Looking Back...Colonel Sibthorp

In May 1945 the Shields Evening News reported on Victory Tea Parties across the borough and captioned this image '˜Kiddies and grown ups in happy mood at Laet Street, North Shields'.

Laet Street first appears in the Burgess Roll of 1898 and is situated in an area of North Shields once referred to as the Sibthorpe Estate. Three street names in this locale can be attributed to Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp, an eccentric North Shields landowner and MP for Lincoln, who was born in 1783 and died in 1855.

placeholder image — In May 1945 the Shields Evening News reported on Victory Tea Parties across the borough and captioned this image kiddies and grown ups in happy mood at Laet Street, North Shields.

Sibthorp was a well-known national figure in the 19th century and, most notably, Charles Dickens is said to have considered him “the most amusing person in the House”.