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The North Shields Fishermen’s Heritage Project

Newsletter

Issue 3 – February 2017

Raising funds to create a fitting and lasting memorial to Fishermen lost at sea

from the port of North Shields

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We are delighted to tell you that we have now raised £40,000

In our October 2016 newsletter we announced that we had £15,000 – and by the end of

December that figure had increased to £25,000.

The very first Grant application that we put in back in August 2016 came in late November with a £5,000 cheque from the Sir James Knott Trust.

As you can see Keith, Henry, Joyce and Terry were pretty delighted with that – our biggest single

donation in 2016.

We received a number of other Cheques from

local businesses including £300 from Amanda and

Paul at “William Oliver & Rodman Russell”

Where has all the money come from?

£500 was donated by Gay and Hugh at “Release

Potential”

And £275 from local author Dan Turner from

sponsorship and sales so far of his book “Life on

the Tyne.”

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Fisherman artist Michael Smith painted The

Gaul/Ranger Castor which was sunk on 8

February 1974 with 36 men on board – 6 of

whom were from North Shields. Michael kindly

donated the painting to NSFHP and Sharon North

bought it for £500 – her 26 year old father was

one of the men lost on it when she was just 3

years old.

Brian Chambers is selling prints of this - if you

would like one, take a look at our shop

www.nsfhp.org.uk/our-shop

North Tyneside Business Forum held an awards

dinner in early December at which NSFHP were

nominated as their ‘cause’ for the evening – we

received an amazing £820 from the raffle held on

the night!

Speaking of raffles – our very own “Dick Turpin”

Henry Howard Vice Chairman is the “king of

raffles”. If you see this man anywhere on the fish

quay – be warned, he’ll sell you a raffle ticket!

Other donations came in - £100 from the

Tynemouth Ladies Luncheon Club

Volunteer Keith Bell brought in several donations from a number of ship yards including as far afield as A&P Tees in Middlesbrough who donated £250.

Originally founded as a centre of expertise in shipyard design and construction in 1971, A&P has developed into a leading force in ship repair, conversion and marine services.

Lynn Collins and Trevor Potter (from sales of his merchandise) also donated £200 each to kick off 2017 fundraising for us.

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The Hull Bullnose Heritage Group also donated £100. Here they are with fisherman/artist Michael Smith and one of the prints of the Gaul.

When the boats came in” for the North Shields

Fishermen’s Heritage Project ….

North Shields is England’s largest prawn landing port

and during this prawn season, the North Shields

fishing fleet, as well as visiting boats to the port,

together with prawn merchants Caley Fisheries,

Coquet Island Shellfish and Moir Seafood’s made a

significant donation of £3,930.

Boats that donated were Blue Eye, Blue Eye D, Aspire, Achieve, Incentive, Bay Red, Charmel, Rebecca, S. Wave, Adventure, Beverly Ann, Charisma, G R Pasture, Emma Lou, Emily Rose, Ivy May, Luc, Lady Pearl, Ocean Rover, Pamela S, Pilot Star, Palatine, Diamond D, Madalia, Sanrene, Sea Nymph, Success, Ticino, Tinganes, Barbara Ann, Bountiful, Onward, Kristenborg, Stacey E, Emma Jane N, Frem W & D Shields

Our collection tins have also been a fantastic

source of regular top ups to the fund.

Thank you to all pubs, chip shops, clubs, shops,

restaurants and garages that have taken a tin.

Since we launched – our collection tins have

boosted our fundraising by almost £3,000.

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Henry Howard popped up a few times on the quay running a raffle. He was given this brand new Archos tablet by Julie Myhill, fiancée of James Noble, who sadly was lost at sea, along with two of his Filipino crewmen (Michael and Jonito) on the “Ocean Way” FR 349 when she sunk on 2nd November 2014, 120 miles north of North Shields. This particular raffle raised £106 - Thank you Julie.

We are going Green…..

NSFHP are one of two causes to benefit from “The

Green Carnival at the Coast” which will take place at

Tynemouth Priory on Friday 17th/Saturday 18th March.

