- Feel Good
- 3rd Oct 2025
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Part 2: 11 (more) fun facts you (probably) didn’t know about the North East
After our first feature went wild on Instagram, our reader’s piled into the comments with even more facts about the region, and honestly, some of them sounded too wild to be true.
So, we checked. And it turns out that from the White House and windscreen wipers to world-first bands and cleaning cupboard icons, the North East’s influence runs far deeper than most people realise.
Here are 11 more brilliant facts about our great region that you can proudly drop into conversation.
1. The Oval Office desk started its life in North Shields
One of the most famous desks in the world has roots on the Tyne. HMS Resolute was built in 1849 at Smiths Dock in North Shields and is the ship whose timber became the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk. After being abandoned in Arctic ice during a rescue mission, the ship was recovered by Americans, restored, and gifted back to Britain. When she was finally decommissioned, Queen Victoria had a desk made from her best timbers and sent to the White House as a gesture of friendship. So, when US presidents sit down to sign history into action, they’re doing it on wood from North Shields.
2. The first electric lighthouse was ours
Perched on the cliffs near Whitburn, Souter Lighthouse made history in 1871 as the first lighthouse in the UK and was one of the world’s first purpose-built lighthouses to run on electricity. While other lighthouses relied on oil and flame, Souter had its own generator from day one. Souter Lighthouse was a technical marvel in its day.
3. The match that lit the modern world
In 1827, chemist John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees invented the friction match entirely by accident. After scraping a chemical mix off his stirring stick and watching it ignite, he realised he was onto something big. He called them “friction lights,” sold them in boxes, and changed daily life forever, without ever patenting his idea. The price of a box of matches was one shilling, and each box was supplied with a piece of sandpaper, folded in half, that the match had to be drawn through to ignite.
4. The Angel took shape in Hartlepool
Before she spread her wings over the A1, the Angel of the North was built piece by piece in Hartlepool. Hartlepool Steel Fabrications engineered the body and 54-metre wingspan before transporting them overnight to Gateshead in 1998.
5. Britain’s first lifeboat station launched in Sunderland
Sunderland has been saving lives at sea longer than anywhere else in the UK. A lifeboat service has existed there since 1800 (adopted by the RNLI in 1865), making it the oldest operational RNLI station in the country. Long before modern rescue boats and radios, Wearside crews were rowing into storms to haul sailors to safety. Still today, it’s one of the busiest lifeboat stations in the UK, with around 100 call-outs a year.
6. Andrew’s Liver Salts started in Newcastle
That familiar blue-and-white tin in your grandparents’ cupboard? A North East original. Andrew’s Liver Salts were created by Scott & Turner in Newcastle in the late 1800s, and the product was named after St Andrew’s Church nearby. Designed to soothe everything from indigestion to overindulgence, they went from local remedy to global household name.
7. Be-Ro baked its way into British kitchens
Be-Ro began in Newcastle when local businessman Thomas Bell blended raising agents into flour to create one of the first self-raising flours (originally named Bell’s Royal Flour). After changing the name to Be-Ro in 1907, the company remained headquartered in Newcastle for many years before relocating to Nottingham. Be-Ro’s home-baking recipe books became a staple across the country, helping generations learn to bake everything from scones to sponge cakes.
8. The windscreen wiper began with a snowy drive home
After travelling home from a Newcastle United match in a blizzard, Whitley Bay inventor Gladstone Adams had an idea. Fed up with clearing snow from his windscreen, he patented an early version of the windscreen wiper in 1911. His version wasn’t the only one invented, but it was one of the first, and his invention was a significant contribution to the development of the technology as we know it today. His original prototype, made from wood, string and rubber, can be seen at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.
9. Berghaus was born in Newcastle’s outdoor scene
In 1966, climbers Peter Lockey and Gordon Davison were running an outdoor shop in Newcastle when they decided to make kit that could actually withstand the elements. They called their new brand Berghaus (mountain house), and it went from a small North East workshop to kitting out mountaineers around the world.
10. Domestos was first mixed in Newcastle
Before it became a supermarket staple, Domestos began in a small Newcastle factory in 1929. Created by local dentist Wilfrid Handley and sold door-to-door, it quickly became a cleaning essential. From humble beginnings in the Toon to bathroom cupboards worldwide, it’s not bad for a regional invention.
11. The Salvation Army’s first band struck up in Consett
On Christmas Day 1879, the world’s first Salvation Army brass band made its debut in Consett. What began as a small group of local musicians grew into a tradition that spread across the globe. Today, the town is marked with a heritage plaque, but the sound that started there echoes far beyond County Durham.
The North East has been quietly shaping history, and we’re more than happy to keep the receipts.
Got more up your sleeve? Let us know in the comments below.
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