Amec Foster Wheeler
Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom until its acquisition by and merger into Wood Group in October 2017. It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, Power & Process and Environment & Infrastructure markets, with offices in over 55 countries worldwide. A third of its turnover came from Europe, half from North America and 12% from the rest of the world. Amec Foster Wheeler shares were publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and its American Depositary Shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. AMEC was formed from the 1982 amalgamation of the William Press Group. In 1988, AMEC went on to acquire Matthew Hall Group. In 1996, AMEC took a 40% stake in Spie Batignolles from Schneider in association with a management buyout. Amec launched the AMEC SPIE brand for engineering services in Europe, a rail construction business AMEC Spie Rail was created, the remaining construction business was retained as Spie Batignolles.
The company announced that it would seek to sell the construction arm of the business Spie Batignolles, entered negotiations to secure a management buyout of that division. Acquisitions in the new millennium included Ogden Environmental & Energy Services and AGRA Monenco Inc. a North American engineering and services company, both in 2000 as well as the U. S. operations and equipment of Lauren Kamtech in 2003. In 2004, AMEC was awarded a contract to assist in the reconstruction effort in Iraq, as part of a joint venture with Fluor Corp. In 2005, AMEC acquired UK-based NNC, a large nuclear consulting company and its subsidiaries, including Ontario-based Nuclear Safety Solutions, the nuclear safety division of OPG, spun off when OPG was privatised; the European engineering business, AMEC SPIE, was sold to PAI Partners for €1,040 million in 2006 and the European rail business joint venture Amec Spie Rail systems was sold for an estimated £200million in 2007, to Colas Group. In 2007, AMEC sold its UK construction arm to Morgan Sindall and in 2008, it sold its internal plant hire division to Speedy Hire before buying project services company Rider Hunt International, North American environmental consulting firm Geomatrix Consultants, Inc. and Slovakian nuclear services company AllDeco.
In 2009, AMEC acquired Performance Improvement Group, Bedard & Associates and GRD Limited and in 2010, it continued to expand with the £61.2 m purchase of Entec UK, one of the UK's largest Environmental Consultancies. GRD Ltd. was a Perth-based company incorporating three companies Global Renewables, GRD Minproc, Kirfield. AMEC acquired Australian-based businesses Currie and Brown and BurmanGriffiths and acquired a majority stake in S2V Consulting. In 2011, the company acquired Scientists, Inc.. MACTEC, a US-based engineering consultancy company, Zektin Group, an Australian-based specialist engineering consultancy for the oil and gas and resources industries. In January 2014, AMEC provisionally agreed a £1.9bn takeover of Swiss rival Foster Wheeler. AMEC completed its purchase of Foster Wheeler on 13 November 2014 and changed its name to Amec Foster Wheeler plc; the acquisition coincided with a downturn in revenues from the oil and gas sectors, its primary clients, leading to crippling debt. The resultant financial difficulties led to the company's chief executive Samir Brikho stepping down.
In March 2017, Wood Group announced. The transaction was completed on 9 October 2017. Amec Foster Wheeler employed over 40,000 people in more than 55 countries, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and the United States; the company had three geographic business units covering engineering and project delivery operations - Americas. AMEC's operations were structured until October 2012 into Natural Resources, Power & Process and Environment & Infrastructure. AMEC's UK construction business was sold in 2007. Amongst its notable projects were: the Kielder Dam completed in 1982, the Cumberland Infirmary completed in 2001, the M6 Toll completed in 2003, new offices for HM Revenue and Customs at Longbenton completed in 2005, the Docklands Light Railway City Airport extension completed in 2005, the University College London Hospital completed in 2005 and the New York Times Building completed in 2007. Amec Foster Wheeler supported children's charity SOS Children's Villages from 2007, funding educational projects in Asia.
