They’re for picking up heavy weights around Gateshead (5)
I believe the answer is:
tongs
'they're for picking up heavy' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'weights around gateshead' is the wordplay.
'weights' becomes 'tons' (ton is a kind of weight).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'gateshead' becomes 'g' (head letter of 'gates').
'tons' enclosing 'g' is 'TONGS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tongs that I've seen before include "Instrument for picking up object" , "See 21" , "Means to pick up" , "Sugar handlers" , "Sugar grabber" .)