Kingdom of Cleveland: Expeditions (1983: Doomsday)

2003

In early 2003 Prime Minster Mallon ordered that reconnisance missions to go into the badlands to look for any survivors and resources that the kingdom could use.

WEST
Rheged Co-operative Rheged (1983:doomsday)

One team followed the former transpennine highway (A66) across to the former North Cumbria, they discovered that nearly all the towns and villages had been destroyed, the team encountered a survivor colony in the walled castle town of Carlisle, they find that the locals are being harrassed by a former military unit know by the locals as Reavers.

The team moves south into the interior of the Lakes area of Cumbria, many small market towns and villages are still working, trading with each other using sheep, wool and slate as trading tools. The towns call themselves the Rheged co-operative (or just Rheged), they speak with a version of Gaelic called Cumbric, this language existed pre-DD however due to the isolation after DD it spread throughout Rheghed.

Radios are left with five main towns (Keswick, Workington, Whitehaven, Penrith, and Ambleside) for the local parish councils to use to contact each other and Cleveland.

As the team travels south from Ambleside they record increasing levels of radiation, probably coming from the bombed Barrow in Furness military site or possibly from Barrow nuclear power station that has gone critical. The same is found south of Workington, probably from the Sellafield Nuclear power station that has gone critical.

SOUTH
Another team followed the great north road (A1) south and find many small villages still inhabitited (all be it at 18th centuary levels of technology). Many have joined together to former a co-operative of farms, shops and villages known locally as the North Riding Co-Operative or NRCO. Much of the farmland in the vale of York and Pickering are extreamly fertile and that radioactivity are at (relitivly) very low levels.

The team discusses with the Prime Minster over long wave radio and offers the NRCO entry to the Kingdom of Cleveland. However due to the fact that the NRCO has no governmental stucture each village voted seperatly on whether or not to become part of Cleveland. Voting took place in May 2004.

5th May 2004 - NRCO towns of Dunforth, Ouseburn, Flaxby, Knaresborough, Wetherby and Tadcaster vote to become part of the Kingdom of Cleveland adding 19,458 to the population of the Kingdom.

12th May 2004 - all NRCO towns in the former county of North Yorkshire join the Kingdom of Cleveland, adding 5,623 to the population of the Kingdom of Cleveland.

22nd May 2004 - the final NRCO towns of Appleby, Kirby Stephen and Hawes voted to join the Kingdom of Cleveland, adding another 2,789 to the population of the Kingdom of Cleveland

1st June 2004 - 15 new MP's join the Cleveland parliment from the former NRCO territories.

Journeys further south were halted by high levels of radioactive fall out coming from the bombed cities of Bradford, Leeds, Hull and Sheffield.

Turning to the west it was decided to try and reach the Irish Sea coast, knowing that any survivor colonies would probably be on the coast, it was a surprise to find the relativly advanced nation of Lancaster, after talks with the government of Lancaster trade links were made with the hope of a more perminant link (possibly by rail) by the end of the decade.

2004

NORTH
Kingdom of Northumbria (1983: Doomsday)

Due to the success of the expeditions south and west new teams are sent north in August 2004, they use ships to bypass the heavily irradiated Tyne and Wear valley's landing at Alnwick harbour on the 16th of August.

They discover a thriving fishing and farming community based around the fortified island of Lindisfarne.

As they travel up and down the coast they find many small villages that are also thriving on the resurgence of fish stocks in the North Sea. During this time it is found that Ralph George Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland has began calling himself the 'George I, King of Northumbria' again and have based his parliment in Bamburgh castle and the Percy family live at Alnwick castle.

Even pre DD the area of Northumberland was one of the lowest population levels in England. It is estimated that the population of the Kingdom of Northumbria in 2004 is roughly 29,000.

In the 21 years since DD the language of Northumbria has evolved, even in 1983 the people of Northumberland spoke a version of English crossed with Scottish/Gaelic called Northumbrian or in some southern regions a version called Pitmatic. This has evolved dramitically with no outside influence from anyone but sporadic contact the Celtic Alliance (which speak Scots Gaelic and Irish) via the short wave radio.

2007 onwards
Although planned government backed expeditions have ceased many small groups of explorers head out of Cleveland to search for more survivors and states.

Some groups head into the irradiated exclusion zones looking for historical artifacts that had been stored in museums and art galleries in the nuked cities. Many historically signifigent finds are made, The Lindisfarne Gospels are found in the ruins of the British Library in London, they are sent to Dublin for restoration and then return the Holy Island. Several major art works are found in London, York and Newcastle including some Picasso's, Monet and Van Gogh's, these are returned to Cleveland for restoration and hopefully public display.

Expeditions were made across the North Sea making contact with the Nordic Alliance in 2007.

Military bases throughout the country that had been hit by tactical nuclear weapons were declared safe to enter in 2008 after the radiation levels dropped to safe levels, investigation of the bases found that the majority of the equipment was destroyed in the attack or had deteroated and had become unuseable due to exposure to the environment. Many had become totally overgrown and unuseable in the 25 years+ since the DD attacks.

