27 nostalgic photos capture forgotten way of life across the North East

These fascinating black-and-white photos transport you back more than a century, to a time when life in the North East was very different.

They capture an era when traffic on one of the region’s busiest streets consisted of a few horses and carts, before the automobile became king.

They show workers enduring extremely harsh conditions, from the claustrophobic pits to the heat of the smelting works.

And they reveal how much some of the North East’s best-known thoroughfares and landmarks have changed over the last 100-plus years.

A huge funeral procession for one of the era’s most famous figures, youngsters filling sandbags at the beach at the outset of the Second World War, and the destruction wreaked by bombs during the First World War are among the striking pictures featured in this retro photo gallery.

These nostalgic images also depict industrial life around the North East during the early 20th century, from huge stones being crushed to a mammoth new water tower looming over the colliery.

But they show scenes too from everyday life, including old shops, pubs, restaurants and much more, giving an insight into what it must have been like to live back then.

How many of the locations pictured do you recognise, and did your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents work at or frequent any of the venues shown?

For more North East nostalgia, check out our look back at lost shops you might remember from around the region.