Images of the Fish Quay

Thurkston's Smokehouse in the mid-1930s. This is where the kippers were smoked.
Fish catches varied widely, from tens of salmon, brought in by cobles, to tens of thousands of herring, brought in by steam trawlers; even exotic species, like William Wilson's sturgeon.
Salting was one of the few effective means of preserving fish. During the summer, the Scottish herring boats followed the shoals south, and ashore their womenfolk worked on the fish. Salt herrings used to be exported to the Baltic countries, as a delicacy.
The Fish Quay.
The Northern Counties Ice Company persuaded Tynemouth Council to build an ice factory on an extension to the Union Quay, it opened in 1896.
The original Tynemouth Corporation Fish Quay was a single jetty, next to the Low Lighthouse, and lost here behind a forest of masts.
When this photograph was taken, probably in the 1950s, the Gut was still a mud-flat, occupied by wood and boat yards Between 1810-1848 the site of the Fish Quay had been occupied by a coal staith, belonging to Whitley Colliery.
Throughout the 1880 there were extensions to Union Quay. The Protection Jetty, running parallel, was completed in 1896, to give shelter from the
The last major extension to the Fish Quay came in 1929. Using a Government grant o provide short-term work for the unemployed, the Council concreted over part of the foreshore, to provide standage for the herring barrelers.
Extension work being carried out in 1929, as part of the Government effort to find work for the unemployed.
Extension work being carried in 1929, as part of the Government scheme to provide work for the unemployed.
Extension work being carried out to the Fish Quay, in 1929, as part of the Government effort to find work for the unemployed.
A steam trawler.

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