Amec Foster Wheeler funded a green project in the Children's Village in Gwagwalada, enabling houses to become self-sufficient following the installation of solar power and water infrastructure. List of oilfield service companies Amec Foster Wheeler corporate website Amec Foster Wheeler companies grouped at OpenCorporates
Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance LLP is a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, a member of the "Magic Circle". It is one of the ten largest law firms in the world measured both by number of lawyers and revenue. In 2016/17, Clifford Chance had total revenues of £1.54 billion, the highest of any firm in the Magic Circle, record profits per equity partner of £1.375 million. According to SWFI, Clifford Chance tied for 1st place for calendar year 2015 regarding legal advising for public institutional investor deals. Clifford Chance was formed by the merger of two London-based law firms; the first was Coward Chance, which derived from a firm established in 1802 by Anthony Brown, a fishmonger's son. Brown's firm became embroiled in the Panic of 1825, caused by speculation in South American investments, including the non-existent country of Poyais, invented by Scottish soldier Gregor MacGregor. One of the firm's longest clients was Cecil Rhodes; the firm advised him on his diamond mining business in South Africa, administered his estate after his death and helped set up the Rhodes Scholarships.
Another client was Guglielmo Marconi. It helped Midland Bank recover assets in Russia after the 1917 revolution, advised the state government of Hyderabad on the preparation for Indian independence; the second firm was Clifford Turner, founded in 1900, with offices on Gresham Street, EC2. Its clients included Imperial Airways. In 1929, Clifford Turner witnessed the creation of John Lewis Partnership. After the Second World War it advised the Labour government on the nationalisation of several owned industries, it opened offices in Paris in 1961, Amsterdam in 1972 and New York in 1986. The merger of Clifford Turner and Coward Chance in 1987 led to the formation of Clifford Chance. Neither Clifford Turner nor Coward Chance were first-rank London law firms, but their merger has since been said to have changed the shape and profile of law firms in London and globally. Over the next decade the firm expanded its practices across Europe and Asia and more than doubled in size. In 1992 Clifford Chance became the first major non-US firm to practice US law.
In 1999, Clifford Chance merged with Frankfurt-based law firm Pünder, Weber & Axster and with the 1871-established US-based firm Rogers & Wells. In 2002, Clifford Chance launched in California, setting up a branch with nearly 50 attorneys from the disbanding dot-com firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Diego and San Francisco. With California's downturn, the firm closed its Pacific Coast operations in 2007. Clifford Chance was one of several international law firms that developed local law practices in Japan following the easing of restrictions on foreign law firms in 2005. Although its Magic Circle competitors Allen & Overy and Linklaters downsized this segment of their practice following the 2008 financial crisis, the Tokyo office of Clifford Chance maintains a local law practice handling local matters for Japanese clients, views this capability as critical for an international law firm. Clifford Chance was the highest-ranked European law firm by Japanese corporate legal departments in a December 2013 Nihon Keizai Shimbun survey.
Like other firms in the Magic Circle, the firm lost significant revenue during the late-2000s recession, with its profit dropping by 33.4% in the 2008-9 financial year. As part of cost cutting in response to the recession, in 2009 Clifford Chance announced plans to lay off 80 lawyers and 115 support staff in London. In addition, the firm accepted the redundancy applications of 50 fee earners in London over and above the initial 80 lawyers. In 2011, the firm moved back office tasks to its 350-employee Global Shared Service Centre, including a 60-employee Knowledge Centre in New Delhi, India as an efficiency measure. In May 2011, Clifford Chance opened offices in Australia by merging with two M&A boutique law firms, Sydney-based Chang, Pistilli & Simmons and Perth-based Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe. In February 2012, Clifford Chance opened a new office in Casablanca, giving the firm's Africa practice its first permanent on the ground presence in the continent. In July 2012, Clifford Chance became the first UK firm to receive permission from South Korea's Ministry of Justice to open an office in the country.
In November 2011 it was identified as the largest supplier to the City of London Corporation, having received over £9m in fees from the corporation between January and September of that year. In 2012, a further 13 lawyers were laid off in London. Profit per equity partner for 2014 for the firm was £1.14 million. In 2016, the Legal 500 UK ranked the firm tier one in 31 categories, more than any other law firm in the UK. In 2017, Chambers Global awarded the firm more global tier one rankings than any other firm, topping the Chambers Global Top 30 for the fourth consecutive year. In October 2017, The Lawyer wrote that although Clifford Chance had been trying to find a partner in China for close to twenty years, it had still failed to find an alliance partner in the country. In October 2017, Clifford Chance hired a technology specialist from Watkins. In February 2018, following the January 2018 liquidation of construction and services business Carillion, around 60 staff at Carillion's Newcastle-based legal services arm joined Clifford Chance.
