The changing River Tyne at South Shields
...AND THREE MORE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM TREVOR ERMEL’S IMPRESSIVE BODY OF WORK...
OUR two images sum up the changing face of the River Tyne.
Taken at the same spot in South Shields, 38 years separate the two striking photographs.
The older, taken in the late 1970s, recalls a river on which industry and shipping still thrived (even if decline was just around the corner).
The newer picture shows a river and its surrounds newly redeveloped with 21st century buildings.
The photographs are once again published courtesy of Trevor Ermel.
Based in Whitley Bay, but born and bred in Gateshead, Trevor has amassed a superb body of work charting the changing streets and river views of Tyneside over the last five decades.
Recently he has been returning to the location of some of his original photographs and capturing how those places look today.
Trevor takes up the story of these two pictures.
He says: “In the 1979 scene, two young lads are fishing near Mill Dam in South Shields, in front of Harton Low Staiths - so called to differentiate them from Harton High Staiths further upriver, which had already closed by this date.
“Coal from Westoe Colliery was loaded into sea-going vessels at this point. The final coal shipments took place here in 1988, with the colliery itself closing in 1993.”
And of the newer photograph, he says: “No fishing taking place in the 2017 view and the background has changed considerably.
“The area behind the staiths has been cleared and landscaped, leading up to the double front - or is it the rear? - of the new BT building seen on the right.
“Just visible beyond this is a distinctive circular building called The Word, the brand new library and information centre for South Tyneside.”