The Great North-East: An English History Tour, vol.2

I am pleased to say that Volume 2 of The Great North-East: An English History Tour is now available for purchase at Amazon - see here, or click on the image above. It is available as both an eBook and an old-fashioned paperback. I have kept the price as low as possible, whilst still allowing for about £1 profit per sale - which, of course, goes to the Great North Children's Hospital. 

Like Volume 1, the 200-page book takes an affectionate look at various aspects of the history of the region, from the Scottish border in the north to the River Tees / Cleveland in the south. Chapters this time around cover the following topics: St.Cuthbert, literature, football, famous rocks (yes!), place names, the coal industry, notable visitors, the River Wear, oddities, inventions, superstitions, war, railways, and animals ... as well as the Lambton Worm, of course, as illustrated on the cover.

By visiting Amazon you can read a sample of the book before you commit to buy (there is actually a bigger chunk of the text to view via the eBook option). It's all very laid back and informal, and will hopefully bring a smile to your face whilst learning a few new facts about the history of the country's most interesting region.

Finally, I might just add that the prices of Amazon books (including mine) will most likely increase slightly in the next month or so due to a hike in printing costs. So get 'em cheap-ish while you can!

If you decide to go for it, then may I offer you a big thank you from both the GNCH and myself. Pass the word on!

The Travails of Rev Baillie, Newcastle's Good-Time Minister

Rev. John Baillie is best remembered to those with an interest in Newcastle’s past as the author of one of the noted histories of the town, namely, An Impartial History of the Town and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne, published in 1801. But he was not your average, strait-laced, dusty-haired antiquarian. And nor was he your typical cleric, either.

Born in 1741, Baillie was trained for the ministry in Scotland, becoming a minister of the Secession Church (an off-shoot of the Church of Scotland). In 1767, he was elected minister of the United Secession Chapel at what was known as Newcastle’s Sallyport Meeting House, and was, by all accounts, a popular preacher for several years – known especially for his scathing attacks on the Papacy. But what has been described as his “convivial habits” resulted in behaviour inappropriate for a man of his standing, and he was suspended in 1784. He ended up in debt, finding himself in Newgate debtors’ prison – where he was afforded a certain amount of freedom, being allowed to preach on Sundays (accompanied, though, by a gaoler).

On one such occasion, he slipped his guard’s attentions and escaped to Scotland. There he preached for a few years, before clearing his debts and returning to Newcastle in 1789. He taught in partnership with mathematician William Tinwell for a while at a school in Dog Bank; and took to preaching once more – firstly at a schoolroom in St.Nicholas’ Churchyard, then for a few troubled years at Sunderland, before popping up at Newcastle again in 1797 at the Postern Gate Chapel.

He thus made his living through ministerial income, teaching and, of course, by writing: his history of Newcastle being accompanied by works on religious treatises and sermons, the history of the French Wars, and assisting in the writing of a history of Egypt (supposedly littered with a good deal of “flagrant indecency”). Despite his various scrapes and troubles, he was a respected scholar and a member of the prestigious Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society.

He is understood to have married in about 1776 and had at least one daughter. In his declining years his financial problems returned, until “death extricated him from his difficulties” whilst resident in Gateshead in 1806. He was buried in the nonconformist Ballast Hills Cemetery, Newcastle – the town being a good deal less colourful for his absence.

[article taken from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Fragments of the Past, Vol.1]

'Revitalising Redesdale'

If you've an interest in Redesdale, Northumberland, then you may want to have a browse of the 'Revitalising Redesdale' website. I fell upon it quite by accident and found myself being drawn into all sorts of interesting stuff - including walks, historical & cultural titbits, and archaeological reports. To quote the spiel: 

Revitalising Redesdale was a £2.8m Landscape Partnership Scheme, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aimed to celebrate, conserve and enhance Redesdale's rich cultural heritage, landscape and wildlife. It ran from Jan 2018 to Dec 2022.

So, as you can see, the 'project' has only just been wound up, but the website remains in a form that is both helpful and informative to the likes of us history/culture/nature/hiking nuts who love the North-East. Geographically, it covers the valley of the River Rede from the Scottish border in the NW to the river's confluence with the North Tyne at Redesmouth in the SE. This part of the country was the haunt of the infamous Border Reivers, of course - but there is surprisingly little about this topic on the website (and they are not even mentioned in the final 'Project Evaluation Report'). Whilst this is a little strange, it is kinda nice to see them concentrate on other, lesser known areas of the area's past.

If, like me, you like the archaeological stuff, then there's plenty to peruse. The downloadable report on the recent digs at the Roman fort of Bremenium at High Rochester is especially interesting; and the 'Redesdale Landscapes Through Time' section is worth a look if you're really into this sort of thing (the LIDAR images are amazing - more, please!).

Newcastle & Get Carter's 'Long Bar'

I am sure there's many of you out there who are fans of the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. Say what you like about the film itself (I love it, by the way), but it is a fascinating watch for us Novocastrians - and indeed for those interested in the North-East in general - due to the fact that it was shot, pretty much in its entirety, on and around Tyneside. If you haven't seen it, then where have you been these past 50+ years?

