Everything about Tyneside totally explained
Tyneside is a
conurbation in northern
England, which is home to over 80% of the
metropolitan county of
Tyne and Wear. It includes
Newcastle upon Tyne, the
Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead,
Hebburn,
Jarrow,
North Shields, and
South Shields — all settlements on the banks of the
River Tyne. The population of the conurbation was 879,996 according to the census of 2001. The only large settlement in Tyne and Wear that isn't part of the Tyneside conurbation is
Sunderland, which is on
Wearside.
Geordies
The people of the Tyneside area are often called "
Geordies". They don't regard this as a derogatory term, but rather express pride in being different from "southerners". Tynesiders may have been given this name, a local diminutive of the name "George", because their
miners used
George Stephenson's
safety lamp (called a "Georgie lamp") to prevent
firedamp explosions, rather than the
Davy lamp used elsewhere. An alternative explanation is that during the
Jacobite risings they declared their allegiance to the
Hanoverian kings of Great Britain
George I and
George II; whereas the rest of the county of
Northumberland, to the north, were loyal to
James Francis Edward Stuart.
Coal production
While Newcastle upon Tyne had been an important local centre since Roman times, and was a major local market town from the Middle Ages, the development of Newcastle and Tyneside is owed to
coal mining. Coal was first known to be dug in Tyneside from superficial seams in around 1200, but there's some evidence from
Bede's writings that it may have been dug as early as 800 AD. Coal was dug from local drift mines and bell pits, and although initially only used locally, it was exported from the port of Newcastle from the mid 1300s onwards. Tyneside had a strategic advantage as far as the coal trade was concerned, because collier brigs could be loaded with coal on the Tyne and could sail down the east coast to London. In fact, the burgesses of Newcastle formed a cartel, and were known as the
Hostmen. The Hostmen were able gain a monopoly over all of the coal exported from Tyneside, a monopoly which lasted a considerable time. A well-known group of workers on the river were the
keelmen who handled the keels, boats that carried the coal from the riverbanks to the waiting colliers.
Steel and shipbuilding
The valley of the
River Derwent, a major tributary of the Tyne that rises in
County Durham, saw the development of the
steel industry from around 1600 onwards. This was led by German immigrant cutlers and sword-makers, probably from around
Solingen, who fled from
religious persecution at home and settled in the then village of
Shotley Bridge, near
Consett.
The combination of coal and steel industries in the area was the catalyst for further major industrial development in the nineteenth century, including the
shipbuilding industry — at its peak, the Tyneside
shipyards were the biggest and best centre of shipbuilding in the world, and built an entire navy for
Japan in the first decade of the twentieth century. There is still a working shipyard in
Wallsend.
Professional rowing on the Tyne
From early in the 19th century it was a custom to hold boat races on the Tyne. The river had a large number of keelmen and wherrymen, who handled boats as part of their jobs. As on the
River Thames, there were competitions to show who was the best oarsman. As a wherryman didn't earn very much, professional rowing was seen as a quick way of earning extra money. Regattas were held, and provided modest prizes for professionals, but the big money was made in challenge races, in which
scullers or boat crews would challenge each other to a race over a set distance for a side stake. The crews would usually have backers, who would put up the stake money, as they saw the chance of financial gain from the race. In the days before mass attendances at football matches, races on the river were enormously popular, with tens of thousands attending. Betting would go on both before and during a race, the odds changing as the fortunes of the contestants changed. Contestants who became champions of the Tyne would often challenge the corresponding champions of the River Thames, and the race would be arranged to take place on one of the two rivers.
Rivalry between the Tyne and the Thames was very keen, and rowers who upheld the honour of the Tyne became local heroes. Three such oarsmen, who came from humble backgrounds and became household names in the North East, were
Harry Clasper,
Robert Chambers and
James Renforth.
Clasper was a champion rower in fours, as well as an innovative boat designer and a successful rowing coach.
Chambers and
Renforth were oarsmen who excelled at
sculling. Both held the World Sculling Championship at different times.
The popularity of all three men was such that when they died, many thousands attended their funeral processions, and magnificent funeral monuments were provided by popular subscription in all three cases. At the end of the nineteenth century professional rowing on the Tyne began a gradual decline and eventually died out altogether leaving the amateur version.
Rapper dancing
Despite its rapid growth in the
Industrial Revolution, Tyneside did develop one peculiar local custom, the
rapper sword dance, which later spread to neighbouring areas of Northumberland and County Durham.
Industrial decline and regeneration
During the
1970s and
1980s, there was major industrial decline in the traditional British
heavy industries, and Tyneside was hit hard. High unemployment rates, and a government led by
Margaret Thatcher determined to push through with economic transformation, led to great social unrest with strikes and occasional rioting in depressed areas.
From the late 1980s onward, an improving national economy and local regeneration helped the area to recover, and although unemployment is still a problem compared with some other areas of Britain, expansion of new industries such as
tourism,
science and
high-technology, has fuelled local development, especially in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead.
Definition
The
ONS define a
Tyneside Urban Area with a population of 879,996 according to the 2001 census, which has the following urban sub-areas
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Tyneside at current basic prices
published
(pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year |
Regional Gross Value Added |
Agriculture |
Industry |
Services |
| 1995 |
7,688 |
9 |
2,244 |
5,435 |
| 2000 |
9,930 |
8 |
2,567 |
7,356 |
| 2003 |
11,895 |
9 |
2,865 |
9,021 |
1 includes hunting and forestry
2 includes energy and construction
3 includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
4 Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tyneside'.
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