Smoking during pregnancy across Northumberland and North Tyneside has fallen to just three per cent at the time of delivery – one of the lowest rates in the country.

An important factor in this has been the Best Start in Life team, launched within Northumbria Healthcare in May 2022 to help women and families achieve a smokefree pregnancy.
In 2025/26, 72% of women who engaged with the Best Start in Life pathway quit smoking – an improvement of 10% on the previous year.

The team offers free quitting support, including free nicotine replacement therapy and licensed e-cigarettes, and are also part of the National Pregnancy Incentive Scheme.

Hi everyone,
I’m 31 and I’ve recently got back into the gym. I’ve been training consistently at ashington leisure centre and I’m looking for someone who trains there too.

I’m still relatively new to lifting properly. I’ve got a structured programme and I’m making progress, but I’d really like to train with someone who’s got a bit more experience and wouldn’t mind helping me improve my technique and confidence in the gym.

My goal is to build muscle, lose some body fat, and just become generally fitter. I’m committed, always turn up, and I’m happy to work hard. I’m not looking for a free PT, just someone who enjoys training and wouldn’t mind having a training partner.

It’d also be great to make a friend along the way. I’m into hiking, woodworking, and gaming outside of the gym, so if we get on that’s a bonus.
I usually train three times a week and can be fairly flexible with times.

If you train at Ashington Leisure Centre and fancy a gym buddy, send me a message!

Hi everyone. My partner and I are going to Holy Island next weekend (staying overnight Saturday-Sunday). We plan to do the Pilgrim's Way during the afternoon low tide (following the instructions). I had a quick peep at the forecast and it looks like it's going to rain, possibly heavily, during the crossing time. Do you know how much it impacts the walk? We live in Edinburgh, so we're used to the weather, I'm just not sure if heavy rain would have a big effect on the safety of the crossing. Thanks!

What is this small building in the middle of nowhere that I drive past at work sometimes. It’s near “sandy sike” just off the B6320 near Bellingham and Greenhaugh.

Hello!

thanks to the excellent recommendations of r/uktravel, I have decided to add Northumberland to my UK trip. I’m so excited to visit. However I will only have limited time there and would love to hear your feedback and inputs to my plan below.

my fixed plan (can’t change much):
-Sept 11 morning: pick up a car rental in Edinburgh. Start the 2-day trip in Northumberland
-Sept 13 8am: drop off the car rental at the Newcastle Airport before catching the train to Manchester

Tentative plan (need feedback):
Sep 11:
-Drive from Edinburgh to Holy Island. Might do a quick stop or visit the island depending on the tides
-Drive from Holy Island to Bamburgh Castle. Visit the castle. Spend the night in / near Bamburgh

Sep 12:
-Drive from Bamburgh to Alnwick. Visit the castle
-Drive from Alnwick to Cragside. Visit the place.
-Spend the night in / near Longframington

Sept 13: drive from Longframington to Newcastle Airport

Questions:
-what would be the other stops that you’d recommend to replace my current stops? or these are good enough? I do love beaches but I also have them where I grew up and live (ie PNW coastal lines, Asian tropical beaches) so i don’t have to spend a lot of time in beaches in this trip. I do enjoy castles and their beautiful grounds and like to wander around. Would prefer to do no more than 2 stops a day.

-It seems like both Alnwick Castle and Cragside require at least 3-4h each to visit. Unfortunately their opening hours are 10-4pm, which means I will have limited time in one of them and very challenging to do both fully? which one would you recommend cutting time in?

Thanks all!

People are being asked whether they support plans to bring more than 500 bus routes back under public control.

In what could be the biggest overhaul of the North East bus network in more than 40 years, the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority has launched a public consultation on the proposals.

If approved, the bus franchising scheme would give Mayor Kim McGuinness responsibility for setting routes, timetables, fares and service standards.

Private bus operators would continue to run services, but under contract to the authority rather than on a commercial basis.

Under the plans, the mayor has pledged to protect bus services from cuts for 10 years and expand the network.

The authority said the network had shrunk by almost a third since 2010, with services becoming less frequent, evening and weekend routes withdrawn, and some routes disappearing altogether.

Consultation: https://www.northeast-ca.gov.uk/consultations/haveyoursay

UPDATE: Found after 2 days with the kindness of strangers. What a beautiful community, so many strangers approached me when I was in tears hanging up posters. Little bugger was a mile down the road watching football at home with a lovely couple!

This is a longshot but Bruce has been missing for 2 days (last seen Monday at 2pm in Ellington near the coop). If anyone has seen him please give me a shout.

