Philip Melville Salmon was not the man whom we named a street after on the Lawe, South Shields. However, he was born here on 16th. November 1849.
At the age of twelve he emigrated with his parents Benjamin, an engineer, and Eleanor, to the town of Bendigo in Australia. He later went on to Port Melbourne where he took a job in the sugar works before buying a business in Bay Street. After moving on to Footscray he became the proprietor of the local newspaper The Advertiser and an auctioneer and estate agent, he later returned to Port Melbourne and bought The Standard. Having married Emma Jane Ludner, the Church of England stalwart businessman and his family of four sons and three daughters alternated between Port Melbourne and Footscray, as they prospered.
He was Mayor of Port Melbourne from 1890 -1891 and Member of the Victorian Parliament from1892 - 1894 representing Port Melbourne, having previously contested two other elections in 1886 and 1889. Salmon died at the age of sixty in 1909.
Just another interesting character from South Shields who might be of interest to our Australian cousins.
If any of our readers have some anecdotal evidence of other South Shields born politicians who have made their mark elsewhere I’d be interested in hearing from them (we are already aware that Sir William Fox was Prime minister of New Zealand, and that my mother’s uncle Baron Blyton served as Member of Parliament for Houghton-le-Spring)
Update 23:20
Bob Smith was elected 19th President of the Legislative Council of Victoria on 19th. December 2006. Bob was born in South Shields, England on 22 May 1948
James Hiers McColl 1844 - 1929 emigrated from South Shields to Australia in 1853 and became a prominent Australian politician and minister prior to the first World War.
William Wouldhave the inventor of the lifeboat would be pleased and proud that the memorial and clock tower built in his memory to house “The Tyne” is having a makeover. It’s stonework is being cleaned up and repaired in readiness to face the next generation of visitors and tourists to South Shields.
Wouldhave should always have a prominent place amongst the alumni of this town, so proud of it’s maritime roots, and the contributions it has made to marine safety and education via the South Shields Marine College. Without doubt Wouldhave and his connections to the sea are a major selling point for this town.
It would be rather nice now, if someone in a position of authority could bang together the appropriate heads and arrange for Wouldhave’s grave in St. Hilda’s churchyard to be restored to it’s former condition. The headstone has not been seen for many years now.
Environmentalist and founder of the Boy Scouts of America
He was born Ernest Evan Thompson in South Shields, County Durham (now part of South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear), England of Scottish parents and his family emigrated to Canada in 1866. As a youth, he retreated to the woods to draw and study animals as a way of avoiding his abusive father. He won a scholarship in art to the Royal Academy in London, England.
I’m posting this because (a) not enough South Shields people, particularly our younger people, know enough about Seton, (b) Michelle Styles has an interesting post about him here (he was a friend of her father), and (c) there are some good pages about him here
It’s gratifying to understand that South Shields has exported more than just coal.
The Newcastle Journal carries an interesting story this morning about formative plans to build a “sub-section” of the British Library at Palace Green, Durham in order to house the Lindisfarne Gospels as part of a Christian Hub. The plan, supported by the university and by North East MPs, also has the backing of the head of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
Yet once again an official from the British Library plainly snubs the notions that we can securely and safely look after the ancient manuscript, or that visitors and scholars would be willing to travel to the North East to view it. Sir Colin Lucas, chairman of the British Library Board, said:
“The Lindisfarne Gospels are of fundamental importance to a heritage that reaches far beyond the region in which the manuscript was produced.
“Visitors and scholars come to the British Library to view and study it as one of an unparalleled collection of devotional manuscripts which form the foundation literature both of Christianity and other great religions. The British Library Board would be seriously derelict in its obligation to provide access to these manuscripts for people of all faiths and nationalities, if we allowed this collection to be broken up by removing one of its greatest treasures.”
Does he somehow imagine that Islamic, Sikh, Jewish, or Buddhist (or other) scholars would stay away simply because the Lindisfarne Gospels were displayed in a facility within the Palace Green of a Christian World Heritage Site? The British Library’s arguments against loaning the Lindisfarne Gospels to their natural homeland get more specious every time the subject is broached!
Has anyone considered that people from South Shields or other parts of the North East might not, or cannot, make the journey to London to view our own heritage?
The Shields Gazette is the UK’s oldest provincial newspaper, it became the first of 17 regional evening daily newspapers in 1855 and was born 13 years prior to the formation of The Press Association, that’s nearly 153 years of bring local news to the folks o’ Shields! It started life as a weekly in 1849 and was known as the North and South Shields Gazette, before later being titled The Shields Gazette and Shipping Telegraph.
It is now part of North East Press, a division of Johnston Press, and the paper has been printed on the presses of the Sunderland Echo in Pennywell, Sunderland, since 1992. Prior to that date the newspaper was put together and printed on it’s own press in Chapter Row, South Shields, back in the days when newspapers were block set by hand, a tortuous yet skilled profession. Recent IT developments and technologies use a type of desk top publishing which can produce newspapers far quicker and make editing much simpler.
