Saltmeadows

once known as New Gateshead and now

 Gateshead East and Gateshead Quays 

East of the town centre, on the south shore of the Tyne River, home to Gateshead College, near to Gateshead International Stadium and shortly to be developed as the new Baltic Business Park.
For almost five Centuries, in its industrial heyday, producing coal, iron, chemicals and rope, it was variously owned by, and rented by Newcastle City and didn't revert to Gateshead until the late 1930's.
The famous Newcastle coals were mainly mined here, and elsewhere on the Gateshead side as well as the quarries that produced the famous Newcastle grindstones.
And while we're on, the currently World famous Newcastle Brown Ale was created in Gateshead, which also houses the region's TV station, the most viewed public art in the World and the best Contemporary Art and Music Venues outside of London. Enough already

 The Allhusen soap making works was in Saltmeadows as well as Tyneside’s first coal staith dating back to the 17th century. It was full of industry but a lot of folk called it "hyem" and naturally it was also well endowed with pubs
such as the Vulcan Tavern at the north end of Quarryfield Road,




the Patent Hammer on Hawks Road


Patent Hammer Late 1990s

Patent Hammer ahead of demolition in

as well as the Saltmeadows House, Spires Deptford and the New Gateshead Inn.  A haunt of the shipyard workers, forgive the pun as it is allegedly haunted, was the ’Ship Inn’ but now called the Schooner 

Saltmeadows contained the Park Works, making anchors, chain cables, brass, copper and tin products as well as Hawks, Crawshay & Sons  who famously made and erected The High Level Bridge to the design by Gateshead's Robert Stephenson

  Full story by Michael Faulkner


Nixon Street, Crawshay Street, Hawks Street, Towns Street, Grant Street, Hawks Cottages

Grant Street School, Grant Street/Hawks Street, 1971
Photographer:  Manders, Frank
Date:  30/06/1971
Reference Number:  GL009217
New Gateshead School

For the best overview of Saltmeadows
go to gatesheadlocalstudies
and type saltmeadows into search bar..45 results
south shore brings 42 results




Grant Street School, Gateshead, 1971
New Gateshead School
Photographer:  Manders, Frank
Date:  30/6/1971
Reference Number:  GL001420

The white building next door is the New Gateshead Inn which closed in 1981


New Gateshead Inn, Hawks Street, 1971
Photographer:  Manders, Frank
Date:  30/6/1971
Reference Number:  GL001387



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New Gateshead Inn (Interior) Hawks Street, Gateshead
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  Unknown
Reference Number:  GL004433


 Albany Road, Saltmeadows 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1997
Reference Number:  LS000351
Photograph of flats on Albany Road.



1895 Map showing Salt Meadows between the river/South Shore Road and Hawks Road/Saltmeadows Road with
Nailor's Bank running between. There's South Shore Engineering Works and on the rivers edge there's the Disused Iron Works
next to Holzapfel's Paint Works




Rear of 14-28 Quarryfield Road, Gateshead, 1938
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1938
View of Quarryfield Road Ref:  GL005158
Quarryfield Road was located near to the iron works and housed people living on or below the poverty line in two and single storey terraced homes.


Rear of 8-14 Quarryfield Road, Gateshead, 1938
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1938
Reference Number:  GL005159

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8-38 and 7-41 Quarryfield Road, Gateshead, 1938
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1938
Reference Number:  GL002858

8-38 and 7-41 Quarryfield Road, Gateshead, 1938
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1938
Reference Number:  GL00516






More semi-detached homes emerged on the site of the former South Shore Brick works during the inter-war years at Norfolk, Suffolk and Dorset Road.

Norfolk Road, Gateshead, 1985
Photographer:  Elrington, W.P
Date:  September 1985
Reference Number:  GL004553


Norfolk Road, Saltmeadows 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1997
Reference Number:  LS000352
Photograph of derelict houses on Norfolk Road.

Coulthard's Lane, Saltmeadows 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1997
Reference Number:  LS000349
Houses on Coulthard's Lane looking west towards the junction with Quarryfield Road.

Derelict houses at the corner of Coulthards Lane and Thirwell Road 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  October/November 1997
Reference Number:  LS000304



Waste ground to the rear of Thirwell Road, Saltmeadows 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1997
Reference Number:  LS000348


Saltmeadows Community Centre, Nixon Street 1997
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  1997
Reference Number:  LS000350

  Hawks Cottages, Albany Road, Saltmeadows, c1920
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  C1920
Saltmeadows House Photographs Ref:  GL002360
Hawks Cottages were constructed by John & Benjamin Greene for the workers employed at Hawks Iron works c 1860. They were demolished in the 1960's. That's when New Gateshead became old Gateshead, then gone Gateshead

Gone Gateshead
Those streets now











Alhusen's Chemical Works, South Shore, Gateshead
Covered a large area. See the top left hand corner of the map showing the school, pub and houses...not far to "waalk to wauk"

Alhusen's Chemical Works, South Shore, Gateshead
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  C1910
Reference Number:  GL001313
 The river frontage at South Shore was one of the main locations for the chemical industry. By the nineteenth century,
it was already a conglomeration of industries; glass, soap and iron. In the early nineteenth century, various chemical works
opened. In 1828, Thomas Doubleday and Anthony Easterby, Newcastle manufactuerers, sought to change the use of
some land at Gateshead from whale oil to oil of vitriol manufacture. The high price of alkali led them to use recovered
soapers salts. The first sulphuric acid chambers on the Tyne had been set up for this purpose in 1809 at Bill Quay
(Cambell, 1968, p17). A 'Sulphuric Works' on Pipewellgate is marked on the first edition County Series Ordnance Survey
Map of 1857.

Bleach Packers, Alhusen's Chemical Works, Gateshead
Photographer:  Unknown
Date:  Date Unknown
Reference Number:  GL001319

Saltmeadows Old Photographs of
Quarryfield Road, Albany Road, Hawks Road, Saltmeadows Road, St Lawrence Road, Thirwell Road, Nixon Street, South Shore Road
brought to you by

                The Felling Heritage Group
               and
              Gateshead Council