richard III country,” she adds a little wistfully, is taken care of’. He had ideas for York and he had helped its citizens before adding: “I really don’t have an issue with where Richard is in many ways by cutting their taxes under Edward IV. He was a great buried – it’s how he is buried that I have the issue with because I want proponent of York and the North. It was his ‘faire city’.” him to have what he didn’t get in 1485.” What next then for Philippa, whose teenage sons, she says, generally So much for events in Leicester. But what if Richard, deprived of his indulge her research into Richard? “Richard III cost me a lot of money horse, had not been slain at Bosworth Field? How might the history but it was worth it,” she confesses. “There are more projects I want to of England played out if he had kept the throne? Philippa believes do.” we could now be living in a quite different England had this been the case. Chief among these is securing backing in Los Angeles or London for a cinematic feature: “We could telescope it and give it the ‘Lincoln “It could have switched the whole of the country,” she says. “The treatment’ and deal with four or five months of his life, or make it a North could have been the South and the South could have been the big, big film.” North. Philippa has even identified the Leicestershire actor Richard Armitage “He went to Middleham as a young boy and did some of his knightly – of The Hobbit, Robin Hood and Spooks fame – to play the lead. training under the tutelage of the Earl of Warwick. So he got to know it “But he thinks he might be too old now,” she sighs. when he was quite young. Clearly he decided to make his home there. Knowing Philippa’s determination, it’s a project that anyone would “One of the things that staggers me is that the North had been pretty write off at their peril. much Lancastrian in its loyalties but with the Earl of Warwick and then Richard going to live there, loyalties switched. Also, it was a very The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III, lawless place – a deep, dark lawless place – and people were very published by John Murray, £20 frightened to travel on their own, but Richard brought order and peace Richard III Society, www.richardiii.net and people respected him. You get a clear sense that he was very well Middleham Castle, tinyurl.com/p5lc23w respected and loved the North, so he changed it in many ways.” Eastern Airways flies to East Midlands (for Leicester and Bosworth Indeed, far from being the despot depicted by Shakespeare, there is Field) and to Durham Tees Valley and Leeds Bradford (for Middleham evidence that Richard was remarkably enlightened for his times. and York)

Middleham Castle © CJW Main image: REX/David Fisher. Opposite: Carfax2 - Creative Commons INTERVIEW INTERVIEW: VICTORIAPENDLETON With the 2014 Tour De France heading to Yorkshire next summer, Nick McGrath talks to one of Britain’s most celebrated cyclists, double Olympic champion, Victoria Pendleton…

In an Olympic Games rich in emotional moments, one of the most enduring is surely the memory of British track cycling’s Pendleton celebrates victory at the golden girl, Victoria Pendleton, tearfully waving goodbye to London Olympics a packed London Velodrome after narrowly failing to add another gold medal to her tally, in what was to prove the final race of a long and distinguished career. With her London heroics now a fading memory – followed by an eventful stint on 2012’s Strictly Come Dancing and her recent wedding to coach and long term fiancé Scott Gardener – I caught up with the Cheshire-based 33-year-old to talk sexism in cycling, sacrifice and why she hates losing.

NM: When Anna Meares beat you in your final race at the 2012 Games to take the sprint gold, she took away your chance to be Britain’s most successful ever female Olympian. Do you still rue that missed opportunity? VP: It just wasn’t meant to be. To be honest after getting relegated for something that totally wasn’t my fault I thought: “What can I do? I’ve been disqualified in the team sprint – Jess Varnish and I were disqualified – I’ve just been relegated – something is not in my favour at the moment.” But I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

NM: Do you think that will niggle you in the future? VP: No. Do you know what, I’m so over it. And the sooner I stop talking about it probably the better I’ll feel about it. It’s going to follow me for a long time but not many people are talking about old and past it and all this sort of stuff and I’m just sort of glad I the Silver anyway as everyone wants to talk about Gold. managed to prove them wrong. It was all worth it.

NM: Your rivalry with Anna Meares was well documented. Did NM: The British riders in 2014’s Tour De France will have home you ever secretly wish she’d got a puncture? advantage. How much of a boost was that for you at the London VP: No, nothing like that. I’m tired of talking about Anna Meares Olympics? to be honest. We just happen to have met up in so many race VP: It gave everyone a huge lift. It was deafening in the situations that people have constructed this bitter rivalry and Velodrome. It was absolutely incredible. I’m never going to there’s really none of that going on. It just is an interesting experience that again. That kind of level of support from the story. While I was at a press conference at the Olympics an crowd around me. It would be really difficult to top that. Australian journalist very comically asked me: “Is Anna Meares a cow?” I kid you not. That’s what he asked me. I just laughed NM: How will you ever match that serotonin rush for the rest of because I thought I’d misheard him. But the thing is I find that your life? quite insulting. It’s quite condescending about the female race. VP: You don’t need to. In order to feel that kind of adrenaline You wouldn’t ask Bradley Wiggins or Chris Hoy such a stupid rush and that kind of response from the crowd you have to put ridiculous question. What do they expect me to say? yourself through a hell of lot and I’m quite happy to sacrifice that – I really am for what it takes to get there. NM: You’ve very emotional. Has that always been the case? VP: I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve. It means a lot to NM: You recently tied the knot with your coach, Scott Gardener. me and when something means that much to you, you can’t Are you enjoying not having to focus 100 per cent on cycling for help but be fully involved with it on an emotional level. For me it a change? was such a huge relief to win that Gold Medal because it was a VP: Oh definitely. It will be nice not to feel like we’re forced to difficult four years for me and the team, and people said I’m too talk about work. When you live and breathe a sport and you’re >>

LEFT Victoria at the British Olympic Ball, in London, in October 31 VICTORIA PENDLETON – MARRIAGE, MOTIVATION AND GOING NAKED

going for the same goal it’s hard not to come home and talk And I am willing to do everything to the best of my abilities and about times and data and sprints and all those kinds of things, I’m very tenacious and determined and if you say I can’t, that so I’m really looking forward to having normal conversations just inspires me to do it more. with Scott without having that kind of pressure and expectation between us. NM: So those naked photoshoots on a bike must have gone down very badly with the male cycling establishment… NM: Are you talking about Eastenders storylines already then? VP: I got more stick from females – from feminists basically VP: I’ve never felt this relaxed. I feel so happy that I’ve made feeling sorry for me for being reduced to doing such demeaning the right decision and it’s exciting. It’s exciting to think that we things and whatnot. And I was like, “well I chose to do it can do whatever we want now. We don’t have to worry about actually and I’m very proud of the pictures” but you’re never anything. He was only working for British Cycling because of going to please everybody are you? I’m going to have those working with me. As soon as I left he was finished too. He’s pictures for the rest of my life as a record of what I wanted to still working in sports science but as a consultant for various look like. I think they’re cool. different sports. NM: Do you worry that physique will be a thing of the past… NM: You said recently that Scott had more emotional VP: Obviously I understand that I will not be able to maintain that intelligence that you... body shape without the training I was putting in, but I’m willing to VP: Scott has got more emotional intelligence than most. From compromise on some things. I think I’ll become a bit softer and a my experience a lot of sports, including cycling, are not very bit rounder in places but I’m quite happy to accept that. well equipped to deal with women in general. The women have to fit into a male-orientated environment and behave more like NM: How do you feel about being a positive role model? a man, and people feel comfortable with how they coach men. VP: I find it quite embarrassing that people view me as a role But they’re not necessarily as comfortable with how they coach model. It sounds really weird and if I had to say that out loud I’d women. It’s all run by men and men make the decisions and it’s feel really embarrassed. I really would. Me? I just ride round in difficult because sometimes they do miss something vital. They a circle. That’s all I do. I feel quite embarrassed by it and I don’t don’t realise that they are hindering, not helping. Scott is an feel deserving of it. It’s very flattering. Probably more flattering emotionally intelligent guy. He does read people very well and that anything you could possibly say to me. he does get on with people very well, and generally he’s very good at catering his behaviour to get on in an environment. NM: What does the future hold for you? I’m not so good at that and a lot of people within sport are not VP: It would be nice to work in a more creative role, whatever good at that. It’s not something that Alpha males are generally that may be. Who knows? I’d really like to go into design. blessed with. NM: I hear you fancy yourself as a dress designer? NM: Do you think you’ve got more alpha male in you than most VP: Just as a hobby: I love that sort of stuff. I’d love to do more women? dressmaking. I’ve got cupboards full of fabric in my house and VP: I think I’ve had to learn to behave more like that, which I sewing machines and all the bits and pieces. It’s something don’t like. I also resent the fact that I have had to become a that I enjoy doing but I really haven’t had the time or the space little bit more like that in order to survive in there. But that’s not to get involved. My mum and I are talking about going on really me actually. a pattern-cutting course as she has always made her own clothes. NM: Why did people say that about you? NM: It’ll be two years this summer since you retired from being VP: They thought that I’m too girly and too kind of soft to a professional cyclist. Do you miss the competition? survive in the environment and that I should toughen up. VP: No. I would have retired after Beijing if it hadn’t been for Something that I’ve always found very motivating is people the Games in London. If it had been any other city in the world telling me I can’t do it, or I haven’t got the qualities to succeed I would have retired in September 2008 but as I continued for – that I’m not mentally equipped to survive in an elite sport. I’m another four years I feel like I’ve definitely, definitely made the too small. I’m too girly, blah blah blah; I need to cut my hair off. right choice. Those things are all superficial in my opinion. NM: In 50 years when they’re writing the Olympic history books NM: It’s results that count… what would you like your entry to say? VP: Exactly. It’s how much you’re willing to give to get there. VP: She might have been slight, but blimey she was fast. “I find it quite embarrassing that people view me as a role model. It sounds really 32 weird …Me? I just ride round in a circle.” COMPETITION WIN an exclusive break at the home of golf –St Andrews Eastern Airways Magazine has teamed up with the exclusive five-star Fairmont St Andrews Resort and our hire car partner, Europcar, to offer one lucky reader and guest an exclusive two-night break at this leading golf venue on the Fife coast.

The prize includes two nights (Saturday excluded) in a Deluxe To enter our exclusive competition, just answer the following Seaview guestroom, full Scottish breakfast in the Squire restaurant, question: and 18 holes of golf for two on either of two championship courses, What are the names of the Fairmont St Andrews Resort’s two or a 60-minute spa treatment per person championship golf courses? The 520-acre resort encapsulates luxury, elegance and truly The first correct entry drawn at random will win two nights’ bed and breathtaking surroundings in the “Home of Golf”. With its lavish and breakfast for two people, plus golf or spa treatments. Also included peaceful setting, offering commanding cliff top views of St Andrews are Eastern Airways flights to and from Aberdeen if required. and the North Sea, the resort prides itself on its fabulous facilities, Eastern Airways car hire partner will provide a car for the duration including The Kittocks and The Torrance golf courses, and excellent of the winner’s stay. Note that the car offer is only available in dining – including the two AA Rosette Esperante restaurant or conjunction with flights to Aberdeen, and flights to Newcastle, only golfers’ fayre and magnificent views at The Clubhouse. if the winner is flying from Birmingham. All 209 luxury guestrooms are spacious and well proportioned with Send your answer to [email protected] with thoughtful Scottish touches. The sumptuous Signature Spa offers a “Fairmont St Andrews competition” in the subject field. Please range of treatments including locally-themed massages, facial and provide name, address and ‘phone number and the flight number relaxation therapies using exclusive Aromatherapy Associates and and date of your last flight with Eastern Airways. There is no postal Pure Lochside products in 12 chic treatment rooms. The 16-metre option. Closing date, Friday March 22, 2014. swimming pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and relaxation room complete the experience. Prize to be taken by December 14, 2014, subject to availability of accommodation and flights. Saturday nights are excluded. The resort is 84 miles – a two-hour drive – from Aberdeen Airport and our prizewinner will also enjoy a complimentary hire car www.standrewsbay.com courtesy of Europcar if required. www.europcar.com

Eastern Airways flies to Aberdeen from Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Stavanger, Stornoway and Wick. 34