“The Green Carnival will be a great family fun event –

there’ll be a range of activities, including a 3km and

5km fun run, street performers, food concessions,

music, a zip wire, a best dressed dog competition and

the opportunity to be part of a World Record attempt

at the largest human shamrock.

NSFHP will also be present in one of five interactive

worlds and I’m sure our vice-Chairman Henry Howard

might even be tempted to join in with the Irish

dancing!”

We have come such a long way since the launch of

our fundraising in July 2016 when we had just £4,000

– everybody at NSFHP are really delighted that both

the local community and business want to help us get

this memorial in place.

We are very much looking forward to The Green

Carnival – an event where Irish meets Geordie.

We believe that NSFHP have momentum now and we

fully expect this to be a ‘monumental’ 2017!

“Go raibh míle maith agat!" - which basically means

"Thank you very much!"

We hope to see a few of you at The Green Carnival –

save the date 18 March 10am – 3:30pm

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We received another business donation from

Glen Window Cleaning - This local business was

started back in 1950 by Robert Glen, who sadly passed

away last year.

His son Michael, who now runs the business with his

brother Sean, told us; "My Father always used to say

that North Shields grew out of the fishing industry, so

if it wasn't for fishing we wouldn't have the business

we have now. This donation is our way of giving

something back to honour the memory of the lost

men who helped build this Town."

What’s Cooking 2017?

Well we were …. at Newcastle Racecourse on Sunday 5th February!

We raised the grand total of £2,135 on the

day:

£135 from a raffle of a bottle of House of Commons whisky donated by Tynemouth MP the

Rt Hon Alan Campbell - and a whopping £2,000

donation from Henry Colbeck and his Team and exhibitors at the event. NSFHP were invited by Bill Colbeck Chairman of Henry Colbeck to his annual exhibition of Fish & Chip/fast food. The firm was founded in 1893, and are the oldest independent supplier to the fish & chip market in the UK.

They’re based on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead. In addition to fish and chip shops, they supply Chinese, Indian and Italian takeaways and restaurants with frying oils and fats, frozen at

sea cod and haddock, a variety of frozen foods, batter flours, pizza products, packaging, equipment and cleaning materials.

Left Bill Colbeck (Chairman) presenting cheque to Keith Spedding. Right - Duncan McLean (Director)

Now wait for it……. *Drum roll* …..

Never under-estimate the power of

social media!

Our biggest donation so far has

come from local Facebook page

“Floppsie Cullen’s Tynemouth”

]

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NSFHP were delighted to learn that we had been

chosen by the “Floppsies” Group to be their main

‘cause’ for fundraising during 2016.

The Facebook page was set up several years ago by

John Spoors and ‘Admiral’ James Cullen (a retired

fishermen, who has since sadly passed away).

The Facebook Group of nearly 1,800 members are

much more than ‘virtual friends’ however – many of

the members regularly meet up and are friends in real

life.

They have “Knit and Natter” mornings, they even

organise trips abroad and meet up for summer BBQ’s

and Christmas parties. They meet up and make things

to sell (knitted “Floppsie” bunnies are a favourite),

walk their dogs together and have even been known

to have the odd drink together!

They have very few ‘rules’ to their Facebook page –

first and foremost it’s all about “friendship” – friendly

banter and general ‘canny craic’…. And all the while

raising a lot of money for local charities and ‘causes’.

We were invited along to The Exchange on Howard

Street on Saturday 11 February for the cheque

presentation. We had been given an inclination that it

would be a BIG donation – in the region of £7,500.

The anticipation was palpable on the faces of Terry

and Henry as they waited for John Spoors (VA of the

Floppsie Group) to reveal the final amount raised.

Imagine our surprise and delight at being told the

amount raised was actually a whopping

£8,150

It was a great night – spent in the company of some

lovely people!

Vice Chairman Henry Howard certainly seemed to be

enjoying himself!

A massive thank you to all the “Fabulous Floppsies”

from all of us at NSFHP – once Fiddlers Green is in

place you can all feel rightly proud of the huge

contribution you’ve made.

