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The North East England Portal
North-east England is a region in the United Kingdom, comprising Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, the Tees Valley and a small part of North Yorkshire.
The principal city of the region is Newcastle upon Tyne; the region's other cities are Sunderland and Durham. Middlesbrough is another large town. Conversely, Northumberland (to the north of all these cities) is England's most sparsely-populated county; it contains the highest point in the North East, The Cheviot, at 815m.
The region has a rich natural heritage, and includes the Northumberland National Park. The North East has several different accents (the Northern English dialect). A referendum, held on 4 November 2004, rejected the establishment of an elected regional assembly for the region.
Selected article
Hadrian's Wall was a stone and turf fortification across the width of Great Britain, built by the Roman Empire. It was built to prevent military raids from the north by the tribes of what is now Scotland, to improve economic stability and provide peaceful conditions in the Roman province of Britannia to the south, to physically mark the frontier of the Empire, and to separate the unruly Selgovae tribe in the north from the Brigantes in the south, and discourage them from uniting.
A significant portion of the wall still exists, particularly the mid-section, and for much of its length the wall can be followed on foot. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Northern England, and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. English Heritage, a government organization in charge of managing the historic environment of England, describes it as "the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain".
Selected picture
The Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge links Middlesbrough to Port Clarence, crossing the River Tees. It is a transporter bridge, with a travelling 'car', suspended from the bridge, which can carry 200 people or 9 cars across the river in 90 seconds.
850 feet (260m) long and 225 feet (69m) high at the tallest point, it is the largest working bridge of its kind in the world. The distance between the two towers is 580 feet (177m). In December 1993, the bridge was awarded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' highest honour, The Heritage Plaque, for engineering excellence.
Selected biography
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English mechanical engineer who designed the famous and historically important steam locomotive named Rocket and is known as the "Father of Railways".
Stephenson designed his first locomotive in 1814, a travelling engine designed for hauling coal on a coal site. Named Blücher, it could haul 30 tons of coal, and was the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive: its traction depended only on the contact between its flanged wheels and the rail. Over the next five years, he built 16 more engines. Stephenson was hired to build an 8-mile (13-km) railway from Hetton colliery to Sunderland in 1820. The finished result was the first railway to use no animal power at all.
In 1821, the project to build the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) began. Work began in 1822, and in September 1825 Stephenson completed the first locomotive for the new railway: originally named Active, it was soon renamed Locomotion. Driven by Stephenson, Locomotion hauled an 80-ton load of coal and flour nine miles (15 km) in two hours, reaching a speed of 24 miles per hour (39 km/h) on one stretch. The first purpose-built passenger car, dubbed Experiment, was attached, and carried dignitaries on the opening journey. It was the first time passenger traffic had been run on a steam locomotive railway.
His ingenuity also found other outlets. In 1815, he developed a miners' safety lamp, known as the Geordie lamp to distinguish it from the Davy lamp invented by Humphry Davy at much the same time.
Did you know that...
Did you know
- Newcastle's Mosley Street was the first in Britain to be lit by electricity.
- The 1971 gangster film Get Carter (starring Michael Caine) was filmed in the North East and features Gateshead's Trinity Square car park.
- In the UK, every packet of Nestlé Rolos is made at Fawdon near Newcastle.
- A total of seven bridges link Newcastle Quayside and Gateshead Quays: Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge, Swing Bridge, High Level Bridge, Redheugh Bridge, Queen Elizabeth II Metro Bridge and King Edward VII Bridge.
- The design of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge is so energy efficient that it uses just £3.60 of electricity each time it opens.
- "She Loves You" was composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in The Imperial Hotel in Jesmond, Newcastle.
- Tyneside playwright Lee Hall first performed the hugely successful Billy Elliot as a reading at Newcastle's Live Theatre.
- Charles Algernon Parsons developed the steam turbine in 1884 in Newcastle. This revolutionised the generation of electricity.
- Newcastle Breweries, famous for its Newcastle Brown Ale, began in 1890, but were acquired in 2008. Brown Ale however, is still produced on Tyneside.
- The Humphrey Davy mining lamp was invented in Sunderland.
For more about the North East of England, see here.North East England news
This website carries news and features for and about the North East of England. It has three channels:
For Business Property news, money and funding updates, plus e-commerce and IT help, and events.
For You Health news, restaurant and club reviews, and jobs.
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News is updated daily and free weekly online newsletter is also available.
The N E Life Portal is owned by Regional Development Agency One NorthEast and is a not-for-profit business.
Categories
- County Durham
- Darlington
- Durham
- Hartlepool
- Stockton-on-Tees
- North Yorkshire
- Middlesbrough
- Redcar and Cleveland
- Stockton-on-Tees
North East England lists
Newcastle upon Tyne:
- Famous residents of Newcastle
- TV programmes set in Newcastle
Sunderland:
- Famous people from Sunderland
Dialect
- Northern English (N.B. This category covers all of northern England, so includes dialects spoken outside the north-east region)
Accents/dialect in and around:
- Berwick-upon-Tweed ("Tweedside")
- Newcastle (Geordie)
- Northumberland and Durham (Pitmatic)
- Sunderland( Mackem)
Grammar:
Famous works in north-east dialects:
- The Blaydon Races
- Larn Yersel' Geordie
- Viz (comic)
- Geordie Song Book
WikiProjects
- WikiProject UK geography
- WikiProject UK subdivisions
- Wikipedia:WikiProject North East England
Districts of North East England
County Durham Northumberland Tyne and Wear North Yorkshire Related portals
Categories:- North East England
- England portal
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