Talk:Gateshead

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[edit] Jewish Community

There is no mention of Gateshead's Jewish community, which is notable for various reasons (e.g. its large rabbinical college, occasional clashes with local population). Any ideas? JFW | T@lk 20:22, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

I'll put something in.

Bandalore 20.38 October 2005

Too much. I am going to try cutting this section down as it over-emphasises the Jewish constituent of this large town in a way that people from the area would find very strange. --82.45.210.111 10:49, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

My changes were almost immediately reverted without the person in question giving any reasons. I have therefore restored my changes. I fully accept there may be a difference of opinion on this, but in my view (a) the amount of detail in the section about the town's Jewish heritage gives a misleading picture of the town as a whole and (b) some of the information is hardly relevant anyway. If you disagree, please state your reasons here. Cheers. Paul Deeks. --82.45.210.111 19:50, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I accept that there may be too much detail as it stands, but your first change deleted nearly all of the information, and your most recent change got rid of the Gateshead Jewry section altogether. If you want to condense the information, that is fair enough, but please don't remove large sections of text or links as it is considered vandalism. Thanks johnwalton (talk) 08:32, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Rewind for a second mate. You agree there is "too much detail as it stands" and yet you oppose removing "large sections of text"? How can you reconcile those statements? Oh, wait a minute, you don't bother, you just throw out an accusation of vandalism. Cheers! I will try and amend again and instead of simply reverting it wholesale if you don't agree, can you either (i) try and change in a way you find reasonable or (ii) explain what your problem is here. I, like user 82.45.210.111 seems to be, am from the north east and agree this article as it is mispresents the town and is therefore in need of tidy up --213.121.207.34 12:52, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Right I have made significant amendments again, similar to those made by 82.45.210.111 but hopefully more satisfactory to John Walton - I must say these do involve removing the strange and perhaps rather POV section which attempts to demonstrate the significance of the Gateshead yeshiva in terms of internal discussions of Jewish orthodoxy within the Jewish community in Britain generally - this is precisely the type of detail which is unsuited to this entry for Gateshead - perhaps it could go in the separate entry on north-east Jewry which is linked to? --213.121.207.34 12:57, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Okay, firstly, apologies for not making myself clear in the above comment, perhaps I should have expanded further. I certainly wasn't trying to discourage bold editing, but in answer to your points, the reason I reverted the first of 82.45.210.111's edits was that I felt too much relevant information had been lost through section blanking, as well as the condensing of the first / second paragraphs. The reason I reverted the second edit was because it was a complete blanking of the Gateshead Jewry section, in conjunction with a similar blanking of the relevant section of the Newcastle upon Tyne article.
As far as the article goes, I agree that the yeshiva section probably isn't appropriate to the Gateshead page and might better be suited on a new article such as Judaism in North East England, but I'm not sure it would be any better suited in Judaism in Newcastle upon Tyne. I've reworked your edit to include some ONS stats for context, as well as re-introducing a couple of small pieces of information. As for the final paragraph which was removed:
Rabbi Bezalel Rakow (1928-2005), communal rabbi from 1964, found himself at the centre of debate between Jewish orthodoxy and the features of modernity that he perceived as threatening orthodox values. When Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book The Dignity of Difference (2002), expressed the notion that Judaism might learn from other faiths, Rakow publicly demanded that Sacks repudiate the thesis of the book and withdraw it from circulation. Gateshead Jews have never recognised Sacks' office as having any authority over them in any case. Sacks reissued the volume, removing the passages that Rakow had found so offensive. Never before had the power and primacy of the communal rabbi of Gateshead been so starkly demonstrated.
I do think this has historical relevance and should be included in some form or another, though seen as there's a dispute over it, I haven't re-added it in any form just now.
I've also sectioned the article, which hopefully makes it clearer. johnwalton (talk) 18:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Isn't it madness how you have a section about christianity (the religion of 82% of people in gateshead) which is one line long whereas judaism, the religion of less than 1%, gets six lines? I don't want to upset anyone but HOWAY we are losing perspective here. If you want my two pennoth, I think the Judaism in Newcastle section should become "Judaism on Tyneside" or "Judaism in Newcastle-Gatehead" with a link from both the Newcastle and Gateshead entries and ALL the superfluous detail deleted from the main articles. Gateshead is famous for its international stadium, its metrocentre, for the baltic, for the angel of the north. Someone has come along and added this big section, bigger than the detail on any of the aforementioned things, about judaism and when I tried to remove it - because its blatantly misleading - this other fella kicked one off. I appreciate it might be true and interesting stuff, but before any edits were made it made out the just about the most important thing the reader should know about Gateshead is this detail about the Jewish population. Whitewashing the history of the town. I have said my piece and will just go away now --82.45.210.9 20:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree entirely and have just made changes to the Sunderland article - a city with virtually not significant Jewish population (unlike Gateshead). Clearly this section needs to be made smaller too, but not by me, I haven't got an agenda or anything! To be fair Gateshead does have a very proud Jewish heritage that SHOULD be laid out in detail here. There is just too many words and someone should rewrite the paragraph to lay out the facts in a shorter form --SandyDancer 10:02, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

My family have been residents of Gateshead for over 50 years and 6 generations, and there has never been an 'occasional clash' with the Jewish population. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.39.8.190 (talk • contribs)

[edit] pronunciation

Is the name of the town pronounced Gates-head or Gate-shed, or something else?

