Learning & Enlightenment

Appendix 1 of the 1996 book Northumbrian Panorama indicates how learning spread in northern England:

The table shows Mechanics Institutes springing up across towns & cities. 

The general population of NE England had very limited formal education before the late 1940s, but from the 1600s basic literacy spread through chapbooks, broadsheets & political pamphlets - Newcastle could be seen as second only to London.   Lit & Phils were subscription-based private clubs & libraries for the up & coming merchant class and their leading engineers - expanding scientific & engineering knowledge alongside classics, languages, literature, etc.   From the early 1800s self-funded Mechanics Institutes brought interchange of theoretical & practical learning to many developing engineers.

The earliest Institutes would have been established to spread knowledge of geology, mining, chemistry & metals, later railways, shipbuilding & shipping.   It's easy to see that Middlesbrough (Ironopolis) developed massively alongside its Institute; South Shields' Marine School followed its Institute (while its public library took over the Institute building), Gateshead developed railway knowledge, while Newcastle covered every aspect of commerce & industry.   I imagine that the other towns listed developed similarly, although I'm unsure why the Carlisle Institute was established so early compared to its railway centre (canals?).

Further reading:

Blaydon Mechanics' Hall & Institute 

North Shields' Mechanics' Institute 

Scottish Mechanics' Institutes 

Shildon Railway Institute 

The Mechanics' Institute Movement (Wiki)