What’s On

A volunteer lead exhibition which takes a broad look at the Merchant Navy during the 20th and 21st centuries and the very big part it played and still plays in the lives of people on both sides of the Tyne.

The exhibition materials cover everything from local shipping companies and repair yards, the world wars, the support and training offered to visiting seafarers of all nations, a boarding school for children who had lost a parent in the service, the Merchant Navy of today and the future, as well as stories from individuals and families.

£4 / free for members

The Old Low Light Heritage Centre on North Shields Fish Quay is once again offering a ‘warm space’ on Fridays over the winter.

Free

We are delighted to welcome a new speaker, Helen Schofield, who will talk about an important part of North Shields’ maritime history, the Wellesley Training Ship, which was moored on North Shields Fish Quay from 1868 to 1914, to prepare boys for a life at sea.

£4 / free for members

Wayward Wind, a local peer-led saxophone and clarinet group, to perform Christmas music at the Old Low Light. This is part of The North of Tyne Combined Authority and North Tyneside Council's 'The Mouth of the Tyne Festival Collective' programme.

£5 per person

A free hour-long bird watching walk, led by Old Low Light volunteer, Dan Turner, starting outside the centre on Clifford’s Fort on Friday 15 December at 1pm.

Free

We are very pleased to welcome retired journalist Janis Blower, our first speaker of 2024, who will explain how for more than a century, the Shields Gazette and Shipping Telegraph kept the seafaring community at the mouth of the Tyne in touch – with each other, and with the river’s maritime trade.

£4 per person (members half price)

This delightful combination will offer a very varied programme, mixing classical repertoire with more popular favourites from the modern era.

£15

Alan Fidler, who led the award-winning Northumbria World War One Commemoration Project, will talk about how the country responded to the new threat to shipping posed by submarine mines, including stories of local men and local vessels.

£4 per person / Members Free

A programme of Baroque pieces featuring cello and harpsichord duos, but also leaving room for some solo harpsichord items.

£15

A concert by two world class musicians – violinist Bradley Creswick, accompanied by pianist David Murray to perform a programme featuring duos form the baroque and classical repertoire, and ending with Bradley’s now famous virtuosic Hungarian encores. Part of The North of Tyne Combined Authority and North Tyneside Council's 'The Mouth of the Tyne Festival Collective' programme.

£15

Susan Lynn, one of our popular speakers, will talk about the practice of impressment during the 18th and early 19th centuries, when maritime communities lived in fear of press gangs who captured men for naval service. This will include how the gangs got their men and, also, some daring escapes.

£4 / members half price