Michael Batson

Byker is a suburb of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the northeast of England which is not to be confused with Newcastle-under-Lyme which is much further south in Staffordshire near to Stoke-on-Trent in the area of England known as the Potteries. The northern Newcastle, much larger than the southern namesake, was once famous for its heavy industry, most notably ship building and coal mining, hence the term “coals to Newcastle” used in reference to the supply of something to a place where it is already abundant or to mean doing something that is obviously superfluous. The coal mines have all gone as have most of the shipbuilders, swallowed up by globalisation in a world where a good many other countries can, for a bunch of reasons, do things cheaper. Of the many shipyards that once lined the River Tyne, England’s coldest river, only Swan Hunter at Wallsend survives. These days they build oilrigs but, in the past, built a good many Royal Navy vessels and other vessels including the Liverpool Bridge later renamed the MV Derbyshire, which at almost 300m in length became the largest British merchant ship lost at sea when she vanished without a trace, before her wreck was discovered 14 years later. Byker lies southeast of the city centre its southern boundary on the river. The name is derived from the Old Norse “kiarr” meaning “marsh” and Norse “byr” meaning “farmstead” or alternatively Old English “bi” meaning, well “by” or “near”. Byker is bordered to the northeast by