Labour of love for writer

Feb 27 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

As plans were examined yesterday for a major upgrade of a town’s seafront, Environment Editor Tony Henderson talks to a man with a passion for a coastal park.

WRITING a book is never plain sailing, but a “time capsule” find helped former master mariner David Bell as he began his researches.

David had been commissioned by South Tyneside Council to produce a book on the history of South Marine Park on the South Shields seafront, where work has started on its £5m restoration.

As he started work, a hand-written journal was discovered when fittings were being stripped out of the park keeper’s house, which was to be sold.

It turned out to be the journal kept by John Peebles, who was appointed as gardener/park keeper in July 1886, and was handed the huge task of creating the park from land which had been cleared of a “moonscape” of spoil heaps from a glass works.

“It was a wonderful start to the book project,” said David, 62, as yesterday councillors examined a series of proposals to upgrade the entire foreshore at South Shields – including the park restoration.

“After reading the journal, I had an impression of Mr Peebles as a very honest and diligent man,” said David.

His workforce of 40 men, three boys and seven horsemen, who moved more than 800 cart loads of soil, planted thousands of trees and shrubs and dug what would be the park lake, complete with two islands.

But with the lake flooded to only 18 inches, the cold weather froze the water and Mr Peebles promptly sold 8,942 tickets to skaters over the winter, raising £111.

“After a hard day’s work in freezing conditions, he stayed late into the winter evenings, tramping around the edge of his ‘rink’ selling tickets and humbly petitioned the council for a few gas lamps to assist him in collecting the money,” said David.

The park was officially opened in 1890, with a civic procession which included the band of the Wellesley naval training ship, the South Shields Pilots Association, Volunteer Life Brigade, the Knights of Labour, the Ancient Order of Druids, the Ancient and United Orders of Free Gardeners, the Oddfellows Friendly Society, Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes and Green’s Sailor Boys Home.

The last entry in the journal is in June, 1902, when Mr Peebles asked the council on the advice of his doctor for “three to four weeks’ rest as a means of restoring me to health.” But by August he was dead, aged 52, and was buried in Harton cemetery, South Shields.

“He had been out in all weathers and his health had run down. I think he died from over-work,” said David, who lives in Nelson Avenue next to the park.

He grew up in Nixon Street in Jarrow, near Palmer’s shipyard, but has lived in South Shields for 35 years.

“The park was a wonderland to me when I was a child and to write the book was a labour of love,” he said.

His research for the book, A History of South Marine Park (£4.99), revealed that gentlemen members of the lake boat club hired professional “skippers” to sail their craft while the rest sailed their own.

The first performance in 1904 in the new bandstand, by Lieut Amers’ Military Band, drew a crowd of 12,000, but even that paled against the illuminations and firework display in 1932 to mark the visit of the battleship HMS Malaya to the Tyne.

The warship had been built at Elswick, and an event was laid on at the park for the crew, which was to include outdoor dancing to the ship’s band.

A crowd of 75,000 turned up, police struggled to keep order and lawns and flower beds were destroyed by trampling.

“It was almost a riot and the park was devastated,” said David.

The next big event was for King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, when lavish costume pageants were held in the park over a week to depict 10 stages in the history of South Shields, and the South Shields Unemployed Drama group staged performances of The Merchant of Venice.

David said: “I would like to think that when the regeneration of the park is completed, we will be able to get those glorious days back again, when the park was a centre of entertainment, with lots of local people and societies doing their thing.”

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A life devoted to the world at sea

AFTER leaving Jarrow Grammar School, David Bell became a railway booking clerk. "But my brother was at sea and I envied him," said David.

At 20, David himself went to sea as an unclassified deckhand with Tyneside shipping company Hunting & Son. He worked his way up to become a master mariner, with a BSc in nautical studies, followed later by a BA from the Open University.

He left the sea in 1982 and worked as a lecturer at South Shields Marine and Technical College for 16 years.

David has written two other books. One, entitled Ships, Strikes and Keelmen, was translated into Italian because it features the visit of Italian patriot Garibaldi to the Tyne.

David’s second book, The Folk Doon on the Kee, records the eccentric characters who frequented the 19th Century riverside in Tyneside.