Stories of Life, Work and Nature Before and After the Clean-up of North-East England’s River Tyne, 1940–2015

North-east England’s River Tyne shaped daily life experiences as the river underwent unprecedented and dramatic change both environmentally and in terms of how it looked, sounded and smelled to the people who sensed and experienced it directly. This chapter emphasises the fact that it did so in positive and negative ways both during the river’s heavily industrial period and after the clean-up following the construction of an interceptor sewer in 1972. Oral history interviews have illuminated the archival river histories. These stories are central to understanding what we have done to the river and what the river has done to us. In this chapter I argue that there were advantages and disadvantages for people, the river and its wildlife both before and after the clean-up, which created a new and different environment rather than a necessarily better environment.