Trinity Towers

HER Number

17274

District

S Tyneside

Site Name

Trinity Towers

Place

South Shields

Map Sheet

NZ36NE

Class

Communications

Site Type: Broad

Watch Tower

Site Type: Specific

Watch Tower

General Period

POST MEDIEVAL

Specific Period

Hanoverian 1714 to 1837

Form of Evidence

Demolished Building

Description

Watchtower erected in the 1830s by Trinity House, Newcastle. A castellated building with circular tower. There was a crest bearing the motto 'Deus Dabit Vela' (God will give the sails) and an anchor. The pilots (Purvis, Marshall, Bones) lived on The Lawe, close to the Pilot Stairs. In the late C19 it became the home of the under-gardeners of North Marine Park. From 1950 students from the Marine and Technology College had radar training there. It was demolished around 1970. In the 1970s a stone shrine was unveiled on the site of Trinity Towers.

Easting

437140

Northing

567670

Grid Reference

NZ437140567670

Sources

Caroline Barnsley, South Shields Through the Ages; Janis Blower,1990, Pilots lookout tower, Cookson Country in The Gazette, 11 October 1990, p 8; Caroline Barnsley, South Shields - The Postcard Collection; AD Archaeology, 2017, North Marine Park, South Shields, Geophysical Survey and Excavation