Philip Hutton LEISURE moment? can-do, might the burlesque revival challenge salsa as the social dance of the and tickle. Welcome to the dance that’s once again making waves. From can-can to Chin up, chest out and wink! Platform shoes, barely-there costumes and a little slap BASQUEING IN GLORY IN BASQUEING audience.” way of strutting to or from the “You’re not going anywhere it’s just a a step and drag style. As Penny says: and taking a tiny step forward, the other involves almost kicking your bottom are two major struts to master. One wiggle, body wave and a pose. There moves, such as the bump and grind, spent learning the basic but essential The first five minutes of my lesson is to suffice at this level. Phew! code, but a vest and leggings seemed admit I was worried about the dress studio’s troupe, the Bombshells. I’ll studio to meet Penny, a member of the I’ve headed to the Bodybarre burlesque only one thing left to do… work”. So, with that in mind, there’s especially in a literary or dramatic exaggerated imitation of something, translates as “a parody or comically and seduce. The word burlesque but the aim of the game is to entertain is an element of taking your clothes off Think Cabaret and Chicago. Yes, there time. you are trying burlesque for the first isn’t necessarily an unusual request if but it’s from my instructor Penny, and down to a wrong number or something, Normally, I might put this text message “Bring your high-heeled shoes! X” Victoria Gibson The Headline Honeys finds out what the fuss is about… corporate entertainment agenda. professional burlesque now on the performing in amateur groups and revival, with women (and men) enjoying what might be termed a post-feminist However, the last few years have seen form. revival as a dark “underground” art the media, and burlesque enjoyed a ’50s it was something of a curiosity to clubs were closed down, but by the the “obscenity” of the shows and the During the 1930s there was outrage at raids on the clubs. striptease, often being arrested during crowd she developed it into a on, with a little encouragement from the shoulder straps fell down. From then wardrobe malfunction when one of her purely innocent and accidental – during one of her shows – suffered a wannabe actress Gypsy Rose Lee, who Brothers’ burlesque shows, featuring can-can. Then there were The Minsky that is hailed the true birthplace of the Rouge, which opened its doors in 1889, However it is Paris’s celebrated Moulin Westerns. high-paced music, as often seen in while dancing musical theatre to large petticoats and black suspenders, to the can-can, for which women wore The routines have strong historical ties out. hence winking or sticking the tongue the “tease” rather than the strip itself, element of humour and an emphasis on props of all kinds, topped off with an costumes with feathers and tassels and includes cabaret dances, risqué Traditionally this style of performance your bottom or your chest out. your modesty, so either push either must be exaggerated while maintaining standing still, one part of your body be adhered to, for example, if you’re Certain burlesque rules apply that must member Ebony Silk explains: “Ebony ego for themselves as Headline Honey Professionals tend to create an alter Tassel.” Rainbows, Lulu Roxx and Amber von D’Light, singing sensation Lola London Burlesque Festival Betty assistant event coordinator for the Caribbean temptress Ebony Silk, and inspiring people. We have our that I get to meet so many wonderful about producing burlesque shows is Frankii continues: “What I really enjoy demand. burlesque troupe, who are constantly in region’s only professional all-girl established performers and the Honeys, a group of like-minded 2009, Frankii formed the Headline glamour of the good old days and in world are determined to resurrect the Dedicated dance groups all over the what is considered normal.” confidence to be glamorous beyond love that Burlesque gives women the exhilaration on stage is contagious. I a performer, the adrenaline and strength taking her as far as Milan. “As career has gone from strength to That was in 2006, since when Frankii’s says Frankii. which completely changed my life,” resident burlesque performer came up the chance to become the local “I was already aware of burlesque and ’40s and ’50s pin-up girl. there developed her passion for the who started off as a model and from North East-based burlesque performer the field is the fabulous Frankii Wilde, a Someone with plenty of experience in her performances. an oversized Martini glass during one of Teese, who famously writhes around in attention by the immaculate Dita Von It has been brought to the public’s Silk is an enhanced version of my normal self, but not a totally different character – she’s a little more risqué and confident. Ebony is because of my ethnicity and Silk is because in my mind silk is a tactile, elegant and sensual fabric.” Ebony, who is one of just half a dozen professional black performers in the UK, started dancing in 2008 and even though she loved being on stage and getting a good reaction from the crowd, in the beginning she didn’t feel confident enough – partly owing to not having found her stage persona at that point. Once she found her current signature act, Little Brown Gal, she was proposed to by The Headline Honeys with a hat. She of course said yes. “It’s like having a little family and support network, they are my best friends as well as the best colleagues ever. And it’s an honour to be one of a few, I love being different. It gives a me a USP and I love that I can combine the other side of my culture and heritage with my creativity.” Back in the studio, we’re half way through the routine and within no time I’ve earned my feather boa, plus I’m starting to feel muscles I didn’t realise were there. With a few sensual clicks of the fingers and a shimmy to the front, my hour has come to an end. I’ve mastered an easy but effective burlesque routine. “Burlesque is a fabulous way to express yourself but you must always remember if you are performing on a stage, people have bought tickets and expect to be entertained,” says Ebony, as she recommends doing a lot of research into acts, names, workshops and different performers. “The first show I ever saw was The Flash Monkey Cabaret at Café De Paris, in London, and it was fantastic, glamorous and professional. As long as you keep these things in mind it doesn’t matter what shape, size, race, gender or sexual orientation you are. Give it your all, be professional and most of all enjoy yourself!” Fun, sassy and empowering. I’d recommend it to anyone, especially with a group of your best friends to strut your stuff with.

For more details about Frankii Wilde, the Headline Honeys and available workshops www.headlinehoneys.co.uk Victoria took a one-to-one class at Bodybarre, in Manchester. www.bodybarre.co.uk WELCOME TO OUR BARE ESSENTIALS Here you can find information on our routes, fleet, passenger BARE ESSENTIALS experience and a host of suggestions for what to do when you arrive at your destination.

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DURHAM TEES VALLEY LEEDS BRADFORD HUMBERSIDE EMBRAER ERJ145 Length 30m (98ft) Two aircraft EAST MIDLANDS Seats 50 passengers Typical cruising speed, Two turbofan engines 450 knots, at 35,000ft Wingspan, 20m (65ft) NORWICH BIRMINGHAM CARDIFF

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LORIENT DIJON EMBRAER ERJ135 Two aircraft Length 26m (86ft) Seats 37 passengers Typical cruising speed, BORDEAUX LYON Two turbofan engines 450 knots, at 35,000ft Wingspan, 20m (65ft) TOULOUSE

JETSTREAM 41 SAAB 2000

Eighteen aircraft Length 20m (63ft) Eight aircraft Length 26.7m (89ft) Seats 29 passengers Typical cruising speed, Seats 50 passengers Typical cruising speed, Two turboprop engines 280 knots, at 20,000ft Two jetprop engines 370 knots, at 28,000ft 36 Wingspan 19m (60ft) Wingspan 24.3m (81ft) ESSENTIAL TRAVEL PASSENGER EXPERIENCE

After booking your Eastern Airways flight items of hand luggage by the aircraft via a travel agent, the airline’s website or steps. Your hand luggage will be awaiting AIR TRAVEL in-house reservations call centre, you will you on the valet baggage cart at your SHOULD BE MORE OF have noticed that Eastern Airways uses destination airport. e-tickets. It was in fact one of the airlines A PLEASURE AND to pioneer ticketless travel over nine Once on board, our highly trained cabin years ago. attendants offer a friendly and LESS OF A CHORE personalised in-flight service including Queues at check-in are short and the complimentary drinks and branded process is swift as is the experience snacks. On arrival our aircraft allow for Our aim is to make your travel as pleasant through the security channels. This is quick disembarkation, enabling an experience as possible. possible thanks to a ground-breaking passengers to make their way swiftly initiative called Fast Track, which is onwards through the terminals. Have an enjoyable trip. available at Aberdeen, Birmingham, Leeds Bradford, Southampton, East Midlands, Newcastle, and is a dedicated security channel for Eastern Airways STAMPING OUT DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOUR passengers to use and avoid busy airport terminal security queues. While the vast majority of passengers flying globally behave impeccably, there is a greater awareness of isolated incidents of disruptive behaviour, also known as “air With Eastern Airways operating the largest rage”. While this isn’t a major problem for Eastern Airways, the safety and security of number of scheduled services from our passengers and crew is our number one priority. Aberdeen, a dedicated business lounge is available for all its customers flying from We don’t want our customers to experience any behaviour that makes them feel the airport and is located next to its uncomfortable, or be put in a situation that compromises safety. Disruptive behaviour departure gates. Executive lounge access can include smoking, drunkenness, aggressive behaviour or abusive language towards is also offered at Birmingham, Leeds a customer or a member of crew. Our crews are fully trained to deal with any incident of Bradford, Norwich, Southampton and this type. Cardiff for passengers travelling on fully flexible tickets. Disobeying a command, which is lawful by a crew member, is committing an offence under the UK Air Navigation Order. Offenders who persistently misbehave on As you board your aircraft you will a flight will be handed to the appropriate authorities on arrival and may face arrest and a notice we have a fleet of liveried valet heavy fine or up to two years imprisonment. Severe restrictions will also be placed on baggage carts for you to place larger their future travel with Eastern Airways.

ESSENTIAL GOINGS ON… FROM BEDSIDE TO BATTLEFIELD An exhibition exploring the many different nursing organisations that served during BARE ESSENTIAL GOINGS ON the First World War, and the experiences of the nurses themselves, takes place at the Mansfield Museum in Nottinghamshire from February 8 to March 29. During the First World War thousands of women served as nurses. While many assisted in hospitals at home, others worked close to the battlefields. In fact nurses were closer to the front-line than in any previous conflict. Many risked and sometimes lost their lives. Their contribution, however, has often been overshadowed by the events on the 100 Harvest gold, Etienne Francey Switzerland battlefields themselves. The exhbition, Everybody’s Darling - The WINNING WILDLIFE CAUGHT ON CAMERA First World War Nurse, is part of Trent to Winning entries from the world’s History Museum and BBC Worldwide, Trenches a major programme of events most prestigious photographic aims to showcase outstanding and activities taking place across showcase of wildlife photography creativity and photographic skills, Nottingham city and county in 2014 to are on show at Life Science Centre, inspiring wonder at the natural world, commemorate the 100th anniversary of Newcastle, until March 2. and highlighting the need for wildlife the outbreak of the First World War. Now in its 49th year, the Wildlife conservation in audiences of all ages. It includes an exhibition at Nottingham Photographer of the Year Castle to honour the memory of local competition, owned by the Natural www.life.org.uk people affected by the conflict and will highlight how the war was a catalyst for Roman Empire: Power and People huge social and economic change in the WHAT THE ROMANS brings together over 160 pieces from communities of Nottinghamshire. the British Museum to explore the story THOUGHT OF US… www.mansfield.gov.uk of one of the most powerful empires the www.experiencenottinghamshire.com world has ever seen. The exhibition, developed by the British Museum in partnership with Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, explores the wealth, power and organisation of the Empire, but also how the Romans viewed their provinces and other peoples. Highlights include sculpture from the villas of the Emperors Tiberius and Hadrian, coins from the famous Hoxne treasure, beautiful jewellery and near-perfectly preserved children’s clothing from Roman Egypt. The exhibition debuts at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery until January 12 before touring the UK. Venues near Eastern Airways destinations include Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (February 1–April 27), The Herbert Museum and Art Gallery, Coventry (May 17–August 31), Leeds City Museum (September 20–January 4, 2015) and Segedunum Copper alloy and enamel Roman Fort and Baths, North Shields dragonesque brooch. Romano- (May 30–September 13, 2015). British, AD 43-200 © The 38 Trustees of the British Museum www.britishmuseum.org Self portrait by Ewan McClure, 2013 © Ewan McClure ABERDEEN HOSTS BP PORTRAIT AWARD Aberdeen Art Gallery is hosting the only Scottish showing of the BP Portrait Award, the prestigious international portrait painting competition. One of the most popular exhibitions in the calendar it features 55 of the most outstanding and innovative new portraits from around the world. From informal and personal studies of friends and family to revealing paintings of famous faces, the And when you think of all those babies she’s got. (c) Courtesy of Sir Peter Blake exhibition presents a variety of styles and approaches to the contemporary painted portrait. BLAKE PUTS FACES TO ‘PLAY FOR VOICES’ The featured works were selected As part of the year-long celebration of “narratives and locations” in a mix of from 1,969 entries from 77 different the birth of Dylan Thomas, the media including collage; and countries and include the winner of exhibition Llareggub: Peter Blake photographs that Blake took himself in the £30,000 first prize winner, illustrates Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk the 1970s in Laugharne – the village Susanne du Toit, plus the work of the Wood, runs at the National Museum where the poet lived for the last years BP Young Artist 2013, Owen Normand Cardiff until March 16. of his life and on which the play is based. and the BP Travel Award 2012 winner, This major body of work of Thomas’s Carl Randall who visited Japan. “play for voices” is the culmination of Sir Peter Blake – perhaps best known For the second year running the BP a 25-year project by the artist and is for his coverwork for the Beatles Sgt Portrait Award: Next Generation will being exhibited for the very first time. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – emerged as a key figure of the Pop Art give young local people aged 14-19 A longtime admirer of Dylan Thomas, movement of the late 1950s and his the opportunity to get creative Blake has always been fascinated by early paintings include imagery from through portraiture and connect with the radio play and remembers first advertisements, music hall, entertain- BP Portrait Award artists. hearing it while at the Royal College. ment, and wrestlers, often including The exhibition, which runs until The show includes portraits of each of collaged elements. February 1, is organised by the the characters in the cast, drawn in www.museumwales.ac.uk National Portrait Gallery, London, and black and white pencil on tinted supported by BP. paper; watercolors illustrating the www.aagm.co.uk dream sequences in the play; See Dylan Thomas feature pages 23-25

