DISCOVER THE NORTH SHIELDS HERITAGE TRAIL

The North Shields Heritage Trail highlights the towns rich history and culture of the town. It starts at the Ferry Landing and finishes at North Shields Metro Station. The walk is just under two miles, and takes in seventeen local information panels which serve as guides along the way. Each information panel contains relevant and insightful information about the current location. The walk neatly divides itself between High Town and Low Town sections, and can be done in either direction. At the halfway point, walkers have to ascend the Union Quay Stairs, carrying a bike is not recommended.

Over the next 3 editions of ABC Magazine we will take a look at the Trail and explain a little bit about each of the 17 points.

Here is a look at the first 6 points of interest….

1. HARVEST IS FROM THE DEEP

The first of 17 information panels is on the North Shields Ferry Landing.

The crest and motto from the old Tynemouth Parish reflect how people from hereabouts have traditionally made their living. North Shields began as a fishing village, established by the Monks of Tynemouth Priory in the 13th century, and the wooden quays erected to unload the fish soon began to be used for shipping out coal from local collieries.

For much of the town’s history, the sea and coal have been its lifeblood and though the mines are now gone, the Fish Quay remains as a vibrant reminder of nearly 800 years of culture and tradition. Life on the river. If you had stood at this point at almost any time over the last few hundred years, the scene before you would have been quite different. The riverside would have been a hive of activity with all kinds of ships and boats moored along the shore and thousands of people making their living either directly or indirectly from the bustle of a busy port.

People have been crossing the River Tyne by boat for as long as there have been communities on either side of the water. The earliest mention of a ‘ferry boat’ dates from the 14th century and there is a reference to ‘ferry boates’ carrying horses as early as Tudor times. Steam ships known as ‘Penny Ferries’ began to operate the route in 1828 and, from 1847, the ‘Ha’penny Dodger’ would take foot passengers by the direct route, straight across the river. Also, between 1862 and 1909, paddle steamers ran a passenger service up river as far as Elswick, with 21 stops along the way.

From as early as 1825 when a suspension bridge was proposed, serious thought was given to alternative links between North and South Shields. A number of ambitious plans for bridges and tunnels were conceived and abandoned before the Tyne Tunnel eventually opened in 1967. Prior to that vehicular ferries carried about 400,000 cars across the river each year. The Shields Ferry, operated by Nexus, is now the only surviving ferry service on the Tyne. It carries almost half a million passengers each year.

2. BULL RING

Panel 2 ‘is near Collingwood Mansions.

This part of North Shields was once a very busy place. This area was the town's MarketPlace, and nearby Low Street was known as the ‘Bull

Ring’ from the practice of bull baiting which is said to have gone on there in the 17th century.

The Northumberland Arms, the large, imposing building at the end of this row was, for over a century, a first class hotel. Latterly, however, it became notorious the world over as a magnet for thousands of hard-living mariners who came ashore for entertainment. Its nickname of ‘The Jungle’ came about because of all the stuffed animal heads and trophies which once bedecked its walls – a legacy of the time when the building was the town house of the Duke of Northumberland in 1806. Smith’s Dock.

A dry dock facility was built at nearby Limekiln Shore as early as 1752 which was later leased by the ship building company which had been founded by Thomas Smith in 1810. T and W Smith eventually bought the land and constructed a growing dock there in 1850. One of the first ships to be launched from the yard was ‘The Termagent’. T and W Smith amalgamated with H S Edwards and Sons and Edwards Brothers in the 1890s to create Smiths Dock Ltd, for a time proclaimed as the largest ship repairers and dry dock owners in the world. The company continued operations right up until the 1990s.

3. A NEST OF VICE

Panel 3 is where Borough Road meets Clive Street.

Who can estimate the amount of immoral conversation that passes, the unlawful schemes plotted, or the low, filthy literature read in common lodging houses and the intemperance that prevails in this nest of vice?’ So wrote the Shields Daily News in 1855, speaking about continues on next page ➤ the warren of streets and alleyways which made up this part of North Shields, known at the ‘Low Town’. Virtually all of these buildings have gone now.

4. THE HADDOCK SHOP

On the quayside by the old dry dock.

Just around the corner is an old dry dock which once belonged to the Shields Dry Dock and Engineering Company Ltd. However it quickly became known locally as ‘The Haddock Shop’ as it specialised in the building and repair of steam trawlers. Since the development of the Dolphin Quays, ‘the Haddock Shop’ has become a basin for leisure craft. The steep banks which divide the riverside area from the upper parts of North Shields have played a big part in shaping the character of the town.

There was once a warren of narrow streets and stairs which connected the two areas and where many of the towns population made their home. The main thoroughfare was Bedford Street which originally followed the course of a stream, long since culverted, which emerged under a bridge at the junction of Liddell Street and Clive Street. The pub known as ‘The Seven Stars’ had the address of ‘No 1 Wooden Bridge’. A landmark higher up Bedford Street was ‘Tiger Stairs’, named after the ‘Tiger Inn’ which stood at their foot.

5. WOODEN DOLL

Right next to the Prince of Wales pub.

The female figure which stands outside ‘The Prince of Wales Tavern’ is the latest in a series which have stood on that spot, the entrance to Customs House Quay, for much of the last 200 years. The original ‘Wooden Dolly’ was the figurehead of a collier brig named the ’Alexander and Margaret’, which was attacked and ransomed off the North East coast by a privateer in 1791. It became famous the world over amongst sailors who began cutting pieces off, to keep for good luck whilst voyaging at sea. The original became so defaced that it was replaced in the mid nineteenth century and there have been several others since.

The current version was sculpted in 1992 and there are photographs on display in the pub, showing the carving in progress. The fourth ‘Dolly’ was carved for the coronation of 1902 by Miss May Spence. It broke with tradition in taking the form of a fish wife with her basket. It remained here until 1957. A replica now stands in Northumberland Square in the centre of North Shields. Moored just off the quay near here, the ‘Wellesley’ was a major feature of the river between 1873 and 1914. The vessel had begun life as ‘HMS Boscawen’, a 74 gun ship of the line, but was converted into a training establishment where neglected boys who might otherwise fall into bad company could be schooled and trained for life at sea.

6. LOW TOWN

At the opposite end of the Fish Quay to the Low Light

The riverside area is the oldest part of North Shields. The ‘Low Town’ refers to the settlement that grew up along the river, between the Low Lights in the east and the Bull Ring in the west. There were over 100 inns and taverns in ‘Low Town’, many notorious in their day and described as ‘dirty seedy drinking dens of vice and intemperance, where drunkenness and prostitution were commonplace and many immoral schemes were plotted’.

Maitland’s Quay is a section of quayside on the old North Shields waterfront behind Bell Street, running from Maitland’s Lane to Mullin’s quay. The bustling waterfront provided the inspiration for a number of local artists.

The many sketches of North Shields by William Henry Charlton provide an invaluable record of the town and the river over a century ago. Born in Newcastle in 1846, Charlton revisited North Shields many times over a period of more than a decade, serving as a testament to the vibrancy of this busy, working port and the inspiration he drew from it.