Residents of North Tyneside have selected their favourite designs to feature in reflection areas being created across the borough.
Late last year, North Tyneside Council asked the public for their views on artwork to be included in five memorial areas that are being created to help people to remember and reflect on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
All of the reflection areas will be based around the theme of a compass, detailed in decorative hard landscaped paving, with seating provided and natural planting as places to sit and reflect.
The locations for the areas of reflection include Killingworth Lakeside Park, Churchill Playing Fields (Whitley Bay), Redburn Dene Park (North Shields), Wallsend Hall grounds, as well as Silverlink Biodiversity Park.
The compass design was chosen because the word compass combines two Latin words – ‘com’ which means together and ‘passus’ which means pace or step. Together they can be taken to mean ‘journey together’ which is something that communities in North Tyneside have done throughout the pandemic.
A design relevant to each location in the borough will feature in the centre of the compass and residents were asked to choose their preferred creatives.
And now, following an online survey and displays in all of the borough’s Customer First Centres, designs associated with George Stephenson, St Mary’s Lighthouse, fishing/Fish Quay and shipbuilding have been chosen for the centre of the designs.
The fifth compass, which will be located in Silverlink Biodiversity Park, will feature a sun to complement the existing sundial in the park.
North Tyneside Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE said: “The areas will be a place where people can visit to remember the loved ones they tragically lost, as well as offering a space to reflect on the impact that the pandemic had on us all, but to also remember the ways in which people came together to support one another. As always, community spirit shone through in North Tyneside and continues to do so.
“The areas of reflection are for each and every one of our residents and it was hugely important to us that they had the opportunity to be involved. I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the survey and thank those who asked that we create these spaces.
“I am also delighted local businesses in North Tyneside and Northumberland will be helping to create the areas and memorials.”
All five locations are linked with the borough’s 30-mile wagonway network. The pandemic saw more people than ever get outside to walk and cycle so places linked with the wagonways seem a natural location for the areas of reflection.
North Tyneside’s historic wagonways date back to the 19th century and were once used to haul coal to ships on the River Tyne from dozens of coal mines in the borough.
The routes help connect the borough with a central point at Silverlink Biodiversity Park, sometimes known as ‘sundial park’ due to the giant structure on top of the park’s hill.
The areas of reflection will start to be installed from the spring.