Geography 497: International Field Study, Summer 2003

Field Trip Summary

SUNDAY June 22:

7.00 p.m. Dinner, Halifax Hall, University. Final pre-trip preparations are discussed in a local pub, conveniently located within 10 minutes walk.

MONDAY, June 23:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast. 9.15 a.m. We begin by walking towards Endcliffe Park and Whiteley Woods where is located. On the way, we pass some Victorian housing and at the junction of Road, Hunter’s Bar, now covered by trees, is the site of a former toll gate (really toll house). Hunter’s Bar was erected around 1700 as part of a turnpike trust to charge road users for the upkeep of the road. There were 10 turnpike trusts controlling 16 toll gates in Sheffield. Hunter’s Bar was the last to close in 1884.

Photo 1: Geography 497 in Endcliffe Park.

Parks for recreational purposes are a long established, widespread feature of the Sheffield landscape found throughout the city (outside of the central area). Part of the Sheffield web-based promotional literature claims the city is one of the greenest in Europe, including 78 public parks, 10 gardens and 170 woodlands. Many of the parks are large.

Photo 2: Shepherd Wheel

9.52 a.m. Shepherd Wheel is on the Porter River, Whiteley Woods. The site comprises cutlery grinding and polishing operations and a water wheel. The latter which provided power for grinding stones (made out of local sandstone) was driven by a dam created by diverting water from the Porter River. In Sheffield, water channels that diverted water from (and back to) rivers are called ‘goits’. The site was built in the early 1500s and operated until the 1930s. Shepherd’s wheel is now part of Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust and is only opened by prior arrangement.

Cutlery grinding occurred in the building at the top of the picture; the waterwheel and dam is behind this building while the lower building was used for polishing, or ‘buffing’ as it was known in Sheffield. (As the industry developed buffing became primarily a woman’s job done by the ‘buffer girls’). Note that these buildings operated initially operated as a ‘proto-workshop’ and subsequently as a factory. Initially, independent ‘jobbing’ grinders rented a grinding trough (wheel) and worked for their own customers; they probably lived and worked primarily down stream nearer to the centre of Sheffield. In 1784, Mr. Shepherd acquired the buildings and paid workers, almost certainly on a piece- work basis, to grind for his customers.

Photo 3: River Porter

Sheffield is a city of hills undulating often quite steeply from the valleys of rivers, notably the Sheaf, Porter, Loxley and Rivelin, as well as the (relatively) more imposing River Don. The cutlery industry began to develop during the early medieval period and until the Industrial Revolution, cutlery was basically dispersed along these rivers, better thought of as steams, around numerous (about 150) water wheels. This concentration of water power was a distinctive feature of Sheffield prior to the Industrial Revolution.

As you might imagine, variability of water flow to the water wheels was a problem ‘in the old days’ and cooperation among water wheel owners was required from time to time.

11.00 a.m. Our rented bus arrives and we drive to ‘up and over’ to the next valley of the .

Photo 4: Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, River Sheaf

This museum recreates cutlery and early crucible steel making processes that were vital to Sheffield’s industrialization. Originally powered by a water wheel, iron working at Abbeydale has been dated prior to 1200. In the 18th century, the site became a scythe-making works and used the new crucible steel making process invented by Benjamin Huntsman, a clock maker originally based in nearby , in the 1740s and 1750s. The crucibles weighed around 60- 80lbs and crucible steel making required great strength and intimate knowledge – the skills of Sheffield workers proved very difficult to copy!

Crucible steel established the foundations of the modern steel industry and the reputation of Sheffield as a global steel city, noted especially for its high quality steels. Crucible steel was the first time ‘cast’ steel had been made and was a higher quality than the prevailing blister steel that was made in cementation furnaces. Crucible steel, which used blister steel as an input, was made in small pots or crucibles and provided the basis for all ingot steel making processes. In 1840 Sheffield was the world’s leading producer of steel (and cutlery) and at in the late 19th century there were over 14,000 crucibles in Sheffield, by then threatened by more efficient processes.

In the photo, the crucible furnaces were in the buildings with the tall, square chimneys.

Noon: Lunch at the museum café. Although late July, the museum café was closed – in fact, apart from us there were no other visitors. Perhaps the supply of heritage sites outweighs the demand? Happily, our café was opened just for us to offer some British classics, including the ‘chip butty’ (french fries in a sandwich). Yum Yum.

1.05 p.m. Victoria Quay and the head of the Sheffield Canal Basin. Victoria Quay is part of Sheffield’s rejuvenation attempts and features new office space, a hotel, residences around a newly landscaped canal basin head.

Photo 5: Seminar at the Sheffield Canal

Jacquie Nelson gives the first seminar, delivered with much enthusiasm, insight and supported by an impressive array of ‘visuals, at the head of the Sheffield canal. This canal was built in the 1820s, a project delayed for years by opposition from the Duke of Norfolk, then as now Sheffield’s biggest landowner. The Duke felt his own industrial interests would be undermined by undermined by the Canal. When it was built the canal provided vital connections (via the estuary and the North Sea) to international resources and markets.

Photo 6: The Sheffield Canal.

The opening shots of the Full Monte were a little down stream from here. The canal, which flows parallel to the River Don, is now part of an extensive national network that is used increasingly for recreational purposes. We noted that the landscaping around the head of the Canal Basin has petered out at this location, and the canal walk linking Sheffield centre and the new Meadow Hall shopping area is used mainly by a few fisherman who can now be found on the banks of the canal. This canal walk meets a another walkway along the River Don to permit a circular walk from to and from Meadowhall shopping centre. The recreational potential of this walk way (‘Five Weir Walk’) was given a boost by the Full Monte but its potential remains to be properly developed.

3.30 p.m. Wincobank Hill, site of an iron age fort that provides a commanding position and good view of Sheffield from the north-east part of the city, especially the lower Don Valley which was the core of Sheffield’s steel district.

Photo 7: Sam Wong, Wincobank Hill in full song presenting seminar two

On this historic spot Sam Wong provided us with an impressive overview of the deindustrialization of Sheffield and noted the extraordinary changes in the landscape of the lower Don within the past two decades. Where once steel works dominated now we see services of all kinds, notably by a giant shopping centre (Meadowhall), an ice arena, sports stadium and concert theatre.

Wincobank Hill, in an unfashionable part of the city, is a rather unkempt, neglected site that comprises a double rampart and an earth bank constructed over a stone wall that has been radio-carbon dated to 500 BC. In AD 54, from this site the local Brigantes stared across the Don valley at the Romans in their fort at , that is until AD 69 when the Romans advanced.

The Don (or Dun as it was called until the 18th century, is a pre-Celtic name and “is thought to have marked the boundary between the British tribes, the Brigantes and the Corieltauvi” (Hey 1998: 5). Then the Romans came and left, and the locals became part of the Kingdom of . But in 617 Elmet was defeated by Anglo-Saxons from Northumberland and this area formed the southern boundary of the (northern) Kingdom of with the kingdom of to the south. Interestingly, to this day, the ‘true’ northerners from Northumberland and Durham still regard Sheffield as part of the midlands while southerners see Sheffield as part of the ‘grim’ north. For their part, Sheffielders see themselves as northerners in the county of .

Photo 8: The Lower Don Valley from Wincobank Hill

The lower Don became one of the world’s great industrial districts in the mid-19th century and this industrial character remained until the great Depression of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, most of the steel mills have not only been closed but demolished and replaced. (You can still see a few).

