Morning. Love that Shields Gazette you couldn’t get away from us that easily…⛱️🕶️

Morning. Ooh, haven’t had a #MilkBottlesTheTour visitor to our Tyneside doorstep for a while, and this one’s come a very long way - nearly 300 miles from a small town in Aberdeenshire with historical links to the Knights Templar 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Coming to auction, a slightly naive oil on canvas by J M Russell of 'The Tyne from Simonside near South Shields'. Signed and dated 1878, and inscribed verso . 40 x 91cms.

Images courtesy of Hannam's Auctioneers, Selborne.

Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia opens at Laing Art Gallery on 10th May 🌟

The Fighting Temeraire, on loan from National Gallery, will be the centrepiece of the show.

Discover more in this new Curation 👉 ow.ly/qIZE50Rg8NU

📷 National Gallery

Wapping Street, just along from Comical Corner in South Shields. I loved the way readers’ stories behind pictures like this evolved: In one telling, the boys were looking at a mouse in the shop window; in another, it was sugar mice 🐀🐀

Janis Blower Early South Shields Corporation double decker tram with crew & Policeman. c. 1909. Jarrow shed I think.

Strange conversations with two separate taxi drivers today about the old South Shields trams and when they finished (1946). It brought back this lovely picture taken - I think - on Westoe Road.

#SouthShields A 'well I never knew that' moment - Newcastle Weekly Courant of 9th April 1898 making the point that shipwrecked Norwegian sailors were repatriated via Tyne Dock, South Shields.

Morning. This reminds me that my old paper Shields Gazette produced a special advertising supplement wishing the task force well. One ad that’s always stuck was from the Douglas Vaults pub with the message “Hoy a puddin’ at them, Norman.” Sad so much loss followed.

Almost #clocksgoforward time and a reminder of what one of South Shields’s most iconic timepieces, the Wouldhave/Greathead lifeboat (and Victoria Jubilee) memorial, could have looked like had, in 1887, architects Stout and Dockwray won the design brief (instead of JH Morton).

Morning. We will be having Good Friday’s traditional fish and chips today. But wait - maybe should make a detour to Gregg’s as well…? From 1937 🐟🥧

Morning. Been reading that South Shields has a new tattoo parlour. This isn’t local but readers of Shields Gazette perhaps shared a 😱 on reading it. From 1895.