The Lane That Moved: the Story of Friday Fields Lane

Every time I hit the top of Matthew Bank in Jesmond, I stare in puzzlement at the street sign of the wonderfully-named ‘Friday Fields Lane’. It amounts to a pedestrianised thoroughfare linking Jesmond Dene Road in the north to Towers Avenue in the south, and runs for a little over a hundred yards, straight as a die, along the western border of what used to be North Jesmond House/La Sagesse Girls School. I was down that way the other day, aimlessly wandering around (as I am prone to do), and decided to head off down the little cut to see what I could find.

Nothing much, as it turned out. And I was none the wiser as regards an explanation for the lane’s unusual moniker. When I got back home I did what any self-respecting amateur historian would do and had a look at a few books and scoured the internet for an explanation. There wasn’t a great deal to be found, but I’ll give you what I have.

In the days before the suburban sprawl arrived, there used to be a wee farmstead by the name of Friday Farm, situated roughly on the junction of present-day Haldane and Otterburn Terraces (being a good deal to the south of our mysterious lane). I don’t know how or why it was called thus (I mean, the name of the farmstead is a bit unusual), but at least we have a clue as to the source of our odd-sounding byway to the north. And, as was the norm back in those days of rural Jesmond, the fields around and about were given names, too. In this area they were collectively known as the ‘Friday Fields’, with specific examples being ‘Little Short Friday’, ‘Great Friday’ and, tellingly, ‘Long Friday’. The latter of those expanses of open farmland was a bit of a funny shape – elongated, like a road almost – and could well be the root of the ‘Friday Fields Lane’ epithet. We can perhaps imagine that it became a pathway of sorts, through and between the neighbouring fields, arrowing northward towards what would eventually become Jesmond Dene Road. Or maybe not. It might have been nothing to do with the handily-named field, but instead just been a nearby and long-established ‘public right of way’, as we now call them.

In time, the rough byway morphed into a lane proper, essentially becoming the ‘lane to Friday Fields’ at its southern extremity (running along, roughly, present-day North Jesmond Avenue, St.George’s Terrace and Tankerville Terrace). But as the changing landscape and various realignments settled down into the suburban map we know today, the long lane became severely truncated, with only the northern tip remaining.

The course of this much-shortened Victorian ‘Friday Fields Lane’ was not, however, in its current location, but rather a little to the east – essentially on the other side of North Jesmond House/La Sagesse School. For, on all of the OS maps up until the immediate post-WWII period, the lane in question is clearly shown on the other side of the aforementioned institution. The switch seems to have been made at some point in the 1950s or early ’60s, possibly at a point when the school/convent was properly establishing itself and wanted a little re-jig of the surrounding thoroughfares.

And so Friday Fields Lane was moved a few dozen yards to the west to its present location. It no longer runs along its former course, nor does it lead or extend to anywhere near its original destination of Friday Fields – now some one and a bit miles to the south (and currently on and around the site of the Newcastle High School for Girls, Senior School). It’s a wonder it has retained its old name at all.

(click on image to enlarge)

The OS map of 1951, just before the Friday Fields Lane switch from the east (right) of La Sagesse School to the west (where it is now located).

Ordnance Survey (1951, surveyed 1949)

Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

And that’s about it, as far I can tell. There are a couple of other little tales surrounding the old thoroughfare which I might as well throw in for good measure. It was known locally as Lovers’ Walk for some time, as these pretty little pedestrian lanes so often are; and historian Steve Ellwood mentioned online some time ago an interesting little snippet that he picked up from another local historian and city guide, Alan Morgan, that “a pedestrian subway was built in the 1800’s by Charles Mitchell to accommodate Friday Fields Lane which lay in the way of the carriageway drive to Jesmond Towers. According to Alan it remains in place, albeit under the present road, Towers Avenue”. Could this mysterious underpass, Steve suggests, be the first pedestrian subway in Newcastle?

Oh, no, not another historical conundrum…. 

Note: Much of the above was conducted in haste and in an inappropriately un-thorough manner. If anyone has any thoughts, information or alternative theories then please do comment below. In the meantime, I should like to acknowledge the following:
Alan Morgan – with his Jesmond: From Mines to Mansions being a particularly good starting point on the history of the suburb;
Steve Ellwood – for his excellent general commentary (both online and off-) on the local history of Newcastle and its suburbs, often via the SkyscraperCity Forums at www.skyscrapercity.com ;
The helpful and lengthy article at https://hightimes.churchhigh.me.uk/background/ ;
And the always excellent online resource that is https://maps.nls.uk/os/ .