14/01/2013 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

In the next half an hour: Coming to a standstill - we look

back on the night the northeast ground to a halt and ask, why?

normally it takes ten minutes took about three hours.

Inside a treasure trove - how one Northumberland farmer's obsession

with home movies is now a gift to us all. These guys are not hanging

around, it is insane. It brings archives to life.

And back to school when mum and dad are on the front line. Dear Dad,

how would you? Stories from the heart of the North

East and Cumbria. This is Inside So how long does your journey home

from work take you? Ten minutes? Half an hour? I'm sure you won't

have forgotten one night last month when it took some of us an

astonishing six or seven hours to get home. So what went wrong? Just

what was the cause of the gridlock Treacherous conditions on the road

this afternoon. The roads have a lot of ice on them.

One afternoon last month, this place and many others were at a

Short journeys were taking hours instead of minutes. At that time

beagle were leaving work, schools were coming out, the town went into

gridlocked. So what happened to turn a regular commute into a

nightmare? Looking for the source of gridlock, we've asked three

commuters on different routes to re-live their experience and look

for common causes for the chaos. Judith James is the head teacher of

the Northern Counties School in Jesmond. Expecting the snow to

cause problems, she's sorted out transport for her pupils and now

begins her own journey to collect her son from his school in Wickham.

I left at 4:15pm the. I got to the college at 9:40pm.

The police are already gearing up for a bad night on the roads.

started in the Silver Room, an assessment room, to co-ordinate all

our resources. Elsewhere the snow and ice is continuing to cause

severe delays. Across town in Gateshead on the

Team Valley industrial estate Tony Turner is trying to get home to

Cramlington. On a normal rush-hour it can take around 40 minutes at a

maximum, it was 5.5 hours. If you compare it to when we had snow from

November through to January, in those days the maximum was one or

two I was. -- two hours. And it isn't just commuters on

Tyneside who are suffering, Hazel Horman is on one of the few buses

that makes the journey from Durham to Consett. A lot were standing,

some people were trying to give their seats up to others. It took

around 40 minutes usually, it was four hours. What normally takes

around ten minutes took around 3 euros. It caught everybody out.

For most it was just sheer boredom, sitting out the traffic jam, but

for some waiting in freezing temperatures for buses that never

turned up it was much more serious - one woman was rushed to hospital

from Kingston Park having become hypothermic. So are there any

common threads that led to our The roads have not been corrected,

it is horrendous. Most of Tony Turner's marathon five

and a half hours is crawling along the A1 - much of it is spent

outside the Metrocentre. I would say the roads were not treated

properly, or not treated at all. One road was just like a sheet of

ice. Tony believes it was the

treacherous conditions on the A1 that was slowing everybody down.

But the Highways Agency says it gritted the road three times that

day. So what about Tony's reports of ice? That is the first I have

heard, the reports we were getting were that the roads looked fine so

why were be so gridlocked. And there are treacherous

conditions off and onto the A1 at Kingston Park. There was a compound

of ice, they won a number of blockages on the road and that had

a knock-on effect to the traffic. Newcastle Council is responsible

for gritting that section of road and the rest of the City. 12 hours

before the first snow fell our gritters had been across the

network. That was before the rush hour. Thinking back I do not think

there is anything we could have done differently.

So why, when the roads had been gritted, did they end up like ice

rinks? You have a compound of snow it then but what lay at his melted

by the traffic and then that turns into ice and it is a thick layer

and it takes some shifting. We're crawling 50 or 20 feet at a time.

Meanwhile Judith James' journey from hell is going from bad to

I tried to go down to the bank, that was in a suspect the worst

thing I could have done. We took the decision to close that road and

it was not a decision we would take lightly. It has a knock-on effect.

You feel powerless in your car. Were listening every 15 minutes to

see what is going on and you cannot physically get out of the car and

abandon it because she would lock up the roads even more, there's

nothing you can do. And it's not just commuters who are

stuck in the gridlock. Initially I could not get onto the road without

being stuck in traffic for a good hour or so. And it's the 80% of the

public do not want you in front of them. And they will not let you

through. And then they complain when the roads are not salted. It

can get frustrating. It is difficult to get a gritter are

there because they do not have blue flashing lights. If they are in

amongst traffic then they cannot get there without a police escort.