On 2 May 2018, Clifford Chance announced the establishment of a delivery and innovation hub in Singapore to serve the Asia-Pacific Region. Scott, John. Clifford-Turner. Legibus. Slinn, Ju
Coxlodge
Coxlodge is an area situated between Fawdon and Kenton in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. By order of the Local Government Board on 20 September 1872, the parishes of South Gosforth and Coxlodge were constituted into an urban district, the South Gosforth Local Board. After the 1894 Local Government Act, it became the South Gosforth Urban District Council. A year by a Northumberland County Council order dated 14 March 1895, the title was changed again to Gosforth Urban District Council; the parishes of Coxlodge and South Gosforth were amalgamated into the parish of Gosforth in 1908. The Gosforth Urban District Council was abolished on 1 April 1974 to become part of Newcastle Metropolitan Borough Council; the development of the colliery caused the population to expand from just 108 in 1801 to 965 in 1831. The Coxlodge Hotel was built in 1868 and became the Trap Public House. By 1878 the population was 1538, the creation of housing for miners continued into the 20th century. Additional council housing was built in the aftermath of World War One and after World War Two many of the miners cottages were replaced with additional council housing.
A school and Roman Catholic Church and School was built in 1861. A Methodist Chapel was built in 1817, replaced in 1874. In 1877 a Board School was built. Coal mining had been in the area as early as 1757, Coxlodge Colliery was developed by Matthew Bell and Charles John Brandling in 1809/10. There were two pits in the Coxlodge Colliery, the Jubilee Pit, on Jubilee Road opposite Jubilee Crescent, the Regent Pit, now the Regent Centre business park and St Charles R. C. School next to the current Metro line; the colliery closed on 16 June 1894 with the miners being transferred to other local pits. Some of the spoil was used in the construction of the runway at Newcastle Airport. Notable people who were born in Coxlodge include an English footballer. Coxlodge HallA number of wealthy people lived in a large residence called Coxlodge Hall, built in 1796 by Job Bulman, a medical man from Gateshead who had made his money in India. Bulman lived there until he died in 1818; the hall was sold a number of times and occupants included the soap manufacturer Thomas Hedley and shipbuilders Andrew Leslie and Sir Rowland Hodge.
The Hall itself was rebuilt two years later. The building was used as a private school until it was demolished in 1939. A lodge on Gosforth High Street and the Coach House or Stables still survive. In 1950 the coach house was turned into offices; the current owners are Summers-Inman Construction and Property Consultants, who bought the coach house of Coxlodge Hall in 1972 and have since renovated the location. The nearest Tyne & Wear Metro stations are Wansbeck Road. There used to be a railway station called Coxlodge station, in use between 1905 and 1929, on the Ponteland and Darras Hall Branch of the North Eastern Railway; the architect's plans of 1903 indicate that Coxlodge station was to be known as Fawdon, which became the Metro station name decades later. By 1973 the platform and buildings had gone; the site of this station is now occupied by Fawdon Metro station, which opened in 1981. In the 1850s Newcastle upon Tyne's hospitals for mentally ill patients were overcrowding, it opened as Newcastle upon Tyne Borough Lunatic Asylum in July 1869.
In 1882 it changed its name to Newcastle upon Tyne City Lunatic Asylum. In 1948 the National Health Service took over the hospital and changed the name to St Nicholas Hospital
Cundall Johnston and Partners
Cundall is a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy established in 1976 by Michael Burch, Rick Carr, Geoff Cundall, David Gandy and Bernard Johnston. Founded in Newcastle and Edinburgh, Cundall now has United Kingdom offices in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester, with Australian offices in Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. In 2016 Cundall won the Consultant of the Year award at the Construction News Awards, as organised by Construction News The Construction Skills Cut the Carbon Award, 2013 The Building Awards; the open BIM Build Qatar Live, 2012 Build Qatar Live. The Legacy Award - Sustainability, 2012 West Midland Centre for Consulting Excellence. Consultancy Practice of the Year, 2012 Constructing Excellence in the North East Awards. Australia's Zero Carbon Sustainable house: Collaborative Future, 2012 Zero Carbon Challenge. Romania Green Building Council Awards, two awards: Sustainable Company of the Year, 2011. Green Service Provider of the Year, 2011. Sustainable Consultant of the year award, 2010 Building Sustainability Awards.
