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John Davies (Photographer), Isabella Jedrzejczyk (Photographer)
Original Side Gallery exhibition text, 1983:
In 1977 the Union of Concerned Scientists reported that everybody within a 25 mile radius of a nuclear power station should be issued with a small bottle of potassium iodide (so that radioactive iodine could be blocked from the thyroid), a mild laxative (in case you ingest radioactive particles), and a filter mask.
Twenty miles north of Newcastle, Druridge Bay is a quiet stretch of sand dunes, beach and sea, one of the region’s greatest natural assets. It is also a proposed site for a CEGB Nuclear Power Station. The particular type of reactor planned for Druridge is a PWR (pressurised water reactor) of the kind currently the subject of a public inquiry at Sizewell in Suffolk. The issues involved include national energy policies, reactor safety, economics and, of course, the effect on the environment, on the landscape.
Side Gallery commissioned photographers Isabella Jedrzejczyk and John Davies to document the landscape of Druridge Bay, the natural beauty of a five mile stretch of undeveloped coastline, and its hinterland. The pictures show a land of wind-swept dunes and rolling skies, miles and miles of sea and sand, water still and calm, angry waves, rocks and pools. There are the farms and hamlets and fields. The fishermen, beachcombers and day trippers.
So what is the future for Druridge? I don’t really think there is a lot of choice involved. When they first asked if they (CEGB) could drill holes, the man asked if I had any objections. I asked if it would matter if I had, and he said, ‘Not really.’ These things are decided by other people, not us. A Druridge Bay farmer