Historian hopes map project inspires local pride
BBCA local historian has created an online route mapper which he hopes will encourage people to walk through the past of the North East.
Kieran Carter, 29, from Newcastle, said he had recorded more than 5,000 points of interest on the interactive map, including every colliery in the region, historic shipyards and lost sports venues.
Carter, who runs the North East Heritage Library, has launched the Heritage Route Builder to plot walks which will take them past significant sites.
He said: "It's a massive, all-encompassing project about an environment we should be prouder of - we deserve to spotlight it."
The Route Builder allows people to set a start and end point, and will then show them which points of interest are along the way.
Carter said he hoped it would be an "accessible, friendly, and entertaining form of understanding our environment".
Carter launched the project in 2020 after graduating from university two years earlier, which he said was in response to "frustrating roadblocks" to accessing local history, such as paywalls and documents being exclusive or inaccessible.
He said he initially started by taking his wife on history tours, "but she hated it and told me to do it for other people instead", prompting him to start his own blog.
He now leads his own group walks around the region.
"As you're walking, you can come across places you never really knew had any level of importance - it's about instilling that respect and pride," he explained.
"If we understand what's around us, we can understand why our ancestors made Newcastle the way it is."
The project spans much of the North East, from Northumberland, to Tyne and Wear, to Teesside.
