Our last meeting for the year was at the Hancock Museum and was well attended. We had lots to catch up on and for the first half of the meeting we talked about The Washouses in Newcastle. We talked about their history and development sharing articles and old photographs. Val had some great photos of the Gibson Street Baths and Washouse. In the second half of the meeting Peter read out his research about Alnmouth which is included here. A fascinating account of the village which was well presented, because of space restrictions and possible copy right issues I have had to remove the images that came with Peter's article but if you want a full copy I can place it in the archives for you to look at, please get in touch if you want the link.
Articles from some sources we looked at are as follows:
The popularity of swimming has never waned. It is Britain’s most popular participation activity, with 80 million visits to swimming pools every year. A dip into the history of swimming in the North East reveals gems like the large blackened building at the junction of Gibson Street and New Bridge Street in Newcastle. The city council-owned listed building is locked and has an air of dereliction, but the foundation stone shows it to be the Gibson Street baths, opened in 1907. It is now partly used by a badminton club, which plays on flooring over the original pool, with the surrounding walls showing the partition lines of what were the changing cubicles and a large stained glass window completing the picture. Step into the lobby of the men’s entrance and you discover a time capsule. The walls are decorated with tiled panels showing swimming scenes and buxom mermaids, while the cast iron turnstile is intact. Strangely, the women’s entrance lobby is simply plain white tiling, which suggests something about the social attitudes of the day. tiled picture, Gibson Street swimming baths Gibson Street closed in 1965, but it was part of a heyday which saw eight pools open in Newcastle in 1913-14. Newcastle’s original Northumberland baths had been built in 1839, and were designed by John Dobson. The private venture cost £7,300, and offered two of the largest pools in the country. Newcastle Corporation took over the baths in 1859 and they eventually became the oldest in public ownership. In 1928 the current City Pool – with its Turkish Baths suite – and City Hall complex was built on the site. The wider story of public swimming baths is told in Great Lengths, the 13th in English Heritage’s Played in Britain series. The book has been written by Dr Ian Gordon with series editor Simon Inglis, who recently gave a talk on the area’s sporting history at Bessie Surtees house in Newcastle. While baths buildings like Gibson Street have survived and the 1886 Shipley Baths was built into the Byker Wall and is now used as a climbing wall, others have been swept away. Nationally, 20 pre-1945 indoor pools have closed in the last 10 years. The peak period for baths was from 1880-1914, when 600 were constructed. Many pools only changed the water once a week. As few people washed before a visit, the water became increasingly dirty as the week wore on and the price of admission fell accordingly. The last and dirtiest day was also the cheapest and consequently the busiest. The timetable for the building and opening of baths in the North East includes 1912 Wallsend; 1923 Esh Winning, County Durham; 1924 Houghton-le- Spring; 1936 Sunderland; 1938 Jesmond and Fenham, Newcastle. Ashington baths in Northumberland opened in 1931, with pool access via showers as per new health guidelines. Ashington was one of 20 indoor pools financed by the Miners Welfare Fund.
Public Baths Newcastle North East England.
Tyneside Family History.
Public
baths and washhouses New Road 1855 these useful establishments were erected by
the corporation in 1845, They contain warm and plunge baths, with washing and
drying houses for the use of the humbler classes.
Bath
House Westgate.
Demolished
about 1890 these cottages were a lodge leading to the bathhouse founded by
private venture in 1781.
Baths and
Washhouse Gallowgate.
The
Newcastle Town improvements committee at meeting talked of baths at the end of
Gallowgate and it was discused how the leasehold had been obtained for £418 and
it was thought the baths should be built on an enlarged scale at an estimated
cost of £4000 and this would produce a good return for the investment.
The
public of Newcastle or mainly in debit to the labours of Mr. Alderman Dodds,
J.P., and C.F. Hammond Esq.for the commodious and handsome building, which has
recently been opened at the foot of Gallowgate.
The
designer of the building has tried to make it stand out so as not to be
mistaken for an asylum, mechanics institute or vestry hall. The
superintendent's office is at the centre of the building and has a kitchen,
small scullery, pantry, parlour and two bedrooms.
The baths
are on the left hand side on entering the porch. There are fourteen warm and
cold baths, with waiting rooms and conveniences attached. The baths are divided
into first and second class. There is no plasterwork inside the washhouse or
the bathrooms the whole of the walls are lined with glazed porcelain bricks of
a warm buff colour.