Over the years The Gazette has employed some great journalists, yet none apparently so romantically linked with North East journalism and it’s recent history as Jim Slater, there is a great pen portrait of him here:
He first dreamed of a life in journalism when, ten-years-old and a shilling a time, he telephoned reports for the chap who covered South Shields FC – then in the old second division – for the Gazette.
At 14 he became copy boy – “Always abbreviated to ‘Boy!’” – charged with moving the written word between newsroom, sub-editors’ room and printing works and with sorting out the carbon paper as he ran.
“The editor drilled through you with his eyes, never mind his tongue. I always felt guilty when he looked at me, but he was a very good editor.”
I found his story about Arthur Grey an eye opener, the three or four times that I met him I always thought he was the most courteous gentleman, rather like my grandfather.
Chris Wilson was another reporter who having left the Gazette returned to edit it, he was a former member of the Boys Club ran by my father at St, Jude’s Church in Alice street, a wonderful man with a hearty smile and sense of humour, and who can forget the insightful reporting of all things connected with the River Tyne and the sea by the late John Landells?
One can see how times had changed in this 1993 video recording which noted the leaving of the lovely Kate Corr, leaving gifts from “Winners” in Fowler Street, South Shields presented by the ever present Terry Kelly, please note the big hair, the big specs, the big computers, the awful operating systems that we “enjoyed” back then. Can anyone put a name to any other faces here?
Some of you may not be too keen on the modern composition of The Shields Gazette with it’s inside front page filled with more regional news, it’s high content of stories made available by South Tyneside Council, it’s letters from regular contributors, or it’s reliance on generic inserts placed in the middle to pack out the content, but at the end of the day it’s the only newspaper out on the streets specifically aimed at South Tynesiders, and as the years have seen it’s proprietors cut costs to maintain a business it becomes even more important for you, the reader, to help provide news and stories. It costs little to make phone call to talk to the team in the newsroom who would be only too happy to have your input, or to write a letter or even email it in.
On a more serious note, as The Press Gazette points out, audience reach is becoming as important as circulation these days, and newspapers have become more accessible via this internet thing, advertising revenue in the digital age helps provincial dailies cover the costs of production but it’s the paying public who give the lifeline to our daily newspaper. Sales on the street are falling they were down 3% year on year as reported in the Press Gazette’s article. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (.pdf), the body which measures newspaper and magazine sales shows that the downward trend has continued in the six months to December 2007. Paid for sales (Mon. to Fri.) of 19445 per day in July fell to 18427 by December, a fall of 5%. This is a trend mirrored by many other regional newspapers in a busy market.
The Press Gazette also reports a growing trend for earlier printing with some printing overnight to get the paper on the streets early morning, this gives a longer shelf life at the newsagents but at the expense of missing breaking stories. We are still used to regarding The Shields Gazette as an evening paper and are sometimes bemused to see the Saturday edition on the streets by as early as 09.30, but perhaps one can now understand why, the longer it is available, the more copies may be sold.
One aspect of selling newspapers on the streets seems to have gone with the mists of time, the hail or the call in a loud voice from the vendor to attract the attention of passers by, apparently in some sort of foreign language “geerhgur!” - “ZZZettuh”, - the vendors seem so quiet in King Street these days!
I wonder if I am like many others pouring over the online edition reading every story and then going out to buy the printed edition too? I have to say that I find it difficult to navigate the “hatches, matches, and dispatches” online, or to find the “telly” page. As a means of weaving the threads of a local community together your local newspaper still has an important role to play, and with such a long history and tradition to maintain ambitious young journalists are doing their best to inform and entertain, and without the support of local people this would all disappear - so remember to buy your Gazette.
One other thing - why is it no longer recycled as fish and chip wrappings?
With the restoration of South Shields premier seafront park now in full swing I thought it worth sharing this article in this morning’s Newcastle Journal reviewing the book commissioned by South Tyneside Council and written by David Bell.
Much of the research for David’s book came from a hand written journal kept by John Peebles, who was appointed as gardener/park keeper in July 1886, and was handed the huge task of creating the park from land which had been cleared of a “moonscape” of spoil heaps from a glass works.
His workforce of 40 men, three boys and seven horsemen, who moved more than 800 cart loads of soil, planted thousands of trees and shrubs and dug what would be the park lake, complete with two islands.
But with the lake flooded to only 18 inches, the cold weather froze the water and Mr Peebles promptly sold 8,942 tickets to skaters over the winter, raising £111.
The park was officially opened in 1890, with a civic procession which included the band of the Wellesley naval training ship, the South Shields Pilots Association, Volunteer Life Brigade, the Knights of Labour, the Ancient Order of Druids, the Ancient and United Orders of Free Gardeners, the Oddfellows Friendly Society, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes and Green’s Sailor Boys Home.
