South Shields, salt pans

The first reference to the manufacture of salt at Shields dates from 1489, when "Lionel Bell of Sowth Sheles obtained a lease for sixty years of a parcel of land near St.Hilde's Chapel. Ten years later he surrendered the lease, together with two iron salt-pannes constructed by the same Lionel within the said plot of ground, and obtained a renewal". The industry grew in the following 50 years, and in 1539 there were 9 salt-pans. The early centre of the industry came to be known as West Pans (probably the area of Pan Closes, east of Commercial Road and under the present metro track), and it continued to thrive into the 18th century.