Gateshead 6.09

Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. Gateshead and Newcastle are joined by seven bridges across the Tyne, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The town is known for its architecture, including the Sage Gateshead, the Angel of the North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Residents of Gateshead, like the rest of Tyneside, are referred to as Geordies. Gateshead's population in 2011 was 120,046.Formerly in County Durham, in 1835 the town became part of Gateshead County Borough. After the Local Government Act 1972, in 1974 Gateshead became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead and Tyne and Wear Metropolitan County.EtymologyGateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae 'at the goat's head'. This interpretation is consistent with the later English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued (c. 1190), literally 'goat's head' but in the context of a place-name meaning 'headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats'. Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this that is given by the standard authorities.