(26 Nov 2014, 7:47 am)Andreos1 wrote An interesting read on 1938 TynesideJust to pick a few things from that
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-30152684
On the accent
"most barbarous, monotonous and irritating twang".
On Newcastle/Gateshead
While Newcastle had a "sombre dignity" and "more impressive buildings than one would expect", Gateshead was a town "carefully planned by an enemy of the human race".
On Geordies in general
The "slatternly" women he saw were "standing at the doors of wretched little houses gossiping with other slatterns or screeching for their small children playing among the filth".
The Geordies were "stocky toothless fellows cursing in their uncouth accent" but would do a "grand job of work" if given the chance.
On Jarrow
Jarrow suffered from a "thick air heavy with enforced idleness, poverty and misery" and seemed as if it had "deeply offended some celestial emperor and was now being punished".
Hebburn
Hebburn was running numerous education courses to enrich the lives of its residents, Priestley notes, but he still sums it up by saying: "You felt there was nothing in the place worth a five pound note"
Shotton
Priestley's fury at the way the region was left to suffer by the loss of industry deepened as he travelled south into County Durham, the pit village of Shotton sparking disgusted disbelief.
"Imagine a village consisting of a few shops, a public house, clutter of dirty little houses all at the base of what looked like an active volcano, the notorious Shotton tip, a man-made smoking hill," he wrote.
"The atmosphere was thickened with ashes and sulphuric fumes like that of Pompeii, the whole village and everybody in it was buried in this thick reek."
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough, which Priestley described as a "dismal town even with the beer and football", was fuming, the mayor and local paper calling the work "the height of impudence".
Northern Echo readers labelled him the prophet of evil...
He is nearly spot on with Jarrow, Hebburn, Shotton and Middlesbrough
