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Sue was born In Northumberland and brought up in Westerhope, a mining village on the edge of Newcastle. She later moved to Kilmacolm, a village between Glasgow and Port Glasgow. Therefore, despite being interested in political history, she was raised close to industrial centres! |
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She studied Modern History at St Andrews University in Fife, achieving an MA, and then went on to Dundee University where she took a Diploma in Education. While at St Andrews in 1969, she was lucky enough to be a member of the Commonwealth Expedition, COMEX, which travelled overland, in a fleet of 20 coaches, from Britain to India, passing through Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as India when they were much more peaceful places. Perhaps this trip, which lasted four months, gave her the itchy feet she still has for travel, despite the fact that destinations are now a little closer to home. |
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In 1971 Sue married Dan Hayton and moved to Bromley in the south east of London, where she started teaching History as well as Civics in a local comprehensive school. In their spare time, and to meet people, Dan and Sue enrolled in a Goldsmiths College Extra-Mural evening class in Industrial Archaeology led by Denis Smith. This class led to the making of many long-term friendships as well as an abiding interest in Industrial Archaeology. Thank you Denis! |
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Sue also became a member of GLIAS, the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society, and later its Membership Secretary. A group of friends, who had met at Goldsmiths, worked on a gazetteer of local sites in South East London and ‘The Industrial Archaeology of South East London‘ was published in 1982. It’s a proud boast that it is still in print and still the only book on IA in the south east. |
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Despite the arrival of children, Barbara and Alice, Sue continued her interest in Industrial Archaeology and started to lecture at WEA evening classes. Eventually she was asked to tutor a Diploma in Industrial Archaeology Class at Birkbeck College. |
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While the children were small, holidays, usually camping, were often taken abroad with a friend, Chris Rule. It was then that the germ of the idea that developed into City Safaris was born. The three friends, Sue, Dan and Chris, explored areas and towns looking at their IA and trips to far flung, and not so far flung, parts of Europe became a regular event. |
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By this time Dan and Sue were also organising and leading GLIAS walks in and around London and so when they met Paul Saulter who was working on the idea of trips to cities, for the adventurous urban rambler – the rest was history! |