North East Art Prints - John The Gibber, Smugglers Punishment, Marsden Bay

North East Art Prints - John The Gibber, Smugglers Punishment, Marsden BaySigned print approx size 28 x 38cm Commissioned in the 80's to be part of a book about South Tyneside and its stories and legends. "John the Gibber was a smuggler who betrayed his fellow smugglers to the Customs and Revenue. As a result of this action he was hung from the cliff in a bucket and allowed to starve to death. It is said that his ghost haunts the Marsden Grotto pub where staff have reported hearing the rattling of chains and mysterious

The scrap yard that was located in the Laygate area of South Shields has long gone and been replaced with a state of the art office block

When framed 22ins x 18ins (56cm x 46cm) and includes a gold finished plate engraved to order

the Crab said

but you can't make it drink' are some of the proverbs that make up this interesting print

a curled top lip and shovel strung around his neck his fingers danced up an down the imaginary frets of his National Coal Board guitar

Its highlight consists of colliery banners accompanied by brass bands and the delivery of political speeches

"As full coal tubs were loaded into the cage at the shaft bottom they pushed the empty tubs onto the steel flat sheets where a young lad would guide them onto the rails where they would be assembled into sets of 30 to be allocated to the various districts of the mine

His pit clothes were worn to fit the image (this was in the days before miners wore orange overalls)

(it was much cheaper)

"The coal has been blasted down by the shot firer and the fillers have cleared the coal onto the conveyor belt sending the coal outbye

deputies and stone men searching through the abandoned workings

perished from hunger