We know you enjoy seeing how Ouseburn Valley has changed the years - so do we! Our photography archives allow us to glimpse into Ouseburn's past and map how the area has evolved over the decades. During November 2020, the Ouseburn Trust ran a photo contest on social media to encourage visitors to take a walk in the Valley during the year's second lockdown. We published five archive images and asked you to find their locations and recreate them.

Now, it's time for us to share our very own recreations and reveal what these historic images depicted. 

December 2020

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This image from the Newcastle City Library archive dates from 1907 and shows the mouth of the Ouseburn as it runs into the Tyne. You can see the old low-level Glasshouse Bridge over the Ouseburn before demolition and behind is the low-level pipe-bridge. The white building in the centre is the Ship Inn, now Tyne Bar, on Maling Street with the high-level Glasshouse Bridge behind. Behind the buildings to the right of the image, where the Hub and motorboat club are now sited, you can just make out the ‘pagoda’ like towers of the Ouseburn School.

And today...

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Another image from Newcastle City Library archive, this time dating from 1899, shows the Ouseburn river at high tide upstream from Ouseburn Bridge, Cut Bank. Wherries loaded with furnace slag and sand are moored along-side the quay walls. To the right is the ironworks off Foundry Lane. Central in the distance, horse-drawn wagons wait at the bottom of the slipway ready to be loaded. Above to the left is Lime Street with terraced houses, including the Lime Street mission.

And today... 

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At first glance, this image may appear to be much older but it was taken in the 1990s and donated to the Trust by Dave Hunt, former Secretary to the Motor Boat club. It shows men from the Motor Boat Club standing on the river bed at low tide alongside a boat abandoned by a former member. The image is taken from Ouseburn Bridge looking downstream with the former cattle sanatorium on the right, Robinson Ice Factory & Storage, Hume Street on the left and in the distance, there are vehicles in Lower Steenberg's Yard next to the Toffee factory building.

And today... 

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This image under the Railway Viaduct by local photographer Davey Pearson was also taken in the 1990s from one of the woodland paths on the way down from the City Stadium. It isn’t hard to find the location, we just included it to make you stretch your legs!

And today... 

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Finally, this might have been the hardest one to find. One of a group of images taken of the Ouseburn in 1935 as part of a survey to inform slum clearance. This is Mill House, the largest property in a group of tenements which stood on what is now the village green on Lime Street. To the right, you can see part of the terraced housing which adjoined the Ship Inn, with Byker bridge above, and in the rear to the left can be seen the co-operative society abattoir building, which now houses, amongst other things, the Trust offices.

And today...