Blyth ( ) is an industrial port town as well as a civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth. It has a population of 39,731 as of the 2021 census, up 6% from the 2011 census and population of 37,347.
The port of Blyth dates from the 12th century, but the development of the modern town only began in the first quarter of the 18th century. The main industries which helped the town prosper were coal mining and shipbuilding, with the salt trade, fishing, and the railways also playing an important role. These industries have largely vanished, but the port still receives paper and pulp from Scandinavia for the newspaper industries of England and Scotland.
The town was seriously affected when its principal industries went into decline, and it has undergone regeneration since the early 1990s. The Keel Row Shopping Centre, opened in 1991, brought high street retailers to Blyth, and helped to revitalise the town centre; it closed in 2024 as part of the country council's Energising Blyth initiative. The market place has recently been re-developed, with the aim of attracting further investment to the town.
The quayside has been redeveloped into an open space, the centrepiece of which is a sculpture commemorating local industry. On the opposite side of the river are the nine wind turbines of the Blyth Harbour Wind Farm, which were constructed along the East Pier in 1992. They were joined in 2000 by Blyth Offshore Wind Farm, which consisted of two turbines situated out to sea. These were the first two offshore wind turbines in the UK. These wind turbines were all decommissioned, with the final two being removed in 2019. A new windfarm further off the coast, composed of five turbines, was commissioned in 2017.
Blyth is also the home of the non-League football club Blyth Spartans, known for their 1978 "giant-killing" feats in the FA Cup.
History
Toponymy The place-name Blyth is first attested in 1130 as Blida, and takes its name from the river Blyth. The river's name comes from the Old English adjective blīðe meaning 'gentle' or 'merry'. The town of Blyth is referred to as Blithmuth in 1236 and Blithemuth in 1250. Had this name persisted, the town would today be referred to as "Blythmouth", on the analogy of Tynemouth to the south.Eilert Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.50.
Early history (pre-12th century) Little is known of the early development of the Blyth area. The oldest archaeological find is an antler hammer dating from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age period, which was found at Newsham in 1979. Human skulls, a spearhead and a sword dating from the Bronze Age were found in the river in 1890, as well as a bronze axe which was found at South Beach in 1993, and a dagger found at Newsham. Although there is no conclusive evidence of a Roman presence in the area, an earthwork shown on early mapping of the area, at the location of present-day Freehold Street, is said to have been a Roman camp, but it has also been argued that it may be of Norsemen origin or date from the Civil War. Debate also surrounds a mosaic which was found near Bath Terrace. The strongest evidence so far has been a single coin, dating from the reign of the Emperor Constans (AD337–350), which was found during excavations for a dry dock. Also four Roman coins were found when digging an air raid shelter in a back garden on Chestnut Avenue.
13th-16th centuries Between the 12th and 18th centuries, there were several small settlements and some industrial activity in the area. The principal industries during this period were coal mining, fishing and the salt trade. Shipbuilding in the area dates from 1748.
The area now known as Blyth was first recorded in 1208 as 'Snoc de Blimue' ('snook at the mouth of the River Blyth') in the settlement of a lawsuit. At this point, the areas now distinguished as Blyth and Cowpen were separated by a tidal inlet parallel to the River Blyth, which covered Cowpen Quay, Post Office Square, Beaconsfield Street, running beyond the site of Crofton Mill Pit. The 'town' consisted of an island-like, narrow strip of land consisting of salt pans and a few cottages. Blyth was part of the Manor of Newsham, property of Gilbert De la Val (one of the Barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.
Until around the 17th century, Blyth-Nook remained mostly neglected while settlements such as Bedlington, Horton, Newsham and Cowpen grew rich from Saxon agriculture despite raids from the Danes.
In 1386, Blyth-Nook was described as, "a place in which fishermen used to dwell, now wasted and unoccupied because of raids."
By 1552, Newsham was primarily a rich farming area, whilst Blyth was a small fishing station with little by way of housing. Little expansion occurred for 300 years, but the importance of the River Blyth has grown significantly. Until the late 18th century, Blyth-Nook remained mostly uninhabited as a smaller hamlet than Newbiggin and Seaton Sluice.
17th century Throughout the 17th century, growth of Blyth's coal industry was seen, due to inward investment into collieries by both local men and investors from the South of England. In 1610, Huntingdon Beaumont of Nottinghamshire introduced wooden Wagonways as a form of coal transport, which was one of the first of that transportation methods to be recorded (Huntingdon had pioneered wooden waggonways for transporting coal in c.1603 in Wollaton, Nottingham). Waggons with one horse were used to carry coals from the pits to the river. From 1692 to 1709, the Plessey Waggonway was constructed from Plessey to Blyth-Nook. Part of the waggonway now forms the route of Plessey Road, where it derives its name. It was constructed of a double-line of beech rails laid on oak sleepers. The waggons had wooden wheels with nails driven into them to reduce wear and tear. Until the first staithes in 1716, the coal was offloaded onto ships by barrow.
