Pelaw
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Pelaw (pronounced as pe'low'); is a district that forms part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, in north-east England. It lies in between the older settlements of Heworth to the West and Bill Quay to the East and came into being due to the huge Victorian factory complexes of the CWS or Co-Operative Wholesale Society which was the manufacturing division of the then burgeoning Co-Op company. This mile long stretch of red-brick industry was home to factories making clothing and textiles, furniture, pharmaceuticals, household cleaning products, quilts, books and magazines and the world-famous "Pelaw" shoe polish. These factories created Pelaw and were practically its sole emplyoyer during most of the twentieth century but due to inevitable foreign competition, the prevailing economic climate and government policies of the times, the factories were all closed down and demolished between the mid 70s and early 90s. Two of the original CWS buildings remain extant namely, the Shirt Factory and the Cabinet Factory. The Shirt Factory still manufactures garments but is a private concern and the old Cabinet Factory in Bill Quay which later became a major Brentford Nylons plant has been transformed into a modern business park by the name of Stonehills. The last factory to be demolished was the Print Factory which stood on the left hand side of the adjacent photograph. There is currently a housing estate called Quay Point under construction on that site.
This area is served by Pelaw Metro station which is an interchange between trains going to South Shields and those going to Sunderland. The metro station for pelaw was fully refurbished in 2006.
Former England footballer Chris Waddle is from Pelaw, as is Ronnie Starling, captain of the 1935 FA Cup winners, Sheffield Wednesday.
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