Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newcastle-upon-Tyne (as opposed to Staffordshire’s market town of Newcastle-under-Lyme) is England’s northernmost city by a tiny fraction of a degree from Carlisle on the opposite, western coast. Newcastle (for short) has a population of 290,000 and lies 8.5 miles from the eastern coast. It sits on the north bank of the busy River Tyne in the county of Tyne and Wear.

Unsurprisingly, there is a medieval stone castle in Newcastle. It was built on the site of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall and was used as a prison. The wool trade through to the heavy industrial era ensured Newcastle’s continued growth and importance as a North Sea port. In 1530 a law gave Newcastle the monopoly on exporting coal from the whole area and this led to the saying “carry coals to Newcastle”, meaning to supply something to a place where it is already in abundance!

Natives of Newcastle have the Geordie dialect, which many southerners find difficult to understand though the overall sound of it is friendly and pleasing to the ear. The words are more closely related to Old English, Norse and even Dutch, Scots and Romany than the ones used in the south, where Norman French had more influence.

(Top image of bridges over the Tyne: Chris Morgan at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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