At Howick Bay, near Alnwick on the Northumberland coast, traces of the oldest house in Britain dating from about 7800 BC were recently discovered. At the end of the last Ice Age there was an area of land archaeologists call Doggerland that linked what is now Europe to eastern England. People lived in this area and it is very likely that some travelled from there to what is now the North-East England coast. By the Bronze Age the area had quite a large population, including a warrior society. The gradual takeover of the area by the Romans lead to massive changes – forests were cut down, marshes were drained, and roads were built. Roman emperor Hadrian’s decision that his predecessors had expanded the empire too much and so needed to consolidate their gains led to the River Tyne becoming an important northern border to the Roman Empire, including the massive undertaking of building what we know today as Hadrian’s Wall. The Romans also built the first recorded bridge across the Tyne at a point on the river where Newcastle and Gateshead now stand. The Roman era on Tyneside lasted almost 300 years, with at least three or four forts making up the garrison near the mouth of the Tyne.

In 680 AD Bede entered the monastery of St. Peter aged about 7 years old. The buildings were less than 10 years old – some of the first stone buildings to be built in Northumbria after the Romans left – and completely different to anything that he had previously seen. Bede became a great scholar and wrote the very first history of the English people. The area became one of the beacons of learning and enlightenment in the country after the Romans in an era often called The Dark Ages. In the 7th Century the Angles defeated the Celtic kings of the North-East and imposed their own language, obliterating the Celtic Welsh language previously spoken in the region – sowing the seeds of the Geordie dialect known today. For a time the kingdom of Northumbria was the most powerful in the country. In 793 AD Viking ships attacked Saint Cuthbert’s monastery on the island of Lindisfarne...a tremendous shock to the monks. Over the next few decade Viking attacks on churches near the coast increased, leading the monks at Saint Cuthbert’s monastery to move his relics inland to Durham. The Vikings began settling the area during the 9th Century leading to further influences on the Geordie language. Following the Norman invasion of England in 1066 they saw the difficulty of controlling the lands to the north, and saw the River Tyne as the natural border, leading to the building of a “New Castle” and the establishment of the “County Palatine of Durham”. By the middle of the 13th Century the decision was made to encircle the town of Newcastle with substantial walls...both for protection and prestige.

Coal could be found along the beaches of the North-East coast as the seams were very close to the surface. Although Newcastle was known for the export of leather, by 1305 it was already exporting coal by sea to London. The sale of land during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541 led to the total removal of the church’s influence on coal production. A ten fold increase in production followed and by 1547 Newcastle was transformed from a town into a city of 10,000 inhabitants. In the 16th Century the coal industry gave rise to some of the very earliest railways...with wooden rails and horse-drawn wagons.

How Tyneside influenced the Industrial Revolution, the spread of revolutionary social ideas, and Parliamentary reform. The episode includes a look at how Richard Grainger transformed Newcastle Upon Tyne city centre between 1824 and 1841, and how George Stephenson became “The Father of the Railways”.

The Swing Bridge across the River Tyne at Newcastle shook up industries on Tyneside including armaments and shipbuilding. Turbinia, the world’s first steam turbine powered ship designed by Charles Parsons, was the fastest ship afloat in its day. The episode includes a detailed look at the influence and legacy of visionary industrialist William Armstrong, and the background to the popular song, “The Blaydon Races”. Also included is a look at the beginnings of Newcastle United and how it became the best supported football team in England.

Built on Tyneside and entering service in 1907, RMS Mauritania was one of the finest liners of the early twentieth century and held transatlantic records for over 20 years. The region's armaments and shipbuilding industries boomed during the First World War, but after the war these industries along with coal mining and steel making declined rapidly leading to the 1926 miners’ strike and the famous Jarrow Crusade some ten years later. The iconic Tyne Bridge opened in 1928, one year after the world famous Newcastle Brown Ale was first produced. The coming of World War Two led to a resurgence of the region’s traditional industries, and during the war the region escaped the worst of the air raids that badly hit other areas of the country. In July 1996 Newcastle United smashed the world transfer record when they paid £15 million to bring Alan Shearer home, who was top scorer in all ten seasons he played for the club.

Local television arrived in the region in 1959 in the shape of Tyne Tees Television, bringing local accents to the small screen for the first time. Often the station had to report on bad news of more job losses in local industries, often with no obvious replacements. Starting in the 1960s Tyneside began producing popular music acts that went on to achieve worldwide fame. At the same time the controversial T. Dan Smith, leader of Newcastle City Council, forged ahead with massive city centre redevelopments but was ultimately sent to prison for accepting bribes from architect John Poulsen . The 1980s saw a more successful redevelopment with the phased opening of Metro Centre, Europe’s largest shopping centre at the time. The coal industry, which had been in decline for many years that accelerated after the 1984 miners’ strike, closed its last working pit in Northumberland in 2004, and the following year Tyneside started importing coal from overseas. But as Tyneside entered the 21st century new icons began to emerge – the Angel of the North, Gateshead Riverside, Sage Gateshead, Newcastle Quayside, and Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Salmon have returned to the once heavily polluted River Tyne. Tyneside has renewed confidence and pride, and is renewing and rebuilding itself.