Pier Parade, South Shields - 0191 424 7788 Sea Road, South Shields - 0191 455 7411 tourism@southtyneside.gov.uk

Early inhabitants of the area were the Brigantes, a strong and fiercely independent Ancient British tribe. However, there is no evidence to suggest they built a settlement where the present day town now stands. It was John Leland in the 16th century who first suggested the town had been known as 'Caer Urfa.'

A large Roman fort, Arbeia, has been excavated in South Shields on the Lawe Top overlooking the River Tyne. In 2005, it was the setting for an investigation by the Channel 4 Time Team programme. Founded c. AD 120 the fort is mentioned in The Notitia Dignitatum (a list of forts and bases compiled in the 4th century) where it is referred to as Vide Infra. [Note: Vide Infra is Latin for "see below".] Arbeia was intended as the maritime supply fort for Hadrian's Wall and contains the only permanent stone-built granaries yet found in Britain. It was occupied until the Romans left Britain in the 5th century. A Roman gatehouse and barracks have been reconstructed on their original foundations, while a museum holds artefacts such as an altarpiece to a previously unknown god, and a Roman-era gravestone set up by a native Palmyrene to his freedwoman and wife, a Briton of the Catuvellauni tribe. There is also a tablet bearing the name of the emperor Alexander Severus.

The fort was at the end of a road named Wrekendike connected to a larger road which led between Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelivs) and Chester-le-Street (Congangis). Parts of this road are still visible in Wrekenton near Gateshead. The Romans also built a small wharf in nearby Marsden Bay for the purposes of loading sandstone from a quarry. The wharf's remnants remain today although time and tide have left little to see. Arbeia was abandoned by the Romans c. AD 400, when Emperor Honorius informed the people of Britain that they must look to their own country's defences.

When the Romans left Britain in the fifth century, migration by Angles and Saxons began. The North East of England became a centre of learning and education in this period. King Oswald of Northumbria united the kingdoms of Bernicia to the north of the River Tees and Deira stretching south to the River Humber, creating the powerful and influential Kingdom of Northumbria. In AD 647 King Oswy of Northumbria (Oswald's brother) at the request of St. Aidan allowed a nunnery to be built in South Shields. The site today is in the town centre at St. Hilda's Church, although the original Anglo-Saxon building is but a remnant under the present Norman nave. St. Hilda's was one of many monastic institutions along the coast of north east England including Jarrow, where the Venerable Bede lived and worked.

Around AD 865 the monastery at St. Hilda's was raided by the Vikings. However, the Vikings were not merely raiders; they created settlements, and after their struggle with King Alfred effectively controlled much of northern and eastern England. This area became known as the Danelaw. Anglo-Saxon and Danish influence can be seen to this day; the Geordie dialect and accent spoken throughout the North East contains more words and pronunciations of Anglo-Saxon and Danish origin than standard English.

The first reference to 'Scheles' (fishermens' huts) occurs in 1235, and the town proper was founded by the Prior and Convent of Durham in 1245. On account of the complaints of the burgesses of Newcastle upon Tyne, an order was made in 1258, stipulating that no ships should be laden or unladen at 'Scheles,' and that no shoars or quays should be built there. South Shields then developed as a fishing port.

Salt panning along the Tyne began in 1499 and achieved major importance; Daniel Defoe speaks of the clouds of smoke being visible for miles, while a witness in 1743 mentions two hundred boiling-pans. Glass manufacturing was begun by Isaac Cookson in the 1730s and there were eight glassworks by 1827. Coalmining and chemical manufacture also became important. South Shields had the largest alkali works in the world.

In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliament's Scottish allies under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven laid siege to Newcastle upon Tyne and captured the watchtower on the Lawe Top at South Shields (Sunderland declared for Parliament and invited the Scottish army in). The Royalist forces retreated to the south but turned to fight at the small town of Boldon (halfway between South Shields and Sunderland). The ensuing battle is known as the Battle of Boldon Hill and was a victory for the Scots who later destroyed the rest of the Royalist army at the Battle of Marston Moor.

Following the Reform Act of 1832, championed by Lord Grey and the Whigs, County Durham was able to return two members for two divisions, and the boroughs of Gateshead and South Shields acquired representation.

The coal industry flourished in Victorian times, drawing immigrants from far and wide. In South Shields the population soared from approximately 12,000 in 1801 to 75,000 by the late 1860s. Collieries in South Shields included:

Coal mining was very hazardous. Shafts could collapse at any time and before the safety lamp was invented in 1815 naked flames carried by miners to light their way could ignite gas underground causing explosions and many deaths. Some mines even had shafts that stretched several miles out under the sea.

Overcrowding in the town made sanitation a problem, partly solved by Cleadon Water Pumping Station (a large tower erected in 1858 above the town following an outbreak of cholera).

