Photos by jstefant: on the map, in Google Earth (KML)

Having spent my childhood in what can only be described as the place god smiled on, I can only hope that this beautiful area does not die with the closure of the mine. Hopefully i will get back to the village this year.

It was just pure luck that we happened to go there that day It was nearly a disaster - I was on the quay just under the abbey when this huge wave broke in the corner and drenched everybody with sand and water. I was shielded somewhat but it was about two weeks before I finally got all the salt residue of my lens!

Great Shot!! I had a pal working there 60 years ago when it was owned by Dorman Long

Its not the North groyne lighthouse but the Tynemouth Lighthouse, River Tyne North Pier.

Its called the Gill Caves. The stone was used in the building of the High Leval bridge in Newcastle.

This fossilised tree stump was found in a quarry at Edmundbyers and brought to Stanhope in the 1960s.

The Lochaline glass-sand is a very high purity silica sand occurring in a 3m (approx) thick bed immediately below the Tertiary lavas of the south-western tip of Morvern in Scotland. It is easily mined and processed and is dispatched by ship from a jetty just topside of the ferry terminal at Lochaline itself. It is worked on the "room and pillar" method by driving 4m (approx) wide tunnels on a regular grid pattern, leaving substantial pillars of rock to support the overlying strata. Although the make of water is not excessive, the air is moist and the ventilation currents carry a light mist rendering photography tricky.

This ventilation shaft serves the extensive undergound workings of the Locahline glass-sand mine. A "room and pillar" form of extraction is used and has created a maze of identical tunnels. You WILL get lost if you go down there !!

I love this sculpture and your photograph is excellent. Keep meaning to go up there and take a photograph of it myself. In my opinion it's one of the best sculptures in the Middlesbrough area and deserves a more prominent position where more people can see it. Thanks for posting the pic, it's great.

The South Gare lighthouse on the River Tees was erected in 1884 and is visible 25 miles out to sea. It was the worlds first ever Hydrogen fuel-cell powered lighthouse.