The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

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thenorthwind
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The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by thenorthwind »

Inspired by JoseMcTavish's Strictly Local thread I plotted a route round my own local authority (North Tyneside) boundary, and then, having wasted a couple of hours when I should have been working, felt duty bound to follow it.

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It's actually not as bad a route as you might expect from an arbitrary administrative line around a largely suburban area on the edge of an old industrial city. Maybe I have learned to love where I live... or maybe I've just forgotten what riding is supposed to be like.

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Anyway, having ridden it once clockwise, but not really with enough time to explore alternatives and take photos, I went and rode it again in the opposite (marginally less favourable) direction. This was last Saturday, at the peak of Fool's Spring, so I set off early and took my time, and lots of photos. The initial clockwise ride took me less than 3 hours for 37 miles. This ride took me 5 and half, and ended up 42 miles :shock:

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I live just a few hundred yards from the boundary, and here it goes through some fairly densely populated areas. It's interesting to see where there are streets where half the houses are in Newcastle and half in North Tyneside.

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Home territory. No more pictures of signs, promise.

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A Metro train crossing the boundary at warp speed. I promise I won't bore you with "the tree on the left is in North Tyneside, but..." photos either. Well, not too many.

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The boundary actually runs down the middle of the Tyne. Despite what I said in the other thread, I'm going to have to packraft it at some point :geek:
This is taken near the site of the old Swan Hunter shipyard where some ruddy great ships were built.

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The next stop on the magical mystery tour is a UNESCO World Heritage Site don'tcha know: Segedunum, the end of Hadrian's Wall. Embarrassingly, despite living less than a mile away, I've never actually been round it (though to be fair it's been shut most of the time we've been here and there's not actually much to see).

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The bit of the route down the Tyne follows the Hadrian's Wall/Coast to Coast Sustrans route.

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A short bit what passes for singletrack round here, which I didn't know existed before (I may have gone a bit off piste here).

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Ship happens :grin:

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In the spirit of purism, I descended the wooden escalator (stationary) in to the Tyne Perdestrian and Cycle Tunnel...

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...to reach the only point where you can get to the border in the middle of the Tyne without a boat.
Took the lift back up because I've carried up those steps before, and believe me, it's not easy. Should have included it for token hike-a-bike really :lol:

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The route goes past the ferry port and through the marina at Royal Quays. The Amsterdam ferry was just arriving, dwarfed by this massive cruise ship currently docked.

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The old wooden dolly on North Shields fish quay (actually not even as old as me: https://www.fish-quay.com/wooden-dolly/)

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Fiddler's Green, a memorial to North Shields fishermen lost at sea, looking out to the mouth of the Tyne

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Tynemouth Priory, sneakily cropped to omit the adjacent less attractive, but arguably equally interesting, WWII gun emplacement

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The recently refurbished Spanish City at Whitley Bay

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The landmarks keep coming: St. Mary's lighthouse

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Oh go on, one more.
I met the border with Northumberland at Seaton Sluice, where it turns inland and follows Holywell Dene, which is a lovely little valley, and the best part of the ride, particularly if going down, which I was wasn't.

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The local "bike park"

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I had to deviate from the boundary a bit here, using one of the many old "waggonways" - track beds from old mineral lines.

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I felt I'd had it a bit easy, so detoured from the actually rights of way to follow the boundary along this field margin.

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A bit of unexpected wetland next to a little lane I'd not been down before, which parallels the A19 dual carriageway and the actual boundary.

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This corner of the route has quite a bit of road, but nothing too unpleasant.

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I channelled the ITT vibe by calling in at the Greggs at Seaton Burn services off the A1

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After skirting two nature reserves, with a bit of road in between, I pass the source of my "pizza" (though no doubt it goes via a distribution centre in Northhampton in a part-baked state).

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The boundary follows the Metro line for a little bit - I realised riding parallel to it that if I was really committed I probably could have got the train 1 stop, but I'm not that quick-thinking... or that committed.

