Telling Tales

Local historians and members of local communities are helping us bring the Tyne Derwent Way's heritage to life through an exciting project, Telling Tales.

Born through conversations with Gateshead's communities, Telling Tales, launching in April 2025, will become your podcast and audio guide to the history of the places along our nine-mile route. It's a fascinating collection of historical records, local memories and stories about the places and events that together make up the Tyne Derwent Way:

St Mary's Heritage Centre (Gateshead's mother church):

Dunston Staiths (the longest industrial harbour in Europe):

Gateshead Garden Festival in the 1990s:

The Metrocentre (one of the biggest shopping centres in Europe):

Crowley Iron Works and the magnificent industries around the Derwent:

 Gibside National Trust, a Georgian landscape garden forged in an industrial past:

To produce this podcast, we've had help from local communities, people who live in Gateshead, students in local schools in Gateshead and Gateshead College, who have recorded interviews, and different partners and local organisations including Newcastle University and Northumbria University, Gateshead City council, Historic England, National Trust and more.

Through Telling Tales, our aim is to connect this collection of memories and events to the present and future, collaborating with different age groups.

You'll be able to listen to the Telling Tales podcast on all the usual apps and platforms.

Telling Tales is supported through funding from Historic England.