North East life in 2023 - a year to remember

NOW the sun has set on another year, we reflect on some of the images captured by our photographers who have been documenting life in the North East throughout 2023.

Our region was shocked to the core when the iconic tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland was brutally cut down during the night, a bizarre and bewildering crime which sent shock waves around the entire world.

Tens of thousands of Geordies followed Newcastle United to the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley, the club's first final in more than 25 years. Although it wasn't to be on the day against Manchester United, they were rewarded for a hard-fought season with Champions League football after a top 4 place in the Premier League, a feat they last managed more than two decades ago.

St James' Park was once again the place to be when Geordie music phenomenon Sam Fender performed two “sold oot'” shows to over 50,000 adoring fans in June.

There were strikes galore this year with thousands of union members taking industrial action including rail staff, teachers and lecturers, bus drivers and many individual branches of the NHS such as ambulance staff, nurses and junior doctors standing on the picket line to fight for better pay and conditions.

The people of the North East enjoyed a bumper bank holiday weekend celebrating the coronation of King Charles III with many communities coming together to hold for street parties.

The weather in 2023 was typically wet and rainy as we're used to in Britain with a summer that never was giving way to a series of named storms in the autumn, the violent winds of Storm Babet in particular stirred up some powerful waves which were strong enough to rip the top from South Shields Lighthouse.

Abbie Davison and her 16-month-old daughter Freya having fun in a field of thousands of stunning yellow sunflowers at Grange Farm, High Shincliffe, County Durham

Residents of Westwood Avenue in Heaton hold a street party to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III

The Reverend Canon Charlie Allen pictured with Gaia, Luke Jerram’s replica artwork of planet Earth in Durham Cathedral

Newcastle United fans turn The Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium black and white

Paris Saint Germain fans march through Newcastle city centre to St James’ Park

Pilgrims crossing the tidal causeway to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland on Good Friday

Keep Our NHS Public campaigners stand on Seaburn beach alongside their celebratory mural to mark the NHS’s 75th anniversary

A shocking scene at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland after the iconic tree was brutally cut down during the night

Sam Fender performing to a crowd of over 50,000 at St James’ Park in Newcastle on June 9

Huge waves and violent winds rip the top from South Shields Lighthouse during Storm Babe.

A junior doctor on the picket line outside the Freeman hospital in Newcastle