Just a mile downstream from Newcastle city centre we turned away from the Tyne along one of its small tributaries, the river Ouseburn.

 

This is the point where the Ouseburn reaches the Tyne.
Just beyond the bridge the Ouseburn Barage, built in 2009, is designed to retain water in the smaller river at low tide.
Rising or falling tide? – the barrage was open but the lower reaches of the Ouseburn looked as if they could do with some more water
Away from the smart new development along the Tyne quayside, the path along the Ouseburn offers a change of pace…
and not a few surprises

 

Fingerpost signs pointed the way to some unlikely-sounding destinations – The Toffee Factory, Seven Stories, Ouseburn Farm and Ouseburn Village Green.  We are still in the city centre.

 

The Village Green turns out to be a lively new green space, created in part of a former industrial site.
Ouseburn City Farm occupies the reclaimed site of an old lead works – the pigs, goats and chicken look right at home in the city
The Lower Ouseburn Valley was once filled with mills and factories – its regeneration is powered by small creative and digital businesses
The arches of the Victorian railway viaduct stride across the valley above the city farm
When the railway was built the river was culverted underground from Jesmond Vale – it emerges just below the viaduct
Beyond the road and rail bridges the footpath climbs through young woodland to a playing field over the culverted river

 

Further upstream, woods and parkland along the Ouseburn valley were once part of grand private estates.  Now Jesmond Vale, Heaton Park, Armstrong Park, Paddy Freeman’s Park and Jesmond Dene form a chain of richly varied public green space stretching two miles from the city centre to the leafy suburbs.  We’ve much more to explore on another day.

 

The Armstrong Bridge across the Ouseburn valley at the entrance to Jesmond Dene