I trust you will excuse me returning to the northern suburbs of Newcastle again for my latest post. The thing is, I am in between houses at the moment (moving from Winlaton to, hopefully, Morpeth) and am, for a while, staying up in Hazlerigg at my son's house. So as every self-respecting historical nosey parker would do, I am having a poke around my new environment to see what I can find.
One such expedition took me a-wandering down the Great North Road, where I fell upon the entrance to Newcastle Racecourse and found the following:
And what, exactly, was the funny-shaped cross and shell all about, I wondered?
Well, it turns out that it is the emblazonment that featured on the shield of the coat of arms of the Brandling family who once owned Gosforth House, the eighteenth century mansion that still lies beyond the gates (and forms part of the racecourse complex). It is now more commonly referred to as Brandling House.
The mansion was built in the 1750s by Charles Brandling (1733-1802), and acted as the family's main residence for several decades. Despite the dynasty's many lucrative business interests (banking and coal, mainly), they eventually overstretched themselves and Gosforth House was sold in 1852. In 1880, High Gosforth Park Company bought a large chunk of the estate, and turned the area into a racecourse. The house itself formed a major part of the development, but its internals were destroyed by a fire started by the suffragettes in 1914. It was then restored in 1921, and currently serves as an events centre.
The gate columns are obviously (I assume) originals, and show the distinctive Patonce Cross, with escallop shell in the upper left-hand quadrant. I understand that this curious combination is representative of a deep Christian faith and a devotion to pilgrimage. Quite why the Brandlings plumped for this I don't know.
Nice that they left the gateposts intact, though.
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