Newcastle's C-Roads

When my mate and I recently called in at the Cosy Dove pub on Hunter's Road in Spital Tongues, we fell upon this strange-looking road sign. It can be found in the middle of the street a little to the east of the pub:

It tells us, of course, that the thoroughfare in question is a C-road, which is quite a rare breed these days. We've all heard of A- and B-roads, but there was once a time when we had C-, D- and even U-roads to contend with, too. These lesser-known classifications of the UK's road numbering system are - or rather were - used primarily by local (and not national) authorities, and were for low-density streets.

There are only a handful of C-roads left, and I'm not sure there are ANY D- and U-roads still in existence. Of the few that are still marked on signage as per above many of them are to be found in and around Newcastle, for some strange reason. Another one (the C-104) runs through Fawdon (aka Kingston Park Road), and the C-137 runs along Queen Victoria Road, Richardson Road and up into Spital Tongues.

There are others, too - check out this website for further info - as well as looking up the individual road numbers here.

As for the above C-116, it apparently runs from some indeterminate point on Claremont Road, along Hunter's Road, Brighton Grove and Bentinck Road, before ending at Elswick Cemetery.

Well I never.

Newcastle's Lost West End ... and a Photo Archive!

A couple of days ago I visited Newcastle's West End Library on Condercum Road for a talk entitled 'Lost Farms of the West End'. The chap who was supposed to be taking the talk, Ian Farrier, was ill and had to hand over the reins at the last minute to a colleague (whose name I don't think we were ever given). Despite the unexpected change of plan, the event was a great success - so my thanks must go to the mystery lady who stepped in.

It is not my intention to fill you in on all the detail here, but suffice to say that, well, being a native of the West End, it was all fascinating stuff. I was born in the General Hospital, lived for 18 months in South Benwell, then moved to, and grew up in, Denton Burn. The talk covered, in the main, Benwell, Elswick and Fenham, but strayed into Kenton, Denton and much else besides. Very, very interesting.

When we think of what the West End was like in the distant past, we imagine that there must always have been plenty going on in what is now, after all, densely populated suburban sprawl. However, up until the mid-1600s the outlying area to the west of Newcastle was almost completely empty, with a scattering of small villages surrounded by a myriad of huge open fields of 'strip farming'. Locals would live in their little village and each family would tend to a handful of specially-allocated strips of land, each located at different sites, often a mile or more apart. The outstanding example of one of these 'little settlements' that still (sort of) exists is Benwell village to the immediate west of Benwell Towers. Additionally, of course, the odd scrap of 'ridge/rigg and furrow' can also be seen here and there, being a remnant of the old strip farming method.

Strip farming was hugely inefficient. So, in time, the local landowners (with the help of various 'Enclosure Acts') scrapped the traditional way of tending the land and created large 'enclosed' fields that could be farmed in a more 'industrial' way. This is pretty much the pattern of the countryside we still see today. It was at about this time, too - the late 1600s onwards - that new farmsteads were created at the centres of these new networks of fields. Some of these old buildings still survive, many have been altered/replaced and a great deal of them demolished. At the same period, these new fields acquired names such as Long Riggs, Cottage Field or Pond Field.

When, in the 1800s and early 1900s, this land found its way back onto the market for sale, property developers moved in and started building houses for the booming industrial classes of the city's suburbs. Only then did we really have intensive human activity in this part of the world. Many of the old field names survived this dramatic transition, and any little villages, hamlets and farmsteads were swept from the map. A few of the old buildings have hung on, but most have disappeared - some within living memory (including mine!).

I'm guessing that this story could be repeated the country over. Makes you hungry for more information!

Two big, big recommendations come from all of this. First of all, there is the website of the St.James' Heritage & Environment Group - a priceless resource for those with West End interests. And secondly, for those with general Newcastle interests, you have simply got to have a look at the group's Newcastle Photo Archive - which is brilliant, covering, as it does, much, much more than the West End.

Dr Ruth Nicholson, FRCOG: Medical Pioneer

In August 2021 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at 32 Kenilworth Road, Elswick, in honour of Dr Ruth Nicholson. The soon-to-be prominent surgeon was born in this modest terraced house on 2nd December 1884, being the eldest child of Margaret and the Rev.Ralph Nicholson, a local Church of England cleric. Supposedly, she chose to study medicine after her father took her to see an exhibition in Newcastle on the subject of medical missionary work. Her mother, too, was quite determined to secure for all her children a sound and independent future.

This ground-breaking individual was educated locally, first at Newcastle Church High School in Jesmond, then at the city’s College of Medicine. She was the only female graduate from the institution in 1909. Her medical career began in a local dispensary in Newcastle, before she moved on to Edinburgh, followed by a stint at a mission hospital in Gaza.

