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The North Shields Fishermen’s Heritage Project

Newsletter

Issue 4 – July 2017

Raising funds to create a fitting and lasting memorial to Fishermen lost at sea

from the port of North Shields

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Are you sitting down? .. because if you haven’t already heard …we have

reached our target - the memorial is under

construction and we have a date for its unveiling!

Just ten months on from the start of our

fundraising we are delighted, and quite

frankly astonished, that we have now

raised the full £75,000 needed for the

memorial to fishermen lost at sea from

the port of North Shields. It’s been a

remarkable effort by the local community,

businesses, local Charitable Trusts, North

Tyneside Council and everyone connected

to the project.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR

CONTRIBUTING AND HELPING TO MAKE THIS

HAPPEN!

The final £2,000 was donated by Danny and

Cameron from The Low Lights Tavern. Danny said

“The Low Lights Tavern is the oldest pub in North

Shields, and is the only surviving proper

fishermen’s pub left on the fish quay, so we felt it

was only right that we help NSFHP with the final

£2,000 they needed to get the job done.”

Following on from our recent fundraising events such as The Co-op Community Fund, Green Carnival at

The Coast, NSFHP Auction and the Backworth Male Voice Choir, we had reached £73,000 by the end of

April.

When Danny Higney and Cameron Boyd, publicans of the Low Lights Tavern on Brewhouse Bank, North

Shields discovered that NSFHP only needed £2,000 to reach the target they stepped forward to help.

Henry Howard (Vice Chairman of NSFHP) said “Danny and Cameron have helped NSFHP so many times

since our launch in July 2016 and this is yet another example of their amazing generosity – I suppose I’ll

have to go in for a few more pints now!”

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So… The sparks are

now flying at Ray’s

workshop!

Work has now begun by County Durham sculptor

Ray Lonsdale on the 2.25x life size “Fiddler’s

Green” memorial and its progress is being

documented by NSFHP Team member/

photographer Alison Spedding.

A “meet the sculptor” event hosted by BBC

correspondent Adrian Pitches has been organised

for:-

Saturday 12 August at the Old Low Light

Heritage Centre for 2:15pm and 4:15pm.

BBC correspondent Adrian Pitches will open the

Q&A but members of the audience will be invited

to ask Ray questions as well.

Tickets are priced £4 and are now available from

the Heritage Centre at Clifford’s Fort or contact

nsfhproject@gmail.com

http://www.nsfhp.org.uk/event/qa-sculptor-ray-

lonsdale/

It will be a unique opportunity to see

photographs of the memorial as it’s being

constructed in Ray’s South Hetton workshop, and

listen to Ray talk about how he actually sets

about building it.

The Old Low Light Heritage Centre overlooks the

site where the sculpture will be in place for the

next 150 years or so. Each of the two events has

capacity for just 60 people – so this will be a

limited opportunity to be a part of the planned

events surrounding this new piece of public art

on the fish quay.

The design will be made in weathering steel, best-

known under the trademark Cor-TEN steel,

developed to eliminate the need for painting, and

forms a stable rust-like appearance when

exposed to the weather for several years.

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We are working closely with

North Tyneside Council

and

Details will appear on our website:-

www.nsfhp.org.uk/event/fiddlers-green-day

Fiddler’s Green Day

The unveiling of the memorial

Join us on Sunday 24th

September!

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So how did we finally get to our £75,000 target?

In our February 2017 newsletter we announced that we had £40,000.

Donations continued to come in from events that we organised as well as from individuals,

businesses and a local school.

“Miss Heron” and the pupils of Norham High

School held a non-uniform Day in February and

raised £252.10

We received £100 from local author Michael Coates who has written several books - "Northumberland Park, Spital Dene and The Pow Burn" and "Clifford's Fort, The Low Lights and High Lights North Shields" being the most recent. Michael kindly donated his fee from several talks about the books.

Encouraged by the huge success of the many

raffles held by Vice-Chairman Henry - he decided

to organize an Auction, Sale and Raffle at the Old

Low Light Heritage Centre on 24/25 March.

Pictured here - a few of Henry’s willing volunteers

– Lynne and Michael Collins, Colin Sarin, Sylvia

Ruth Lambert and Anne & Brian Taylor.

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Our auctioneer Bertie Forster with his “Travel

Gavel” did another excellent job on the day.

So many people donated items to us for the

auction – Here’s Henry, Brian and Terry with just

a very small sample.