© Frédéric Prochasson - Fotolia BARE ESSENTIALS: DESTINATIONS EXPLORATION EXPRESS Destinations ESSENTIALS BARE you get there... where to to go what do and when –how todestinations get there and Airways Your to Eastern guide page 9 second city, Lyon Flights between Lorient, in southern Brittany, and France’s growing cities in France. major centre for the aviation industry and among the fastest for its fine wines and maritime importance and the latter,fifth a largest metropolitan areas in France, the former famedBordeaux and Toulouse are respectively the seventh and more than 250,000 people. celebrated Beaujolais. The Dijon conurbation is home to wider Burgundy region, famed for its wines, including the Dijon is the capital of the Côte-d’Or services to Bordeaux and Toulouse. in the east of the country, from where it operates regularEastern Airways’ French hub is at Dijon Bourgogne Airport, services within France. and Norway, Eastern Airways also operates domestic Besides the airline’s scheduled service network in the UK FRENCH CONNECTIONS FRENCH , began in January 2014.

department and of the River Saône, Lyon See news story Stavanger. Museum, Kjeringholmen, 4001 Lysefjord; Norwegian Petroleum formation that overlooks the Pulpit Rock – a natural rock page. hire see Europcar info on back by a regular shuttle bus. For car miles out of town and is served coast. The airport is just nine on the country’s south-west Norway’s fourth largest city lies Mar 7-9. Sculpture Park in Bryne Centre, Joy of Life Festival, Fritz Røed Sandnes Kulturhus, Feb 7-16; until May 31; Les Miserables, Norwegian Petroleum Museum, Energy – Problem or Solution? Tango, Nedre Strandgate. in traditional Norwegian food; Sjøhuset Skagen – specialises Newsman, Skagen 14. Dickens, Skagenkaien; miles south of Stavanger. shopping centre is just seven Kvadrat, Norway’s biggest the beach, near the airport. centre; Sola Strand Hotel, on Skagen Brygge, all in the city The Clarion, Myrhegaarden, VISIT WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT STAVANGER www.regionstavanger.com Tourist/Local Info +47 51 97 55 55 Southampton, Wick Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, East Midlands, Humberside, Leeds connections to Durham Tees Valley,Aberdeen, Newcastle. Onward Eastern Airways www.avinor.no/en/airport/stavanger Airport + 47 67 03 10 00

flights direct to Stavanger SHETLAND on-airport facilities at Scatsta). 693 636 (note that there are no boltscarhire.co.uk or call 01595 Lerwick. For hire car visit www. and also 24 miles from at the southern tip of Mainland, the islands’ commercial airport, Voe oil terminal. Sumburgh is a few miles from the Sullom 24 miles north-west of Lerwick, Sumburgh Airports. Scatsta is industry to both Scatsta and under contract for the oil Eastern Airways operates festival, May 1-4. festival, Feb 1-28; Shetland folk Lerwick, Jan 28; Shetland jazz Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival, Vord Resort, Unst. Monty’s Bistro, Lerwick; Saxa Busta House Hotel, Brae; Bar, Lerwick; Kiln Bar, Scalloway.Mid Brae Inn, Brae; The Lounge Valhalla Brewery,Jamieson Saxa Vord. & Son Knitwear,Shetland Lerwick; Fudge, Lerwick; Country Inn, Sandwick. Vord Resort, Unst; Orca Busta House Hotel, Brae; Saxa Grutness (both Mainland). Museum, Lerwick; Jarlshof, tip of Britain; Shetland Flugga, Unst, the northernmost Mareel, Lerwick; Muckle WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT VISIT visit.shetland.org Tourist/Local Info 01595 98 98 98 Airways for the oil industry. Aberdeen, operated by Eastern Frequent daily charter services to Airport 01806 244900

Fire festival

STORNOWAY WICK JOHN O’GROATS ABERDEEN NEWCASTLE

Beach at Uig Ackergill Tower Scotland’s Best Outdoors Skating@Life BARE ESSENTIALS: DESTINATIONS WHERE WHERE WHERE WHERE To the east of the town. Taxis One mile from the centre of Seven miles north-west of Seven miles north-west of the and car hire are available at the Wick, half an hour’s drive from the city centre, off the A96. city centre. Metro rail link every airport. No weekend flights. Thurso. Main bus and rail Regular buses into the city few minutes to the city, Mackinnon Self Drive: 01851 stations are near to Wick centre centre. For car hire see Gateshead, the coast and 702984. serving most places in Europcar info back page. Sunderland. Half-hourly bus Caithness. Trains to Thurso and service. Taxi fare to city, approx VISIT Inverness. Post bus operates VISIT £12. For car hire see Europcar Stornoway Museum, Francis Aberdeen Maritime Museum, Thurso-Wick-Airport. Car hire: info on back page. St; Stornoway Fish Smokers, Shiprow; Tolbooth Museum, Dunnets offers airport pick-up Shell St; Woodlands Centre, Castle St; Rendezvous Gallery, and drop-off, 01955 602103. VISIT Lews Castle grounds; An Forest Ave. Great North Museum, Centre for Lanntair Arts Centre, Kenneth VISIT Life, Newcastle; Gateshead Street, Stornoway. Wick Heritage Museum; St STAY AT Quays for the Baltic and Sage Rox Hotel, Market St; Skene Fergus Gallery, Sinclair Terr; Gateshead. House Hotel suites, various STAY AT Pulteney Distillery, Huddart St. Hotel Hebrides, Tarbert; Royal locations; Malmaison; Park Inn STAY AT Hotel, Cromwell St; Scarista STAY AT by Radisson; Raemoir House Sandman Signature, Hotel House, west Harris; Auberge Ackergill Tower, Wick; Mackays Hotel, Banchory. Indigo, Jesmond Dene House, Carnish, Uig. Hotel, Wick; The Brown Trout all Newcastle; Hilton Newcastle Hotel, Station Rd, Watten, near SHOP AT Gateshead. Juniper (gifts, jewellery), SHOP AT Wick. Callanish Jewellery, Point St; Belmont St; Aberdeen Antique SHOP AT This ’n That, Cromwell St; SHOP AT Centre, South College St. Jules B, Jesmond; Cruise, Borgh Pottery, Borgh (20 miles). John O’Groats (pottery, Princess Square, Newcastle; knitwear); Rotterdam St, Thurso DRINK AT Van Mildert, MetroCentre and The Monkey House, Union DRINK AT (20 miles). Durham. Clachan Bar, North Beach; Terr; Pearl Lounge, Dee Hebridean Bar, South Beach; DRINK AT St; The Globe, North Silver DRINK AT Whalers Rest, Francis St. Ebenezer’s, Mackay’s Hotel, St; Tiger Tiger, Ship Row; Crown Posada, Side and The Wick; Wetherspoons and Balaclava Bar, Loch St. Forth, Pink Lane – both EAT AT Camps Bar, Wick. Newcastle; Tap & Spile, Pity Me. Digby Chick, Bank St; Golden EAT AT Ocean, Cromwell St; Thai, EAT AT Prohibition, Langstane Pl; EAT AT Church St. Bord de l’Eau, Market St, Stage Door Restaurant, North Blackfriars, Caffè Vivo (Live Wick; Le Bistro, Thurso; Silver St; Cinnamon, Union Theatre), Red Mezze, Leazes WHAT’S ON Captain’s Galley, Scrabster St; Manzil, King St; Paula Park Rd – all Newcastle; Le Raaj, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (22 miles). McEwen, Great Western Rd. Chester Moor. Panto, An Lanntair, Stornoway, Jan 15-18; Donald Macleod WHAT’S ON WHAT’S ON WHAT’S ON Memorial Piping Competition, Millennium Collection for Bute BP Portrait Award, Aberdeen Skating@Life, Life Science Caladh Inn, Stornoway, Mar 28 House and Silver of the Stars Art Gallery, until Feb 1; Centre, Newcastle, until Feb 23; (tbc). exhibition, showcasing the best Aberdeen Jazz Festival, Magic Words, V&A Museum of of contemporary silversmithing Mar 12-16; Scotland’s Best Childhood touring exhibition, in Scotland, St Fergus Gallery, Outdoors exhibition, Aberdeen Great North Museum: Hancock, Wick, until Jan 4. Conference Centre, Mar 29-30. Newcastle, Mar 22- Jun 22.

Airport 01851 702256 Airport 01955 602215 Airport 0870 040 0006 Airport 0871 882 1121 www.hial.co.uk/stornoway-airport www.hial.co.uk/wick-airport.html www.aberdeenairport.com www.newcastleinternational.co.uk Eastern Airways flights direct to Eastern Airways flights direct to Eastern Airways flights direct Eastern Airways flights direct to Aberdeen. Onward connections Aberdeen. Onward connections to to Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, to Durham Tees Valley, East Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, East Midlands, Humberside, Stavanger. Onward connections to Midlands, Humberside, Leeds Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Stornoway, Wick Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Norwich, Southampton, Tourist/Local Info Southampton, Wick Stavanger, Stornoway Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick. 0191 277 8000 / 0191 478 4222 Tourist/Local Info 01851 703088 Tourist/Local Info 0845 22 55 121 Tourist/Local Info 01224 900490 www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk www.wicktown.co.uk www.visitaberdeen.com 42 BARE ESSENTIALS: DESTINATIONS DURHAM TEES VALLEY www.visitmiddlesbrough.com 01642 729700 / 264957 Tourist/Local Info Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com Airport 01325 332811 Calling music festival, Apr 19. mima, Feb 21-Jun 29; Stockton and Optimism in 1950’s Britain, Middlesbrough, until Feb 9; Art Platform A Gallery, William Tillyer Exhibition, Orangery, Rockliffe Hall. Dun Cow Inn, Sedgefield; The Sardis, Northgate, Darlington; Black Bull, Frosterley. George and Dragon, Yarm; Skinnergate, Darlington. Yarm High Street; Leggs, Middles Psyche, Linthorpe Rd, Hotel, Yarm. Darlington; Crathorne Hall Corner; Headlam Hall, near Tees; Holiday Inn, Scotch Rockliffe Hall, Hurworth on Experience, Historic Quay. Hartlepool’s Maritime Railway Museum at Shildon; Locomotion, the National of Modern Art) Centre Square; mima (Middlesbrough Institute page. hire see Europcar info back Darlington approx £8. For car Middlesbrough. Taxi fare to and ten miles west of Five miles east of Darlington WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT WHERE VISIT

brough; The House,

Headlam Hall

HUMBERSIDE www.yorkshire.com www.visitlincolnshire.com www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com Tourist/Local Info 01482 486600 Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.humbersideairport.com Airport 0 Lincoln Castle, Apr 5-6. Discover Lincolnshire Weekend, Ferens Art Gallery, until Jan 5; Hull and the Low Countries, and Glass, South Dalton. ham Field, Winteringham; Pipe Restaurant, Louth; Wintering Brackenborough Hotel & Figs Restaurant, Cleethorpes; High St, Hull. Lincoln; Ye Olde Black Boy, The Wig & Mitre, Steep Hill, White Hart, Lincoln. Willerby Manor, Willerby; The Cave Castle Hotel, Brough; Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton; Hull. Cathedral; Ferens Art Gallery, Town; The Deep, Hull; Lincoln Museums Quarter, Hull’s Old see Europcar info, back page. taxi fare to Hull £26. For car hire nections via Don from airport with Intercity con Barnetby Station three miles bus services to major towns. miles north of Lincoln. Regular 16 miles west of Grimsby, 30 thorpe, 20 miles south of Hull, Fifteen miles east of Scun Abbeygate, Grimsby. Lincoln; Henri Beene, Bailgate and Steep Hill area, EAT AT DRINK AT STAY AT VISIT WHERE WHAT’S ON SHOP AT 1652 688456

cast er. Approx The Deep - - LEEDS BRADFORD LEEDS Saltaire. Museum, Bradford; Salts Mill, Square; National Media City Museum, Millennium Royal Armouries, Leeds; Leeds back page. For car hire see Europcar info on to terminal. Taxi time 25 mins. bus from bus and rail stations Bradford. Regular Airlink 757 centre, seven miles from Nine miles north-west of Leeds Mar 27-Apr 6. tival, National Media Museum, Bradford International Film Fes Moore Institute, Jan 22-Apr 20; ture from Japan, The Henry Nature and Figure Study: Sculp Terrace, Bradford. Leeds; Ujala Tandoori, Manville Brasserie Blanc, Sovereign St, Mumtaz, Clarence Dock, Leeds; Haigys, Lumb Lane, Bradford. Fudge Bar, Assembly St, Leeds; Baby Jupiter, York Place, Leeds; Quarter, Leeds. Briggate, Leeds; Victoria Lane, Leeds; Harvey Nichols, Retro Boutique, Headingley hotel, Oak Avenue, Bradford. Leeds; Dubrovnik boutique Leeds; the New Ellington, Radisson Blu, The Headrow, Double Tree by Hilton, Leeds; VISIT WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT www.yorkshire.com www.visitleeds.co.uk Tourist/Local Info 0113 242 5242 Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.leedsbradfordairport.co.uk Airport 0113 250 9696 International FilmFestival International