3.50 p.m. Shiregreen housing estate, a publicly owned (social housing) estate built in the 1930s for working class people (and my birthplace). These estates were a major effort to improve the living conditions of working class people living in extremely cramped quarters in highly congested buildings near to down town. Council houses had large gardens, in-door toilets, a bathroom, two or three bedrooms and were either typically part of a ‘two-block’ or a four-block’. These redbrick houses were similar in style and construction but varied a little by size. Just about everyone of the estate was working class or blue collar, and ‘talked’ working class. Shiregreen was a safe, pleasant place to live, at least until the 1980s. The primary schools were good. In the past 20 years, however, as blue collar jobs have disappeared the estate has become more of a problem area, with unemployment and drugs part of the problem.

Photo 9: Council Housing, Shiregreen Sheffield

This photo shows three houses of a ‘four-block of houses, one which at least appears to have bought been bought by the owner. In the 1980s, Margret Thatcher introduced privatization to council housing. You can easily see which houses have been privatized by the changes to outside structures and appearances. On this street, a council house will sell for between £45,000 and £65.000. Nevertheless the rental culture is deeply embedded, the estate is aging, the loss of work means a loss of income while ‘bad neighbours’ and growing social problems are further disincentives to invest. Whether privatization of the housing stock will help rejuvenate the area remains to be seen. The social polarization between the poor. blue collar north and east of the city and the affluent professional west and south remains strong in Sheffield.

4.30 p.m. We arrived back at Halifax Hall.

7.00 p.m. Dinner, Halifax Hall, followed by informal reflections led by the diarists for the day, Jacquie and Maria.

TUESDAY, June 24:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 8.55 a.m. Bus arrives.

9.45 a.m – 12.07 p.m. Corus steel works, . Organized by the kind help of Ron Heenan, our tour of this plant was led by Ted Taylor and two colleagues who were extremely interesting and entertaining guides. The tour incorporated the electric melting shop, bloom caster, and primary rolling mill and we saw the process of turning basic scrap metal into liquid steel, casting into blooms, and finally rolling into billets.

Corus is a multinational, multi-divisional company that was formed in 1999 through the merger of British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens (The Netherlands). The Rotherham and works are in the Engineering Steels Division of Corus. In Rotherham, Corus’s operations are based entirely on scrap metals and their products have an unusually high lead content, a feature that the EU permits because Corus is the only supplier of such products in Europe. As Sam pointed out in his seminar, the industry is a shadow if its former self and the collapse has occurred almost entirely since 1978. From 1978 to 1984 the Sheffield steel industry lost half of its employment and in the 1990s job losses have continued. The Stocksbridge steel works is to close shortly.

In the 1930s, the steel industry directly employed 70,000 in the area (not counting the cutlery, tools and engineering industries). In 1971 the region still employed 60,000 people but in 1979 the level was 43,000, 1987 it was down to 16,000 and by the mid-1990s, employment had declined to under 10,000.

12.40 p.m. Arrived at Treeton village

In the Readings Rooms on Treeton’s Front Street, built in the 19th century as a reading and social gathering place for the local coal miners we have a packed lunch provided by Halifax Hall. Our host, Nic Marshall who is manager of the Treeton Partnership, kindly provides us with coffee and insights into how he is coping with teenagers with little to do (and with no chance of working in the now closed mines of the region). John Swift, an ex-miner and member of the Treeton’s Local History Society, joined us and provided a fascinating tour of the village.

Photo 10: Coal miners’ cottages, Treeton

Treeton village, which dates back to Saxon times, became a coal mining village in the South Yorkshire coalfield. The local pit, the dominant employer, was closed a few years ago. The terraced cottages are well made (out of local stone), if relatively small with little or no front garden. Small gardens can be found at the back.

Photo 11: New housing in Treeton

In the photo John Swift is talking about the new housing in Treeton, including his own home. Treeton has become a bedroom community for people working in Sheffield, and even further afield. These 3-4 bedroom houses are (2003) priced at over £300,000, but are still cheaper than equivalent sized housing in the cities. Throughout house prices have escalated. Twenty years ago, commuting to Leeds from Treeton would have been almost unthinkable. Long distance commuting in England has now become a fact of life for many people and because of cheaper housing commuting from places in the north to London has become common.

Photo 12: Wild orchids, field in Treeton

This reclaimed tip has been flattened and is adorned by wild orchids, not to mention us. Other tips are reclaimed and left as local hills and as part of the local walking network.

Photo 13: The good old days?

These stocks are in Treeton Church and were used particularly to punish women who misbehaved. What did Maria do wrong?

Photo 14: Orgreave open cast mine

Orgreave village is located a couple of miles from Treeton where this picture is taken. For the last few years there has been substantial open cast mining of ‘tailings’ – that is coal rejected when the mine was in full development. The amount of coal recovered from the tailings underlines the quality of the coal seams that once supported the South Yorkshire coal field.

Orgreave became infamous in the miner’s strike of 1984. The scale of the Orgreave mining dispute was astonishing, and the legacy of bitterness still exists. At that time, the National Union of Miners (NUM) led by Arthur Scargill was in a confrontation with Marget Thatcher, PM of the UK. Her government planned to close down mines around the country which they deemed inefficient. In 1984 confrontation between police and miners was widespread and at Orgreave there had been several clashes between police and miners who were picketing a British Steel coking plant and trying to stop ‘scab labour’ from transporting the coke to local steel mills. Matters came to a head at the Battle of Orgreave, June 19 1984 when both sides sought a ‘breakthrough’ victory. Between 5-6000 miners from all over the country were on one side and the other side there were at least 4200 policeman perhaps as many as 8000, and supported by 42 dogs and 50 mounted police. There were no police women on duty and only two pickets were women. The non-local police were in full riot gear. The pickets were escorted, not to their planned picketing point, but to a field where the two sides faced each other. A ‘battle’ then ensued lasting several hours. A documentary film has since been made of this day. The pit closures nevertheless continued and Treeton was closed around 2000.

4.00 p.m. Back at the Treeton Reading Rooms, John Swift entertained us with a short slide show.

5.20 p.m. Return to Halifax Hall.

7.00 p.m. Dinner, followed by reflections led by the day’s diarists, Sam and Lisa

WEDNESDAY, June 25:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 8.30 a.m. We board our bus for a morning tour of selected sites in Sheffield.

We began by driving past the , noting that higher education is now a major employer and source or revenue in the city. In this practical town where a day’s work meant producing something, students were once seen as rather superfluous, at best. Now they help drive the economy, not least the rental housing market.

9.10 a.m. We drove past a factory owned by Footprint, one of Sheffield’s famous tool manufacturing firms. As with steel and cutlery, tool manufacturing has downsized considerably

9.20 a.m.

Kelham Island is Sheffield’s main industrial museum located in a run down industrial area close to the city centre.

Photo 15: Bessemer Converter, Kelham Island Museum

The Bessemer Converter was invented around the 1860s and allowed steel to be produced on a much bigger scale than was possible in the crucible steel process. (Just think of the difference between the size of this converter and the crucible ‘pot’ lifted by an individual man). Other larger scale steel making technologies soon followed and Sheffield faced increasingly intense competition from other regions that had access to vast quantities of iron ore, big domestic markets and had lots of space. Sheffield nevertheless adopted the new technologies and, until recent decades, prospered through innovation. Stainless steel, magnesium steel and other special steels, for example, were invented in Sheffield prior to the 1920s. Sheffield’s tool and cutlery industries also benefited from these innovations. Did Sheffield lose its innovativeness? If so, why?

With the recent decline of its basic industries, Sheffield has sought other kinds of activity as it tried to redefine itself. Inevitably, industrial tourism has been a part of this effort. Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet (photo 4) and Kelham Island Museum anchor these efforts (which also include Shepherd wheel, photo 2). Both museums (and Shepherd Wheel) are fascinating, informative places. Yet, they are obviously not well attended, seemingly dependent on visits from schools. In fact, the sites are less attractive now than they once were, particularly because live demonstrations of industrial processes, including by craftsmen working on site, have been greatly reduced. What are the problems? To what extent are these problems, site-specific, community-specific and more general?

