The River Tyne,Pelaw Main in the 1900s

An early picture of shipping on the River Tyne,I think they will be loading coal,this picture and many others are to be found on Norman Dunns web pages linked to the Hebburn on Tyne web site at www.hebburn.org,have a look at the message board and post a message! Roy

Some history on Pelaw Mains past:

Pelaw is a district that forms part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead,
Pelaw came into being due to the huge Victorian factory complexes of the CWS or Co-Operative Wholesale SocietyCo-operative wholesale societyA Co-operative Wholesale Society, or CWS, is a form of Co-operative Federation , in this case, the members are usually Consumers' Co-operatives...
which was the manufacturing division of the then burgeoning Co-Op company, which grew up along the length of the Shields Road.
This mile long stretch of red-brick industry was home to factories making clothing and textiles, furniture, pharmaceuticals, household cleaning products, quilts, books and magazines and the world-famous "Pelaw" shoe polish.
These factories created Pelaw and were practically its sole employer during most of the twentieth century but due to inevitable foreign competition, the prevailing economic climate and government policies of the times, the majority of the factories were closed and demolished between the mid 70s and early 90s to be replaced in recent years by modern housing estates.