Only the Shields Ferry remains today, but multiple ferry services once operated on the Tyne
General view of the Shields Ferry taken from South Shields(Image: Mirrorpix)
There was welcome news for Tyneside commuters recently with the return of the Shields Ferry after an absence of three months. The service, which shuttles between North and South Shields, had been out of action since late January when Storm Chandra damaged the north landing.
Seven days a week, one of two ferries makes the seven‐minute cross‐river journey every half hour, from around 7.45am until 8pm. Pride of the Tyne, carrying up to 300 passengers, has been in service since 1993, while the smaller Spirit of the Tyne, with space for 200, became operational in 2007.
Figures from across the last decade or so estimate that between 400,000 and 500,000 passengers use the Shields Ferry every year.
The Tyne is far quieter today than it was during its long 19th and 20th‐century industrial heyday. Then, it was one of the busiest waterways in the world, with shipyards, coal staiths, factories, and engineering works lining almost every stretch of the river. Every day it was crowded with vessels large and small, either on the move or tied up at berth.
The ‘penny ferry’ at South Shields, early 20th century(Image: Handout)
If the Shields Ferry is the only one that remains today, multiple ferry services once carried thousands of people – especially workers – back and forth across the river at various points, and even up and down it. Archive records show a river crossing between North and South Shields has existed since at least 1377.
The modern Shields Ferry service can trace its origins to 1829 when the North Shields Ferry Company obtained a charter to operate on the Tyne. Their first three boats were the Baron Newcastle, the Durham and the Northumberland.
The cross-Tyne service has been operated by Nexus since 1972, when the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive – as Nexus was then known – took over the Market Place Ferry.
Elsewhere on the river, from 1862 to 1908 the paddle steamers of the Tyne General Ferry Company provided a passenger service between Elswick and South Shields, stopping 21 times in as many miles during the round trip. The company went into liquidation as a result of the rise of electric tram routes.
By 1929 there were 11 ferry routes between Newburn and the mouth of the river. Some vessels were capable of carrying cars, as well as passengers.
The cast and crew of Get Carter at Wallsend ferry landing during the filming of the movie in 1970(Image: Mirrorpix)
Countless thousands of shipyard and factory workers would use ferries to get to work and back on both sides of the river. Among numerous now-vanished services were those operating between Elswick and Dunston; Byker and Felling Shore; St Anthony’s and Bill Quay; Ouseburn and Deptford Road, Gateshead; and Newcastle Quayside and Hillgate, Gateshead.
The first Tyne Tunnel, which opened in 1967 linking Jarrow and North Shields resulted in a major decline in ferry traffic. The new tunnel quickly meant the end for the service between Jarrow and Howdon. The ferry linking Hebburn and Walker/Wallsend – which made an appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter – was discontinued in 1986.
After the PTE took over the running of the Shields Ferry in 1972, the Freda Cunningham (1972) and the Shieldsman (1976) became the route’s two main vessels. They were replaced respectively by the Swan Hunter-built Pride of the Tyne (1993) and the £1.9m Spirit of the Tyne (2007) which was officially launched by HRH The Princess Royal.
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