Photo 16: The Fat Cat

Around the corner from the Kelham Island Museum is the Fat Cat, Sheffield’s most famous pub. Join the course next year to find out why! Across from the Fat Cat, Richardson’s is a cutlery firm that has done well in recent decades, principally on the basis of pioneering the idea of laser knives (sold under the Wiltshire label). The past several decades have seen a revival in the idea of flexible specialization that celebrates the role of small firms interacting with one another within industrial districts. So why did Sheffield’s cutlery industry, that had developed on these lines, decline so much?

Photo 17: Cementation Furnace

Prior to the crucible steel process, steel was made in cementation furnaces, a process invented in Germany and widely adopted in Sheffield to make blister steel. Basically, iron and coke were layered as a multi-decker sandwich and heated to reduce the carbon content of the iron. The quality of the steel was uneven. This prime example of Sheffield’s industrial history is a few blocks from the Kelham Island Museum, but few Sheffielders probably know how to find it!

10.05 a.m. The Sheffield Ski Hill

Sheffield has made a concerted attempt to become a ‘city of sport’. Since the recession of the 1980s, an olympic sized swimming pool has been built in the city centre (Pond Forge) and in the Don Valley steels works have been replaced by an ice hockey arena, an international class athletics stadium and a rugby football stadium. The Eagles are Sheffield’s ice hockey team and, in a manner completely contrary to local tradition, they win a lot, possibly because there are a number of Canadians on the team. These new developments (don’t forget the ski hill) add to established sports, notably the two professional football (soccer) teams, the world snooker championship, and a strong rock climbing and hiking tradition. (Not to mention the many parks in Sheffield). There was also speculation about a new national ice training centre for Sheffield.

Photo 18: The Sheffield Ski Hill

Perhaps the most bizarre project in Sheffield’s sporting aspirations is its dry ski hill. Built in 1989, the ski hill is the biggest of its kind in the country (350 metres in length), attracts over 1 million visitors a year and has been successful.

Photo 19: The Sheffield Ski Hill

Since you may not have believed the previous paragraph, this photo shows the actual ski hill.

10.20 a.m. En route we took note of Sheffield Stadium, the long time home of dog (greyhound) racing. Motor cycle racing is also people in Sheffield. We then parked close to the Hiram Wild Cutlery factory located outside of Sheffield Wednesday’s football ground. Hiram Wild was relocated here in the 1950s to tap into the female labour supply of nearby housing estates. In practice, they retained their staff from their old location.

Photo 20: Hillsborough, Home of Sheffield Wednesday

I think it was Anthony Burgess who said in the 1950s or 60s that football is a religion in Britain. Since then it appears to have become more important! Most of the major grounds have been rebuilt with seating paramount, admission is more expensive, tickets are controlled, police presence is substantial and of course football has become ‘big business’. Manchester United has become ‘globalized’ vying with Real Madrid for ‘global dominance in the hearts and minds (and pocket books) of people.

Historically, football was a great innovation of the 19th century that was allied to the existing game of cricket. The Sheffield Wednesday football club was formed in 1867 by members of the Wednesday Cricket Club who wanted to something to do in the winter. According to one source, Wednesday was the day that local cutlery workers took time off to watch cricket matches and the name stuck on the new football team.

Does it make sense for Sheffield to redefine itself as a city of sport?

11.14 a.m. Community Action Forum, 12 Burngreave Road.

Burngreave is a deprived inner city community with a large non-white population. The BCAF and related organizations were formed to help stimulate local participation and gain access to funding.

Photo 21: The Group at Burngreave Vestry Hall

At this very spot, just before this photo was taken, Ann Sartre’s seminar provides an articulate documentation of the potential and limitations of community economic development in Burngreave, the area in Sheffield with the biggest concentration of minority peoples.

Noon: Lunch (sandwiches, fish and chips etc).

1.00 p.m. We visit the Burngreave Community Action Forum (BCAF) which is headed by Donovan Modest and and he and his colleagues provide us with an interesting discussion of the problems facing Burngreave and the various initiatives to help resolve these problems. Partly because of the presence of minorities Burngreave has been successful in gaining support from the European Union, a point of some contention in nearby also poor communities, such as Shiregreen where minorities are absent.

1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. The rest of the afternoon is a walk-about of Sheffield’s elongated city centre, introducing its morphology, functions and problems.

The basic morphology of Sheffield’s city centre can be traced back to its Anglo- saxon and especially Norman roots. Basically, the Normans built a castle at the confluence of the Rivers Don and Sheaf which probably replaced an earlier Anglo-saxon settlement. Close to this place, people had long crossed the Don in travelling north and south as the Don makes a big turn (which marks the shift from the upper to the lower Don). With the castle established, subsequent growth of Sheffield’s city centre progressed in an elongated, if zig-zag fashion more or less progressively to the west. In medieval times markets were built around the castle, still symbolized by the present day and Haymarket (the latter now a street name). As the medieval town grew, present day High Street developed further to the west. As Sheffield industrialized in the 19th century, High Street became the focal part of ‘down-town’. With continuing growth, commercial development continued to shift west, culminating in the building of around 1900 beyond which (westwards) the commercial area of ‘the Moor’ developed by 1914. Offshoots around this morphology tended to be towards the north and east as the Sheaf Valley constituted a barrier to the south.

Our walk-about followed this morphology, with the addition of one or two ‘off- shoots’.

Photo 22: Lady’s Bridge, River Don.

Lady’s Bridge is close to the origins of settlement in Sheffield. (The Sheaf, which joins the Don 100 metres from this photo formed an important boundary to the medieval settlement to the south-west). At this site, the Don turns sharply north and was probably an important local route for people (and soldiers) travelling ‘north-south’ (and vice-versa) during the Iron Age, Roman and Anglo Saxon periods. Other Anglo-Saxon villages in the vicinity probably pre-dated Sheffield itself, for example, (just past Shiregreen) and . Indeed, in Anglo-saxon times this area was known as Hallamshire, a name still in use in the western part of the city especially. probably arrived in Hallamshire , which was once an enormous parish based in Ecclesfield, around the 9th century.

Photo 23: Ruins

The little that remains of Sheffield castle is underneath the present-day Castle Market and the only part that can be seen at the moment is under lock and key in the basement. In the Sheffield was referred to as Scafeld, Escafeld and Sceuelt. The Norman William de Lovetot built Sheffield’s first castle, sometime after 1120, established markets, toll bars on roads (e.g. West Bar), and a new church. The townsmen of Sheffield were granted a charter in 1297 when Sheffield became a seigneurial borough in which the townsmen had some independence. The typical medieval burgage plots were established in this period. A bigger castle was built around 1270. The castle was enlarged and nearby Manor Hall became the last main prison for Mary Queen of Scots before her beheading. The castle was destroyed in 1649/50 after the English civil war on the orders of the new Parliament led by Oliver Cromwell. Although Sheffield was on the side of the parliamentarians during the war the castle was seized by royalist forces; hence its fate

Markets of various kinds developed around the castle since Norman times, although the construction of the present day castle market is post-1950. The nearby farmer’s market has just been demolished (2003).

Photo 24: High Street in the late 1960s, and the Hole in the Road.

One of Sheffield’s famous locally owned departmental stores, Walsh’s, was the retail (‘posh’) centre of Sheffield in the late 19th and 20th centuries, until the 1980s. Around 1959 the long established tram system was dismantled and then in the mid-1960s High Street was redesigned around a ‘hole in the road’ to facilitate pedestrian movement below and auto/bus traffic above. However, the escalators into the Hole were too few and narrow, the Hole itself was not an attractive place and people circulation became more difficult. The recession of the 1980s and the new Meadowhall shopping centre further condemned High Street to a vulnerable future.

