Exhibition sheds light on shipyard’s previous lives

FEW of the families packed into the terraced streets around a Tyneside shipyard would have been aware of the thousands of individuals who had lived at the same location centuries previously.

- TONY HENDERSON

The streets adjacent to the Swan Hunter yard were built from the late 19th century to house the influx of workers to Wallsend as shipbuilding and mining boomed.

The homes were constructed on and around land which had been the site of the Roman fort of Segedunum, garrisoned by a mixed force of infantry and cavalry and occupied for around 300 years.

That history lay hidden until the 1970s when demolition work began on the terraces and excavations started to reveal the remains of the fort.

Now a new exhibition has opened at the fort titled Streets Above: Photographs of the Roads and Buildings that Covered Roman Wallsend.

The images bring back the lives of workers in places like Jubilee Street, Davis Street, Leslie Street, Gainers Terrace, Joan Street, Gerald Street, Winifred Gardens, Plantation Stret, Hunter Street and Wooley Street.