By the outbreak of World War I she had gathered a fair bit of varied surgical experience, but her gender prevented her from working in British military hospitals. So instead she joined an all-female unit backed by the French government. This organisation, which was run by the Scottish Women’s Hospital (founded by Scotswoman Elsie Inglis, with whom she had worked in Edinburgh) was based at Royaumont Abbey, north of Paris. For the entirety of the war Nicholson worked there as a surgeon, operating on allied casualties, and often working with barely any sleep for days on end (indeed, the number of beds at the hospital peaked at 600). Her considerable efforts earned her the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille d’Honneur des Épidémies.

Post-war she worked for a time as a GP in Birkenhead, then threw herself into obstetrics and gynaecology, eventually becoming a founder member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929 (and thereafter a fellow in 1931 – hence the letters after her name). A prominent position at the University of Liverpool came her way in 1930, and she took on consultancy roles, whilst at the same time running her own private practice. In time, Nicholson rose to become the very first female president of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society.

After a long and successful career, Dr Ruth Nicholson died in Exeter on 2nd July 1963, aged 78.

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

William Armstrong the Elder

Some observances on the life of the father of the famous industrialist, William Armstrong, also called William, taken from The Early History of Elswick by Alfred Cochrane, being a transcript of a lecture given by him in 1909:

"He was the son of a Cumberland man, William Armstrong, who migrated from a village near Carlisle at the end of the eighteenth century, and established himself as a corn merchant in Cowgate, in Newcastle. Mr William Armstrong, the elder, seems to have enjoyed a moderately successful business career. I have seen it stated that he became very rich, but I find it difficult to establish this, and I do not make out that when his son started these works [the famous Elswick works] he succeeded in inducing his father to put any money into the enterprise. In fact, the son does not appear to have inherited his inventive powers from the father, for the elder Mr Armstrong was not at all receptive to new ideas. Like many of his contemporaries he regarded the changes and novelties of the age with dislike and apprehension. In 1824, when a question arose of making a railway to Carlisle, he spoke at a public meeting in opposition to the proposal, and made a long speech, ably and argumentatively showing the advantages a canal would possess over a railway. Fortunately his persuasiveness was ineffectual, for it would hardly suit us today to be pulled in barges from Newcastle to Carlisle. He stood and was defeated for the Mayoralty for 1850, the year when Queen Victoria opened the Central Station, but was elected for 1851. He died, aged 79, in June 1857, when his son and his son's works were already famous.

"Socially, Mr Armstrong, senior, who was a man of some culture and learning, was much liked, and had a considerable circle of friends .... Mr Armstrong's family consisted of a daughter, born in 1800, and a son, William George, born in December 1810. The son was a rather delicate child, who early displayed an enquiring and ingenious turn of mind. He is said to have been anxious to know how his toys were made, and to have devised small and simple mechanical contrivances ...."

[It should be pointed out that William Armstrong Snr married his wife, Ann Potter, of Walbottle Hall, in 1801, and their daughter, also called Ann, was born in 1802, and not as stated above]

Tales from the West End

As a sort of addendum to my book Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs, I thought I'd point you in the direction of a splendid online pdf publication entitled West End Memories: 1952 And All That. If you've an interest in any of the outlying bits of Newcastle beyond, say, the Big Lamp, then you're sure to find it endlessly interesting.

As you may have gathered from my ramblings over the years, the West End is where I grew up - Denton Burn, to be exact. However, my family history in the area (Benwell, Elswick, etc.) goes back to the earliest years of my parents' lives of c.1930. The above e-booklet, therefore, which takes a look at various elements of life in this part of the world stretching back towards this era, fills in a good deal of background info for me - and for anyone else with similar interests.

It was produced in 2022 by the St James’ Heritage & Environment Group - a highly active organisation dedicated to all things West End-related. It was intended as a sort of historical social celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee - and is quite excellent. 

So do have a look at the booklet - as well as the website itself, which is SUPERB (just click on the links above). I have barely scratched the surface of the latter, and there is still so much for me to absorb. It just goes to show you that you can research and write a book on Newcastle's suburbs over a period of some several years (as I did) ... and then find that there is still so much out there to discover. Never stop learning, as they say!

Jesmond ... as an Army Testing Ground!

If the British Army learnt anything from the Crimean campaign of 1853-56, it was that they needed major upgrades in the artillery department. The field guns were too difficult to manoeuvre; and lighter, more mobile units were required. William Armstrong, with his nice new engineering works at Elswick, decided that it’d be fun to get involved in the post-war clamour for new weaponry – so he became involved in gun development in a rather big way. To cut a long story short, Armstrong developed and manufactured a highly efficient and effective breech-loading field gun (which fired shells rather than balls) that everyone was really rather pleased with. He ended up being knighted for his work in 1859, after he’d surrendered the patent for the gun to the British government, rather than profiting personally from its design.

