April 2004 - Final news item...

Packing our Bags!

Work on the creation of the SINE website will finish on Friday 30th April. The site will continue to be hosted by the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, but no more work on it is planned for the near future.

The project team hope users of the website will enjoy and benefit from the unique resource created. For our part, we have enjoyed our involvement in it.

SINE Team

February 2004

Tell us about your favourite structural image!

Take this chance to contribute to the SINE site

We would like to create an on-line gallery of pictures of your favourite North East structures together with your comments. We want you to e-mail us details of your favourite structural image and tell us why you like it. Is it because the image shows a structure which means something to you? Do you have happy childhood memories of that place? Did you work there? Did you grow up there? Perhaps you simply like the image as an attractive photograph or painting of a place you know. Whatever the reason, let us know!

find out more...

'SINE of the times': Using 21st century technology to make your heritage visible

The SINE Project is staging an exhibition in the Great Hall of the Castle Keep, Newcastle upon Tyne from Tuesday 10th February 2004. A series of posters are on display describing the SINE Project and showing a selection of images, there is also a slide show of images from Newcastle and Gateshead.

The exhibition aims to introduce the idea of digitisation to a broader audience, to give a taster of the type of images we are adding to the website and to encourage more people to use this wonderful new resource.

Opening times: 1st October - 31st March 9:30 - 16:30
1st April - 30th September 9:30 - 17:30
Admission: Adults £1.50, Children/Concessions £0.50
Groups welcome, but please book in advance - Tel. 0191 232 7938

December 2003

Up in smoke

At 12:00 GMT on Sunday 7th of December the last vestiges of Blyth Power Station were demolished through controlled explosions. The four chimneys (two standing at 137 metres and two at 167 metres) could be seen for miles around and acted as a landmark for much of the southern Northumberland coastline.

Pictures of the demolition can be viewed at...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/features/2003/12/blyth_chimneys/gallery1.shtml

More images of Blyth A and B Power Stations...

So that's why it's called...

Newcastle University's Robinson Library has put on an exhibition of material drawn from its Special Collections focusing on the topography, history and benefactors of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the aim to provide an insight into some of Newcastle's well-known buildings and public spaces, while acknowledging the industries upon which the city grew, and considering ways in which welfare and recreational needs have influenced city planning.

The exhibition can be viewed in the Special Collections exhibition area of the Robinson Library (level 2 to the left of the main counter as you walk to the computer clusters) and online at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/speccoll/exhibthat1.html.

November 2003

Fire at Historic Coal Staith

A fire has partially destroyed Dunston Coal Staithes, alleged to be the largest wooden structure in Europe. The staith, which was used to load coal into boats for export around the world, is a spectacular example of the dominance of coal in the region's history. More details, including a link to the SINE Project's images of Dunston Staithes can be found at the BBC.

More images of Dunston Coal Staithes...

October 2003

One Million Hits

Use of the SINE website has been more successful than anticipated and the site has taken over 1.2 million hits since its launch at the end of February. This represents over 18,000 individual users requesting nearly 173,000 pages. Monthly visits to the website have grown from just over 100 visitors in March to 6,500 visitors in October.

June 2003

'SINE of the times' Exhibition

The SINE Project is staging a photographic exhibition at the Museum of Antiquities, University of Newcastle from Saturday 7th June to Tuesday 30th September 2003.

A selection of images from the website will be on display in a variety of formats. The aim of the exhibition is to introduce the idea of digitisation to a broader audience, to give a taster of the type of images we are adding to the website and to encourage more people to use this wonderful new resource.

The Museum is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and admission is free.

Launch at Lambeth Palace

On 11th June we will be staging the 'southern' launch of the SINE Project at Lambeth Palace in London, courtesy of our project partners Church Plans Online.

April 2003

SINE Project Launch

Around 180 people attended our champagne launch at the Hatton Gallery at the end of February. A string quartet played and a giant screen displayed images from the Project, while the guests arrived. Pauline McCormack, Project Director, introduced the SINE Project and Church Plans Online. John Grundy of Tyne Tees Television then spoke on the importance of structures for the understanding of the history and development of the region. You can see pictures from the launch here.

Our exhibition about the North Shields sketches of the Victorian Artist William Henry Charlton is at Wallsend Library and Whitley Bay Library from 1st April 2003.

Autumn 2002

We have digitised a collection of aerial photographs taken by Professor Norman McCord in the late 1960s. Some of them show large industries that have now disappeared, such as collieries and steel works. Norman, an acknowledged expert on industrialisation, will be working with us to add historical data to the images.

We have also digitised a collection of watercolours by Thomas Harrison Hair which were painted between 1820 and 1840. The paintings are historically valuable as they show pit heads and pit head machinery at a time when few artists depicted pits as working entities.

Summer 2002

The team have finished digitising a collection of 800 35mm colour slides from the Museum of Antiquities' archive. Known as the 'Pearce Collection' the images were taken throughout the 1960s and 1970s by Mr Ronald W Pearce and reflect his particular interest in historic buildings in the North East region, including peles and bastles. The collection provides a unique record of many buildings before they fell into further states of disrepair, or total collapse.

We are grateful to Mrs Sheilah Lee for allowing us to digitise this collection.

suggestions / comments welcome
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