The Tyne's Roman Shrines

If you ever find yourself wandering amidst the schoolkids at Newcastle's Hancock Museum, please be sure to check out the following collection of suitably coloured Roman altars that can be found in the Hadrian's Wall gallery:

(click on image to enlarge)

And have an especially close look at the left-hand pair, dedicated to the gods Neptune and Oceanus, as these are particularly significant:

You mustn't worry, though, for they haven't actually been daubed with modern-day masonry paint. And whilst you're standing there you may well wonder for some confused moments how the special effect has been, well, effected. It's all a trick of the light - see here for the official story. And the nearby info panel puts you in the picture, too:

As for the two altars to the left, well, they were dredged from the bed of the River Tyne in 1875 (Neptune) and 1903 (Oceanus), respectively, at the spot now occupied by the Swing Bridge. It was here that the old Roman Bridge of Pons Aelius spanned the river, and the altars would most probably have adorned the structure (or possibly formed the centre piece of a bridgehead shrine)  - and may even have been deliberately cast into the river at some point in an act of dedication. Neptune and Oceanus were, of course, water gods, and their placement upon or near the Roman bridge would be perfectly appropriate. 

Both stones bear a dedication to their respective god and the inscription "the Sixth Victorious Legion Loyal and Faithful (made this)". The 6th Legion was active in Britain from 122 AD to the end of the Roman occupation, so there's a good chance they were made at the time of Hadrian and the construction of his famous Wall.

Brilliant effort by the Hancock, this. It's the sort of thing that makes museums genuinely interesting!

Newcastle's Alternative High Level Bridge

The Martin brothers were a well-known gaggle of siblings who hailed from the Haydon Bridge area of Northumberland in the late eighteenth century. The most famous of the litter was John, who became a very famous artist. Though brilliant, John was a little eccentric; but that was nothing compared to brother Jonathan, who is best remembered for torching York Minster in 1829.

The sanest of the bunch was Richard, who spent many years in the military; and then there was a sister, Anne, of whom we know virtually nothing – as well as many more brothers and sisters who died in infancy.

However, the oldest of the lot, William, was as equally unbalanced as arsonist Jonathan. Born in Bardon Mill in 1772, he spent a decade in the Northumberland Militia, before becoming an inventor.

Initially, he seemed to have rather a lot of good ideas, winning awards for some of his schemes and patents; but his particular take on the non-existence of gravity and his theories on perpetual motion machines proved (obviously) to be misplaced. As the 1820s and ’30s progressed he became ever more famous for his peculiar pronouncements (his ‘Anti-Newtonian’ campaign being particularly loopy). He presented himself as something of an ‘alternative’ philosopher, proposing all sorts of weird and wonderful items, ideas and concepts, progressively distancing himself from reality in the process.

However, one of his more sensible ideas was for a high-level bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle, put forward many years before Robert Stephenson’s version was actually built – and he even published a pamphlet illustrating the design, and claimed later that Stephenson had stolen his idea. These sparse facts, and the image of the said river crossing as shown above is all that seems to have survived of this remarkable passage of history.

William Martin was once described by a contemporary as “perfectly cracked, but harmless.” He was a genuine, yet brilliant, eccentric, who lived on just the wrong side of madness. He died at his brother John’s house in Chelsea in 1851 – a little over a year after the real High Level Bridge was actually completed. And I must say that the final design does look rather similar to William Martin’s….

[this article is taken from my book Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Fragments of the Past, vol.3. See left-hand column for link to examine the tome on Amazon]

Newcastle's Historical Pageant of 1931

When I bought this 'event programme' on eBay, I was, quite frankly, expecting a bit more to it. Anyway, I've got it now, so I'm going to let you have a look, too. It concerns a week-long jolly on Leazes Park and Exhibition Park, Newcastle, in the summer of 1931 entitled 'The Historical Pageant of Newcastle and the North and Empire Fair'. The brochure is tiny - about 3 inches by 5 inches - and here it is in its entirety: 

(click on images to enlarge)

Curious to see what all the fuss was about, I found a fifteen minute film about the event here. There is also a great deal of information to be found here, too. These sort of affairs were quite popular in the 1930s, apparently - though if the little film is anything to go by it doesn't seem terribly exciting. Perhaps folk were easily pleased back in those days. Or maybe the film coverage doesn't do it justice!

Quite interesting, all the same.