Part of South Tyneside Jarrow is a town on the river Tyne in England it has a population round 27,000. The North East of England, suffered more than the rest of England during the Great Depression. Jarrow is famous for the Jarrow Marchers or the Jarrow Crusade as a term used on the banner carried by the marchers. On October 5th 1936 207 men known as the Jarrow Marchers, walked from Jarrow to Parliament in London.



The marchers had no resources other than their own determination and good boot supplied by the public. The march was to find jobs to supports their families and to bring recognition and respect not only to Jarrow but for similar situation all over the country. The walk took over a month and in total covered 280.5 miles. Whenever the marchers stopped for the night, the local people found them food and shelter.

They arrived in London on 31 October. A petition was handed in by Ellen Wilkinson a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Jarrow. The petition had 12000 signatures on it. Stanley Baldwin the Prime Minster at the time refused to see any of the marchers representatives.

Ellen Wilkinson who took part in the Jarrow march was associated with Jarrow and was the first female Minster for Education and the first Home Security Minster.

The last surviving member of the march Cornelius Con Whalen died on the 14th September 2003 aged 93.

The former keyboard play with The Animals, Alan Price in 1974 had a UK hit with the Jarrow Song, all about the march, it went to number one in the charts. Also Alan Hull of the Lindisfarne wrote Marshall Riley s Army with reference to one of the leaders of the March.

The Jarrow march was repeated in 1986 but the marchers came not just from Jarrow but from all over.

Simon Temple built Jarrow Hall in 1785 Simon Temple opened the Alfred Pit in 1803 bring coal mining to the area and also open the shipyards in South Shields and Jarrow.

The Hall is a grade 11 listed Georgian building which now a days houses the Bede Monastery Museum and the excavations of St Paul s monastery. The Hall was completely refurbished in 1999 at a cost of four million and was officially open by Her Majesty the Queen in 2000.

In 1967 the Tyne tunnel was opened connecting Jarrow and Willington quay.