Alfie Joey lists his top ten Northeast monuments and heros

ALL around the world, International Day for Monuments and Sites is observed today.

The aim is to ‘raise awareness of cultural heritage diversity, the vulnerability of sites and monuments, and the measures needed to maintain and conserve them’.

READ MORE: Alfie Joey on the disappearance of jobs for youngsters

So let’s join in and pay tribute to our own monumental landmarks.

However, when you make a list for our region, you soon find the North East is lavishly littered with follies, forts, towers and columns. I’ve limited myself to compiling my top ten list to mark today.

If I’ve left one of yours out, please feel free to send me a strongly worded email…’’Oy..where’s Ludworth Tower!!!’’ Or …’Ey marra, why no Apollo Pavillion in Peterlee??’’

We’ll start up north and work our way down.

Bamburgh Castle, brooding magnificently over the North Sea, looking out for its siblings Lindisfarne and Dunstanburgh Castle, up and down the coast. No surprise at all it is a much sought after movie location – Transformers and recent Indiana Jones adventures have used this as their back drop.

We move a little further south to Alnwick Castle, another movie star of a monument (used in some series about a boy wizard apparently??) with spectacular grounds but make sure you don’t try eating a plant in the Poison Garden!

The Column of British Liberty towers over the tallest treetops in the National Trust grounds of Gibside. Like many a folly, when you stumble on it, you wonder, who on earth plonked this here?

If you’re a Toon fan, the city of Newcastle revolves around St. James’ Park. However, if you are meeting someone, there is only ONE place to convene and that is Grey’s Monument. It stands tall and striking, like a huge pin in a map, it is the city’s unofficial meeting point or place of protest.

Let’s move across to South Tyneside and enjoy the sight to behold that is the Herd Groyne, a Victorian lighthouse built on sturdy legs/stilts in 1882 and still used for navigational purposes today. Worth the trip to South Shields alone.

Down the coast to the dramatic Northern Spire Bridge over the River Wear in Sunderland. The crossing opened to pedestrians (I was one of them) on August 28, 2018, before opening to traffic the next day.

As tall as this bridge is, another monument looks down on it is the North East’s own Parthenon, Penshaw monument. When my two were toddlers I used to love taking them up here for a mighty hike and hot chocolate out of the flask as a reward when you got to the top. The views are cracking on a clear day!

Down the A19 to Teesside for our 8th Whey Aye Wonder as we enjoy the stunning grounds of Wynyard Hall. I was staying there for work recently (I’ve had worse gigs!) and went for a run.

As well as spotting plenty of deer and rabbits bouncing around the fields I was amazed to find the Wellington obelisk pop up from nowhere. Some 40 metres high, it proudly commemorates the visit of the Duke of Wellington to the estate in 1827.

And of course, NO list of North East monuments is complete without Durham Cathedral. It is not just a monument, but a masterpiece.

I remember my first trip to the top with my Uncle John who pointed down to the grounds of Durham prison where you could see the inmates like ants in the exercise yard.

Finally, back up the A1 for our last stop as we give a great big high five to the Angel of the North, which welcomes all visitors to the heart of our great land with open arms.

Ten monuments. Ten towering inanimate objects that bring history, heritage and memories to life.

Go on then…which ones did I leave out?

Facts and Footnotes:

• The Herd Groyne Lighthouse has an operational fog bell.
• The central tower of Durham Cathedral was built in two stages in the fifteenth century.
• The Angel of the North stands at an impressive 20 meters (66 feet) tall and has a wingspan of 54 meters (177 feet).

You can email Alfie via www.AlfieJoey.com and subscribe to his free newsletter there.