First Post

The banner on the blog is based (loosely) on the South Shields Coat of Arms (1850) which depicts a lifeboat and the motto ‘Always Ready’.   William Wouldhave (1751-1821) when living in South Shields designed the self-righting lifeboat ‘Tyne’, immortalised in a monument near the shore.

The banner also includes images for some other Wouldhaves from our family tree -  John (1806-1877), the deaf violin maker and Richard (1772-1838) who was press-ganged to serve on the Royal Navy ship ‘Pandora’ sent to capture the Bounty and her mutineers.  The Pandora was shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, but most survived including the ship’s cat.  A number of Wouldhaves including William’s father, Thomas, living in Newcastle in the 1700s were ropemakers, hence the strands dividing the images.