Most Sustainable Remediation Project, 2010 Remediation Innovation Awards Research and Consulting Award, 2010 ACE Engineering Excellence awards. Cadbury Bournville Place, two awards: 2009 British Council for Offices Awards, Corporate Workplace, Regional Award. 2009 Royal Institute of British Architects Award, West Midlands Region. David Clark awarded the 2008 Sustainability Champion of the year award, UK Sustainable Building Services Awards 2008. 180 Great Portland Street, London, 2008 British Council for Offices Awards, Innovation category. ISG Headquarters, Aldgate House, London. Three major awards at the 2007 British Council for Offices Awards. Best of the best award National award, fit-out of workplace Regional award, fit-out of workplace 2 Snow Hill, Birmingham BA Waterside, London Centre Point, London UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh Vodafone headquarters building, Newbury Excelsior Academy, Newcastle Mann Island Buildings, Liverpool One Hyde Park, London Sage Group headquarters building, Newcastle Wellcome Trust Gibbs Building, Euston Road, London Lambeth Academy, London University of St Andrews Arts Faculty Building, St Andrews Cadbury Bournville Place, Birmingham New Street Square, London Capital One, Loxley House, Nottingham Durham Gateway, Durham University, Durham Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle Bede Academy, Northumberland Aston University Engineering Academy, Birmingham 1 Bligh Street, Sydney St Leonard's College Sustainability Centre, Melbourne 480 Queen Street, Brisbane 30 The Bond, Sydney Coca-Cola Place, Sydney Mildura Airport, Victoria Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne Sydney Airport, Sydney Westfield Sydney, Sydney Milson Island Recreation Centre, New South Wales Rouse Hill Town Centre, Sydney Ravenswood School for Girls, Sydney Deloitte Emaar Square, UAE Desert Canyon Resort, UAE Dubawi Island, UAE Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, UAE Nurai Island, UAE Porto Dubai Island, UAE Regulation and Supervision Bureau Office, UAE Tiara United Towers, UAE TNS, Makeen Tower, UAE Libyan European Hospital, Libya Santa Monica Beach Resort, Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde General Electric Headquarters, Spain Paris Data Centre, France Bukowice - Low energy detached house, Poland Stara Mennica, Poland Facebook Luleå, Luleå, Sweden Colosseum Shopping Centre, Romania Cultural Buildings, Tasnad Refurbishment, Romania Dealul Lomb, Romania Hampton Hotel, Romania Italiana 24, Romania Vatra Dornei Hotel, Vatra Dornei, Romania Shenzen Office Building, Hong Kong Eaton Hotel Chiller Replacement, Hong Kong Happy Valley Data Centre, Hong Kong Hong Kong Children's Hospital, Hong Kong Hong Kong Science Park, Phase 3, Hong Kong Jurong Data Centre, Singapore Ascendas iHub Suzhou, China Corporate fit-out, China Da Zhongli, China Hakkasan, China HASSELL Shanghai Studio, China MGM MACAU, China UNICO Restaurant at The Bund, China Taiwan Tower International Competition, Taiwan Official site
Regent Centre Interchange
Regent Centre Interchange serves the Regent Centre business park in the Gosforth area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The transport interchange consists of a station on the Tyne and Wear Metro network's Green line, a well-served bus station and a 183 space car park, it is used by Regent Centre office workers and the students of the nearby Middle Schools and Academy, as well as shoppers using the nearby Asda store and Gosforth High Street. The Interchange's location just west of the Great North Road through Gosforth was occupied by West Gosforth station, located on the Ponteland and Darras Hall Branch of the North Eastern Railway. Consisting of two side platforms, a simple pitched roof station building and a signal box, West Gosforth station opened on 1 June 1905, but closed to passengers on 17 June 1929 due to lower than expected passenger numbers and competition from bus services. What remained of West Gosforth station was demolished to make way for Regent Centre Interchange on the same site, Metro services through Regent Centre commenced on 10 May 1981.
The Interchange consists of a two platform station below street level covered by the station concourse, car park and bus station access road. A tall canopy extends across the access road. Apart from the removal of long-deactivated ticket barriers in the early 2010s few changes have been made to the station since its opening, as such the interior remains similar to Four Lane Ends and Heworth Metro stations. Regent Centre was one of several Metro stations where classical music was played in an attempt to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour. Although studies by operator Nexus showed that fewer young people loitered at these stations, the initiative was discontinued; the interchange provides a 183 space car park as well as bus and metro train services allowing for a park and ride service. Trains on the Green line towards South Hylton via Newcastle city centre and Airport station serve the station every 12 minutes throughout the day, every 15 minutes on Sundays. However, up to eleven trains an hour in each direction serve the station during the morning and evening rush hours.