The
divisions between the baths in the first class are enamelled slate, of a pale
green tinge, which contrasts with the buff brick walling and pale grey roof
painting. The second-class bath partitions are plain slate smooth on both
sides. The whole of the baths are formed in one-piece Stourbridge fireclay,
coated on the outside with a layer of white porcelain.
The bath
apartments are well ventilated. The washhouse is reached from the opposite side
of the porch to the baths. In the passage way there is a spring door, which can
be opened by the superintendent only from the office, for the purpose of
preventing ingress and egress without being recorded. The washhouse is a
spacious apartment, with glazed brick walls, painted iron roof, rows of
skylights iron columns ornamental ventilating grates and other accessories.
A report
written in 1845 which looked at the conditions of the people in Newcastle the
problem of bathing was examined, along the Tyne it had been possible for the
poorer classes to bath in the river but the development of the Quayside meant
it was harder for the public to bath the only places left to bath were not
secluded enough and were open to the view of well frequented pathways. The
Ouseburn at about a mile outside town was mentioned as a bathing place but was
mostly used in the summer. Baths open to the public on payment of a moderate
fee have been recently erected and no expense spared to render them worth of
the support of the public. There are situated in the upper part of town and are
not conveniently placed for the use of the poorer classes. It was recommended
that baths should be built that were accessible to the poorer public either
free or for a very low charge and that it should be in the vicinity of a steam
engine so that tepid baths could be provided in the winter. It was thought that
once people got into the habit of bathing it would fill their leisure time and
keep them off the streets and out of the public houses.
Northumberland
Baths, Northumberland Street,
In 1855
the Northumberland public baths at Ridley place, east side of Northumberland
Street, this building occupies an area of 172 ft. by 132, and were erected in
1838 and cost £9500 to build from the design of J. Dobson. The building
contains warm shower, vapour, tepid medication and plunge baths the latter
being 107 by 51 ft.
History
of Alnmouth P
Sutherland November 2016
Prehistory
The
coastal plains were some of the first areas of human settlement in Britain. A
few flint tools from the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age pre 4000 BC) were found on a beach
above Alnmouth (the sea level was higher then) and there is known to have been
a major Mesolithic camp at Howick, a few miles up the coast. No evidence
has been found for the Neolithic period (New Stone Age 4000 to 2,500 BC)
but the expectation is that the area continued to be populated. A number of Bronze
Age (2500
to 800 BC) artifacts including a
spear head and cist burials, an early type of grave used for mainly Bronze
Age
burials (they usually contained one or more unburnt burials of both male and
female) have been found in the vicinity.
An
enclosure bank earthwork to the north of the town, and now part of the golf
course, has been attributed to the Iron Age (800 BC to the Roman
invasion of 43 AD).
Roman period
No
Roman remains have been discovered in or around Alnmouth village. However, Ptolemy writing
in the 2nd century mentions the River Alaunus, and the much later ‘Ravenna
Cosmography’
(written by an unknown monk during the seventh century in the Monastery at
Ravenna on the eastern coast of Italy, compiled this list of all the towns and
road-stations throughout the Roman Empire) notes a place-name of Alauna. A
substantial Roman fort, Alauna, was established over an 11 acre site, 9.5 miles
upstream on the Aln at Learchild near Whittingham. The harbour provided by the
river would have been useful to the Romans to support military campaigns and
trade.
Early
Christianity
The
Northumberland Coast has a long association with early Christianity. ‘Adtwifyrdi’
(at the two fords) is the name used by the Venerable Bede, and is believed to
refer to the River Aln at its mouth. Here, according to Bede's account,
Archbishop Theodore presided over a synod in 684 AD in the presence of King
Ecgfrith of Northumbria, at which bishop Tunberht of Hexham was deposed and St
Cuthbert elected Bishop of Lindisfarne. A 9th or 10th century cross found on
Church Hill, to the south of the village, lends credence to the idea that the
area had a role in pre-conquest Britain.
Post
Conquest
Alnmouth
was established as a village by William de Vesci, the local Norman magnate, who
was granted a charter in 1152 to establish a settlement on a 296 acre spit of
land in the manor of Lesbury. The plan of Alnmouth follows a conventional
medieval pattern of a road (now Northumberland Street) with long thin ‘burgage
plots’ running
at right-angles to it.
