South Tyneside's Local List

Local List A to Z

This list is also available as an .

[atoz expand]

Local List
BuildingLocationDescription
A
Adam and Eve Public HouseFrederick Street, South Shields

The Adam and Eve first opened in 1827 according to the Licensing Register, with John Rowell as the first licensee.

From 1855 to 1865 John Janson was the Licensee and his name is on the 1860s photo.

This part of the pub was rebuilt in 1868 and the left-hand side opened in 1878, built by FM Laing and originally used as a shop and a house.

The date 1878 is clearly visible on the left-hand side of the pub.

It became a Samuel Smiths pub in 1944 and closed in September 2020.

Al-Azhar MosqueLaygate, South Shields

The Al-Azhar Mosque was built in 1971 to satisfy the religious needs of South Shields' established Yemeni community.

Although some may consider the architecture somewhat 'underwhelming' compared to others in the Islamic world, this little mosque was put firmly on the map in 1977 when boxing legend Mohammad Ali visited Al Azhar to worship and to have his marriage blessed by the local Imam.

The event is covered by a film 'The King of South Shields'. In 2008 South Shields filmmaker Tina Gharavi arranged for a plaque to mark Ali's visit.

The Yemeni Arab community in South Shields dates back to at least 1890, with the arrival of seamen such as engine room firemen, serving British merchant vessels. Similar communities were founded in Hull, Liverpool and Cardiff. South Shields is one of the oldest existing integrated Muslim communities in Britain.

Today the Yemeni population numbers about 1000.

All Saints ChurchBoldon Lane, West Harton

Built in 1887 - 90 by C. Hodgson Fowler.

All Saint's Church is an outgrowth of Harton Church, granted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the early 1880's at an estimated cost of £3,000.

The consecration of the Church, a handsome structure in the Early English Style, with accommodation for 400 worshippers, took place on June 16, 1890.

The east window is filled with stained glass given by parishioners and friends in memory of the Rev A. A. Phillpotts, who made the original application for the Church. The Ecclesiastical District and Parish of All Saint's, West Harton, was formed in 1890.

Anti-Aircraft Supply Depot (former MOD bunkers and medical stores) 

Green Lane, East Boldon

Military supply depot related to anti-aircraft ordnance.

There were two supply depots for the Tyne and Wear area, this one served Sunderland and still exists. It includes five magazines, each 21m x 10m, surrounded by earthworks of blast walls, a gun store 50m to the north and smaller related features.

The depot was still in use in 1947 employing 12 men. Considered for listing by HE in 2020, but was not listed.

Ardmore45 Whitburn Road, Cleadon

Modernist / Art Deco house built in 1932. Flat roof, horizontal windows, windows cut through the wall returns. Recently restored.

Back to top
B
Balgownie House43 Bede Burn Road, Jarrow

Built circa 1875 for surgeon Frederick O'Neil, this is predominantly brick, two storeys, with ashlar dressings.


Various later uses include a dentist in the 1960s and more recently as a centre for Learning Disabilities.

Ben Lomond Public HouseGrange Road West, Jarrow

19th Century public house and, until the 1970s, a residential hotel.

The property was rented from Newcastle Breweries by Derek Armstrong, owner of the Cavalier Club and the County Hotel.

It was renamed The Viking, but by 1995 it had fallen into disrepair and came close to being demolished.

However, Wetherspoon stepped in to buy the property and refurbished the building, returning its name to The Ben Lomond.

Bethesda Free ChurchVictoria Road, South Shields

Designed by the architect T.A. Page of King Street and built by Mr J. Robson of Ocean Road for the United Methodist Free Church, a combination of Wesleyan Reformers and the Wesleyan Methodists Association costing £2000.

Western half is brick, eastern half is rendered and pebble-dashed. Battlemented 'tower' over arched doorway. Geometric window in gable with stained glass. Simple arched windows in side elevation.

The foundation stone was laid in 1868 by the Mayoress Mrs J.C. Stevenson and could seat 500 people.

During the ceremony a bottle was placed in the cavity of the stone containing a likeness of the Rev. J. Everett (the head of the circuit) and an assortment of other items; the names of contemporary ministers of the circuit, members of the Annual Assembly, minutes of the day's proceedings, names of the Trustees, names of the architect and builder, copies of the day's national and local newspapers, a few coins of the present reign.

Became the Bethesda Free Church from 1904. This was a Free Church Evangelical Mission that had previously used a variety of temporary sites in the town for its meetings.

The members had amassed a building fund of £360, which was used for the deposit for the building. The balance of £1610 was paid by 1907.

The leading figure of the mission at this time was George Gregory, an inspirational speaker and chief instigator in the search for permanent premises.

In June 1909 permission was granted for an extension for the Sunday school and a gallery for the church. This was opened on New Year's Day 1910.

Black Bull Public HouseFront Street, East Boldon

Public house with added bay windows and porch.

The Black HorseRectory Bank, East BoldonFormer coaching inn. Rendered. Falls within West Boldon Conservation Area.
Boer War MemorialCarr Ellison Park, Hebburn

A fine South African war memorial paid for by public subscription, commemorating the seven local men who were killed in the Transvaal.

The memorial is a globe showing the outline of Africa on a draped tapering column, all in polished dark grey granite.

The designer and date of erection is unknown but is thought to be circa 1903.

Boldon Golf ClubDipe Lane, East Boldon

The Golf Club was founded in 1912. The 'Old Vale Course' had 9 holes.

As demand increased the Club moved its 9-hole course to its present site.

In 1926 six time Open Champion, Harry Vardon, designed the 18 hole course on this 100+ acre site. Ridge and furrow earthworks survive on the course (HER 11686).

Boldon Palace CinemaNorth Road, Boldon

A 400-seat cinema which opened in 1913.

It was managed by a Mr Gilbert for twelve years.

There were two cinemas in Boldon until 1930, the other was Tim Ward's Star Cinema.

In 1933 the first "talkies" were shown. Five years later the Allom family took over the Electric Palace until it closed in 1959. It reopened as a bingo hall.

Boldon United Reform ChurchFront Street, East Boldon

Built in 1876 as a Congregational Church for £1400 by Frank Caws, architect of the Elephant Tea Rooms in Sunderland's Fawcett Street.

The church is Gothic in style, built in coarse limestone with sandstone dressings.

The pinnacles have been lost. Natural patterned slate roof and original windows. The boxy 1970s extension is a poor addition.

Boundary Wall (Rectory Green)Rectory Green, West BoldonSandstone wall.
Boundary Wall (Orchard Gardens)Orchard Gardens, Whitburn

A 3m high magnesian limestone wall with brick coping.

Originally surrounded an orchard, now a small 1980s housing estate.

The wall has an inner leaf of brick probably indicating that it was a heated wall. Facing south it would be an ideal location for vines or fruit.

Boundary Wall (The Close)Church Lane, Whitburn

High magnesian limestone boundary wall with blocked gothic arch defined in brick.

Boundary Wall (The Lawns)Front Street, Whitburn

Once the wall to Whitburn Hall. Limestone. Between 2m and 4m high.

Boundary Wall (West of 57a)Front Street Whitburn

Magnesian Limestone wall. Pedestrian doorway cut through it.

Boundary Walls and Gateways (Former Whitburn Hall)Front Street / Church Lane, Whitburn

Boundary walls and gateways to Whitburn Hall. In-filled carriage arch. The goose run is a rectangular limestone pen.

Boundary Walls (North Drive)2 North Drive, Cleadon

Magnesian limestone walls.

Former Bridge Buffet30 King Street, South Shields

For generations this attractive art nouveau building was a focal point of what used to be the Bridge public house.

For several years in the 19th Century, it had the unusual distinction of also being the coaching station for railway passengers, who had to go through the hotel - then known as the Bridge Inn - to buy their tickets in a back room.

They would then go on to the coal depot at the top of Salem Street - later the rear station yard - to climb onto a few carriages attached to empty coal trains going back to Washington, where they had to change trains.

Later in the Victorian era the inn achieved some notoriety for the arrest there of a culprit in a particularly gruesome murder in Morton Street, off Mile End Road.

The pub eventually closed towards the end of the 1960s, together with the neighbouring jewellers shop, Alexander's.

The white glazed tiles to the rear offshoot remain largely intact. These would have been used to reflect natural light into the back of the property.

BridgeRiver Drive, South Shields

River Drive Bridge dates from the 1930s, when the riverside underwent large-scale transformation.

Most of the 18th Century dwellings had already been demolished and replaced by new industries. The bridge was needed in order to make them more accessible than the existing narrow thoroughfares.

The bridge, originally known as Heugh Bridge, took two months to build, at a cost of £35,000, and was officially opened in August 1939 by the then Minister of Transport, Captain Euan Wallace.

The bridge is similar in appearance to the Tyne Bridge, but on a much smaller scale. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the River Drive Bridge confused German bombers during World War II, thinking that they were over Newcastle upon Tyne.

This was no small undertaking since the bridge had to cross the railway terminus.

Bridle Path (Numbers 2-13)East Boldon

A group of 6 pairs of early Edwardian semi-detached villas, located just outside of the Conservation Area.

The unusual design was the work of a local architect, Oliver Hall Mark, who was only 23 when he designed the houses. He went on to become the official architect for educational buildings in Sunderland, until 1945.

4 pairs of semis have imposing 2 storey brick bay windows, having gable pitched roofs above, with a half-timbered gable peak. 2 pairs of semis have only ground floor brick bay windows, with low pitched roofs. All of the semis have recessed front doors, which abut the party walls, & incorporate unusual open balcony features above. The steep pitched roofs are of red Rosemary clay tiles, with deep bargeboards to the gables, & have impressive chimney stacks.

The houses are offered additional privacy by the deep front gardens & brick boundary walls, many having moulded brick gate pillars, with decorative capping stones. Most of the boundary walls are topped with neatly trimmed hedging. No. 13 has had a recent 2 storey side extension added, but this is subordinate in nature & is in character with the main house.

The unusual design of these houses & the variety of architectural features displayed, provide an interesting and attractive vista, when approaching the village centre from Dipe Lane & Bridle Path. Immediately to the south of these houses, is a slightly older detached villa, 1 Bridle Path (Jubilee House). Built in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee (hence the house name), for the Linge family, who were market gardeners from Lincolnshire. The fields around the house were cultivated to provide food for the miners.

These houses are referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 & 5.22)

Brockley Whins Railway Bridgeoff Masefield Drive, South Shields

The bridge once carried the Stanhope and Tyne Railway over the River Don. The railway was opened in 1834.

It was the first public railway in the region and was designed to take passengers from South Shields to the Durham turnpike road, and to take minerals from County Durham to staiths on the Tyne.

The line was later taken over by the North Eastern Railway and became their Pontop and South Shields Branch.

The well-built stone bridge abutments date to the 1830s when the railway was first opened, but the metal plate across the abutments has been renewed at a later date.

Burton Buildings47-55 (Odds) Ormonde Street, Jarrow

An impressive decorative structure, circa 1925. Complete with name, its inter-war white faience façade stretching around the corner site. Burtons is now part of a national chain known as the Arcadia Group.


In 1903, Montague Burton was only 18 years old when he borrowed £100 from a relative to open the Cross-Tailoring Company in Chesterfield. "Good clothes develop a man's self-respect," was one of Burton's insights. He was dedicated to providing high quality made-to-measure suits at a reasonable price, revolutionizing the industry with his promise of "A five guinea suit for 55 shillings."

At the start of World War I, production changed from suits to uniforms which clothed nearly a quarter of the armed forces. By 1929 Burton had four hundred shops, factories, and mills when the company went public. Montague Burton was knighted in 1931 for his efforts in "furthering industrial relations and international peace." He was appointed Justice of the Peace, a post he held for many years. His ambition was not only to clothe the nation and to raise the bar on the quality of life for his employees, but also to co-operate and collaborate with those working for the advancement of culture and education worldwide.


The House of Burton played a major role in creating the United Nations Association. In 1934, the Princess Royal Mary visited the Burton factory in Leeds where she met throngs of cheering factory girls and complimented Sir Montague on his magnificent achievement in creating a pioneering welfare system for the workers.

On the eve of World War II, The House of Burton again turned to the production of uniforms for the troops. After the war, Burton produced a suit for war veterans nicknamed "The Full Monty". In 1952 Sir Montague passed away. At the time of his death the company was the largest multiple tailor in the world.

Burton Menswear64 King Street, South Shields

1930s clothing store. Social context: 'The Full Monty' derives from the inexpensive suits supplied by Montague Burton.

Back to top
C
Cardrona House19 Underhill Road, Cleadon

Detached brick villa, built between 1897 and 1914.

Polygonal corner bay window, Art Nouveau style stained glass and Arts & Crafts style porch. Welsh slate roof, red pantile over the bays, elegant open sided timber and brick front door porch.

Two tall chimney stacks with stone cornices and terracotta pots. The garden contains fine trees.

Caretaker's Lodge at Old Boys' High School27a Mowbray Road, South Shields

In the 1880s a group of prominent businessmen wanted a boys high school to be built in South Shields where the pupils could go straight on to university.

Lord Aberdare laid the foundation stone on 29 May 1884. Just a year later, in May 1885, 37 boys were registered and took up their places in the new High School. The two-storey building cost £6000 to build, it was designed by the Newcastle architects Oliver & Leeson and had a separate lodge for the caretaker.

In 1936 the new South Shields High School for Boys was built at St Mary's Avenue, Harton. The old Boys High School building was demolished in about the 1970s, but the Caretaker's Lodge is still there and is now a private residence.

Carr Ellison Park (includes wall and railings)Canning Street, Hebburn

Red brick boundary wall with ashlar coping and railings above. There are four gate piers which are red brick with bands of ashlar and low pyramidal coping.

CenotaphCarr Ellison Park, Hebburn

Urn on a stepped pedestal on a circular platform surrounded by concrete fence uprights and a circular pavement.

"To the glory of god and in grateful memory of all Hebburn men who fought who suffered and who made the supreme sacrifice in the wars 1914-1919 and 1939-1945 erected by their fellow townspeople".

Chimney (Former Cookson Glassworks)Harton Staithes, South Shields

On the site of the former workshops related to the operation of Harton coal staiths and electric railway are the remains of a chimney, carrying a date stone of 1865.

The surviving structure is approx. 30ft in height, and 10ft by 10ft in plan. Built of brick with a fire brick lining, the chimney has a stone string course at about 15ft from the ground. There is a cement ashlar facing on the north face, to string course level. On the west and south faces are markings from former abutting buildings.

 The chimney has been reduced in height at some time. Internally the chimney is approx. 5ft by 5ft in plan. Flues can be seen within the walls about 7 and 10ft from the ground. The lower areas of the interior are encrusted with deposits on the fire brick. The structure came to light when workshops on the site were being demolished by British Coal.

The chimney, in recent times, had formed one corner of a building and had been enclosed by surrounding structures. The ashlar faced north side of the structure represents an external face of this arrangement. The chimney is undoubtedly the sole surviving structure from the Swineburne Glassworks which stood on the site in the 19th century (HER 2340). The glassworks chimney stood to its original height in 1938. It had been reduced to its present height by 1973.

Christ Church RectoryClayton Street, Jarrow

19th Century vicarage, later used as a caretaker's cottage for the Palmer Community Hospital.

Inscription above door reads:
"A memorial of the many virtues & Christian works of Edward Liddell sometime rector of Jarrow
and honry canon of Durham cathedral and of Christina his wife"

Church Hall52 Front Street, East Boldon

Red brick church hall with sandstone details, built in 1863 in Gothic Revival style. The church hall, which pre-dates the adjacent church by 13 years, includes a small annexe to the east gable. The front elevation features brick buttresses and high, narrow arched windows, and an original entrance porch, which is highly detailed.

Although the original church hall was relatively small, the building was substantially extended to the rear, in the 1920's. However, the front elevation is largely unaltered and makes a bold contribution to the street scene.

This building is referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 and 5.22)

ChurchyardChurch Lane, Whitburn

Prior to its extension in 1868 the churchyard was roughly rectangular, with the church set close to the centre of the north side.

The 1868 extension was to the north of the church. The oldest monuments lie on the south side of the church - mostly 19th century headstones and tombstones, but a few 18th century stones, some broken or badly decayed.

In the eastern half of the 1868 extension there are late 19th century and 20th century gravestones. The western side is as yet unused, and ridge and furrow earthworks survive here.

Cleadon Infants School2 and 3 Cleadon Lane, Cleadon

Built in 1907, the school is a visual landmark and represents an important milestone in the village's social and community development.

It is sandwiched between Westgarth and All Saints Church. It is an attractive building with a Welsh slate roof ornamented by red clay ridge tiles. Its layout incorporates integral vertical and hipped roof gabled wings projecting from its front elevation, creating an interesting variety of form and pitches.

The symmetry of the western and eastern halves of the building reflects its original division into a boys and girls school. It is constructed from red facing bricks with contrasting stone water tabling, lintels and cills.

