High Street Tales: North Shields
Starting in Autumn 2020, specially commissioned writers on seven high streets across England began work on High Street Tales: a new storytelling initiative by Historic England to uncover the hidden histories and celebrate the everyday magic of the high street. Working both online and offline where they could, they spoke with local people to uncover memories, reflections, personal histories and local legends on and around the high street. What emerged was a set of modern High Street Tales which explore the connection between history, memory and place and paint a vivid portrait of the high street.
Find out more about the project and how New Writing North was involved:
Listen to High Street Tales
In this episode, the musician and writer Celia Bryce explores North Shields high street in an otherworldly tale which follows a mysterious character on his journey through streets of the past to return a lost shoe to its home.
Download the ebook of all the stories
Made in conjunction with New Writing North and the series was produced by Sonderbug Productions with thanks to Darren Hayman for use of his song Pram Town.
High Street Tales is part of Historic England’s high street cultural programme; four years of nationwide cultural activity helping to make high streets more attractive, engaging and vibrant places for people to live, work and spend time. The programme is run by Historic England, in partnership with Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Follow us on social using @HistoricEngland and using the hashtag #HighStreetTales to stay up to date with the latest High Street news.