Below Newcastle Quay, at Sandgate and its neighbourhood, was the sailors’ and the keelmen’s quarter. Tyne sailors were the best that our country produced; and so it happened that the visits of the press-gang were frequent at the Sandgate shore. Many a fight there was before the captured men were carried off. All the folks of the neighbourhood, save such as had gone into hiding, would assemble for battle. The dialect of the place and the manner of these fights may both be surmised from these lines of the local muse:—
“Like harrin’, man, they cam’ i’ showls,
Wi’ buzzum shanks an’ aud bed-powls—
Styens flew like shot throo Sandgeyt.
Then tongs went up, bed-powls got smashed,
An’ heeds wes cracked, an’ windors crashed.
Then brave keel laddies took thor turn,
Wi’ smiths an’ potters frae the Burn;
They cut the Whiteboys doon like corn,
An’ lyed them law i’ Sandgeyt.”