The town of Jarrow in the north-east of England transformed in the nineteenth century when heavy industry, particularly coal mining and shipbuilding, began to dominate the town. At its peak 80 per cent of the town’s working population were employed in the shipbuilding industry until 1933 at the demise of the Palmer shipbuilding empire. From this time the town relied upon ship repair as the mainstay industry, up until the last ship repair yard closed in 1981. Although the docks continued for another decade, they have been largely filled in today, and new industries have been attracted to the area during the redevelopment of the town. In this book well-known local author and photographer Paul Perry presents a portrait of a town and a way of life that has radically changed over the decades, much of which has disappeared today, showing not only the industries and buildings that have gone but also the people, street scenes, many popular places of entertainment and much more. This fascinating photographic history of lost Jarrow will appeal to all those who live in the town or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades.

Paul Perry is a well-known collector of old photographs and postcards of Jarrow. He has over 24,000 photographs of Old Jarrow, and is also a professional photographer himself.