Gateshead
From earliest times Gateshead has been located at the head of an important road or ‘gate' leading up from the south, suggesting that the name of the town is a reference to its location at the head of a ‘gate'. However, there is an alternative view that Gateshead means ‘Goats Head', an explanation supported by the Venerable Bede who described Gateshead under the Latin name Ad Caprae Caput , meaning Goat's Head. In fact, Bede referred to Ad Caprae Caput as the site of a monastery belonging to an Abbott called Utta in AD653, he is described as a ‘truthful and serious man'. We know virtually nothing else about the early origins of Gateshead.
What is certain is that Gateshead is the site of an ancient throughway and that a Roman ‘street' ran through it linking the Roman forts of Concangium (Chester le Street) and Pons Aulius (Newcastle). The Roman road may have partly followed the course of Gateshead's modern High Street, crossing the River Tyne by means of a Roman bridge upon which some consider there to have been a carved emblem of a goat's head. Roman coins and artefacts have been discovered in the vicinity of Church Street and Bottle Bank, found mainly during excavations in the 18 th and 19 th centuries.
During the Norman period Gateshead passed into the hands of the Prince Bishops of Durham, who virtually ruled the land between the Rivers Tyne and Tees for centuries. The first Norman Bishop of Durham, one William Walcher of Loraine, upset Gateshead locals when one of his men murdered a popular Anglo-Saxon noble called Liuff of Lurnley in 1081. The Bishop endeavoured to make amends with the local populace and called a meeting at Gateshead. Unfortunately, he was unable to appease the angry mob and they brutally killed him - the Bishop's mangled body was taken by monks from Jarrow to Durham, where it was eventually interred.
In the 12 th century Gateshead was a favourite residence of Hugh Pudsey, a powerful Prince Bishop of Durham, attracted there by the extensive hunting forests. Despite this the Bishop instigated a clearance programme of parts of the forests, which continued into following centuries. As the forests were cleared subsequent Bishops of Durham gradually lost interest in them as hunting grounds, preferring to employ the forest labour in construction of Tyneside pits, an increasing source of wealth.
The Prince Bishops took little interest in developing Gateshead as a port, preferring Stockton on Tees and the coastal harbour of Hartlepool. Nevertheless, they protected their right to allow ships to trade from the south side of the Tyne against fierce opposition from Newcastle merchants, who wished to control trade on both shores of the river. In March 1553 John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, annexed Gateshead to Newcastle; this state of affairs lasted for only a few months, but in 1574 a further attempt was made at annexation. This time Gateshead people petitioned parliament to prevent the arrangement being sanctioned, and won their case. However, during the reign of Elizabeth I, Newcastle finally achieved its ambition and gained control of Gateshead's coal trade at a lease of 99-years; they were worked extensively during this period providing great wealth for Newcastle merchants.
Despite the early development of coal mining in Gateshead, geographically it remained a relatively small place; in fact, in the 18 th century it was no more than a large village, noted for its ‘oak trees and windmills'. This rural situation changed dramatically toward the late 18 th century with the introduction of industrialisation, a result of which was terrible overcrowding in Gateshead's riverside region. A consequence of this serious overcrowding was the Great Fire of 1854, which destroyed nearly all of the historical buildings that stood in Gateshead; worse still, ships caught fire on the Tyne and the conflagration spread to Newcastle on the northern bank, destroying many medieval buildings on its quayside.
Modern Gateshead Borough is now a sizeable town home to over 200,000 citizens, but throughout its history has lived in the shadows of the commercially powerful and historically wealthier Newcastle. Despite this ever-present competition from the neighbouring northern shores of the Tyne, Gateshead has managed to hold rigidly to its own identity and refuses to become a mere suburb of Newcastle, a repository for ‘Geordie' overspill. The town is widely famed now as a venue for top-level international athletics. In recent years it has become famous, or infamous depending on your point of view, for its huge modern sculpture, "The Angel of the North".