There are stone dressings and key stones with brick on edge detailing above the windows. The rainwater goods are cast iron. The front of the school is contained by a brick boundary wall with stone copings surmounted by a steel fence. Converted to residential use.

Cleadon Pumping Station (Covered Reservoir)Sunniside Lane, Cleadon

Large circular domed structure. Historic photographs show it is about 6m deep.

It is sunken into the ground and lined with irregular coursed rubble stone, originally with a stone set floor and ornate railings around its rim. This is now covered by the stark light grey concrete dome added in 1954 (reputedly the largest unsupported concrete dome in Europe).

The water was pumped from a well under the engine house (HER 9107) into the reservoir. It could hold 2 million gallons. 1.5 million gallons of water was extracted per 12 hours.

Cleadon Recreation AreaOff Laburnum Grove, Cleadon

The recreation area and the west side of Laburnum Grove occupy the former grounds of Cleadon House.

The grounds were laid out in the picturesque style of the mid to late eighteenth century, decorated by the gothic grotto that overlooked a lake and terraces. The picturesque style, promoted by Capability Brown and Henry Repton about the time that the House and its gardens were being developed, was dominated by architecture.

The 1862 Ordnance Survey shows how the House, with its principal elevation overlooking the grounds, had open views channelled through woodlands to the Grotto, the lake and pastures beyond. Observed from the south, the House would have stood on the crest of the slope with a sculptured and layered foreground comprising pastures, the lake, the grotto and lawns. All of these features would have been carefully designed to visually interlink to compose a picture.

Some vestiges of the grounds survive, but as independent and unrelated features. The House was visually detached from its former grounds by gravel excavations in the first quarter of the twentieth century followed by later woodland planting that also wraps around the Grotto, reducing the latter's impact to a subsidiary role. Some large mature trees, principally Chestnut, survive from the earlier period. The lake has gone together with any related groundwork features.

The former sweep of pasture is now laid out and maintained as football pitches and, at the southern end, a children's play area with bowling greens tucked away from view behind one of the Windermere cul-de-sacs. The edges of the recreation area are planted with woodland trees to create a green containment of the open space. Property boundaries on the Laburnum Grove side are substantially contained by close boarded fencing that occasionally creates a hard and utilitarian edge detracting from the appearance of the area.

The recreation area is a valuable and attractive facility at the heart of the village. Its historic significance as the ornamental grounds to Cleadon House is diminished by its reduction in size, the loss of the lake and the extensive woodland planting of the northern slope.

Cleadon Village PondFront Street, Cleadon

The visual heart of the Conservation Area. The pond lies in a depression where there was once a well.

In the 19th century a complex of houses known as 'The Cluster' were build along the eastern edge of the pond, probably back-to-back workers cottages. The pond was larger and less regular then (referred to as the Cleadon Lake).

OS maps suggest that the pond was surrounded by earthen banks. The pond would have served travellers and water for stock.

Coach House to the Former Whitburn HallFront Street, Whitburn

Former coach house with decorative fish-scale Welsh and Westmorland slate roofs and large timber bargeboard details.

Colliery Hotel Public HouseBoldon Lane / Stanley Street, South Shields

The Colliery Hotel occupies a prominent corner site at the junction of Boldon Lane and Stanley Street. The name was recently changed to 'Last Orders'.

Built around 1904 opposite a railway crossing, the public house would have been frequented by workers from the nearby Harton Colliery in Harton Lane.

The red-bricked upper floor and tiled ground floor frontage remain in good condition.

Comical CornerSouth Shields

The steps at Comical Corner have been a boat landing place for at least 200 years probably a lot longer. They are clearly shown on the 1860 and 1896 map.

Located where Wapping Street meets Shadwell Street. The direct ferry to North Shields (AKA the Ha'penny Dodger) used go from there.

Comical Corner most likely gets its name because there was a bend in the river which caused strong currents which badly affected boats leading to comical results for those who were watching.

This area was the title of a novel by Francis Daniel called the Angel of Comical Corner published in 1897.

Conversation Piece ArtworkRiver Drive, South Shields

1998 by Juan Munoz. 22 bronze figures, patinated light blue / green on a paved area behind Littlehaven Beach.

The figures appear to be standing in filled sacks. Each figure is in a different pose, either listening, leaning or talking. Each figure weighs approximately a quarter of a tonne and stands 1.5 metres high.

Cottage TavernNorth Street, Cleadon

A 19th century public house. Locals say that it was formerly a ropeworks and a house. It was extended at its western end in the later 20th century. Pitched gables have been added to the south elevation and the first floor rendered, painted white and timber boarding added.

The CountySunderland Road, South Shields

Sited on a landscape corner, Queen Anne revival style.

Has deep dentilled cornices, curved door hoods, key stones above shallow-arched windows, steep hipped roofs, strong white on red theme. Westmorland slate roof laid in diminishing courses (huge slates at the eaves smaller ones at the ridge).

Mid to late Victorian. Grand and deeply detailed. Big storey heights, tall windows, large half-hipped dormers in Westmorland slate. Arched saloon windows, embellished corner door and outstanding glazed-tiled arch to Wood Terrace with a mosaic floor.

Criterion Public House2 Ocean Road, South Shields

This prominently sited victorian building is mentioned in the 1899-1900 Trade Directory (Proprietor T Waudby).

Cross of SacrificeJarrow Cemetery, Jarrow

First World War Memorial.

There are also 101 Commonwealth War Commission Graves in this cemetery. Crosses of Sacrifice were paid for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to honour those lost in the two World Wars.

Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1919. Typically a tall, long shafted Portland stone cross with a bronze sword applied to it, set on an octagonal stepped base. They came in a range of four sizes. The Cross represents the faith of the majority of the dead and the sword represents the military.

The Commission, as part of its mandate, is responsible for commemorating all Commonwealth war dead individually and equally. To this effect, the war dead are commemorated by name on either a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial.

War dead are commemorated in a uniform and equal fashion, irrespective of military or civil rank, race or creed. Over 1000 were set up across the world, with 12 found in Tyne and Wear.

Cross of SacrificeHebburn Cemetery, Victoria Road West, Hebburn

First World War Memorial. Cross of Sacrifice of Blomfield design with a bronze sword.

On a double octagonal plinth and base with 2 steps.

"To the honoured memory of sailors and soldiers who gave their lives for their country in the great war 1914-1918 who lie buried in this cemetery. Their names liveth for evermore".

Crosses of SacrificeHarton Cemetery, South Shields

There are in fact two Crosses of Sacrifice in Harton Cemetery.

This type of war memorial was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1919 in a range of four sizes.

The memorial consists of a tall long-shafted Portland stone cross with a bronze sword applied to it, set on an octagonal stepped base.

One stands at the north-west corner of the cemetery, the other is set amongst the CWGC headstones in the south-west corner.

Crown Hotel68 Hedworth Lane, Boldon

Late 19th century public house.

The Crown Inn Public HouseLawe Top, South Shields

The Crown Inn opened in 1834 making it the second oldest continuous pub in South Shields after The Ship at Harton.

The first licensee in 1834 was Mary Hall, Mary Hart in 1839, Mary Hall in 1851 and Mary Chambers in 1854. Source: Licensing Records.

In 1839 the landlady Mary Hart touchingly gave the address as "The Sea Side". On 14 July 1880, Captain Cook (J. H.) was the licensee, despite popular belief this was not the famous Captain Cook.

In 1884 it was advertised to let stating: "This free and old fashioned public house having an uninterrupted view of the German Ocean and entrance to the Tyne."

The name Crown Inn is still visible on the roof of the building. It changed its name to the Harbour Lights on the 8 July 1965. It was a Westoe Breweries pub in 1953 and a Bass Charrington pub from 1966 until 2002.

Cyprus Public House48 Chichester Road, South Shields

Architects: M. Wall and Sons of Albany Chambers, King Street.

The original Cyprus PH was situated on the corner of George Potts and Chichester Road until 1885. Plans for the current building were approved on 2 August 1900 and included a cellar and a ground floor with a bar and 'bottle of jug' room (off licence).

The first floor was to contain a buffet and a billiard room, as well as a sitting room/ newsroom. The third floor would be given over to living accommodation consisting of three bedrooms, a living room and an indoor bathroom and lavatory.

The site was owned by the executors of a Mr John Turnbull, who also owned the Victoria Brewery in James Mather Street. Turnbull had been in the brewing business for over thirty years and his initials can be seen in the fascia of the pub. The building, completed in 1901, includes a fascia made up of ornate bottle green tiles highlighted in reds and yellow; a luscious example of late Victorian architectural extravagance.

Back to top
D
Daltons Lane Workshops2-6 Daltons Lane, South Shields

After the designation of Mill Dam Conservation Area in March 1981, these buildings were converted by the council into 11 workshops.

Former maltings, part of the early to mid-19th century Subscription Brewery. The only building of the brewery to survive. Red brick with red pantile roof. The brewery was out of use by 1858, when the maltings was in use as a warehouse.

Remnants of a painted sign on the southeast gable indicates that it was in use as a sail makers at some point.

Externally, the building is readable as a maltings, with small windows with cambered heads to three levels, indicating three former low germinating floors. The red pantile roof and timber jettied loading door are late 20th century additions. Conversion in the late 19th century led to the blocking or modification of most original windows and the insertion of four wide and tall ground floor openings, each flanked by large windows.

The ground floor was divided into 4 workshops and one of the original germinating floors was removed. The original floors would have been supported on cast-iron beams. These have been replaced by steel beams. Various modern interiors, stairs and lifts have been inserted to convert the building into offices. There are no visible remains of the processes that were carried out within the building. There is partial survival of a timber roof structure, but this has been modified by the insertion of steel tie-beams.

Linked to the grade 2 listed Customs House by a glass walkway. Was put forward for listing in 2016 but Historic England chose not to add it to the list.

The Dolly PeelRiver Drive, South Shields

1987 by Billy Gofton.

This is a statue of ciment-fondu and concrete. It depicts local nineteenth century heroine Dolly Peel, who helped men evade the press gangs.

She was born in South Shields in 1782 and was known as a smuggler of brandy, tobacco, perfume and lace. She is said to have been one of the first 'nurses' to work in the cockpit of naval vessels. Dolly died in 1857.

The inscription on the base says: "stories and legends about her persist to this day".

Drinking Fountain (Boldon)Hubert Street / Cotswold Lane, Boldon

Replica 19th century drinking fountain.

Drinking Fountain (Whitburn)Front Street, Whitburn

This fountain was presented to the inhabitants of the village of Whitburn by Mrs Barnes in commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign of her majesty Queen Victoria and was erected on this site by order of the parish council 1897.

Gifted by Mrs Eleanor Pollard Barnes of Whitburn House (HER 8053).

Back to top
E
East Farm (1-4 Barns Close)Monkton Village, Jarrow

The farm sits behind a prominent stone boundary wall and a large, green garden. This large sandstone farmhouse has a robust character with sash windows (with exposed weight boxes), a slate roof and stone water tabling. It has two well-mannered extensions - a small garage to the west in rubble stone and handmade brick, and a large single-storey one to the east in stone with a hipped pitched slate roof.

The pitched roof rear offshoot has a stone ground floor and a later handmade brick upper storey (in English garden wall bond), which includes a first floor stone window lintel dated 1865.

Good conservation-style rooflights are used on the rear roof slope but some rear replacement windows are 'fake sash' top-hung casements that visually jar against the finer original ones.

East Farm's neighbouring U-plan stone barns (1-4 Barns Close) have been sensitively rebuilt for residential use, using brick timber detailing, conservation-style rooflights, new traditionally designed sliding sash windows, a few new window openings, black metal rainwater goods, and a mix of Welsh slate and pantile roofs with discrete ridge vents.

There is a block paviour courtyard and boundary walls topped with characteristic triangular copes. A bumper stone survives on one corner of the barn.

East Farm and Boundary Walls1 Cleadon Lane, Cleadon

The farm comprised two yard areas and a collection of outbuildings including a gin-gang.

The late 18th and early 19th century farmhouse (NZ 3857 6242) is built in irregular coursed rubble with irregular stone quoins. It has new window openings and window inserts that are flush to the wall. The roof is Welsh slate with high raised gables. A new porch has been added. The eaves have been raised. The increased west gable is in brick. The gable is crow-stepped and sits on a projecting stone corbel.

The farmhouse is surrounded by an attractive stone boundary wall. Blocked openings including a possible original pedestrian gate are evident and one leading into a demolished farm building. The farmyards have been developed.

Only one farm building remains to be converted into a garage. The new East Farm development is a courtyard with modern houses around it. The Wood family farmed here in 1839, they also farmed at Sunniside Farm and Farding Slade.

East Farm (Ridge and Furrow)Cleadon

An example of ridge and furrow, showing elongated reverse 'S' pattern typically created by a pre-1540 system of ox-drawn ploughing. This illustrates the likelihood that the land has not been subsequently ploughed and has remained as permanent pasture.

'The remains of ridge and furrow can be seen across many areas of Northumberland and Durham. It results from a method of cultivation that was used throughout the medieval (1066-1540) period and later. It is commonly identified by the broad reverse s-shaped undulations that were created by ox drawn plough, cutting and turning the soil over.

The ox team needed plenty of space to turn at the end of each furrow because, by ploughing in a slight curve, the plough could start to turn before the furrow had been completed, this enabled it to be turned and brought back around into the curve of the preceding ridge.

The steam driven plough did not require so much space to turn, so it has narrower and straighter ridges and furrows.' Source: 'Keys to the Past' website 2010 (HLF project in Northumberland and Durham).

Eco Centre and Wind TurbineWindmill Way, Hebburn

A purpose built eco centre, built in 1996. It incorporates up-to-date sustainable construction methods for the offices and also provides adequate quality tenancies for local start-up businesses, along with support of local jobs, job creation and social enterprise.

Developed by Groundwork South Tyneside, all materials were recycled from sustainable sources, including re-used bricks from a demolished factory, an aluminium roof re-smelted from old drink cans, wood from farmed forests and woollen carpets. Electricity is generated by a wind turbine and photovoltaic display. This award-winning project has become an exemplar of sustainability.

Edinburgh Buildings20-24 King Street, South Shields

First recorded in 1881. Formerly retail and offices.

Renovated in 1994 by Project North East and now used as a community building. Brick with corner turret and bay windows. Timber is painted dark red. A set of original baker's ovens remains largely intact in the basement. Incorporates 1-4 Station Approach. Presently a photographic shop (Max Spielmann).

Ellison Street 60-68 (Evens)Jarrow

Row of shops and commercial properties, brick with ashlar façade.

Two storeys and dormers with round-arched windows on upper floors. No. 60 was the original post office, now the TSB / Lloyds Bank. No. 62. is the National Westminster Bank. Nos. 64 and 66 are Maxwell's Hardware store and Manhattan Takeaway. No. 68 is Barclays Bank.

Equitable Co-OpWestoe Road, South Shields

Built in 1891 as recorded on the date stone. It was designed by the architect Thomas Alexander Page of 67 King Street.

Twice yearly people used to go there to collect their "divi" this was a share of the profits made by the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). Many older people can still recall collecting their "divi" from this building, the practice died out by the 1970s.

The Co-op still own the building and it is now called Co-op Funeralcare. It is probably the only shop/store in South Shields which has used the same premises for 131 years.

Back to top
F
Fenwicks Furniture Store6 King Street, South Shields

John Fenwick was a linen and woollen draper who opened his first shop at 6 King Street in 1833, this shop later became Woolworth's. In 1865 his son Robert Cook Fenwick joined the family firm. John Fenwick died in 1873.

In 1889 the architect Thomas Alexander Page of 67 King Street designed the building of 44 King Street near the Fowler Street end. It opened as a furniture store on Friday 17 October 1890 and was described as "One of The Largest Stocks In The North" with "Five Immense Saloons Over One Hundred Feet In Length".

Robert Cook Fenwick died in 1912 and then his nephew Edward Stanley Fenwick took over the family business until he retired in 1939. The address was changed to 3-5 King Street. Hardy & Co Furnishers took over the store in 1939 this was a very popular furniture shop until 1974, when the fast-food chain McDonalds acquired the building.

It is a lovely double fronted symmetrical building with ornate carved sandstone and two triangular pediments on the roof. It was probably the first furniture department store in the town.

Source: Eileen Burnett, via Terry Ford.

Fern, Hope and Ivy CottagesNorth Guards, Whitburn

Four terraced cottages - No. 8, Ivy Cottage, Hope Cottage and Fern Cottage. The latter 3 are on the Local List. Orientated at right angles to North Guards with No. 8's gable to the street.

Built between 1750 and 1800 as part of Hedworth Williams Estate. No. 8 was called Myrtle Cottage.

Welsh slate with dormers, stone watertabling, ridge finials, kneeler and gable dressings. Large flat-roofed box dormers, Velux-style rooflights, metal and UPVC windows and masonry paint have eroded character.

