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Gateshead, Durham

Historical Description

Gateshead, a municipal, county, and

parliamentary borough in the county of Durham, situated on the south

bank of the Tyne, immediately opposite to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The name

is derived from the Anglo-Saxon geat, "a road," and heafod, " a head.''

The Roman road from Chester-le-Street to the bridge built over the Tyne

by Hadrian terminated at Gateshead. Bede evidently thought the name

meant " the head of the goat," the Anglo-Saxon word for ,goat being

pronounced like that for road, and he translated it into Latin as "Ad

caput caprse." According to this ancient writer there was, in 653, a

monastery at Gateshead, the abbot of which was a priest of renown named

Utta.