South Shields Sanddancers Forum

i was sent this email a couple of days ago

Hello, my name is Lindsey and I am an illustration student from kent but my Grandma was from south shields. For my most recent project I have been reliving my grandmas memories and I am making a small book about my grandma when she was alittle girl and used to walk all the way down to the pier to see the little doll in the wall of the light house. Although I have been to south shields, I havn't got many photographs and your gallery of old pictures has really helped me. I just wanted to say thankyou, this project would have been alot harder with out your website!

i had forgot all about the doll in the lighthouse wall as a small kid i remember my parents pointing it out to me but even then most of it was lost

Me too. I had completely forgotten about the little doll and it was my gran who told be about it and showed me.......only the once, I think. It makes me want to take a look next time I visit Shields. Or is it really lost now?

I remember seeing the doll in the lighthouse wall many a time. It was intact the last time I saw it many years ago, no doubt some bright character tried to remove it as a souvenir. There are several stories about how it got there but I'm not sure which is true, what versions has anyone heard and which is the most likely to be true

the one story i heard was that a miner was walking past and found a small doll that he pressed into the wet cement, the problem with that story is that how would he be just walking by as its a hell of a long walk to the end of the pier, i guess more likely it was one of the builders at the time

Common Sense tells us that it had to be one of the workers who put it there, who else would be allowed near it when the cement was still wet. Which came first the pier or the lighthouse? One story I heard was that the daughter of some brass hat pressed in into the wall on the opening day, but who is going to open a lighthouse when the base is still not solid?

Maybe he walked over from North Shields................

Oh my heavens.


The SECOND COMING and we missed it.

Did anyone see this miner walking on the water ???

it depends on how many pints of the local grog they had memor

A story my dad heard, unconfirmed, was that a young child lost her life there and the doll is a memorial.

There must be a true record somewhere.