IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hamilton Crescent, NORTH SHIELDS, NE29 8DW

On the A191.

Running south from New York, Westminster Avenue passes underneath the A191.

It is thought that a forge has stood on this site since the mid-18th century. However, as this point was once an important medieval crossroads linking the monasteries of Lindisfarne and Jarrow, it is conceivable that a forge stood here long before the mid-18th century. When the first Ordnance Survey Six-Inch map of the area was published in 1865, the forge was not named on the map although the adjacent building was referred to as the 'Traveller's Rest (P.H.)'. When the 1898 Ordnance Survey map was published, the public house no longer existed and the only property shown and named on the map at this point was a 'Smithy'. This gives weight to the belief that the current brick building was built at some time between the publication of the two maps. For a selection of detailed free to download walking routes in the area visit www.northtynesidewalks.co.uk

This small windowless building stands on a grass verge between Billy Mill Lane (in the background) and Barnstaple Road (in the foreground). It is fitted with a television-type aerial, and has a telegraph pole close to it, with a number of wires going off in various directions. I thought it may be a telephone exchange, but I am advised that this is unlikely. It would seem more probable that it has some purpose connected with the nearby underground reservoirs. Further suggestions gratefully received! Update, Jan. 2021: I have received a message from a gentleman who lived locally to this little building. He tells me that he was taken into it on a school visit in the 1960s as a pupil at a nearby school. He says, "The building certainly has to do with the nearby reservoirs - or did have. It was full of meters and dials and those moving pen things that scratch lines on moving graph paper! All to do with the flowing of water at the nearby reservoirs - which I believe are now redundant as housing is being built over them!" Apparently younger children called it "the fairies' house".

Presumably built originally as a church, when this building was photographed by Bill Henderson in 2007, it was a Lighthouse Christian Centre (see Image). Today, with some alterations to the windows and doors, and doubtlessly to the interior, it serves as a local practice for Vets 4 Pets.

A large, George VI-reign postbox standing outside the post office.