Burgage
is a medieval land term. A burgage was a town or ‘borough’ rental property
owned by a king or lord. The property usually consisted of a house on a long
and narrow plot of land with a narrow street frontage. Rental payment was
usually in the form of money. As populations grew, "Burgage plots"
could be split into smaller additional units. Burgage tenures were usually
money based, in contrast to rural tenures which were usually services based
Establishment
of the port
Alnmouth's
port has an 800 year documented history. Eustace de Vesci was granted royal
permission to establish a port and a Wednesday fish market in 1207/08. Together with it’s nascent fishing industry,
the port also engaged in local and foreign trade. Richard de Emeldon, a burgage
holder of the village, is recorded as having developed the harbour, and
Alnmouth is shown to be a port of call by a Crown request for the supply of a
boat to assist in a military campaign to Gascony in 1306. No archaeological
remains of the port from this time remain. There was probably little
infrastructure beyond mooring posts, and possibly wooden jetties. The
topography of the river and mudflats would provide a sheltered beaching-point
for vessels.
Alnmouth
was attacked and greatly depleted by the Scots in 1336. In 1296, twenty-eight
people had been listed as being liable to pay tax but in 1336 this fell to just
one. The Black Death in 1348 and Border Reiving were an ever-present threat.
The port was annexed to Alnwick Castle in 1452, and by 1492 records show the
village had recovered its former position with a large number of burgesses. In
1529, the burgesses entered into an agreement with the Earl of Northumberland
to improve the harbour if he would supply the wood.
15th
and 16th century stagnation
The
village declined in the 15th and 16th centuries: the Earl of Northumberland
recorded in 1594 that the village was "depeopled". A 1614 survey
notes that the village was "in great ruin and decay”. A 1567 survey
established that 20 of the 60 households in Alnmouth were engaged in fishing,
the rights to which were handed to the Duke of Northumberland after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries.
According
to two sources, including the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (an encyclopaedic work published in
London from 1817 to 1845), Alnmouth was taken and fortified by the French
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in support of the claims of Mary, Queen
of Scots.
The
Schooner Hotel was built in the 1600s and was reported by the Northumberland
Gazette to be one of the most haunted locations in the United Kingdom.
17th
and 18th century prosperity
Prosperity
returned during the 17th and 18th centuries. Trade at the port boomed owing to
greatly increased foreign and domestic trade. The most important export was
grain and records speak of a "corn road" to Alnmouth from as far away
as Hexham.
The
corn trade was so important that a new road was built in 1753 from Hexham to
Alnmouth. Northumberland Street was Hexham Road and at Hexham there is still an
Alnmouth Road.
In 1813,
although trade suffered during the war with France, Alnmouth exported 44,266
quarters of grain, half as much as Berwick-upon-Tweed, but twice as much as
Newcastle. The grain trade gave rise to 16 granaries in the village, some of
which were much later converted to residential use.
A major
import of the time was guano from Peru, part of the larger pattern of
agricultural improvement of the time; a guano shed still exists at the south of
Church Hill, built well away from the village, presumably because of the
stench. Other exports noted in this period are coal, eggs, pork and pickled
salmon for the London trade, and wool for the Yorkshire woollen industry.
Imports mentioned include blue slate from Scotland, timber from Holland and
Scandinavia, and occasionally, pipes of Madeira wine (a pipe is an 126
gallon
barrel).
The
port also prospered as a modest shipbuilding centre. A 300-ton ship was
launched circa 1763/5 and a second 219-ton ship, the ‘Providence’, is
recorded as being launched in 1765. That industry supported others, such as a
sawmill and a ropery. There is evidence of salt-making by the river, and at
least five oyster-beds were established.
At its
peak, around 1750, up to 18 vessels might be seen in the harbour at any one
time. The reputation of the village was not high. John Wesley is reported to
have described the place as "a small sea-port town, famous for all kinds
of wickedness", and much earlier accounts speak of members of the
community who added nothing to the commonwealth, and against whom all things
must be secured lest they be stolen.
Smuggling
was rife and was worked in two channels; one where contraband was landed on the
beach by boat by fast sailing luggers at sea, the other from ships in the
harbour where ruses were adopted to get goods ashore without paying duty. In
the lugger smuggling there was a well developed code of signals. Women took the
smuggled goods by pony crossing the ford at the Pan Leazes on their way to
Rothbury.
