Sir James Knott Resource Pack

A multimedia teaching resource for North Shields YMCA

As part of a Heritage Lottery-funded project called The Knott Trail, North Shields YMCA recruited Roots and Wings to help them develop an activity pack designed to engage local young people with the life and legacy of the late North Shields shipping magnate and philanthropist, Sir James Knott.

Born in Howdon in 1855 then raised in North Shields, James Knott went from humble beginnings, leaving school at the age of 14 to work as a clerk in a Newcastle shipping office, to establishing a shipping company called The Prince Line which under his guidance expanded rapidly to become one of the largest in the world prior to the catastrophic events of WW1. On his death Sir James Knott left a significant financial legacy, which he instructed should be devoted to improving the lives of people in Tyneside, including the provision of finances for the building of North Shields YMCA itself, amongst many other charitable projects.

The Sir James Knott: Life and Legacy resource pack is intended primarily to be used in classrooms across the region as a group activity, and will hopefully go on to complement all of the brilliant Knott-related work that’s being undertaken by North Shields YMCA.

If you’d like to use the Sir James Knott: Life and Legacy Activity Pack, all of the content is available below in a Zip File to download and print out yourself.

Download here – Sir James Knott Activity Pack

The 2 videos used in the activity are available below.

*The board was originally produced size A2, although if you don’t have access to an A2 printer, you can print the A4 version over 4 sheets and stick it together. When printing the A4 version you should use the ‘borderless printing’ setting on your printer if possible.

*As the three strands of the activity (Life, Shipping and Legacy) are colour coded, printing in full colour is desirable.

Sir James Knott: Life