Photo 25: High Street now: Back to the Future!

Ironically, in an attempt to rejuvenate High Street, the hole in the road has been filled in and trams have been re-introduced. Back to the Future! Would Sheffield have been better off if the city had kept its trams and never built the hole in the road?

Whether or not High Street will rejuvenate along the lines of a prestige area is debatable. Walsh’s store (once acquired by Harrods of London) is now T.J. Hughes, a low priced departmental store, nearby buildings are in poor shape and house low quality retail activities, such as cheap restaurants. Meadowhall shopping centre still provides fierce competition and Sheffield’s current plans envisage a new retail quarter to the west.

We then took a slight detour to which in 1730 was a farmer’s field to the north of High Street (and behind the cathedral).

Photo 26: Paradise Square:

This fine Georgian Square was built in1736 on the then edge of town, and now provides offices for accountants, lawyers etc. The square also hosted a market and the local stocks. Paradise Square is Sheffield’s most coherent heritage site and it symbolizes Sheffield’s great traditions of non-conformity – it is a town with deep roots in unionism and socialism. The square was used for public meetings, and Charles Wesley, for example, gave a speech here. The Sheffield Outrages underlined worker militancy; the Chartists were important to Sheffield, Sheffield had strong links to protestant religions, anarchists became strong and its industrial structure featured a powerful social division of labour.

Photo 27: and Marks and Spencers

We returned to the principal axis of Sheffield’s city centre, a little further west of High Street and photo 27. Fargate became a pedestrian way in the 1970s and Marks and Spencers has been a long time anchor of this street.

Photo 28: Thorton’s toffee

Across from ‘Marks and Sparks’ you can buy some excellent, reasonably priced Sheffield made toffee from Thorntons. A good present to take home! Thornton’s is also a reminder that the food and beverage industry was important in Sheffield until the 1980s. As well as Thorton’s, Basset’s chocolates and Henderson’s relish are still around but several major food processors and the all the breweries are gone.

Photo 29: Town Hall and

Sheffield’s Town Hall was not built until around 1900 and provided a landscape dominant to anchor the then ‘far’ end of CBD activities. The Peace gardens were attached later. The development of the Moor, however, soon extended Sheffield’s commercial activities to the west.

Photo 30: The Winter Gardens

The Town Hall and Peace gardens are at the fulcrum of Sheffield’s current plans to rejuvenate its city centre. The Winter Gardens, a modest ‘flagship’ development opened in 2002 to celebrate Sheffield’s attempt to be a cultural centre, is immediately behind the Peace gardens. The Winter Gardens also open on to the Cultural Quarter, comprising the city library and art gallery, and theatres. A new hotel is also under construction. In the other direction, across the street from the Town Hall is the John Lewis Departmental Store and Barker’s Pool. The John Lewis Departmental Store is two blocks from the Town Hall (and from the top of the Moor) is on the edge of an area that the City wishes to promote as its new retail quarter. Barker’s Pool provided medieval Sheffield with water.

Immediately to the west of the Town Hall, ‘the Moor’ is the last leg of Sheffield’s downtown. As you might expect the Moor was a ‘moor’ until enclosed. As late as 1800, two men charged a few pence to ensure safe passage across this somewhat dangerous area! With the development of tramcars (circa 1914) shopping was pushed down the Moor. This area, however, was badly damaged in World War 2 and most of the buildings were constructed since then. The Moor became pedestrian only at some point in the 1980s, providing room for the market type shops in the middle of the street.

Current plans for renovating the centre of Sheffield anticipate the most significant developments near the Town Hall and John Lewis. This plan continues an ‘historic’ shift south ad west in the city’s centre. Whether this plan will work and is a good idea is another matter. Geography 497 tried to figure this out in less than a day – the next day!

4.30 p.m. Returned to residence. Some walked back via West Street, now important to social life when the university is in residence, and others caught a bus.

Dinner at 7.00 p.m. followed by reflections led by the day’s diarists, Lisa and Sam

THURSDAY, June 26:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 8.30 a.m. Assemble. Project day.

Sheffield is seeking to re-establish retail viability, resolve traffic problems and enhance Sheffield as a ‘cultural’ experience by both revitalizing its heritage and adding new functions. In particular, in February 2000, Sheffield One became one of the three pilot Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs) established by the Government in line with Lord Roger’s Task Force report. More URCs have since been created. Sheffield One is a partnership of Sheffield City Council, English Partnerships and Yorkshire Forward (the regional development agency for Yorkshire and the Humber). Sheffield One has a fixed life for seven years and will focus on the city centre, principally within the inner ring road. Sheffield One has a £100 million cash basis for its plans. The plans are controversial, in part, because of the designation of a new Retail quarter which, if successful, may well negatively impact on other areas in Sheffield’s city centre.

Sheffield One’s renovation strategy for the city centre recognizes 10 separate areas or zones. These areas are: New Retail Quarter; and Riverside; Cathedral Quarter; ; The Moor Quarter; Castlegate; Sheaf Valley; Heart of the City; gateway; Cultural Industries Quarter.

The class was divided into four groups of two students and one group of three. Each group chose one of Sheffield One’s renovation areas and spent the rest of the day developing an approximate land use map of their selected area and an assessment of planning intentions.

5.30 p.m. Back at Halifax Hall, each group reported on their findings. A collective assessment of Sheffield’s One’s plans were effectively summarized by Debbie when she said: “Sheffield is a city in search of an identity”.

7.00 p.m. Dinner

7.45 p.m. Calamity! Steve jumped at great speed into some bushes to catch a frisbee. Unfortunately he disappeared from view.

Photo 31: Steve Dombass and helpers.

Steve smiles bravely but needs holding before taking a taxi to the hospital. The bad news for Steve is that he has to go to hospital and must leave the field trip. The good news is that the doctors and staff at the Northern General – they even know his doctors in Vancouver - look after him very well. Steve is now on the mend.

Photo 32: Ha Ha

It turns out that Steve had fallen into a Ha Ha, which is a wall hidden by shrubs, trees and flowers. Halifax Hall was a 19th century mansion built by a steel magnate and the owners of such large English houses apparently built Ha Has to stop animals wandering across their lawns and disturbing their tea parties. This photo shows Steve at the bottom of the Ha Ha. In this photo Steve is standing at the bottom of the hidden wall.

End of day discussions were, needless to say, terminated.

FRIDAY, June 27:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 9.00 a.m. With bags packed, we board our bus and headed off to the . Immediately south-west of Sheffield. On the way to the cement works we stopped at a turn in the road known as the ‘Surprise’ because of is surprise view of the Hope Valley.

The Peak District is a hilly, rural sheep farming area that was also mined for lead, limestone, sandstone, millstone grit and even some local forms of special jewelry stones. The Peak was England’s first national park in 1951.

10.00 a.m. – 12.06 p.m. Kindly organized by Louise Saxon, she shows us a video and then we are given a wonderful guided tour of the Lafarge (once called Blue Circle) Cement Works by John and Ken.

Photo 33: Lafarge cement works, Hope

Lafarge is a major industrial employer (400 jobs) in the Hope Valley and the works produces 1.3 million tonnes of cement p.a. The works was opened in 1929 and the plant began to landscape its operations in 1943, one of the first industrial site to do so in the UK. Inside a national park, Lafarge has a strong environmental and reclamation programme; a golf course now occupies former mining areas. The cement works is raw material oriented, located next to its two principal raw materials off limestone and shale. The cement is distributed by rail and truck, and at the present time a major customer is Heathrow Airport which is building another runway.

It is hard to say how long these operations will continue. The site still as considerable deposits but the firm will have to renew its license. Also the firm will soon be mining rock that is owned by another landowner and the question of royalties will have to be addressed.

