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MARKET TOWNS OF NORTHUMBERLAND (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

Tynemouth in 1843

TYNEMOUTH, a parliamentary borough, created by the Reform Act, and comprehending the townships of Tynemouth, North Shields, Chirton, Preston, and Cullercoats. in the extensive parish of Tynemouth, in Castle Ward. in the county of Northumberland. The castle, which occupies a peninsula at the northern side of the mouth of the Tyne, and the village of Tynemouth, are about 9 miles east of Newcastle-upon-Tyne : the town of North Shields is a mile or two nearer Newcastle.

It has been supposed that the Romans had a post on the site of Tynemouth castle, and Camden thought it was the Tunnocelum of the ‘Notitia,’ which others place at Bowness in Cumberland. On the same site a religious house was erected by Oswald, or his nephew Eegfrid, kings of Northumbria, which was repeatedly plundered by the Danes, and remained desolate until the time of Edward the Confessor, when Tostig, earl of Northumberland, son of Godwin, restored it. It was subsequently made subject to the monastery of Jarrow, afterwards to the monastery of Durham, and at a later period still to St. Albans Abbey, from whence a number of Benedictine monks were transferred to it. In the time of William the Conqueror, the peninsula on which it stood was inclosed on the land side by a wall and a ditch ; the place was afterwards more completely fortified, the walls being carried round the site, towards the sea, where there are cliffs which rise to the height of nearly 60 feet, as well as towards the land, and was known as Tynemouth Castle. At the Reformation, when the monastery was suppressed, its yearly revenue amounted to £511, 4 shillings and 1 pence gross, or £397, 10 shillings and 5 pence clear. The castle was garrisoned in the time of Elizabeth, and in the great civil war was taken (A.D. 1644), by the Scotch from the Royalists, who had occupied it. Having been restored by the parliament, it was garrisoned by them, but the garrison having revolted, the place was stormed by a parliamentary force from Newcastle, under Sir Arthur Hazelrig. Considerable remains still exist both of the priory and the castle. The gateway tower of the castle on the west or land side is in tolerably good condition, and the circuit of the walls appears to be entire. There are considerable remains of the priory church, built of reddish stone, of various dates and styles, especially Norman and early English. This was used as the parish church until the time of Charles II, when a new church was built at North Shields, distant a mile to the west. There are a lighthouse and some other modern buildings in the castle ; and near it are a fort to command the entrance of the river, and a group of buildings, built for barracks, now forming a square of dwelling-houses. The village of Tynemouth is adjacent to the castle, and consists chiefly of one long street. There are some elegant baths, and the place is resorted to by a number of persons in the bathing season.

North Shields rose about the time of Edward I, under the protection of the Prior of Tynemouth, who erected houses here, formed a harbour, and established a market ; but the burgesses of Newcastle, regarding the formation of the town as a violation of their charter, obtained a decree which compelled the prior to suppress the market and destroy the buildings he had erected. The place consequently continued in obscurity until Cromwell, in the time of the Commonwealth, caused an act to be passed for forming quays and establishing a market. It was not however till the close of the seventeenth century that the restrictions upon the trade of the place were removed ; and from that time the town dates its prosperity. It extends about a mile along the north bank of the Tyne, opposite South Shields, and occupies nearly the whole township of North Shields, and portions of Chirton and Tynemouth. The old part consists of narrow streets and alleys; the newer part has spacious streets and squares, in which are a number of good houses. The town is lighted with gas ; Chirton and Preston villages lie back from the river, but Chirton will probably be united in the course of time by the extension of buildings to North Shields. The parish church of Tynemouth is at the eastern end of North Shields, and there are a chapel-of-ease and a new church, the latter completed in 1836 ; there are also several meeting-houses for Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and different classes of Methodists ; a handsome building for the subscription library, a Scientific and Mechanics’ Institute, and a theatre.

The population of the townships included in the borough was in 1831 as follows :-

Houses

Population

Township

Inhab.

Uninhab.

Building

Families

Persons

Tynemouth

1,724

261

18

2,619

10,182

North Shields

818

12

0

1,895

6,744

Chirton

636

8

1

1,034

4,973

Preston

145

2

0

160

765

Cullercoat

89

1

0

145

542

Sub-total

3,412

284

19

5,853

23,206

Rest of Parish

324

24

0

354

1,572

TOTAL

3,736

308

19

6,207

24,778

North Shields is a place of great trade, there are numerous collieries in the neighbourhood, employing, in the whole parish, 1,000 men ; ships of 300 tons can load at the quays. There is a great export of coals, chiefly to London and the eastern coasts of England and Scotland. Several vessels are engaged in the Greenland and Davis’s Straits whale fishery. Ship-building, and the manufacture of sail cloth, cordage, chain-cables and anchors, are actively carried on : there are salt-pans. There is a market on Friday.

Tynemouth is a vicarage, in the rural deanery of Newcastle, in the archdeaconry of Northumberland and diocese of Durham, of the clear yearly value of £298.

There were in the borough in 1833, an infant-school, 65 other day-schools of all kinds, of which three were also Sunday-schools, and ten Sunday-schools. The infant-school had 32 boys and 33 girls ; the other day-schools 1,159 boys and 1,038 girls, and from 300 to 400 children of sex not stated ; and the Sunday-schools (not reckoning the three which were also day-schools), 591 boys, 482 girls, and 80 children of sex not stated. One of the day-schools has tolerably good endowment.