Textile Manufactory

Jorewin de Rocheford visited Tyneside from France in 1672 and noted that Gateshead "is inhabited by divers manufacturers, employed in making cloth and worsted stockings in great quantity, which are here very cheap; wherefore they are sent all over Europe". One woollen yarn factory, owned by Henry Peareth in 1751, was organised on a factory basis, and the workers had an annual public parade from the factory to the owner's house in Newcastle. The establishment of another manufactory was reported in the Newcastle Courant in 1762, possibly that known as "Oswalds", working between 1766-1835. Linen was also produced, as a fire in a flax dressers was reported in the Newcastle Courant on 17 March 1753. The Great Fire of 1854 began in Wilson's worsted manufactory in Hillgate on Friday 6th October.