On Woods map this is apparently surrounded by ballast hills - though the works is not shown on the 1st edition OS map. The impetus to produce alkali came largely from the needs of the local glass trade. In 1762, Isaac Cookson, glassmaker, set up an alum works on land between the present ferry landing and Mill Dam. The alum was to be used as a source of potash salts in his glass houses. The clay containing aluminium salts (alum shale) were brought from Whitby. Around 1780 a small factory was set up on a hill-top near Mill Dam to make sulphuric acid by the chamber process. The site became known as Vitriol Hill. There was a public protest in 1823.

Markets in South Shields took place in the street until the 18th century when the planned market square was built. Richardson's plan of South Shields and Westoe shows this development. In the centre of the market place was a cross (SMR 4597) and a Town Hall. In 1766 the Dean and Chapter of Durham agreed to release eight acres of Glebe land for a new market place. In the House of Commons it was stated that South Shields was allowed to hold two Annual Fairs, but the main street was so narrow that a new location of essential. In September 1768 John Wooler, civil engineer, was paid five guineas for drawing a plan of the new market. At the same time, a Mr Harding was paid four guineas for his plan. Construction began immediately. In October 1768 Thomas Duncan was paid £100 towards the cost of building the "Town House", a two storey building open at ground level on three sides, with three moulded arches on Tuscan columns. John Walker's drains were 2 feet wide and 3 feet high. The market place was paved at a cost of £509.13.0d. Iron hand railings were provided. The market opened in July 1770. No details are given as to the designer of the town hall - it could have been Wooler, Harding, George Nicholson (mason/architect to the Dean and Chapter) or Duncan. Records seem to indicate that Nicholson was only paid for measuring and valuing the work. Credit for design should probably be given to Harding or Wooler, with Duncan responsible only for the building work. It is not inconceivable however, that Duncan was only given an outline drawing of the building and that he provided the detailing. 1768. Built by the Dean and Chapter of Durham in the centre of the new Market Place
they had laid out circa 1767.
Ashlar with pyramidal slate roof. Two storeys. Open arcaded ground floor for use
as market hall. Three arches on south, east and west sides on Doric columns, with
square rusticated corner piers against which are set half column responds.
A central pillar on steps which may be part of a former market cross.
The upper floor of 3 bays to each elevation. A central "Venetian" window flanked on
either side by a single semi-circular headed window. On the east and west fronts
the single windows are blank. On the north front the centre light of the "Venetian"
window contains the entrance door with fanlight over.
The upper floor is reached by a symmetrical, double branch stone staircase under
which the open market hall can be approached through a grand semi-circular arched
opening.
The roof is crowned by a square timber turret and a domed octagonal cupola.
The building was restored in 1977.
The hall was originally built by the Dean and Chapter as a place for holding their
Manorial Courts and providing offices for their officials. It was sold by them in
1855 to the corporation together with the market tolls. The Market Place contained two underground air raid shelters during the Second World War. On October 2nd 1941 the Market Place took a direct hit destroying many surrounding buildings and killing 68 people.

Terrace

Pilot's Lookhouse Post.

This is shown on Fryer's 1772 map.

This is possibly shown as a ferry boat landing on Fryer's 1772 map, clearly on the 1st edition OS map.

Carr's Pottery 1813-1913 is shown on a photograph reproduced in Hollerton (1997, p 10) in Union Road {1}. The Low Lights Pottery was established in 1814, probably by Collingwood and Beall. It then passed to Nicholas Bird. In 1829 it passed to Cornfoot, Colville and Company (later Cornfoot, Patton and Company). When Cornfoot retired and John Carr became a partner, the name was changed to Carr and Patton, and then in 1850 Carr and Company. When the business became the sole property of John Carr in 1854, he and his sons carried it on as John Carr and Sons. When Carr took over the business at North Shields, John Patton took over the Phoenix Pottery in the Ouseburn, Newcastle (SMR 5282). Carr made brown and black wares and ordinary wares. In 1856 these were discontinued and replaced by ordinary white earthenwares printed, lustred and painted. They were exported to the Mediterranean, Egypt and the Far East. Carr also made terracotta vases and articles for the building trade. A manuscript plan of the pottery in 1854 gives descriptions of the functions of all of the buildings in the works. There were separate warehouses for brown and white wares, each with their own kiln. There was also a white slip house, saucer-maker's house and storage for crates and packing straw. The pottery was abandoned between 1890 and 1901 when the company concentrated on firebrick manufacture as the North Shields Glazed Brick Works & Flint Mills. They took over the adjacent lime works (HER 5488) and foundry (HER 2054). The last directory entry for the firm at 44 Low Lights was in 1907-8 {1}.

