Between High Street and Oakwellgate was the hall and gardens of the Cole family, who lived in Gateshead from the middle of the sixteenth century. They made their fortune from coal mining and money lending. Nicholas Cole was created a baron by Charles I in 1646. The house was elaborately furnished, with an oak chimney-piece carved with scenes in Scripture. In 1762 the house was converted into a cloth factory, then a brewery. It ended its days as the brass foundry of John Abbot. The last part of the front facing High Street remained until 1865.

Erected in 1807. From 1906 it became a music hall and from 1925, a cinema. It was one of the town's most popular cinemas and only closed in 1956. Demolished in 1962.

Typical municpal dwellings of the late 1930s. The flats have a magnificent view of the Tyne entrance. They were named after Sir James Knott, a local shipowner who gave generously to North Shields. LOCAL LIST

This firm was founded in 1858 for the provision of ships and to provide storage for merchandise. In the basement were huge supplies of salt beef, pork and butter.

This firm specialised in supplying materials to ships based at, or visiting, North Shields. The buildings date from 1874. LOCAL LIST

Stands at the corner of Church Way and Albion Road, across from Christ Church. The building is listed in a directory of 1834 but is believed to have been an old coaching inn before this date. Brick built with stone quoins and fine hood moulding over the doorway. LOCAL LIST

Robert Hutton, rector of Houghton in 1589, built Houghton Hall. His grandson, also called Robert, was a captain in Cromwell's Army and served in the Scottish campaign and the plunder of Dundee after the Restoration. He and the Rector fueded because of their religious differences - the younger Robert Hutton was a Puritan. The arguments are said to have been caused because Captain Hutton wanted his favourite horse to be buried in the churchyard and the Rector had refused. The grandson had then exclaimed "I would not even enter your church". When the Rector retorted "Aye, but I'll warrant thou'll come in here feet first", Captain Hutton replied "No, I'd rather be buried in my own garden". When the horse died, Captain Hutton buried it in his orchard at Houghton Hall and left instructions that on his death, he too should be buried there. This was duly carried out. The latar tomb bore the inscription "Hic lacet Robertus Hutton, Armiger, qui obut Avg. die nono 1680 et moriendo vivit". The tomb remained in the orchard of Houghton Hall until the twentieth century when it was taken to the churchyard. The tomb is marked on the Ordnance Survey first edition map of 1850 as "Hutton's Tomb 1680".

According to the legend, the "Lambton Worm" coiled itself three times around the hill. Some say that this relates to Penshaw Hill where the Earl of Durham's Monument is located (HER 3094) - there are earthworks around Penshaw Hill. The young heir of the Lambton Estate, according to the rhyme, was finishing one Sunday when he was supposed to be at church, and caught an "evil-looking worm" which he tore off his hook and through down a well. Whilst the boy grew up and went abroad to fight, the worm grew in the well until it had the strength to climb out. Eventually it slithered out, basked on a rock during the day, and then coiled itself round the hill near Lambton Castle. It became the terror of the neighbourhood, eating sheep, lambs and cows, trampling cornfields and meadows. In desperation the farmers filled a trough in Lambton Castle with milk, and the worm drank the equivalent of the yield of nine cows every day. Many knights tried and failed to kill the worm. After seven years the young Lord of Lambton returned from battle. He consulted a witch who told him that after he had killed the worm, he must slay the first living thing he met, or the Lords of Lambton would be cursed, never to die in their beds for nine generations. Lord Lambton stood on a rock in the river, his armour studded with blades, and cut off part of the worm's tail. The worm coiled itself round the Lord's body and legs, and was cut by the spear blades on his armour. The Lord cut the creature into pieces, which were washed away by the River Wear. Seeing the death of the monster, the young Lord's father rushed to congratulate him. The son could not obey the witch's advise and so killed a hound which had come out of the wood. So the worm was slain, but it was said that for nine generations no Lord of Lambton died peacefully in his bed.

The Houghton Burn passes through the centre of Houghton. A Mr Coulson had an area of the burn excavated to create a lake. The lake is shown on the Ordnance Survey third edition map of 1919. It was a popular leisure resort for boating. The diversion of the burn affected the running of the flint mill (HER 3164) and so the owners protested for the stream to be restored to its former course. Eventually two brothers, Robinson, Darlington showmen, infilled the lake and made it into a showground where Houghton Feast (established to mark the anniversary of the dedication of St. Michael's Church) fairground was held. Also used as a football ground.

Tradition says that Bernard Gilpin (rector of Houghton 1558) took a cutting from the thorn in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, which according to legend had been planted there by Joseph of Arimethea. Gilpin planted the thorn in the rectory grounds. Frank Rushford, in his book of c1950 described the thorn tree as "crabbed and gnarled with age, and supported here and there with timber, and yet still in a wonderful state of preservation. It is a historic object of which Houghtonians are not a little proud". Tree no longer there.