York Road, Whitley Bay - 0191 643 5395 ticwb@northtyneside.gov.uk

The area is rich in history.

Whitley was connected with the Crusades when Pope Nicholas IV granted to Edward I the first-fruits and tenths of all ecclesiastical possessions for six years to defray the expenses of an expedition to the Holy Land. A valuation was made of the spiritual and temporal goods of the Priory on 26 March 1292, when the yearly rents from Whitley were returned as 20 shillings, and the tithes as 9 marks.

About the beginning of the 14th century, the manor of Whitley was held from the Prior of Tynemouth by a singular feudal service called the Conveyes which seems to have originated from John de Whitley. Richard de Emeldon, eighteen times Mayor of Newcastle and seven times its representative in Parliament, was the Lord of the Manor of Whitley in 1333.

On 9 April 1345, Edward III granted to Gilbert de Whitley a licence to crenellate his manor house at Whitley.

To crenallate a house was to place battlements upon it. Before this could be done, the sanction of the Crown was often sought. Although the battlements were largely symbolic, this practice is an indication of the degree of insecurity felt even this far south during the Edwardian wars with Scotland. The licence and crenellations were a display of status. Only 2% of the small tower houses of the sort Gilbert built had licences. The 'sanction' of the crown was a sought-after bonus, but not a requirement. (Davis, 2006)

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Whitley was held under the Crown for a time. By a grant of Edward VI dated 8 December 1551, it came into the hands of Dudley, Earl of Warwick who was created Duke of Northumberland. It remained in the Percy family until 1632 after which time the area appeared to be let at a yearly rental to various holders until it came into the possession of the Duke of Somerset on his marriage in 1682 with Elizabeth, the heiress of Joscelyn, the 11th Earl of Northumberland. Whitley subsequently passed by inheritance to her granddaughter Elizabeth Seymour who had married Sir Hugh Smithson, a Yorkshire baronet, afterwards created Duke of Northumberland. Whitley has since been retained by descendants and the present Duke of Northumberland is the Lord of the Manor and principal landowner.

Monkseaton, which forms the greater part of the north west of the district is also very old and its industries were common with those of Whitley being chiefly coalmining and limestone quarrying.

1873 saw an event of importance in the town's history by the establishment of the Whitley and Monkseaton Local Board. The district of the Local Board became the Urban District of Whitley and Monkseaton.

From the late 19th century and into the 20th century the adverse effects of the decline of local coalmining and dependent industries in the area were ameliorated by the emergence of Whitley as a seaside holiday resort. Its popularity with holidaymakers was helped by the opening of the North Tyne Loop railway line in 1882, connecting the coastal villages to Newcastle. The line followed the route of the present Metro line, and necessitated the building of a new railway station in the centre of the town, as well as another at Monkseaton. Both stations are still in use as Metro stations.

The town was known as Whitley until the 1890s, by which time the confusion of the name with Whitby, in Yorkshire, was often causing mail to be misdirected. The final straw came when an ex-resident died in Edinburgh and his body was to be buried in St Paul's churchyard, Whitley. Unfortunately, the body was transported to Whitby by mistake causing the funeral to be delayed. The council asked residents for suggestions for a new name, and the most popular choice was Whitley Bay. It has since been known as Whitley Bay, but many residents still refer to the town as 'Whitley'.

On the 1 January 1944 the Whitley and Monkseaton Urban District became the Whitley Bay Urban District and on 5 March 1954 it was granted its Royal Charter of Incorporation as the Borough of Whitley Bay. The charter was presented by HRH The Princess Royal at a ceremony in the town held on 14 April 1954.[2]

The Whitley Bay Parish Church is St. Paul's Church. The church was provided by the Duke of Northumberland when the old parish of Tynemouth was divided in 1860. It was consecrated in 1864.

The Local Government Act 1972 abolished the borough, with Hartley in the north of the borough going to Blyth Valley district in Northumberland, and the main part including Whitley and Monkseaton forming part of the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside in the Tyne and Wear area. The town is in the constituency of Tynemouth and as of June 2008 its MP is Alan Campbell for the Labour Party. Councillors of the Whitley Bay ward of North Tyneside Council are Alison Austin, Michael McIntyre and Margaret Marshall. The other wards which cover the town are Cullercoats, Monkseaton North, Monkseaton South and St. Mary's.

There are two high schools in the town, Whitley Bay High School and Monkseaton High School.

