Blyth, Northumberland - St. Mary & St. Martin Church - postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  St. Mary and St. Martin Church, Blyth, Northumberland
• Publisher:  the church? / printed by Interprint, Knaresborough
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Blyth (/'bla?ð/ blithe) is a town and civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth and is approximately 21 kilometres (13 mi) northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne. It has a population of about 35,818.^[1]

The port of Blyth dates from the 12th century, but the development of the modern town only began in the first quarter of the 18th century. The main industries which helped the town prosper were coal mining and shipbuilding, with the salt trade, fishing and the railways also playing an important role. These industries have largely vanished, but the port still thrives, shipping paper and pulp from Scandinavia for the newspaper industries of England and Scotland.^[2]

The town was seriously affected when its principal industries went into decline, and it has undergone much failed regeneration since the early 1990s. The Keel Row Shopping Centre, opened in 1991, brought major high street retailers to Blyth, and helped to revitalise the town centre. The market place has recently been re-developed, with the aim of attracting further investment to the town.

The Quayside has also seen much redevelopment and has been transformed into a peaceful open space, the centrepiece of which is a sculpture commemorating the industry which once thrived there. On the opposite side of the river are the nine wind turbines of the Blyth Harbour Wind Farm, which were constructed along the East Pier in 1992. They were joined in 2000 by Blyth Offshore Wind Farm, which is composed of two turbines situated 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) out to sea.

Blyth is also home to the non-League football club Blyth Spartans, famed for their 1978 ""giant-killing"" feats in the FA Cup.

The place-name 'Blyth' is first attested in 1130 as 'Blida', and takes its name from the river Blyth. The river-name comes from the Old English adjective 'blithe' meaning 'gentle' or 'merry', and still used today. Interestingly, the town of Blyth is referred to as 'Blithmuth' in 1236 and 'Blithemuth' in 1250. Had this name persisted, the town would today be referred to as 'Blythmouth', on the analogy of Tynemouth to the south.^[3]

Little is known of the early development of the Blyth area. The oldest archaeological find is an antler hammer dating from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age period, which was found at Newsham in 1979.^[4] Human skulls, a spearhead and a sword dating from the Bronze Age were found in the river in 1890,^[5] as well as a bronze axe which was found at South Beach in 1993,^[6] and a dagger found at Newsham. Although there is no conclusive evidence of a Roman presence in the area, an earthwork shown on early mapping of the area, at the location of present-day Freehold Street,^[7] is said to have been a Roman camp, but it has also been argued that it may be of Viking origin or date from the Civil War.^[8] Debate also surrounds a mosaic which was found near Bath Terrace.^[8] The strongest evidence so far has been a single coin, dating from the reign of the Emperor Constans (AD337–350), which was found during excavations for a dry dock.^[9]

Between the 12th and 18th centuries, there were several small settlements and some industrial activity in the area. The principal industries during this period were coal mining, fishing and the salt trade.^[10] Shipbuilding in the area dates from 1748.^[2]

The modern town of Blyth began to develop in the first quarter of the 18th century. Up until 1716, the land around the Blyth area—the Newsham Estate—was owned by the Earls of Derwentwater, but when the third Earl, James Radclyffe, was executed for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, the land was forfeited to the crown.^[2] On 11 July 1723, the Lordship of Newsham was put up for sale by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates at their office in the Inner Temple, London.^[11] The land was bought by Matthew White and his brother-in-law Richard Ridley.^[2] From the 12th century, most port activities were on the north side of the river, but under White and Ridley the first new quays and houses were built on the south side, and from here the port began to prosper.^[11] By 1730, a coaling quay, a ballast quay, a pilots' watch house and a lighthouse had all been built at Blyth harbour. In 1765 the first breakwater was constructed, and in 1788 the first staith with an elevated loading point was erected.^[12] Deep mines were sunk at Cowpen Colliery and Cowpen Square in 1796 and 1804 respectively,^[10] and by 1855, a quarter of a million tons of coal was being shipped from Blyth, rising to three million tons by 1900.^[2] The only industry not to survive during this prosperous time was the salt trade, which was heavily taxed during the 18th and early-19th centuries. During the Napoleonic Wars, the tax was increased to provide funds for the military and, even though the tax was abolished in 1825, the industry went into terminal decline. Having had fourteen salt pans at the beginning of the 18th century, exporting over 1,000 tons of salt annually, Blyth's salt industry closed in 1876, with the destruction of the last salt pan.^[2]