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www.experiencenottinghamshire.com www.visitderby.co.uk 01332 255802 / 08444 775678 Tourist/Local Info Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.eastmidlandsairport.com Airport 0871 919 9000 EAST MIDLANDS EAST Mary’s Gate, Derby. Cathedral Quarter Hotel, St Radisson Blu at airport; QUAD, Cathedral Quarter, Derby. Creswell Crags, Worksop; Hood, Maid Marian Way; Weekday Cross; Tales of Robin Nottingham Contemporary, back page. For car hire see Europcar info on short bus/taxi ride from EMA. Not Lough junction 24. Rail stations and Nottingham, just off the M1 Twelve miles from both Derby front, Canal St, Nottingham. Nottingham Castle; The Water- Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, below Studio, Arnold, Nottingham. Nottingham; The Artisan’s Paul Smith, Middle Pavement, Pavement, Lace Market Hotel, High 19-22. 2014, Derby Roundhouse, Feb 29; National Winter Ales Festival Mansfield Museum, Feb 8-Mar World War Nurse Exhibition, Everybody’s Darling – The First Nottingham. Red Hot Buffet, Goose Gate, Loch Fyne, King St, Nottingham; VISIT WHERE DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT WHAT’S ON EAT AT tingham and Derby are a borough, Long Eaton,

Nottingham;

Cresswell Crags

BARE ESSENTIALS: DESTINATIONS BIRMINGHAM back page. car hire see Europcar info on Birmingham and Coventry. For International Station for trains to monorail system to Birmingham Connected by free Air-Rail Link Junction 6 of the M42. Six miles east of the city, off NEC, Jan 1-12. Mar 30; Performance Car Show, Museum And Art Gallery, until 12; Photorealism, Birmingham Institute, Edgbaston, until Jan Millet To Manet, The Barber Opus, Cornwall St. Restaurant, Bishopsgate St; San Carlo, Temple St; Peppers Room, Vyse St. Bar, Custard Factory; The Boiler Spile, Gas St; The Medicine Bank, Brindley Pl; The Tap and Nichols (Mailbox). Selfridges (Bullring); Harvey Rd; Staying Cool, Rotunda. Queensway; Marriott, Hagley Radisson Blu, Holloway Circus, Hotel Indigo, The Cube; Square. Birmingham Library, Centenary Quarter, Vyse St, Hockley; Museum of the Jewellery Gallery, Chamberlain Sq; Birmingham Museum and Art WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT VISIT www.visitbirmingham.com Tourist/Local Info 0844 888 3883 Newcastle Eastern Airways flights direct to www.bhx.co.uk Airport 0871 282 7117

Jewellery Quarter

David’s Hall, Mar 1. Day 2014 Gala BBC NOW, St Millennium Stadium; St David’s 21, Wales v Scotland, Mar 15, Feb 1, Wales v France, Feb Six Nations 2014: Wales v Italy, City Hall Lawn, until Jan 5; RBS Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland, Poppadom, Cowbridge Rd East. Wales Millennium Centre; Purple The Potted Pig, High St; ffresh, Vaults, Park Place. Pen and Wig, Park Grove; Park (weekends), SE of city centre. shops; Splott Market St Mary Street for specialist Havannah St, Cardiff Bay. Valley; St David’s Hotel & Spa, Peterstone Court, in the Usk Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay. Centre, Cardiff Bay; Norwegian Visitor Centre, Wales Millennium Cardiff Castle; Cardiff Bay Europcar info on back page. Bridg airport to Cardiff Central and Rail link, every hour, connects miles from Junction 33 on M4. Twelve miles west of Cardiff, ten WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT VISIT WHERE www.southernwales.com www.visitcardiff.com Tourist/Local Info 0870 121 1258 Aberdeen, Newcastle. Eastern Airways flights direct to www.cwlfly.com Airport 01446 711111 CARDIFF end. For car hire see

Norwegian Church

Whitefriars, Norwich. Norwich Puppet Theatre, Sandringham Estate, Norfolk; Norwich Castle, Elm Hill; Norwich Cathedral, The Close; Europcar info on back page. Norwich £7. For car hire see centre. Approx taxi fare to Hourly bus service into the city Three miles north of the city. Festival 2014, Feb 10-23. Apr 27; Norwich Dragon People, Norwich Castle, until Roman Empire: Power and Italia, St Benedicts St. Umberto’s Trattoria Jambo, Lower Goat Lane; Tatlers, Tombland; Mambo Bar, St Georges St. Guildhall Hill; The Last Wine Wine Press, Woburn Court, Adam & Eve, Bishopgate; The The Fat Cat, West End St; The Wear, Timberhill. Hip, Pottergate; Ginger Ladies Jarrold’s, London Street; Soho Norfolk Mead Hotel, Coltishall. Hotel & Spa, Honingham Rd. & Country Club; Barnham Broom Marriott Sprowston Manor Hotel Hotel & Golf Club, Ipswich Rd; Tombland; De Vere Dunston Hall The Maids Head Hotel, VISIT WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT NORWICH www.visitnorwich.co.uk Tourist/Local Info 01603 213999 Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.norwichairport.co.uk Airport 01603 411923

Norfolk MeadHotel

Motor Museum, Beaulieu. ker Tower, Portsmouth, National seum, Town Quay Rd; Spinna Gilbert Rd South; Maritime Mu Solent Sky, Hall of Aviation, see Europcar info on back page. hourly to the city. For car hire and London Waterloo. Buses trains hourly to Southam Station beside terminal, three Five miles north of city. Parkway www.discoversouthampton.co.uk Tourist/Local Info 023 8083 3333 Stavanger, Stornoway, Wick Aberdeen. Onward connections to Eastern Airways flights direct to www.southamptonairport.com Airport 0870 040 0009 Expo, Beaulieu, Apr 5-6 (tbc). until Jan 12; Sustainable Moto Cutting Edge, SeaCity Museum, The First Cut – Paper at the Botley. Queensway; The Purbani, Olive Tree, Oxford St; P.O.S.H. & Collins, Vincent’s Walk. Canute Rd; Ocean South; The Frog and Frigate, The Dolphin, Osborne Road Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. quarter, Old Northern Rd; Centre, East Bargate; Antiques WestQuay, city centre; Bargate Brockenhurst. Chilworth; Carey’s Manor, Beaulieu; Chilworth Manor, Quay Rd; Montagu Arms, Vere Grand Harbour Hotel, West Dining Rooms, Oxford St; De The White Star Tavern and VISIT WHERE WHAT’S ON EAT AT DRINK AT SHOP AT STAY AT SOUTHAMPTON

The FirstCut

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DIJON: A CITY ON THE MOVE There’s a lot more to Dijon than mustard...

DESTINATION FEATURE DESTINATION Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, of the city bypass, 400 hectares of has been recognised as a city of business parks, an expanded regional gastronomy and is preparing to open mall, redevelopment of the university its 26,000m2 International Gastronomy campus (with 30,000 students), and Exhibition Centre entirely dedicated to twelve eco-friendly districts. With its the “French gastronomic meal”, which pedestrianised town centre and the is registered on UNESCO’s Intangible development of public and green Cultural Heritage list. transport, including 250km of cycle tracks, the city is a model of urban But there’s more to Dijon than food. ecology. It’s a city of art and history, with one of the largest historical centres Dijon is ideally located in Eastern in France. Its Fine Arts Museum, France. The Rhine-Rhône TGV rail currently undergoing renovation, is service has improved accessibility by located in the prestigious former linking it to Alsace, Switzerland and palace of the Dukes and the Estates Germany, as has the arrival of Eastern of Burgundy and is among the oldest Airways linking Dijon to the two major in France with one of the most cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse in extensive collections. south-west France. Dijon is now one be granted World Heritage status by of the most important high speed rail The city is home to six museums UNESCO. Dijon has been a major hubs in the country; it also lies at the and two renowned contemporary player in this process which will junction of several motorways. So art centres. With everything from honour 2,000 years of wine-making there isn’t the slightest excuse not to opera, theatre and music to famous traditions in Burgundy. visit, or, indeed, revisit! shows and exhibitions on offer, Dijon But this city of 250,000 inhabitants, has gained a reputation as a cultural within an urban area of more than capital with top-of-the-range facilities 400,000, is also a regional capital – such as the 1,600 seat auditorium Going to Dijon with Eastern Airways: and one which continues to develop. acclaimed around the world for its daily flights (except Saturdays) to Over the past ten years, over a billion superb acoustics. Bordeaux and Toulouse. euros have been invested in major Located at the start of the “grands infrastructure. This includes: two Dijon-Bourgogne Airport is located in crus” wine road, Dijon is the ideal tramway lines, a Zenith concert hall Longvic in the south of the city and place to discover some of the world’s with 9,000 seats, an Olympic size can be reached from the city-centre greatest wines. In 2015, the “climats” swimming pool, a new hospital, a and the train station by the city bus of the Burgundy vineyards hope to new sports stadium, completion network. SECRET SIGHTS ESSENTIAL GUIDE ESSENTIAL GUIDE Roly Smith invites you to discover some less visited but special places…

Sometimes it’s good just to get away from the crowds natural features in the world, often laced with a tasty and find a place where you don’t have to queue for soupçon of myth, legend and history. Despite being a tickets or jostle with camera-clicking tour parties, relatively crowded country, there are still many secret, ticking off the sights before being whisked off to the fascinating places to be found, if you are prepared to next honeypot. look hard enough. Norway too, has its secret spots If you’re one of those discerning people who prefer among the towering mountains and meandering fjords. to find places you can have to yourself, with time and From the stern granite peaks of Norway and the space to absorb the atmosphere and appreciate their Scottish Highlands to the soft, rolling chalk Downlands spirit, then this is the guide for you. of southern England, those secret, hidden places are Britain is blessed with some of the most amazing there, just waiting to be discovered.

Roly Smith is an award-winning travel and outdoors writer. Additional text, Stan Abbott.

