Why This Writer is Sharing the Tyne & Wear Metro's Stories
A Sunderland writer has penned a book shining a light on the people, places and history surrounding the Tyne & Wear Metro
Keith was born in Sunderland and grew up in nearby Washington. Now from his home in Gloucestershire, the sports journalist recalls his early days on the North East’s tracks for his new book.
When work started on the Metro system, it became Britain’s largest urban transport project of the 20th century. It opened in the summer of 1980, and extended from Tyneside to Wearside in 2002 when the Sunderland line was opened by Her Majesty the Queen. The Tyne & Wear Metro was Britain’s first light rapid transit system, it marked its 40th anniversary in 2020, and remains an integral part of our region’s transport system.
It’s this sort of history that Keith enjoys reading about. ‘I’ve read a few Bill Bryson books and those by Harry Pearson, who focuses more on football in the North East, but there’s that sort of element of travelling to and visiting places. It’s the whole system of underground trains and networks that I find interesting,’ he says. However, he insists he’s not a trainspotter, or in fact a historian! ‘Having grown up with the Metro, using it basically every day for school and sixth form, if someone had already written a book like this, I would’ve read it. There’s one book [I have read] about the history of the system and how it was built but I had thought about adding this travelogue element to uncover the people and the history of the region framed around the Metro. Each chapter is a different stop.’
With his own knowledge, research and a return to the region to ride the Metro, Metroland – The people, places and history encountered via the Tyne & Wear Metro, takes the 60 stations on the Tyne & Wear Metro system and combines observations from these locations with history, sport and anecdotes, as well as some of Keith’s own personal experiences and memories, to tell some of the region’s stories. ‘Rather than simply being an informative history book, I’m trying to do a bit of that with humour and light-heartedness,’ says Keith. ‘I spent quite a few months researching then I came up and travelled around on the Metro and walked between quite a lot of the stations to check it out in person. There’s stuff you just can’t pick up online and people you might bump into which adds to it.’
From his research, Keith shares the origin of Newcastle post-Norman Conquest, and unsurprisingly (being a sports journalist) he also highlights the region’s sporting connections. ‘I’ve looked into people like Brendan Foster and Steve Cram and their careers,’ he adds. ‘When people think of the North East it’s mainly football, which is something I’ve mentioned quite a lot, but there’s more to it than that. Of course Steve Cram’s from Jarrow, but I’ve also mentioned its former MP Ellen Wilkinson and the Jarrow March. It was about getting a flavour of those people. Also in terms of social history, there’s the Meadow Well riots. That’s an interesting one because at the time the Metro station wasn’t called Meadow Well and it was only after the riots that it was then renamed to take the pride in the area rather than trying to hide it.’
Metroland also features surprising stories surrounding the Metro service, including a 12-year-old-girl from Sunderland who tried to mail herself to The Beatles in the ‘60s, Monkseaton's fart lamps (yes, really), and the ghost of Carry On star Sid James supposedly haunting the Sunderland Empire theatre.
Keith hopes readers will see Metroland as something that’s promoting the region in a positive light, and despite the fact he’s from Wearside, he covers stories for Mackems and Geordies in equal measure. ‘One of the things I mention is that if you come from outside the North East (and living outside it I can see from other people’s perspective), it’s all Sunderland versus Newcastle and the rivalry between the cities and their football teams, even racing each other to count general election votes,’ he says. ‘But having lived in the North East, I know people from Newcastle and Sunderland are constantly mixing. Really we should all be proud of the North East as one entity, and whilst I am from Sunderland, I’ve spent plenty of time in Newcastle and one set of my grandparents were from Wallsend.
'This book is really about promoting nice things about the whole of Tyne and Wear. There’s obviously things that are sometimes more difficult to be positive about, but if you happen to live or come from near one of the Metro stations, everything [in the book] has a positive spin.’
Metroland has been published by Sunderland-based A Love Supreme, and hit shelves in June. But does Keith have any plans to publish more of the region’s tales? ‘Let’s see how this one goes,’ he laughs. ‘I’ve got a sort of plan in my head that if this did well, and there’s demand for it, there’s obviously a lot of the North East that isn’t touched by the Metro… I’ve got a very rough title in my head: ‘Beyond Metroland’ and I’d look at visiting similar places like the west end of Newcastle, Washington, the peripheral bits of Northumberland like Ashington, and the south of Sunderland – all places I’m very familiar with, but we’ll see how this one goes in the first place.’
What’s your favourite station and why?
Wallsend. That’s one of the first ones I encountered. It’s where my grandparents lived and it’s how I was introduced to the Metro. Before I’d started school, they’d just opened it, and my grandad took me on a ride around the whole system with a journey that started and finished at Wallsend.
What’s the best snack for a Metro journey?
It might be going beyond a snack slightly, but I do like a stottie when I’m back in the North East.
What’s the best soundtrack for a Metro journey?
As a Sunderland fan I’ll probably get crucified for saying this but I quite like Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero by Mark Knopfler. It’s what the Newcastle players run out to, but it is a nice tune.
Is there somewhere that should have a Metro station, but doesn’t right now?
Recently there were talks about it getting an extension to Washington, where I grew up. That would be good to see. The problem with going to Washington is that the railway skirts around the town. If they could work out a way of getting everyone connected in the centre it would be even better.
Metroland – The people, places and history encountered via the Tyne & Wear Metro is available to order from a-love-supreme.com and is also available at several local bookshops, priced at £10.