We left the mine for Castleton, stopping briefly in Hope to look at well dressing.

12.15 p.m. Lunch in Castleton.

1.00 p.m. We left for Middle Top and High Peak Junction Top, 14 miles south of Castleton, to meet Andy Pollock, a park ranger who was our guide for the afternoon as we walked along the High Peak Trail. We arrived shortly after 2.00 p.m. and were lucky to meet Andy has we had told him that we would be there by 1.00 p.m. For good measure it rains.

2.15 p.m. Undaunted, Andy gave an excellent presentation of one of the world’s first stationary beam steam engines that in the early 19th century that powered a railway up and down steep incline. Andy then added all kinds of fascinating insights on the social and ecological development of the High Peak Trail.

5.00 p.m. The tour finishes at the bottom of the railway incline by the Cromford canal which provided a transportation link for Richard Arkwright’s textile mill at nearby Cromford, now a world heritage site.

On the bus, Maria Burdak presents her seminar on field patterns in the Peak and heroically attempts to link theoretical types with actual examples.

6.30 p.m. Castleton YH.

7.00 p.m. Dinner

End of day discussions are informal, led by Maria and Jacquie, and in the pub next door!

SATURDAY, June 28:

Breakfast 7.30 a.m. 8.45 a.m. To experience the delights of the (northern) Peak District we began by walking from Castleton towards Hollins Cross which is on a limestone ridge that separates the Hope and Edale Valleys.

Photo 34: Lisa’s seminar

At Hollins Cross, the low point on a ridge connecting and Lose Hill, Loos Hill, Lisa enthralls us with a ‘high-level’ seminar on the creation of the Peak District National Park. Behind the group one path stays on the ridge and goes towards Mam Tor, also known as ‘shivering mountain and the site of iron age fort.

Photo 35: The Hope Valley

As Lisa speaks, Hope Valley and the ‘White’ (limestone) Peak lies to the south. The picture shows Hope Valley with the Lafarge cement works in the background. To the north is Edale Valley and the ‘Dark’ (grit and sandstone) Peak of Kinder Scout. After Lisa’s seminar, our group splits into two. One group travels along the ridge towards Mam Tor and the other towards Edale and Kinder Scout. The first group proceeds down from Mam Tor back in the Hope Valley and visits Speedwell Cavern and Peveril Castle.

Photo 36: Jacob’s Ladder

Rising above Edale Valley (and Edale Village (s)) is Kinder Scout which marks the southern end of the Pennine mountains, the ‘backbone of England’. Actually, the Pennine Way hiking trail begins just to the south in and ends in . The first part of the Pennine Way follows Jacob’s Ladder an old pack- house trail prior to the days of canals, railways and good roads.

The Pennine Way was first mooted in 1935 by a hiker who had participated in the ‘mass trepass’ of April 1932 when 400-500 ramblers (hikers) from Manchester and Sheffield trepassed on Kinder Scout in order to gain the right to hike in the area. The land was owned by the Duke of Devonshire. These hikers “fought a brief but vigorous hand-to-hand struggle with a number of keepers specially enrolled for the occasion” (The Guardian 1925). The ramblers won the battle and assembled on Kinder Scout but several were subsequently arrested and went to jail. The mass trepass was a major stimulus to the formation of national parks in England, the Peak being the first one as Lisa informed.

In April 2002 at the 70th anniversary of the mass trepass, the Duke of Devonshire, still the largest landowner in the Peak apologized for his grandfather’s behaviour in 1932, calling it a “shaming event”.

Photo 37: The Kinder Plateau

Once remote, and scarcely used, the Peak District attracts thousands of hikers and conservation is an issue. Kinder Scout, for example is a rare type of high moorland with extensive peat bogs, which you can just see in the photo, and which are threatened by the very people who treasure it.

Photo 38: Peveril Castle, Castleton

Peveril Castle was built by the Normans in the 12th century as part of an extensive network of castles (including at Sheffield and Newcastle) designed to control (and tax) the country. In the 1960s and 70s this site could be freely accessed. Now it is part of English Heritage and there is the inevitable entrance fee. This first group also visited Speedwell Cavern, an old lead mine , and took a boat tour of the flooded cavern.

The second group hiked down into Edale where we meet two visitors, Dr. Angela Phelps and Mrs. Elizabeth Garnham. We met them at the Old Nag’s Head, referred to by some as simply as the Nag’s Head although by no means by everyone. Angela, a conservation and heritage expert and Elizabeth, a business teacher, provide welcome insights as we hike towards Kinder.

1.00 p.m. Packed lunch provided by the YH.

5.00 p.m. The Kinder group return Edale, after becoming only slightly lost. We are thankful that Angela and Liz could give us a ride back to Castleton where we meet the rest of the group. Castleton is a picturesque village, home to several well known tourist attractions, notably Peveril Castle and various limestone caves and former lead mines, numerous pubs while providing excellent access to the northern Peak District.

7.00 p.m. Dinner

Allan and Matteo are the day’s diarists who summarize the day for us at dinner

SUNDAY, June 29:

Assemble 8.30 a.m. Our bus arrives and off we go, first stop was Saltair.

10.00 a.m. Saltair, a community established on the outskirts of Bradford by the Salt family in the 19th century to house their workforce.

Photo 39: Debbie Collingwood’s seminar

Debbie eloquently discusses the origins and functions of Saltair, a community built by the local textile mill owner, Titus Salt, by the . Saltair was a company town that included housing, a hospital, school, and various other institutional buildings

Photo 40: Housing in Saltair

In the mid-19th century this working class housing was a revelation. Saltair provided a church, hospital, school, stores and other community functions. Alcohol was prohibited.

Back on the bus, packed lunches provided by the YH are enjoyed.

1.35 p.m. Arrive at Helmsley and met Paul Magee and Karen who provided local escorts on a walk along the Cleveland Way, a hiking trail, to Rievaulx Abbey. For the previous 30 years Paul has been an urban and regional planner and he has helped organized tomorrow’s day for us around Teesside.

3.00 p.m. Arrive at Rievaulx Abbey

Photo 41: Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey is a medieval (Cistercian) monastery of the 13th century that remains impressive even in ruin. Monasteries were important manufacturing centres and today a group from Bradford University provide a live demonstration of the monk’s iron making techniques.

Rievaulx symbolises the power and importance of monasticism in medieval England. Nestled in the quiet valley of the River Rye, Rievaulx Abbey was built in 1132, the first and most important Cistercian abbey in Britain that served as a centre for monastic colonization of England and Scotland. In its heyday, the community grew to 140 choir monks and 500 lay brothers and lay servants. When Henry VIII in 1538 sought to dissolve the monasteries there were only 22 monks supported by no fewer than 102 paid servants. The abbey site is now in the hands of English Heritage, but running along the eastern edge of the site is Rievaulx Terrace, owned by the National Trust.

The present ruins are those of the second stone monastery to be built on the site. After the reformation, the ruins of Rievaulx lay neglected and in a state of extreme disrepair until just after the First World War, as part of the drive to find work for former servicemen, hundreds were drafted in to clear the site. They removed more than 50,000 tonnes of debris, which had accumulated over 400 years.

Photo 42: Helmsley and its castle

6.00 p.m. Helmsley YHA 7.00 p.m. A proper Yorkshire dinner featuring all kinds of ‘pud’.

Chris and Ann direct our reflections on the day.

MONDAY, June 30:

Breakfast 7.30 a.m.

Assemble 8.30 a.m. We leave Helmsley for Teeside to a spot carefully noted by Paul Magee on a map he provided.

