ABSTRACT
In his 1924 book, The History of South Shields, Hodgson notes that the coastal town of South Shields, situated in the North East of England and some 277 miles north-northwest of London, is a “promontory bounded on the east and north-east by the sea and on the west and north-west by the river Tyne” (1). Its history is one rooted in various settlements and invasions, from the Celtic tribe the Brigantes who called it Caer Urfa, through to the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the later violent incursions from Norse longships from A.D. 789 to A.D. 794. Moreover, Hodgson further states that it is “practically certain” that one of Britain’s earliest Christian churches was established in South Shields. Later, in the eighteenth century, the growing town became associated with the nascent chemical industry, then shipbuilding and, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, coal mining and coal shipping. Hence, as a result of such industry and economic development, Hodgson observes that “the Borough of South Shields has numbered amongst its sons not a few men of note in their day and generation” (249). However, if Hodgson had written his history a few decades later, then he would have inevitably included South Shields’s “daughter of note”—Catherine “Kate” McMullen-a woman who would, as Catherine Cookson, become world famous for writing about the North East, Tyneside, and South Shields. Although Cookson would only spend some 23 years of her life in South Shields, it is a period that would become indelibly woven into the historical and cultural heritage of the area, so much so that the location would be ultimately dubbed “Cookson Country.”
