Newcastle Local History Group: Meeting Notes January 2018

Meeting Notes January 2018

We had a great turn out of members for our meeting at the Hancock on Wednesday January 17. Lots of discussion going on about a change of venue to the University Cafe - Open Access Venue opposite the Haymarket Metro Station and the South African War Memorial. It has a level access so no more climbing stairs and the staff are quite happy to accommodate us as an academic group. Entrance is on the left.

Taken from Google Maps

As part of our Little Known Facts exercise some of our group went to the Laing Art Gallery talk. The talk was on John Wilson Carmichael and his painting The Mayor's Barge on the Tyne. The group commented that the barge in the picture was very small and in the distance. We talked about Carmichael' painting the Proposed New Street for Newcastle you can find out more at the following link:

http://blog.twmuseums.org.uk/richard-graingers-vision-for-grey-street-newcastle/

The Chillingham Cattle

Edwin Landseer The Wild Cattle of Chillingham 1867

Moira did some research on the Chillingham Cattle as part of our Little Know Facts exercise:

Chillingham cattle have been around Chillingham Park for approximately 700 years and are said to be the oldest known breed of cattle in the world. They are considered to be rarer than the Giant Panda and could be the bovine equivalent of early man. They are also linked to the Mesoptomian Ox from Neolithic times (1200).
The cattle are treated as wild animals and are not handled, even by a vet. The cows breed all year and when the calfs are born, the weak ones will be left to die by their mothers. In winter hay is distributed around the park.
In 1946-47 an extremely hard winter nearly wiped out the herd, only 13 survived. In 1967 Foot and Mouth was raging across the country, with the possible decimation of the herd, in time like these it was deciede that in 1972 when the herd numbers reached 40 a reserve in Scotland would be set up with a yearling bull and two young heifers. This herd now numbers 25 and in case of a disaster Chillingham park can be restocked. There is also a project in hand to secure a stock of frozen embryos, in case there is another out break of Foot and Mouth and the cattle herd is destroyed. If this happens centuries of history would be lost. The cattle are as important as Stonehenge or Stately Homes as they provide a link to the past. A really not well known fact is that the cattle do not make a moo sound but do a hoot.

Dail Cottage and George Stephenson

By The original uploader was Killingworth Township 1966 at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2197586

Maureen found some interesting facts about George Stephenson and Dial Cottage at West Moor, Killingworth:

Aged 23 George took a job at West Moor Pit Killingworth working as a breaksman (applying brakes to loaded colliery wagons to prevent them running downhill). The journey to the Staithes at Wallsend would have been a long incline dropping down from 200 feet to sea level. His work at West Moor Pit would have provided George with a cottage on what was known as Paradise Row part of Great Lime Road. The cottage was more of a room with a garret reached by step ladders. The cottage was a few hundred yards from the pit head, engine works and track. (part of the original track is marked with a plaque.)

Short Time Line:

1781 Born Wylam (was illiterate until 18.)
1801 Brakesman Black Callerton Colliery.
1802 Marries Mary Frances-Willington Quay.
1803 Son Robert Born.
1804 Moves to cottage West Moor.
1805 Daughter fanny born ( dies 3 weeks later.)
1806 Wife dies and George walks to find jobs in the Borders.
1807 Returns to marry house keeper and sister of his former wife.
1814 Made his first 'railway locomotive' Blucher.
1819 George was asked to build a small railway at Hetton Colliery. 8 miles of track.
1823 Moves to Eldon Place as a Consultant Engineer.
1825 Stockton and Darlington. Railway and the Locomotion Engine.
1829 Rainhills Trials won by the Rocket.
1830 Manchester- Liverpool opened.
1848 Died and was buried in Chesterfield.

The not so well known fact is:

His son Robert brought home a copy of Fergueson's Astronomy(from the Lt and Phil) and under his farthers direction drew up on paper a dial suited to the latitude and longitude of Killingworth They obtained a suitable stone and chiselled in the design which you can see over the door of Dial Cottage.

Ethel Williams 1863-1946

Val looked at the life of Ethel Williams Newcastle's first female doctor, radical suffragist and pacifist.

Ethel was born in cromer in 1863. from 1882-85 she attended Norwich High School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1891 Ethel attended the London School of Medicine for Women and graduated awarded a BA, but facing prejudice went on to gain her hospital experience abroad in Paris and Vienna, because at that time women were not permitted to train in British hospitals. She qualified in 1895 and began work as a resident medical officer at Clapham Maternity Hospital and then moved to Newcastle in 1896 to work in the Dispensary at Blackfriers. She setup a practice in Ellison Place with Dr Ethel Bentham and was one of the first women to do this despite being refused by male colleagues. The practice grew and she moved to premises in Osborne Terrace. During World War 1 she campaigned for the WEA. She joined pacifist groups, such as the Union of Democratic Control and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Her suffragist banner from circa 1905 is one of the treasures of Newcastle University Library's Special Collections.
In 1909 she was appointed a member of the senate of Durham University. She founded the Monkton Home for Mental Defectives and in 1917 she co-founded the Northern Women’s Hospital, which is now the Nuffield Health Clinic on Osborne Road. Ethel Williams was Secretary of the Newcastle Women’s Liberal Association, a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society, and served as a Justice of the Peace as well as being a member of Newcastle Education Committee. Dr Ethel Williams died in 1948. In 1950, Newcastle University opened new student accommodation named Ethel Williams Halls of Residence in her memory. This building was demolished in the late 1990s and the residential street now occupying the site is called Williams Park.

The Little Known Fact about Ethel is that she was one of the first women drivers in the North East.