10.25a.m. Unfortunately, the directions were misunderstood, but John and Paul were able to find us! Paul has spent the previous decade has head planner in Hartlepool and led the town’s rejuvenation strategy. John has also been actively engaged in planning for the previous three decades and recently has run his own consulting company that specializes in retail planning. Both Paul and John are geographers, and John recently finished his PhD; the published his thesis as a book on retail planning. Paul and John generously organized this day, which focused on the regeneration of Teesside, principally in the Middlesborough and Hartlepool urban areas.

Photo 43: The Transporter Bridge (11.10 a.m.)

This vertical lift bridge, the only one of its kind in England, was opened in 1910 allowed workers to cross the in the heart of old industrial Middlesborough.

Northeast England, as with South Yorkshire, industrialized rapidly in the 19th century based on massive coalfield exploitation . The Northeast conurbations are organized around major estuaries. Teesside is the most southerly of these conurbations, partly in Yorkshire and partly in Durham. Iron and steel, chemicals and shipbuilding are its traditional industries. Just as in South Yorkshire the scale of recent deindustrialization has been breathtaking.

Photo 44: John talks about land use changes, with the Middlesborough Football club as backdrop.

This stadium was built on the site of a former factory but has so far done little to rejuvenate the area. This area is rather ‘seedy’ and is home to a boat-gambling casino. Plans for a supermarket nearby remain controversial. John overviews various programmes introduced by governments to renovate Teeside since the 1950s. The many branch plants attracted to the area were generally unsuccessful, especially in relation to stimulating innovative behaviour.. The Teeside Development Corporation (TDC), one of ten such corporations introduced in the 1980s, invested a considerable amount of money. One of the projects it funded, although it did not initiate, was the Tees Barrage

Photo 46: Tees Barrage

The barrage is located on the Tees between Stockton and Middlesborough and dams the river to keep water flow constant while re-directing some water into a slalom area. The Barrage is one of the area’s flagship projects and is well used as a national center for canoeing. John now has to leave us.

12.15 p.m.Coffee time (Somehow we have already eaten the packed lunch from Helmsley YH). John left us at this point.

1.35 p.m. Back on the bus we leave for Hartlepool, passing by a chemical (fertilizer plant), a nuclear power station and an estuarine area.

Photo 46: The Bellevue Community Sports and Youth Centre, Hartlepool

This centre is located in one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Hartlepool which is one of the most deprived cities in the UK. In this area, unemployment reaches 20% and there were few amenities for people. This new center, opened in 2000, is the brainchild of Bob Farrow, a former steel worker. In the mid-1980s, Bob and other community members raised £16,000 and established a sports hall. Bob then sought more substantial funding to build a larger, more diversified facility. After considerable effort and funding from the Neal Deal for Communities (NDC) the new centre was opened at a cost of £2.6 million.

The centre comprises office space, a sports hall, dance studio, fitness areas, a kitchen for training purposes and houses adult education programmes and domestic abuse programmes. Bob was also successful in raising additional funding for computers that can be used free of charge. The centre enforces a strict code of behaviour and is heavily used. The center is starting to rent out premises to help it become financially self-sustainable. In planning for the centre, a key initiative was the hiring of a trust broker to facilitate communication between community members and various agencies.

3.15 p.m. Bob and his wife treated us to a nice cup of tea!

Photo 47: Paul Magee and the group at Hartlepool Docks

Paul, who was a key player in the process, explained the background, problems and hopes in the planned restoration of the Hartlepool dock area, especially in relation to the southside. The area now provides an attractively landscape diverse range of uses that most notably include a marina, apartment buildings, retail functions, call centres and museums. Too bad it rained!

Throughout the day, Paul had mentioned the ‘opportunistic’ nature of planning. On the one hand, opportunism meant that projects that met with the approval of funding agencies were completed, often with some success. On the other hand, opportunism implied a lack of comprehensive vision and a failure to fully exploit potentials once the ‘main’ or prestigious opportunity had been realized and a failure to recognize the negative aspects of new plans. Teeside Barrage was a n impressive development, for example, but there was little in the way of complementary activities. In Hartlepool Docks, the new residential areas were attractive but elsewhere inner city housing remained in a state of decay.

5.00 p.m. Goodbye to Paul and off to Newcastle, noting Peterlee, a ‘new town’ of the 1960s.

6.00 p.m. Arrive at Newcastle YH, Jesmond Road

7.00 p.m. Dinner.

End of day discussions led by Ann and Chris.

TUESDAY, July 1:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 9.00 a.m. On the bus and off south across the Tyne

9.30 a.m. The Angel of the North, a new giant sculpture outside of Gateshead and the setting for Erin’s insightful seminar on its meaning. (Note: There is more than one interpretation!).

Photo 48: The Angel of the North

As Erin notes, Joe Gormley, the artist, saw this giant sculpture as a link between the past and the future, reaching into the ground and to the sky. Completed in 1998 the steel sculpture is 20 metres high and over 200 tones in weight. Among our group, Alan thought it “Vulgar in an attractive sort of way”, Debbie proclaimed “You cannot miss it” and for Sam , “It’s huge. Very huge”. To others it is a reminder that the northeast is a different kind of place, while signaling that Newcastle-Gateshead have completely transformed themselves. Seen every night on TV it is already part of the region’s identity.

10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. Beamish , 8 miles south-west of Newcastle a former mining town that is now a highly acclaimed open air museum replicating life of over 100 years ago. Each of us conducted our own tour of the museum and most thought that the best part was the mine operations.

Photo 49: Beamish Open Air Museum, mine entrance

The size of coal mining tunnels, determined largely by the size of the pit ponies that were used, were not large as this photo suggests. Coal mining has long traditions in the Northeast, beginning in the 13th century although mining was sporadic until the mid-16th century when markets were developed in London and around the North Sea. What to do about declining coal mining towns in the Northeast has been a problem haunting regional planning since the 1930s. Beamish has found one answer by recreating itself as a museum. Unfortunately, Beamish cannot be cloned. In 2003 there was one coal mine left in the Northeast.

Noon: Lunch in the old/new main street of Beamish.

2.30 p.m. Hadrian’s Wall, specifically Housesteads, a Roman fort.

Steve, but for his accident, would have presented his seminar on the National Trust and English Heritage at this site. Instead we visit the museum and wander around the site.

Photo 50: Hadrian’s Wall

This photo is looking east from Housesteads Fort. Hadrian’s wall symbolizes an enduring theme of the social economy of Newcastle (and the Northeast), namely that of marginality. Hadrian’s wall was on the very edge of the Roam empire. The Romans ventured into Scotland but not to lasting effect; Hadrian’s wall for them was really the edge of civilization. In the dark Ages, Northumbria was a powerful important kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. , however, imposed unity on England and control from London. Northumberland was back on the margins. Until unification, Scottish and English armies rampaged back and forth across the Northeast. Farms had to be fortified here longer than in other regions of England. After the 1930s, the Northeast was officially classified as ‘marginal’ eligible for regional development subsidies. It still is, although the source of funding is now likely to be Brussels. .

5.00 p.m. Back to the Newcastle YH.

Dinner at 7.00 p.m. End of day discussions led by Debbie and Erin

WEDNESDAY, July 2:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast.

8.30 am. Jim Corby, a planner based in Crook, Wearside kindly organized much of this day and he joined us at the YH. Jim, like Paul Magee and John England, is a geographer who has spent his career in planning.

10.00 a.m. - Noon. Tour of the Nissan plant located in Washington (outside Sunderland), a new town of the early 1960s. The plant tour is brilliantly hosted by Dawn Waugh who, communicating by ear-phones, takes us to the press shop, body shop and final assembly. The Nissan plant was built on a former airfield and opened in 1986 (the first car was a Bluebird) with a direct employment of 1300. It was the first Japanese auto plant in Europe. When we visited the plant employed around 4500 people. Local suppliers provide additional jobs. European countries, especially France and Italy, sought to restrict on the basis of local content rules. Europe demanded 80% local content before allowing imports of Nissan cars duty free. In practice, Nissan has been committed to local content and a number of its tier one suppliers have located in Washington to supply inputs. These firms supply highly components. A bigger problem for Nissan has been the high value of the British pound. British policy, however, has always been to support a high value for the pound in support of London’s finance sector within disregard for the negative impacts on British manufacturing.

