EAW033928 ENGLAND (1950). The Reyrolle Electrical Engineering Works and environs, Hebburn, 1950. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing.

The Council Rubbish Tips were here in the 40s & 50s. It was a filthy smoky rat infested place . Today this area is beautifully landscaped with bushes & trees.

This land was just bare clay in the late 40s into the early 50s. Tennant's Chemical Works had built their works on this land in the 1860s but had moved out when the photo was taken.

This upstairs Flat was 14 Lyon St & I lived there from being a baby in 1944 until we moved in 1953. At the time this photo was taken I was just 6 yrs old. I stood at our Lyon St front door with my parents & watched the Theatre burn down late one Friday night in early October 1950. The Theatre was just 53 yrs old & had opened in 1897.

Carr St. The rear of the Theatre Royal on Lyon St was in Carr St.

Prince Consort Rd. It was once called 'James St' but renamed because Queen Victoria's husband Albert was 'Prince Consort'. When I did my family tree I found my great gran lived in James St.

This is Lyon St junction with Prince Consort Rd

Hebburn 'C' Pit had been closed about 18 yrs when this photo was taken. Not a lot of clearing up done in that time. Soon afterwards Leslies used the land for their Steel stock.

Hawthorn Leslies Ship Building Yard that started off as just Leslies in the 1850s. Mr Leslie came down from Aberdeen to start this shipyard & workers from Scotland followed him. He had hundred's of houses built for his workers.

This gap between the houses in Ann St was because the houses that were once there were hit by a bomb in WW2. The gap was never built on & can still be seen today

Bonnacord St

Whites Marine factory on Prince Consort Rd

A travelling funfair that just happened to be in Hebburn when this photo was taken in 1950

Tennant St

Glen St

This was a Gear making factory. It started life as Platers Sheds for Newcastle Shipbuilding Co in 1919 but they went bust in 1921. The Sheds were eventually taken over by the Reay Gear Works late 1920. Eventually Geo Angus took them over & later still RW Transmission's. The factory closed in the mid 70s & the land is a Housing Estate

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church

The Ballast Hill where boats over hundreds of years dumped their ballast before loading up with coal at the Staiths. Ten years before this aerial photo was taken there were guns ontop of the hill to protect the Shipyards from the Luftwaffe.

Portland Cement Works

On my 1895 map this area between the Ballast Hill & riverside is a disused Lead Works

Tyne View Tce once owned by Tennant's Chemical Co. My mothers side of the family (McNeill's) rented one part of the terrace from the 1930s to when the property was demolished in the 1950s. There had been a Tennis Court, indoor bathrooms/toilets, telephone system for Mr Tennant's Chemist/Managers so very posh for those far off days. Other people living in local towns in those days had toilets ('netty's') at the bottom of their Backyards. The pic shows my lovely Aunt Jane McNeill outside Tyne View

The derelict Tharsis Sulpher & Copper Works reservoir & its land that stretched down to the riverside. About 1950-51 a boy called Colqhoun drowned in that unfenced dangerous reservoir. It was man made & brick lined & the sides were angled steeply. Anyone trying to stand (plodge) would slide into the water & it was about 30ft deep.

The badly damaged Ellison House Hotel on Prince Consort Rd - Lyon St corner. The Theatre Royal next door burned down & then demolished in Oct 1950 so this aerial photo is post Oct 1950. I was 6 yrs old at the time & I lived just 50 yds from the Theatre across the road & we watched the Firemen fighting the fire from our front door on Lyon St. Pic from my www.oldtyneside.co.uk website

Co-op Store Hall on Lyon St - Albert St corner. Pic from my website www.oldtyneside.co.uk

Police Station on Argyle St with the Courtrooms next door. Photo from my www.oldtyneside.co.uk website

Lloyds Bank but it is long gone. Pic from my www.oldtyneside.co.uk website

Reyrolles was split in two by the Railway lines. This part is the 'Newtown Works' and the other part over the lines was nicknamed the 'Bottom Works'.

'Bottom Reyrolle's'

This area was known locally as 'The Bauxite'. Not a lot is recorded about this 'British Aluminium Co' apart from it produced Aluminium Hydroxide from the ore known as 'Bauxite'. A lot of waste known as red mud was a by-product of the process & it was dumped on the site producing hillocks/mounds of this red mud. It was fenced off to keep people off it.