Decline
of the port
The
combination of a violent storm and a high tide in 1806 caused the Aln to break
through its banks on the north side of Church Hill and form a new channel. Over
time sand dunes swept across the area and blocked off the old river course
entirely. The tithe map of 1843 shows the river running through its new course
and the oxbow of the old Church Hill was now isolated from the rest of Alnmouth.
This
shift in the course of the river was sometimes, and perhaps falsely, identified
as a cause of the decline of the port.
The
19th century saw a decline in traffic at the port. The number of herring boats
decreased from twelve in 1858 to eight in 1863. Corn exports fell as railways
expanded
and grain exporting was moved to more efficient ports although timber and slate
importation appears to have continued, in 1887 forty men were still employed in
this industry. The sawmill thrived, with 27 employees in 1891, and there was a
large steam-mill used to process grain and drive a circular sawmill. It became
difficult to secure insurance for freight passing through Alnmouth after the
timber ship ‘Joanna’ capsized in the shallow harbour in 1896.
Victorian
Resort
The
effects of the decline in port traffic were offset by a new role for the
village, as a holiday and second-home resort. The East Coast Main Line, as it
is now known, arrived at Bilton, west of Alnmouth, in 1847, and a branch-line
from Alnwick to Bilton was in operation by 1850. A bridge was built across the
Aln connecting directly to Hipsburn in 1857, and improved and renamed the
Duchess's Bridge in 1864. Spacious villas with sea-views were built, granary
buildings converted to residential use or demolished to make way for new
cottages. Maps of 1897 show a holiday camp, garden tea-room and many beach-huts
amongst the dunes. A links golf course was established in 1869; it is believed
that it was designed by Mungo Park who became the club's first professional. (Mungo
Park - 22
October 1836 – 19 June 1904) was a member of a famous family of Scottish
golfers. He won the 1874 Open Championship held at Musselburgh Links).
The
village was in 1860 selected as one of fourteen weather stations, and equipped
with a barometer by the Duke of Northumberland acting as president of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution. The barometer and a chart of recent readings was
kept on public display, to seek to provide fishermen with indications of likely
weather patterns so as to assist in reducing losses at sea. The barometer
remains on display, in the window of a cottage facing on the main street.
In
November 1876 a new church, St John the Baptist on Northumberland Street, was
consecrated by the Bishop of Durham.
Ruins
still standing on Church Hill are of a mortuary chapel constructed in 1870.
Alnmouth
at War
Alnmouth
has been affected by war and by the fear of war throughout its history. It was
sacked by the Scots in the 14th century, and may have been occupied by the
French in the 16th century. In August 1779 two French privateers were involved
in a two-hour action against a British Man-of-war within sight of Alnmouth. In
the following month, on 23 September 1779, Alnmouth was attacked by the
American privateer John Paul Jones, in support of the American War of
Independence. Jones fired a cannonball at the town; it missed the church tower
and landed in a field before striking a farmhouse roof.
The
early 19th century had seen trade at the port affected by the Napoleonic Wars
and fear of French invasion persisted until late in the century. The Duke of
Northumberland maintained an army, the Percy volunteers, against the threat,
and a gun battery was installed overlooking Alnmouth in 1852. Similar invasion
fears arose during World War II, and a variety of defences were installed on
the south and north beaches at Alnmouth, including concrete anti-tank cubes, an
anti-tank ditch, pill-boxes, reinforcement of the previous century's gun
battery, and firing slits built into the walls of the Church Hill guano shed.
The
village witnessed a number of engagements during WW2, including the shooting
down of two Junkers Ju 88A in separate engagements between 9 and 11 April 1941.
On 8 June 1941 a barrage balloon at Alnmouth was shot down, and in August the
railway line was bombed by a low-flying plane at a point south of the village.
Alnmouth (and other local coastal settlements) were strafed on 3 June 1941, and
on 8 November of that year two high-explosive bombs were dropped on the
village, one hitting a house in Argyle Street, and leading to the death of six
women and one man.
Acknowledgements
: Mostly from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopaedia
Memories of Alnmouth, by
Ella Dodds 1893-1979 www.whatsspecialabout.com
Classes and term dates
For those of you that are back to classes here are the term dates and holiday dates :
Michael continues the More Flash Points in History: City Library Thursday 19 January 10:30-12:30
Next Meeting
Hopefully we can all make it for Wednesday 25 January 10:30 in the upstairs cafe of the Hancock Museum.
