Tyneside

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle Keep, Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Names scratched into the wall of the King's Chamber during the English Civil War. The names are John Danby and Thomas Cuthbert. Newcastle Keep, Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle Keep, Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

Newcastle Keep, Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

The Castle is a medieval fortification in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, which gave the City of Newcastle its name. The most prominent remaining structures on the site are the Castle Keep, the castle's main fortified stone tower, and the Black Gate, its fortified gatehouse. Use of the site for defensive purposes dates from Roman times, when it housed a fort and settlement called Pons Aelius, guarding a bridge over the River Tyne. In 1080, a wooden motte and bailey style castle was built on the site of the Roman fort, which was the 'New Castle upon Tyne'. It was built by Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror. The stone Castle Keep was built between 1172 and 1177 by Henry II on the site of Curthose's castle. The Black Gate was added between 1247 and 1250 by Henry III. Newcastle, North East England. July 2012.

With brass band and accompaniment from ship's horns and land-based foghorn. Souter Point, South Tyneside, England.

The High Level road and rail bridge from the River Tyne. Newcastle Keep is on the right-hand side. Newcastle, North East England.

Rail bridge over the River Tyne.

Lemington Bridge was built in 2001 and is not strictly speaking on the River Tyne but on a by-passed loop of the river known as the Lemington Gut. Formerly the main channel of the Tyne which took a sharp bend it was cut across in about 1880 to straighten out the river and shorten it by three quarters of a mile giving deeper water at nearby Blaydon and leaving the Gut as a backwater.

River Tyne, North East England.

Red van, yellow buoy and white building, River Tyne, North East England.

Local pub, Newburn, North East England.