When we moved into our house, the neighbours all came out to welcome us.
I moved here in February 2024, I’d just come back from 6 months of travelling with my partner Fred. Fred was born and raised in North Shields. We’d been living in London that’s where we met and we just really wanted a change in lifestyle. I was born in Hertfordshire just north of London so I’m a proper southerner and although I’ve travelled around the UK quite a bit, I’d never really come to Newcastle before I met my partner. So, moving to the north of England it was a bit of a culture shock. Especially in February, it was quite cold.
We’d come back from travelling, we couldn’t afford to live in London anymore, it just had been an amazing place to live and work, but it was just really unsustainable. We wanted somewhere where we could actually buy our own home and settle down and put down some roots. Fred’s always wanted to come back here it just made sense.
He’s a teacher so we knew he’d probably be able to get a job. But because I’m an archivist it was going to be a little bit more tricky for me. After lots of applications, I eventually got a job working for the National Archives and it’s brilliant because it’s a job which means that I can work from home in North Shields, but I travel all over the northeast and Yorkshire supporting archive services. So, it’s been brilliant. I’m really lucky, because in a way that job’s really helped me get to know the area a lot more because I travel and I meet people so much.
Moving in February, it was quite cold and dreary, and I didn’t have a job, and I didn’t know anyone, but I kind of forced myself to get out there and meet people. I joined the bell ringers at Christchurch because that’s something I did when I was a teenager and I got to know people through that. I walked around the area while I could and got to know it. But it was a bit different up here, even the architecture because where I grew up, we don’t have back yards we don’t have back alleys. Tyneside flats, I didn’t know that was a thing.
Also, living by the sea is a complete culture change for me because I’ve lived in London for 20 years and if I wanted to go to the seaside you’re looking at two hours to get down to Brighton. So to have it literally on your doorstep is incredible. I think we were both ready for a change and I like the slower pace of life here. The fact that your neighbours talk to you, is a real culture shock. When we first moved into our house, the neighbours all came out to welcome us. You would never have that if you moved in London because everyone is so transient and there’s so many people. So, I really like that side of it, the fact that everyone is so friendly and just really down to earth and like, it’s full of characters round here.
Liz sitting at her favourite spot © Hazel Plater
I love the Bell Tower in Christchurch, because it’s really welcoming, it’s a big, big old belfry. But I’d say the place that’s more accessible, which I go to with my other half, is the benches up by the Old Highlights near Northumberland Park which looks down over the fish quay; you’ve got the view of the mouth of the Tyne. When we first moved here, every evening Fred would come back from teaching, I’d moan about how I haven’t got a job yet and we’d go and we’d sit and just look at the view. It’s just such a lovely place having this big expanse and seeing the sea, it just always calms me down. Months later we still go there, and we sit and we go, “Do you remember that time you used to sit here and wonder how it would all work out?” And now it’s kind of worked out. This is home now.
Even in the time that I’ve lived here, which is only 18 months, I’ve noticed a huge amount of change just in the type of shops that are coming in and the regeneration to the high street in North Shields. Breweries popping up in venues and lots of artists and I hope that that continues because I think it is noticeable the difference between the south and the north. I didn’t really understand that until I moved to the north of England. But you can see the chronic underinvestment, and you can see that there are people here that deserve more opportunities. It’s not a lack of skills or talent or anything, it’s just there’s not that infrastructure, there’s not that investment. People really deserve it up here because there is so much creativity and talent and people are wonderful. I hope that all the artistic stuff with all the mural painting and all the talent with the 800 project carries on and it becomes just an amazing vibrant place to live that people want to move to and explore and visit.
For the last 20 years I’ve been really transient. I’ve never really had a home, so actually moving here is the first time I’ve ever actually felt like I have a permanent home and it’s incredible. So, I would really like to just keep looking after my beautiful home that I’m so lucky to have been able to purchase with my other half here and give it the TLC it needs and give back to the community and really I think I feel so lucky because I kind have got everything that I hoped for in moving here. I’ve got a log burner and a cat and a house and a gorgeous other half and the sea on my doorstep and fresh air to breath every day and a less chaotic life and I am loving it.
Liz was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 Voices Project.