Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear was only created relatively recently, in 1974, following the Local Government Act of 1972. However, it is a current "ceremonial county", and this is how I have chosen to break down the sections of the England Coast Path, hence its presence here. Tyne and Wear is the county where we lived when we were in Newcastle upon Tyne between 1979 and 1984, and we remember some sections of the coast from that time. Shockingly, there are other areas which we have never visited. Tyne and Wear is a largely urban county, so we were surprised to find some relatively isolated sections of coast. All in all, this section of coast was a very pleasant surprise.
The England Coast Path is fully open through Tyne and Wear and we walked the whole of this section when on a holiday which took us from Seaham (County Durham) to Warkworth (Northumberland) in July 2023. The holiday was slightly spoilt by variable weather (though it was nothing like as bad as the weather forecast beforehand had predicted and there was virtually no rain while we were walking in Tyne and Wear) and by an extensive collection of blisters on my feet, caused by a stupid decision to take my "summer" walking boots, which turned out to have rather thin soles and to be slightly too small. Richard meanwhile had a slightly mysterious leg injury of some sort; neither of us were walking fast! However, we were pleased to be back on a holiday where we moved on from place to place each day (our first time since the Covid-19 Pandemic) and Richard had found us wonderful accommodation in Tynemouth and Blyth (and the Premier Inn in Sunderland was fine!). Somewhat surprisingly, carrying a rucksack again didn't cause me any problems, though we were travelling light (for me) and Richard carried much more than his fair share.
We'd actually crossed over the border with Durham at Ryhope on our walk from Seaham to Sunderland, which I have described in the Durham section of the England Coast Path, and we left Tyne and Wear for Northumberland just past St Mary's Island, at the point indicated by the dark blue marker on the map below.
