A little after midnight on Friday 6 October 1854 a fire broke out at Wilsonâs worsted factory on Hillgate Key in Gateshead.
As compensation the bishop granted to Newcastle, at a nominal rent, the Gateshead salt-meadows, with rights of way to the High Street, thus abolishing the toll previously paid to the bishop. During the next century Bishop Tunstall's successors incor p orated nearly all the various trades of Gateshead, and Cromwell continued this policy.
As Newcastle stirred from its economic slumber with piecemeal regeneration, Gateshead sank into an even deeper torpor.
As part of the palatinate of Durham, Gateshead was not represented in parliament until 1832.
At another inquisition held in 1336 the men of Gateshead claimed liberty of trading and fishing along the coast of Durham, and freedom to sell their fish where they would.
By her preaching at Gateshead, where her husband was circuit minister, in 1860, she began the women's ministry which is so prominent a feature of the army's work.
Examples include a parachutist; Gateshead's Millenium Bridge, a fairground and a windsurfer.
Extensive coal mines exist in the vicinity; and at Gateshead Fell are large quarries for grindstones, which are much esteemed and are exported to all parts of the world.
Gateshead (Gateshewed) probably grew up during late Saxon times, the mention of the church there in which Bishop Walcher was murdered in 1080 being the - first evidence of settlement.
He surprised the world, which had supposed him to be a recluse and a mystic, by the practical interest he took in the mining population of Durham and in the great shipping and artisan industries of Sunderland and Gateshead.
He was appoined vicar of Gateshead in 1808, prebendary of Durham in 1809, and vicar of St Margaret, Durham, in 1810.
In 1552, on the temporary extinction of the diocese of Durham, Gateshead was attached to Newcastle, but in 1554 was regranted to Bishop Tunstall.
Large gas-works of the Newcastle and Gateshead Gas Company are also situated in the borough.
Sea-going vessels can navigate up to Blaydon, and collieries and large manufacturing towns line the banks - Newburn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Wallsend and North Shields on the Northumberland side; Gateshead, Jarrow and South Shields on the Durham side, with many lesser centres, forming continuous lines of factories and shipbuilding yards.
The other pathfinders cover Newcastle and Gateshead, south Yorkshire, Hull and east Yorkshire, the Potteries, and Birmingham and Sandwell.
Thus, an average below 4.4 is quoted for Rochdale, Halifax, Huddersfield, Yarmouth, Bradford and Stockport, while the average for London was 7.93, and for Gateshead, Newcastle-uponTyne and South Shields, in the northern industrial district of the Tyne, and for Devonport, the average exceeded 8.