FAIR ISLE Britain’s most remote inhabited island is no more than a woolly jumper or a line in the Shipping Forecast to most, but the challenge of getting there brings its own rewards. The recently rebuilt Bird Observatory serves as hotel and bar and is the place to catch up with the avian waifs and strays blown onto the craggy isle that’s home to about 70 people. The Good Shepherd rolls across the choppy seas from Sumburgh, or take the short flight from Tingwall. Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Scatsta

UIG BEACH It was close to the vast expanse of golden sand that is Uig Bay that the celebrated Viking Chessmen were discovered. Stand in the dunes and be mesmerised by the advance and retreat of the Atlantic rollers. Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Stornoway

MITHER TAP, BENNACHIE The small but magnificently-sited hill fort – which crowns Mither Tap, the eastern summit of Bennachie, near Inverurie about 20 miles north west of Aberdeen – may have witnessed the last epic battle of imperial Rome against the Britons. It has been claimed that the battle of Mons Graupious between the forces of Calgacus and Agricola took place on its northern slopes in ad 83. Whatever the truth, the view from the 1,698ft summit is one of the best in eastern Scotland. Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Aberdeen

COIRE GABHAIL, GLENCOE Coire Gabhail (pronounced “Corry Gale”) is also known as the Lost Valley of Glencoe. It is situated between the first and second Sisters of the famed Three Sisters of Glencoe – the triple buttresses of Beinn Fhada, Gear Aonach and Aonach Dubh, which thrust menacingly over the A82 like a clenched fist. This hidden valley was apparently where the Macdonalds hid their cattle when cattle-rustling was a something of a croft industry in the Highlands. Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Aberdeen >> Northern England Cuthbert’s Cave SPURN POINT Spurn Point, the so-called “tail of GUILE POINT Yorkshire” hanging down into the jaw of Perhaps the loneliest spot on the wild the mighty Humber, is one of the strangest Northumberland coast, Guile Point stands places in England. When you eventually sentry at the northernmost extremity of reach it, after a 20-mile drive from Hull, Ross Sands at the tricky entry to Holy you feel as if you have arrived at the end Island harbour, marked by two guiding of the Earth, with nothing between you towers. Two brick obelisks are built in and the rolling waters of the North Sea the shape of elongated pyramids and on one side and the Humber Estuary originally had a wrought iron triangle on the other. Spurn is a thin, constantly on a metal staff on the top of each. To shifting four-mile spit of land, which has a the north, across the water, stands constant air of danger and impermanency. Lindisfarne Castle and, to the south, Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Humberside

the dramatic Bamburgh Castle. Ed McClelland Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Newcastle Midlands CUTHBERT’S CAVE HIGH CUP NICK According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, LUD’S CHURCH High Cup Nick has been dubbed the when the Viking Danes ravaged the holy Hidden away, deep in the oaks and Grand Canyon of the Pennines. This abbey of Lindisfarne in ad 875, the monks beeches of Back Forest, north of the huge bite out of the western scarp of the took the body of St Cuthbert (locally dramatic gritstone outcrop of The range, above Dufton, has also been called known as “Cuddy”) away and “wandered Roaches, on the Staffordshire moorlands, the most glorious landscape feature in about for seven years”. One of the lies the secluded chasm known as Lud’s northern England. The result of glacial legendary places in which the monks took Church. This 60ft deep defile, dripping action, the vast amphitheatre drops away shelter with their holy relic was Cuthbert’s with green mosses, lichens and ferns, is beneath your feet, with the tiny silver Cave, in the Kyloe Hills, between Belford the purported Green Chapel, scene of thread of High Cup Gill winding hundreds and Lowick. The cave, hidden away in the beheading ritual in the climax of the of feet below and the western views a conifer plantation, is formed by an early 15th century Arthurian alliterative extending far out across the Vale of Eden overhanging sandstone rock supported poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. to the distant blue outline of the Lakeland by a natural stone pillar, and is an easy The “church” was also the site of secret hills. walk from the National Trust car park at services held by 14th century Lollards. Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Durham Tees Holburn Grange. Nearest Eastern Airways airports – East Midlands Valley Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Newcastle and Birmingham BIG Advert (50x88).pdf 1 26/11/2013 16:36

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48 EPR_180x60mm_ad_FINAL.indd 1 12/11/2013 12:57 St Govan’s Chapel Preikestolen Terje Rakke/Nordic Life 2011 Rakke/Nordic Terje

ALPORT CASTLES Alport Castles – just off the A57 Snake Road in one of the Peak District’s most remote dales, on the southern slopes of Bleaklow – is claimed to be Britain’s largest landslip. Its tottering towers and castellated piles would seem to be more at home in the red rock deserts of Arizona than the green recesses of Alport Dale, in Derbyshire. Here the unstable shales of Birchin Hat WISTMAN’S WOOD TRE’R CEIRI HILL FORT have slumped away from the hillside to The wizened, lichen-encrusted oaks of Many people believe the view from this create this crazy pile of gritstone blocks, Wistman’s Wood, hidden away in the isolated eastern summit of Yr Eifl, on the dominated by the castle-like Tower. desolate valley of the West Dart River in Lleyn Peninsula, near Llanaelhaearn, to Nearest Eastern Airways airports – East Midlands or the moorland heart of Dartmoor near Two be one of the finest viewpoints in Wales. Birmingham Bridges, represent the spirit of the moor The all-encompassing view extends every bit as much as the windswept tors southwards across the shimmering waters Southern England above. It is thought to take its name from of Cardigan Bay to Mynydd Preseli (source the old West Country word “wisht”, which of the Stonehenge bluestones), to the dim BACONSTHORPE CASTLE means sad or uncanny, so the wood may blue outline of Ireland’s Wicklow Hills. Although close to Sheringham, this 15th be named after a local, other-worldly spirit. Nearest Eastern Airways airports – Cardiff and century moated Norfolk house, is quite As you peep into the stunted, twisted, Birmingham challenging to find, but – surrounded by fern-decked branches of the oaks, you a moat that still holds water, it has an can easily believe in those teashop Norway atmosphere all its own. souvenirs that feature the celebrated Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Norwich Dartmoor pixies. PREIKESTOLEN Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Southampton OK, you may find a queue of people KINGLEY BOTTOM winding up the strenuous, rocky, two-mile Kingley Bottom (or Vale, as officialdom likes Wales trail up to the Preikestolen (Pulpit) rock to call it) lies tucked away, hardly signposted, from the Preikestolen Fjellstue mountain in a chalky fold of Stoke Down and Bow Hill, ST GOVAN’S CHAPEL lodge, high in the Rogaland hills north east near the village of West Stoke, about three As you descend the steep, allegedly of Stavanger. But it’s undoubtedly one of miles north west of Chichester. It’s worth uncountable, steps through the cliffs to Norway’s finest natural attractions, and the effort to find it because the walk to the visit the tiny, 13th century Chapel of St the tough, two-hour, 1,150ft slog to the airy summit of the Downs takes you through Govan, west of St Govan’s Head on the extraordinary 80ft square table rock, rising what is claimed to be the largest yew forest Pembrokeshire Coast, you will see a cleft sheer above the Lysefjord by 2,000ft, in Europe – a landscape of tortured, gnarled in the rocks. This is where the shy hermit ensures that those you find on arrival will and twisted trunks and dark, cave-like is said to have disappeared when visitors be like-minded wilderness seekers. clearings, where you half expect to see called, and nearby is his well, which is Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Stavanger fairies or gnomes pop up at every turn. supposed to have curative properties. www.yorkshire.com / Merlindo - Fotolia.com / Terje Rakke/Nordic Life 2011 Rakke/Nordic Terje / Fotolia.com - Merlindo / www.yorkshire.com Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Southampton Nearest Eastern Airways airport – Cardiff

Spurn Point 49

THE LAST WORD with Harry Pearson DON’T GIVE PIGEONS THE BIRD

When I heard Dame Vera Lynn speaking on the radio recently about the “utter cruelty” of pigeon racing and calling for the sport to be banned, I must admit I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that was more than just a reaction to the Gregg’s cheese- and-onion pasty I was eating.

It is fair to say that so far this has not been a good century for pigeon racing. The number of participants has been falling, more and more birds have been getting lost. Confused by mobile‑phone signals, picked off by falcons – the explanations vary – though perhaps the most persuasive was aired to me by a veteran birdman a few years back: “One time when a bird got old you put it in a pie, but these days the young lads just let them go on indefinitely.” Part of pigeon-racing’s appeal in “IF THE BLOKE REALLY WANTED TO IMPORT tougher times was that it was – like champion leek growing – a hobby you could eat. These days people go to ILLEGAL PIGEON DOPE, HE COULD GET THE BIRDS Tesco. TO BRING IT IN THEMSELVES.” Those pigeons that do find their way back home are coming under increased scrutiny. Pigeons are sometimes called popular with everybody else in Liège, I envisaged a scene at the customs “the racehorses of the skies”, but given with the possible exception of the desk at Newcastle Airport, in their habit of attracting scandal these laundry firms. which packets of anabolics and days, they seem more like “the racing corticosteroids were laid out in front of cyclists of the clouds”. Belgium was where pigeon racing was me by stern-faced officials, and I was invented (the sport was once so popular forced to confess that I was acting as Doping scandals have proliferated since they used to show races on television) mule for a bird. I told the pigeon-fancier Belgian police raided lofts in 2001. The and it is well known as the centre for I didn’t think I could oblige. difficulty of drug-testing pigeons – how what British enthusiasts tend to refer to do you get them to pee into a flask? as “continental practices”. This state of Later it crossed my mind that if the – is exacerbated in the UK by the fact affairs was brought to my attention back bloke really wanted to import illegal that until relatively recently the Royal in the 1990s when a North East England pigeon dope, he could get the birds Pigeon Racing Association had to send pigeon-fancier of my acquaintance to bring it in themselves. A notion that samples to South Africa to be tested. asked if I would pick up some “stuff for might be dismissed as whimsical were the birds” for him while I was visiting it not for the fact that in Bosnia a few Not that drug use is new to the sport. Flanders. years ago prison warders recently The hope of finding a winning potion apprehended a pigeon bringing heroin means pigeon racing has never been He knew a Belgian lad, he explained, into a jail near Sbrenica. without quacks. The great Belgian who had something that could fix the writer George Simenon recalled how, in vexed problem of moulting. The trouble “We do not know what to do with the the 1920s, a chemist in his home city with pigeons, he said, is that they shed pigeon,” the deputy warden, Josip of Liège had perfected a particularly their feathers during the prime racing Pojavnik, said. “But for the time being it potent pigeon purgative that literally months of the season and the fewer will remain behind bars.” lightened a bird’s load during races. feathers they have the slower they fly, Local fanciers used to queue round the but if you just give them a little dose of Sometimes it’s a dog’s life being a pigeon. © fotomaster - Fotolia.com - fotomaster © block to buy it. Presumably it was less this stuff... 50

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A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY Your guide to investing, living and working in the Tees Valley

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To find out more, please call 01642 770310 www.tte.co.uk or email [email protected] Cover: Wiltonsite,Eston underNab secrets withyou! we’re pleasedtoshare someofits great placetoliveandenjoy lifeand as this supplement shows, it’s also a more thanjustabusiness location: But ofcoursetheTees Valley is outsource partsoftheiroperations. Aberdeen companieslooking to increasingly attractiveoptionfor the Tees Valley alsoproviding an is akeypartofthatnetwork,with day toFriday, DurhamTees Valley With fourreturnflightsdaily, Mon- UK’s energy capital. regional centres toAberdeen, the frequent connections from important energy sectorbyproviding fast, serving theneedsofoffshore Airwayspridesitselfon Eastern available intheTees Valley. the investmentopportunities this specialsupplement,highlighting support ofNOFenergy, tobringyou Tees Valley Unlimited,andwiththe delighted toworkinpartnershipwith AirwaysMagazineis Eastern THE EASTERN AIR EASTERN THE WELCOME www.nofenergy.co.uk teesvalleyunlimited.gov.uk www.easternairways.com for companiesinvolvedintheUKoil,gasand energy sectors. and distributedbyNOFEnergy, theleadingbusinessdevelopmentorganisation Copies ofthissupplementhavebeenproduced asastand-alonepublication the offshore energy sector. its strategicconnectionsfrom Aberdeen andStavanger, animportantplayerin Airwaysis oneoftheUK’sEastern leading independentairlinesand,thanksto This publicationisproduced AirwaysMagazine. asasupplementtoEastern WAYSTEAM despite the challenging global economic numerous investments over recent years, Our hands-on approach has resulted in specialist assistance and advice. provide introductions to people who offer private organisations in the area we can With strong links with both public and suppliers and helping grow their business. companies contact potential customers and and post-investment assistance; helping recruitment and skills, financial support investment support; advising on sites, The services we offer include pre- invest and grow in the area. to give support to companies looking to experience and knowledge and are on hand Team who have more than 20 years of We have a dedicated Business Investment economy. develop and promote the Tees Valley a public-private partnership working to the Tees Valley in the North East of England, We are the Local Enterprise Partnership for industry and investment supplement. supporting this Eastern Airways offshore Tees Valley Unlimited is delighted to be vertising: Liz Reekie Reekie Liz Advertising: Publisher: StanAbbottDesign:BarbaraAllen www.gravity-consulting.com Tel: +44(0)1913832838. Pity Me, Durham, DH1 5JZ. Published for Eastern Airways by Gravity Magazines, Abbey Business Centre, ISSN: 1477-3031 © December 2013 2013 December © 1477-3031 ISSN: Print: e-mail: Press Buxton [email protected] Tel: Tees Valley Unlimited Director of Business Investment sector. company the solutions to success in your the Tees Valley is well placed to offer your and logistics and a ready skilled workforce With port facilities, fantastic infrastructure companies who are looking for a UK base. companies who are already here and new see considerable investment both from the to locate and why the area continues to offshore industries have chosen Tees Valley about why so many companies in the In this supplement you will find information sector. operate in the emerging offshore wind companies based in the Tees Valley already and decommissioning. In addition, over 200 scale projects in oil and gas, fabrication has a long track record of delivering large With a rich industrial heritage, Tees Valley the oil and gas and offshore wind sectors. Projects have included major investments in private sector investments since April 2011. environment, resulting in £600 million of NEIL KENLEY

