Strategy Area Description

In a heavily urbanised area like the south of Tyne and Wear, the built environment is a major and growing part of the modern landscape, but away from the conurbations and larger settlements, it remains relatively green.

Much of the strategy area's industry is concentrated around the riversides of the Tyne and the Wear, with large aggregations of industrial activity in a variety of industrial and trading estates, such as in the lower Team Valley, Gateshead and around the A1231 and A19 in Washington, in the city of Sunderland.

Industrial legacy

The industrial past of the strategy area has fundamentally altered its landscape and the habitats contained therein. These demonstrate a fundamental linkage with the industries that were the economic mainstay of the region from before the Industrial Revolution until the latter part of the 20^th century. These included coal mining, ship building and heavy engineering, with, in the Tyne Valley, a significant extractive industry (sand and gravel). In the east of the strategy area, limestone quarrying developed from the late eighteenth century; the products of this being used in steel making, agriculture and construction (for roads, walls and buildings).

In all of its guises, deep coal extraction, drift or surface coal mining has left an indelible imprint on the strategy area. This is relevant in terms of the physical characteristics of the area (for example now landscaped spoil heaps and the extensive network of old railway lines) but also in the pattern of local settlements (which were often established around collieries and associated industrial infrastructure, for example coking plants or shipyards), local names, culture and traditions. The untreated waste waters from these continue to contribute to the area's poor soil and water quality.

Today, most traces of these industrial landscapes have been re-claimed, and in recent decades, leisure and tourist industries (for example along the South Tyneside and Sunderland coastline) have grown. A further legacy of the area's industrial past are the many old railway lines that now function as long-distance footpaths, bridleways or cycle paths, their linear habitats acting as wildlife corridors.