When Askey first arrived he was shown doing some promotional guff on a sunny day in the sand dunes up near Steetley pier and he happened to mention he was surprised to see Hartlepool had beaches…..er, Mr Askey, you walk out of the Vic there are the masts of the Trincomalee staring you in the face, the clues are before your very eyes, we are near the seas.
Now if I was moving somewhere new I’d check the place out as you do, yet he hadn’t noticed the salty blue stuff with white bits.
A nagging doubt entered my mind and remained.

No one these days pay any attention of they surroundings these days.

To be fair there are a lot of ports that you don't think about for their beaches. It was ages before I realised Aberdeen has a beachfront for instance.

The beaches between Tees and Tyne are some of the best in the country but to most people in the country the area is still full of slag heaps and beaches covered in mining waste.

Bigger fools them.
Over the past few years I’ve tried to drive around the entire coast of Britain, the only gap left in England is between Aldeburgh and Felixstowe and parts of the west coast of Scotland…Wales was a doddle.

true, but if you are an opposition player or manager all you do is get out of a team bus and get into the dressing rooms. it took my second visit to grimsby to realise the ground was in cleethorpes and there was a beach there. if i hadn,t taken my dog with me i,d possibly still be no wiser. they go to play a game of football and not tourists as we go to watch and many just find the nearest pub that allows them in.

That’s usually the difference between going on a coach or going in a car, in the car you have the option….which most don’t care about, but I like to explore.

I do and obviously Snowy does so that's two of us.
When I moved to my present location in !978 I virtually checked the whole area out before deciding where to live. I also asked the advice of somebody who had recently left this area to live and work in Hartlepool. Forty five years later I'm still here and wouldn't go anywhere else. The only bit I miss is the sea and all it's moods, which Hartlepool supplies in abundance.

Think one summer im going to do that some gems out there.

the sea is one thing i have never missed the same as when i lived overlooking it in norfolk. its wet and therefore keeps we well away. actually not bothered about the beaches i have left behind as i rarely walked the dogs on them either. its the people i miss in hartlepool more than what it has to offer as everywhere else i have lived including my present area where they are better than the rest.

there is but the bigger fools are the ones taken in by them when they are touring and move there where many live to regret it especially those who retire there. its easy to put rose coloured specs on when in holiday mode and knock similar when you get back home when reality hits.

I agree. I've spent many a happy holiday in Cornwall and members of my family and friends all expected me to retire there and were surprised when we didn't. Still go on holiday but wouldn't live there.

I miss the sea living in East London and the abundance of living by the coast. Especially when I grew up listening to the North Sea smashing into the sand dunes at the horse shoe tunnel beach (west view)
When I moved out of the town 21 years ago, I checked where I moved too.

most have no choice to move or not. usually as a kid its your parents decision or later its work related.

Mind you I’ve been totally surprised to find some places you expect to be ok are crap and some crap places are really good…last year I did Stranraer to Greenock, brilliant, yet I wasn’t that keen ….but it was a very pleasant piece in the jigsaw.
We hire a lodge for the week and literally explore everywhere in the area.

I was down the front at Seaton this morning with Ruby and the sea was boiling, great breakers and quite pleasant, you could taste the salt in the air, luvvverly.

I'm jealous

I think I have been fortunate in travelling around most of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern & Southern Ireland. As well as regular visits to Isle of Man. Guernsey & Jersey.

For my Company I looked after our accounts with B & Q, Woolworths, Texas, Homebase & W H Smith in the DIY sector. Woolworths at the time had close to 800 stores and I visited just over 500 across several years.

Where to ideally live for me would be North Norfolk, around Cromer but I have enjoyed living in Staffordshire for the past 33 years so probably at my age there will be no more house moves. Of the 5 properties I have owned since married life. 4 have been located in cul de sacs, which gives added peace and quiet.

i too was very surprised by this - he had surely been to Hartlepool with York or Maccessfield before ? The seagulls and sea air rips through the Vic every saturday afternoon regardless of what season it is !

we are well known as a sea side town - the clue is in the title ???

I agree with you about North Norfolk but prefer Sheringham, mind, once you get past Cromer heading South, the ‘gloss’ wears off and it’s down hill.
I just like it where I am in the middle of the ‘island’ next to the sea.

Wonder what Teddys doing now, seeing as you mentioned him must be good for 30 mins,.

once you get away from the coast its just a green desert with the odd small villiage about that breaks the monotony. horrible country roads and god help you if your car is off the road as public transport is more or less a thing of the past. then there is the winter that most people never see unless you have to exist there. cromer on a tuesday night was the only ground where i reffed on with a thick sweater under my kit.

Brilliant blue sunshine today but those waves are booming over the lighthouse corner with a North Easterly blowing, not really cold either but the waves are battering the Heugh like an artillery range…even one brave ( suicidal) soul ventured out in his yacht for god knows what but after being thrown about like a cork in a bath, he gave up and turned back.

so many like doing stuff like that because everyone seems to need a challenge nowadays. as for the cold for some reason when i come up and take my dog out either at the blue lagoon or the headland i can leave my coat in the car where at home i need it to put the bin out. think its because its so damp round my way and it gets into my old bones. the sale of wellies must be bigger around my way than anywhere apart from the lake district.

Funny that, the coldest I’ve ever been was one night in Northampton, near Sixfields having a meal, that awful dry cold that gets into your bones.