The Great North-East: An English History Tour, vol.2

I am pleased to say that Volume 2 of The Great North-East: An English History Tour is now available for purchase at Amazon - see here, or click on the image above. It is available as both an eBook and an old-fashioned paperback. I have kept the price as low as possible, whilst still allowing for about £1 profit per sale - which, of course, goes to the Great North Children's Hospital. 

Like Volume 1, the 200-page book takes an affectionate look at various aspects of the history of the region, from the Scottish border in the north to the River Tees / Cleveland in the south. Chapters this time around cover the following topics: St.Cuthbert, literature, football, famous rocks (yes!), place names, the coal industry, notable visitors, the River Wear, oddities, inventions, superstitions, war, railways, and animals ... as well as the Lambton Worm, of course, as illustrated on the cover.

By visiting Amazon you can read a sample of the book before you commit to buy (there is actually a bigger chunk of the text to view via the eBook option). It's all very laid back and informal, and will hopefully bring a smile to your face whilst learning a few new facts about the history of the country's most interesting region.

Finally, I might just add that the prices of Amazon books (including mine) will most likely increase slightly in the next month or so due to a hike in printing costs. So get 'em cheap-ish while you can!

If you decide to go for it, then may I offer you a big thank you from both the GNCH and myself. Pass the word on!

The Travails of Rev Baillie, Newcastle's Good-Time Minister

Rev. John Baillie is best remembered to those with an interest in Newcastle’s past as the author of one of the noted histories of the town, namely, An Impartial History of the Town and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne, published in 1801. But he was not your average, strait-laced, dusty-haired antiquarian. And nor was he your typical cleric, either.

Born in 1741, Baillie was trained for the ministry in Scotland, becoming a minister of the Secession Church (an off-shoot of the Church of Scotland). In 1767, he was elected minister of the United Secession Chapel at what was known as Newcastle’s Sallyport Meeting House, and was, by all accounts, a popular preacher for several years – known especially for his scathing attacks on the Papacy. But what has been described as his “convivial habits” resulted in behaviour inappropriate for a man of his standing, and he was suspended in 1784. He ended up in debt, finding himself in Newgate debtors’ prison – where he was afforded a certain amount of freedom, being allowed to preach on Sundays (accompanied, though, by a gaoler).

On one such occasion, he slipped his guard’s attentions and escaped to Scotland. There he preached for a few years, before clearing his debts and returning to Newcastle in 1789. He taught in partnership with mathematician William Tinwell for a while at a school in Dog Bank; and took to preaching once more – firstly at a schoolroom in St.Nicholas’ Churchyard, then for a few troubled years at Sunderland, before popping up at Newcastle again in 1797 at the Postern Gate Chapel.

He thus made his living through ministerial income, teaching and, of course, by writing: his history of Newcastle being accompanied by works on religious treatises and sermons, the history of the French Wars, and assisting in the writing of a history of Egypt (supposedly littered with a good deal of “flagrant indecency”). Despite his various scrapes and troubles, he was a respected scholar and a member of the prestigious Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society.

He is understood to have married in about 1776 and had at least one daughter. In his declining years his financial problems returned, until “death extricated him from his difficulties” whilst resident in Gateshead in 1806. He was buried in the nonconformist Ballast Hills Cemetery, Newcastle – the town being a good deal less colourful for his absence.

[article taken from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Fragments of the Past, Vol.1]

'Revitalising Redesdale'

If you've an interest in Redesdale, Northumberland, then you may want to have a browse of the 'Revitalising Redesdale' website. I fell upon it quite by accident and found myself being drawn into all sorts of interesting stuff - including walks, historical & cultural titbits, and archaeological reports. To quote the spiel: 

Revitalising Redesdale was a £2.8m Landscape Partnership Scheme, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aimed to celebrate, conserve and enhance Redesdale's rich cultural heritage, landscape and wildlife. It ran from Jan 2018 to Dec 2022.

So, as you can see, the 'project' has only just been wound up, but the website remains in a form that is both helpful and informative to the likes of us history/culture/nature/hiking nuts who love the North-East. Geographically, it covers the valley of the River Rede from the Scottish border in the NW to the river's confluence with the North Tyne at Redesmouth in the SE. This part of the country was the haunt of the infamous Border Reivers, of course - but there is surprisingly little about this topic on the website (and they are not even mentioned in the final 'Project Evaluation Report'). Whilst this is a little strange, it is kinda nice to see them concentrate on other, lesser known areas of the area's past.

If, like me, you like the archaeological stuff, then there's plenty to peruse. The downloadable report on the recent digs at the Roman fort of Bremenium at High Rochester is especially interesting; and the 'Redesdale Landscapes Through Time' section is worth a look if you're really into this sort of thing (the LIDAR images are amazing - more, please!).