1983 Note planting of trees in the background

"In World War II, South Shields suffered well over 200 air raid alerts and 156 people were killed. Many houses were damaged, particularly by incendiary bombs and parachute mines. One direct hit on the market place killed more than 40 people who had taken shelter in tunnels below the square.

There was a memorial to them in the form of a cobbled Union Flag on the ground of the market square, however, this was removed as part of an overhaul of the town centre in the late 1990s."

While the account of the bombing raids is probably correct, the working of the union flag into the cobbles as a war memorial never happened.

The Market place in the 1960s did have a cobbled Union Jack.