+44 (0) 7563 796103 / 796103 7563 (0) +44

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iii INVEST IN TEES VALLEY iv

INVEST IN TEES VALLEY www.nofenergy.co.uk or call 0191 384 6464 For more informa and technology.” become globally recognised for its skills, innovationTees Valley industry that has built on its“All heritage of these to companies exemplify the evolution of offshore renewables,” said Joanne. transferred expertise from oil and gas to also serveTees, are just a trio of the area’s businessesSafety Services,that have which are all located on the River“TAG Energy Solutions, Wilton Engineering and Falck Valley suppliers. renewables, which are creating opportunities forand Tees emerging energy resources, such as offshoreenergy mix, there is an increasing requirementWhile for oilnew and gas remain at the core of the UK’s with innovative, technology-led companies.” Year award winner, Phusion – the Teesincluding Valley the is currentrich NOF Energy Company of the high-quality specialist software solution-providerscompanies – such as Modus and Deep Ocean, to its “From its excellent subsea sector, which includesdifferent areas of the energy industry,” said“The Joanne. area has a wealth of quality companies serving supply chain that exists in the area,” she added.and are very effective at flying the flag for the“Our expert members in the Tees Valley are particularlyLeng MBE, active Deputy Chief Executive of NOF Energy.access new opportunities and markets,” says Joannebusiness development solutions that enable them to“We work closely with our members to deliver that is building its reputation in the global market.innovative and technology-led solutions – an abilityability to build on its engineering heritage to deliver FLAG FOR TEES VALLEY INDUSTRY NOF ENERGY MEMBERS FLY THE of NOF Energy Deputy Chief Executive JOANNE LENG NORTECH SHOWS COMMITMENT WITH NEW APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME APPRENTICESHIP NEW WITH COMMITMENT SHOWS NORTECH of significant contracts with clients in the expanded rapidly after securing a number and iron and steel industries and has oil and gas, process, petrochemical Nortech serves the onshore and offshore apprenticeship programme. area’s future by launching an internal demonstrated its commitment to the based at Wynyard, Tees Valley, has design and procurement service provider, Nortech, the award winning engineering MBE tion about NOF Energy visit highlights the area’s renewables supply chain, gas, nuclear and offshore 440 companies in the oil, represents more than NOF Energy, which NOF Energy. development organisation, activity, says business energy sector supply chain the UK’s key locations for The Tees Valley is one of new talent entering the industry. engineering workforce as well as lack of (16-25), leading to an increasingly older engineering apprenticeships overall as well as a nine per cent decrease in engineering apprenticeships (16-18), been an eight per cent fall in young engineering apprenticeships, there has despite an 88 per cent increase in adult Recent statistics have revealed that, burgeoning oil and gas sector. Rapids. associated with the Colorado enjoying an activity more commonly the most accessible location for Tees Barrage, at Stockton – surely than white water rafting on the are few more exciting experiences For a more active day out, there the best touring exhibitions. extensive collection and venue for of Modern Art, mima, home to an magnificent Middlesbrough Institute Trincomalee is berthed – and the Quay – where the magnificent HMS museum, Hartlepool’s historic Then there’s Darlington’s railway owl centre in its grounds. history venue, which also boasts an Hall is another good family local Redcar and Cleveland’s Kirkleatham tropical trees and waterfalls. the pretty creatures flutter among Street and Butterfly World, where and artefacts, as well as a Victorian features some fine collections of art galleries. Stockton’s Preston Park including impressive museums and special attributes and attractions, make up Tees Valley has its own Each of the five authorities that TEES VALLEY A great oflife quality www.nortech-group.com engineering in secondary schools. as local campaigns for the promotion of learning for their apprenticeships, as well Nortech also provides work-based organisations, college or university. young people through technical training new apprentices every year, supporting programme, which will take at least two including an internal apprenticeship number of schemes to tackle the issue, Bryan Bunn, of Nortech, has set up a Natural Beauty. Pennines Area of Outstanding Dales National Park and the North the Pennine foothills of the Yorkshire West of Darlington takes you into high streets and excellent eateries. which offer great living, with vibrant as Yarm, Stokesley and Sedgefield, by attractive market towns, such The conurbation is also surrounded Victorian cliff lift. can be reached by an original standing proud on its hilltop, which is the Victorian resort of Saltburn, At the edge of the conurbation itself Moors National Park. marking the start of the North York southern edge of conurbation and Roseberry Topping, fringing the including the “mini-Matterhorn of escarpment of the Cleveland Hills, doorstep of Tees Valley, with the most spectacular scenery is on the Some of the North of England’s evening cruises or party nights. the replica HMS Bark Endeavour for Stockton’s Castlegate Quay, beside the Teesside Princess departs from For a more leisurely river experience, Roseberry Topping wind sector. enable rapidgrowth intheoffshore support–to and localgovernment infrastructure, skills,supplychain – inrecognition oftheexistingport for Offshore Renewable Engineering COREstatusasaCentreGovernment Tees Valley hasbeenawarded UK offshore wind.Little wonderthenthat renewable energy assets,particularly also increasingly beingused tobuild oil andgasproduction, but isnow only stillsupportinganddeveloping area’s expertiseandexperienceisnot oil andgasenergy marketbutthe Opportunities includeallareas ofthe companie trenching and cabling subsea of cluster largest world’s the boasting chain, supply excellent and sites Zone Enterprise 12 as availability; aswell fabrication facilities;primeland working offshore; expertoffshore for servicingtheNorthSeaand in itsdeepwaterports,ideallylocated Tees Valley’s othermainstrengths lie engineering fortheNorthSea. cent oftheoilplatformsandheavy which hasproduced more than70per offshore sectorinNorthEastEngland, Tees Valley isakeycentre forthe scale projects fabrication and inoil gas, ship and building, decommissioning. Tees Valley has aworld built class reputation over many years for delivering large- A great place to invest s. South East. a quarterofthose inLondonandthe about halfthose ofmajorUKcitiesand costs intheUK, withrents andrates has someofthelowestoperating Cost competitivelocation:Tees Valley and powergeneration. pharmaceuticals tosteel,construction motive, shipbuilding,chemicals and facturing heritagerangingfrom auto- also hasarichengineeringandmanu- offshore andrenewables, Tees Valley Engineering heritage:Apartfrom Heerema. Huntsman, WiltonEngineeringand Cats, ConocoPhilips,SABIC,Lotte, leading industrynamessuchasBP more than4,250people, including 3,000 indirect companies, employing up ofmore than400direct, and supply chaininTees Valley ismade clusters intheUK:Theoilandgas One ofthelargestoilandgas pioneering andinnovation. today itcontinuesitsproud traditionof it hasneverrested onitslaurels and and manufacturingdevelopments,but being attheforefront ofengineering reputation onitshistoryofalways Tees Valley hasbuiltaworldwide mass, biofuel andbioethanol plants. also boastsagrowing clusterofbio- heating; andanaerobic digestion.It gies fortheprocess sector;district developing newfeedstocktechnolo - ing offshore wind;industrial symbiosis; portunities inmultiplesectors, includ- edge ofdevelopments,exploring op- energy location:Itisatthecutting A growing reputation asarenewable pharmaceuticals. chemicals, plastics,biotechnologyand petrochemicals, speciality andfine the chemicalsectorincludingrefining, is hometoarangeofkeyclustersin terms ofmanufacturingcapacity:It second largest inWestern Europe in of manufacturingcapacityandthe chemical complexintheUKterms One ofthelargestintegrated Home International. Datum360, Faithful&GouldandK and gassector. TheseincludeUnasys, companies operatingalsoservetheoil Growing digitalsector:many quired by today’s demanding market. skilled and affordable workforce re Aberdeen, and Tees Valley also has the rates are up to four times cheaper than duction from Aberdeen: Location to outsource and split pro Rents and - -

v INVEST IN TEES VALLEY vi

INVEST IN TEES VALLEY for relatively short periods (typically 12 – 24 months).performance and warranty bonds. Such funding is oftensecure required new contracts by providing short-term financeas toa barrierfund to growth. A UK first, the fund helps businessesTees Valley Catalyst Fund having identified financingThe Local bonds Enterprise Partnership established the £10 million next ten years. them unlock additional contracts valued at £700 millionmedium over and the large businesses in the Tees Valley.end of June,It aims 2013 to ishelp set to provide a significant boostAn innovative for small, new fund launched by Tees Valley Unlimited at the need to win new contracts New fund is the catalyst Tees Valley firms Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees, the £10 Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Open to businesses in Darlington, an agreed specification. that the supplier will deliver on time and to reserves, provide a financial guarantee which can be a drain on a supplier’s cash many Tees Valley businesses. The bonds, of June, 2013 has been welcomed by the Tees Valley Catalyst Fund at the end when awarding contracts, the launch of on performance and warranty bonds With more and more companies insisting New FW Capital team: Joanne Pratt, Fund Manager, Nicky Atkinson and Chris Johnson, Investment Executives the first of its kind anywhere in the UK UK SME investor, the Catalyst Fund is Managed by FW Capital, the leading Growth Fund. and secured the capital from the Regional need for the innovative fund in the region Partnership for Tees Valley highlighted the Tees Valley Unlimited, the Local Enterprise often required for these bonds. and £2 million to fund the cash security short-term finance of between £100,000 million Catalyst Fund can now provide East explains how the Tees Valley Catalyst Fundstaff. can help. businesses’ prospects, enabling them to expand and recruitWinning newnew contracts could significantly boost many proposals. investment executives who are already working on a FWpipeline Capital of has established a Billingham office and recruitedlaunch, businesses two have shown significant interest inand the repayments fund. ploughed back into future lending. Since‘evergreen’ fund for Tees Valley Unlimited whichLeading will UK seeSME interestinvestor, FW Capital is managing the Joanne Pratt, FW Capital’s Fund Manager in the North at tender stage, but lack the cash contracts. Indeed, they’re often shortlisted to beat the competition and win new the capacity and technical know-how established Tees Valley businesses have Fund Manager in the North East. “Many explained Joanne Pratt, FW Capital’s backing they need to win new contracts,” ambitious local businesses with the innovative fund focused on providing “The Tees Valley Catalyst Fund is an businesses. and uniquely available to Tees Valley proposals,” Pratt explained. “The working on an interesting pipeline of and our Tees Valley team is already a lot of interest from local businesses “The Catalyst Fund has encouraged investments from the fund. Atkinson and Chris Johnson to make recruited investment executives Nicky its Billingham office and Pratt has Since launch, FW Capital has opened struggled to fund. bid for further contracts they may have facilities, giving them the confidence to Catalyst Fund to extend existing Companies can also access the businesses’ individual requirements. a flexible approach that recognises “THE CATALYST months) and FW Capital can adopt relatively short period (typically 12 – 24 Funding is often only required for a overcome this obstacle.” Fund’s backing will enable them to required. We hope that the Catalyst reserves to set up any bond facilities VALLEY BUSINESSES.” AVAILABLE TO TEES UK AND UNIQUELY ANYWHERE IN THE FIRST OF ITS KIND FUND IS THE www.fwcapital.co.uk/catalystfund 01642 343 495 or Nicky Atkinson on 01642 343 494 orBusinesses visit wishing to apply for funding should contact Chris Johnson on million,” she concludes. impact will be much greater than £700 region as a whole. Ultimately, I hope its future prosperity as well as to the a significant contribution to both their Tees Valley businesses. It can make been created specifically for ambitious “The Tees Valley Catalyst Fund has and also transform their prospects. confidence of businesses in the region Fund has the potential to boost the Pratt believes that the Catalyst back into future lending. interest and repayments ploughed set up to be an ‘evergreen’ fund with the next ten years. Added to this, it’s around 1,440 jobs in Tees Valley over valued at £700 million and to support businesses win additional contracts economy by helping the region’s high – it hopes to strengthen the local Overall, the Catalyst Fund is aiming investment. plan demonstrating a strong case for earning and have a clear business must be investment-ready, revenue- to bid for new contracts. They businesses in a wide range of sectors The Catalyst Fund can back performer when it comes to exports.” the region’s reputation as a strong opportunities and continue to build be looking to consider potential export the fund’s backing. I hope they’ll also expand in their domestic markets with Many of them have opportunities to oil and gas and renewables sectors. sector, for instance, particularly in the businesses supplying the energy Tees Valley has a concentration of

