Tyne Dock
| Tyne Dock | |
| County Durham | |
|---|---|
 Tyne Dock viewed from a departing ferry | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NZ352653 |
| Location: | 54°58’52"N, 1°27’4"W |
| Data | |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Shields |
Tyne Dock is a neighbourhood within the town of South Shields in the very north-east of County Durham, on the south bank of the River Tyne.
The place takes its name from the large dock on the river which was opened in 1859 by the North Eastern Railway (and acquired by the Tyne Improvement Commission in 1938) to handle Tyneside's coal exports. At its height the trade amounted to 7 million tons of coal transported via the four staiths which had been built to facilitate the process.
The coal trade declined though in the second half of the twentieth century and the bridges that carried the coal trains into the dock, the famous Tyne Dock Arches, were demolished in the early 1980s. The dock itself has been progressively infilled since closure, allowing for the building of modern storage warehouses. This process concluded with the final thirteen acres that were filled in as part of the project to build the second Tyne Tunnel. The Tyne Dock basin was filled with 400,000 cubic metres of sediment dredged from the Tyne.[1]
Tyne Dock Metro station, on the Tyne and Wear Metro, serves the Tyne Dock area, as well as neighbouring West Harton.
References
- 'Coals to Newcastle again': John H. Meredith in Rail Enthusiast, December 1984, pages 12–13 ISSN 0262-561X