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North Shields
North Shields maps
Historic maps of North Shields and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all North Shields maps
North Shields photos
We have no photos of North Shields, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Tynemouth| Cullercoats| Whitley Bay| South Shields| Wallsend| Jarrow| Monkton Village| Cleadon| Seaton Sluice| Seaton Delaval| East Boldon| West Boldon| Whitburn| Seaburn| Cramlington| Gateshead
North Shields area books
Displaying 1 of 1 books about North Shields and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of North Shields
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of North Shields.
Add your memory of North Shields
or of a photo of North Shields.
Asbestos Fire Suits Percy Main John F Fife
When I was a young girl I was shown newspaper cuttings of my father John F Fife modelling an asbestos fire suit he had designed and made in his factory work shop at Percy Main. My older brother aged 84, who lives in Australia, remembers being taken to the factory as a boy in the thirties, he thinks possibly 1938 or a little earlier. The Fife family had a boiler cleaning business and lived in Linskill Terrace. Unfortunately I no longer have these cuttings and whenever I try to find out about asbestos fire suits at Percy Main, I come up against a brick wall. Elizabeth Johnson, Fife
Happy Days
My sister and I used to visit our grandparents, Harry and Lily Bliss, who lived on Sandringham Drive, West Monkseaton. We would come down from Scotland in late June and stay for two weeks.
Favourite memories include the Spanish City rides, Torres fish and chips, the Venetian ice cream, St Mary's Island, roller skating down the steep slope at Monkseaton station, the smell of creosote on the platform timbers at West Monkseaton station, Grandpa cycling to the North Shields fish quay for the best fish I have ever eaten and the sound of colliery trains in the mornings. I was also fascinated by the pit heaps and the mines, the slag buckets, the big white railway crossing gates at Backworth.
North Shields Test Centre
The building which houses North Shields test cente in Cecil Street was erected in1848 as a chapel for people to worship. It remained this way until 1891 when it changed ownership and became a sauna and plunge baths although this was short lived and it closed soon after, just months later it reopened as the Alexandra Laundry, this was made easy as the boilers and pipework were all in place left by the previous owner. A photo of this is available with the staff proudly standing outside with horse-drawn carts laden with laundry. Shortly before World War 2 the building changed ownership and became Alexandra Engineering, making a variety of things and fabrications, this continued until 1950 when a local coach hire company opened up, trading as William B Kerr Coaches, later moving to bigger premses in Wallsend and changed the use of the Cecil Street building into an MOT testing centre, the first in the area following the introduction of manditory testing in 1960. Each test was 15 shillings... Read more
Tyne and Wear memories
Family Early Days at Tynemouth.
If this was summer 1955 or in 1957 to 1958, my pram-pushing wife might well be in the picture. Eldest was born in May 1955, next in May 1957, the eldest at Newcastle General hospital, the next at home at 14 Millfield Gardens. Looks busy enough to be a weekend so maybe I was in it too. Wonderful sands, freezing cold under a sea fret.
A Native of Tynemouth in Exile.
I was born in Tynemouth, in Percy Park, the road leading down to the sea by the Grand Hotel. In 1956, I began at Tynemouth Prep. School, now The Kings School, in Huntington Place. I live in Hampshire now, but, I have been back to Tynemouth several times and have always been delighted that so little has changed. Long may it remain so. I am Tony Brown.
Percy Main Village.
I was born in 1947, and lived at number 14, Blyth Street, Percy Main village, my maiden name was Bell. My mam was called Ethel, dad was Bob, and my sister was Iris. When I was a child my granda Joe Bell, his daughter Phemie and her husband Charles and their son Brian Poulter lived in Backworth Street. My aunt Beth, her husband Bob and son Foster Bell lived in St Johns Street. I miss the village greatly, but sadly do not have any photos and have not been able to trace any, not even in North Shields library. There have not been any books produced either, so I cannot wallow in its nostalgia.
Early Years at Percy Main
My teen years were spent in Mindrum Terr (the buildings). I started work with Percy Couchman the local builder but left to earn more money at the Loco Sheds as a cleaner fireman.