Some Metro services terminate at Regent Centre due to its proximity to the Metro depot, located between Regent Centre and South Gosforth. There is a siding to the west of the station used by trains to reverse, allowing them to begin a new eastbound journey or return empty to the depot; the Regent Centre metro station is a sub surface station, with the platforms built underneath a busy road. However the ticket office can be reached by going up a small set of stairs. Regent Centre Interchange has regular local and regional bus services through Newcastle City Centre and its surrounding metropolitan areas, as well as services to towns in Northumberland; the station exterior features a mural called Metro Morning created by Anthony Lowe, commissioned in 1988. It depicts passengers travelling in a representation of a Metro car; the car park stairwell features a mural called Have You Paid and Displayed? created by Nic Armstrong in 2001. It depicts the everyday lives of the car park's users and Metro passengers, set amongst contrasting landscape images.
Regent Centre, the business park adjacent to the station Discussion on Murals including Regent Centre's Metro Mural from the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society Images of Regent Centre station during construction in 1978 at Newcastle University's SINE project
Jaguar Cars
Jaguar is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, England. Jaguar Cars was the company, responsible for the production of Jaguar cars until its operations were merged with those of Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover on 1 January 2013. Jaguar's business was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922 making motorcycle sidecars before developing bodies for passenger cars. Under the ownership of S. S. Cars Limited the business extended to complete cars made in association with Standard Motor Co, many bearing Jaguar as a model name; the company's name was changed from S. S. Cars to Jaguar Cars in 1945. A merger with the British Motor Corporation followed in 1966, the resulting enlarged company now being renamed as British Motor Holdings, which in 1968 merged with Leyland Motor Corporation and became British Leyland, itself to be nationalised in 1975. Jaguar was spun off from British Leyland and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, becoming a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Ford in 1990.
Jaguar has, in recent years, manufactured cars for the British Prime Minister, the most recent delivery being an XJ in May 2010. The company holds royal warrants from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. In 1990 Ford acquired Jaguar Cars and it remained in their ownership, joined in 2000 by Land Rover, till 2008. Ford sold both Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors. Tata created Jaguar Land Rover as a subsidiary holding company. At operating company level, in 2013 Jaguar Cars was merged with Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover Limited as the single design, sales company and brand owner for both Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. Since the Ford ownership era and Land Rover have used joint design facilities in engineering centres at Whitley in Coventry and Gaydon in Warwickshire and Jaguar cars have been assembled in plants at Castle Bromwich and Solihull; the Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in 1922 by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley. In 1934 Walmsley elected to sell-out and in order to buy the Swallow business Lyons formed S.
S. Cars Limited, finding new capital by issuing shares to the public. Jaguar first appeared in September 1935 as a model name on an SS 2½-litre sports saloon. A matching open two seater sports model with a 3½-litre engine was named SS Jaguar 100. On 23 March 1945 the S. S. Cars shareholders in general meeting agreed to change the company's name to Jaguar Cars Limited. Said chairman William Lyons "Unlike S. S. the name Jaguar is distinctive and cannot be connected or confused with any similar foreign name."Though five years of pent-up demand ensured plenty of buyers production was hampered by shortage of materials steel, issued to manufacturers until the 1950s by a central planning authority under strict government control. Jaguar sold Motor Panels, a pressed steel body manufacturing company bought in the late 1930s, to steel and components manufacturer Rubery Owen, Jaguar bought from John Black's Standard Motor Company the plant where Standard built Jaguar's six-cylinder engines. From this time Jaguar was dependent for their bodies on external suppliers, in particular independent Pressed Steel and in 1966 that carried them into BMC, BMH and British Leyland.