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With £40,000 raised so far – we thought is about time a few of us took a trip to Seaham to view some of Ray

Lonsdale’s work ourselves.

The 11:01 memorial – or “Seaham Tommy” as it is known to the locals is on the seafront and it’s no

exaggeration to say that it takes your breath away when you first see it. Both Terry and Henry were

overwhelmed by the scale and craftsmanship in the piece, and seeing it first-hand made them even more

determined to get Fiddlers Green in place as soon as we can!

Terry McDermott with the “Eleven O One” sculpture (Seaham Tommy)

The streets in the immediate vicinity of “Tommy” have a number of shops, bars and restaurants – and in

speaking to the Town Clerks Office in Seaham, they told us that some of these have seen increases in trade

of up to 30% - if you have a business on the Fish Quay please come and support us – there are long-term

benefits coming for the area!

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It is only when you get really close up to Ray’s work that you understand the detail and emotion that he

puts into each piece.

As with Seaham Tommy, our “Fiddler’s Green” sculpture will be positioned on a low plinth at ground level.

It is a sculpture that we want people to have their photograph taken next to, and can touch and admire it in

its full glory.

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Do you live within 15 miles of NE29 and shop at a co-op?

If so PLEASE nominate "The Old Low Light Heritage Centre" as your 'cause' as they are raising money for OUR MEMORIAL.

It's Free! You can do it 'on-line' - it's really easy and takes just a few minutes and we 'could' get £3,000+ for our memorial.

Sign up here:-

https://membership.coop.co.uk

Select "The Old Low Light Heritage Centre" (with the picture of Terry and Henry holding our collection tins).

Co-op gives 1% of what you spend on its products to community projects selected by Co-op stores near your home. You may need to scroll down the page to select ‘causes with a 10 or 15 mile radius' of where you live to find The Old Low Light Heritage cause, as it will only suggest the 3 causes nearest to your postcode initially.

We currently have about £1,136 in our 'pot' BUT if co-op members don't select a cause the 1% is shared out between the three causes of your nearest Co-op.

There is currently £2,229 just sitting waiting to be allocated to a cause in our area.

Instead of that £2,229 being split 3 ways and us getting £743 - we could get a much bigger share of it.

PLEASE NOMINATE "THE OLD LOW LIGHT

HERITAGE CENTRE" AS YOUR CAUSE.

This could give us a real boost to our fundraising. We have until 8th April - which is when the money is shared out.

∽

Needless to say, we absolutely "love it" when we get an email saying "Can we give you a cheque for the memorial?"

Sharon Burdis and her team at North Shields library held a raffle at the Victorian Market last year and split the proceeds between a couple of local causes...

... And we were one of them! Thanks so much to you all for our cheque for £200!

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Love a choir?

You’ll love this then!

The Backworth Male Voice Choir, together with

the Radcliffe Ladies Choir are joining forces for a

one night only NSFHP benefit night on Saturday

29th April at St Hilda’s Church, North Shields –

starts at 7pm – Tickets can be obtained from:-

The Exchange (Beldon’s Bar), Howard Street,

North Shields, NE30 1SE

The Low Lights Tavern (Pub on Brewhouse Bank

NE30 1LL)

Or contact

John Swinburne

Tel: 01670 716055

Email: backworthchoir@gmail.com

Only 200 tickets available – all priced

at £7

Please come along to support.

All in all NSFHP have had a

fantastic couple of months with

masses of business and

community support – but –

there’s still some work to do!

Most of the money we have raised so far has

come from people we know or from people our

friends know. Do you know anybody that could

help us?

If you have any ideas or suggestions to help us

raise the funds we need – please get in touch!

Email nsfhproject@gmail.com

If you would like to donate – please visit our on

line Golden Giving page:

https://www.goldengiving.com/secure/donation/

north-shields-fishermens-heritage-project

If you would like to donate by cheque please

make it payable to:

The North Shields Fishermen’s Heritage Project

Please post it to:-

Terry McDermott (Chairman)

c/o The Old Low Light Heritage Centre

Clifford’s Fort

The Fish Quay

NE30 1JA