"Wallsend Coat of Arms"

The coat of arms reveals the town's origins - copper droplets on a coal black background. The golden eagle sitting on top of a fortified wall, and the motto Situ Exoritur Segedunii is also a visual reminder that the town was built on the site of the Roman fort Segedunum which lay at the end of Hadrian's Wall - a 185 km fortification built between AD 122-6 by the Emperor Hadrian to keep the Scots and Picts out of the Roman Empire. Wallsend got its name from the fact that it was the eastern terminus of Hadrian's Wall with a fort and a length of Wall going down to the Tyne. At this point the river could not be forded and the steep slope would be a deterrent to attackers. In recent years the site of the fort has been carefully excavated, so that in some ways more is known about it than any other fort on the Wall.

"Hadrians Wall,Northumberland"

"Wallsend Church Bank 1900"

Wallsend was built largely during the late 19th century to cater for those who worked in the copper smelting and coal mining industries. In modern times the meaning of Wallsend would seem to refer to its demolition, since it almost completely disappeared under shipyards; much stone had been previously used for housing and walls. It was intended to develop the area for light industry but this plan has been overtaken by the reality of its connections with Roman Britain and its value as a historical site for visitors.

"Pelaw Main Colliery"

In 1896 The Ecclesiastical Commissioners agreed to lease 3.75 acres of land between Heworth and Bill Quay for 999 years at 2d per square yard ground rent. It lay conveniently between Shields Road and the North Eastern Railway, near Pelaw Junction, where the N.E.R. crossed the older Pelaw Main Waggonway. The Cooperative Society, understandably, called its works by the name handiest, Pelaw. Before the factories were built, there was nothing between Heworth village and Bill Quay but fields, the odd cottage, a stream called the Catdean Burn, bridle paths and the waggonway. Within ten years a whole new community grew around the works, using the name Pelaw. Like its neighbour, Stanford Merthyr Colliery, Pelaw Main Colliery had commenced its first mining operations from the efforts of a group of West; Maitland coal mining entrepreneurs led by Mr Henry

Trenchard. The 1891 Mines Department Annual Report records Monday 27th July 1891. Mr Edwin Pepper, a coal mining contractor is said to have driven prospecting tunnels during 1891 but these operations were suspended for a time in 1892.

To view the family tree for this Branch click here.