Notasheep, I may or may not know you, but as you may have gathered from my screenname, I do come from your part of the world.
I am not suggesting you bring in Shabbos at shkia, but even in Gateshead the early (1st plag) minyonim, (Mechina, Beis hatalmud, zichron shaul, etc.) are a relatively recent development. In fact, going back 40 years or so, there is a cute story when they started the first ‘plag’ minyan in Gateshead Shul.
It was during Rav Shakovitsky’s time, and a few young people made a minyan at plag on Friday. As they came out of shul, they met the Rov zt”l coming down Bewick Road, to the main minyan, and as I was told it was almost 10pm. Someone said “Gut Shabbos, Rov”, to which he replied, “Gut Friday, Mr so-and-so!”