North Shields, first medieval settlement

The area now partly occupied by Clifford's Fort was settled prior to the medieval town proper (began by Prior Germanus around the year 1225 - see HER REF. 183). In the 19th century it was reported that on the banks of the Pow burn, formerly called 'Pwl', where it entered the Tyne were fisherman’s huts or shiels supposed to have been there since the medieval period. The fishermen of Tynemouth had always put out and in at this point. It was also reported that In September 1819, workmen at the Low Lights in the Pow dean, at a depth of twelve feet six inches came across “a framing of large oaken beams, as black as ebony, pinned together with wooden trenails, the whole forming a pier to which vessels drawing nine or ten feet of water had come. Large oak trees were also found embedded in the mud, hollowed out as if to convey water".