Wallsend
Wallsend gained its name because it is quite literally the Walls end; the eastern limit of the mighty wall that the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected to keep out the troublesome Scots.
Over the years since then Wallsend developed firstly as a major coal mining centre producing the finest home fire coal in the world with its famous Waggonways, the forerunners of all of today's railways, used to bring coal down to the Tyne. After the decline of coal mining attention turned to the River Tyne and during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the town became world famous as one of the Tyne's many shipbuilding locations with Swan Hunter's perhaps the most famous of the yards.
Today, shipbuilding is no more but the river is poised to become a major world centre for the offshore renewable energy sector and the town has a much more diversified commercial base with a major redevelopment of the Forum shopping centre planned which will provide top quality shopping facilities for the growing population.
