where is "Shields" England?

[nelle]

Following up leads in Australia and have received a birth certificate with the man, William Hepplewhite, born in Shields, England.  Can somebody let me know where this is so I can focus my follow up?

[Gadget]

It's probably South Shields - at the mouth of the River Tyne on the County Durham side.

An outside chance of it being North Shields on the north side - in Northumberland.

See:

http://www.pjoiner.demon.co.uk/genuki/DUR/SShields/index.html

or

http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Tynemouth/index.html


Gadget

[stanmapstone]

South Shields is in County Durham on the south bank of the River Tyne, and North Shields on the north bank is in Northumberland. That is the historic counties, and not the modern administrative districts.
You can use the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer at http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/freefun/didyouknow/
Stan

[Nick Carver]

Hepplewhite is a name local to the Shields. I knew a girl of that name from there 30 years ago. Incidentally, in Ewan MacColl's folk song "Shoals of Herring", he uses the term Shields, rather than with North or South. Inevitably the number of syllables in the line would have had something to do with that, but it does indicate a term in common use.

[walkerpete]

In the fishing industry Shields refers to North Shields.

Pete