The first direct link with the Anderson family's life on Tyneside is traced
to John Bridekirk Anderson. He had been born/christened in Filey on January
21 1781 but somehow later found his way northwards and was married to Jane Trewhitt
at Christ Church, North Shields, on March 04 1804. For the next century and
a half the family history unfolded solidly here, first in the Low Lights area
around the busy quayside at the river mouth where the fishing boats unloaded
their catches and in later years on the higher land above as the town expanded.
The old picture postcard shown here gives a flavour of the quayside activity
around the Low Lights lighthouse and is reproduced by courtesy of Paul Whitelaw.
An invitation to visit a website full of the colourful history and images of
the harbour where much of the Anderson story is set is extended by Frank Gillings
of Tynemouth and a link can be found below. The Anderson family included boatbuilders,
mariners and shipwrights among their numbers, one of the latter being George
Anderson (1837-1916), pictured here with his wife Alice (1847-1882). They look
content enough with their life in their "Sunday best" but tragedy was to strike
in later years when they lost three of their children within 26 months, aged
between two and eight. George's elder brother John (1836-1919) was perhaps the
most influential member of the family so far traced. He set up a steam tug-owning
partnership in North Shields with Robert Chater circa 1867 and in 150 Years
of the Maltese Cross, his monumental work on the history of North-East Coast
tug companies, John H Proud records how other Andersons - Dorothy, Thomas and
GR (believed to be George Rochester) owned shares in the tugs as well as John
Anderson and his partner. The fleet included the well-remembered Brothers
and Stag as well as Defence, Fiery Dragon
and others. And although several members of the family are now to be found in
other parts of the country, the Andersons still have a home on the riverside
in North Shields. The family also continues to be involved in the business life
of the town through Iain Anderson (born 1952), who is managing director of Hogg
Engineering Ltd, specialising in industrial pipework fabrications. This firm,
still at the original location in Lawson Street, is a spin-off from the firm
of James Hogg & Sons, of which his grandfather George (1878-1951) was a director
and company secretary.