South Shields' place at the mouth of the Tyne with shifting and unpredictable sand bars and channels into the river meant that ships frequently ran aground. Following one such incident the world's first self-righting lifeboat was designed by William Wouldhave in 1790.

In the 1850s, with the Tyne's growing shipbuilding industry and the mouth of the Tyne. South and North Shields needed to stop the flow of sand that threatened shipping. In 1854 the first foundations were laid of the North and South Piers. They were both completed in 1885.

An engineering problem was encountered in managing the new piers. The sand on Littlehaven Beach was now flowing up the Tyne through the incoming tide. As a solution the Herd Groyne Pier was erected in 1882.

South Shields-born Charles Palmer opened his shipyard in 1851 at Jarrow, at first building wooden ships and then moving onto iron. His shipyard patented rolled armour-plate for warships. In 1865 Alderman John Readhead founded his shipyard John Readhead & Sons in South Shields, which built small cargo ships and colliers for clients the world over until the yard was closed in 1968. Various slipways and dry docks can still be seen today stretching from Tyne Dock towards the mouth of the Tyne.

Turner made an engraving of Shields on the River Tyne in 1823. This is now in Tate Britain in London. He also painted Keelmen Hauling Coals by Night in 1835, having himself rowed out into the Tyne at Jarrow Slake in order to do so.

The town became famous for its maritime industries and the Marine School was founded by Dr. Thomas Winterbottom in 1837. Originally in Ocean Road, it is now part of South Tyneside College in Westoe Village and has an international reputation. From the late 1980s to 2008 it possessed the nationally unique combined public observatory and planetarium,[12] which has provided education and entertainment for twenty thousand children a year. During the industrial boom years of the 19th and early 20th centuries, many notable public buildings were built across the town, reflecting its wealth. These included the town hall of 1910, and the Customs House.

South Shields was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1850 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. It became a county borough in 1889 with the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, and remained as such until 1974 when it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside in the (now former) county of Tyne and Wear.

The Shields Gazette, founded in 1849, is the oldest provincial evening newspaper in the United Kingdom.

The impressive South Shields Town Hall of 1910 bears a copper weather vane in the form of a galleon. The town's crest (pre-1974) featured the lifeboat and the associated motto - Always Ready - which was later adopted as the motto of South Tyneside.

Zeppelin airships raided the Tyne in World War I and the town's seafront amusement park was attacked in 1915. In World War II, South Shields suffered well over 200 air raid alerts and 156 people were killed. Many houses were damaged, particularly by incendiary bombs and parachute mines. One direct hit on the market place killed more than 40 people who had taken shelter in tunnels below the square. There was a memorial to them in the form of a cobbled Union Flag on the ground of the market square, however, this was removed as part of an overhaul of the town centre in the late 1990s.

South Shields lost more seafarers than any other port in Britain during World War II.

The celebrated artist L S Lowry spent frequent periods at the Seaburn Hotel in Sunderland, and painted a number of works in South Shields

In 1977 the town was visited by boxer Mohammed Ali, whose wedding was blessed in the local mosque at Laygate. The visit has since been the subject of a BBC documentary. Ali visited the town after receiving an invitation from a local boys' boxing club.

South Shields has undergone significant economic change in the light of de-industrialisation. Service industries, including tourism and retail, play an increasing role in the economic make-up of the town and indeed across the wider area.

Created by acclaimed Spanish sculptor, Juan Muñoz in 1999. Celebrating the Tyne Salmon; here with the 2008 Tyne Bluetooth Salmon Trail Cubes, are the 22 bronze life size figures that command and celebrate a superb view of South Shields Harbour and the Tyne Piers.

South Shields is situated in a peninsula setting, where the River Tyne meets the North Sea. It has six miles of coastline and three miles of river frontage, dominated by the massive piers at the mouth of the Tyne. These are best viewed from the Lawe Top, which also houses two replicas of cannon captured from the Russians during the Crimean War, the originals having been melted during World War Two.

The town slopes gently from the Cleadon Hills down to the river. The Cleadon Hills are made conspicuous by the Victorian water pumping station (opened in 1860 to improve sanitation) and a now derelict windmill which can be seen from many miles away and also out at sea.

The town has extensive beaches including sand dunes as well as dramatic sandstone cliffs with grassy areas above known as The Leas, which cover three miles of this coastline and are a National Trust protected area. Marsden Bay, with its famous Marsden Rock, is one of the largest seabird colonies in Britain.

One of the most historic parts of the town is Westoe village, which consists of a quiet street of Georgian and Victorian houses, many being built by Victorian business leaders in the town, including those who owned mines and shipyards. This street was the setting for a number of books by the novelist Catherine Cookson. Westoe village was once a separate village about a mile from South Shields but urban sprawl has now consumed it along with the village of Harton slightly further along the same South Shields to Sunderland road.