Jimmy Forsyth

Evening Chronicle tributes to Jimmy.

Jimmy Forsyth

Photo by Keith Pattison

Jimmy Forsyth the Newcastle 'street photographer' died last week (Saturday 11 July 2009) aged 95. Jimmy was a Welshman who came to Newcastle in 1943 to do war work as a fitter. Four days after his arrival he lost the sight of one eye in a accident and lost his job. For the next decade he wandered the streets of Scotswood and Elswick seeking casual work and building up an insider's knowledge of the soon to be 'redeveloped' area. In 1954 he bought a cheap camera and began recording the disappearing life of the working class communities. By the 1970s he was recognized both as a photographer and as a 'sight' himself as he shuffled around Newcastle snapping whatever took his fancy. The Side Gallery exhibited his work and the Tyne and Wear Archive has his collection.

BBC film of Jimmy

Z-Car Number Galaxy

An exhibition about Tynemouth Police has just finished at the Central Library in North Shields. The section about the registration number collection pointed out that even the CID 'undercover' vehicle carried the immediately identifiable EFT 1 plate!

Broken shops: The Old Foxhunters

Somewhere underneath the modern frontage is the Old Foxhunters' Inn in Preston Village near North Shields (you could get there by Hunter's bus). In latter years it served as a 'tuck shop' for Tynemouth Technical School (later Preston High School). A lane led from behind the shop to the much older Preston Village school and to Front Street. The field next to it for many years carried a sign saying it was the site for a new United Reformed Church. The current Foxhunters' Inn is further along Preston North Road at Hillheads just on the old Whitley Bay boundary.

Captured in the glass

Remarkable glass negative images of Tynemouth and North Shields currently offered on Ebay. From the top: storm damage to the pier, Northumberland Park, the Low Light, the Gas Company barrow boys, the Fish Quay.