At the time Armstrong lived in his mansion, Jesmond Dean, overlooking Jesmond Vale. And, astonishing as it may sound to us today, during the period in which he was perfecting his new invention he would regularly conduct field trials near his home. In a letter to the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel he stated: “Firing practice takes place between the peaceful hours of 3 and 5 when people are in bed and out of harm’s way. The gun is placed in the field where the dungheap was and I fire across the valley against a vertical bank at a distance of 435 yards.” Indeed, experimental guns were constantly being tested in all sorts of places, not just Jesmond Vale. The moorlands around Allenheads were regularly peppered with shell-fire, as were stretches of the coastline. On many occasions it must have seemed to unsuspecting locals that some foreign invasion was afoot.

What residents there were who were living in and around Jesmond at the time may, however, have been used to Armstrong’s earth-shattering shenanigans. As early as 1854, our man had been asked by the War Office to design underwater mines to help dislodge the wrecks of Russian ships that were blocking the entrance to Sebastopol Harbour. Armstrong came up with a device consisting of a wrought-iron cylinder loaded with guncotton (a kind of propellant), which he tested in the fields of Jesmond in front of an invited audience. “It was a very pleasant function and greatly enjoyed by all the guests,” he boasted, continuing, “the mines, planted in different parts of the field, exploded in the most exhilarating manner, and after tea had been served out, the party separated, delighted with the afternoon’s entertainment.” As it happened, this particular idea was never taken forward by the authorities.

[article taken from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs - see left-hand column for purchase options]

Newcastle-Staithes Connections

Staithes is usually considered the south-eastern limit of the 'North-East of England' - well, at least it is by me. And I found myself calling in there the other day, being the final stop on the Cleveland leg of my coastal adventures. I hadn't been there for years, but the limitations of daylight at this time of year precluded a lengthy visit - after all, I had to get back to Skinningrove before 4pm! However, my wife and I had a snack there (as well as the obligatory ice cream - yes, in November), and we indulged ourselves with a quick scout around its charming streets before we turned on our heels.

Everywhere I go I am always on the lookout for connections with my hometown of Newcastle. I wasn't really expecting to find any at Staithes, to be honest, but as luck would have it I just happened to fall upon a couple of strong links in the days following my visit. And two very different ones at that.

The first concerns Newcastle-born (in 1851) artist Isa Jobling (nee Thompson), who, after a comfortable upbringing on the west side of the town (her father was a successful ships' chandler), ended up in Paris studying art. After her father's death in 1875 she returned to the region and set up home in Cullercoats among its famous artists' community, where she flourished. Like most of the other painters around her, Isa specialised in romanticised images of the working folk of the village, and exhibited twice in the 1880s.

In 1889, she moved to Elswick and also set up a city centre studio, but began making regular trips to ... yes, you've guessed it ... Staithes. Here she further indulged her passion for painting working class men and women, which led to her exhibiting widely up until the mid-1890s. Her marriage to fellow artist Robert Jobling in 1893 (and a move back to Cullercoats) led to a falling-off of her output, but the pair visited Staithes regularly over the following years, with their resultant paintings featuring prominently in their many exhibitions. Isa Jobling's most famous work is probably Fisher Folk, featuring two fisher-women from Staithes. After a long and successful double-career, Robert died in 1923 and Isa in 1926. 

The other link between Newcastle and Staithes concerns the alum industry. Now, alum was important in the textile industry as a fixing agent for dyes. Traditionally, this had been imported from Italy, but from the 1600s the industry took off here in England thanks to the discovery of alum-rich shale on the North Yorkshire coast. Loftus and Boulby, immediately to the west of Staithes, were two of the biggest quarries in this regard. And the scars of this long-gone industry can still be clearly seen in the landscape thereabouts.

Thing is, the whole process of quarrying and processing the raw materials (before one arrived at the finished product) was a very long-winded operation indeed. To cut a long story short (and there are plenty of websites out there to consult if you're interested) this involved importing rather a lot of coal for the various stages of burning and firing, and an inordinate amount of stale urine, too, for its ammonium content. As you have probably by now guessed, most of the coal - as well as a good deal of the urine - was shipped in from Newcastle/Tyneside. The 'liquid gold' was specially collected in large tubs on street corners, and ships (perhaps somewhat embarrassingly) 'took the piss' to its Yorkshire destination. Many other major towns and villages along the east coast similarly partook in this curious exchange. And, obviously, the finished alum needed to be shipped out of Staithes and the other various Yorkshire seaside villages to the major textile centres - and this included Newcastle, of course. So it really was quite a substantial two-way concern for a good couple of hundred years or so.

However, with the development of synthetic dyes in the 1850s the whole messy set-up ground to a halt, and Staithes returned to its age-old fishy ways.