Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SHIELDS (South)

SHIELDS (South), a town, a township, five chapelries, a sub-district, and a district, in Durham. The town stands on the river Tyne, at the end of the ancient military way called the Wreken dyke, at the terminus of the Brandling Junction and the Stanhope and Tyne railways, opposite North Shields, 1 mile W of Tyne bar, and 8 E by N of Newcastle; adjoins a hill, called the Lawe, once insulated by the tide, and supposed to have been the site of the Roman station Ostia Vedræ; has yielded there and elsewhere Roman coins, inscribed stones, an altar, and remains of a hypocaust; took its present name from the `` sliels '' or huts of fishermen anciently on its site; went, after the Norman conquest, to t1ie Dean and Chapter of Durham; became famous, about 1499, for salt-works,- towards the close of the 17th century, for glass-works,- in the 18th century, for chemical works,-in 1789, for the invention of the lifeboat by Mr. Greathead; was no more than a village, with only 4 vessels, so late as about 1750; rose thence rapidly to the condition of a prosperous town; was made a parliamentary borough in 1832, and a municipal borough in 1850; consists, in both capacities, of the townships of South Shields and Westoe; was proposed, in the Boundary Commissioners' report of 1868, to comprise a further area containing a pop. of about 15,000; sends one member to parliament; is divided into three wards, and governed by a mayor, 8 aldermen, and 24 councillors; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; publishes two newspapers; occupies nearly all South Shields township and much of Westoe township; extends about 2 miles along the river; commands, from the Lawe Walk, a fine view of the coast and the sea; consists chiefly of a long, narrow, crooked old street, along the river's bank, and of spacious, well built, new streets, on higher ground above; includes a large central market square; and has a head post-office‡ in Market place, receiving post-offices in Fowler-street and at Tyne docks, railway-stations with telegraph, four banking offices, several chief inns, a town hall and market house built in 1768, a branch custom-house, a savings' bank, a public newsroom, assembly-rooms, a theatre built in 1866 at a cost of nearly £8,000, a freemasons' hall, an odd-fellows' hall, baths and wash-houses built in 1854 at a cost of £3,000, five churches, sixteen dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chape1, an endowed school with £70 a year, a recently-formed nautical school, national and denomination schools, a literary and scientific institution, a mechanics' institution with reading room and large library, a working-men's institute with large library, master-mariners' cottages, a dispensary, and a workhouse. St. Hilda's church dates from very early times; was mainly rebuilt at great cost in 1811; and retains its old tower. Trinitv church was built in 1834; St. Stephen's, in 1846; and St. Mary's, at a cost of £4,000, in 1863. A new post-office building was projected in 1869.

A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs on the market-days before 1 May and before and after 11 Nov., and on 24 June and 1 Sept. Ship-building, boat-building, rope-making, sail-making, block-making, iron-working, glass-making, varnish-making, earthenware-manufacture, and brewing are carried on. Commerce also is extensive, particularly in the export of coal; but the port statistics are conjoint with those of North Shields, and have been given in our previous article. A pilot-tower is in the E, giving a lookout for vessels at sea; a battery is on the Lawe, a little to the N of the pilot-tower; a pier, about ¼ of a mile long, runs eastward from between the Lawe and the Narrows; two long piers or breakwaters run out, the one from the South Shields side, the other from the vicinity of Tynemouth Castle, to an entrance nearly 2½ furlongs wide beyond Tyne bar; several dry docks are on the river's bank; and Tyne dock, with a water-area of 15 acres and a depth of 24 feet, is in the extreme SW. A vast mass of ballast-hills extends along the E shore; was formed by deposition of ballast from vessels entering for cargoes; and is connected at two points near the river's bank with railways. The police force of the borough, in 1864, comprised 35 men, at an annual cost of £2,293. The crimes committed in 1864, were 37; the persons apprehended, 39; the known depredators and suspected persons at large, 195; the houses of bad character, 21. Electors in 1833, 475; in 1868, 1,211-Real property in 1860, £30,656; of which £917 were in gasworks. Amount of property and income-tax charged in 1863, £2,902. Pop. in 1851, 28,974; in 1861, 35,239. Houses, 4,443.

The township comprises 170 acres of land and 326 of water. Pop. in 1851, 9,625; in 1861, 8,973,-of whom 919 were persons on board vessels. Houses, 1,209. The decrease of pop. arose from changes connected with the opening of Tyne docks, which are in Westoe township.- The chapelries are St. Hilda, Trinity, St. Stephen, St-Mary, and St. Mark; and were constituted in 1845, 1848, 1848,1863, and 1868. The livings of St. H., T., and St. Mary are vicarages, that of St. S. is a rectory, and that of St. Mark is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Durham. Value of St. H., £500;* of T., £400;* of St. S. and St. Mary, each £300;* of St. Mark, £150. Patrons of the first four, the Dean and Chapter of D.—The sub-district excludesWestoetownship, but includes that of Hedworth and Jarrow. Acres, 3,322. Pop. in 1851, 13,460; in 1861, 15,467. Houses, 2,118.—The district comprehends also the sub-district of Westoe, containing the townships of Westoe and Harton, and the parishes of Whitburn and Boldon. Acres of the district, 15,477. Poor rates in 1863, £14,350. Pop. in 1851, 35,790; in 1861, 44,849. Houses, 5,964. Marriages in 1863, 402; births, 1,967, -of which 67 were illegitimate; deathes, 1,161,-of which 587 were at ages under 5 years, and 16 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 3,826; births, 16,463; deaths, 9,680. The places of worship, in 1851, were 12 of the Church of England, with 6,491 sittings; 2 of English or Free Church Presbyterians, with 1,096 s.; 2 of United Presbyterians, with 700 s.; 3 of Independents, with 1,060 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 490 s.; 15 of Wesleyans, with 4,092 s.; 2 of New Connexion Methodists., with 700 s.; 6 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,875 s.; 2 of the Wesleyan Association, with 880 s.; 1 of Wesleyan Reformers, with 75 s.; 1 undefined, with 240 s.; 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 48 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 370 s. The schools were 19 public day-schools, with 2,867 scholars; 52 private day-schools, with 1,818 s.; 41 Sunday schools, with 4,967 s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 66 s. The workhouse is in Westoe.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, five chapelries, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: South Shields CP/Tn       South Shields RegD/PLU       County Durham AncC
Place names: SHIELDS     |     SHIELDS SOUTH     |     SOUTH SHIELDS
Place: South Shields

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