Pons Aelius was name of the first known settlement in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area. It was a Roman settlement and dates from the 2nd century AD when it was ordered by Emperor Hadrian. The settlement was founded at the lowest place that the river Tyne could easily be crossed. It was a relatively large settlement for the era with 2,000 inhabitants. In fact, you can still see parts of Hadrian’s Wall from the city of Newcastle today. After the Romans left in the 5th Century AD, Newcastle was settled by the kingdom of Northumbria and known as Monkchester.

Medieval Newcastle

Modern Newcastle can be said to have been founded in 1080 when Monkchester was virtually destroyed by Odo of Bayeux after that year’s Norman rebellion. A wooden castle was built in Newcastle that same year by William the Conqueror’s son, Robert Curthose. The wars between England and Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries helped the town of Newcastle prosper as it became an important stop due to its proximity to the border. Ships were also built in the town in the 14th century as the town had a reasonable shipbuilding industry. Newcastle was seen as the North of England’s fortress at this time and even had a wall built around the town in the 13th century. A Scottish king, William the Lion was imprisoned there in 1174 and William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace was also dragged through the town.

Middle Ages

A 1530 Royal Act restricted shipments of coal and only allowed it to travel from Tyneside to Newcastle Quayside which essentially gave Newcastle a monopoly in the coal trade. While this helped the town to prosper, it also restricted the growth of nearby towns such as Sunderland. In fact, this could be seen as the origins of today’s rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland. A 1636 plague killed 7,000 members of the town, reducing the population to 13,000. Newcastle chose the side of King Charles I during the English Civil War and was besieged by Scottish allies of Parliament.

18th-19th Century

Newcastle started growing in the early part of the 18th century and by 1750, the town had reached its pre-plague population of 20,000. Later on that century, the town started to spread beyond its walls and suburbs appeared for the first time. As traffic was being impeded by the town walls, it was decided to start tearing them down in the late 18th century. Newcastle had a prosperous printing industry at this time and was behind only London, Oxford and Cambridge as England’s largest print centre. The Literary and Philosophical Society was founded in the town in 1793 and was 50 years ahead of the London Library.

In the 19th century, the town was an important shipbuilding and heavy industry area. Newcastle was also one of the major towns of the Industrial Revolution. Between 1801 and 1901, the town’s population increased from 28,000 to 215,000. However, Newcastle still had sanitary problems and several cholera epidemics throughout the 19th century.

Modern Newcastle

Electric trams were introduced in 1901 though buses had overtaken them as the most popular form of public transport by the 1940s. Several art galleries opened in the early part of the century including the Laing Art Gallery in 1901 and the Hatton Gallery in 1925. The Tyne Bridge was opened in 1928 and the Museum of Science started showcasing Newcastle’s history in 1934. The inner city slum problem was tackled in the 1920s when council houses started to get built.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hurt Newcastle badly and it took many years for it to recover. 1956 saw the last coalpit being closed with the demise of the shipyards becoming a long and torturous process that lasted decades. After coming through the bleak 1980s, Newcastle started to recover economically with a second university opened in 1992 to go with Newcastle University which was founded in 1963. The Millennium Bridge was opened in 2001 and is just another example of architecture in a city that is on an upward growth slope.

Newcastle remains one of the most important cities in the North of England with the city’s employment now spread out between the retail, education and public administration sectors.