Photo 51: JIT in operation at Nissan

Nissan operates a just-in-time system and this photo shows a vehicle delivering parts to the assembly line. The plant also operates a distinct form of kaizen in which workers express concerns to a ‘kaizen group’ that then tries to solve the problems that have been raised.

Photo 52: The Nissan assembly line, station 30

There are around 150 steps in the assembly process. Nissan has been remarkably efficient by all accounts, but its survival remains questionable for cost reasons related to currency. This area is of course a long way from traditional auto manufacturing locations in England – other Japanese companies have also located in non-traditional areas. Nissan has clearly had a big impact on Washington and Durham.

Nissan produces well over 270,000 cars a year and around two-thirds of the production is exported.

Photo 53: End of the assembly line

This plant manufactures three models, the Micra, Almera and the Primera, and the axles and engines for these models. Suppliers provide the remaining components. We looked at the assembly of Micra. At the end of the line we were all invited to sit in a car as it drove off the assembly line!

Noon: Lunch, Civic Centre, Crook Municipal Hall. We are most grateful for a wonderful buffet lunch provided by Jim Corby. During lunch, short talks are offered by Professor Alan Townsend, a professor of geography at the University of Durham, and Harry McLauchlan, a planner, as well as Jim.

1.30 – 6.00 p.m. In our afternoon tour of upper Weardale, Harry and Jim provided a fascinating commentary on a cross-section of planning problems in this largely rural area. Most of the towns, including the larger ones like Crook, Bishop Auckland and Tow Law, are former coal mining towns. Housing problems remain evident and all communities are looking to regenerate and halt population decline that was especially strong between 1950 and 1991. Inevitably, tourism is considered as an alternative form of employment. There is hope. Weardale begins in the North which is nationally recognized as and Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB) and part of the Wear River Valleys has been designated an Area of Landscape Value. ≥

The farthest point of the trip is the Kilhope Lead Mining Centre (Museum).

Photo 54: Kilhope Lead Mine

Lead has been mined in the Northern Pennines since Roman times although its peak was in late 18th to mid-19th centuries when it may have been the most important led field in the field. Interestingly, Hadrian’s Wall (and the River Tyne) mark the northern boundary of this field. One of the richest lead mines was at Kilhope which is now most complete lad mining site in Britain. The museum includes a lead mine, water wheel and mine shop where the miners’ sleeping quarters are reconstructed.

The visit included participatory demonstrations of the lead mining process. This picture shows an enthusiastic Geography 497 group filtering out the galena.

Photo 55: Kilhope Lead Mine

This pictures shows the group, and Jim Corby, just before we were taken down the lead mine to take a look at the conditions in which the miners worked and how they made money.

On our return route we dropped off Harry at Crook and Jim nearer to Gateshead. Thanks a lot to both of them f or an extremely interesting day.

7.30 p.m. Arrive Newcastle YH

7.45 p.m. We are late for dinner but Lawrence, undaunted, still managed to feed us. Thanks!

Too tired for end of day discussions!

THURSDAY, July 3:

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 8.30 a.m. Board the bus and off we go on the Great North Road, almost to Scotland.

10.00 a.m. Lindisfarne Abbey and Holy Island.

Lindisfarne Abbey was an important entry point for Christianity into England and birth place of the writing of recorded English history. Inevitably it is a significant tourist attraction, the conversion from spiritualism to materialism well established.

Photo 56: Lindisfarne Abbey

Lindisfarne is famous for being the mother-church and religious capital of Northumbria, for here St. Aidan, a Columban monk-bishop from Iona, founded his see in 635 while the name ‘Holy Island’, dates back to the eleventh century. Holy Isle became the center of great missionary activity and also the episcopal seat of sixteen successive bishops. The book called the "Lindisfarne Gospels" ("St. Cuthbert's Gospels" or the "Durham Book"), written at Lindisfarne by Eadfrid "in honour of St. Cuthbert" about 700, is the earliest form of the Gospels in English (now located in the British Museum).

Nothing remains of the original (7th century) monastery which was founded by St. Aiden. Following its destruction by the Vikings in 793, it was 400 years before Lindisfarne was re-established as a Benedictine priory. This new priory was itself destroyed by Henry VIII in the 16th century and the stones were used to build Lindisfarne castle.

Photo 57: Lindisfarne Castle

Holy Island, and Lindisfarne Castle, is accessible twice a day when the tide is out.

1.00 p.m. Alnwick and Lunch

2.00 – 3.00 p.m. Personally directed walk-abouts. Alnwick is a medieval market town full of burgage plots and castle which is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland and now famous as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. In urban geography Professor Conzen pioneered morphological analysis and Alnwick was his major case study.

Photo 58: Medieval Entrance to Alnwick

Conzen always emphasized the importance of historicity and maintaining the integrity of established landscapes which he saw as vital to the culture, way of life and sense of well-being of residents. He was especially critical of attempts to accommodate the motor car at the expense of historical landscapes. His argument seems to have at least been accepted in Alnwick where vehicle flow is still a single lane at this entrance.

Photo 59: Alnwick Castle (Hogwarts)

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland charge a hefty entrance fee to visit their home. If Robin Hood (who roamed much closer to Sheffield than here) sought ‘to rob the rich to give to the poor’ such entrance fees have the reverse in mind. The castle is another reminder that we are close to the borderlands (where the Northumberlands have a summer ‘cottage’) with those aggressive Scots not far away to the north.

Photo 60: Alnwick Castle Gardens

In the past few years, the Duchess planned an impressive new garden (which requires a separate entrance fee), supposedly to be funded by a £1 million donation from the Duke. Perhaps the entrance are in part what they are because the planned cost of the gardens of about has ballooned astronomically, and apparently an extra £11.5 million lottery grant is till insufficient.

6.30 p.m. Arrive back at the Newcastle YHA 7.00 p.m. Dinner

End of day discussions led by Sam and Lisa.

FRIDAY, July 4:

7.00 a.m. Breakfast 8.40 a.m. Assemble for a walk-about day around Newcastle-Gateshead.

In the past decade the city centres of Newcastle and Gateshead, that are separated by the River Tyne, have comprehensively rejuvenated themselves, apparently with great success. Newcastle-Gateshead was a leading contender to become Britain’s European City of Culture in 2008 and although their bid lost out to Liverpool the ‘effort’ in making the bid has already brought acclaim, long lasting accomplishment and helped re-define the sense of the city (ies).

8.45 .a.m. Jesmond metro station.

Until the new arterial road was built, Jesmond Road connected directly with the University and the beginnings of the city centre. Now access is available only to pedestrians and is not obvious. Beginning in 1980, however, an impressive metro system has been constructed linking the Tyne and Wear conurbations. Newcastle itself is a city of just 300,000 people but the area served by the Tyne and Wear system has a population of about one million. The network is 76.5 km long and was developed by converting 45 kms of British Rail lines while some 13 km of new track (including a 6.1 km tunnel in central Newcastle and Gateshead) were added to these tracks. The Tyne is crossed on a new bridge. Additional extensions were built in the Sunderland area and completed in 2002.

Newcastle, it might be noted recorded steady population growth in medieval times reaching about 4,000 in 1400. In 1801 the population had increased to 28, 294 after which growth was rapid. By 1901 Newcastle had a population of 215,328 and 19221 it had 274,955 people, virtually its present size.

