Fish Quay: North Shields

Just ten miles east of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Fish Quay in North Shields brims with its own unique history of hard work and close communities. This book, complete with over 200 archive photographs, depicts a way of life that today is struggling for survival.

The Fish Quay traces its origins back to the thirteenth century when fishermen supplied the nearby priory with goods. Yet the area north of the Tyne remained mostly farmland until the 1750s when coal, used to boil the salt out of the sea, was discovered. Half a century later, the Napoleonic Wars created a rise in the shipping trade.

At its peak, the Fish Quay dealt with cargoes of salted herring, iron, wheat and tar. Local boats dealt in crabs and salmon and men and women stood skinning and filleting fish all day and in all weathers along the full length of the Fish Quay. This book remembers those times and celebrates the people who shaped the area’s history.