Ferry LandingFerry Street, South Shields

The distinctive new ferry landing, built by Harbour & General, was officially opened in July 1999.

It consists of a 50m steel bridge leading to a 32 square metre reinforced concrete pontoon. The landing provides three berths as well as an indoor waiting room and offices. The landing was built at the Pallion Yard in Sunderland and transported by sea as a floating vessel.

The landing itself is made of watertight concrete and the workshop buildings and waiting room were built on top later. It was named Maisie's Landing after Councillor Maisie Stewart, who at the time was Lord Mayor of South Shields. The name was chosen through a competition in the South Shields Gazette.

There have been ferries across the Tyne since the 14th Century and this is the only service that remains. The ferry service makes just under 25,000 journeys a year and carries nearly 400,000 passengers a year. There are two vessels that operate the service, currently The Pride of the Tyne (1993) and The Spirit of the Tyne (2007). Justification for Inclusion: historically a crossing at this point.

Fleet and Spirit of South Shields ArtworksMarket Dock / Long Row, South Shields

Beautiful modern sculptures set within and at the entrance to the former Brigham and Cowan's dry dock. This former shipyard has been reclaimed and redeveloped to provide riverside housing.

The Spirit of South Shields, by Irene Brown, holds a sailing ship in one arm while raising the other to greet the future. She is a protector guiding the ships through the seas safely. She stands on a relief of South Shields - a firm foundation in the past and present, which is represented and orientated by the model buildings. She stands strong and optimistic, unafraid by the winds of change - the figurehead for South Shields Future.

The base of the statue is a contour map of South Shields with several well known features: the Groyne, Arbeia Fort, the Old Town Hall and Westoe Colliery. The screws sticking through the base are where someone has stolen the model of the Town Hall.

Fleet, also by Irene Brown, is a collection of seven stainless steel collier ships in full sail set in the water of Market Dock, overlooking the River Tyne at South Shields. The brightly polished ships reflect patterns of both moving sky and water and give the impression of a fleet heading out to sea.

The FountainHighfield Road, South Shields

The Fountain is an historic building built in 1938 and is unique for its Green Chinese Roof.

Fowler Street 4-8 (Evens)South Shields

A substantial 19th Century building. This building dates from around the time Fowler Street was widened - circa 1900. Four storeys. Sandstone ashlar. Three shops at ground floor (presently Coral, LaRoSh and Homefair Blinds). Sash windows on three upper floors.

Foyboat StationRiver Drive, South Shields

Situated just behind the Pilot Jetty it is a brick-built building possibly dating from the 1930s but it was just a wooden hut prior to this. The pilots and foyboatmen have traditionally worked together.

Foyboats have existed on the Tyne for over 300 years and the name "foy" probably derives from the word "fee". The foyboats used to assist boats for fees in sailing ship days this was usually assisting boats in and out of the Tyne when there was no wind. With the advent of steam, they helped boats to dock. It is a highly skilled and potentially dangerous occupation. Traditionally foyboatmen were recruited from family dynasties.

The Tyne Foyboat station is still in daily use.

Front Street 19-31 (Odds) and 35Whitburn

Terraced houses with a strong presence.

An almost continuous terrace of 18th and 19th century houses broken only by Chicks Lane (HER 12512) and Staffords Lane (HER 12513). Nos. 5 to 35 are on the Local List.

The grassy strip in front of them is part of the original village green. This strong group of buildings has a harmonious frontage, a limited palette of materials and common characteristics, but each house has been built separately and there is notable variety in style, form, size and plot width. The terrace is unified by the range of low stone, brick and stucco walls and mature beech and privet hedges to small attractive front gardens. No original railings survive.

Nos. 1 and 2 are in mellow sandstone with tiled roofs and central gable. They have traditional shop frontages. The upper floor has uPVC windows. The rest of the houses are either sandstone or red brick with Welsh slate, clay pantile or plain clay tile roofs with brick or stone chimneys. The building line is stepped.

No. 27 has finial details on the gable. No. 25 has canted bays. Nos. 19 and 21 are in stucco incised to look like stone. No. 31 (formerly the Rose Joicey Convalescent Home and later a theatrical boarding home, now a house called Kingarth) has full height bays and cast iron decoration. Some original sash windows, mostly with tripartite divisions of mid to late Victorian period.

No. 19 has uPVC windows, Nos. 27 and 31 have Velux-style rooflights. No. 25 has dormer and oriel windows. Front doors are generally 6 panels with decorative semi-circular or rectangular fanlights and curved timber door hoods. No. 25 and a classical door surround.

Front Street (20)Whitburn

Former outbuilding to Whitburn Hall. Now a private house. The former coach house is also now a dwelling.

Front Street (30-34 Evens)East Boldon

A row of low two-storey stone cottages with simple frontages and later windows, brick porches and chimneys.

No. 32 has been refaced in brick. Its later bow windows are not historically accurate. Small fragments of original lime render survive on parts of this terrace. The rears are in good condition, the large brick buildings on the back lane are 19th century estate buildings. Cast iron corner 'bumpers' or 'glinters' survive.

Front Street (36-40 Evens)Whitburn

Nos. 36 to 40 are on the Local List. Diminutive cottages. Single storey whitewashed cottages said to have been converted from Whitburn Hall's stable block. Welsh slate roofs and a variety of sash and casement windows.

Front Street (49)East Boldon

The village butcher's shop. The plot still continues back to South Lane - it has not been built on. The shop has a pediment to the street, now rendered and painted and an early shopfront.

Front Street (5-17 Odds)Whitburn

18th and 19th Century terraced houses. A strong group of buildings with a harmonious frontage, limited palette of materials and common characteristics, but each house has been built separately from the next and there is notable variety in style, form and plot width.

The terrace is unified by the range of low stone, brick and stucco walls, and mature beech and privet hedges, which form an almost continuous boundary to small and attractive front gardens. Modern alterations, notably PVCu windows, are present in some properties. However, a fine, authentic mix of original sash windows makes a strong contribution to these buildings, predominated by tripartite divisions, fashionable in the mid to late Victorian period.

Other traditional details are abundant such as decorative bargeboards (e.g. No.15), four and six panel front doors with decorative semi-circular or rectangular fanlights, or with other designs (e.g. Nos.9 and 11), and curved timber door hoods.

Front Street (86-92 Evens and 96)East Boldon

East Boldon's most impressive big group of 17th, 18th and 19th century vernacular cottages and houses.

Simple one or two storey houses in limestone or brick with sash windows. Stone lintels and cills, original front doors with hoods, shaped chimneys and slate or pantile roofs. Several of the shaped chimneys in this row have been reduced or demolished. Of the few modern windows, most are good replicas.

No. 96 is Victorian but may have absorbed earlier buildings. It has false shutters, replacement windows and no chimneys which make it stand out from the simple authenticity of the others.

No. 92 is an attractive two-storey cottage with sash windows, brick frontage, slate roof and small front garden. Rears are relatively intact with various offshoots. Some outbuildings have been lost to in-curtilage parking and infill development on North Road.

Nos. 86/88 were probably built in the 17th century as small single-storey limestone cottages with pantile roofs. They were 'modernised' in the 19th century and bear the date 1883. Limestone masonry is still visible on the side of No. 88.

Front Street (44-60)East Boldon

An attractive terrace of 4 shops & a small private club, mostly with maisonettes above.

Many interesting architectural features are evident, including 5 original hipped roof dormers, sandstone window heads & cills, quoins & banding course. Many original shopfront features are retained, including mosaic tiled entrances, polished granite plinths, & recessed entrance doors with fanlights over.

The bricked-up shopfront to the private club (No. 60) detracts from the symmetry of the group, but still has some redeeming features. However, the flat roofed dormer (No. 56) and the large modern fascia & signage (No. 52) are out of character with the group, although these do not spoil the general street scene.

These buildings are referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 & 5.22).

Front Street (35) including adjacent garage blockEast Boldon

This large imposing 2 storey early Victorian dwelling was the original farmhouse of South Farm and has a prominent location in this part of the village.

The house is of random limestone construction & is of a traditional but unpretentious design, & is set in a slightly elevated position, with an open aspect.

The windows consist of 2 over 2 timber sliding sash style frames, with stone heads & cills. The front entrance door is set in a stone porch, with a pitched gable roof.

The visual impact of the property is enhanced by the dwarf retaining wall, with well-kept lawn behind. Garage block: "An early Victorian farm building, originally part of South Farm, which was converted some years ago into 6 garages, which are accessed from the rear (The Orchard).

The building is visually imposing in an elevated position and is a fine example of random limestone construction, typical of this area & era. The appearance is enhanced by a small Georgian style window in the front elevation but also by the limestone retaining wall at street level, with pleasant landscaping behind. Although the building was re-roofed some time ago with profiled brown concrete tiles, these have weathered well & do not detract from the overall appearance.

This building is referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 & 5.22).

Back to top
G
Gandhi's Temple (bandstand and lavatories)Sea Road, South Shields

This shelter and lavatories were built for people using the sands and is known locally as Gandhi's Temple, opening 19 September 1931.

Almost no change has occurred to the building throughout its life apart from the removal of seating and partitions from the upper storey which led to the assumption it was a bandstand. Recorded in 2015 ahead of conversion to a bar/restaurant. Architect James Paton Watson.

Gate, Piers and Boundary Walls (North Guards and Sandy Chare)Whitburn

Tall magnesian limestone boundary walls.

Glebe Farm Barns Moor Lane, Whitburn

Working farm. Range of historic stone farm buildings with slate and pantile roofs.

The farmhouse is a substantial stone building with Westmorland slate roof with attractive fish-scale detailing. Timber sliding sash windows. Inappropriate smeared re-pointing. A number of brick outbuildings with corrugated tin roofs.

Gordon Drive (1)East Boldon

A small estate built in the spirit of the Garden City movement laid out in the early 20th century.

Gordon Drive is a wide curved low-density street with ten large detached and semi detached houses developed piecemeal, probably as individual architect-designed commissions. The street has large gardens, grass verges and an avenue of ornamental cherry trees.

Several of the houses adopt Arts & Crafts motifs such as cat-slide roofs, tall chimneys, clay tilework. No. 1 has a lychgate. Doorways are simple and round-headed mock Tudor or classical openings with oak front doors. Original metal windows survive. Nos. 1 and 3 are good examples. Nos. 8 and 10 have been replaced by new houses. Later extensions have been over dominant.

Grange TerraceEast Boldon

Visitors to The Grange (HER 7729) entered through the Coach House on Grange Terrace, a row of estate cottages.

These are cheerful one-and-a half-storey cottages with lots of original features including 6-over-2 sash windows, battened doors with small diamond lights and a Welsh slate roof with dormers and moulded chimneys.

No. 3 has false shutters and a different colour scheme to the rest. The Coach House has a lower stable block range to the north. It has timber gates, a large square cupola with weathervane and applied half-timbering to the upper floor.

Nos. 3 to 5 have plain clay tile rear roof slopes. No. 1 has gothic gable windows and is on the Local List. Three ridge vent tiles survive.

Greenlands2 Boldon Lane, Cleadon

Detached house built between 1897 and 1914. The only pre- First World War house in the street.

Brick built with a Welsh slate roof, raised loop tiles, terracotta chimney pots and attractive moulded terracotta sill course. There is a coach house/stable in the grounds with a double ventilated roof, faced brick walls, rendered gable ends and stepped kneelers.

The garden is contained within sandstone boundary walls with brick coping stones and red brick walls. Ashlar gate pier. A stone lintel is inscribed with 'Greenlands'. Boarded timber gate.

Greens Place (1-18)Mile End Road, South Shields

The flats at numbers 1 to 18 Greens Place are over 70 years old. They are the oldest purpose-built block of flats in the town and the only 1930s block.

The flats were built on the site of the old Green's Sailor Boys Institution. This was a home that took in boys from disadvantaged backgrounds and prepared them to be sent to the Wellesley Training ship that was moored on the Tyne at North Shields.

The Wellesley was an old ship of the line, originally called the Boscawen. This was donated by the Admiralty in 1873 and took in boys from the ages of twelve to sixteen where they were given training to suit them for a life at sea. The boys at the Green's Home would have been below the age of twelve.

The Wellesley Ship was destroyed by fire in 1914 and, after a short spell in Tynemouth, the training facility moved to a shore establishment in Blyth. As a consequence, there was no further need for the Green's Home. For a while the building was used as a working men's hostel but it eventually succumbed to the years and had to be demolished.

In 1936 an agreement was made between the "Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses of the County Borough of South Shields" and the "North Eastern Housing Association Limited" (now Home Group Limited) to "Erect upon the Mile End Road site at South Shields buildings comprising eighteen dwellings being flats of the type specified in plans and specifications". These were to be "available for the accommodation of persons of the working classes".

Building took some time and the first people did not move in to the flats until 1938. They still have much of their original look and the influence of the 1930s Art Deco style can be seen in the shape of their windows and balconies.

Grey Horse Public House (Whitburn)North Guards, Whitburn

A prominent Tudor-gothic sandstone building. A rebuild of an earlier pub of the same name. Built in 1905, it is double-fronted with a square central full height bay incorporating a curved hood and first floor crest. Stone mullion and transom windows.

Grey Horse Public House (East Boldon)Front Street, East Boldon

The original shape of the public house can be seen in its truncated west gable but it has been significantly extended to the back and side.

Its front elevation has been rebuilt with an ornate, rustic, mock Elizabethan feel - large timber bay windows, overhanging upper floors, black and white colour scheme, leaded windows.

The roof has gables and chimneys. Heavy joinery, carvings and moulded plaster detailing. The rear is a mix of later subordinate extensions with an early stable-like outhouse in poor condition.

The Grotto and associated Lift ShaftMarsden Bay, South Shields

In 1782 Jack Bates, an unemployed miner from Allendale, moved to Marsden looking for work. He found the caves hidden within Marsden Bay's limestone cliff face and decided to expand one of them with explosives to create a house for himself and his wife.

The steps from the cliff top to the beach were said to have been carved by "Jack the Blaster" in 1788. He is said to have made a living from smuggling. He died in 1792 and his wife vacated their cave home.

Peter Allan moved into the cave in 1826. He expanded it further finding 18 human skeletons in the process, possibly smugglers. Allan made a two-storey cave with a basic kitchen which he opened as an inn called the Tam O' Shanter, renamed shortly as the Marsden Grotto.

The inn was popular with smugglers. High tides flooded the inn in the 1850s and a cliff face collapsed in 1864. Peter Allan had died in 1849. The rest of the family left in 1874.

The business was taken over by Sidney Milnes Hawkes and the building made sound. It was then sold to Vaux Brewery in 1898. The Grotto included a ballroom, which was popular in the Edwardian era, when visitors travelled to Marsden by boat (no coast road until modern times).

It is the only 'cave-bar' in Europe and is said to be the most haunted public house in England. Banging, whispering and screaming have been heard. Source: Kirkup 2009.

Guidepost (opposite Foxton Court)Off Front Street, Cleadon

A fine cast iron guidepost survives in front of a small artificial community building in front of Foxton Court. It is in deteriorating condition. The fingers have been removed.

Gypsies Green Sports GroundSouth Foreshore, South Shields

Gypsies Green stadium is a natural bowl-like stadium with (rough) athletics track, (rough) banked cycling track (both non-standard distances) and a junior sized football pitch

 It is the home of the South Shields Harriers. The site has been allocated as a potential redevelopment site, but there are no plans at present. Site of a former ballast hill.

Back to top
H
Hall Green FarmDipe Lane, West Boldon

Converted for residential use in 2006. Two out of three barns were rebuilt due to structural issues. The farm is first shown on the tithe map of 1840.

Evaluation trenching by TWM Archaeology produced 19th century remains. A watching brief in 2007 recorded a stone walled pit and stone drain.

Harton HallMoor Lane, South Shields

Built in 1881 as the home of Joseph Mason Moore.

He was the mayor in 1871 then was the Town Clerk for 21 years. He was a principal mover in the establishment of the Marine School, Free Library, Ingham Infirmary, Union British School and Boys High School. He funded the building of Harton Village School, offered numerous scholarships and gave multiple charitable donations, he was President of the Mechanics Institute, Secretary of South Shields Chamber of Commerce and served as a magistrate for over 30 years.

He was president of South Shields Art Club, Choral Society, Orchestral Society and St Peter's Church Warden for 44 years. He was by far the most important public figure in the mid to late nineteenth century in South Shields.

His home in Harton Hall was often open to the public for cultural, musical and gardening events. It was often used as a venue for fundraising events including; the Missions to Seamen, Harton parish church and Harton Colliery church.

For over 20 Years Harton Hall and grounds were an important centre for culture, fund raising and public entertainment in Harton Village and South Shields. When he died parts of Harton Hall were sold off and some of his land later became houses on Moore Avenue which is named after him.

