South Shields

Gas Suppliers South Shields Tyne and Wear

Approximate Population: 90,000

In 1100 the Normans built St. Hilda’s Church where the nunnery once stood, in the town’s market place. The church remains one of the oldest churches in the UK.

The first reference to ‘Scheles’ (fishermens’ huts) occurs in 1235, and the town proper was founded by the Prior and Convent of Durham in 1245. On account of the complaints of the burgesses of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an order was made in 1258, stipulating that no ships should be laden or unladen at ‘Scheles,’ and that no shoars or quays should be built there. South Shields then developed as a fishing port.

Salt panning along the Tyne began in 1499 and achieved major importance; Daniel Defoe speaks of the clouds of smoke being visible for miles, while a witness in 1743 mentions two hundred boiling-pans. Glass manufacturing was begun by Isaac Cookson in 1650 and there were eight glassworks by 1827. Coalmining and chemical manufacture also became important. South Shields had the largest alkali works in the world.

In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliament’s Scottish allies under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven laid siege to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and captured the watchtower on the Lawe Top at South Shields (Sunderland declared for Parliament and invited the Scottish army in). The Royalist forces retreated to the south but turned to fight at the small town of Boldon (halfway between South Shields and Sunderland). The ensuing battle is known as the Battle of Boldon Hill and was a victory for the Scots who later destroyed the rest of the Royalist army at the Battle of Marston Moor.

Gas Suppliers South Shields Tyne and Wear

Armagh

Gas Suppliers

Armagh Northern Ireland

Approximate Population: 14,590

The city is run by Armagh City and District Council, headquartered in Armagh, which covers a larger area than just the city, but not the entire county. Together with part of the district of Newry and Mourne, it forms the Newry & Armagh constituency for elections to the Westminster Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly.   The Member of Parliament is Conor Murphy of Sinn Féin, who is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner and a member of the Sinn Féin negotiations team.   He won the seat in the United Kingdom general election, 2005, after the retirement of long-serving SDLP MP Seamus Mallon.

The city has a long reputation as an administrative centre and currently located in the city is the headquarters of the Southern Education and Library Board and the Southern Health and Social Services Board.

The secretariat of the North-South Ministerial Council is based in Armagh, and consists jointly of members of the civil services of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  Armagh is the seat of both the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, both of whom hold the position of Primate of All Ireland for their respective denominations.

Gas Suppliers Armagh Northern Ireland