Day 28: Disaster

July 12, 2015

On January 16th 1862, near Newcastle, England a mine shaft collapsed. The death toll was doubly bad because it occurred on a shift change when twice the number of the minors were in the pit. It is known as the Hartley Pit Disaster and resulted in the death of 204 "men". I say "men" because many were not men at all, but boys as young as 10 years old.

Many might have lived if there had been more than one shaft, but as is all too common, the mine owners cared more about profit than lives and had not taken the time and expense to build a second shaft which would have given the trapped minors an escape route.

I mention all this because today we visited the church were many minors are buried, and where all of the names are inscribed in a memorial. It was remarkable to see so many young names on the list. Several generations of "men" were wiped out.

The disaster caused outrage and put pressure on mine owners for better safety. It was a high price to pay.

The names and ages speak for themselves. Look at what the Liddle family lost.

Did the Armstrong family lose a father and two sons?

We saw other things today and the riding was great. Newcastle Upon Tyne (Tyne is the river that Newcastle sits next to) is a fabulous town and we had a snack of delicious German brats on the river front before making our way to the coast on a beautiful sunny day.

After lunch we meandered north through mostly flat terrain and interesting towns and ended up in Newbiggin which is a cute as a button sea side town that boasts a sculpture of a man and woman, 3 times size on a platform a few hundred yards off the coast, gazing out to sea. It sounds weird but is a surprisingly interesting and compelling display.

We had another round of last minute stress in finding someplace to sleep and were all but ready to head out of town to wild camp when we stumbled upon an awesome little pub that rents rooms. Clean, reasonably priced and right on the ocean, accommodations don't get much better!

On far right is the statue of the man and woman looking out to sea

Zoomed in on statue. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy.

England sure has some weird town names. This one was near the start of today's ride.

...Here is another with Leo and Steph riding across.

VERY old locomotive in museum along the route.

You can never visit too many train museums. Can you?

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 1,083 miles (1,743 km)

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