Jaguar made its name by producing a series of successful eye-catching sports cars, the Jaguar XK120, Jaguar XK140, Jaguar XK150, Jaguar E-Type, all embodying Lyons' mantra of "value for money". The sports cars were successful in international motorsport, a path followed in the 1950s to prove the engineering integrity of the company's products. Jaguar's sales slogan for years was "Grace, Pace", a mantra epitomised by the record sales achieved by the MK VII, IX, Mks I and II saloons and the XJ6. During the time this slogan was used; the core of Bill Lyons' success following WWII was the twin-cam straight six engine, conceived pre-war and realised while engineers at the Coventry plant were dividing their time between fire-watching and designing the new power plant. It had a hemispherical cross-flow cylinder head with valves inclined from the vertical; as fuel octane ratings were low from 1948 onwards, three piston configuration were offered: domed and dished. The main designer, William "Bill" Heynes, assisted by Walter "Wally" Hassan, was determined to develop the Twin OHC unit.
Bill Lyons agreed over misgivings from Hassan. It was risky to take what had been considered a racing or low-volume and cantankerous engine needing constant fettling and apply it to reasonable volume production saloon cars; the subsequent engine was the mainstay powerplant of Jaguar, used in the XK 120, Mk VII Saloon, Mk I and II Saloons and XK 140 and 150. It was employed in the E Type, itself a development from the race winning and Le Mans conquering C and D Type Sports Racing cars refined as the short-lived XKSS, a road-legal D-Type. Few engine types have demonstrated such ubiquity and longevity: Jaguar used the Twin OHC XK Engine, as it came to be known, in the Jaguar XJ6 saloon from 1969 through 1992, employed in a J60 variant as the power plant in such diverse vehicles as the British Army's Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance family of vehicles, as well as the Fox armoured reconnaissance vehicle, the Ferret Scout Car, the Stonefield four-wheel-drive all-terrain lorry. Properly maintained, the standard production XK Engine would a
Gateshead
Gateshead is a large town in Tyne and Wear, England, on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. Gateshead and Newcastle are joined by seven bridges across the Tyne, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge; the town is known for its architecture, including the Sage Gateshead, the Angel of the North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Residents of Gateshead, like the rest of Tyneside, are referred to as Geordies. Gateshead's population in 2011 was 120,046. Part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council. Since 1974, the town has been administered as part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead within the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. Gateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae; this interpretation is consistent with the English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued "goat's head" but in the context of a place-name meaning'headland or hill frequented by goats'.
Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this, given by the standard authorities. A Brittonic predecessor, named with the element *gabro-,'goat', may underlie the name. Gateshead might have been the Roman-British fort of Gabrosentum. There has been a settlement on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne, around the old river crossing where the Swing Bridge now stands, since Roman times; the first recorded mention of Gateshead is in the writings of the Venerable Bede who referred to an Abbot of Gateshead called Utta in 623. In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated the forces of Edgar the Ætheling and Malcolm king of Scotland on Gateshead Fell. During medieval times Gateshead was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham. At this time the area was forest with some agricultural land; the forest was the subject of Gateshead's first charter, granted in the 12th century by Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham. An alternative spelling may be "Gatishevede", as seen in a legal record, dated 1430; the earliest recorded coal mining in the Gateshead area is dated to 1344.
As trade on the Tyne prospered there were several attempts by the burghers of Newcastle to annex Gateshead. In 1576 a small group of Newcastle merchants acquired the'Grand Lease' of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham. In the hundred years from 1574 coal shipments from Newcastle increased elevenfold while the population of Gateshead doubled to 5,500. However, the lease and the abundant coal supplies ended in 1680; the pits were shallow as problems of ventilation and flooding defeated attempts to mine coal from the deeper seams. William Hawks a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between'Hawks' Blacks' and'Crowley's Crew'; the famous ` Hawks' men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie story. Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly.
This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town. In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river. Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A worldwide industry of wire-drawing resulted; the submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover-Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, his giant 25-inch telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence, in 1871. In 1831 a locomotive works was established by the Newcastle and Darlington Railway part of the York and Berwick Railway.
In 1854 the works moved to the Greenesfield site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1909, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington and the rest of the works were closed in 1932. Sir Joseph Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead from 1869–83, where his experiments led to the invention of the electric light bulb; the house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light. In 1870, the old town hall was built, designed by John Johnstone who designed the previously-built Newcastle town hall; the ornamental clock in front of the old town hall was presented to Gateshead in 1892 by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time. He was one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria; the old town hall served as a magistrate's court and one of Gateshead's police stations. In 1835, Gateshead was established as a municipal borough and in 1889 it was made a county borough, independent from Durham County Council.
In the same year, one of the largest employers, Hawks and Company, closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the Second World War there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work; the depre
