The Physical Aspect of Northumberland in the 16th century

The following extract is taken from the 1897 book by W.W.Tomlinson entitled Life in Northumberland During the Sixteenth Century.

" A large portion of the county, especially in the central and western parts, consisted of waste ground, which is described as 'very cold, hard, and barren for the winter' (1569). The lower grounds were in several places mere bogs and swamps. Till 1857 there were 1,100 acres of marshy ground, covered in places with large pools of water, within seven miles of Newcastle. This spot - known as Prestwick Car [sic] - has been drained, and is now for the most part under cultivation. Middleton Bog, Embleton Bog, and Newham Bog have also ceased to exist within recent times. Sheldon Lough, near Corbridge, at the present day is but a name, and Grindon Lough, near Housesteads, has shrunk under the process of draining to a mere pool.

" Previous to the sixteenth century the country had been denuded very largely of its woods. Leland, the Royal Antiquary of Henry VIII, who was in Northumberland in 1538 or soon after, wrote as follows:-

In Northumberland, as I heare say, be no Forests exept Chivet Hills, where is much Brushe wood, and sum Okke. Ground over growne with Linge [?] and some with mosse. There is greate Plenty of redd Dere and Roo Bukkes ... The great wood of Cheviot, he adds, is spoyled now and crokyd old trees and scrubs remayne.

" The explanation of the disappearance of this famous wood is given by Bowes and Ellerker in their Report of 1541:

The Scottes, as well by night tyme secretly, as upon the dai tyme with a more force, do come into the said forest of Chevyott div'se tymes and steale and carrye awaie muche of the said woode, whiche ys to them a greatte proffyte for the maynte'unce of their houses and buyldinge, and a small redresse thereof can be hadd by the lawes and customes of the M'ches, wherefore we thinke yt expedient that some greatter correcc'on and punyshemente were devysed for suche as steale and take awaie the said woode.

" Sir Robert Carey, also, in a letter to Burghley, dated August 4, 1598, makes allusion to this timber-stealing which went on along the Borders: Besides their hunting, their custom is to bring in 100 men at these times, to cut and carry away wood, and they have thus clean wasted 'one of the goodlyest woodes' in the middle March.

" Leland further tells us that there was very little wood between Newcastle and Tynemouth, Newcastle and Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick. Almost none in Bamburghshire and Redesdale and along the Tweed. Between the two branches of the Tyne there was the 'Forest of Lowes', which Belted Will is said to have afterwards cut down as it harboured freebooters, and between Morpeth and Alnwick there might be seen 'good Plenty of wood in certayne Places and many Parks'. Between Newcastle and Hexham, there were woods at Benwell and Wylam, from which timber was procured for Berwick Bridge in Henry the Eighth's time, and at Bywell.

" In a survey taken in 1569 it is stated that to the Barony of Bywell belongeth a fforest of red deer well replenished with game, 6 miles E. by W. and 5 N. by S. And the ffarmes and Tenants in the said Baronies (Bywell and Bulbeck) are well planted with coppice wood for the preservation of the red deer, and in the wastes also are divers woods.

[End] 

Tales from the East End

After I'd written up my last blog post I realised that, across the city, there is an equally excellent source of historical information for the East End - well, Heaton and its immediate environs, anyway. This is the superb Heaton History Group website.

When I was putting together my recent book on the city's suburbs, articles from this organisation's website would frequently come up in Google searches. And though I always try to get to the source of historical facts before I present them to you in my books and blog posts, I have learned to trust this particular source. It is essentially a blog about historical bits and bobs relating to Heaton, but is beautifully laid out, cross-referenced and catalogued - and with articles dating back more than a decade. And most of the pieces are lengthy affairs, too, with a good scattering of illustrations and lists of sources, etc.

You can join the group, too, for a very modest £15 per annum, and there are, of course, regular talks and other events for members (and indeed paying non-members) to enjoy.

So, though I'm a 'West-Ender' by birth and upbringing, I'd like to thank the good folk at Heaton History Group for extending my knowledge of the far side of the city. Boy, what an interesting place Newcastle and its suburbs is!

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: Hyphens or No Hyphens?

Help me. Please.

I've been reading - and writing - about my hometown of Newcastle for years. And the problem is ... I don't know how to spell its name correctly. Here are some alternatives:

Newcastle

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Newcastle-on-Tyne

Newcastle on Tyne

And, historically:

New-cassell on Tine

Newcastle upon Tine

Newcastle on Tine

(and all the hyphenated versions of the above)

etc,

etc,

etc,

...

And then there are all the various Latin spellings of the name.

Phew!

Moreover, when I was young, you'd often see the name abbreviated in various forms, e.g. N/cle-on-Tyne, or perhaps N-o-T. And now, of course, we have 'The Toon'! But that's neither here nor there.

I'd never worried too much about it all until I came to publish my two recent books on the subject of the city's history. So many different options had presented themselves to me over the years that I didn't think it mattered too much, and that as long as you were consistent in your spelling when writing about the place you'd be fine. I plumped for Newcastle-upon-Tyne (with hyphens), and didn't spend too much time nor effort worrying about it.

