# Morpeth/Ashington



## normskii (Feb 15, 2007)

Going there for a couple of nights for work next week.

Anyone been?

What can I expect?


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## Pieface (Feb 15, 2007)

erm.....I wouldn't get your hopes up.....


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## nino_savatte (Feb 15, 2007)

I went to Morpeth once in the late 80's and got stared at by the locals.

As for Ashington, I only ever driven through it. It has the greatest concentration of WMCs on it High Street than anywhere else in the country.


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## blackadder (Feb 15, 2007)

Aye, Ashington has hardly any pubs and Morpeth is where the farmer boys go drinking. You could try Bedlington Station, just don't upset the locals 

On second thoughts, stick to Morpeth.


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## Spion (Feb 15, 2007)

I wouldn't hold out much hopes for the towns themselves but there's some ace coast and countryside up that way


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## normskii (Feb 15, 2007)

Great, can't wait.

I've got to find somewhere to stay up there as well, but only morpeth seems to have hotels / B&B's.

Bizarre set up.

From what you're saying I'll avoid drinking in ashington. I don't fancy a run in with some 'you're not from round here' crowd.


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## nino_savatte (Feb 15, 2007)

I'd avoid Blyth too, as it's nearby.


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## Pieface (Feb 15, 2007)

Good for smack though


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## Anspaugh (Feb 15, 2007)

Morpeth is alright, pretty enough Market Town but like Hexham its got a bad reputation for night fights in bars,but I think its confined to the weekend. A good friend of mine used to run a B&B there and he used to mainly get walkers and hikers staying. Ashington is a little bit rough round the edges, Woodhorn Colliery Museum is a good place to visit,its been recommended to me. Avoid Blyth at all costs


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## Firky (Feb 15, 2007)

It is shit. It is where I am from 

I guess it is handy if you want to go for a walk in the country, Rothbury and Alnwick are just up the road and they're quite nice. It is also only twenty minutes away from Newcastle too - but in reality it's a market town that has been taken over by Tesco, Costa Rica coffee and middle class commuters to Newcastle. Ashington is a sad place. I like it because it is where my 'roots' are from. It is a pit village with no pit. Lots of unemployment and social problems combined with ugliness. 

The curry house next to the Chantry is fucking good!!

I can't believe people think Morpeth is rough!! Go to the Bigg Market in Newcastle if you want to see hard. Blyth is a shit hole, yup. Heroin capital of the North.


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## Anspaugh (Feb 15, 2007)

firky said:
			
		

> ! Go to the Bigg Market in Newcastle if you want to see hard. Blyth is a shit hole, yup. Heroin capital of the North.



The Bigg Market isn't hard! During my student days in Newcastle we used to go all the time, we found the locals tend to hang around Central Station and The Gate these days, BM was full of stags and lads weekends. Bit like Dublin


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## Firky (Feb 15, 2007)

Anspaugh said:
			
		

> The Bigg Market isn't hard!



Exactly


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## skunkboy69 (Feb 15, 2007)

I hate the bloody Bigg market.Full o posers and tanked up kids wanting a fight.And don't get me started on The Gate................lol


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## Firky (Feb 15, 2007)

I've never been to the Gate, missed all of the redevelopments in toon after living in london and portsmouth for several years.


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## superkev (Feb 15, 2007)

Morpeth is a school in Tower Hamlets.


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## Firky (Feb 15, 2007)

I went to school in Morpeth, it was full of stuck up rich kids.


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## Tom A (Feb 15, 2007)

Ashington is where my late stepdad comes from. My mum lived in Ashington for eight months from Sept 02 till May 03 (when she saw common sense and got away from her overbearing mother-in-law, who was next door). Things were bad from the beginning since the previous residents of her house were booted out, and a lot of their famliy lived on the very same street, who resented this "outsider" encroaching on their territory. A month after moving in she gets a brick though her window. Fortunately that was the worst that happened, although she occasisionaly got eggs hurled as her windows and hostle looks from people in the street. The locals tend to be highly insular as, unless you know someone you have fuck all chance of being part of the community. There is one pub in Ashington AFAIK, "The Elephant" in North Seaton, never been in there and judging by the attitude of most of the locals I wouldn't recommend it. Apart from that it's all workingmen's clubs, avoid for the same reason.

Morpeth (in comparision to Ashington at least) is fairly well-heeled IMO, got a nice park and pleasant views of the river Wansbeck, however I have only been there in the day, and never been in any pubs, although as the major hub for the county of Northumberland I would assume it's no worse than any other medium sized British town, and probably a lot more friendly than Ashington.


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## Pieface (Feb 16, 2007)

Anspaugh said:
			
		

> The Bigg Market isn't hard! During my student days in Newcastle we used to go all the time, we found the locals tend to hang around Central Station and The Gate these days, BM was full of stags and lads weekends. Bit like Dublin



all this bullshit about "hard".

If you're a cock and you're pissed then you will find trouble in the Bigg Market, Hexham etc.

