My Home Area

Realising that there are some of you who may not know where I come from, I would like to share some pictures of my home area with you. Perhaps you could link to or post some pictures of your home towns on your LJs (or as a comment to this post) as I am interested to discover where you come from and what makes it famous.

The North of England is synonymous with heavy industry - from the cotton mills of the North-West to the coal mining in Yorkshire to the steel and shipbuilding of the North-East. I come from Middlesbrough, a town that was built on steel and the chemical industry. It is sadly in decline now but Teesside Steel built a lot of famous bridges - including the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Today, I visited nearby Redcar with my friend and then off to South Gare to take some pictures of the Corus Steel Plant that is threatened with closure. It is set to close down next month, ending a 150 year steel-making tradition in my area. You may not think chemical works take good photographs but in the sludgy greyness of the January sky, I think the pictures I obtained were pretty good, particularly as they were only on a 2 mega-pixel phone camera.

The chemical plant is on the south bank of the River Tees where it meets the North Sea. It was very windy being on this confluence but we saw a few hardy souls fishing. The wind whipped the waves into a frenzy yet simultaneously turned the water into a thick grey sludge. It was rather ominous looking - I don't think I have seen so many shades of grey as I have today. As the waves crashed against the rocks, spray shot up, threatening to sweep my friend and I out to sea. Perhaps being there was silly but we got some good shots.

We also saw a barge leaving Teesport and heading into the ocean. I am unsure as to what ship it was but it could be the one that takes all the sewage away and dumps it somewhere. I'm not sure about that though.

Anyway, the pictures are here - I think they are quite beautiful in their own special way. It would be great to see pics of your home town :-)

*Before that, I also had a Cornish pasty and a pork pie with loads of that lovely jelly in it from Petch's pies in Great Ayton - a small Yorkshire village about 20 minutes drive from where I live. Top quality locally produced food. Now I feel fat though.

My Home Area

My Home Area

Realising that there are some of you who may not know where I come from, I would like to share some pictures of my home area with you. Perhaps you could link to or post some pictures of your home towns on your LJs (or as a comment to this post) as I am interested to discover where you come from and what makes it famous.

The North of England is synonymous with heavy industry - from the cotton mills of the North-West to the coal mining in Yorkshire to the steel and shipbuilding of the North-East. I come from Middlesbrough, a town that was built on steel and the chemical industry. It is sadly in decline now but Teesside Steel built a lot of famous bridges - including the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Today, I visited nearby Redcar with my friend and then off to South Gare to take some pictures of the Corus Steel Plant that is threatened with closure. It is set to close down next month, ending a 150 year steel-making tradition in my area. You may not think chemical works take good photographs but in the sludgy greyness of the January sky, I think the pictures I obtained were pretty good, particularly as they were only on a 2 mega-pixel phone camera.

The chemical plant is on the south bank of the River Tees where it meets the North Sea. It was very windy being on this confluence but we saw a few hardy souls fishing. The wind whipped the waves into a frenzy yet simultaneously turned the water into a thick grey sludge. It was rather ominous looking - I don't think I have seen so many shades of grey as I have today. As the waves crashed against the rocks, spray shot up, threatening to sweep my friend and I out to sea. Perhaps being there was silly but we got some good shots.

We also saw a barge leaving Teesport and heading into the ocean. I am unsure as to what ship it was but it could be the one that takes all the sewage away and dumps it somewhere. I'm not sure about that though.

Anyway, the pictures are here - I think they are quite beautiful in their own special way. It would be great to see pics of your home town :-)

*Before that, I also had a Cornish pasty and a pork pie with loads of that lovely jelly in it from Petch's pies in Great Ayton - a small Yorkshire village about 20 minutes drive from where I live. Top quality locally produced food. Now I feel fat though.

My Home Area