In total – the auction, sale and raffle raised an

amazing £1,670 Thanks to everyone who donated to the event –

and everybody that turned up and bought it all!

The Green Carnival at The Coast held on 18

March at Tynemouth Priory took a lot of planning

and help from so many people. Our theme was

“Fish and Ships”.

Left to Right - Kyle (Newcastle University

Student/Dove Marine Laboratory), Keith

Spedding, Joyce Marti, Anna Caulfield and Henry

Howard – all helping out on the day.

“Fish wives” Sylvia Ruth Lambert and Roz Renwick

– rustling up interest on the day for us too!

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The Northumbrian Pipers came along to support

us on the day too.

Henry Howard showing a group of children how

to make rope

… and Henry demonstrating net mending

There was quite a bit of “craic” on the day – not

least between two Irishmen - the organizer

Maurice Duffy (from Black Swan PR) and our vice

Chairman Henry Howard

An amazing £1,000 was raised

from the event for NSFHP!

Thanks to Brian Chambers for bringing a couple of

his magnificent boats along – and Cullercoats

Community for loaning us fish wife mannequins.

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Pictured Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn, Terry

McDermott and Henry Howard

North Tyneside Council have been fully supportive of our Project from launch and at the preview of the recent “Dome Sweet Dome” exhibition they pledged their full support to ensure the Project would be completed. Chairman Terry McDermott said: “We are delighted with the support offered by North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn and the Council to ensure that we reach our target. This is a significant and huge statement of the council’s commitment to our project to install a memorial to fishermen lost at sea from the port of North Shields.”

North Tyneside Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn

voting for her preferred design back in July 2016

Which one she voted for remains a secret

though!

A big thank you to all pubs, chip shops, clubs,

shops, restaurants and garages that have taken

one of our collection tins.

Since we launched – our collection tins have

boosted our fundraising by almost £3,500.

Thanks to David Fryer who has driven miles at his

own expense to collect them.

Thanks to Kimberley and John at The Staith House on the fish quay for agreeing to deliver our “little brown envelopes” with customers’ bills. This helped to raise an amazing £272.

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We had a morning of celebration at the Co-op in North Shields ….

And why not..... Co-op customers raised an amazing

£2,373.67

A BIG thank you to Joan who works at the co-op in North Shields for putting NSFHP forward to James Potts at Co-op funeral care for nomination to the Co-op community fund!

Joan signed loads of people up to select us as their nominated cause - and even came in to celebrate with us on her day off.

She was initially a bit reluctant to have her photo taken - but we got her in the end! Thanks Joan!

Thanks also to Katie and her team at the Co-op store on Cleveland Road

The Backworth Male Voice and Radcliffe Ladies

(Nottingham) Choirs organised an event at St Hilda’s

Church on Saturday 29th April, and together with one

of our raffles it raised a whopping

£1,127

Left to Right Brian Kerr, Alison Spedding, Keith

Spedding and Chairman Joe Hewison.

There was great support on the night – the church

was packed.

Thanks to Secretary Brian Kerr for organising it!

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Where did the inspiration come from for

the monument design?

Harry Hann (known locally as “Harry Hann - The Photo

Man”) took this photograph way back in the 1950’s,

entitled “The Salt” and shows a typical fisherman of

the time sitting on a bollard on the Fish Quay taking a

break from his work.

With Harry’s permission, Ray Lonsdale based one of

his drawings for the memorial on the image and called

it “Fiddler’s Green” – it was one of 8 designs, by four

sculptors, that was put to a public vote back in the

summer of 2016.

Harry, now 86 years old said “I’m delighted that a

photograph I took on a walk around 60 years ago will

end up being part of the history of North Shields fish

quay. It’s something my daughter and two Grandsons

can look at with pride for a long time to come”

Terry McDermott, Chairman of NSFHP said “It was

amazing how many times people with relatives in the

fishing industry commented that the Fiddlers Green

image could have been their Father or Grandfather –

so we’re delighted Harry’s photo captured the essence

of real life fishermen.”

All that remains to say is ….

A massive “THANK YOU” to everybody that has supported the project

We could not have reached £75,000 without the whole community coming together as one to achieve something truly remarkable!

Double Click on our logo below to see a short You-Tube clip of how we got there…..

See you on Sunday 24th September

http://www.nsfhp.org.uk/event/fiddlers-green-day/