roll-on-roll-off facilities. Facilities include two container quays and Pennine route, and to other major trunk roads. is rail-connected and close to the A66 trans- manufacturing and engineering. The estate is strongly associated with petrochemicals, handles more than 6,000 ships a year and some five miles from the sea. Teesport At its heart is Tees Dock, a deepwater facility southern bank of the River Tees. area of 200 hectares (490 acres) along the fourth largest by tonnage and covers an industrial Tees Valley. The port is the majorUK’s deep-sea complex at the heart of the Tees and Hartlepool (known as Teesport), PDa Ports owns and operates the Ports of UK domestic routes. Barcelona and Dublin, as well as a range of Stavanger, Paris, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, services to key destinations, including Dubai, Tees Valley, from where frequent linksAirport offer is approximately 40 minutes from services to Amsterdam, while Newcastle Airways, to Aberdeen, as well as KLM frequent scheduled services, by Eastern International. Durham Tees Valley offers airports, Durham Tees Valley and Newcastle international locations via two international Tees Valley is connected to national and the the rest of Europe. of the UK and – via the Channel Tunnel – to rolling stock and offer connections to all parts and Freightliner. Providers operate modern for by a number of operators, including EWS For rail freight facilities, Tees Valley isoffering provided direct passenger routes to London. the East Coast Main Line and Grand Central connections and rail freight options with both The rail network provides both fast passenger manufacturing centres and major sea ports. roads connect Tees Valley to other major the region and the A66 runs east-west. These A1(M) and the A19 run north-south through main arterial road network of the UK. The The area is particularly well connected to the is easy to get to and around. and one of the UK’s largest ports, Tees Valleyconnections, two airports on the doorstep With fast-flowing roads, excellent rail connectivity infrastructure and Excellent logistics,

vii INVEST IN TEES VALLEY viii

INVEST IN TEES VALLEY THE training theirstaff, andtheyhavea employers togetthemostoutof These providers are flexible,allowing skilled employees. tailored units,toprovide businesswith bespoke training,bothfull-timeandin universities. Allprovide excellent and twoworld-classaward-winning ranking FurtherEducationColleges Tees Valley ishometoseveralhigh- workforce. area haveasecure andhighlyefficient ensuring companieslocatinginthe ratesandhighproductivity,turnover In addition,thearea haslowlabour location. cost-competitive a offers it centres, manufacturing other than lower roles technician and engineering for rates wage with and, labour of area catchment wide a it give connections transport Teesand Valley’s location Tees Valley’s industrial heritage means it has a skilled and available manufacturing and engineering workforce SKILLS ARE SKILLSHERE... ARE engineering courses each year, many more than 7,000 students enrolling on As a consequence, Tees Valley has and bespoke training packages. industry, as well as work-based learning Level 2 and Level 3) for the engineering possible range of apprenticeships (at both providers in Tees Valley offers the widest The network of industry-recognised and manufacturing. particular emphasisuponengineering national average. years – a any subject in the North East over recent greatest increase in student numbers of The subject has experienced the technology than the national average. the region studying engineering and with a higher proportion of students in a reputation for engineering excellence, each year. North East universities have than 9,000 students read engineering of six first-class universities, where more Tees Valley is also within one hour’s drive average. undertaking trainingthantheUK apprenticeships andemployees Indeed, Tees Valley hasmore trade area. facilities offered by the colleges in the courses in purpose-built engineering instrumentation, fabrication and welding mechanical, manufacturing, process, doing specialist electrical and electronic, growth muchhigherthan the THE HERE...SITES ARE There is a wide range of sites and premises available across Tees Valley... Matthey). Chemicals UK and Tracerco (owned by Johnson of the incentives on offer, including Air Products,A number Lotte of companies have already taken advantage they are growing. companies will also be required to demonstrate thatcan qualify for the rate relief, although TeesTees Valley Valley companies and those from furtherrelief afield of up to £55,000 per year for five years. EnterpriseExisting Zone areas may qualify for business rateCompanies moving to eight of the Tees Valley accounting periods. against taxable profits from the same trade in futureback – it can be carried forward indefinitely to lossbe set is not offset against other group profits orWhere carried the company makes a trading loss – and the investment is made before April 2017. of £100m, to offset against corporation tax, if the100 per cent on qualifying expenditure to a maximummachinery. They receive first-year capital allowancescapital allowancesat if they invest in qualifying plantsites and in the Tees Valley will be eligible forCompanies enhanced setting up on the four larger industrial EZ financial incentives to encourage businesses. reduced taxes, simpler planning rules and a packageEach of Enterprise Zone, or EZ, offers a combinationexisting of office and industrial units ready for occupation.encompasses a range of sites, including a number withis one of only 24 such locations across England. ofIt 12 sites, with a total area of 423.8 hectaresEnterprise and it Zone. The Enterprise Zone is made up A number of the sites are part of the Tees Valley now and the mid-2020s. companies throughout England to create jobs betweenFund is a £3.2bn pot for the purpose of helping Regional Growth Fund grants. The Regional Growth Companies locating in Tees Valley can apply for Zone sites,andinvestmentaid. such asenhancedcapitalallowancesonEnterprise enables investorstotakeadvantageofincentives, classified EU“Objective2”regional status.This projects. Anumberofkeyindustrialsitesare park locations,andsitessuitableforlarge-scale These includeedge-of-town,businessandindustrial Base (NSSB) out, operations and maintenance, installation and Thelogistics. NSSB is heavily active in offshore wind for vessel loadingconsumer and fit- products to steel beams. railhead facilities handling every type of cargo Servicesand rail includefreight, fabrication, from haulage, shipping, warehousing andrange of integrated added value activities. NSSB is a fabrication and multimodal logistics centre, incorporating a locating at the site access to Enhanced Capital Allowances.Bank Wharf is a Tees Valley Enterprise Zoneis which close enables to the companiesintegrated chemical site at WiltonTeesport, International. the South UK’s largest exporting port,has has 10.4m 350m water river depth frontage with andthe ability to dredge.in It offshore is located wind next or to oil and gas decommissioning,opportunities the site already with deep water access in Europe. PerfectAt 80.7 forhectares investment South Bank Wharf is one of the prime freehold Offloading (FPSOs) berthing of various vessels and Floating Productionmodules Storage assembly, and sub-sea facility fabrication Workand maintenance completed andincludes offshore jacket assembly, accommodationowned by Able UK since 2000. include Davy Offshore, SLP, and Odebrecht,This and fabrication the site has facility been was developed in the 1970s. Previous operators acres of the largest dry dock/wetThe totalbasin sitein Europe, offers with126 acresa 125m ofgate. availablerestrictions. land, with the addition ofis more24.7 than 2kms away from residential areas andlicensed has no with operational all permissions for fabrication and Abledecommissioning. Seaton Port isIt adjacent to the mouth of the River Tees and is fully the North Sea, and large offshore umbilicals fabricatorsThe site is– JDRhome Cables. to Heerema Group, which fabricates large modulesHartlepool for Port Estate. design and build premises. Enterprise Zone incentivesland, areand thereavailable are on 192,000 sq ft of existing units,access. with The the total option site to is 300 acres, with 100 acresHartlepool of developable Dock, 6.3 kms north of the River Tees, enjoys lock-free AV DAWSON, MIDDLESBROUGH – SOUTH BANK WHARF ABLE MIDDLESBROUGH PORT, MIDDLESBROUGH ABLE SEATON PORT, HARTLEPOOL HARTLEPOOL PORT ESTATES, PD PORTS North Sea Supply

ix INVEST IN TEES VALLEY x

INVEST IN TEES VALLEY TEES VALLEY OFFSHORE in the Tees Valley Here we look at some of the many operators in the offshore sectorwho are based • WiltonGroup • Whessoe • TAG Energy Solutions • SBVFabrications • MTE • Hertel • Hereema • FrancisBrown • Cordell Group • A&PGroup • AbleUK operating inthesectorare: some companiesalready locatedand maintenance, skillsandtraining) delivery (includingoperationsand chain solutionfrom conceptionto offshore sector. Providing afullsupply expert fabricationcompaniesinthe engineering, theTees Valley hasmany With itslonghistoryofoffshore projects around theglobe. that itsresident companiesare playingakeyrole insupplyingoffshore wind heritage andworld-classmanufacturingskillsinTees Valley, itisnosurprise companies, employingmore than20,000people.Giventheengineering area hasthepotentialforanoffshore windsupplychainofmore than400 In addition,research commissionedbyTees Valley Unlimitedreveals the wind, engineeringandsupportsectors. operating intheoffshore oilandgas,subsea,decommissioning,offshore Tees Valley boastsoneoftheworld’s greatest concentrationsofcompanies OIL AND GAS FABRICATION • WiltonGroup • VCMC • ReefSubsea • ModusSubseaIntervention • JDRCables • IHCEngineeringBusiness • Hertel • GlobalMarineSystems • DeepOcean • A&PGroup include: telecommunication sectors.Companies in therenewables, oilandgas trenching capability, operatingglobally vehicles), cable-layingandcable- sub-sea ROV(remotely operated created ahubofexpertise,including services withintheregion. Thishas geographic locationandthesupport Valley, whichtheychoseforitsprime providers are resident intheTees All theUK’s majorsub-seaservices SUBSEA the offshore andothersectors. alongside itswiderangefoactivitiesin and countsnucleardecommissioning, Middlesbrough, isanothermajorplayer Hertel, basedatMiddlehaven, and RecyclingCentre isthelargest. Teesside Environmental Reclamation four belongingtoAbleUK,ofwhichthe for decommissioningworkincluding of activitywithspecialistsitesavailable 2040. Tees Valley isidealforthistype £30 -35billionbetween2010and facilities isprojected tocostbetween Decommissioning North Sea oil and gas • TAG Energy Solutions • PDPorts • MPI • Hertel • A&PGroup • AbleUK sector, including: involved (or actively interested) in the 160 Tees Valley firms already directly over 20,000 people and there are of more than 400 companies, employing already boasts a potential supply-chain with real potential for growth. The region exciting opportunities in the Tees Valley, Offshore wind presents a wide range of DECOMMISSIONING OFFSHORE WIND • TWI • TTE • Teesside University • NETA • TheFaradayCentre Limited • FalckSafetyServices diverse industries.Theyinclude: geared totheneedsofregion’s training insafetyandotherareas, institutions, offering specialist a numberofcompaniesand The Tees Valley ishometo • WiltonGroup • KHomeInternational • FaithfulandGould • Amec • AkerSolutions the offshore sectors include: Engineering companies working in industrial economic base of the area. energy sectors, which form the heavy to the process, steel, offshore and manufacturing in Tees Valley is due and chemicals. The strength of automotive to renewable energy industries, from aerospace and businesses operating across all manufacturing and engineering successful cluster of advanced Tees Valley is home to a large SUPPORT ENGINEERING AND SPECIALIST TRAINING will carryoutmaintenanceservicesfor employs more than1,000 inTees Valley, maintenance servicescompany, which multi-disciplinary constructionand the UK’s largest oil refineries. The maintenance contractononeof recently awarded along-term Middlesbrough-based Hertelwas field projectNorthSea. inthesouthern four gasplatformsfortheCygnus in theNorthEasttoassistbuildof Fabrication Group istocreate 350jobs fabrication specialistHeerema Hartlepool basedengineeringand floating rigusedtoextractcrudeoil. the pipelinethatrunsfrom theFPSO–a Campus BasininBrazil.Theywillinstall under £3m,tosendabout30workers month dealfrom Wellstream, worthjust contract. Thecompanyhaswonanine- to£10mafterwinningamajor turnover oil industry, expectstoincrease annual supplies specialisedstaff totheoffshore Hartlepool firmSeatechs,which its workforce byaquarternextyear. company hasmade,amidplanstogrow of theprogress the18-month-old client Technip Norge AS,isrecognition North Sea.Thework,forleadingTier1 the BøylaDevelopmentProject inthe major oilandgastrenching contracton I Tees Valley basedReefSubsea activity and success stories from aroundHere the weglobe... look at some of major operators, recent worldwide ntegrated Projects hassecured a contractor Subsea7. 2 project, onbehalfofglobal subsea power cablesfortheTotal OfonPhase and manufacture twofive-kilometre West Africa.Thecompanywilldesign contract foranoilfieldoff thecoastof company JDRCableshaswona Hartlepool-based subseacable already basedatthesite. Valley office, ontopofthe420workers will employafurther40staff atitsTees engineering operations,thecompany the firm’s centre international forglobal company AMEC’ Following thedesignationofengineering gas project, runbyINPEX. management contractorfortheIchthys contract worthmore than£11masdata Pearson-Harper, hasstartedworkona Billingham basedPhusion,formerly Energy Solutions’RiverTees facility. E.ON developmentisunderwayatTAG monopiles andtransitionpiecesforthe offshore windfarm.Production of16 components fortheHumberGateway after winningacontracttoprovide its direct workforce fourfold,to130, TAG EnergySolutionsincreased largest facilityofitskindintheUK. at Immingham,onHumbersie,thethird the Total UK-ownedLindsayOilRefinery s Darlingtonoffice as

