History & Heritage

From childhood wanderings in Northumberland Park to uncovering secrets buried for centuries, local historian Mike Coates traces how a small burn helped shape the origins of North Shields itself. Drawing on archaeology, medieval records and a lifetime of passion for the town, his rediscovered work reveals the lost story of the Pow Burn, Spital Dene and the remarkable St Leonard’s Leper Hospital – a place of faith, charity and significance now emerging once more from beneath the park.