Harton Hall Cottages12 Moor Lane, South Shields

Built in 1878, according to the builder's date stone. It is likely to have been two cottages for the coachman and gardener of Joseph Mason Moore the Town Clerk and probable owner of the land at that date.

In 1881 J M Moore builds Harton Hall next door to the cottages. In the 1881 census George Hetherington (Coachman) and Robert Robson (Gardener) seem to be the two occupants. It is possibly the only example of late Victorian cottages in South Shields.

Later it became Harton Village Car Centre but looks unoccupied now.

Harton Colliery Staiths (Low Staiths)Harton Quay, South Shields

Harton Colliery Staiths (new). Not shown on 1st edition OS mapping, so built after 1855.

Also known as the Harton Low Staiths, they were opened in 1904 as one of the termini of the Harton Railway. They were unique in that coal was loaded into waiting ships by steam cranes. In 1914 electrically powered conveyor belts were introduced. Set of coal spouts, fed by conveyor from waggons on the Westoe Electric Railway.

Harton Village SchoolMoor Lane, South Shields

The Harton Village school building is in the grounds of St Peter's Church Harton (a nationally listed building) and is accessed through Moor Lane. The first school in Harton Village was built in 1846. The Reverend Phillpott's (first vicar of St Peter's church) journal details the building of the second school. It was designed by the well-known architects T. A. Page and Sons 67 King Street. It was built in 1875 for the sum of £500 donated by Joseph Mason Moore the Town Clerk. His daughter Sarah Jane Moore (AKA Poppy) laid the foundation stone on 1 June 1875.

Children attended from the whole of Harton Township. In 1901 there were three teachers and forty-six children at the school but, with the opening of the Mortimer Road Schools under the Board of Education, the numbers at the Village School reduced.

The plan from 1905 showing proposed addition of indoor toilets. Interestingly the dry toilet building survives though all internal signs of its original use have vanished, and it is used as sheds for storage by the church and the scouts.

As a result of the incorporation of Harton Township into the Borough of South Shields in 1921 the school came under the authority of the South Shields Education Authority, which closed it as a day school on 8 January 1932. The pupils, headteacher and two assistant teachers were transferred to Cleadon Park, Mortimer or Stanhope Schools. The Vicar and churchwardens were then authorised to use the premises as a Sunday School or for evening classes, for educational lectures and for physical instruction.

In 1937 it was agreed that the school could be used for church purposes and thus the school came to be used as the Parish Hall. Extensive work was carried out at this time, comprising of a new floor, new toilet accommodation, roof repairs and seating. On 26 February 1941, the hall was requisitioned by the army at a rental of £50 per annum until it was handed back in September 1944. Further refurbishments of the hall took place in 1967 and in August 2017. It is now called St Peter's Church Hall. Harton Village School building has been an integral part of Harton Village's social, religious and cultural life for nearly 150 years.

Compiled from the book by Jean Stokes "Harton Village 1900" by Harton Village Press first published August 2017

Hebburn / Jarrow StaithesWagonway Industrial Estate, Hebburn

This staith at Hebburn is on the western branch of the C Pit Wagonway (SMR 2231). It is marked as Hebburn Staith on the second edition OS mapping.

A much extended longer staith is still extant in 2012 and is now known as Jarrow Staith. This structure could be considered for statutory listing.

Hedley Sunday SchoolArgyle Street, Hebburn

Built in 1882. Associated with St Cuthbert's Church.

A planning application was approved in 2009 for the demolition of a later rear extension (west elevation) and construction of a new single storey extension (east elevation) in order to provide improved sport and recreation facilities. This new lease of life will safeguard the building for the foreseeable future.

Historic Passageways (Leading from Front Street)East Boldon

These mainly narrow passageways are atmospheric & are representative of the village's early development history, & each has its own architectural characteristics.

4 passageways link Front Street with South Lane and 3 link Front Street with North Road / North Lane. Many of the passageways are lined with impressive magnesian limestone & sandstone walls, and largely retain a rural feel.

The 2 most westerly passageways which lead onto South Lane, offer panoramic views to the south, over the green belt, towards Black Plantation. Some of the passageway walls are regarded as "significant" heritage assets by Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

These passageways are referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 & 5.22)

Historic Sports Field (Hebburn)Hebburn Football Club, Hebburn

This was used by the railroad workers to play sports and relax in their downtime, in the late 19th/early 20th century.

HSBC Bank21 Fowler Street, South Shields

The York and County Banking Co. commissioned architects Messrs Clark and Moscrop to design a building to replace an existing building on the corner of Denmark Street and York Street.

At the time the York and County Bank shared premises with the London City and Midland Bank in King Street. The Council approved the plans in 1903.

The Midland Bank traded from these premises since 1926 - now part of HSBC.

Back to top
I
Former Ingham InfirmaryWestoe Road, South Shields

Includes the central building, gatehouses, gateway and boundary walls, original poor law building and laundry. By R.J. Johnson of Austin & Johnson, 1871-1873.

Early example of Queen Anne revival and closer to the original style than most houses of that movement. Domestic-looking main block of five bays. Hipped roof, modillion cornice. Tripartite windows in centre bay, sashes with stone surrounds lifting into segmental pediments. One-storey corridor links to a pedimented pavilion and to a later taller wing (1897-9) with a wooden cupola and two towers at the back. Lodges in same style. Additions towards St. Michael's Avenue.

Named after Robert Ingham, South Shields first MP in 1832 and remaining so until 1868. A plaque records his "public usefulness". The infirmary expanded after the John Redhead Wing opened in 1899. Further wings spread north over the gardens and to the south. By the 1980s the site was redundant, became ripe for development and so the Conservation Area was extended, and the hospital buildings added to the Local List.

 24 cots were placed in the children's ward as a First War Memorial. One cot was a memorial for the South African War. One cot was a memorial for five Civil Defence Wardens killed in World War Two. The plaques which commemorated the memorial cots have been moved to South Tyneside District Hospital. Much of the infirmary was demolished in 1990-1 and replaced by flats in 1992. Source: .

Back to top
J
Jarrow Old Civic HallEllison Street, Jarrow

On 22 July 1863 Mrs Jane Palmer laid the foundation stone for the Jarrow Mechanic's Institute, and on 29 August 1864 it was opened to the public.

In the afternoon there was a grand demonstration and procession of the trade's union's friendly societies and other bodies of workmen connected with the town when they marched through the principal streets to the Quay Corner and back to the institute in Ellison Street when it was Declared open by C M Palmer Esq., who presided over the proceedings. Amongst the company present were Sir Walter James Bart, Sir Hedworth Williamson Bart. MP, Robert Gingham MP Rev W.P. Philip rector, Addison Potter Esq., Rev T. White (the first secretary) Mr John Mclntyre, Mr T. C. Marshall and a large number of ladies and gentlemen.

The uncovering of a Marble bust of the chairman, which had been executed by the sculptor Wyon and presented to the institute by Mrs Palmer, has a most interesting event on the programme. Master George Palmer performed the ceremony and the removal of the covering disclosed an excellent likeness of Mr Palmer.

On 17 October 1877 the foundation stone of the new South wing of the Mechanics Institute was laid this day by C. M. Palmer MP. The building's distinctive clock was a gift from Lady Northbourne, who also gave the Grade II Listed Christ Church to the people of Jarrow.

Once boasting an extensive library and reading rooms, again donated by Palmer, the Mechanic's Institute went on to become the town's most popular dance hall. The building later became known as Jarrow Civic Hall. Planning permission for a mixed use development was approved in May 2011.

The Jolly SailorEast Street, Whitburn

A real period piece from the days when a mock rustic look was in vogue. The three rooms were refitted with fake half-timbered walls and beamed ceilings at an uncertain date - it could be late 1930s but just as likely 1950s or even early 1960s.

Table service was then still available- see the buzzer indicator box in the public bar and bell-pushes in the rear room ('Captain's Cabin'): the bell-pushes and all furniture have been cleared from the third room since the late 1990s.

The public bar is unusual as being the smallest of the three rooms and retains a bar back fitting at least 70 years old.

Source: .

Back to top
K
Kennedy's Public House South Eldon Street, South Shields

Located on the corner of Thornton Avenue and South Eldon Street. It was built in 1809 as the Plough in to cater for miners at the newly sunk Temple Town Colliery (sunk 1805).

It became the Tyne Dock Hotel after 1841 under Thomas Turner. The side of the building has a plaque commemorating the buildings original building date "Temple Town 1809" It was bought by R S & D Crosthwaite in 1890 and tenders were advertised to rebuild it on the 12 February 1891.

The architect was John M Dingle of 3 Ocean Road, who designed numerous houses' shop and public building in South Shields including St Aidan's Parish Hall, St Thomas Sunday school and an extension to Barnes Road school.

The pub would have been frequented by dock workers from the nearby Tyne Dock. Being about the lowest point in South Shields it is notorious for flooding. In 1900 it was flooded, and the water was five feet up the walls of the building. John Kennedy was landlord of the pub from 1890 till his death in 1911. It was renamed Kennedy's in his honour in 1995.

It is a very elegant example of a late Victorian public house designed by one of South Shields leading architect. It is one of the few surviving buildings from the once thriving area of Temple Town.

King Street (29-33 Odds)South Shields

19th Century. Scale and proportions typical of that age. Original windows. Brick. Three storeys plus dormer window in roof space. Two storey bay windows at first and second floors. Presently [2011] the O2 shop.

King Street (115)South Shields

115 King Street (numbered 83 in the middle of the 19th century) was the draper's shop of Robert Chapman, JP, from 1836 to 1886.

In 1883 Robert expanded his King Street shop to the design of the very well-known South Shields architect J.H. Morton. Additional storeys were added in a rather attractive Dutch style. In a roundel on the gable Robert added the inscription 'Rebuilt RC 1883'.

The building is mentioned on page 641 of 'The Buildings of England, County Durham, by Martin Roberts, Nikolaus Pevsner and Elizabeth Williamson', Yale University Press, 2021 as follows: On the south side of King Street, 'Nos. 113-115, with brick and stone upper floors with a curved bay under a Dutch gable, dated 1883'.

Morton was responsible for many excellent buildings in and around South Shields.

To provide further information, Robert Chapman was a well-known figure in Victorian South Shields. He was a Borough Councillor, Mayor's Auditor, External Auditor to the South Shields Gas Company, Vice-President of the South Shields Commercial Building Society, a Select Vestryman of St Hilda's Church and a Justice of the Peace.

Back to top
L
Lambton Arms Public HouseEast Street, South Shields

The proprietor of this public house back in 1891 is recorded as T Bains. Used to be called the Smugglers Public House.

Level CrossingOver West Holborn

On dismantled section of Westoe Electric Railway. Level crossing still complete. A fairly modern crossing but containing some interesting features.

Sited on a dismantled section of the Harton Electric Railway, built to transport coal and colliery waste from pits to staithes on the river Tyne for shipment, using overhead electric traction.

The Harton Coal Company operated at Harton, St Hilda's, Boldon, Whitburn and Westoe collieries.
The system operated for more than 80 years until its closure in 1989.

A locomotive can be seen on display at the Stephenson Railway Museum; one of nine supplied by Siemens between 1907 and 1913 to the Harton Coal Company.

Lime KilnsBoldon Golf Course

Despite being located within the perimeter of the golf course, the lime kilns are best viewed from the southern part of Boldon Cemetery. The lime kilns are situated adjacent to the 3rd green on the golf course, but appear to be largely inaccessible, in an area of well-established dense undergrowth.

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that there may be some ruins of outbuildings associated with the lime kilns, immediately to the south, although these would also be covered by undergrowth.

Records indicate that the lime kilns were built in the 19th century but were out of use by 1895. The lime kilns are listed in the Tyne & Wear Historic Environment Record (HER 2309) & would appear to be associated with a former adjacent quarry, located a little further to the south (HER 2308).

Limestone Boundary WallsNorth Lane, East Boldon

These impressive limestone boundary walls extend for a length of about 150m, from the passageway adjacent to 20 North Lane, in the east, to the passageway adjacent to Laburnum Cottage, in the west.

The walls, which vary in height from 2.5 to 4.0m, are probably Georgian in origin and are representative of the village's original boundary walls. The walls benefit from additional architectural features, including 7 large buttresses (4 brick and 3 limestone), & have a mixture of limestone, brick & concrete coping stones. 

The visual appearance of the wall is further enhanced where an adjacent section of raised footpath is supported by a small limestone retaining wall, topped with a simple timber post and rail handrail. In Â鶹ÊÓƵ's East Boldon Conservation Area Character Appraisal, these walls are considered to be of "significant" heritage value. 

Lion StatueOcean Road, South Shields

C19 sculpture outside the museum. Artist unknown.

Original part of the Golden Lion Public House on Ocean Road (built around 1870), located in the pedestal above the front door. The pub was demolished in April 1973 but the lion was kept.

Stone lion (possibly Coade stone), lying down with paws in front, around 1m high on a stone pedestal 1.4m high, 1.77m wide and 70cm deep. It was painted gold when it was first erected.

Longmore MemorialSpringwell Park, Jarrow

A drinking fountain of 1890. Artist unknown.

Look Out Public HouseFort Street, South Shields

The Look Out opened in 1853 it was owned by the Crosthwaite Breweries of South Shields in the 1870s then WB Reid of Newcastle and then in 1959 Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. In the 1970s Olive Beattie was a famous and much-admired Landlady of the Look Out.

Lorne Terrace (2-12)Front Street, East Boldon

Some of the first and best Victorian housing on Front Street. It replaced a ribbon development of small rural buildings including a smithy (HER 2319) and was part of the early farm clearance in the north-east corner of the village.

The terrace is richly decorated with mottled brickwork, round-arched windows, stone and glazed brick string courses, slate roofs, canted dormers with punched ridge tiles, finials, moulded eaves, decorative bargeboards and shaped chimneys. Two storeys.

No. 2 has been well restored. The two end units are larger and are emphasised with gables. Unfortunately, No. 12 has been stripped of its detail arched windows and the façade has been pebble-dashed. Deep gardens with limestone retaining walls. A small shop beneath No. 2 on Grange Terrace has a replica traditional shopfront.

Lorne House (14)Front Street, East Boldon

This detached house is richly decorated with mottled brickwork, round-arched windows, stone and glazed brick string courses, slate roofs, canted dormers with punched ridge tiles, finials, moulded eaves, decorative bargeboards and shaped chimneys. The house has been rendered to the rear.

Back to top
M
Man with the Donkey StatueOcean Road, South Shields

1988 by Robert Olley.

This fibreglass statue commemorates John Simpson Kirkpatrick, who was born in South Shields in 1892.

He was a member of the Australian Army Medical Corps and carried many dead and wounded soldiers with his donkey from the battleground at Gallipoli during the First World War. He died at Gallipoli on 9 May 1915.

There is also a statuette in South Shields Museum. The donkey, called Murphy, was awarded the Purple Cross for Animal Bravery in Australia in 1997. Simpson carried over 15 injured soldiers on the donkey, unarmed. He was serving in the Anzac Forces after emigrating to Australia.

Source: .

Mansion House Farm62 Front Street, East Boldon

Stone farmhouse with a simple elegant façade. Later brick additions, an unusual teardrop porch bargeboard.

Marsden InnMarsden Lane, Marsden

Built between 1938 and 1939. An imposing building, with its confection of mock Tudor beams and pseudo-heraldry.

Marsden Miners Hall189 Imeary Street, South Shields

Built in 1912 for the miners who lived at Marsden Village and who worked at Whitburn Colliery. It was designed by the architect Thomas Alexander Page of 67 King Street

 "A handsome hall capable of accommodating 600 persons" (Sunderland Echo Monday 5 August 1912). The lettering "Marsden Miners Hall" is still visible on the brickwork.

It was used for social activities, union meetings, strike ballots, to campaign for a 48-hour week for Ingham Infirmary nursing staff, the 1945 Labour victory public meeting, Chuter Ede and Hugh Gaitskell held meetings there. It was used by the Marsden miners until 1967 when Whitburn Colliery closed.

There was a World War One memorial plaque in the hall dedicated to the men who served and died from Marsden (over 200 men died). The memorial consisted of 31 panels, 8 are now missing the remainder are in South Shields Museum.

After 1967 it became St Bede's Parochial Hall, it is now residential flats.

Masonic Hall2-6 (Evens) Grange Road, Jarrow

An increase in the population of Jarrow at the beginning of the 19th Century provided a fertile field in which Freemasonry could take root.

Following a petition, a Charter was granted on 5 June 1866 and on 7 August 1866, St. Bede Lodge, No. 1119 was consecrated by the Rt. W. Bro. John Fawcett, Provincial Grand Master in the Mechanics Institute, Jarrow.

The Lodge held its meetings here until permanent premises could be secured. W. Bro. Henry Hedley was the first Master, and the first meeting was held on 29 August 1866.

