By Carol Davison
So yes, there’s no doubt about it – we love North Shields! Our town, first recorded in 1225, started as a small fishing port situated at the mouth of the Pow Burn where the fish quay stands today. Now, nearly 800 years later, it has naturally sprawled, covering a vastly bigger geographical area, and a somewhat controversial question has been raised – where are the current boundaries of North Shields?
Unquestionably, the Fish Quay and town centre are encompassed but what about the outlying suburbs, the likes of Marden, New York, Shiremoor? There exists some debate about this. A quick on-line search throws up innumerable premises tagging ‘North Shields’ at the end of Cullercoats and Tynemouth addresses. Tynemouth Post Office is listed as being at ‘Percy Park Road, Tynemouth, North Shields’ yet if you ask the majority of Tynemouth residents if they consider themselves from North Shields, expect an earful! With this in mind, maybe it’s time to clear up the confusion and establish if there is a definitive answer.
The basics are easy. North Shields is in the Metropolitan County of Tyne and Wear and in the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside. Wikipedia then appears to provide a categoric delineation of the town itself, stating that it is bounded to the north by Whitley Bay (thus including Cullercoats), to the south by the River Tyne, Tynemouth to its east with the A19 road marking its boundary to the west with Wallsend.
Google Maps provides North Shields with a boundary line which includes New York, Preston Grange and Marden but excludes Tynemouth, Shiremoor and West Allotment.
Looking at political maps of the area adds to the debate but also adds to the confusion.
From a parliamentary perspective, North Shields is divided between the Tynemouth and North Tyneside constituencies. Currently, the Tynemouth constituency map includes the likes of New York, Preston Grange, Shiremoor and Backworth. It splits North Shields town centre with for example, Albion Road being in the Tynemouth constituency and
neighbouring Church Way being in the North Tyneside constituency. Half of Waterville Road is in the Tynemouth constituency and the other half in North Tyneside.
Turning attention to local council wards, North Tyneside Council has set new boundaries for the upcoming 2024 elections in May and there will be a new ‘North Shields’ ward which will partly encompass the old Riverside and Tynemouth wards. In this definition, North Shields is primarily composed of the town centre and Fish Quay.
Seeking clarity elsewhere, another local agency to work with geographical boundaries is Northumbria Police. The Police UK website provides a crime map of the area they class as ‘North Shields’. This map has the A19 as a cut-off point to the west and it stretches north to include the Cobalt and Silverlink but does not extend to Shiremoor and West Allotment. It includes Tynemouth but using Beach Road as a boundary, it excludes Preston Grange and Marden.
Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, Office for National Statistics, Post Office postcodes, church parish maps. The list goes on of the many sources offering information on the geography and definition of North Shields. They are all different.
With no absolute conclusion to the issue, maybe the answer lies outside geographical boundaries. Perhaps it’s something cultural, historical, a matter of local pride or simply where you feel you belong. Whatever the reason, if North Shields feels like home then that’s where it is and you’ll always be welcome!