And now to cap it all off there's been a major incident - it's miles

away but the impact is felt on Tyneside. There was a serious

incident and the vehicle at had an accident with a train, there was a

tale back onto the A1 which did cos problems.

By now a 100,000 commuters are crawling their way home. The ordeal

is being monitored here by the urban traffic management team.

snow was just one of the factors. A lot of people left work early which

makes extra demand on the roads. On top of that on one of the road

there had been a real incident. That quickly has a knock-on effect.

All these things come together to cause this Perfect Storm.

So can we definitively say what happened? The simple answer is snow

means commuters go home early, jamming up icy roads. The roads are

gritted, but not enough. It leads to a series of crashes, blocking

major routes and more congestion. The perfect storm. But you know

what? No-one can promise it won't happen again. If all these things

come together at the same time there is not a lot you can do.

only me, thousands of other people did not get back till 10pm or 11pm

that night, it could have been avoided and should have been.

not think we could have done anything different people stop it

could happen again, it may not, we decide to see how the weather

presents itself to us. From now on I will certainly have my eight

Wellington boots and the car. I that leave my car in the end so why

it would certainly packs a bit and then a bit more about it when it is

weather like that. As you look around an historic

market town like Morpeth, its very famous people and events are there

for all to see in monuments, plaques and even street names. But

what about the day-to-day lives of regular townsfolk? Fortunately a

local farmer who was a real enthusiast for cine-film captured

decades worth of astounding memories of how we used to live. A

Time passes so quickly that what is ordinary today becomes tomorrow's

extraordinary record of the past. Something they know only too well

at the Northumberland Archives near Ashington. They've taken delivery

of a treasure trove that fascinates everyone who sees it. I'm pleased

we have found a home for these. They have been in storage for years.

Tom Temple spent a lifetime documenting Morpeth at work, rest

It was before my time but it is all recorded on film. Just like the man

who took the jump with a cigarette in his mouth, he plans still with

the cigarette in his mouth. ticket for his own benefit really,

didn't he? Yes, he went to show us all for Northumberland. We used

Askham to show it again, show it again!

20 years later the same event. By the 1950's Tom was using colour

film little else had changed and if you were for the high jump there

was certainly no soft cushioned landing back then. This is some of

the best footage from his films. He is down to their seaside for the

day and it its -- and it is the racing. These guys are not hanging

around, these people are really going at it, they are flying. It is

insane. These guys are hanging off the sides of the cycles with their

bombs in the water. Absolutely brilliant. -- their arms in the

water. Let us be honest, we do you rather see what is happening and

read about it? It brings archives to life.

Within a generation these scenes would disappear from our landscape,

but Tom who ran the family farm also captured life at home. I

remember my little or RAF car. I would come down this drive and I

have light four-wheel-drive ever since. I remember when I went to

school I went on a pony. I used to beat Leeds -- iced be led by my

brother. Those were the days. Have you remembered the East? No, I do

not, but I am sure there on film. I'm sure that grandmother is

feeding them from here in one of the songs. And the pigs, yes. As a

child I got in with them. And I was pushed into the food. It was a

proper farm, wasn't it? It was. has bombs from the 1920s. Yes,

especially of things happening on the farm, that was his main

interest. The films are an unparalleled

archive of life on a Northumberland farm a record of machinery and

Picking up a pick. A squad of men on top. Manpower. Or women power,

in this case! It makes you see the difference between farming then and

now. So much more sociable. That is our original. It is showing that we

were growing, Whiteley, crops. Which we don't do today. And the

reason is economics. Vegetables are frequently hauled up and down the

country two times rather than taken just 15 miles into the market in

Newcastle. Tom inherited the family business. Even back at the

beginning, the family thought to capture it in a photograph. So his

film-making is as much of a family tradition as farming. His sons know

what he would love most. He would disappear for hours into

the sitting room. He liked both.

He liked being called a market gardener. That was his pride.

It may only have been a hobby, but thank goodness he kept his work.

The footage makes you realise how much has changed, and reminds us

what hasn't. The Hopkins remains an annual event even if the sideshow

attractions no longer makes such frequently extravagant claims. And,

yes, we have had bad winters before! Some traditions, we never

forget. The whole collection has been digitised for austerity. It is

available for the public to view at the Northumberland archive.

