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Druridge Bay | |
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Location in Northumberland | |
Location | Northumberland, England, UK NZ276984 |
Coordinates | 55°16′44″N1°34′01″W / 55.279°N 1.56708°W |
Druridge Bay is a 7-mile (11 km) long bay on the North Sea in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south.
Druridge Bay Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of Druridge, in the centre of the bay) is owned by the National Trust. Coastal areas on the bay are set aside as nature reserves.
During World War II, defences were constructed around Druridge Bay as part of the anti-invasion preparations. The defences included scaffolding barriers and anti-tank blocks overlooked by pillboxes; behind these were minefields and an anti-tank ditch. [1]
Between the hamlets of Druridge and Cresswell, anti-glider ditches were dug and there is an extant brick-built decoy control.
The bay was the focus of a long-running campaign against proposals to construct a Pressurised Water Reactor nuclear power station during the 1980s and for the large-scale extraction of sand from the area in the 1990s. The first campaign, along with changes in UK Government policy on nuclear power, prevented the power station from being built: the plan was shelved in 1989.
The land was retained by Nuclear Electric and in February 1996 was allocated to the NDA/BNFL. [2] In November 1996 the NDA/BNFL sold the land to farmers. [3]
Druridge Bay again became the focus for environmental concerns in late 2015, when a planning application was submitted by Banks Group for an open-cast mine extending to 360 hectares (900 acres) immediately to the west of the beach, for the extraction of 3 million tonnes of coal. Six weeks after the application was submitted the UK government announced that all coal-fired energy generation would cease by 2025. Over 1800 letters of objection were received. Northumberland County Council approved plans for the open-cast mine in July 2016. In September 2016, the plans were put on hold subject to a government inquiry. In March 2018, the proposal was formally rejected by the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid. The company behind the project said they were planning to formally challenge the decision in the High Court. In September 2020, the proposal was rejected again by the Secretary of State.
Northumberland Wildlife Trust purchased the sand extraction site from RMC Group in 2006. The shore is known for populations of birds including the golden plover and the purple sandpiper.
Druridge Bay is best known to birdwatchers for hosting, in 1998, the Druridge Bay curlew, a controversial bird which was eventually accepted as the first record of a slender-billed curlew in Britain, although this identification is still disputed by some.
Druridge Bay is also used by naturists. The North East Skinny Dip, first held in 2012, is an annual event to raise funds for MIND, the mental health charity. It is held around the time of the Autumn Equinox in late September each year.
Music
The Divine Comedy's 1994 album Promenade begins with a field recording of the waves breaking on the shore at Druridge Bay, recorded especially for the album by producer Darren Allison. [4] [5]
Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nuclear power generation from 1956 to 2003, and nuclear fuel reprocessing from 1952 to 2022.
The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) was responsible for electricity generation, transmission and bulk sales in England and Wales from 1958 until privatisation of the electricity industry in the 1990s.
The slender-billed curlew is a bird in the wader family Scolopacidae. Isotope analysis suggests the majority of the former population bred in the Kazakh Steppe despite a record from the Siberian swamps, and was migratory, formerly wintering in shallow freshwater habitats around the Mediterranean. This species has occurred as a vagrant in western Europe, the Canary Islands, the Azores, Oman, Canada, and Japan. The slender-billed curlew was always a rare species and is feared extinct, with the last verifiable sighting being in 2004.
Magnox is a type of nuclear power / production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The name comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy, used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor. Like most other "Generation I nuclear reactors", the Magnox was designed with the dual purpose of producing electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nascent nuclear weapons programme in Britain. The name refers specifically to the United Kingdom design but is sometimes used generically to refer to any similar reactor.
Great British Nuclear (GBN), formerly British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), is a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Chapelcross nuclear power station is a former Magnox nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning. It is located in Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland, and was in operation from 1959 to 2004. It was the sister plant to the Calder Hall nuclear power station plant in Cumbria, England; both were commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The primary purpose of both plants was to produce weapons-grade plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme, but they also generated electrical power for the National Grid. Later in the reactors' lifecycle, as the UK slowed the development of the nuclear deterrent as the cold war came to a close, power production became the primary goal of reactor operation.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry. It came into existence during late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005. Its purpose is to deliver the decommissioning and clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe and cost-effective manner, and where possible to accelerate programmes of work that reduce hazard.
