River Tyne


River Tyne
Newcastle Quayside with bridges.jpg
River Tyne Quayside
Country United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Tributaries
 - left River Derwent
Primary source South Tyne
 - location Alston Moor
Secondary source North Tyne
 - location Deadwater Fell, Kielder, Northumberland
Mouth Tynemouth
 - location South Shields
Length 321.4 km (200 mi) [1]
Basin 2,933 km2 (1,132 sq mi) [1]
Discharge for Bywell
 - average 44.6 m3/s (1,575 cu ft/s) [1]

Abandoned drydocks on South Shields river front

The River Tyne i/ˈtn/ is a river in North East England and its length (excluding tributaries), is 200 miles [1] (321.8 Kilometres). It is formed by the confluence of two rivers: the North Tyne and the South Tyne. These two rivers converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Waters'.

The North Tyne rises on the Scottish border, north of Kielder Water. It flows through Kielder Forest, and passes through the village of Bellingham before reaching Hexham.

The South Tyne rises on Alston Moor, Cumbria and flows through the towns of Haltwhistle and Haydon Bridge, in a valley often called the Tyne Gap. Hadrian's Wall lies to the north of the Tyne Gap. Coincidentally the source of the South Tyne is very close to the sources of the other two great rivers of the industrial north east namely the Tees and the Wear. The South Tyne Valley falls within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - the second largest of the 40 AONBs in England and Wales.

The combined Tyne flows from Hexham, the area where the river's now thriving barbel stocks were first introduced in the mid-1980s, through Corbridge in Northumberland. It enters the county of Tyne and Wear between Clara Vale (in the Borough of Gateshead on the south bank) and Tyne Riverside Country Park (in Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank) and continues to divide Newcastle and Gateshead for 13 miles (21 km), in the course of which it is spanned by 10 bridges. To the east of Gateshead and Newcastle, the Tyne divides Hebburn and Jarrow on the south bank from Walker and Wallsend on the north bank. Jarrow and Wallsend are linked underneath the river by the Tyne Tunnel. Finally it flows between South Shields and Tynemouth into the North Sea. The Environment Agency measure the rivers official length, excluding tributaries at 321.4 kilometres (199.7 mi)[1] The Tyne Rivers Trust measure the whole Tyne Catchment as 2,936 square kilometres (1,134 sq mi), containing around 4,399 kilometres (2,733 mi) of waterways.[2]

Port of Tyne

The River Tyne at Bill Quay

With its proximity to surrounding coalfields, the Tyne was a major route for the export of coal from the 13th century until the decline of the coal mining industry in North East England in the second half of the 20th century. The largest coal staithes were located at Dunston in Gateshead, Hebburn and Tyne Dock, South Shields. The dramatic wooden staithes (a structure for loading coal onto ships) at Dunston, built in 1890, have been preserved, although they were partially destroyed by fire in 2006.[3] And to this day in 2008 Tyne Dock, South Shields is still involved with coal, importing 2 million tonnes of shipments a year. The lower reaches of the Tyne were, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the world's most important centres of shipbuilding, and there are still shipyards in South Shields and Hebburn to the south of the river. To support the shipbuilding and export industries of Tyneside, the lower reaches of the river were extensively remodelled during the second half of the 19th century, with islands removed and meanders in the river straightened.

The tidal river is now managed by the Port of Tyne Authority.

Origins of name

Nothing definite is known of the origin of the designation "Tyne", nor is the river known by that name until the Saxon period: Tynemouth is recorded in Anglo-Saxon as Tinanmuðe (probably dative case). There is a theory that Tīn was a word that meant "river" in the local Celtic language or in a language spoken in England before the Celts came: compare Tardebigge. There is also a river Tyne that rises in Midlothian in Scotland and flows through East Lothian into the North Sea. The River Vedra on the Roman map of Britain may be the Tyne, or may be the River Wear. The late Thomas John Taylor supposed that the main course of the river anciently flowed through what is now Team Valley, its outlet into the tidal river being by a waterfall at Bill Point. His theory is not far from the truth, as there is evidence that prior to the last Ice Age, the River Wear did once follow the current route of the lower River Team, merging with the Tyne at Dunston. Ice diverted the course of the Wear to its current location, flowing east the course of the Tyne) and joining the North Sea at Sunderland.

See Also

The Port of Tyne

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Environment Agency - River Tyne Salmon Action Plan Review". Environment Agency - APEM REF EA 410230. July 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2013. Length (excluding tributaries) (km) 321.4 
  2. ^ "Facts & Figures". tyneriverstrust.org. 2 June 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013. The Tyne Catchment covers 2,936 km2 (1,134 sq mi) and contains around 4,399 km (2,733 mi) of waterways. In the language of the Water Framework Directive (which currently drives so much of what is done on rivers) the Tyne Catchment contains 116 river water bodies and 19 lake water bodies. 
  3. ^ "Coal heritage goes up in flames". bbc.co.uk. 20 November 2003. Retrieved 25 August 2008. "The staithes is a lot more than just a lump of wood in the Tyne, it is a magnificent structure and very important to the area's industrial heritage.