However, a recent exchange on Twitter seemed to indicate that I was in the minority. 'Newcastle upon Tyne' (no hyphens) seems to be the way of things these days, so I thought that maybe I should be changing my ways. Was there any way of finding out the definitive answer, I wondered?

I conducted a sort of 'straw poll' of my many books on the city's history (and a huge raft of digital works I have collection on Google Books), but found a massive difference of opinion in texts old and new. The most popular spelling is, I reckon, 'Newcastle upon Tyne', but, really, I was none the wiser. At times, an individual book would contradict itself from page to page; and just when I thought I had a consensus for the spelling, I'd find an esteemed Victorian historian inserting a couple of hyphens and I'd be back to square one. Arghhh!

The problem may, I thought, be solved by finding out when the 'upon Tyne' suffix was added to 'Newcastle'. The problem is that the town does not have a surviving 'foundation charter' as such. A very early reference to the town by name is made in a mid-twelfth century document known as 'The Customs of Newcastle', in which the settlement is given the Latin name Novi Castelli super Tinam, which, translated, gives us precisely 'New Castle upon (or over/above) Tyne'. The original Latin document is very faint, but there doesn't appear to be any hyphens! (see here).

It seems that, like surnames and other place-names in general, variant spellings/forms of the city's name co-existed for centuries, and that only recently have folk become fussy about what is right and what is wrong. Some folk get quite annoyed about the situation, it seems, too! The city council's website goes with 'Newcastle upon Tyne', as do institutions such as the Lit & Phil and the Society of Antiquaries. And the 'BBC News Style Guide' (for what it's worth) goes the same way. The modern-day insistence on fixed spellings seems to have come down in favour of the unhyphenated version, I think it's fair to say; but you still see the hyphens, too, from time to time 😖

So, will I change my ways in future mentions and references to the city? Or shall I stick to my guns for the sake of consistency? 

Perhaps I'm thinking about it too much.

Memento of a Wasted Youth

(click on image to expand)

We all wasted our formative years on something or other. For me, the main outlet for my youthful exuberance was following the mighty Black 'n' Whites. 

Well, I say 'mighty' but we were never that good, really. As a fan, I am still waiting for my first piece of serious silverware (I was too young to remember the last trophy in 1969), and have had to make do with the occasional cup final runners-up appearance and a scattering of derby victories. Ho-hum.

Anyway, one of the highlights of my NUFC-supporting days was the promotion season of 1983-84, with a certain Kevin Keegan leading the line. We only finished 3rd, which, these days, would only get you into the play-offs. But back in '84 it got you automatic promotion into the top division. As well as KK, we also had the likes of Terry McDermott, Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley to entertain us - so it was a great time to be a young lad supporting your local footie team.

Somewhere in one of my cupboards I've still got a VHS videotape of a few of the goals and TV highlights of the season. They've been collected from TV football shows such as Match of the Day and The Big Match - as well as brief excerpts on the local news programmes on a Monday evening. None of the extensive 100% coverage of the present-day - indeed, a good deal of the games had no TV cameras present at all.

I used to collect match-day programmes, of course; but Toon-related apparel was limited back then, with a scarf, hat and occasional pin-badge being about the extent of things. So when the season was brought to its successful conclusion I looked around in despair for a memento or two to remember it all by.

Other than a handful of tatty programmes, all I have to show for those happy days in the Spring of 1984 is the above commemorative glass plate. I must, I suppose, have bought it from the Supporters' Shop in Prudhoe Place - about the only outlet in the entire world where you could get any NUFC-related 'merch' in those days.

I'm not sure what to make of it, really. I suspect that you are not very impressed - and I don't blame you: neither am I. But it has survived intact now for almost 40 years, and currently hangs somewhat forlornly on the wall of my office, overlooking me as I type up this short post. Someday another celebratory item will join it ... if Newcastle United ever win something slightly more substantial, perhaps.

* SIGH * .....

'Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs'

I know I've only just brought out a book (see here), but I have been working on TWO such efforts simultaneously ... so here's the next one in the sequence, namely, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Tales from the Suburbs (please click on link for purchase options). It is available from Amazon as a paperback and/or an eBook. 

It runs to 200 pages, and each sale gives me £1 profit, which I will donate to the Great North Children's Hospital (as usual). There's not much I can say about the book which isn't given away in the title, really! It's took a while to put together, though - you know, just picking up bits and pieces as I go on my historical travels around my hometown. I've traipsed for miles around the streets for this one, so I hope you enjoy it. You can view a free sample of the book by clicking on the eBook version.

I will be slightly increasing the prices of my Amazon books soon, so get 'em super cheap while you can!

As usual, if you decide to buy a copy then 'thank you' from both myself and the GNCH.

P.S. I am not 100% happy with the 'cut' of the cover on the paperback version. It is only a very minor concern, but it took me multiple attempts to get the Amazon publishing machine to accept my image. It finally said 'yes', and though it's not absolutely perfect it's not come out too bad. You'll see what I mean if you buy a copy. And don't let it put you off!

P.P.S. If you have any similar issues when publishing a book via Amazon (it's called 'Amazon KDP') then do get in touch and I'll try to help you. My email is micksouthwick @ blueyonder.co.uk (without the gaps).