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INVEST IN TEES VALLEY upgrade and maintenance. sioning, operation and development, rig ties include dry dock, marine decommis facilities options to companies. Port facili in Tees Valley, offering a range of landand and port operator. Able owns five port sites and is now a significant land developer demolition and marine decommissioning Able is the market leader in the field of dredgers and tankers. centre of excellence for offshore vessels, facility, the Tees yard is considered a to 40 tonnes and a secure tank-washing extensive workshop facilities, cranes up dry docks and 240m of jetty frontage. With on the banks of the Tees, consisting of two A&P owns and operates a five-acre yard marine and energy sectors. solutions for customers in the global fabrication group providing, tailor-made A&P is a leading engineering services and instrumentation disciplines. The company manufacture, electrical, control and services that include engineering design, range of multi-disciplined engineering Cordell Group offers a comprehensive and maintenance integration. readiness, hook-up and commissioning, such as business consulting, operational means the company are experts in areas experience in the challenging North Sea industries. With over 40 years of the world’s energy, power and process and project management services to AMEC office. equipment from the company’s Stockton working on a wide range of topside drilling in Tees Valley, with product engineers drilling technologies business is based drilling rigs and drill ships. Aker Solutions’ deepwater drilling packages for offshore is one of the top two global suppliers of and integrated solutions, Aker Solutions construction services, technology products A global provider of engineering and CORDELL GROUP AMEC AKER SOLUTIONS ABLE UK A&P GROUP WHO’S HERE engineering and process industries Tees Valley hosts many ofthe major global players inthe manufacturing, provides consultancy, engineering - - services from concept to completion. process plant, connecting in-house a machined component to a complete can engineer and deliver anything from installation services. welding, machining, assembly and as well as providing design, fabrication, bespoke as well as multiple-supply items, and gas industry for decades, supplying Brown has been involved with the oil of industrial markets worldwide. Francis fabrications and engineering to a range Francis Brown is a leading provider of electrical training equipment. wide range of operational high/low voltage 8,000sq foot facility is equipped with a and low voltage training. The company’s Faraday Centre Limited specialises in high With headquarters in Tees Valley, The experienced instructors. environment. Expertly trained and experience, in a safe and controlled provide delegates with a realistic training state of the art equipment and simulators companies facility in Teesside they have survival training company. At the offshore health, safety and offshore Falck Safety Services is a world leading engineering projects. consultancy services for construction and management, cost management and Faithful and Gould provides project iently at one site with priority access. mobilisation, storage and logistics conven viding integrated services for heavy lifting, Ocean’s large-scale UK Marine Base, pro Teesside Offshore Base (TOB) is Deep Repair (IMR), and Decommissioning. Intervention, Inspection, Maintenance and mapping, Subsea Installation, Seabed services including Survey and Seabed- DeepOcean offers a breadth of subsea Demonstrating an extensive track record, and technologies for the subsea industry. of safe, high quality, innovative services DeepOcean is an integrated provider THE FARADAY CENTRE LIMITED FRANCIS BROWN FALCK SAFETY SERVICES FAITHFUL AND GOULD DEEP OCEAN - - - process industries. chemical, power generation, marine and and maintenance services to the energy, many years’ experience providing repair in Middlesbrough. The company has company, which has its headquarters Hertel is a global industrial services Shell and BP. subsea installations, supplying the likes of Hereema is a fabricator of offshore and Europe. sector, which is particularly strong in services for the evolving renewable energy manufacturing and installation support positions it ideally to provide, engineering, projects. JDR’s Hartlepool location for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy development of inter-array power cables JDR is also a global pioneer in the responsible way. cost-effective, safe and environmentally enables energy to reach end-users in a element of the subsea infrastructure that products and services are an essential for the offshore oil and gas industry. Its intervention workover control systems umbilicals, subsea power cables and JDR is a leader in subsea production oil, gas and renewable energy systems. vital control and power delivery to offshore industry. Its products and services enable connecting the global offshore energy JDR is a leading provider of technology handling. cable lay, subsea trenching and offshore EB’s core expertise includes pipe and delivery, through to life cycle support. IHC from concept development and product renewable offshore power industries, oil and gas, submarine telecoms and EB works with clients across the offshore for complex offshore applications. IHC delivers bespoke engineering solutions IHC Engineering Business (IHC EB) HERTEL HEREEMA JDR CABLES IHC ENGINEERING BUSINESS company offers an end-to-end service facilities in nearby Middlesbrough, the quayside manufacturing and assembly North East of England, with additional Petrochemical. Based in Darlington in the Nuclear, Renewable, to Chemical and from Offshore and Onshore Oil & Gas, of high hazard industries worldwide, and Heat Shield Solutions for a range Solutions, Fire and Blast Wall Solutions MTE offers Design Consultancy, Modular Discovery and MPI Resolution. installation vessels, MPI Adventure, MPI largest and most powerful wind turbine installation, operating the world’s a world leader in offshore wind turbine and decommissioning. The company is installation and oil and gas installation services, including offshore wind for wind installation operations and MPI provides a single-vessel solution services. construction support and consultancy ROV (remotely operated vehicle) services, and stabilisation, construction survey, trenching for cable and pipeline protection Specialist services include marine and hydrographic survey. renewable energy, telecommunications cost-effective services for oil and gas, through professional, safe, innovative and technical and operational excellence and equipment, Modus aims to provide trenching and work class ROV spreads Operating a fleet of state-of-the art for seabed intervention services. to the offshore construction industry Modus provides comprehensive support Caspian Sea and the Caribbean. North Sea, Middle East, Gulf of Mexico, has been gained in locations including the clients around the world and its expertise management services to oil and gas discipline design engineering and project management company. It provides multi- design, project and construction K Home International is an engineering K HOME INTERNATIONAL MTE MPI INTERVENTION MODUS SEABED in Tees Valley. management, the company has two sites sectors. Including trades, engineering and heavy industrial, and process industry the energy, nuclear, oil and gas, marine, services, and project management to equipment packages, machining, site and pipework (carbon and stainless), of heavy industrial steel fabrication SBV is a highly-regarded provider excavation and ROV and survey services. and umbilicals, seabed dredging and repair, installation and trenching of cables construction, inspection maintenance and of integrated services, including subsea knowledgeable team provides a range the USA, Reef Subsea’s experienced and Europe, Singapore, the Middle East and With operations in the UK, Norway, the oil and gas and renewables industries. providing specialist subsea services to Reef Subsea is an international group, experience. resources and creates a realistic learning process maximises the effective use of and simulated site activity into the learning equipment. The integration of working rigs both containing industry standard has two training centres in Tees Valley learning resources in the country. NETA NETA has one of the largest vocational most categories of oil and gas projects. management team has experience of industry experts, TAG Energy Solutions’ Recognised as some of the best Sea Continental Shelf and beyond. more than 100 topsides for the UK North construction and commissioning of responsible for engineering, procurement, its project management team has been experience in the oil and gas sector and TAG Energy Solutions has vast and installation. fabrication, project management, supply or 'one-stop shop': design, engineering SBV FABRICATIONS REEF SUBSEA NETA TAG ENERGY SOLUTIONS and oil and gas sectors. organisation in the engineering, process TTE is the UK’s largest technical training TTE companies every year. training and consultancy to hundreds of business and industry, providing a strong reputation for working with of the Year, Teesside University has Boasting the accolade of 2009 University successfully completed projects. It boasts a strong and diverse portfolio of the onshore and offshore energy industry. analysis, and coatings and services for design, fabrication and construction, The company specialises in engineering based on a 50-acre site by the River Tees. discipline Engineering Services provider Wilton Engineering Services is a multi- farm operations. in Darlington, responsible for all UK wind markets. VSMC has an engineering office specialising in inter-tidal and offshore power cables installation contractor, position as an international submarine has established a trusted and experienced VSMC (Visser & Smit Marine Contracting) commissioning and project completion. procurement and construction, design, through to full engineering studies and front-end engineering and project solutions, from concept, scoping technically and commercially strong The company is renowned for providing cryogenic storage and handling facilities. and building low temperature and Whessoe is a market leader in designing industry sectors. influential companies worldwide across all confidentiality, TWI works with the most professionalism, impartiality and consultancy. Respected for its expertise, engineering, providing research and TWI is a global leader in technology TWI TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY WILTON GROUP VSMC WHESSOE

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INVEST IN TEES VALLEY WHERE THE WIND BLOWS WIND THE WHERE The Tees Valley is in the ideal location for the European offshore wind sector Firth of Forth (3.5GW) 86 miles Hornsea (4GW) 67 miles Dogger Bank (9GW) 60 miles Ideal location to access multiple Round 3 sites: provides an excellent base for exporting to the continentproximity as to well Tyneside, as accessing Humber UK markets. and Scottish windSupply sector chains supply in thecentres. area areTees comprehensive Valley alsoand highly developed, with TeesWind Developments. Valley’s Europe. This presents Tees Valley with theexperiences long-term potentialwind speeds for that Round are 3 UKhigher Offshore on average over than rival can locations,be found anywhere namely its else proximity in to thedevelopment northern North within Sea. easy The reachnorthern of Northport sitesSea and makesThe region the most benefits of the fromadvantage good itaccess has to supply chains – and from 16.5GW ofcabling wind farm and Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) in theusing offshore its experience wind market. in offshore engineering, specialistTees fabrication,Valley has shipserviced building, the North sub-sea Sea oil and gas markets for many decades and is now RENEWABLE ENGINEERING (CORE) TEES VALLEY: CENTRE FOR OFFSHORE place to invest. it as a connected, credible and exciting the complete England offer and highlights This joint working alliance strengthens investment in the offshore wind sector. showcase opportunities for foreign direct England to support business growth and and the six major investment hubs in expertise from UK Central Government CORE brings together the relevant wind sector. enable rapid growth within the offshore infrastructure, skills and supply chain to status in recognition of its existing port Tees Valley has been awarded CORE CORE areas provide: • • • • • • • Extensive business support Experienced supply chain Skilled and available local workforce Excellent infrastructure and logistics applications. assistance on skills, premises and grant free location-finding services and Local government support providing offshore wind farms Easy access to Round 1, 2 and 3 access development, including deep water Large areas of available land for

www.energicoast.co.uk energy sectorexpertise from the region. sector, promoting theextensive offshore renewable for theNorthEastofEngland’s offshore renewables Energi Coastistherepresentative group www.subseauk.com industry. operators, contractors,suppliers andpeopleinthe which actsfortheentire supplychaintobringtogether of SubseaUK,thechampionforUKsubseaindustry, Sub SeaNorthEastistheregional wing www.nofenergy.co.uk renewable sectors. of companieswithintheoil,gas,nuclearandoffshore development organisation workingonbehalf NOF Energy isahighlyproactive business www.ukti.gov.uk process, from initialenquirytoproject completion. providing arangeofservicesandsupportthrough the businesseslookingtolocateintheUKby international across moremarkets.UKTIhelps than100international UKTI hasprofessional advisersbothwithintheUKand to looktheUKastheirgloballocationofchoice. encourage thebestoverseascompanies UK Trade &Investment(UKTI)works to sectors. organisations workingintheTees Valley tosupportthese for companies,beloware detailsofsomethe renewables sectorstoprovide comprehensive support sector organisations across theoffshore, subseaand Tees Valley Unlimitedworkswithpublicandprivate Web: www.teesvalleyunlimited.gov.uk Email: [email protected] Tel: 01642524400 Team atTees Valley Unlimited For furtherinformationcontactthebusinessInvestment ideal locationforyourbusiness. In short,wecanshowyouexactlywhyTees Valley isthe supplier networksatourfingertips. with informationfrom labourmarketstatisticstolocal locating here andhelpyoubuildyourbusinesscase, steer youthrough theassistanceavailabletocompanies to peoplewhooffer thespecialisthelpyouneed.We can organisations inthearea andcanprovide introductions We haveexcellentlinkswithbothpublicandprivate businesses. customers andsuppliershelpingtogrow their assistance, matchinginvestorsupwithpotential and skillsavailability, andmovingontopost-investment investment phase,thenadvisingonsites,recruitment to givelifelonginvestorsupport,startingwiththepre- Business InvestmentTeam onhand Tees Valley Unlimitedhasadedicated ENERGI COAST ENERGI EAST NORTH SUBSEA ENERGY NOF UKTI TEES VALLEY UNLIMITED TEES LOCAL SUPPORT

xv INVEST IN TEES VALLEY Engineering Design Fabrication Coating Site Services

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