Handyman Pelaw

About  Pelaw in Gateshead

Pelaw is a small area in the northern part of Gateshead, between Heworth and Wardley to the east. It lies south of the Tyne as it meanders around the low hills to the north, the salt marshes where Pelaw Main was later built, and not far from where the Team joins the Tyne. Moorland still covered much of the area, and though small clearings had been made for farming, habitation was sparse. The nearest farmsteads were around Heworth, while over in Gateshead, there is evidence of Anglo-Saxon settlement as early as 900 AD. These Anglo-Saxons and the land they lived on were not native to the area: after the withdrawal of the Roman legions in the early fifth century, British peoples began to leave northern Tyne.

So Pelaw lay in a quiet, relatively uninhabited location, and it would be another 500 years before it was featured in any document. When the Northumbrian monk Bede penned his Ecclesiastical History in 731 AD, he told of Pelagius the Hermit, who lived a solitary life around what would later be Pelaw House. The original farmstead had probably expanded in the interim, covering more - or all? - of the land up to the Team, and the name at this time was probably Pill-how, from the Old English words 'pill' meaning 'creek' and 'how' meaning 'hill or raised ground'. Herrings were abundant in Pelaw's waterways at that time, so if this is the origin of the name, we might translate Pelaw as 'herring creek'. Pelaw's residents would have been chiefly engaged with agriculture. Though the salt marsh surrounding it made arable farming perhaps less productive than the hills, there was enough lowland meadow to make keeping livestock a more agreeable possibility. Pelaw's early inhabitants lived in small timber buildings, probably with their animals kept in a byre at one end. There was little trade; most of what they required - tools, food, a hearing in a court of law - was obtained at the nearby villages or from carrying iron ore that existed within about a mile away, a distance little more than a league. However, there wasn't a demand for this iron when the cost of the finished piece was compared to that of heavily used ironware. Pelaw had yet to reach subsistence levels. Its unnamed inhabitants had lived there for many generations, and their mastery of locals died for spinning, giving their ornate penannular brooches a trademark distribution from Scotland in the north to Yorkshire in the south. The occasional flash of Viking-style jewellery sneaking in suggests that they were in touch with the western seaboard, either firsthand or via a trading middleman.

Industrial Revolution and Pelaw's Growth

The Industrial Revolution in Britain brought many transformations, alterations, and advancements that rebuilt the economic and social fabric in the form of new industrial settlements away from the traditional rural communal areas. As far as Pelaw is concerned, the Industrial Revolution changed the entire landscape, not only in terms of industries and factories but also in terms of the increase in trade. Many people from different backgrounds and belonging to various races became associated with these industries. These people built houses and a small community through which Pelaw kept expanding along with time. As early as the mid-eighteenth century, Felling Colliery had expanded towards Saltwell, while Leam Lane, which runs from Pelaw to Gateshead, began to be described as "that broad turnpike." In the late 1800s, the Paxton-Tynemouth Direct Line over Pelaw was built.

Felling and Pelaw workers supplemented the significant Tyneside Tramways Company workforce. They were also occupationally the dominant group within the two townships until 1911, working predominantly in the coke ovens and associated industries. With the expansion of principal industries came similar and indirect growth of other textile, glass, and pottery work. Pelaw had only expanded with the changes in employment brought by the Pelaw Main Colliery and Railway Works. For instance, it grew from 324 to 4,368 between 1861 and 1901. In 1936, Felling Urban District Council was disbanded and merged with Heworth Urban District Council. The new district was known as Heworth and Pelaw Urban District. This new urban district was absorbed into the County Borough of Gateshead in 1971. The buildings of these industries are now being used as offices or warehouses.