Harton is a suburban area of

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

, South Tyneside,

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

. It was historically a village, however as the urban area grew it merged with its adjacent villages to become part of the town. Some of the original village buildings are still intact today, such as St Peter's Church.

Politics

Metropolitan Borough Council

The electoral ward of Harton, like all wards in the borough, votes for three councillors on the South Tyneside

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

council.

UK Parliament

Harton is one of ten wards who vote for the South Shields seat in the UK Parliament, with an estimated electorate of 4098 people in the 2015 elections.

Education

The area of Harton contains two schools, Harton Technology College serving pupils between 11 and 18 years old, and Harton Primary School, serving pupils between ages five and 11 years.

History

Structures

The village of Harton has been built around St Peter's Church for over 150 years now, and the church is still active to this day. Other buildings of note in the village are The Vigilant Inn and The Old Ship pubs. Opposite The Vigilant, the old walls of the village are still visible.

Transport

The whole town of

had horse-drawn, then electric trams, before electric trolleybuses were introduced in 1936.

Harton Colliery

There was a colliery near Harton established sometime in the 1800s, as it features on, and has full rail infrastructure on, the Ordnance Survey map of 1896. There is also reference from the Durham Mining Museum to one fatality, where a man was "crushed in the cage" ('the cage' being slang for the carriage that transported men to and from the surface), on the 25 February 1851, although it is not known how well-established the colliery was at this point. Harton Colliery was the location of a successful experiment in 1854 by the Astronomer Royal, George Biddell Airy, to calculate the mean density of the earth by recording the difference in the movements of a pendulum at the top and bottom of a coal mine.Harton Colliery, Durham Mining Museum, www.dmm.org.uk

References

{{Reflist Suburbs of South Shields