Malcolm & Josh Green’s Tyne Story Pilgrimage – Section 4 Day 2
Donkleywood to Bellingham The croaking of ravens far above mark to start of our journey. They are far commoner here than along the South Tyne, which is presumably due to the lack of gamekeepers and shooting interests. We have decided to make three stops to consciously connect with the river. For the first, we sit on rocks protruding out into the water. The water is an opaque rust brown, not the clear flow I remember. The rocks are surrounded by trapped autumnal leaves that have the appearance of solid ground, unfortunately wet socks prove to us they are not. The […]
Malcolm & Josh Green’s Tyne Story Pilgrimage – Section 4 Day 1
North Tyne Source to Donkley Wood (missing out Kielder reservoir) We arrive at a sign for the Scottish Borders on the narrow B road and park in a lay-by. It is a bright morning. We can see the stone monument, marking the ‘source’ of the north Tyne a few hundred yards to our right. A couple with their dog from Prudhoe have just come down from it. It’s a wet place. We squelch up to the monument, placed there in 2013, and carry on past it, following the trickling stream that bubbles and hides under a mat of grasses and […]
Love Our Tyne Newsletter
September/October 2026 Hexham Climate Cafe workshop On 26 September Love our Tyne held a very successful workshop at the popular Hexham Climate Cafe which takes place monthly on the 4th Saturday of the month at 11am in Hexham Library. After an introduction to Love our Tyne and the session, Malcolm Green, who holds and devises our stories, told a wonderful story which called into question the relationship of modernity with the river, which is very much one of ownership and utility. We finished with a 20 minute brainstorming session where participants called out what they thought the ‘rights’ or ‘freedoms’ […]
Talk to the University of the Third Age
On 18th August 2026, Love Our Tyne’s John Ord gave a talk to the Hexham University of the Third Age Environment Group on the subject of the River Tyne. Below are John’s thoughts on the event: The very knowledgeable and attentive audience was shocked by the extent and damage to the ecosystem caused by the recent nurdle spill; the continuous and unmonitored highways run-off; farming practices and the continued use of Victorian Combined Sewage Outlets. After taking questions, I introduced the concept of The Rights of Rivers and the change in mindset required to overturn the current exploitative attitude. I […]
Malcolm & Josh Green’s Tyne Story Pilgrimage – Section 3 Day 3
Wylam to Scotswood We leave the Boathouse at about 9am. Early for us. There are fish leaping beneath the weir. A man tells us he saw a seal eating a salmon the previous night. I’m unsure whose side I am on. There are arctic terns patrolling this section of the river. There is a sense of a change here where the tide reaches. The river has a new power, there is something immense about it. We remember the trickle of water at its source amongst the abandoned lead mines on the barren moor beneath Cross Fell. Light reflects from the […]
Malcolm & Josh Green’s Tyne Story Pilgrimage – Section 3 Day 2
Corbridge to Wylam Setting off from Corbridge car park at 1.15 in the hot sun, it is busy. We are relieved by the cool of the wooded river path; there are very few people here. We decide on pausing regularly, to be still and notice what is here. We do it for the first time today… Sycamore leaves bob gently, willow kisses the water, mallards looking like rocks, mirrored reflections of colour – intense blues and greens, tiny fish coming to the surface, creating ripples Screams from a distance. Is someone in trouble? Over the hump, we see the men […]
Love Our Tyne Newsletter
August 2026 Welcome Welcome to the second newsletter from Love our Tyne. If you have any thoughts on this newsletter, any suggestions for inclusion in future issues or would like to get involved with Love our Tyne please contact connect@loveourtyne.org.uk When the tide brought nurdles, the Tyne brought people together On 19 July tonnes of tiny beads, known as nurdles, entered the River Tyne when a vessel struck a shipping container in South Shields. The Tyne Rivers Trust have described this as an environmental disaster which will continue affecting the ecosystem for years to come. Safety professional and Nurdle clean […]
Malcolm & Josh Green’s Tyne Story Pilgrimage – Section 3 Day 1
Fourstones to Corbridge A hot day’s walking, needing only a T-shirt and shorts. We swim in the river at Fourstones to be baptised for the day ahead, tiny fish nibbling at our feet. A couple of white egrets flying off upstream remind me of the South African story of the Great White Bird of Truth. The mallards are already in their eclipse plumage, drakes and ducks becoming similar. A time of transience – the energy of spring/summer beginning to hint at something else. The exploding bubbles over the rocks, the light feathered seed drifting over and eventually being trapped by […]
Rivers of Hope Talk and Workshop
A workshop on rights for the Tyne Catchment We had a successful event in Haltwhistle on 17 June attended by 30 people from across the catchment. Josh Levine from River Rights Network gave an interesting talk, followed by workshop activities. Ceri Gibson, ex CEO of Tyne Rivers Trust then led a fascinating and engaging walk along Haltwhistle Burn and the River South Tyne. We shall be utilising our experiences from organising this event to develop an interactive approach to gather thoughts from the communities of the Tyne on how we could develop a charter of rights for the River and […]
The Future Is Now 2026
Love our Tyne was one of a number of environmental groups and organisations that joined The Future is Now event at the Queens Hall in Hexham, 9th May 2026 Malcolm engaged children and their parents with wonderfully told stories about rivers. John and Abby invited children, aged from about 5 years to 11 years, to draw what they thought the perfect river would look like while the parents talked about Rights of Rivers and completed our survey / questionnaire. The unsolicited comments made by children were illuminating, and we were blown over by the enthusiasm of some of the adults […]