A period of consolidation followed and the strength of the Lodge grew and in March 1878 the question of a permanent meeting place was seriously considered and within a year the project was agreed. The foundation stone was laid on 21 April, 1881, by W. Bro. George Spain, Master of Northumberland Lodge. Just ten months later, on the 15 February 1882, the Temple was consecrated. St. Bede Lodge had a home.

Masonry and its attraction spread, and in due course a representation was made, a warrant issued, and on 31 May 1882, St. Bede Chapter, No. 1119 was consecrated.

By the end of the 19th century, the population of Jarrow exceeded 30,000. At the same time the results of the 1870 Education Act, giving education to all, were now being felt among the adult population. These facts were reflected in the increased flow of candidates. It was now apparent that to avoid long periods of waiting for admission, and to prevent subsequent accumulation of names of potential candidates, another Lodge was imperative. Thus did St. Paul Lodge, No. 3242 come into being.

About this time discussions were entered into regarding the alteration and extension of the building. Plans were agreed and the contractor took over in May 1909. Dispensation was granted for the regular meetings to be held at Carr Street, Hebburn, and through the good graces of Perseverance Lodge, St. Bede Lodge functioned normally.

On the 8 December 1909, the building as we now know it re-opened. The 50th Anniversary of the Lodge was commemorated on the 13 September 1916 by a visit from Provincial Grand Lodge, headed by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, V. W. Bro. Victor Williamson, and the presentation of mementos in the form of a jewel and medal.

Further expansion in depth came in 1920, with the consecration of Jarrow Mark Lodge No. 701, and that Masonry was extending its appeal was shown by the formation of Pele Tower Lodge and whose consecration took place in Jarrow Masonic Hall.

The war brought employment, to be followed by a measure of prosperity unknown in the history of the Town. The rising standard of living, the time for leisure, and the means to enjoy it; all these increased the field of Masonic attraction. The pressure for Masonic status became so astute that Lodge lists had to be closed. The solution was to form another Lodge to cope with the demand. And it so was that on the 5 March 1947, a Charter was granted for Gyrwy Lodge, No. 6462. The consecration was on 11 June 1947.

The following Craft Lodges still meet at Jarrow Masonic Hall:

St Bede Lodge No. 1119
St Paul Lodge No. 3242
Gyrwy Lodge No. 6462
Jarrow Grange Lodge No. 8551.

Mechanics Arms Public HouseEast Street, South Shields

Two-storey white painted public house. Quoins. Pub frontage is green.

Merchant Navy MemorialDaltons Lane, South Shields

1990 by Robert Olley, foundry was Burleighfield (NEWMP say designer was Graham Ibbetson and it was made by Heritage Products of York).

A bronze statue 2.5m high of a sailor at the wheel on a sloping yellow ashlar pedestal 1.74m high. Inscribed on the pedestal on a plaque are the words:

"Merchant navy memorial/ this statue was unveiled by/ countess Mountbatten of burma/ on 19th September 1990/ in memory of the thousands of merchant seamen/ who sailed from this port and lost their lives in world war ii/ unrecognized you put us in your dept/ unthanked you enter or escape the grave/ whether your land remember or forget/ you saved the land, or died trying to save/ john Masefield poet laureate".

The £56,000 needed was raised by public subscription. The plinth was paid for by Tyne and Wear Development Corporation. Unveiled 19 September 1990 by Countess Mountbatten.

Middle DocksMill Dam, South Shields

The 1st edition OS mapping shows two docks. There are several travelling cranes in Middle Dock. A 'Mr Smith's Dock', shown on a 'Plan of the Low part of the Tyne' probably surveyed in the late 1760s (Flagg 1979, 85), corresponds in location with the southern of the two Middle Docks shown on Wood's plan of 1827.

The first mention by name of Middle Dock is from 1772, when the brig True Briton was announced for sale at 'the Middle Dock, South Shields'. In another sale announcement, in 1774, the yard was described as containing a 'large and commodious double dock, a spacious building yard, smiths' shops, warehouses and all other necessary conveniences and appurtenances...' (Flagg 1979, 86).

The 'double dock', mentioned above, probably refers only to one large dock with capacity for two vessels. When the second dock was constructed in the yard is uncertain. Certainly, references to 'docks' on the site by 1799 show it had been put in place by that time (Flagg 1979, 88). Wood's map of South Shield's of 1827 shows two owners in the Middle Dock Yard; a Mr Stoveld in the northern dock and a Mr Hall in the southern dock. Mr Hall's dock was bought in 1836 by the Brandling Junction Railway Co. in order to run a rail line across it to a proposed staith on the riverside.

As the dock was never linked to adjoining parcels of land to form a viable route for the railway, the dock was sold by the Brandling Junction Railway in the early 1840s. Soon after this time, the two docks were joined into one business under Hood, Henderson and Woods: the Middle Dock Co. Much of the work of the docks seems to have been involved with the import of timber and the repair of wooden ships, although a number of wooden vessels were also constructed, including the Ajax in 1862 and the Athena in 1868. In 1879, the northern dock was greatly extended and its orientation altered.

In 1899 the Middle Dock Co. was sold by was sold by G.E. Henderson and a new Middle Dock and Engineering Co. Ltd was formed, under the control of J H Edwards. The principal work of the yard was ship repairing.

A third graving dock at Middle Dock was opened in 1909, the construction of which necessitated shifting the course of a stretch of West Holborn to the east. This dock was 460 feet long, 62 feet six inches wide and drew 23 feet six inches of water at its sill. At the same time as the dock was built, all the yard's departments were reorganised and extended, and new electric cranes installed.

Soon after this refurbishment, the yard was further upgraded when a fourth graving-dock was constructed., this time on land purchased to the north of the existing yard in 1913. This new site was the former yard of J T Eltringham and Co. at the Stone Quay (see SMR No. 2343 for the pre-merger history of this area). Eltringham's moved to Howdon into a larger yard.

Work on the dock began in 1914 and was completed by 1917. Construction of this dock, which ran obliquely across the enlarged yard, involved the infilling of the old Metcalfe's Dock and the demolition of much of the yard's structures. It was 630 feet long, 80 feet wide and drew 26 feet of water at the sill.

At the time, it was the second largest graving dock on the east coast north of the Thames (Flagg 1979, 95). Post WW1, the two oldest docks in the yard were also extended and the yard considerably upgraded. The yard was employed to full capacity over WWII and the latest dock was extended in 1941 to 640 feet in length. From 1977 the Middle Dock and Engineering Company became a member of British Shipbuilders as part of the Tyne Ship repairers Group Ltd.

Two graving docks with rounded ends are shown running at right-angles from the riverside with the names 'Mr Hall' appended to the southern dock and 'Mr Stoveld's' appended to the northern dock. The two docks lie within an open yard. A large building / covered area to east may lie within the yard.

Mill Dam JettyMill Dam, South Shields

Recorded on the Local List as 'Mill Dam Jetty'. Large two-level deck which juts squarely out into the river. The black railings and bollards overwhelm it as a focal space and viewing point.

Minchella's Café9 and 11 Ocean Road, South Shields

Originally part of the entrance to the Royal Assembly Hall, the shop has had several tenants, including tobacconists Auty and Norman.

Fred Minchella opened up his ice cream parlour in 1943 and together with his brother Tony built a reputation for the outstanding quality of their delicious ice cream.

Their father, Guiseppe Minchella, came to England from the village of San Michelle in Cassino, Italy circa 1905. He originally sold ice cream in the colliery districts of Durham before moving to South Shields, where he had an ice cream parlour on King Street.

Mission to Seafarers (Holborn House)53 Mill Dam, South Shields

The German Seamen's mission committee was set up in South Shields in 1880 to look after German immigrants in South Shields and sailors visiting the Tyne.

The Seamen's Home was built in 1906 for £5000 and inaugurated in 1909. During World War I the mission closed and was taken over by the Joint War Committee to become a Voluntary Aided Hospital.

The nurses were a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers - mostly middle-class women. VAD hospitals received the sum of 3 shillings per day per patient from the War Office. The Seamans Mission was the 2nd Durham VA Hospital. Mrs Henrietta Stalker received the Royal Red Cross 2nd Class for service to this hospital.

In 1921 The Seafarers Mission (established c.1818) were looking for a larger premises and took over the vacant German Seamen's Mission building - reopening on 15 December 1921. A commemorative stone was unveiled, a sandstone building with a granite foundation stone set at waist height below a window. "This stone commemorates the purchase of the church and institute for the missions to seamen as the memorial of the courage and sacrifice of the seamen of Tyneside during the great war 1914-1918. Unveiled December 16th 1921 by lt. Col. C.h. innes-hopkins".

The building has an ordered classical composition in ashlar and pinkish brickwork with a slate mansard roof. The roof has copper domed turrets. There is a large stained-glass window into a former chapel. The side elevation has a double-height arched entrance. At the rear is a later extension and cobbled yard. Building now includes the Flying Angel Public House.

Mixed Board SchoolFront Street, East Boldon

A fine mixed board school of 1885, now the village infant school. Single storey with a tall roofscape and a cascading Gothic arrangement of steep Welsh slate pitches, gables, hips, chimneys and cylindrical ridge vents.

The large ornate timber cupola and spire has sadly gone. Rear extensions have not spoilt its original design. Some of the playground walls have round coping bricks.

Monkton Park Methodist Church22 Wood Terrace, Jarrow

A United Methodist Free Church built in 1871 to seat 170 and sold in 1892 to the Primitive Methodists. Now Monkton Park Methodist Church.

Mount Pleasant FarmNewcastle Road, East Boldon19th century farm.
Back to top
N
National Westminster Bank40 King Street, South Shields

The National Provincial Bank, formed in 1833 in Newcastle, opened its first branch in South Shields in 1848. Whether this was at 40 King Street cannot be confirmed. However, the bank was listed at this address in Slayer's Directory in 1854/55.

The property also has a connection with the North of England Joint Stock. Situated at 35 Market Place, the organisation's manager, a Mr John Ridley, went on to become the manager of the National Provincial Bank in 1854.

The rooms above the bank were the offices of Mabane, Graham & Mabane solicitors, Belle Vue Building Estate Co. Ltd., and Purvis F. W. House Agent above in 1909/10. This building could be put forward for statutory listing.

North East Maritime Trust (Wooden Workshops)Wapping Street, South Shields

The north-east of England has a rich maritime heritage. The shipbuilding and fishing industries were once major employers in the region and the lifeblood of many riverside and coastal communities.

The North East Maritime Trust, located on the site of J.G. Mitchelson & Sons Boatbuilders, was set up in 2005 by local enthusiasts to make a positive contribution to the renewal of interest in traditional seagoing activities in the region.

The main emphasis is on the care, maintenance, restoration and reconstruction of wooden vessels. The riverside workshop itself is more than 100 years old and is open to the public every Wednesday.

North Guards (1-5 Odds)Whitburn

Nos. 1 to 7 were once the family homes of local coastguards. They have a green front garden next to the Grey Horse Public House.

The cottages are brick with slate roofs, sturdy brick chimneys and a first-floor cill string course of white glazed brick.

No. 5 has a former carriage arch and good four-pane sash windows above. No. 7 appears the most authentic with paired four-pane sashes and timber mullions to ground and first floors.

North Road (21 and 23)East Boldon

Pair of 19th century brick houses. Both have sliding sash windows. Bowdon Cottage has a rendered front elevation. No. 21 has a rubble stone ground floor, brick above. Small slate porch and three timber doors - one into each house and the centre one leads to a central alley between the gardens.

Northern Rock (Original Water co. Office)Grange Road / Wylam Street, Jarrow

Circa 1880. Purpose built for the Sunderland & South Shields Water Co. offices, which was formed in 1852.

Public health provision was completely transformed in the Nineteenth Century. Overcrowding in urban areas and poor sanitation had become a serious problem in Victorian Britain.

The General Board of Health was established by the Public Health Act 1848. Local Boards of Health were set up throughout the country. Responsibility for water supplies and drainage was given to corporations. Cleadon Pumping Station was opened in 1862.

The system was fairly unregulated, and a further Public Health Act was established in 1875 to combat filthy urban living conditions which caused various public health threats, including the spreading of many diseases such as cholera and typhus.

The Act required all new residential construction to include running water and an internal drainage system. Now Northern Rock.

Northumbria Probation ServiceSt John's Terrace, Jarrow

Formerly known as Homer Villa. Pale brick with ashlar quoins, window cills and lintels. Simple porch on two columns.

Repairs were carried out to the front elevation in 2001.

Back to top
O
Occupation Road FootpathOpposite Luffness Drive, Cleadon

"Occupation Road" known locally as the Ash Path and part of Bede's Way footpath that links two ancient monasteries from the 7th century (Jarrow and Monkwearmouth).

The footpath is in beautiful setting cherished by locals and visitors. The path is also the gateway to the much-loved SSSI Cleadon Hills that is now a Local Nature Reserve. This path is one of the oldest and best used public footpaths in the borough, it is used by a variety of people including walkers, groups of ramblers, dog walkers and families escaping the very urban area close by.

The path is a recognized area of quiet isolated character (England Civic Trust) and is part of the borough's green belt and adjacent to arable agricultural land.

The Old Ship Public HouseSunderland Road, South Shields

The Old Ship Inn is in Harton Village on the corner of Marsden Road and Sunderland Road. It was built in 1803 by Thomas Smith. A crest above the main door used to display the date 1803 and show his initial and the motto: "By hammer and hand all art doth stand".

Presumably linked to the smithy behind the pub. The Old Ship is a former coaching Inn and there is a jelly stone at the corner of the pub which may have been used to allow people to mount their horses or to prevent damage to the corner of the pub or more likely serve both purposes.

It is the oldest continuously serving pub in Shields, though Harton Village only became a part of South Shields in 1921.

Back to top
P
Painted MuralCommercial Road, South Shields

In 1980 a Youth Enterprise Project team, South Shields painted a mural on Commercial Road.

The mural was designed by D. Wilkinson to depict the history of the town from its Roman beginnings up to the industrial era of the 1970s. It is hand painted on a retaining wall of an old railway embankment that used to carry trains into Low Shields Station (long since demolished)

Justification for inclusion: Wall of railway embankment. Recently restored due to public pressure.

Parish Church (Front Wall, Railings, Lych Gate and Rear Boundary Walls)Church Lane, Whitburn

Attractive timber lych gate with fish-scale pantiled roof, built 1874.

Roadside east wall is rock-faced stone capped by railings with fleur-de-lys finials. Rubble boundary walls on south and west sides.

Park Methodist ChurchBede Burn Road, Jarrow

A Gothic chapel built in 1885 for £2700, used as auction rooms.

The chapel suffered severe fire damage on the 24 November 2017. The fire resulted in the collapse of the roof structure.

Peacock LodgeCleadon Lane, Cleadon

An exuberant example of late nineteenth century date that has been substantially extended to the north prior to the designation of the Conservation Area, which reduces the original building to a façade.

The previously flat roofed extensions have been pitched to improve the appearance of the building. The building has been rendered and painted white. The original building is arts & crafts style. It includes fine detail. Peacock Lodge has a steeply pitched flat tile roof with stone water tabling and chimney stacks with stone shoulders added to both gables.

The roof has three dormers with pointed gables. Each has a two-pane sliding sash window. The gables are steeply pitched and are braced by carved timber work that is painted white.

There are segmental arches over the windows. There are three windows at ground level which are modern replacements. The front of the Lodge has a low stone garden wall.

Pier Hotel Public HouseOcean Road, South Shields

Built in 1875 by R S & D Crosthwaite Brewery, the first licensee was James Wilkinson.

Pier Watchman's OfficeSouth Pier, South Shields

Built in 1868 by the Tyne Improvement Commission to oversee the development of South Pier. Now in use as Essy's Italian Restaurant.

Brick with ashlar quoins and dressings. Two storeys with square watchtower on flat roof.

Pillbox (Trow Point)Coast Road, South Shields

Recorded by Phase 2 of the North East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment. Recorded as eroded and at risk of slumping. Risk = high. Threat level 8.

Pillbox (Camel Island)Camel Island, Marsden

Set in the cliff face behind Camel Island is a pill box. The roof is 1m below the cliff top. Built of concrete with corrugated iron shuttering. A cube 2.5m long, 2.9m wide and 2m high.

A flight of steps, eight of which remain, are butted against the north side. They give access to the concrete roof and beyond to the cliff top.

Erosion is beginning to undermine the structure. The interior has a wall alongside the entrance. There are two small apertures, 10cm x 10cm at roof level, one looking out onto Marsden Grotto, the other over the cliff.

Pillbox (Cleadon Hills)Cleadon Hills, Cleadon

Clay brick and concrete pillbox built into side of hill. In fair condition. Constructed 1940-1. Unsure whether this dates to the First or Second World War.

Pillbox (East Street)East Street, WhitburnIn a front garden built behind a garden wall.
Pilot JettyRiver Drive, South Shields

Probably built about 1890 the Pilot Jetty was used by the Tyne Pilots to travel out to ships to help them navigate in and out of the river. Tyne Pilots have been doing this work for over 500 years.