The last entry in the journal is in June, 1902, when Mr Peebles asked the council on the advice of his doctor for “three to four weeks’ rest as a means of restoring me to health.” But by August he was dead, aged 52, and was buried in Harton cemetery, South Shields.
The first performance in 1904 in the new bandstand, by Lieut Amers’ Military Band, drew a crowd of 12,000, but even that paled against the illuminations and firework display in 1932 to mark the visit of the battleship HMS Malaya to the Tyne.
The warship had been built at Elswick, and an event was laid on at the park for the crew, which was to include outdoor dancing to the ship’s band.
A crowd of 75,000 turned up, police struggled to keep order and lawns and flower beds were destroyed by trampling.
The next big event was for King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, when lavish costume pageants were held in the park over a week to depict 10 stages in the history of South Shields, and the South Shields Unemployed Drama group staged performances of The Merchant of Venice.
It’s impossible not to have lived a life in South Shields without spending countless hours in the South Marine Park either feeding the ducks and swans or playing with your children, perhaps even travelling around the lake on the 9″ gauge steam railway. Watching the model boats on a Sunday morning was a habitual past time for myself and my brother when we were children followed by a treat at Minchellas kiosk before a brisk walk on the sands.
However, we were never able to experience the sound of brass or silver bands in the park as the Victorian bandstand had been removed many years before we were born, similarly many of the formal flower beds had been replaced by informal walkways and shrubbery. I’m hoping that by time the Lottery funded restoration is complete that these features will have been returned and that some form of static display illustrating the park’s history and John Peebles involvement is available for visitors to enjoy.
It may not end up as a striking rival to Sunderland’s Mowbray Park or Gateshead’s Saltwell Park chiefly because of their greater size, but the South Marine Park in South Shields benefits from a much better geographical position which is easier to get to and find for the casual visitor. It will principally remain as the jewel in the crown on our seafront and will attract many thousands of visitors over the coming decades after it’s restoration, and perhaps in time to come may attract further money and further enhancements - a point that ought not to be missed by some of our local politicians.
Historically the six naked ladies who started life as escorts for Queen Victoria have been known locally as the “Titty Lizzies. They originally adorned the forecourt of the Town Hall in South Shields alongside Victoria’s statue when it opened in 1910, before all six of them were removed to the South Marine Park in 1951, two subsequently returned to the Town Hall in 1983.
Now as part of the restoration of the South Marine Park, four of the ladies are in Nottingham for a makeover and will return painted in a different colour and equipped with a working lamp in their hands too. Apparently black is not a good colour to show off the form of statues, so that is why they may change.
I hope they go for a nice well tanned Mediterranean bronzed look!
It looks as though the Labour Cabinet on South Tyneside Borough Council has got cold feet over plans to further develop the Arbeia Roman Fort in South Shields as a visitor attraction. This is a shame, a report to be considered by the Cabinet on Wednesday points out that a better museum facility on the site would be welcomed by many living outside of the immediate area, but would not meet the criteria set by local residents on The Lawe. Objections include concerns about car parking and the visible impact of a development.
The great shame is that an opportunity to attract hundreds of additional visitors to South Shields appears to have been (temporarily) lost. Regional promoter One North East is still keen for a development to go ahead and recommends that the Council find another site, which is less than ideal as far as I am concerned. Development of tourism and visitor growth for Arbeia ought to be concentrated at the site of the fort, NOT dissipated into some other scheme which may well be more than walking distance away from the attraction. Tourists bring with them money and opportunities in other areas, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, shops, transport services, taxis etc. will all benefit in the longer term. All of these people have other services which support them, laundry services, food and drink suppliers, various and sundry suppliers to retail businesses, and they all support local jobs.
I fear we may be losing a great opportunity here, simply over fears of increased political tension in one particular ward.
Yesterday’s Guardian reported the London museum’s director, Neil MacGregor as saying;
“I am delighted people in the north-west will once again have the opportunity to meet this everyman of prehistoric Britain”
No hint that the people of the North West will be unable to look after Lindow Man or that the artefact is too valuable a possession to loan out;
Although the bodies are tanned to leather, they are fragile and in danger of decay and mould. Lindow Man will be on display in Manchester from April.
Are the Lindisfarne Gospels really unable to be safely loaned out for a period of display? If the British Museum have been able to come to a satisfactory arrangement with the Manchester Museum then perhaps there is still a chance that the British Library could be encouraged to change their stance over the illuminated manuscripts inspired by the Northern saints.
Australian MP 1892 - 1894
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Clean up for South Shields landmark
“Christian hub” plan for priceless Gospels
Support your local paper
South Tyneside Labour Cabinet gets cold feet
British Library loans ancient body to Manchester Museum