From the mid-19th century, several important events occurred which allowed the port of Blyth to rapidly expand. First, in 1847, a railway line was constructed, connecting Blyth to collieries at Seghill.^[13][14] This line combined with the existing line between Seghill and North Tyneside to form the Blyth and Tyne Railway.^[15] In 1853, the Blyth Harbour and Docks Board was formed, then in 1858 the Harbour Act was passed allowing dredging of the harbour to begin.^[2] In 1882, the formation of the Blyth Harbour Commission^[16] led to the building of new coal loading staiths, as well as the construction of the South Harbour.^[10]

As trade in Blyth continued to grow, so did the population. Development of the Cowpen Quay and Waterloo areas began in about 1810 and 1815 respectively, and between the 1850s and 1890s major house building took place in these areas.^[17] Blyth railway station, first built in 1847, was relocated in 1867 and rebuilt in 1896,^[18] to cope with the increase in goods and passenger traffic.^[19] The 1890s saw the filling in of ""the Slake"" (also known as ""the Flanker"" or ""the Gut""). The Slake was a tidal inlet which stretched south from the river, across the site of today's bus station, along the route of Beaconsfield Street, and on past Crofton Mill Pit.^[12] Before it was filled in, it almost entirely separated Blyth from Cowpen—Waterloo Bridge providing the only main link. Once it was removed, the two areas could combine and allow the town to begin to take its present form. The town continued to expand in the 20th century; much large-scale house building took place in the 1920s and 1930s, and from the 1950s to the 1970s.^[17]

Industry in Blyth reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century. At this time it boasted one of the largest shipbuilding yards on the North East coast, with five dry docks and four building slipways. During the First and Second World Wars, the Blyth shipyards built many ships for the Royal Navy including the first aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal in 1914.^[2] Blyth also served as a submarine base during both wars.^[12] By 1930, the port of Blyth was exporting 5.5 million tons of coal,^[10] and by the early 1960s, reached its peak with over six million tons.^[11] Blyth A and Blyth B power stations, collectively known as Blyth Power Station, were opened in 1958 and 1962. Blyth A was the first power station in Britain to have 120 megawatt sets installed, while Blyth B was the first to be fitted with 275 megawatt sets.^[20]

During the 1960s, Blyth entered a period of steep decline. Following the Beeching report, the railway into Blyth was closed; and in 1966, economic depression resulted in the closure of the shipyards.^[21] As the demand for coal fell, due to the increasing use of oil, natural gas and nuclear power as energy sources,^[22] the following years saw the closure of many collieries in the area. By the 1980s, the only one left in the town was Bates' Pit, which closed in 1986.^[12] In January 2002, Blyth Power Station was closed and subsequently demolished in stages,^[20] until 7 December 2003, when its four chimneys were demolished.^[23]

• Richard Stannard, recipient of the Victoria Cross

From around the first quarter of the 18th century, until November 1900, the land to the south of the River Blyth was known as South Blyth.^[24] It was in the Parish of Earsdon and was run by the Parish Council until 1863, when the South Blyth Local Board was formed. Under the Local Government Act of 1894, South Blyth Local Board became an Urban District Council, then in 1906 it was amalgamated with Cowpen Urban District Council to form Blyth Urban District Council. On 21 September 1922, Blyth UDC became Blyth Municipal Borough Council, and in 1935 its southern boundary was moved south from Meggie's Burn to Seaton Burn. Blyth MBC lasted until 1974, when it was amalgamated with Seaton Valley and Cramlington Urban District Councils, as well as part of Whitley Bay Urban District Council, to form Blyth Valley Borough Council.^[12][17]

Blyth was the administrative centre for the borough of Blyth Valley, until the borough was abolished in structural changes to local government on 1 April 2009.^[25] Blyth Valley—which also included Cramlington and several villages—was 70 square kilometres in size and, according to the Registrar General's Population Estimate for mid-2005, it had a population of 81,600; this gives a population density of 1,166 people per square kilometre.^[26] The two-tier local government of Northumberland County Council and Blyth Valley Borough Council has been replaced by a unitary authority for the county of Northumberland.^[27] Blyth is situated in the parliament constituency of Blyth Valley, which shares its boundaries with the borough.^[28] It is divided up into twenty wards, nine of which—Cowpen, Croft, Isabella, Kitty Brewster, Newsham and New Delaval, Plessey, South Beach, South Newsham, and Wensleydale—make up the town of Blyth.^[29] The MP is Ronnie Campbell (Labour).^[30]

As part of Blyth Valley, Blyth is twinned with:^[31]

•  Solingen, Germany
•  Ratingen, Germany
•  Gelendzhik, Russia

type=printed

city/ region=blyth

period=post-war (1945-present)

postage condition=unposted

number of items=single

size=continental/ modern (150x100 mm)