I have already posted on fb groups etc and have handed flyers and put posters up but I'm trying to get as much reach possible.

So please if you like in the area spread the word. We are heartbroken.

Hello, we are a family of four traveling to England for the first time. We plan to do Beamish Museum 1 day, and another day to explore a small sliver of the Northumberland area (maybe Cragside or hadrian's wall area). We will be driving by car from York.

Can anyone give recommendations on where to stay that's close enough to Beamish, but also to northern northumberland area? We will have a car, so parking is important. Here's our itinerary so far:

Day 1: Drive from York, taking a scenic route where we can also see some sites along the way up to Newcastle Upon Tyne area. Check in to bnb/hotel late afternoon or evening.

Day 2: Beamish Museum, and maybe something else if we have time.

Day 3: Explore some of Northumberland area before taking a late train.

I know it's a tight schedule, so any recommendations are helpful! Thank you in advance

We’re going down to York in two weeks and will have 3 kids in tow. Where would be a good place to stop for an hour, toilet break and let them move a bit.

If it’s nice weather, ideally a big play park to burn off energy, we can bring lunch. If it’s not so nice, a nice cafe or something similar?

Was thinking anywhere between Berwick and Alnwick so it’s cutting the journey up nicely?

Help appreciated to make sure it’s as smooth as possible on the journey!

Hi all!

Jarrow lad here, I've recently done a straight line mission across South Tyneside going from the border to Gateshead, across to Whitburn beach.

It was one epic journey and I've been releasing weekly videos documenting my escapades.

Feel free to watch and join my community on YouTube as this will be the first of many!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf85STRB7W1f7CGrFAlXyoSjUB18E0rXz&si=-xW3yuD8sQvNV1qR

I'll be visiting Craster for a few days in September and staying in a cottage for a few nights. Is there a store that sells basics like bread, sandwich meat, snacks, crumpets, eggs, etc.? I plan to eat dinner out each night. Also, I won't be driving because I'm too anxious to try to drive over there. (I'm in the U.S.) I'm taking the train from York to Alnmouth Station since the taxi ride is shorter from Alnmouth to Craster. I see that there is no luggage storage at the station, so I can't store luggage and go to a store there. I don't know that I could walk to a store from the station anyway. I'm coming in on a Tuesday afternoon if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, just curious to hear some experiences of which networks are best for mobile data in Northumberland.

I work as a delivery driver and my area ranges from Morpeth to the Scottish Borders and everything in between.

Currently with EE which is decent but my service still drops out now and then.

I know you can check network coverage online but from my experience that’s not always accurate.

Cheers

My proudly Geordie partner passed away a month ago. He always wanted to take me to Holy Island and up the Northumberland coast. Yesterday, one day after his funeral, I took a road trip and was blown away. I just wish he was there with me to have seen it.

My wife and I love Berwick upon Tweed and are seriously considering relocating to the area.

We haven't seen anywhere we like/can afford in Berwick itself, but have seen 2 or 3 in Wooler, which looks nice from what we can see.

Any thoughts from those local to the area? Is it a nice place? Good public transport to Berwick? What about hospitals and doctor services? And is there a lot in the town?

Thank you in advance

Me and my partner came for a week's holiday recently, and I wanted to pop back to this group to firstly say thanks for the useful advice and comments I got re my queries, and also to say what a lovely time we had, and how impressed we were by Northumberland.

It had been some years since my last visit and I had forgotten just how lovely it is.

We found some lovely beaches which I had not known of before eg at Alnmouth, and we were struck how lovely and peaceful the countryside is.

We enjoyed the nature too...you have good healthy hedgerows and we noticed lots of small birds such as yellowhammers on the country lanes, and weasels and stoats which was lovely.

Billy Sheil's boat trip to the Farne Islands was outstanding and they were great with me, re my mobility issues (let me board first, made sure I was ok). Highly professional.

Bamburgh castle was wonderful but we found the village a bit overwhelming with the amount of visitors, which I suppose is not surprising.

We liked Amble and enjoyed fantastic fish and chips there from the Harbour Fish bar. The beaches around there are also great.

We liked the little nature reserve at Hauxley, the visitor centre is very nice and we went a couple of times.

We left some things for our next trip eg Lindisfarne, that means we will be back.

Finally, we wanted to say how very friendly and nice everyone was, - my husband is African, he got chatting with everyone 😁 and we felt very welcomed.

Thank you Northumberland, you are a gem of an area 😊