Gates-head or Gates-heed. The pronunciation is slightly different in Geordie (what isn't! :) ) and hard to describe as I'm not a language scholar but Gy-ate-sud is close (said quite quickly, the dashes are to separate parts of the word not to signify pauses). IainP (talk) 13:27, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
If anyone is still interested, the pronunciation is Gāts'hĕd' (Gaates-head). But as IainP says, its different depending on what level of Geordie accent it's spoken in, Gāts'hēd' (Gaates-heed). johnwalton (talk) 18:58, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gateshead = Camelot?

I have never heard of this idea though I suposse every part of Great Britain claims part of the Arthurian legend but Gateshead?? Penrithguy 23:00, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I did a very quick Google on this and could find nothing at all linking the two IainP (talk) 11:02, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


Historians can't even agree on the evidence for a historical Arthur, so there is going to be little consensus amongst them as to the location of Camelot. Therefore I am going to remove the sentence regarding Camelot. It may be that this is a local legend, in which case an inclusion could be made by someone with the appropriate knowledge. --zider_red 22:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] residents

Does anyone have any idea of how accurate the report is that David Bowie, George Forman and Nelson Mandela lived in Gateshead? I dont really think this is correct

the George Foreman and Bowie references are accurate, but as far as I can tell Nelson Mandela has lived in South Africa all his life.

Any information on when/where/why they lived in such a place as Gateshead? (not that it isnt great)


I would have thought that these references are to brief visits rather than residence. The big Gateshead hotel overlooking the river (forgotten the name!) is popular with visitors to Newcastle. David Bowie has certainly performed in Newcastle, and Nelson Mandela is a freeman of that city, and was no doubt there for the ceremony. I don't know about George.

Bandalore 18.46 5 May 2006

The hotel your meaning is the Hilton right?

[edit] Demographics

Any chance of some info regarding population, density, age and ethnic make-up etc.? 86.0.203.120 02:56, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Saltwell Park

There is also no mention of Saltwell Park. Everyone sees Gateshead as dark and dingy place, need to brighten the place up. How about adding a Parks/Outdoor places section? Could add watergate park, chopwell wood, derwent country park.

Ingaz 00:17, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Good idea, feel free to add one. Bob talk 01:02, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this article supposed to be about the TOWN of Gateshead and NOT the Borough of Gateshead? They are two different things, which is why they have two different articles. Why is the population, that is listed in the info box, actually the population of the borough of Gateshead and not the town or central borough. This needs to be made clearer. I would be against including places such as Chopwell woods on this article, as that is in the Chopwell/High Spen area and should therefore be mentioned in their own articles. Try not to use this article on Gateshead what what can be said can be brought into a towns/villages/suburbs own article (Ryton, Rowlands Gill, Whickham etc.) and mentioned in the borough's article. From a proud resident of Crawcrook (that I will never consider part of "Gateshead").


I've added a little bit about Saltwell Park.


Bandalore 08:06, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Layout and images

Hello Gateshead editors,

Just a note that the article would not only benefit from the WP:UKCITIES standard, but also by having a "static image" within the infobox. There are many great photographs of many great Gateshead landmarks in the article, why not put one in the infobox? Examples of this are at Runcorn, Stalybridge, Stretford, Oldham, Wheathampstead, Porlock and many many more. Hope that helps, -- Jza84 · (talk) 21:47, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gateshead Indoor Market

I would like this article to have something regarding Gateshead Indoor Market. It was a staple of Gateshead Town Centre for 29 years, before it closed on the 11th of this month. I have no idea where in the article it would be suitable though.

Perhaps Gateshead Town Centre's decline could be mentioned as well. (Approximately 3/4's of the places retailers have closed in the last 2 years —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eugenespeed (talk • contribs) 00:57, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gateshead TOWN

A comment was made a while back (further up the talk page), and I would like to bring it up again. This article is about the TOWN of Gateshead. NOT the borough, why does it list the population of Gateshead borough (190,000) and not the town of Gateshead. Also, places such as the Metro Centre are not in the town, they are in the borough. Surely the population figures should only be for the postcodes NE8-NE11? SJI - 23 January 2008

Agreed. Other places in England tackle this well. See Salford/City of Salford as an example. -- Jza84 · (talk) 22:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)