Magnetic survey of the Holy Island Dyke on Holy Island, Northumberland

The Holy Island Dyke on Holy Island, Northumberland strikes E-W along the south coast of the island. It intrudes Lower Carboniferous rocks and crops out as five discrete segments of dolerite. Flat tops on the two largest segments, benches on the southern flanks of three segments, and flat surfaces with amygdales at several locations on the outcrop have all been cited as evidence that the exposures represent the original top surface of the dyke, where it terminated within the country rocks. The results of a magnetic survey of the dyke show that the principal outcrops are connected to the northern edge of a sill whose top surface lies within 10 m of the present ground surface. The sill is exposed on the foreshore adjacent to St Cuthbert’s Isle in the west, where it forms an outcrop near the low water mark that has not previously been reported. The sill is about 100 m wide in the N-S direction and, at its southern edge, is connected to a subsurface dyke that extends downwards. Thus the dolerite outcrops appear to be part of a step-and-stair transgression of bedding. This interpretation accounts for all the features previously cited as evidence of the upward termination of the Holy Island Dyke within the sedimentary succession

Taking City Regions Seriously? Response to Debate on 'City-Regions: New Geographies of Governance, Democracy and Social Reproduction'

This article takes up the invitation extended by the co-editors of the recent IJURR debate on city-regions for others to join them in 'a wider dialogue over the constitutive role of politics in the brave new world of 'city-regions'. It begins by considering the extent to which the collection was successful in describing this 'brave new world' and in populating it with the variety of social and environmental concerns which, the co-editors claimed, have so far been neglected in recent debates about the significance of city-regions. Adjudging the debate to have been only partially successful in these respects, the article goes on to argue that the goal the co-editors strove for - effectively to liberate 'city-regionalism' from its ostensible captors - is unlikely to be achieved unless and until its critics (1) engage more explicitly and seriously with claims that are made for the significance of changes in the material circumstances of city-regions, and (2) recognize that there is nothing inherently 'neoliberal' or regressive about the concept of the city-region or the way it is used. These arguments are illustrated with reference to the economics of city-regions and the politics of city-regionalism in England. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2007 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.