South Tyneside - History

History

Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Arabs and more recently the settling of people from the Commonwealth, notably the Indian sub-continent, and the European Union reflect the present-day culture of South Tyneside.

In South Shields (Latin 'Arbeia', Brythonic 'Caer Urfa'), excavations and a reconstructed fort are found at Arbeia (AD 160). This fort served as a garrison and an outpost of the Roman Empire, and is part of Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site. The hospitality strip at Ocean Road is famed throughout the region for its Indian, Italian, Middle Eastern and Chinese cuisine. Mill Dam, with former Customs House (now a theatre, cinema and arts complex), cobbled lanes and Mission to Seafarers centre, stands tribute to the long and proud history of shipping in the town and the river Tyne.

Bede's World in Jarrow (Anglo Saxon 'Gyrwe') is dedicated to the life of the Venerable Bede, the 'Father of English History'. The nominated World Heritage Site is straddled by two rivers - the Tyne and the Don. There is a medieval monastery (St. Paul's Church, AD 681), an Anglo-Saxon farm with rare breed animals and buildings constructed in original materials from that period, and the Georgian Jarrow Hall. The Jarrow Crusade of 1936 was a key event in the town's history and the original banner carried by the marchers to London can be viewed at Jarrow Town Hall.

The local identification of South Shields people with Arabs, which is widespread in the region, may have originated from the placename Arbeia (which is apparently a Latinized version of an Aramaic term meaning "place of the Arabs"), but there has also been a fairly sizeable Arab community in South Shields since the 1890s. This is also one hypothesised explanation of the term "Sandancer" (derived from "sand dancer") for people born and brought up in South Shields.