Whitley Bay was famous for its permanent seaside fairground The Spanish City, which has now been demolished. A fairground returns to the town on bank holiday weekends, the Easter and summer holidays, but is now located on 'the Links', an expansive seafront park to the north of the original Spanish City site. The Spanish City Dome, which is a Grade II Listed building, is to become the centrepiece of a multimillion pound "regeneration" of the seafront complex, which will include hotel and leisure developments. Also in the town is St. Mary's Lighthouse.The Spanish City is the subject of the Dire Straits song Tunnel of Love, along with Whitley Bay and the nearby town Cullercoats.

The ice rink was also the region's premier concert venue until the Newcastle Arena (now Metro Radio Arena) opened in 1995. The venue played host to the top names in the music industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s, such as The Jam in 1982, The Cure in 1985, Oasis in 1994 and the Stone Roses in 1995, as well as a one-off night to the World Wrestling Federation.

The Park View Shopping Centre opened in 2004 after many years of deliberation, linking the many fine niche retailers on Park View with the High Street retailers in the town centre and with its rooftop car park also adding 173 much needed car parking spaces. Shops with premises on this site include Iceland, Superdrug and Boots. However, the centre was badly hit by the news that Marks & Spencer would be closing its food outlet there after cutting back on numerous stores in the height of the recession. The store has now closed. The Town was further impacted by the closure of its large Woolworths store and the long standing T&G Allens store - adjacent to each other in the very centre of the town.

Whitley Bay is around 9 miles from Newcastle upon Tyne and is connected to the Tyne and Wear Metro, with stations at Whitley Bay, Monkseaton, West Monkseaton and Cullercoats. It is about a 25 minute journey from Newcastle city centre on the Metro.

The local newspaper, The News Guardian - owned by Johnston Press - is published once a week from its offices in the town. It is printed on the presses of the Sunderland Echo in nearby Sunderland. The alternative free weekly paper is the Chronicle Extra, formerly known as the Herald and Post. For those who want a more satirical slant on their local news, the town's very own spoof newspaper the Whitley Bay Citizen started in 2000. It has since been discontinued although the articles have been archived at citizenextra.com, new content is also planned.

Whitley Bay is known widely throughout the UK as a destination for 'stag' and 'hen' parties, especially on bank holiday weekends.[citation needed] This is the source of some consternation to local residents, many of whom believe that the town's nightlife brings with it an unsavoury reputation as well as disruption and anti-social behaviour. Others see the boisterous nightlife of the town as a valuable source of revenue and as a source of excitement and interest for the now largely derelict seafront.

The principal nightlife location is South Parade, a street lined with bars, hotels, guesthouses and restaurants that curves down from the town centre to the seafront. Whitley Bay's two nightclubs are to be found on the seafront along with a number of hotels and restaurants.

Park View is a shopping street that runs roughly north to south parallel to the seafront. It is a continuation of Whitley Road, the town's principal thoroughfare, but is particularly well known locally for being the location of numerous independent shops, rather than chains or franchises, that cater for a wide variety of consumer demand.

£60 million was earmarked by the government for a regeneration scheme in Whitley Bay. At the heart of the scheme is the redevelopment of the Spanish City site with its iconic dome, which was completed in 1912. For many years it was home to a theme park with rides and attractions for holiday makers until falling into decay following the closure of the theme park in the 1990s.

On 20 February 2007, North Tyneside Council announced plans to regenerate the Spanish City and Whitley Bay. The proposed £60 million scheme envisaged the full refurbishment of the Whitley Bay Playhouse and the creation of a cultural hub within the iconic Dome on the seafront although an alternative plan for regeneration has been proposed by a group called The Culture Quarter. A new skatepark opened in the Panama Dip in 2008, following the creation of a new children's play park on Whitley Park the previous year. The swimming pool re-opened after a major refurbishment in March 2009 and the refurbished Playhouse re-opened in September 2009.

Plans for a new library and joint service centre on the site of Whitley Park have proved more controversial and are currently (March 2009) mired in the planning process. Plans for new housing on the site of the former Marine Park and Coquet Park schools, together with a site on the seafront presently occupied by two car parks, have fallen victim to the downturn in housing market and remain on hold.

Whitley was first mentioned about the year 1100 when King Henry I conferred it with other possessions on the Priory of Tynemouth being referred to in ancient documents and maps before that date as Witelei, Wyteley, Hwyteleg, Witelithe, Wheteley, Wytheleye, Whitlaw, Whitlathe and Whitlag. Whitley is also referred to in the charters of King Henry II, King Richard I and King John, confirming to the priors their possessions and liberties.