18th century The modern town of Blyth began to develop in the first quarter of the 18th century.
Up until 1716, the land around the Blyth area—the Newsham Estate—was owned by the Earls of Derwentwater, but when James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, was executed for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, the land was forfeited to the Crown.
On 11 July 1723, the Lordship of Newsham was put up for sale by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates at their office in the Inner Temple, London. The land was bought by Matthew White of Newcastle and Richard Ridley of Blagdon. From the 12th century, most port activities were on the north side of the river, but under White and Ridley the first new quays and houses were built on the south side, and from here the port began to prosper. However, by this point, Blyth still only consisted of a few farms and labourers' cottages.
At this time, the success of the Plessey Waggonway was seen with 58,000 tons of coal being transported that year (1723), rising to 67,000 tons by 1734.
By 1730, a coaling quay, a ballast quay, a pilots' watch house and a lighthouse had all been built at Blyth harbour.
In 1765 the first breakwater was constructed, and in 1788 the first staith with an elevated loading point was erected.
19th century Deep mines were sunk at Cowpen Colliery and Cowpen Square in 1796 and 1804 respectively, and by 1855, a quarter of a million tons of coal was being shipped from Blyth, rising to three million tons by 1900. The only industry not to survive during this prosperous time was the salt trade, which was heavily taxed during the 18th and early-19th centuries. During the Napoleonic Wars, the tax was increased to provide funds for the military and, even though the tax was abolished in 1825, the industry went into terminal decline. Having had fourteen salt pans at the beginning of the 18th century, exporting over 1,000 tons of salt annually, Blyth's salt industry closed in 1876, with the destruction of the last salt pan.
At Easter in 1887, William Morris, the poet and interior designer, met and addressed a considerable crowd of striking miners in the market square in Blyth. He spoke for about 40minutes and then led them to Horton. They swelled the numbers there to around 6,0007,000 where Morris spoke again. They had been forced to take a 12.5% pay cut but according to The Newcastle Chronicle Morris said:
From the mid-19th century, several important events occurred which allowed the port of Blyth to rapidly expand. First, in 1847, a railway line was constructed, connecting Blyth to collieries at Seghill. In 1853, the Blyth Harbour and Docks Board was formed, then the Blyth Harbour and Dock Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. lxviii) was passed allowing dredging of the harbour to begin. In 1882, the formation of the Blyth Harbour Commission led to the building of new coal loading staiths, as well as the construction of the South Harbour.
As trade in Blyth continued to grow, so did the population. Development of the Cowpen Quay and Waterloo areas began in about 1810 and 1815 respectively, and between the 1850s and 1890s major house building took place in these areas. Blyth railway station, first built in 1847, was relocated in 1867 and rebuilt by local company J&W Simpson Ltd. in 1896, to cope with the increase in goods and passenger traffic. The 1890s saw the filling in of "the Slake" (also known as "the Flanker" or "the Gut"). The Slake was a tidal inlet which stretched south from the river, across the site of today's bus station, along the route of Beaconsfield Street, and on past Crofton Mill Pit. Before it was filled in, it almost entirely separated Blyth from Cowpen—Waterloo Bridge providing the only main link. Once it was removed, the two areas could combine and allow the town to begin to take its present form. The town continued to expand in the 20th century; much large-scale house building took place in the 1920s and 1930s, and from the 1950s to the 1970s.
20th century Industry in Blyth reached its peak in the first half of the 20th century. At this time it boasted one of the largest shipbuilding yards on the North East coast, with five dry docks and four building slipways. During the First and Second World Wars, the Blyth shipyards built many ships for the Royal Navy including the first aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal in 1914. Blyth also served as a submarine base during both wars. Blyth was bombed a number of times during World War II. Landmarks such as the railway station (now Morrisons), the Wallaw Cinema (now Wetherspoons), and houses took damage. By 1930, the port of Blyth was exporting 5.5 million tons of coal, and by the early 1960s, reached its peak with over six million tons. Blyth A and Blyth B power stations, collectively known as Blyth Power Station, were opened in 1958 and 1962. Blyth A was the first power station in Britain to have 120 megawatt sets installed, while Blyth B was the first to be fitted with 275 megawatt sets.
During the 1960s, Blyth entered a period of steep decline. Following the Beeching report, the railway into Blyth was closed in 1965; and in 1966, economic depression resulted in the closure of the shipyards. As the demand for coal fell, due to the increasing use of oil, natural gas and nuclear power as energy sources, the following years saw the closure of many collieries in the area. By the 1980s, the only one left in the town was Bates' Pit, which closed in 1986. In January 2002, Blyth Power Station was closed and demolished in stages, and on 7 December 2003, its four chimneys were felled.
Governance