Wylfa nuclear power station is a Magnox nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning. Wylfa is situated west of Cemaes Bay on the island of Anglesey, off the northwestern coast of Wales. Construction of the two 490 MW nuclear reactors, known as Reactor 1 and Reactor 2, began in 1963. They became operational in 1971. Wylfa was located on the coast because seawater was used as a coolant.
Cresswell is a village in Northumberland, England. It is about 4 miles (6 km) to the north of Ashington, on the North Sea coast.
Widdrington Station and Stobswood is a civil parish in the county of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 2,767 and is 6 miles (9.7 km) north-northeast of Morpeth. It includes the settlements of Widdrington Station and Stobswood.
John Thompson DL, known as Jack Thompson, was a British Labour Party politician - the Member of Parliament for Wansbeck from 1983 to 1997. Thompson had a lasting achievement to thwart a plan for a nuclear power station on the long and sandy Druridge Bay, east of Widdrington in the county, one of the leading beaches of Northumberland.
Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is 15 miles (24 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the south by the River Wansbeck. Many inhabitants have a distinctive accent and dialect known as Pitmatic. This varies from the regional dialect known as Geordie.
The Belmont Anti-Tank Ditch was an anti-tank trench constructed in 1942 as part of the southern perimeter defensive system of the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, as part of Fortress Newcastle during World War II. The anti-tank ditch was located 12 kilometres south of Newcastle, south of the town of Belmont.
Lynemouth Power Station is a biomass power plant which provides electricity for the UK National Grid. Until March 2012, it was the main source of electricity for the nearby Alcan Lynemouth Aluminium Smelter. It is located on the coast of Northumberland, north east of the town of Ashington in north east England. The station has stood as a landmark on the Northumberland coast since it opened in 1972, and had been privately owned by aluminium company Rio Tinto Alcan throughout its operation until December 2013, when RWE npower took over. In January 2016 it was acquired by the Czech company Energetický a průmyslový holding.
Open-pit coal mining in the United Kingdom is in decline, and is planned to end in November 2023. Output has fallen every year since 2010. In 2010, the United Kingdom was forecast to produce about ten million tonnes of coal a year from open-pit mines. Most came from Scotland, with the largest operator there being the Scottish Coal subsidiary of Scottish Resources Group. Actual production in 2010 was over 13 million tonnes but this has declined to less than 8 million tonnes in 2014.
Magnox Ltd was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), responsible for the safe decommissioning of 12 British nuclear sites. Originally created for the management of Magnox nuclear reactors, it went through various forms of organisation throughout privatisation of the nuclear industry, until coming into NDA ownership in 2019.
Shotton Surface Mine was an open cast coal mine located on the estate of Blagdon Hall, Northumberland, UK, operated by Banks Group. The mine was granted permission by the government in 2007, despite being refused permission by Blyth Valley Council, with an initial agreement to mine 3.4 million tonnes of coal, 2 million tonnes of shale and 750,000 tonnes of fireclay. This was subsequently extended by two years in 2011 to allow an additional 2 million tonnes of coal to be mined, set to end in 2016. An additional expansion approved in 2014 saw two new pits being opened on the site, Shotton Triangle and Shotton South West, with the end date pushed back a year to October 2017; the land was expected to be restored by 2019. The mine eventually ceased production in summer 2020.
Druridge Bay Country Park is adjacent to Druridge Bay between Amble and Cresswell, on the coastline of Northumberland, England. The country park was opened officially in 1989, but works had been ongoing since the 1970s to remediate the site after opencast coaling operations. The park is accessible by vehicle from the A1068 road, and is located on the England Coast Path. Public transport can be taken near to the park's closest village, which involves a 15-minute walk to get to the park.
Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station is a former Magnox nuclear power station at Sellafield in Cumbria in North West England. Calder Hall was the world's first full-scale commercial nuclear power station to enter operation, and was the sister plant to the Chapelcross plant in Scotland. Both were commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. The primary purpose of both plants was to produce weapons-grade plutonium for the UK's nuclear weapons programme, but they also generated electrical power for the National Grid.