Photo 61: Newcastle: The Keep

Newcastle was the site of native, Roman and then Anglo-Saxon settlements and in the 12th century the Normans arrived and built a castle. The medieval settlement grew around this castle and within fortified walls which formed a semi- circular defence backed by the River Tyne. This keep, along with segments of wall, are the surviving relics of these fortifications.

In the first seminar of the day, Alan Fawley provides an impressive analysis of the evolution of Newcastle’s morphology, giving especial attention to landscape dominants and the street pattern.

The original New Castle was built by the Normans in 1070, probably as a small wooden stockade but during the 12th century Newcastle became more important as a fortress. King Rufus had just annexed Cumberland (the county to the west) and built a castle at Carlisle to stop the Scots from entering England on the west coast. Newcastle commanded the only position on the Tyne where large forces could penetrate England on the east coast. The Scots invaded anyway, and in 1157, Henry 1 re-established control and built a third castle in 1172. The present Keep survives and still overlooks the Tyne bridge which it originally sought to defend. Around the castle, the medieval town of Newcastle thrived.

Photo 62: Newcastle, The Medieval Wall

As you can see the wall was impressive, and behind the walls, built between 1260 and 1360, medieval Newcastle grew. There were 7 main gates and 19 towers. While the presence of the military helped this growth, it was the wool trade that created the greatest wealth in Newcastle, as it did for the country and Newcastle was one of the 10 ‘staple centres’ of the trade in England. (The Chancellor of the Exchequer sits on a ‘wool sac’, a reflection of the vital role of wool in Britain’s economy until the Industrial revolution). On Tyneside coal mining had also begun in the 13th century, although until Elizabethan times (16th century), coal production fluctuated and was small in scale, in Newcastle itself coal mining was a full time trade for some – elsewhere it was an adjunct to farming. Coal, however, underlay just about every aspect of industrialization of Tyneside after 1800.

Photo 63: High Level Bridge (Queen Elizabeth Bridge in the foreground)

In 1849 Robert Stevenson’s High Level Bridge brought the main line railway to Newcastle and terminated at the Central station, a new landscape dominant located north of the old castle. The coming of the railway also signaled the massive industrialization of Newcastle-Gateshead and the entire Tyneside conurbation. Coal, chemicals, ship-building and engineering underlay this industrialization and urbanization. Long in decline, relentless deindustrialization in recent decades has reduced these industries to insignificance. Remarkably within the past few years, Newcastle-Gateshead has undergone a renaissance.

Photo 64: Grey Street, by Grainger Town.

The building of the High Level Bridge and the arrival of the railway stimulated a comprehensive redevelopment of Newcastle in which a then entirely new CBD (‘Grainger new town’) was planned, in a manner that was probably unparalleled in the UK for its time. There were various architects, most notably John Dobson. Within the walls of medieval Newcastle, and by replacing a few big houses, two streets were built (Grainger and Clayton Streets) and the CBD moved north (‘upper town’) from the Quayside. Subsequently, the quayside and the area around the Keep deteriorated.

Grey Street became Newcastle most famous street, named after a local member of parliament who pioneered a (voting) reform bill. In the past year or so, Grey Street was named the best street in England while Grainger Town has been revitalized with £40 million of public investment, provided by Newcastle City Council, English Heritage, English Partnership, Tyneside TEC and One Northeast. On Grey Street, one half of the 249 buildings are listed as grade 1 or 2 heritage buildings.

Photo 65: New housing on Tyneside.

In the present period of rejuvenation, investments in ‘upper town’ have been paralleled by rejuvenation of the Quayside area. Indeed, on the Newcastle side of the Tyne, a walking path extends a considerable distance and modern, landscape uses include new housing which has recently replaced industrial, poor housing and derelict land.

Photo 66: Millenium Bridge and the Baltic

Opened in 2002 at a cost of £22 million, the Millenium bridge provides a pedestrian link between Newcastle’s quayside and the new developments in Gateshead. The Bridge ‘tilts’ to allow ships to pass under. This photo is taken from the Newcastle (north) side of th Tyne and also shows The Baltic. The “stunning cultural fortress” of the Baltic is a multi-storied building that is a redesigned flour mill and features five floors of ‘art space’ and a rooftop restaurant. Opened in 2002 at a cost of £46 million, this contemporary art centre is an art factory as much as gallery.

Noon: Lunch by the Baltic

Fortified we listened attentively to Chris Yang’s seminar on the flagship developments that are the hall mark of the changing face of Newcastle- Gateshead, especially the Baltic, the Biscuit Factory, the Music Centre and the Life Sciences Centre.

Photo 67: Inside the Baltic: Manufacturing Art

On this floor, artist Joe Gormley used models of people of varying ages, sizes and sex to manufacture the designs you see. The idea of the Baltic is not to be a conventional art gallery with a permanent collection but a place that attracts artists from around the world on ‘rolling commissions’ to ‘manufacture’ art in place. The Baltic has its own studios, press, digital media studios and exchange programme. In the photo, several of our group admire Gormley’s work.

Photo 68: Music Centre

The Music Centre was under construction when we visited but it should be open by 2004 at a cost of £70 million. The center will house a 1600 sear concert hall, a smaller 10-sided auditorium for jazz, blues and folk music events and be the home to the local chamber orchestra and local fold musicians.

These new flagship developments, plus new public squares and sculptures, the Staiths South Bank, that will soon embrace apartments, hotels, bars and more nightclubs have transformed Gateshead, once described by J B Priestely as a town which appeared to have been invented “by an enemy of the human race”.

Photo 69: Life Sciences Centre.

Located immediately to the west of the Railway Station, The Life Sciences Centre was opened in 2003 at a cost of £54 million. This centre is a kind of ‘science village’ and museum that provides a wide range of activities including education and entertainment activities for families. Newcastle is also the home of the new Biscuit Factory which is an art gallery, the Eyestorm (art factory in Hebburn) while the Centre for the Children’s Book is planned to open in Byker in 2003. This latter project may well turn out to be the less well known ‘jewel’ among the flagship projects and is being built out of an old flour mill on Ouseburn. And, I have not mentioned the new St. James park, the new home of Newcastle United which casts a cathedral like shadow from the west side of city centre.

Newcastle-Gateshead have seemingly gone a long way to redefining themselves as cultural cities. Even so, we might note that mortality rates are the highest in England, employment participation is low, there are relatively few new business registrations, educational achievements are lower here, and the Northeast still experiences out-migration. Places like Walker, Jarrow and Byker are poor and deprived. As Eric Burden once sang : “I will take you back to Walker” remains a threat!

4.30 p.m. In the Haymarket, once on the outer-edge of medieval Newcastle, Matteo Babini offers the final seminar on night life in Newcastle especially in relation to the city’s claim to be the night club capital of Europe. Since it is late afternoon, there was a collective agreement to test the insightful hypotheses raised by Matteo. And, we did, at least after dinner.

Photo 70: What the group thought of Matteo’s seminar?

Dinner at 7.00 p.m.

Allan and Matteo direct our end of day discussions.

SATURDAY, July 5: Project Day

7.30 a.m. Breakfast

9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m. Project day. The same five groups of students that conducted a land use analysis of Sheffield will each assess the land use patterns of one of five major streets in Newcastle. These streets are Northumberland Street, Pilgrim Street, Percy Street, Grey Street and Newgate Street/Bigg Market.

6.00 p.m. Discussion of street patterns

7.00 p.m. Dinner and appreciations. (For some reason or another, the instructor is given a gift of a compass).

SUNDAY, July 6: End of field trip

7.30 a.m. Breakfast 8.30 a.m. Assemble Alan, Chris, Erin and Maria leave us in Newcastle to explore England, Scotland and Wales further.

The rest of us go back to Sheffield where we arrive at noon.