Registered parks and gardens
North Marine Park, South Marine Park and Bents Park in South Shields is the only Registered Park or Garden in South Tyneside. It is Listed as a Grade II Registered Park and Garden.
Historic parks and gardens are an important, distinctive, and much cherished part of our inheritance. They are a fragile and finite resource which can easily be damaged beyond repair or lost forever and we have a duty to care for them.
Registered parks and gardens are sites that are placed on the national register of parks and gardens of special historic interest. The register, compiled and maintained by English Heritage, was established to identify and increase awareness of the existence of such sites and to help ensure that the features and qualities that make these parks and landscapes of national importance are protected and conserved. Local Planning Authorities are encouraged to create local registers.
The decision as to whether a park or garden merits registration is based quite simply on an assessment by English Heritage as to whether it can be said to be of 'special historic interest'. All Registered Parks and Gardens are classified into grades to indicate their relative importance. Grade I are of international historic interest; grade II* are of exceptional historic interest ; and grade II are of special historic interest. The grading of sites is independent on the grading of any listed building(s) which falls within them.
There are currently nearly 1563 sites on the national register.