Anyway, there is something about one of the early scenes in the film that I have kinda known all my adult life, but which has been lied about for ages. And that is the identity of the bar to which Caine heads after he exits the Central Station upon arrival in Newcastle. Me and my contemporaries (I am 58, BTW) have always known this to have been The Long Bar, roughly opposite and slightly to the right as you leave the station. Now this pub disappeared when the whole block was demolished and redeveloped donkey's ago. It is now occupied largely by the Hampton by Hilton Hotel. I was always told that The Long Bar stretched all the way through this block - hence its name (though its real name was The North Eastern Bar).

Lately, though, the Victoria Comet, which sits exactly opposite the station, has laid claim to being the old pub in question. It is plastered with Get Carter commemorative plaques and information panels inside and out, but no one seems to have been bothered about the fact that they've got it wrong (either deliberately or accidentally, I'm not sure which). 

I, for one, have never really given it much thought. Until, that is, I was prompted by a five minute YouTube video by Eddy of 'Tyneside Life' - check it out here. It really is quite extraordinary, and what a strange old story. There is also another video, here, which correctly identifies The North Eastern Bar as the site of the scene in question. 

When scrolling through the comments of the first video I also found reference to the apparent appearance of a teenage Jimmy Nail in Get Carter - see here. Amazing!

Anyway, if you've got a spare day or two you really could get well and truly lost down the Get Carter rabbit-hole on YouTube. So, good luck with that...

Tynemouth ... and Libraries in General

Whilst thinking about planning a trip to Tynemouth this weekend for the quarterly Book Fair (see here - you really should consider going), I was reminded of that most excellent of websites on the town and its environs by Luan Hanratty entitled Penball.uk . I have been aware of the site for some time, but have never properly explored it - so I decided to have a closer look.

Anyway, it really is quite, well, as I say, excellent! And if you've any interest in Tynemouth, North Shields, or indeed any of outlying places thereabouts, you really need to make it a regular port of call. There are many, many fascinating and thought-provoking articles to be found there. I've barely scratched the surface myself, but one which caught my attention was 'Finding Blake Chesters' (the 'missing' Roman fort of North Shields). Have a look, please - it's fab.

However, it was 'The Case for a Tynemouth Museum' that really piqued my interest. It considers the farcical situation that has arisen over the disappearance of Tynemouth's library (closed in February 2020, with it's re-build facing delay after delay), and asks whether or not a new library is even worth the effort. Shock, horror!

Now I've been a library and archive-goer all my life - I've even written guides to them in my publishing past. But as long ago as the 1990s I have thought that these institutions ought, really, to be evolving more into, well, I don't really know! It's just that they seem to have been dying a long, slow death since the internet kicked in, and they need to be re-invented. Those of us who love books and archives and historical research sometimes find it hard to admit, but it's true. And Tynemouth Library's demise (I didn't even know it wasn't there anymore!) typifies the problem: in their old and existing form they just don't seem to be getting used anymore. Tynemouth lost its library to a promised 'redevelopment', the project gets delayed, folk get used to it not being there ... then the new, revamped building ends up as another eatery, or whatever, instead.

It's a problem, and I'm not sure what the answer is. But Luan Hanratty at least has a go at a suggested alternative.

Luan can also be followed on Twitter, here.

The William Coulson Memorial

Now and then, I should like to use this blog to simply point the reader in the direction of a particularly interesting article about Newcastle/North-East history which I have fell upon. This is one such occasion.

When I am out and about on my Newcastle wanderings I often pass this fella:

The William Coulson Memorial is situated at the junction of City Road, Walker Road, Ouse Street and Horatio Street - roughly opposite the Bethel Chapel. I didn't know much about this chap, even after I'd read all the various words etched into the monument, front and back.

Then, just the other day I was casually browsing the internet when I came across an excellent piece about him by Sue Syson on the Ouseburn Trust website - see here. I shall not spoil it further for you, so do have a look - there are some interesting tie-ins with other parts of the city.

[Note: Do have a close look at the wording on the reverse of the statue. I just love the reference to "the higher impulses of true manliness and womanliness" ... and wonder what the present-day woke brigade would think of the terminology! 😲]

 

Newcastle China Football

Just found this on my crowded office shelf. Obtained it on eBay a couple of years ago, put it to one side, then forgot about it. As you can see, it is a little China football (about 2.5in in diameter), and bears the coat of arms of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Well, I think it's supposed to be a football - the pattern of the 'leather' seems to be more like that of a basketball, but it does have the tell-tale stitching on the top... 

Anyway, on the underside it bears the mark of 'Florentine China', which (according to the internet) was a product of 'Crested China & Souvenir Ware' of the Taylor & Kent Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent. And it dates to 1900-1925 - so it's around 100+ years old. By most people's definition that makes it an antique. Cool. Though it's still only worth about a fiver.

There's also a little red spot-stamp on the underside. This means something, as I've noticed this sort of thing on other examples online. If anyone out there knows what this means - or indeed anything else about the piece - do let me know. I  would, for example, love to know why it was produced ... perhaps for a special event (football related?).

Anyway, back on the shelf it goes.