UPDATE April 2025: If you can't find the DNA sculpture at the Centre of Life, the details from the plaque are: "The sculpture was unveiled on the 18th June 2000 by James Watson"
The famous song was written in 1862 by Geordie (George) Ridley. Ridley was a composer and concert-hall performer who wrote many Tyneside songs. He was born in Gateshead in 1835 and died there in 1864, aged only 30. The song is written in Geordie dialect, meaning that if you’re a local lad or lass you’ll have no trouble with its meaning, but if you are not from around here …… well, see how you get on!
The song is fictional, but its subject matter – the Blaydon Races – was very real. The races were first held in 1811 on land close to where Blaydon railway station is today. The Hoppings, a fair, visited the site making the whole event into a huge day out for Tynesiders. This lasted until 1835 when the building of the railway station ended the races. In 1859 they were revived and held on Blaydon Island (no longer in existence). The races became an official horse-racing event in 1861, and continued until 1865. They were revived again in 1887 and run on Stella Haughs in Blaydon (later the site of a power station, now demolished). The last races were held in 1916, when rioting broke out following a particularly dodgy result! The spirit of the song is kept alive today by an annual road running race.
Transport:
The first 6 zones are contained within the centre of Newcastle, and can easily be done on foot. If you chose to walk from zone 6 onwards, then you are in for a long walk along the entire length of Scotswood Road and over the river into Blaydon.
You could get the train from Blaydon station back to Newcastle Central Station.
Alternatively, there is the Number 12 bus that goes between Newcastle and Blaydon along Scotswood Road.
If you have a car, you could use this to do all of the zones from number 7 onwards. The map below gives you a rough idea of the route.
The whole Wherigo could be done on a bicycle of course.
You will need a Wherigo app for your ‘phone or tablet (we use an Android tablet for Wherigos) and most people will be using the ‘Pocket PC’ version of the cartridge, or a compatible GPSr. Click here to go to the Wherigo website.
You will need to download the ‘Gannin to Blaydon Races’ Wherigo cartridge from its page on the Wherigo website. Click here to do this: GannintoBlaydonRaces.
When you have explored all locations, and answered a question about each, the final location will magically appear. It’s a good idea to save the game frequently as you move from zone to zone.
This Wherigo was made using Wherigo Kit (http://wherigo.rangerfox.com/), by rangerfox, which is a very easy to use Wherigo builder we would recommend to anyone who wants to have ago.
This Wherigo has 12 zones with questions to be answered at each zone, plus the start and final zones. The D-rating reflects the effort required to log this single cache successfully. The T-rating reflects the fact that all zones are fairly easy to access and there are no steep slopes, rough ground or long flights of steps, but it is a long distance to cover. Good luck!