 In the Sandgate area, to the east of the city, and beside the river, resided the close-knit community of keelmen and their families.They were so called because they worked on the keels, boats that were used to transfer coal from the river banks to the waiting colliers, for export to London and elsewhere.In the 1630s, about 7,000 out of 20,000 inhabitants of Newcastle died of plague, more than one-third of the population.