What I like most is that there is 50 years of films. He has spent a

lifetime. Nobody was interested in them, and we're very lucky to have

got them. He would be over the moon.

Tom Temple was found that any event which brought the community

together. If you are of a certain age there is every chance that he

caught you on film. The only person missing is Tom himself, really did

he step in front of the camera. You hardly see him. He is taking

the shots, like he always did. We got one of him blowing his nose.

One man with a passion has given Northumberland a lasting legacy. He

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds

passed away in 1984 but his work Her I have put some extra footage

on my website for all to see. It you think you may have been caught

in any of that footage I would love to hear from you. You can get in

To a very special primary-school in North Yorkshire. A third of the

pupils have parents serving abroad, mainly in Afghanistan. We were

given exclusive access. This is RAF Leeming. The largest base in the

north. 1800 servicemen and women live and work here along with their

families. It is also home to RAF Leeming Community Primary, the

school behind the wire. On the surface, the school is like any

other. But here is the difference. 98% of the children here have one

or both parents serving in the military. The evidence is

everywhere. Outside each classroom, a list of names. Children with

parents serving overseas, the majority in Afghanistan.

One third of the class have somebody away at the moment.

Jessica is four and has just started class. Her father is going

to have cast and in a few weeks' time. He will be going for four-

and-a-half months. -- to Afghanistan.

Once I have gone, will she act differently? Will she realise that

he's not around any more and go looking for me, and ask? She is

very good at signing for me. Nine-year-old Lea one possmac

father went to the Falklands in the summer. He is part of a permanent

military presence on the islands. He might be home in time for

Christmas. I miss him, really. I was getting

upset at school but I kept it to myself to stop others getting sad.

One might teacher's of what it says, home and away. I just keep looking

up at it, to remind me when I am doing my work.

Many of the youngsters here go through intense and emotional

periods when their parents are away so the school has a net or to help

support those pupils. -- a network. This is the lunchtime club.

Children and encouraged it to e- mail their parents abroad.

Deer Daddy, how are you? I am fine. I have been doing reports on

horses... Morgan's father is in Afghanistan

for seven months. He said that my e-mails where

lovely. The children do not tend to

understand where their parent has gone for such a long period. But

Morgan understands. She has no idea where it is, but the school help

her understand. Military life also means moving

around a lot. Personnel get posted from base to pace around the

country at a couple of years. That means the population of the school

is constantly changing. The average time a child spends here is one

year, seven months. Research suggests that regular moves means

that children often disengage when they know they are leaving,

friendships, learning, behaviour, all slap. But there are also

positives. There are children here who have lived all over the world

and the bring those experiences into the classroom. Service

children can be very good at making new friends and welcoming new

people. They find it leaving the hardest.

We try to get children ready to leave, we get into think through

their successes, what they're doing, to get a more positive mindset on

hitting the ground running at their new school.

Craig is about to leave for Afghanistan. Within hours the

advance party will be there. We have done this before. It is in

our mind set and we are raring to go now. The sooner we get out there

of the sooner we get back. We have to be strong. If we are not

strong back at home, they cannot do their job. You can fall to pieces

The next morning, Jessica's name is added to the list. She is not alone.

A few days later there are many more children with parents are we

in Afghanistan. -- away. It is December and the build-up to

Christmas has started. Morgan's family are finding it tough.

Dear Daddy, Hello Again. I got a letter from Santa yesterday...

This is the first debt trap he has been away from us. -- the first

long trip. He finds it difficult as well, we're a very close family. It

will be hard. You just have to get on with it. You cannot wall in

While some fathers are our way, we wanna and her sister expecting

there has to retire on. -- to retire on. They are making a banner

to welcome him home. -- to return. I am really looking forward to see

him. I'll just jump on him, give him a peck Cuttell. -- big cuddle.

Craig has been in Afghanistan for five weeks to maintaining

technology for forces across the country. This is the standard

accommodation that all personnel get. These are my little personal

touches from Mike Dowdall, Jessica. -- from my girl.

Day Squadron are in an increasingly intense country. An attack by the

member up -- a member of the Afghan security forces to police a week

after our filming. You try not to think about what is happening out

there, what is going on in the news. When the Internet allows they can

speak directly. It is almost Christmas. Time for the Nativity

play. 1, 2, 3... Cheese!

Morgan's father sent her a puppy as a present. Polland Jessica got to