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We then cut across to the East Coast Mainline via Newcastle United's training grounds.

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Last one.

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And home. I might even do it again.
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RIP
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by RIP »

Really excellent. Some good pics there and little nuggets of info. I think we're beginning to get a real urban appreciation Thing going recently. Not everyone's cup of rosy lee but there's a lot of interesting stuff to stumble across.
"My God, Ponsonby, I'm two-thirds of the way to the grave and what have I done?" - RIP

The sign outside the asylum is the wrong way round.....

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sean_iow
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by sean_iow »

Nice photos, looks inviting :grin: Segedunum was closed when Jane and myself walked Hadrian's Wall so I've not been round it either. We walked east to west and it wasn't until we got to the end we discovered the arch and realised we somehow missed the one at the start :roll: but it was too far to walk back to see it :lol:
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Verena
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by Verena »

This is great, looks really interesting 😃
ScotRoutes
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by ScotRoutes »

That looks really good. Loads of interest.
redefined_cycles
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by redefined_cycles »

That's amazing... Maybe it's high time someone ran a 'how many (decent but varied) photos can you take in one ride' competition...

I think I need to show off my own 'around dewsbury' or 'around Huddersfield' (or both) ride soon :smile:
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MuddyPete
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by MuddyPete »

Excellent stuff! :-bd
I love posts like this: loads of interesting pics of stuff you'd not normally notice, in a pleasantly varied route. :-)
May you always have tail wind.
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Ray Young
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by Ray Young »

Well that certainly brings back memories. Thirty odd years ago when I got my first mountain bike I lived in the West end of Newcastle. I'll never forget the feeling of satisfaction I felt planning a route on OS 1:25 scale maps and then riding from there to Seaton Sluice " mostly off-road" which actually consisted of disused railway lines, derelict industrial land, footpaths and the lovely Hollywell Dene.
Within six months of that first ride I was then cycling up the old railway line to Consett and the Northern Pennines beyond with far too much gear in panniers so I could camp out overnight. I've never looked back.
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PaulB2
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by PaulB2 »

I’ve seen that Priory a few times from the beach in South Shields but we rarely go north of the river.
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JoseMcTavish
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by JoseMcTavish »

Enjoyed that - much more interesting than my pictures of "here's another path in the dark" approach!
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thenorthwind
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Re: The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)

Post by thenorthwind »

Cheers folks :smile:
sean_iow wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:19 pm Nice photos, looks inviting
It doesn't look quite so inviting on a grey Monday, I can tell you that for nowt.
Ray Young wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 8:32 am Well that certainly brings back memories. Thirty odd years ago when I got my first mountain bike I lived in the West end of Newcastle. I'll never forget the feeling of satisfaction I felt planning a route on OS 1:25 scale maps and then riding from there to Seaton Sluice " mostly off-road" which actually consisted of disused railway lines, derelict industrial land, footpaths and the lovely Hollywell Dene.
Within six months of that first ride I was then cycling up the old railway line to Consett and the Northern Pennines beyond with far too much gear in panniers so I could camp out overnight. I've never looked back.
Funnily enough, a friend of mine messaged me yesterday to remind me about the time when a group of us went up the old railway line to Consett and on to Rookhope. I had my homemade trailer with about 20kg of camping gear for 8 or so of us, and amongst the motley crew, we had one of our friends who's blind on the back of a tandem. Somehow we made it, despite my choice of route taking us down along the track along Meadow's Edge and down in to Rookhope (one of the off-road sections of the C2C, which you'll remember if you've ridden it). Good memories - seems like a long time ago, but was probably only 6, 7 years ago.

I remember not so long before that as a student living in the city centre exploring out to the east of the city and thinking I'd stumbled on some far-flung wilderness in Rising Sun Country Park, the old colliery site which is now 5 minutes from my door and my local playground.
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