Monday 29 April 2024

Rutter's School, Benton

On the very edge of the official city boundary of Newcastle, where the ‘border’ with North Tyneside runs down the middle of Benton’s Front Street, can be found a car dealer’s by the name of David James. It sits opposite The Ship pub and was, historically, known as Pearson’s Garage; but situated on this spot before that was an institution known as Rutter’s School.

The only known surviving image of Rutter’s School (centre), by R.P.Leitch, with Front Street running left to right behind the open gate. The ‘old’ Ship Inn can be seen across the road in the background.

The institution was the official parish school, and was run by one Thomas Rutter, parish clerk of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It offered a fairly basic level of education, if reports are to be believed; yet the school was popular among the aspiring middle classes – and helped two very prominent individuals on their way to undisputed greatness.

Thomas Addison was born in 1793 in a house adjoining The Black Bull Inn – a stone’s throw or two away on the opposite side of the road from the school. The property doubled as the workplace of his parents, Joseph and Sarah, who were grocers and flour dealers. Despite a scanty education at Rutter’s, Addison went on to study at Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School, before moving on to Edinburgh University’s Medical School. After moving to London, he worked at the famous Lock Hospital (venereal diseases), and eventually found himself working as a physician at Guy’s Hospital where he rose through the ranks, gaining an increasingly brilliant reputation in the field of skin diseases. You probably know where this is going by now, so, yes, he was the man who first described the condition which later came to be known as Addison’s Disease in 1855. He was a regular sufferer of depression, and committed suicide in 1860; after which he was, somewhat curiously, buried in the churchyard of Lanercost Priory in Cumberland.

Rutter’s School’s other famous pupil was Robert Stephenson, son of George. Robert had been born in Willington Quay in 1803, and was living with his widowed father in Dial Cottage, West Moor, when he was in attendance at Rutter’s (to which he would commute on a donkey). He was later to say, whilst pointing to the humble red-tiled house by the roadside at Benton: “You see that house – that was Rutter’s, where I learned my A B C, and made a beginning of my school learning.” His father, George, scrimped and scraped to further his son’s learning, next sending him to the famous John Bruce Academy on Percy Street, Newcastle. And, as we know, it all paid off rather nicely.

[this article is taken from my book Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs - see left-hand column for further details]


Thursday 18 April 2024

Tyne & Wear Archives Tour


I have been using Tyne & Wear Archives Service for ages. Since the late 1980s, I think. But never have I had the opportunity to look 'behind the scenes', as it were. So the other day I decided to put my name down for just such a 'tour', and I'm so glad I did - it was fascinating.

These days, of course, you can't just wander into the searchroom of TWAS. You have to ring at least a week ahead to book your place, and notify them well in advance about what it is you want to examine. Then you have to wait at the door to be let in. It's all as a result of increased security, of course, as well as the legacy of the days of Covid. 

So gone are the hordes of casual family historians manning the banks of microfilm/fiche readers day after day - these days the searchroom is eerily serene. I mean, there is so much available online these days that you needn't leave your home for 99% of your genealogical research. You may wonder if there is much of a future in having a public searchroom at all, in fact. Its almost like we've gone back to the days of the pre-1980s when the public were not especially welcome, and archives were deemed untouchable. I don't think it's anyone's fault - just the way of things, I suppose.

The two-hour session attended by myself and a dozen or so other local history enthusiasts gave me a bit of a lift, though. You really have no idea how important - and vast - these repositories are until you get close up to them. It's a shame, really, that they can't be more open about access, etc., but, hey-ho, that's another argument for another day.

The TWAS itself forms part of a quiet, (almost) unseen corner of the greater whole that is Newcastle's Discovery Museum. The internal door to the Archives is at the far end of the mighty Turbinia display, and you have to wait for someone to come and fetch you. And so we all followed the leader down through the corridors of the massive Blandford House to the searchroom itself, and thereafter listened to a half-hour intro by Lizzie (I think that was her name - I'm recalling everything from memory, here, so give me some slack). I think we were all startled to learn that a good deal of the seldom-used material of this, and many other archives services, are stored in an underground salt mine in Cheshire! Offering perfect environmental conditions for archive preservation, this complex of tunnels and caverns stretches for miles in every direction - extending out under the Irish Sea, apparently. Wow!