They worked closely with the Foyboatmen who have a building near to the Pilot Jetty. Even though this was a working area it was very popular place for fishing and crabbing. It stopped being used by the pilots in the 1970s.

Pilot's Watch HouseLawe Road, South Shields

Maritime Office. Situated at the north entrance to North Marine Park, overlooking the Tyne estuary. Currently vacant (2011).

Built in the 1890s and altered in 1930. The upper floor was rebuilt and specially shaped windows at NE and SE corners allowed unobstructed views over the sea.

Police StationClervaux Terrace, Jarrow

An early 20th century building. Whilst the magistrates' courts' function has been moved to South Shields, the building is used by the neighbourhood policing team and others services such as youth offending.

Back to top
Q
The QuadrantMill Dam, South Shields

Neat three-storey late Victorian curved terrace. The upper levels are in white faience panels (glazed terracotta) designed to repel industrial stains. This is in very poor condition and requires repair. The buildings have decorative eaves and string courses.

On the ground floor is a mix of shopfronts. Some have metal grilles in the stallrisers. Common colour scheme, slate roof and brick chimneys. Formerly known as Chandlers' Buildings, nos. 53-67 Mill Dam have an historical association to the area as well as a strong visual presence.

They form a neat, three-storey, late Victorian curved terrace designed to face the central hub of the area. They retain prominent upper levels in white faience panels (glazed terracotta), illustrating high quality (good for repelling industrial stains).

Decorative eaves and string courses also feature. Vertically proportioned windows survive at upper level, as do an authentic mix of ground level windows and shop fronts, some with metal grilles in the stall risers. Unity to the group comes from the common colour scheme and the largely unbroken sweep of the roof and brick chimneys.

A change to residential use has led to some loss of authenticity, notably to the number and character of doorways.

Quadrus CentreWoodstock Way, Boldon Colliery

£5million managed office development by Ryder architects. Opened in May 2005.

Bold and imaginative. The brief was for a building which would act as a symbol of transformation in South Tyneside, a purpose-built managed office building offering 44 offices with support and facilities for start-up and small businesses.

The design is a pair of linked cubes, each containing four floors, on a free-form plinth containing a reception, café, information area and meeting spaces. The building had to be sustainable and so it has been built with recyclable low embodied energy materials, including cedar timber cladding, slate and maple. It has energy-conserving heating and lighting systems.

Fittings are stainless steel and glass. The complex received an RIBA Award in 2007 and a South Tyneside Good Design Award in 2006.

Back to top
R
RailingsWestoe Road and Horsley Hill Road, South Shields

19th Century railings associated with the Ingham Infirmary.

Railway BridgeMonkton Terrace, Jarrow19th century bridge. Carries the road over the NER Newcastle and South Shields Branch (HER 2509).
RC Church of Holy RosaryHorsley Hill Square, South Shields

The parish was erected in 1955 to serve the Marsden and Horsley Hill housing estates. Mass was said in St Gregory's school until a presbytery was built in 1958.

The contract for the church was ready in October 1964 but building work was delayed until December 1966. By then, the sanctuary had been redesigned to suit the new liturgy. The church was opened on 30 April 1968. The architect was Anthony J. Rossi and the contractor was Randle & Co of Sunderland.

In 1980, the adjacent Rosary Hall was built, connecting church and house. The church was re-ordered in the late 1980s, which probably included the subdivision of the church to create a small weekday chapel in the former east end. The church is now served from St Bede's, South Shields.

The church is a steel portal-framed structure with bricks in stretcher bond and artificial stone dressings. The roof is covered in interlocking clay tiles. The plan is rectangular with narrower east and west ends.

A small chapel to the north and a southwest porch are both under low cross roofs. The blind east end has a centrally placed chimney. The west end has a recessed central bay with a central window of three triangular-headed lights flanked by vertical strip pilasters beyond which are two straight-headed two-light windows. Above and below the windows are beige ceramic tiles. The narrow western bay has three lancets on each side.

The nave has five large windows to the south, of five lights each, and three to the north. The east end has five-light windows to the north and south.
Above the narthex is the projecting organ gallery with a centrally placed pipe organ. The repository in the northwest of the narthex has a window to the nave and may have been a children's room originally. In front of the window is a timber statue of the Virgin Mary.

The nave has a plasterboard ceiling with decoratively patterned panels and recessed lights. The benches are arranged in a V-pattern and the timber platform is asymmetrically placed in the northeast corner. The sanctuary furniture includes the altar, lectern, circular font and tabernacle stand, all of polished blue pearl granite. The latter is placed in front of a window to the northeast chapel, the former Lady Chapel.

This chapel has a timber altar and is also used as a reconciliation room. A large timber crucifix hangs on the east wall. A door in the southeast corner leads into the small weekday chapel in the former east end. The Stations of the Cross are unframed timber reliefs.

Rossi was awarded a CBE in 2008 for his 'services to heritage and conservation'. He was short-listed in the 2009 ACE (Art & Christianity Enquiry) / RIBA Awards for Religious Architecture for the Roman Catholic Church of Annunciation, Little Walsingham, Norfolk which was commissioned by the Diocese of East Anglia.

RC Church of St. OswaldGainsborough Avenue, Whiteleas

1965 by Pascal J. Stienlet & Son. Free-standing concrete belltower and monopitch roof linking the large scale of the church with the smaller scale of the presbytery and parish halls. Stations of the Cross in glass, designed to be viewed from both sides, by David Gormley. Stained glass in south chapel, St. Oswald window by Pierre Fourmaintreaux.

The parish was established to serve the local authority housing estate at Whiteleas. St Oswald's RC primary school was completed in 1963. By 1963, the church was in planning. It was opened by Mgr Cunningham on 2 December 1965. The architects were Pascal J. Stienlet & Sons, the architect in charge being Vincente Stienlet (born 1941).

An attached presbytery was built at the same time but the planned hall connected via the liturgical west canopy was never erected. Therefore, the original architect returned in 1983, to subdivide the original church to form a hall at the east end. At the same time, projecting kitchens were constructed, and a dalle de verre window by Pierre Fourmaintraux re-installed on a curved plan.

The former sacristies became cloakrooms and toilets, while new sacristies and confessionals were constructed at the northwest. The church is now served from Sacred Heart, Boldon (qv) and the presbytery is used by the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ.

Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery (Red Barns Farm)Mill Lane, Fellgate

WW2 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, designated Tyne D. This example belongs to the pre-War re-armament of 1938, spurred on by the Munich crisis and built according to a programme laid out by the Inskip Plan of November 1937, which provided for 64 guns along the coast from Tyne to Tees.

At the time of general mobilisation on 24 August 1939, the Tyne had only 9 guns operational, 4 of which were at Red Barns. Pre-War installations were better built than those constructed during the War years. Unusually Red Barns was not chosen for refurbishment in the Cold War (nearby Lizard Farm was preferred) and so it represents exceptional survival of the original design. One of the few HAA batteries where the weaponry was upgraded from 3.7" to 5.25" naval guns.

The site was at its largest in 1944, when it was operated by 608 Battery, 183rd AA Regiment. At that time the battery had four 3.7" guns, two 40mm Bofors guns and a searchlight. The four guns were arranged in an arc facing south-east and were served by a number of ancillary buildings to the south, including the command post, two magazines, gun store, NAAFI canteen, MT workshop and garage and shower block.

A No. 3 Mark V radar was added in 1945.It was retained as an Off-Site Nucleus Force Battery in 1946. The battery officer's bungalows were rebuilt in the 1950s and are still occupied. Following decommissioning at the end of the war, the site was handed over to the Ministry of Health.

The command post, gun emplacements and magazines were demolished in April 2002 and the site was levelled. Prior to demolition the gun battery buildings were full of stores and farm waste which obscured most of the detail. An excavation in 2014 by ASUD was carried out in advance of redevelopment to record the command post and one gun pit in more detail.

In 2019 archaeological monitoring and recording was conducted in advance of site clearance. The recording included three Second World War structures and a post-war structure constructed on an existing concrete platform.

Red House Farmyard Wall

169 Sunderland Road, South Shields

Red House Farm was owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, it stretched from Harton to Lizard Lane and included the land between Prince Edward Road and Marsden Road and down to Cauldwell.

The farmhouse itself, was thought to be at least 200 years old and was in 1950 included in a list of buildings considered of special architectural interest by the then Ministry of Town and Country Planning. Red House Farm existed as a farm until 1951 when the land was acquired for housing. The last tenant was Robert Wood who had farmed the land for 64 years.

Part of the farmyard wall is still there at the bottom of the gardens of the northwest end of St Mary's Avenue, built on the site of this farmyard in the 1950s. It can be seen from the Vigilant pub's side door. Sadly, the end tower aspect was pulled down earlier this year.

Compiled from the book by Jean Stokes "Harton Village 1900" by Harton Village Press. First published August 2017.

Former Rennoldson's Shipyard BuildingWapping Street, South Shields

The founder of the Rennoldson's firm was George Rennoldson who was a millwright in South Shields in 1800 and by 1826 had started a small engineering works in Wapping Street.

By 1837 the firm was building locomotive engines, but marine engines were coming to the fore and soon became the main product of the firm. After the death of the founder in 1850 his son James Purdy Rennoldson conducted the business under the well-known name of JP Rennoldson.

By 1857 they had expanded into shipbuilding and repairing with some of the early vessels being constructed in North Shields. However, a yard in South Shields was acquired in 1863. This yard was part of the former Wallis Yard at the Lawe but a "Patent slipway" was added to it. The yard was initially being used to construct and repair wooden vessels but by 1874 they were said to be building iron-hulled vessels. However, it is likely that such vessels were sub-contracted to JT Eltringham and JP Rennoldson provided the engines.

After the death of JP Rennoldson in 1878, the business was carried on by two of his sons, Joseph Middleton and Charles, under the title of Messrs JP Rennoldson and Sons. The building yard was remodelled in 1890 and equipped to meet the demands of composite (iron frames and wooden decks, side strakes) and full iron construction methods. By this stage the firm was specialising in the construction of screw and paddle tugs.

In 1896 the land vacated by John Readhead provide yet another major extension. Two years later the engine works in Pilot Street, also vacated by John Readhead, were added to the company. The first fifteen years of the 20th Century were perhaps the "Golden Age" of the firm, producing many famous vessels for use throughout the world.

In 1913 the two brothers separated; JM Rennoldson keeping the engineering works and the old shipyard, while Charles opened a new yard nearer to the Groyne. The old firm was then registered as a limited company. JM Rennoldson died in 1916 by which time the four building berths at the yard had a maximum output of 6,000 tons gross, while vessels of up to 230 feet long could be constructed.

The yard also possessed a patent slipway, which was 240 feet long. The well-equipped marine engineering department had a maximum annual output of 6,000 IHP. After the death of JM Rennoldson, Charles Ross, his son-in-law, managed the shipyard and the Engineering Works. The yard closed in 1929 owing to a severe recession in both sides of the business.

Riddicks22 Fowler Street, South Shields

Following site clearance by the Council, this 122 square yard corner plot of surplus land was put up for auction for the reserve price of £12.10s per square yard in 1905 (Plot I).

The council's stipulation for the land read: '... as regards plot I, the building line in Keppel Street on the ground floor be in line with the present shop fronts, and the 1st to 2nd floor to be set 3 feet 2 inches from the ground floor line.'

After several unsuccessful auctions, the council eventually sold the land for its reserve price in October 1907. Mr Lockey, a solicitor, bought the property for £11,500.

This impressive building retains many of its original architectural features and boasts one of the few remaining historic shopfronts in the town centre. Formerly a grocers shop - Hintons in 1950's and 1960's.

Ridge and Furrow (Boldon Flats)Boldon Flats Nature Reserve

Ridge and furrow of Medieval or Post Medieval date seen as earthworks and mapped from air photographs. Most of these remains still survive.

There is particularly good earthwork survival from the west beside the River Don, on Boldon Flats and to the east in the area of Cleadon Hills Farm. Other remains have been destroyed by development in Cleadon and Boldon.

A small area of ridge and furrow north of Mundles Farm on Mundles Lane, East Boldon (NZ 3662 6011), is on Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Local List. The ridge and furrow north of Cleadon Hills Farm is also on the Local List.

Surveyed as part of a ridge and furrow project by ASUD in 2013. The report concluded that the narrow ridge and furrow suggests cultivation continued on from the medieval into the post-medieval period on the common fields.

Later field boundaries overlying cultivation remains may date from enclosure c.1658. Ridge and furrow varies in size between c.3.5-6m between the crowns of ridges and c.0.1-0.3m in height. Several banks were also recorded which may relate to upcast from drainage ditches or used as boundaries.

To the east, north-south orientated furrows with a wavelength of c.5m were found during an evaluation at Albert Elliot School. To the south of Cleadon Hills Farm the R&F has been ploughed out but the line of the S-curve is preserved in boundary walls.

Ridge and Furrow (Jarrow)Monkton Burn, Jarrow

Several blocks of post medieval narrow ridge and furrow seen on air photographs. Most has been built over but some survives south of Jarrow. A section on Monkton Fell (NZ 3217 6257) next to the Metro line is on the Local List.

Ridge and Furrow (Mundles Farm)Mundles Lane, East Boldon

Ridge and furrow earthworks. Reverse S pattern so medieval in date and created by ox-drawn plough.

Robert Readhead ParkSunderland Road, South Shields

In May 1923 the park was opened on land given by Alderman Readhead as a War Memorial in thanksgiving for peace.

In the south-west corner of the park there is a concrete memorial 3 feet high with a copper scroll-like plaque "County borough of South Shields Robert Redhead park. This park was presented by alderman Robert redhead j.p. to the town council of south shields for the purpose of public pleasure grounds by deed of gift dated 20 April 1923. Opened to the public on 3 May 1923 by Robert Readhead esq m.a. (oxon) (son of the donor), Edward smith, mayor, john Lawson, chairman of parks and cemeteries committee".

A condition of the gift was that unemployed ex-servicemen were given work on the adjoining roadworks.

Royal British LegionQueen Street, South Shields

Built in 1939 for the Estate Agent Vasey and Reed. It is one of the few commercial buildings in South Shields which has been constructed in a typical 1930s Art Deco style.

Consisting of a rounded front, fluting around the doors, windows and a smooth wall surface. It was used by Vasey and Reed until the 1970s and in the late 1980s it became the Royal British Legion who still use the building today.

Back to top
S
SandfieldDownhill Lane, West Boldon

Sandfield is an attractive unspoilt Italianate style house in an elevated position. It is said to have been built by the owner of the local colliery.

Shadwell TowersWestern Terrace, East Boldon

A detached mansion of some grandeur, although altered over time. The elegant front door surround and ground floor bow windows, with curved glass, survive.

The house has a shallow pitched roof. The outhouse has lost original detailing. The house had castellations on a photo of 1903 but these have been removed.

Ship and Royal Public House1 Ocean Road, South Shields

Known locally as The Royal. This Victorian building is mentioned in the 1899-1900 Trade Directory. Dramatic distinctive roof. First shown on the OS 1896 1:500 town plan and labelled 'Royal Hotel'.

Former South Tyneside College PlanetariumSt George's Avenue, South Shields

The college was formerly known as the Marine and Technical College, and was founded by Dr Thomas Winterbottom, a former surgeon-general in Sierra Leone.

After spending 4 years in Africa, he returned to South Shields in 1796 to take over his father's practice. He wrote an account of his time in Africa, which was published in 1803, and contains the description of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), for which he is known.

The college is still one of the largest merchant navy training colleges in the United Kingdom and attracts students from as far afield as India and Africa. Courses are offered across the whole spectrum of marine education including navigation, operations, mechanical and electrical engineering, communications, and catering.

The college was formerly based in Ocean Road, South Shields in a purpose-built building opened in 1869. This is now a listed public house called Kirkpatricks. There is a marine simulation centre at the main Westoe Campus and additional college sites all over South Shields such as the Marine Survival Centre on Wapping Street, the Radar Station next to Ocean Beach Pleasure Park and the St. Hilda's Centre on Coronation Street.

However, due to new advances in technology, the planetarium and observatory have not been used for this purpose for more than twenty years. All of the equipment was relocated to Stockton's Wynyard Planetarium & Observatory on Teesside. The observatory space now houses a multi-faith chaplaincy.

St Bede's RC Primary SchoolHarold Street, Jarrow

Opened January 1872, following the 1870 Elementary Education Act, which set the framework for schooling of all children aged 5 to 12 in England and Wales.

St Bede's 1-4 Station Road, East Boldon

An Edwardian development, originally consisting of a corner shop (Black's) and a Co-operative store, the block now contains 2 cafes / bistros, a restaurant, a bathroom showroom, fitness studio, hairdresser & a beauty salon.