If you're just having a night out you most likely won't.  Such total arse this fucking obsession with nightmare townie violence.  It's just not as bad as everyone pretends it is.


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## Spion (Feb 16, 2007)

Really? What do you base this on? Or are you talking out of your hole?

I've not got any idea of how 'bad everyone pretends it is', but it seems to me that many towns outside London have much smaller, more defined nightime 'leisure' areas, often those that offer by cheap drinks deals. For that reason, you are going to have more loons per sq km than, say, Soho, especially if that area is a not-long-ago-devastated by Thatcherism sort of place


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## Pieface (Feb 16, 2007)

no - I grew up and went out in Hexham regularly through my youth and also Newcastle   It may be different but it's not as bad as it's made out either.


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## Anspaugh (Feb 16, 2007)

PieEye said:
			
		

> no - I grew up and went out in Hexham regularly through my youth and also Newcastle   It may be different but it's not as bad as it's made out either.



Hexham is very pretty, that whole area is becoming even more well heeled, as one poster aptly put it, than it used to be. Improving rail links as well.




			
				Spion said:
			
		

> Really? What do you base this on? Or are you talking out of your hole?
> 
> I've not got any idea of how 'bad everyone pretends it is', but it seems to me that many towns outside London have much smaller, more defined nightime 'leisure' areas, often those that offer by cheap drinks deals. For that reason, you are going to have more loons per sq km than, say, Soho, especially if that area is a not-long-ago-devastated by Thatcherism sort of place



Newcastle is not hard at all. Most of the nightlife is made up of students and friendly locals anyway. Like all cities and towns its got areas you wouldn't go. There's bars in York I wouldn't even walk past. Its far less threatening than Birmingham or London. As for the 'hills have eye's' potrayal of Ashington, its not that bad, its certainly not as rough as some areas of the afore mentioned London or Birmingham


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## Firky (Feb 16, 2007)

Tom A said:
			
		

> although as the major hub for the county of Northumberland.



Mmm not really - County Hall may be located there but it is hardly the major hub of Northumberland. Northumberland is massive and has more than one 'hub'. Berwick towards the border, Alnwick in the rural north northumberland, and Hexham in the south of the county. 

Morpeth is stale and quite and insular, just because it is populated by mainly middle classes it doesn't make it any less insular.


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## Firky (Feb 16, 2007)

Spion said:
			
		

> Really? What do you base this on? Or are you talking out of your hole?
> 
> I've not got any idea of how 'bad everyone pretends it is', but it seems to me that many towns outside London have much smaller, more defined nightime 'leisure' areas, often those that offer by cheap drinks deals. For that reason, you are going to have more loons per sq km than, say, Soho, especially if that area is a not-long-ago-devastated by Thatcherism sort of place



Where as  in London you're more likely to be a victim of violent crime in broad day light. I see where you're going with this theory you plucked out your arse


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## free spirit (Feb 18, 2007)

morpeth and ashington are shit, absolutely no point staying in either of them IMO, you'd be much better off staying at a hotel in alnmouth or one of the other coastal villages nearby, it's only a 20 minute drive or half hour bus ride away... seriously life's too short


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## Tom A (Feb 19, 2007)

firky said:
			
		

> Mmm not really - County Hall may be located there but it is hardly the major hub of Northumberland. Northumberland is massive and has more than one 'hub'. Berwick towards the border, Alnwick in the rural north northumberland, and Hexham in the south of the county.
> 
> Morpeth is stale and quite and insular, just because it is populated by mainly middle classes it doesn't make it any less insular.


I meant that Morpeth was the county seat - in other words, the "capital" of Northumberland. But yeah there are other important urban hubs in the county too, as well as some damn fine scenery in the north and west of the county, and some stunning coastline in the east.


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## Spion (Feb 19, 2007)

firky said:
			
		

> Where as  in London you're more likely to be a victim of violent crime in broad day light. I see where you're going with this theory you plucked out your arse


 Well it's as good a place as any. Seems to be where most of your output originates  

Anyway, that might well be true but doesn't negate my suggestion.


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## normskii (Feb 22, 2007)

OK Guys, just come back - here's the assessment.

*Morpeth* - Nice little place with a few decent looking buildings, but every other one is being turned into a bar.

The sort of place you could imagine retiring to.

Locals seemed nice, and even changed the channel so I could watch the football in the pub.

Everyone seems obsessed by traffic congestion, but there didn't seem to be too many cars to me. They should try living in London.

*Ashington* - This was genuinely one of the most depressing places I have ever been to. Walking up the main road I saw a funeral parlour with only a desk in it, and a lone woman holding a piece of paper staring vacantly at passers by. I thought it just about summed the place up.

There was a lot of talk on here about the place being rough, but I didn't think it felt intimidating. Sure there were a lot of feral youths and unwashed middle aged men wandering around, but it didn't seem violent.

At one point I popped into a place called the Black Diamond to type up some notes on my laptop. There was a chap behind me pumping money into the gambler whose family kept calling asking when he was coming home, he just kept shouting at them to leave him alone. It was quite sad really.


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