King's Meadow
King's Meadow (or King's Meadows) was an island in the River Tyne belonging to Northumberland. It was nearly a mile long, 440 feet wide at its widest point and had a total area of 33 acres. The main channel of the Tyne passed to the south of the island and hence the border between the counties of Northumberland and Durham. It formed part of the township of Elswick and was connected to the Northumberland mainland by a ferry. The island even had its own pub, the Countess of Coventry, whose landlady grazed cattle on the island which produced milk for the locals.[1] Occasionally, horse racing meetings and regattas would be held on and around the island.[1]
Improvements to the navigation of the Tyne meant that the island, along with the adjacent Clarence islands, were dredged out of existence in the 1870s.