Most of the original shopfront features have been retained and the Edwardian character of the premises have been largely preserved. In particular, the recent tasteful cafe / bistro conversion at Black's Corner, with thoughtful hard & soft landscaping, has achieved a substantial positive improvement at this prominent location.

At first floor level, the splayed corner feature with peaked gable, and large arched windows with feature keystones, predominate.

These buildings are referenced in the East Boldon Neighbourhood Plan (paragraphs 5.14 & 5.22).

St Cuthbert's ChurchArgyle Street, Hebburn

The foundation stone was laid on 19 March 1872. The architect was Frederick Richard Wilson (1850-1885) of Newcastle and London.

A new organ was introduced on 19 November 1878, built by Messrs Harrisons of Durham at a cost of £250. Extended in 1907. The railings were removed as part of the War effort.

St George's ChurchFront Street, East Boldon

This church was built in two stages: the Lady Chapel consecrated December 1923, and the second stage eleven years later.

It has a fine interior. Above the altar is a copy of the National Gallery's Annunciation by Fra. Filippo Lippi, painted by John Hanson Walker, the then rector's brother-in-law. Italian craftsmen designed the mosaics above the altar depicting Christ in majesty between St. George and St. Martin and attending saints.

Typical of red brick churches of the 1920s and 1930s, adopting a simple plain Romanesque style with a square bell tower in the style of a campanile. The church has buttresses, round-headed windows, large circular windows and clerestory windows. The later classical porch extension has mock Georgian timber windows.

St Mark's ChurchSalem Street, Jarrow

Built in 1894 by Lamb, Armstrong & Knowles.

St Oswald's ChurchSt Oswald's Road, Hebburn

1882. The church was built as a result of the separation of the ecclesiastical district of St Oswald from Hebburn Parish. It was believed by the vicar at the time that the change would be conducive to the welfare of the church.

The Prime Minister appointed the Rev. P. W. Clarke to the newly formed district. The licence was granted by the Bishop on 28 July 1881, relieving St Cuthbert's of responsibility for Hebburn Colliery.

An organ was commissioned in 1909 from Harrison & Harrison.

St Paul and St John United Reform ChurchBeach Road, South Shields

Elaborate Gothic Presbyterian Church of St. John, still in use as the United Reformed Church of St. Paul and St. John. Some good detail including a fine symbolically carved tympanum. 1875-7 (datestone 1876).

Could seat 750 people. Big, very coarse Decorated church, rock-faced, with outsize cresting to the north-west tower. This church was used as a military hospital during the First World War. There is a brass plaque to commemorate this.

St Paul's RectoryBorough Road, Jarrow

19th Century former rectory of the parish of St Paul's. The house still bears the coat of arms above the door associated with the church. Adjoined to The Old Chapel.

St Stephen's World War One Memorial PlaqueMile End Road, South Shields

At the edge of St Stephen's church in an enclosed graveyard is a metal plaque mounted onto wooden board with the names of the 229 servicemen who had lived in nearby Wellington Street (now demolished) and who died in World War One.

It is 8 feet 4 inches tall by 6 feet wide. It was restored on 11 November 2001. It is a Commonwealth War Grave site.

Former Synagogue25 Beach Road, South Shields

A purpose-built synagogue on the site of a house at 14 Ogle Terrace. The plot had been bought in 1914 but the house was not cleared until 1932. The original architect for the synagogue was Marcus Kenneth Glass of Newcastle.

When he died in 1932, J.A. Page & Son took over. The building is of plain red brick with the entrance under a gable at the western end.

The foundation stones of the synagogue are just legible. Much of the original decorative glass has been removed except for a sunburst Star of David window in the Ark wall. The Luhot (Tablets of the Law, double-headed stone bearing an abbreviated form of the ten commandments) remain on the gable. Inside the iron column supports with palmette capitals survive.

Re-located here from Charlotte Street. South Shields Hebrew Congregation was founded before 1875. In 1895 it had 25 seatholders, whilst in 1900 there were 39 seatholders. The synagogue closed before 2000 when there were less than 12 Jewish families using it. The faint outline of the Star of David is still visible on the eastern upper gable end.

It closed in 1994 and was converted into the South Tyneside Arts Studio.

Back to top
T
T.S. Collingwood FigureheadWapping Street, South Shields

The former steam corvette H.M.S. Satellite, built 1881, arrived on the Tyne in November 1903 to be used as an R.N.R Drill Ship.

Initially moored off the fish quay on the north side of the river, she was 'loaned' to the R.N.V.R. Tyne Division in 1906 and was moored at Corporation Quay (now called Satellite Quay). The ship remained moored until July 1947 when she went to the breakers, replaced by initially an Algerine Class Minesweeper (formerly H.M.S Melita) which was renamed H.M.S. Satellite. She was moored at Satellite Quay from 1947 until 1951. She was then laid up and replaced by another Algerine Class Minesweeper (formerly H.M.S. Brave) which was moored until 1958 when the shore base H.M.S. Satellite was closed and the base was moved to Gateshead (H.M.S. Calliope).

The building in which T.S. Collingwood Sea Cadets now operate from was built in 1936 to supplement the facilities for the drill ship. The lower deck was used as an armoury and boat workshop whilst the upper deck was a drill hall and concert hall and Officers Mess. During World War II an electrically operated anti-aircraft gun was located on the lower deck, on rails which was used for gunnery training for D.E.M.S. Gunners (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships). The Sea Cadets have been in occupation since 1937 and have had sole occupation of the building since H.M.S. Satellite closed in 1958. During the 1970's they did share the facilities for a number of years with the 3rd St Michaels Sea Scouts.

The current building houses the restored original figurehead from the 1855 built 'Pearl' Class 21-gun screw corvette H.M.S. Satellite. The figurehead is believed to have been carved by Frederick Dickerson who was the last of a long line of Master Carvers based in Devonport. This vessel served until 1870 and was broken up in 1879. The figurehead was stored in Devonport until the 1980's when it was brought to H.M.S. Calliope where it was stored until restored and relocated to T.S. Collingwood in 2020.

Former Temple Town Methodist ChapelTemple Town, South Shields

Templetown Wesleyan Chapel is recorded as having been built in 1826 and closing in 1882. A 1904 photograph shows it in use by Newton & Nicholson (J.S. Nicholson Sole Proprietor) Tyne Dock Corrugated Metallic Packing Works. Single storey with rectangular windows. A corrugated packing works is shown on the OS third edition of 1919.

"Built ca. 1826, used until 1880s and then converted for industrial use. Currently a dance school. Parishioners used to be made up of employees from the chemical works nearby. Much anecdotal evidence to suggest the chemical works supported the chapel, as the workers used to go there instead of going out drinking. This made them "better workers" despite the workers dying and being poisoned by their work in the chemical works."

Tipping Point and Target RockLizard Point, Marsden

The furthest extremity of Lizard Point is surmounted by a tapering pillar.

Just north of the Point is a grassy track descending towards the shore. A little north of the Point is a short length of stone wall, 3m long and 1m high.

The pillar, known as 'Target Rock', was used in the 1st World War as marker point for test firing along the coast. It is particularly visible at low tide.

The wall is believed to be left over from Marsden Village - it may be the 'tipping point' for rubbish collected from Marsden Village by horse and cart. The horse and cart would reverse up to this wall and tip the rubbish onto the beach.

The Trimmers Arms Public HouseCommercial Road, South Shields

Opened in 1878 by the Victoria Brewery it was one of 38 pubs in the East and West Holborn area in 1897 now it is the only one left.

The Trimmers Arms gets its name from the coal trimmers who would shovel the coal out so that it was evenly spread, and level and the ship was safe. It was a tough difficult job in dark and dangerous conditions. It was rebuilt in 1891 as displayed on the builder's stone.

The licence was refused in 1910 on the grounds of redundancy. Then it was a cafe and shop and in 2004 it re-opened by expanding into the West End Vaults next door, it is still open now.

Trinity Towers Memorial Rockery Lawe Road, South Shields

Trinity Towers was built in 1810 by the Master and Brethren of Trinity House. It was used as a pilots' look out. The tower provided a good vantage point to see ships sailing towards the River Tyne. The anchor on the tower bore the motto in Latin DEUS DABIT VELA "God will give the sails".

It became the park keepers lodge in the late 1890s and then was used as a radar training station by South Shields Marine & Technical College students.

It was demolished in 1969 and a rockery marks the site with the original anchor from the tower still on the side.

Tyne Dock Gut (Readheads Landing)Corstophine Town, South Shields

In 1865 Alderman John Readhead founded his shipyard John Readhead & Sons in South Shields, which built small cargo ships and colliers for clients the world over until the yard was closed in 1968.

Various slipways and dry docks can still be seen today stretching from Tyne Dock towards the mouth of the Tyne. Protect cobbled lane.

Former Tyne Dock LNER Station Enterance and Railway BridgesHudson Street / Boldon Lane, South Shields

Jarrow Docks Station, on the North Eastern Railway's South Shields Branch, (SMR 2288). This station was opened c.1854 to serve the new Jarrow (later Tyne) Dock.

On the 2nd edition OS mapping it has expanded and been renamed Tyne Dock Station. The original station was built by the Brandling Junction Railway Company, it was rebuilt in the 1880s by the North Eastern Railway. Remnants of the original LNER station at Tyne Dock and railway bridges over Hudson Street and Boldon Lane are on the Local List.

Tyne Dock War Memorial (Harton Staithes)Harton Staithes, in between the Customs House and the Ferry Landing

First World War Memorial. Plaque 1914-18.

The plaque, which is 3 feet 10 inches high and 5 feet 5 inches wide, bears at its right 'the winged figure of Peace furling the flag of war' which stretches almost across the top of the plaque. In her left hand Peace holds the palm of victory, and contemplates the panel bearing the names.

Inscription: 1914-1919 reads 'As a memorial to the employees of the West Docks who gave their services and also to the immortal memory of those employees named who fell in the Great War this tablet is erected by James Redhead Esp., Chairman and Managing Director'.

The plaque was commissioned by Messrs. John Readhead & Sons, shipbuilders.
Formerly located at Readhead's Shipyard, Tyne Dock, in the headquarters of the ship repairers. Now located on the opposite (west) side of its original location in Corstorphine Town.

Tyne Tunnel Ventilation ShaftChaytor Street, Jarrow

The Tyne Tunnel is a two-lane toll vehicular tunnel under the River Tyne. Completed in 1967, it connects the town of Jarrow on the south bank of the river with North Shields and Howdon on the north.

The tunnels are vital parts of the Tyne and Wear road network. A second vehicle tunnel was recently completed.

Ryder and Yates, whose architecture can be found in a diverse range of buildings, designed the Tyne Tunnel ventilation shaft. Their designs responding to the particular character of the area in which they are built. The materials used are also indigenous to the location. The inspiration for the shape of the ventilation shaft was the conical chimney pots of Venice.

Back to top
U
Unity Hall71 Mill Dam, South Shields

German Protestant Church or Unity Hall. A handsome building of 1908. Brick with ashlar dressings and now truncated corner spire.

Red brick building with a Gothicised vertical form. Asymmetrical gable and bell tower. Stone mouldings and quoins.

There is a narrow flat-roofed 4 storey front extension with a vaulted stone doorway which compliments the character of the original building. Now in residential use.

This red brick building is the opposite bookend to that of the Mission of Seafarers. Its strong Gothicised vertical form with asymmetrical gable and bell tower is emphasised by a high first floor tracery window.

Stone moulding and quoins contribute to its authentic character, which various alterations (including a narrow flat-fronted front extension with a vaulted doorway) have generally preserved.

Back to top
V
The Venue10 Mile End Road, South Shields

The corner plot on Mile End Road and Ocean Road served as a Victorian residence at one time. It featured an impressive portico and railed garden, which were lost alongside a number of other Victorian gardens when Ocean Road was widened.

The site was taken up in the 1890s by Farquhar Laing, a Corbridge man, and 10 Mile End Road was opened as The Royal Hotel (now The Ship and Royal). In 1891 Laing went on to build a function room on waste ground to the rear (Stanhope Street). Designed by architect J H Morton, it was connected to the Hotel by passages and became known as the Royal Assembly Hall, a sumptuous centre of Victorian and Edwardian society.

Built in the Italian Renaissance style, it incorporated a ballroom and stage for an orchestra, which was adapted for use by touring vaudeville and circus shows. There were two entrances, one on Ocean Road and the other on Mile End Road. They both led to the auditorium at the rear and were connected to it via small bridges over a narrow alley.

In 1920 the building was purchased by Messrs Black and was adapted at great expense for use as a cinema, incorporating many of the original architectural features such as the grand staircase. It was opened as the Scala Cinema in 1922.

The entrance in Ocean Road had a most imposing facade above the entrance hall, which contained an entrance lounge and cafe. There were two further cafes on the second floor, access to which was by the grand staircase. This also gave access to the bridge to the other side of the alley where the Scala Cinema was situated.

The cinema was re-named Gaumont in 1951. The entrance from Ocean Road was closed in 1960 and turned into a furniture store, Granthams. This was taken over later by Leveys, which is now closed. The Gaumont was disposed of to the Brent Walker chain of cinemas in 1975 and re-named the Focus Cinema. It was eventually taken over by an independent and re-named Regal Cinema.

The building was converted into a 3-screen cinema in 1980, providing seating capacities for 329, 74 and 74. This was a short-lived venture as the Regal Cinema closed on 26 June 1982. The building became a bingo club and amusement centre in 1984 and has since been converted into a nightclub, going through several owners and name changes; The Venue, Masons, Coyote Wild and Vibe.

The building remains largely vacant, apart from weekend use as a bar. The building had fallen into serious disrepair due to years of neglect and the current owners had to replace the roof, the condition of which had led to water ingress and rotting timbers. Much of the façade of the building was re-pointed.

Sadly any original internal features have been lost over the building's long and colourful history. However, the building is sound and no longer in any imminent danger thanks to the swift intervention of the current owners.

The Vicarage5 Sunderland Road, Cleadon

The Vicarage is located immediately to the south of the former school. Set in a moderately sized garden, it was built in 1907.

It is an extremely attractive Edwardian house with a hipped gable overlooking the road. A projecting splayed bay sits over the porch and a full height timber box bay and a ground floor bay, all with original fenestration, are attached to the south elevation overlooking the garden.

Heavy cornices create deep modelling to the bays, adding to the quality of the building. Mature landscaped gardens not only provide an attractive setting to the house but contribute to the greening of Sunderland Road.

Victoria House7-9 (Odds) Prince Consort Road, Hebburn

Victoria House was Martin's Bank, before being taken over by Barclays in the late 1960s.

At this time the premises were shared by a finance and loan company called Battman & Co. The building now serves the community as a funeral home. Brick with ashlar detail.

Victorian Pillar Box (Market Place)Market Place / King Street, South Shields

This pillar box has the two letters V and R nearly linked on the front, identifying it as Victorian. This post box originally stood outside Croftons, which was destroyed in a WWII air-raid.

Victorian Pillar Box (Clervaux Terrace)Clervaux Terrace, Jarrow

This pillar box has the two letters V and R clearly linked on the front, identifying it as Victorian.

Victorian Pillar Box (Charlotte Terrace)1 and 2 Charlotte Terrace, Westoe Road

This pillar box has the two letters V and R nearly linked on the front, identifying it as Victorian.

Victorian Post BoxDipe Lane, West Boldon

Victorian post box set into boundary wall beside Coach House.

Vigilant Public House165 Sunderland Road, South Shields

Built between 1925 and 1930 when Harton Village was assimilated into South Shields. It replaces a public house that pre-dates 1900.
This red brick building is located on an important landmark corner opposite St Peter's Church.

VikingsGrange Road, Jarrow

Opposite the town hall, statue by Colin M. Davidson, 1962. One of the earliest artworks connected to a town centre revitalisation scheme.

Concrete and fibreglass figures with a bronze coating in a stone and concrete pedestal. The 'Vikings' reflects the historic links between Jarrow and the Scandinavian countries. Commissioned by the Arndale Property Trust.

Village GreenOff Front Street, Whitburn

A picturesque space reminiscent of many other village greens in more rural parts of County Durham. Medieval in origin, the green is registered as common land

It is intersected by tarmac footpaths with granite kerb edges and dotted with mature trees planted around 1900.

Village PondCleadon Lane, Whitburn

Shown on OS first edition as 'horse pool'. Neglected and stagnant, full of litter, algae and debris.

Requires ecology-led management. The pond is fed from a stream to the west. The pond is surrounded by attractive white timber jockey rail and has a concrete weir and edges. Refurbished in 2005.

The Village Pound (Pinfold)Moor Lane, Whitburn

Square magnesian limestone walled enclosure for stray animals. Has been restored by Whitburn Village Trust (1944) with a neat information plaque.

Back to top
W
Wall and Railings (Mansion House)Harton View, West Boldon

Rubble stone boundary wall.

