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Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear in north-east England on the south side of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne which covers the North Bank. It is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Gateshead and Newcastle are linked by ten bridges. Gateshead is historically within the traditional county of County Durham.

History

In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated Malcolm III of Scotland and his allies on Gateshead Fell.

In 1553, in the reign of Edward VI Newcastle briefly annexed Gateshead, and made another attempt in 1574.

Ambrose Crowley a Quaker nail-manufacturer moved in 1691 to Winlaton, where he set up furnaces and forges on the River Derwent. The river was ideally suitable for tempering steel as the sword-makers of Shotley Bridge also found. Crowley not only produced high-quality nails, but also iron goods such as pots, hinges, wheel-hubs, hatchets and edged tools. He could also make heavy forgings like chains, pumps, cannon carriages and anchors up to four tons in weight. The Crowley works were a tourist attraction and regarded as the largest manufactory of the kind in Europe.

Crowley founded two model settlements near his works, where his employees and their families lived in socialist fashion, with welfare services provided - a forerunner of Robert Owen’s better-known community at New Lanark in Scotland a century later. There were arbitration courts, sickness insurance, and a resident clergyman, teacher and doctor were employed. North of the bridge at Swalwell are fragments of the Crowley works.

William Hawks, originally a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. eventually became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between 'Hawks' Blacks' and 'Crowley's Crew'. The famous 'Hawk's men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie song and story.

In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's mediaeval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A world-wide industry of wire-drawing resulted. The submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover-Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the brake-drum and cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, and his giant 25 inch telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence in 1871.

In 1831 a locomotive works was built by the Newcastle and Darlington railway, later part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In 1854 the works moved to a new site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1910, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington.

Economy

Retail

Gateshead is the location of the MetroCentre, which regained its place as the biggest shopping centre in Europe when the new red mall opened in October 2004. Gateshead is also the location of the Team Valley Trading Estate, initially the largest and still one of the largest purpose built commercial estates in the UK.

Industry

Dunston, an area of Gateshead was the home of one of the most advanced power stations in the world in the 1930s. An extension was built after the Second World War and the power station ran until the 1970's when the site was used for the MetroCentre, the largest shopping centre in Europe.

Architecture

Having been overshadowed by its near neighbour, Newcastle upon Tyne for many years, Gateshead has recently seen a cultural resurgence. Building on the success of the MetroCentre and the International Stadium, the council has more recently invested in riverside redevelopments that include the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, erected in 2001. The bridge won the James Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2002.

The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art has been established in a converted flour mill. The Sage Gateshead, a Norman Foster-designed venue for music and the performing arts opened on 17 December 2004. The Brutalist Trinity Centre Multi-Storey Car Park still dominates the town centre. A product of attempts to regenerate the area in the 1960s it is largely derelict but has gained an iconic status due to its appearance in the film Get Carter.

Gateshead is also home to a large number of public art works, including the The Angel of the North, Britain's largest sculpture with a height of 20 metres and a 54 metre wing span. This was a bold step for the council and has succeeded in drawing national attention to Gateshead. It was erected in 1998, and designed by Antony Gormley. It is visible from the A1 road immediately south of Gateshead, as well as from the East Coast Main Line.

Religion

Christianity

The most practised religion in Gateshead is Christianity. The UK government census is 2001 reported that 82% of the population are Christians.

Judaism

Although only about 1% of the population are practicing Jews, there is a significant Jewish community in the borough, the largest in North East England. The community was established at the end of the 19th century when Eastern European Jewish refugees rejected the religious laxity of the Newcastle upon Tyne congregation, and crossed the river to set up a new synagogue. Following the destruction of the centres of Orthodox Jewish scholarship on the European mainland, Gateshead became the largest Orthodox Jewish education complex in postwar Europe, and the most significant outside of the United States and Israel. This can partly be attributed to the arrival of orthodox Jewish refugee businessmen who were fleeing the European mainland during the Nazi era. As a result, Gateshead became an important centre of Torah orthodoxy.

Sport

Gateshead International Stadium regularly holds international athletics meetings over the summer months. It is also host to rugby league fixtures, and the home ground of both Gateshead Thunder Rugby League Football Club and Gateshead Football Club. Both clubs have had their problems: Gateshead FC were controversially elected out of the Football League to make way for Peterborough United in the 1960s, whilst Gateshead Thunder lost their place in Super League as a result of a takeover (officially termed a merger) by Hull FC. Both Gateshead clubs continue to ply their trade at lower levels in their respective sports, thanks mainly to the efforts of their supporters. Also Based at the International Stadium are the Gateshead Senators, 2006 Northern Conference champions in the British American Football League.

The local rugby union team, Gateshead RFC, is also experiencing success, winning their league (Durham and Northumberland 2) in 2004/2005, and finishing 4th in a very tough Durham and Northumberland 1 league in 2005/2006, with centre David Tate finishing top try scorer in the league with 18 tries, and scrum half/kicker Jonathan Foster finishing second overall top points scorer with 187 points.

Transport

Gateshead is served by the Tyne and Wear Metro. There are stations at Gateshead Interchange, Gateshead International Stadium, Felling, Pelaw and Heworth. Heworth is also served by main-line train services, as are Blaydon, Dunston and MetroCentre stations. Bus services are mainly provided by Go North East in conjunction with the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive.

The A1 road passes through Gateshead starting from the South it runs past the Angel of the North then past Team Valley and the Metro Centre before crossing Blaydon bridge and into Newcastle. This section is often referred to as the Western Bypass, and is one of the most congested sections of dual carriageway in Europe.

Famous residents

Writer Daniel Defoe and footballer Paul Gascoigne are just some of Gateshead's past and present famous residents. For a full list, see list of famous residents of Gateshead.

See also

AIRS A Gateshead-based talking newspaper

• Towns in Tyne and Wear
• Orthodox Jewish communities