northumberland

A town trail, a history lesson & some cheesecake

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A guest post this week from Rachel Williamson who works in our Morpeth Tourist Informaton Centre (TIC). Rachel is one of our most enthusiastic employees, she’s passionate about Northumberand, is only 21 (just) and loves cheesecake. You’ve seen her in a previous post on the front of our magazine. She tweets here: @r3w

Northumberland is a County filled with sensational scenery, captivating castles and beautiful beaches, all of which us residents occasionally forget about or even take for granted. Aside from the obvious big attractions we have so many hidden gems, so many towns and villages that are steeped with history just waiting to be uncovered.

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I never make predictions………and I never will (looking back at 2012)

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“I never make predictions………and I never will” – One of the most famous utterances of footballer Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne which has passed into commentary legend, but actually makes more sense than we all think.

If experience teaches us anything (and it doesn’t) predicting anything is utter folly. To stay with the North East footballing analogy, last season Newcastle United were flying high in the league and ended up qualifying for Europe.

The darlings of TV and regular scorer of inspiring goals (Chelsea away) the owner rewarded the manager with an unprecedented 8 year contract. Last night they conceded seven goals and dropped to within three points of the relegation zone.

Fate and time make a mockery of all predictions so instead I thought I’d look back over the last year – only to find that makes a mockery of expectations too.

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iphone shootings

I’ve not blogged for a while and in the absence of anything worthwhile to say I thought I’d stick up a few images.

I almost always have an iphone with me & these are a few of the random shots taken around Newcastle and Northumberland.

Partly inspired by the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Brilliant Side Gallery although nowhere near in terms of quality.

How a hashtag helped our summer

Summer fun

What summer?

Up here in Northumberland (and like most of the UK this year) our summer was restricted to about two weeks, giving us just enough time to construct an arc or drain away the flood water (see here for photographic evidence).

But in between all that we did want to do something to online to help publicise the best events, attractions and locations for fun days out in the summer holidays.

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Social speed now a vital public sector tool

One thing that has surprised me about social media is the sheer speed that it has been adopted by consumers and taken off as a vital corporate tool.

Although I’ve used it for a good few years professionally I was pretty sceptical about how much value it would add for local councils communicating directly with residents.

Thankfully I was interested enough in it as an experiment (for the wrong reasons as it turned out) to push hard for the council to use and invest in social media over a number of years. Continue reading →

Tourism gets social

A guest post this week from @angela_tait, who works in our tourist information centres, but has really embraced social media to help promote what’s on offer. She writes:

Joining the County Councils Tourism Team back in October 2011 I was charged with managing the Tourist Information Centres and developing visitor information.

Immediately I was impressed by the staff I was going to manage, their immense knowledge of the county and their passion for attracting new faces to Northumberland. It’s not just about providing visitor information though, we also support more than 250 local producers, showcasing the finest locally made products from art, photography, jewellery, food, crafts and much more which made me question from day one – how do we tell people about this?

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Our people, our places

Before the start of this summer season we struck a deal with our biggest tourist attractions to do something to help promote Northumberland as a destination and give something back to local people.

We wanted to create a weekend of free or discounted events that would let our residents access some of the best attractions on their doorsteps and celebrate the fantastic county they live in.

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Tide & time

Here’s a guest post by Lindsay Green that first appeared on the fantastic comms2point0 website:

The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just off the North East coast is beautiful.

It has been the setting for movies, TV shows and is a major religious destination for thousands of tourists heading to Northumberland every summer.

It has also been causing the council a huge headache for some time. Continue reading →

Screen time: welcoming Vera

Depending on what you were doing last Sunday you may have noticed two hours of prime time national TV devoted to Northumberland.

Not an advert that we’ve funded I should point out, but the second series of ITVs acclaimed detective drama Vera.

While Brenda Blethin’s geordie accent may have caused a bit of debate, the show has given our area a huge boost providing national and international exposure to that all important tourist pound.Image

The show has proved a huge stage for us to sell Northumberland as a place, with the production largely filmed in the county as well as other parts of the North East.

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