Tyne and Wear
Metropolitan county of northeast England, created 1974; in 1986, most
of the functions of the former county council were transferred
to the metropolitan borough councils
Area:
540 sq km/208 sq mi
Towns and Cities:
Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, Sunderland (administrative centres
for the districts of the same name), South Shields (administrative
centre of South Tyneside district), North Shields (administrative
centre of North Tyneside district)
Physical:
Rivers: Tyne and Wear
Features:
Part of Hadrian's Wall; Newcastle and Gateshead, linked with each other
and with the coast on both sides by the Tyne and Wear Metro (a
light railway using existing suburban lines, extending 54 km/34
mi); Tyneside International Film Festival
Industries:
Once a centre of heavy industry, Tyne and Wear's industry is now being
redeveloped and diversified, with car manufacturing on Wearside,
electronics, offshore technology (floating production vessels),
automobile components, pharmaceuticals, and computers.
Population:
(1991) 1,095,200
Famous People:
Thomas Bewick, Robert Stephenson, Harry Patterson (`Jack Higgins´)
The Tyne and the Wear
Tyne and Wear county was formed in 1974 through the reorganisation
of the counties of Durham and Northumberland as they were then,
uniting the interests of neighbouring industrial towns along the
estuaries of the rivers Tyne and Wear. These rivers enter the
North Sea within 11 km/7 mi of each other. The Tyne is tidal for
30 km/19 mi, the Wear for 13 km/8 mi; both have relatively narrow,
steep-sided valleys with river banks rising to 30-50 m/98-160
ft. The Tyne cuts across a plateau formed largely of sandstone;
both rivers cut gorges through a magnesian limestone plateau at
their mouths. Both rivers have general merchandise quays. The
Tyne has fishing berths, a wet dock, and roll-on/roll-off berths
for ferries to ports between Bergen and Esbjerg.
History
Several of the towns of Tyne and Wear originated as Anglo-Saxon settlements
from the 7th century. These include the fortified monastery at
Tynemouth, the monastery at Jarrow, Gateshead at the southern
end of the Tyne crossing, North and South Shields by the sheltered
waters upstream of the Tyne River mouth, and Monkwearmouth and
Sunderland, respectively north and south of the Wear gorge. The
Normans built a castle in 1080 at the easiest crossing point of
the Tyne, 16 km/10 mi inland, and later built a bridge at the
same place on Roman foundations. This site remained the crossing
point of the Tyne nearest to sea-level until the construction
of the Tyne Tunnel in 1967.
The coal industry
Coal shipments began in the 13th century, as the Tyne and Wear were
the only rivers in the area of the North Sea and the Baltic where
coal outcrops were within reach of sheltered water. London was
the largest market but supplies also went to Antwerp, the Netherlands,
and eventually to Scandinavia and Russia. The merchants of Newcastle
did their utmost to control the whole coal trade but the occupation
of their town by Royalist and Scottish forces during the Civil
War of 1642-9 allowed Sunderland a share in the trade. During
the 18th century long wagonways were built to enable coal from
mines up to 35 km/22 mi inland to be brought to the staithes (wooden
coal wharves) along the estuaries. The local invention of the
iron-screw collier (a coal transport ship driven by an iron-screw
propeller) in 1852 reduced the cost of transport of coal to London
and overseas markets by sea. On land, the development of the railway
enabled other inland coalfields in other parts of the country
to compete in markets once monopolised by supplies from the Tyne
and Wear region.
19th-Century Industrial Developments
Riverside sites were attractive to 19th-century industry because of
its dependence on large inputs of coal and bulky raw materials,
which has to be transported by water. The short waterfront of
the Wear was soon lined with shipyards. On the Tyne, the narrowing
and deepening of the channel allowed shipyards room to develop
inland on either side of the estuary between Felling and Jarrow,
a distance of 3-11 km/2-7 mi. Further upstream there was a large
chemical industry, with heavy engineering and armaments above
Newcastle upon Tyne. The population of the Tyne and Wear area
rose from 178,000 in 1821 to 1,170,000 in 1921. Housing took the
form of dense terraces built as closely as possible to mines,
factories, and shipyards. Building and chemical pollution destroyed
much of the natural vegetation of the river banks. Although the
Tyneside chemical industry was in decline at the turn of the century,
the production of coal, ships, and engineering components rose
until the end of the World War I.
The 20th Century
Growth of the local economy, which was almost entirely based on coal
and raw materials, could not be sustained in the 20th century.
Unemployment was widespread during the interwar period. Population
growth has been negligible since 1921. Government aid began in
1935, which led to the establishment of a number of industrial
trading estates in some areas. Newcastle upon Tyne has become
the major office centre of the northern region of England and
one of the chief shopping centres in the county.
Much of the population has been rehoused at lower densities
since 1945, with the result that the Tyne and Wear area is almost
entirely urban. In addition to peripheral housing estates there
has been major redevelopment of the older suburbs of Newcastle
upon Tyne and Sunderland. New towns were established at Washington
(originally a group of mining and industrial villages) and at
Killingworth, 9 km/6 mi northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne . Communications
within the county were improved by the construction of the Tyne
Tunnel (in 1967), motorway systems, and the Tyneside Metro (an
integration of Newcastle upon Tyne's suburban rail network through
underground lines beneath the city).
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