Wapping Street RailwayWapping Street, South Shields

With the demolition of houses in Wapping Street and Shadwell Street, there were plans to run a railway line from the station down a steep incline beside the turntable then along the riverside in Wapping Street to serve the docks and related industries, then on to link up with the TIC Line at Littlehaven.

The line was installed in 1939 and ran up the bank on the left close to the River Drive Bridge. A connection to the LNER was to have been installed in 1940 yet amazingly given the strategic potential, wartime conditions prevented this and the line was never used." Correction: Terry Ford has noted that the railway was actually used for a "mobile crane [...] and would have been installed for factory use.

Source: Les Snaith.

The Waterfront Public House9 and 11 Mill Dam, South Shields

Well-detailed dark blue painted shopfront with clock. The brickwork, shaped gables and heavy entablature decorations over the upper-level windows are high quality. Venetian windows in front gables. Formerly called The Railway Inn.

The impressive scale of the Waterfront PH dominates the first range of buildings along Mill Dam Road. Each storey is progressively taller than the next, giving it impressive proportions. Its well-detailed, dark blue painted shopfront is a very distinctive feature, allowing it to retain its essential verticality following more recent alterations.

The building's brickwork, shaped gables and heavy entablature decorations over the upper-level windows (including paired columns and Venetian windows in the front gables) are interesting and high quality. The clock is an important historic feature (and, apparently, there was also once a clocking-in machine inside the building).

Wellands Farm (Bombing Decoy Site Control Shelter)Wellands Lane, Whitburn

Bombing decoy - starfish site - the control shelter for activating the decoys, which were situated on a ridge half a mile to the west, still exists near to the farmhouse.

The control shelter follows the standard Air Ministry design for QL sites (CT 151/41). It is a brick walled rectangular structure with a reinforced concrete roof, standing on a concrete base. It measures 9m north to south by 4m east to west and stands approximately 2m high. There is an entrance passage at ground level in the east side, around 3m in length. The shelter was originally protected by an earth bank but this has eroded away.

The inside is thought to be divided into two rooms separated by a small lobby. The room to the left is the field control room which contained the switchgear, a stove and communications equipment. To the right is the former engine room that housed three generators set on cast concrete bases. There is a later, inserted opening to the left of the entrance and a single narrow embrasure to the left return. Newcastle's decoys were in place by January 1941. They remained in place until February 1944. This was one of a number of fake industrial targets set up in the North-East.

The shelter is now used as a stable. Nothing remains of the decoys as these were merely metal baskets containing combustible material and lighting systems. The starfish included a device which looked like a working shipyard from the air - a huge trough full of water in which oil was set alight.

Attempts had been made during WW1 to deceive the enemy by using decoy airfields and flare paths to divert bombers and exaggerate the number of operational airfields in France. In October 1939 a decision was taken to commence construction of daytime decoys - "K" sites for all satellite airfields and night decoys "Q" sites for both permanent airfields and satellites. Daytime decoy airfields consisted of tents and dummy aircraft. They were almost all abandoned in 1941.

Night decoys consisted of electrical lighting to represent airfield flarepaths. Night decoys called "QF" sites provided mock fires to encourage enemy bombers to attack the decoys rather than the real targets. Night-time urban decoys or "QL" sites represented hooded lighting, tram wire flashes, furnaces and marshalling yards. Following an attack on Coventry in November 1940, many major towns were provided with decoys codenamed "Special Fires", "SF" or STARFISH. These sites comprised a variety of effects to represent small fires to major fires. Very little tends to survive of bombing decoys today.

The brick/concrete roofed control shelter and generator building may survive. These were sited around 365m away from the decoy. At some "QF" and "SF" sites evidence of the firebreak trenches that surrounded some of the displays may survive as earthworks or cropmarks.

A Second World War 'Permanent Starfish' bombing decoy was located at Whitburn (NZ 395 631). It was constructed to deflect enemy bombing from Newcastle. It is referenced as being in use between August 1941 and April 1943. It was also the site of a 'QL' decoy, which was built as part of the 'C-series' of civil decoys for Newcastle. This is referenced as being in use between October 1942 and May 1943. The 'QL' decoy displayed lights to simulate the marshalling yards, dockyards, factories and loco glows associated with Newcastle.

Aerial photography shows that the control bunker was located at NZ 396 628.
The first 'Starfish' sites for Newcastle were in operation by January 1941. The last decoy sites for Newcastle were decommissioned by mid-February 1945.

West Boldon Cemetery Buildings (Includes Gateway)Dipe Lane, West Boldon19th century cemetery chapel and mortuary. Brick with ashlar dressings and slate roof.
West Fellgate Farm (Includes West Fellgate Cottage)Newcastle Road, West Boldon19th century farm.
West Hall Farm (includes gateposts and farm buildings)Cleadon Lane, Cleadon

The farm dates to the 18th century. It was owned by Charles Davidson in 1714. Farmhouse (late 19th century) which is two storeys with a single storey extension to the east. Built of coursed limestone rubble with a Welsh slate roof and raised gables. It has timber sliding sash windows with margin panes, stone lintels and cills.

The extension has an original six-over-six pane timber window. Whitewashed outbuildings surround the farmhouse. The barn along the edge of Cleadon Lane was the original farmhouse. The pitch of its roof suggests that it was previously thatched. The buildings have been modified and extended in response to changing agricultural practices and methods.

There is a line of mature trees along the western edge of the farm. West Hall Farm is a remarkably intact group of historic agricultural buildings. Current tenants, the Nichols, took over in 1929.

West Well (The Green)Front Street, Whitburn

Once Whitburn's main water source. Surrounded by heavy stone blocks.

Westoe Colliery Shaft (Remains)Westoe Crown Village

Westoe Colliery opened in 1909 it was owned by the Harton Coal Company. It was modernised in 1957. Sinking of the new 1600-foot Crown Shaft started in August 1959 and completed in December 1961 and a new tower was built at the surface.

In 1980 over 2,500 people worked there. It closed in May 1993 and the tower was demolished in April 1994.

The site is now occupied by houses and is called Westoe Crown Village named after the colliery shaft.

Westoe Colliery as one of the largest and important employers in the town had great economic, social and political importance and was a massive loss to the town.

Westoe Methodist ChapelBirchington Avenue / Oxford Street, South Shields

First opened in 1906 (Shields Gazette, 09/2022)

The Westoe Public HouseHorsley Hill Road, South Shields

In 1872 the License was transferred from the Three Mariners just along the alleyway at the side of the pub called Salter's Trod.

The Westoe Hotel opened on Monday 23 December 1872 an advert stated: "It commands fine views of the harbour, piers and docks.

Westovian Theatre (Pier Pavilion Theatre)Pier Parade / Sea Road, South Shields

The Pier Pavilion started out as a rain shelter. The then South Shields Corporation, at the instigation of Alderman Gompertz, converted the old Sea Side Shelter in Pier Parade into a small community theatre in 1948, to mitigate the loss of the Queens, which had been destroyed by bombing, in 1941.

The Pier Pavilion was opened on Whit Monday 1949 and for the next few years presented seasons of repertory and concert shows. The theatre has since been through many changes, including recent modernisation.

Whitburn and Marsden Social Club (Front Boundary Walls, Gates and Piers)North Guards, Whitburn

Whitburn and Marsden Social Club is set well back and is screened by mature trees and a high brick wall almost 3m high with robust brick gate piers with stone copings and intricate wrought iron gates (the front boundary wall, gates and piers are on the local list).

A simple red brick building with a single storey full-width front extension and green Westmorland slate roof with carved bracketed eaves. Paired window openings.

Whitburn Gate Posts and Mining PlaquesMill Lane, Whitburn

Whitburn, a shaft was sunk in the 1870s in the north of the Whitburn area, and a mining village was built at Marsden. The mine was closed in the 60s, with the village demolished soon after.

Throughout this, the Whitburn Lodge remained standing. Part of it, Hope House, was built in the 18th century before the mine as a farmhouse, and when the mine was opened, it was used as the colliery managers' office.

After the mine closed, it was used as a pub but closed in 2012. In feedback from residents, retaining the Lodge has been mentioned often. The Forum also held a workshop to discuss the future of the Whitburn Lodge site, which showed that the majority of residents were in favour of retaining the building.

Over the years of being empty, the Lodge building has fallen into disrepair. From meetings with the owners, it was clear that they were not minded to retain the Lodge. The Forum considered asking the council to direct the owners to make repair to the derelict building to improve its appearance, however, the owners said this would be too expensive and a cheaper option would be for them to apply for demolition. Furthermore, the Forum found it difficult to obtain historical information for Hope House, and there was a concern that retaining Hope House would prevent future development of this site.

The Forum therefore decided not to include this building as a heritage asset. However, the Whitburn Lodge site has retained another important heritage asset, which are the pit gates and mining plaques that serve as a reminder of where the mine used to be.

The old pit gates are the only remainder of the colliery left standing. The history on these gates was provided by the Marsden Banner Group 1, which aims to preserve the mining and industrial heritage in the local area. They have a Lodge Banner on display in Whitburn Library. The old pit gates now form the entrance to the car park for the Whitburn Lodge. They stand in their original position.

Former Whitburn pitman and local artist Bob Olley designed two plaques, which were added to the gate posts. Bob Olley is a northeast artist who worked as a miner in Whitburn. The plaques show miners at work, and both show the words 'Whitburn Colliery 1872-1968'.

Whitburn Hall Lodge18 Front Street, Whitburn

Attractive one-and-a-half storey Lodge to Whitburn Hall with green Westmorland slate roof.

Whitburn Methodist ChurchNorth Guards, Whitburn

Built in 1881 to replace the original Wesleyan Chapel of 1812.

John Wesley visited Sunderland and Cleadon in the mid-18th century and methodism increased in popularity with meetings held in houses until the first chapel was built.

The church is in small pleasant well-kept grounds enclosed by a low stone wall with cast iron railings. The building has a simple form and Arts & Crafts influence. Rock faced sandstone with red sandstone dressings, Westmorland slate roof, lancet windows and doors, swept spire with weathervane. There is a modern well-designed lych gate.

The adjoining minister's house is of similar design with swept eaves and mullion windows. A tall tapered octagonal tower links the two. Cost £2000 and could seat nearly 300 people.

Whitburn Parish Hall and Boundary WallsSandy Chare, Whitburn

Former school. Whitburn's second school, built in 1856. Magnesian limestone with Westmorland slate roof with attractive fish-scale detailing.

Mullion and transom windows in stone surrounds, stone gable kneeler and finial details. 2m high limestone wall to the north and east.

Whitburn Recreation GroundCleadon Lane, Whitburn

3 acres of open grass bounded by 1.5m high magnesian limestone walls with rounded copings and two carved dedication stones. It was gifted to the village in 1897 by Mrs Eleanor Barnes.

There are historic restrictions preventing its use for political, religious, trade or controversial uses, playing football, golf and walking dogs. There are stipulations to protect the height and maintenance of the walls.

Whitburn Rifle RangesWhitburn

Five firing ranges, one of 40yds, one of 600yds and three of 500yds. This is possibly associated with a group of buildings on Mill Lane which may be barrack blocks. The earliest representation of these ranges seen so far is on the 1921 OS 6" map.

This area was once part of the medieval field system associated with Whitburn village (HER 887). Sections of the medieval ridge and furrow earthworks were scraped away to create the ranges but elsewhere within the site boundary, evidence of the former cultivation system can be clearly seen. World War One practice trenches can be seen on aerial photographs.

The land for the range was bought from Sir John Sherburn by the Territorial Force Association in 1912. The camp was occupied by the Regular Army throughout the First World War and wooden huts were built for a garrison approaching battalion strength.

A trench system was dug using the characteristic 'Greek Key' pattern of firing bays and communication trenches. After the war the camp reverted to the Territorial Association until the Regular Army returned between 1939 and 1945. During this period, some of the trenches of the earlier war were re-excavated.

By 1953 the wooden huts of the First War were replaced by the modern brick bungalows which today stand on the range. This work was carried out between 1954 and 1962, providing accommodation for approximately 250 troops.

During the 1960s the Royal Engineers carried out ground clearance works, eliminating the 'bumps and hollows' between the butts and the camp and removing almost all traces of the trench system. At the same time concrete pillboxes were demolished and destroyed.

White HorseMarsden Craggs / Quarry Lane, Marsden

Dates late 1880s.

There are many stories about the white horse but the following account, taken from South Shields: A History of the Town and its People, is thought to be the most likely:

Whitburn nobleman Sir Hedworth Williams and his wife would go riding along the beach at Marsden and picnic at a spot near Darding Lake. But one day Sir Hedworth had to leave on business, so Lady Williams went out on her white mare alone.

She was seen galloping towards Marsden Rock, which was then attached to the mainland and was last spotted riding into an opening in the rock. Search parties found no trace of her, but Sir Hedworth carried on looking for two years until he accepted that the tide must have carried out both the bodies of his wife and her horse out to sea.

Heartbroken, he lost all interest in his estate and gave all his horses to an ostler, Wareham, and his money to his gamekeeper, Peter Allen, who later became tenant of the Marsden Grotto. The Williamson family gradually faded out of the scene, but while Peter Allen made money at the Grotto out of visitor's curiosity about Lady Williamson's disappearance, Wareham thought of a more fitting tribute.

As a memento to his former master's kindness, he scratched out a white horse with tar and limewash for all to remember. Alternative stories for the origin of the horse can be found in the Cleadon Village Atlas.

Whites Cottages4 and 5 Monkton Lane, Monkton

Two of the oldest dwellings in Monkton. The building has short wall nibs indicating demolition of the remaining cottages to the east.

The cottages are stone (coursed to the front, rubble to the sides) with pitched roofs and brick chimneys. Excavation at 4-5 Whites Cottages in 1989 revealed two ditches with 13th and 14th century pottery within their fill.

The ditches may have defined a building or plot. Evidence of a 14th century building was also located as part of this excavation.

Former Woolworth Building 100-108 King Street, South Shields

Site of Woolworths store (built 1921) that fell to an air raid on 2nd October 1941. Presently vacant.

WWI SlipwaySouth Groyne, South Shields

A timber and iron bolted ramp can be observed between the Groyne and South Pier. The timbers are the size of railway sleepers.

This was a World War One flying boat (seaplane) ramp used to aid planes out of the sea onto a parking area below the Lawe top.

Formal possession of the land was sought from the Director of Works to the Admiralty under the powers of the Defence of the Realm (Consolidated) Regulations, 1914. The request included the construction of a Royal Naval Seaplane Station. Concern was raised by the Member for the Borough, Mr C.A. Cochrane, regarding these powers under which, if the Seaplane Station was to be permanent, the public would be deprived of the recreation and enjoyment of the sands, and no amount of loss which they could prove could adequately compensate South Shields for being deprived of its use.

South Shields was a Seaplane Station, Repair Depot and Acceptance Depot during World War One. It had a sub-station at Tees Bay/Seaton Carew. The station occupied 21 acres and included five Type F seaplane sheds each 200 x 100 feet. The station was active from April 1916 until 1919. It was probably attached to the No. 10 Kite Balloon Base. Noted as buried under sand but still over 1m high in places during a 2013 watching brief at Little Haven.

Wyvestowe LodgeSunderland Road, Westoe Village

Baroque revival style. Spatially complex and brimming with decoration. Has a Turkish dome. Mid to late Victorian. Large villa in ample grounds with mature trees.

Influenced by the Arts & Crafts style. Brimming with architectural features such as bays, hips, domes, dormers, leaded glass, ornate joinery, overhanging eaves, half-timbered gables, shaped chimneys. Dark red dappled brick with sandstone details. Welsh Slate roof.

Back to top
Y
Yemeni Boarding HouseBrunswick Street, South Shields

The original houses date from at least 1856. The building itself appears to have been used for accommodation for police constables, and the yard used to host prison cells. After that, it became the last Arab boarding house in the area.

There have been Arab boarding houses in South Shields since 1894. South Shields had one of the largest Yemeni communities in the country and the majority of them were merchant seamen. An estimated 700 Yemeni sailors from South Shields lost their lives in World War One. In 1920 there were at least 8 Arab boarding houses. Ahmed Ali Hussein opened this boarding house in 1945.The boarding house would offer the seamen assistance in securing their next ship, money if the men ran out and advice if they needed any kind of help. The boarding house was still used by Yemeni men until the 2000 as a place to meet, eat, play cards and dominoes, it played a vital role in keeping the Yemeni community together.

It has appeared in several books including 'From Taiz to Tyneside' by Richard Lawless and "The Last Of The Dictionary Men" by Mathew Kipling, Tina Gharavi, and Youssef Nabil. It was the topic of a short film by Tom Mcgorrian shown on BBC in 1992. Peter Fryer and David Campbell produced a documentary called "The Boarding House" based on this boarding house in 2009.

It is the last of the Arab boarding houses and it is still in use as a boarding house, but these are now largely Indian marine students.