2008

Durham
In May 2008 a group of scientist make a journey to the bombed city of Durham it is discovered that the detonation point of the 100 kilotonne was to the west of the city roughly 1.5 miles from the city centre. The zone of total destruction or ZTD extended 200 feet from the detonation point and the buildings were almost totally destroyed up to 0.5 miles from the detonation point, however this was more probably due to buildings being industrial units and lightwieght building types.

Once into the city centre the first building inspected was Durham Castle, although the great halls roof had collapsed, probably due to fire, the remainer of the castle remained relativley undamaged, radiation levels were above normal background levels but not high enough to cause long term damage.

The next building inspected was Durham Catherdral, it was found to be in very good condition, the great eastend window had been blown in and there was some damage to the nave roof due to the weather getting into the building from the broken building. When entering the Catherdral several hundred skeletons were discovered on the scattered on the floor of the main church at the high alter the body of the Dean of the Cathedral Peter Richard Baelz was found, it appeared that he had died while doing communion. It is surmised that survivors of the bomb blast had made there way to the cathedral to die.

In the suburbs the forest had invaded and in many part had been inpassible to any travel.

2010
In July 2010 a small group of scientists travel north along the overgrown remains of the Great North Road (A19) to investigate the bombed ruins of Sunderland and Newcastle, both towns had been hit with 200 Kilotonne devices.

Sunderland
They arrive in the ruins of Sunderland on the 27th of July 2010, from estimates made on site the centre of Sunderland was levelled by the 200 KT device to approximatly quarter of a mile from the detonation point (known as the Zone of total destruction or ZTD), but due to the detonation taking place in a steep sided 50 metre deep valley of the River Wear the destruction only extended two miles from the detonation point (or DP). Radiation levels found to be relativly low, however once within three quarters of a mile from the DP the radiation levels increased to a point where it becomes dangerous to health, once the team began reaching the edge of the ZTD at roughly a quarter of a mile any signs of life rapidly disappeared and beyond the edge of the ZTD there was no signs of plantlife found.

Going by size of vegitation occuring in the area over the past 15 to 20 years trees have begun regenerating toward the DP (trees were found up to half a mile from the detonation point) in many of the former suburbs of the city it was difficult to find where the former parks ended and the city streets begin.

Wildlife in the area has expanded in great numbers, wild dogs now appear to have taken the role of wolves and feral pigs have colonised the new woodlands and have reverted to a wild boar like animal. The River Wear was remarkably clean with radiation levels almost normal

From Sunderland the team headed north along the coast arriving in former Tynemouth on the 8th of August, due to the findings from the Sunderland investigation it was decided that due to the lower radiation levels they would travel by river rather than by land.


 * The ZTD extends to a quarter of a mile from the DP.
 * Radiation levels are dangerous to health at three quarters of a mile from the DP.
 * Building damage extended to two miles from the DP, however most buildings remaining have been overtaken by vegitation.

Newcastle
Travelling upstream on the River Tyne they reached the DP of the 200 KT, due to the shallower sided valley on the River Tyne the ZTD extended nearly three quarters of a mile from the DP and as in Sunderland showed absolutly no signs of life, beyond the ZTD the signs of life increased until radiation levels reached lower levels and the new woodland began at one and a half miles from the DP, by three miles from the DP the woodland became inpenatrable and the teams returned to the river.


 * The ZTD extends to three quarters of a mile from the DP.
 * Radiation levels are dangerous to health at one miles.
 * Building damage extended to over three miles, however a full survay was not possible due to the thick inpenatrable woodland found on the outskirts of the city.

There were also signs of a major flood the entire length of the River Tyne, after leaving Newcastle and moving upstream the scientist discovered that the Kielder Water resivoir had breached its earthen bank dam roughly 15 years previously (going by regrowth downstream of the dam)

It appeared from the damage levels downstream of the dam structure that the collapse had been compleatly catastophic and at that point approximatly 200 billion litres (or 4 billion gallons) of water had flooded down the Tyne Valley towards the North Sea.

York
In early October 2010 an investigation of the former city of York discovered that it had survived well, the majority of the large public buildings had been heavily made of stone and stood up to the blast wave from the 100KT blast well.

The ground zero of the detonation was in southern York over the point where the rivers Ouse and Foss met. Total destruction extended 200 metres to the centre of the anceint city. York Minster appeared to have burned shortly after the detonation however the walls and main tower survived with little damage, it is hoped that after the recontsruction of Durham Cathedral is completed that work will start on York Minster.

Along with the Minster it appears that a major fire storm burned through the centre of York shortly after Doomsday, as such the majority of the buildings in central York are wall shells but it is hoped that they could be rebuilt fairly easily.

Outside the city walls of York the outskirts have been totally abandoned and have compleatly overgrown with woodland regrowth.