Tyne and Wear
Metropolitan county of northeast England, created in 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
(2001) 1,075,900
Famous people
Thomas Bewick, Harry Patterson (‘Jack Higgins’), Robert Stephenson
The Tyne and the Wear Tyne and Wear county was formed in 1974 through the reorganization 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 (Newcastle upon 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 1642–49 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 monopolized 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). |