In the 18th century and C19, North Shields was improved by the extension of the old town to the east and west, and by the planning and building of Dockwray Square. The first house of the elegant Georgian Square known as Bank Top Close and renamed Dockwray Square (named after the builder, Thomas Dockwray, vicar of Stamfordham, was built in 1763. Stan Laurel lived at No. 8 Dockwray Square from 1897-1902. The houses were ill provided with water and drainage and even though wealthy shipowners took up residence, the problem was not adequately solved and the square deteriorated into a slum. The houses became tenements and were finally demolished in 1956 to be replaced in 1963 with multi-storey flats around a communal recreational area. These too were demolished and replaced in the 1980s. The wealthy inhabitants of Dockwray Square migrated to the more favourable location of North Close which was renamed Northumberland Square.

Fish Quay near the Low Light. From 1225 the Prior of Tynemouth had attempted to create a fishing port to provide fish for his religious house. To this end 27 rudimentary houses were erected beside the river at the mouth of the Pow Burn (see HER 1952). Wooden quays were attached to these shiels to provide moorings for fishing boats and a place where fish could be sold. The quays were also used by the Prior to ship coal from the priory pits at Tynemouth. The catch included lampreys, smelt, sprats, conger eels, coalfish and skate. By 1528 boats from North Shields were fishing off the Shetland Islands and the north coast of Scotland and participating in the Icelandic fleet. Ling and cod were salted and sold at Newcastle. The port suffered from the dissolution of the Priory in 1539 and from trade restrictions imposed by the burghers of Newcastle, which was not resolved until the Port of Tyne was created in the 1800s.
The present Union Quay and fish market started life in the nineteenth century. The Gut is the outermost part of the quay where the fishing fleet moored and landed its catch. From about 1870 with the advent of steam an extensive herring fishery had developed using North Shields as a base. The quay provided work for buskers, freshers, canners, kipperers and curers who bought and processed the fish. There was also work in the ice factory, guano works and net and rope making shops. A photo of c.1890 shows the quay moored with herring sailing boats. Up to 30 trawlers and over 100 small boats would land in North Shields every day. The herrings were kippered at the fish quay - split open, gutted and salted, then smoked over oak chips or sawdust to produce kippers. A Newcastle man, John Woodger, claimed to have invented the process. Fish processing units and smokehouses took over this part of the town including Clifford's Fort (see Ballard's Smokehouses HER 5151). It was a fisherwife's job to untangle, clean, re-bait and roll up their husband's fishing lines. The lines were about 400 yards long with cords fitted with barbed hooks attached. The wives opened ('skairned') the mussels and removed the meat and gutted the herring. The biggest fishing fleet in North Shields was that of Richard Irvin. He employed the idea of tug master William Purdy of converting paddle steam tugs to trawlers. Irvin developed businesses in every east coast port from Peterhead to Great Yarmouth and was involved in trawling, drifting, whaling and boat building (see HER 7309). 'Stag' was one of the first paddle steam trawlers. During the 1800s, North Shields sent a whaling fleet to Greenland and the Davis Straits. Each vessel was equipped for a three year voyage. The North Shields Fishermen's Mission (HER 9316) was established in 1897. The 'Shields Ice & Cold Storage Company' was set up near the Fish Quay in 1901. It later became the famous 'Tyne Brand' which produced oval cans of herrings.

North Shields prospered in the C19, becoming an important fishing station and supply base for stores, ice and coal for the merchant and fishing fleet which tied off at an extensive series of small quays along the river between Low Light and Bull Ring. A new fish market was built in the market place in 1820 and is shown on Woods 1827 map.