We were then separated into two groups and took it in turns to, firstly (for my group), have a little tour behind the scenes in the upstairs storage rooms, and then to afterwards have a look at some choice bits and pieces that had been laid out in the searchroom itself.

The enthusiastic Ruth took us on our upstairs tour, first, then. Up several flights of stairs and onto a floor dedicated in its entirety to the storage of seldom-seen archival stuff. We only saw a fraction of it, of course, but it really was an eye-opener. Among the many, many items of interest, Ruth showed us a beautifully decorated town charter from 1685 - the collection's star item - complete with an image of the soon-to-be-deceased monarch King Charles II in it's top left-hand corner. Then there was their oldest item: a minor charter from the 1180s, for goodness sake - blimey!

Next it was back to the searchroom and into the hands of Rachel (and Lizzie again) for a presentation of some of the more notable (and famous) items of their holdings. Swan, Parsons, Bewick and Armstrong all featured prominently; together with bits and pieces re. the Team Valley, Doxford Shipyard (Wearside) - as well as the extraordinary story of how a huge icebreaker vessel was built, then dismantled for transportation purposes, then re-assembled in Russia for use on a landlocked lake! These old industrialists were mental, man! An interesting 'fact' here, too, about the comparison between the shipyards of the Tyne and the Wear: if you wanted a good, strong, reliable vessel made quickly and efficiently, then you went to the Wear; and if you wanted something a bit 'special' or unusual, you went to the Tyne. Interesting, eh?

There was actually a great deal more to the two-hour session than I have been able to recall here. Please, please, keep a look out for future such tours - I guarantee you'll not regret it. My thanks, then, to Lizzie, Ruth and Rachel for their time and effort (I hope those names are right) - and a mention, too, for Alison, a fourth archivist who was quietly working away on some research in the background. She didn't partake in the 'presentation', but I exchanged a few words with her before I left as we've known each other for years - her as an archivist for 28 years and me as a regular searchroom user for at least as long. It was nice to see her again.  

Thursday 11 April 2024

Websites Worth a Look!

Just a quickie this time around.

Two website recommendations for you, both run by the same good folk:

Fabulous North - places to visit and walks to, er, walk, as well as a blog. Some great pictures, too. I shall not spoil it for you, so just go and have a browse - very interesting.

Discover Rothbury - ditto the above, but focussing in on, well, Rothbury, actually. Also drifts into the Alnwick area, too.

All for now. The above should keep you busy for a bit.

Thursday 4 April 2024

'Newcastle upon Tyne - A City on the Move'

A couple of days ago I picked up the following 14-page booklet from a local charity shop. Entitled Newcastle upon Tyne - A City on the Move, it loosely outlines the plans of Newcastle's City Planning Officer, Kenneth A Galley. It is undated, and I should be pleased to receive any suggestions as to its publication date. For what they are worth, I will give some observations of my own towards the end of the post. Otherwise, I shall let the little publication speak for itself. Please click on the images to enlarge.
















First of all, I thought "First Division Football", so it must be 1965-1978. Newcastle Polytechnic opened in 1969, so that narrows it down to 1969-78. The A1 still ran up Northumberland Street? Well, I think that was the case until 1970-ish. John Dobson Street being built? Mmm..., I know that opened in May 1970. Then there is mention of Eldon Square Shopping Centre construction "starting this year". Interesting to see that they were still very much considering building a 'Centre Motorway West', as well as an underground east-to-west road. So, I reckon that this has to have been published in late 1969 or early 1970. Then, having scanned the Newcastle City Library catalogue, I see they have it listed as a 1969 effort.

Can anyone categorically confirm this?