Meeting Notes April

Our new venue is proving  popular with our members with another good turn out even though it was half term. Last month we mentioned a possible project about Slavery and its connections to Newcastle, we have had several diligent members look into this and we had quite a good discussion. Some of their work can be seen below. We are also looking to continue this for our next meeting. Planned for our next meeting is a short quiz about the Medieval Period which in Europe began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and lasted from the 5th to the 15th century Merging into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. Thinking caps on!

Michael replied to Mike Combes reference to German Pork Butchers in the North East. Its great to see Local History relived in peoples memories, talks and images.

Very interesting and excellent work.  There was a German pork butcher family in Consett, spanning over 100 years, surname Yager.  It was a very popular business from I think the 1880's and was well renowned for their pork sandwiches.

The business is still in operation now and has kept the original name and is located on Victoria Road, however.,the Yager family are no longer involved having retired approx 3 - 4 years ago.

I feel the Yager family business was an important part of Consett's social and retail history adding culture, diversity and real tasty food - ham, pease pudding, saveloys and pork sausages were real favorites.

Kind regards

Michael

Moira collected some interesting facts about the Slave connections in the North East:

One of the first North East connections with slavery was William Hylton who belonged to a Sunderland family with ancient roots. Through an association with Sir Edwin Sandys a counsellor of James 1, he went to New England as part of a rescue mission for the Mayflower Settlers. He was the first settler in what became New Hampshire. There are a number of County Durham place names in this area, which suggests that more North Easterners were attracted to the area. Anthony Hylton a relative followed in 1623. He acquired a tobacco plantation and was appointed governor of St Kitts and Nevis in 1625. Hyltons descendants settled in Maryland Carolina and Jamaica before 1700. Like many of the first settlers, involvement in the slave trade and slavery grew out of acute labour shortages in their new lands. Members of several North East families were early arrivals in America and the Caribbean, the Pinkneys of West Auckland, the Howards of Brampton, the Corvilles of Newcastle and branches of the Northumbrian Fenwicks, Ogles and Ordes.

During the 18th Century, many of the regions gentry had acquired colonial interests. Among the most significant were the Trevelyan's of Wallington Northumberland. Sir John Trevelyan had married Louise Marianne daughter of West Indian Merchant, Peter Simond and became a plantation owner. By the time of the abolition of slavery in 1833, the family had become major sugar producers in Granada, they were paid £35,000 in compensation for the loss of slaves under Parliaments compensation award.

There were a number of attempts to abolish slavery and the North East took the lead in numerous meetings and petitions. On Thursday May 15 1828 a meeting was held in the Newcastle Guild Hall, amongst professional clerymen. They advocated the gradual rather than the immediate abolition of West Indian Slavery. James Losh a lawyer, reformer and Unitarian, believed this would protect the trade and property of slave holders, secure the empire to Britain and give time for education and missionaries to prepare slaves for freedom.

One speaker said the idea of 800,000 of our fellow subjects being doomed to interminable slavery, is most revolting to every hum and mind, but he also said 'our object is not to injure the property of the planters, but to protect it and not to excite to rebellion but to prevent it.' They also seemed to have been fired by a missionary agenda.

In 1834 the British government replaced slavery with a system of apprenticeship. Losh and his colleagues would have welcomed the fact that slaveholders were compensated for loss of their propery-slaves by the British tax payer. In 1853 William Wells Brown, who had been a slave in the US, visited Newcastle and remarked on the kindness of Geordies, he is quoted as saying, 'in no place in the United Kingdom has the American slave warmer friends than in Newcastle 

Maureen found some  more interesting local facts:

Every town and city had anti-slavery societies, Newcastle was no exception. Women were involved almost from the beginning. Amongst the area's most enthusiastic supporters was the Richardson family. They founded 25 groups of both working and middle class families, 13 of which were in the North East. A petition was presented in Parliament in 1822 signed by 5,956 people from Newcastle and Gateshead demanding the abolition of West Indian Slaves.

Anna Atkins was born in Chipping Norton and educated in West Yorkshire, she married Hery Richardson a fellow student at the Society of Friends Ackworth School, they settled in Newcastle along with hery's sister Ellen. They worked closely with their American campaigners, The Newcastle Ladies Emancipation Society was revised by them. Anna Richardson served as a prison visitor and worked to aid refugees. The Richardson were friends and mentors to Frederick Douglass who was born a slave February 1818 in Talbort County Maryland. Frederick Douglass was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. There were concerns for him that his owner would re-enslave him as soon as he returned to the US. Anna and Ellen announced a meeting in Edinburgh October 29 1846 of  activists to raise money to legally Free Douglass from his owner, £159 was raised. In December 1846 papers were filed in the USA which gave the escaped slave freedom from his owner Thomas Auld. The decision to buy Douglass's Freedom was not without critics; they felt it legitimised the idea any human being could ever be owned by another to be bought and sold like property.

On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings visit to Newcastle to receive an Honoury Doctorate in 1967, a plaque was unveiled as a tribute to Douglass and the Richardsons Family in Summerhill Grove Newcastle. The Richardsons had four houses in Summerhill Grove interconnecting with each other where Douglass stayed for a short time. He said the two ladies Anna and Ellen were instrumental in giving him a chance of devoting his life to freedom. The plaque contains one of Douglass's quotes:

I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.

Val provided us with some interesting print outs from the following web sites:

Former-slave-freed-newcastle

 Anna_Richardson_(abolitionist)

Solidarity on Tyne

Harriet-Martineau

 SEGEDUNUM ROMAN FORT

 

Our next meeting will be at the Into Newcastle Cafe, part of Newcastle University opposite the Haymarket Bus Station. We will be meeting up on Wednesday 9 May 10:30, we will be continuing the Slavery in The North East project and we will have a generic quiz on the Medieval Period.

Meeting Notes March 2018

Another good attendance at the Into Newcastle cafe with plenty to discuss and catch up with members we have not seen for a while. We started off with a discussion on the various films that have been made on location here in the North East. This followed on from our Cinema project from last month. Val produced a list of some of the films that had locations here, can you think of any more?

Becket, The Railway Man, Dessy(Bollywood movie), I Daniel Blake, One night in Turin, Purely Better, The Likely Lads Film, Road(1987), Stormy Monday (1988) Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (1991), Alien 3 (1992), Robinson in Space(1997) Elizabeth (1995), The One and Only (2002), Atonement (2007), We are Not Like Them (2013), Bypass (2014), Transformers (2016), Lady Macbeth (2016).

Get Carter

The  Little Book of Newcastle by J Sadler and R Serdiville mentions; Get Carter as the most iconic movie to be made in and around Newcastle, released on 10 March 1971. Widely regarded as the best UK gangster movie of all time. The choice of locations was determined by director Mike Hodges and the entire production went from concept to screen in just eight months with 40 days' intensive filming on Tyneside. Not many people will forget Trinity Centre multi-storey car park in Gateshead, now home to one of the largest Tesco stores in the country where Alf Roberts (Brian Mosley) in Coronation Street meets his demise.

TyneMouth Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House

Irean mentioned a trip she had to the Museum and suggested that we meet up in the near future to take a conducted tour more news next month.

Shelagh saw a very interesting historic panel in St James and St Basils Church at Fenham:
https://www.jamesbasilfenham.org.uk/ read below the almost untold storey of Ruth Nicholson:

Ruth Nicholson and the Scottish Women’s Hospital

https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2016/10/28/people-dont-know-about-them/

https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/pioneers-ruth-nicholson-frcog-1931/

Ruth Nicholson was born in 1884 the eldest child of the Rev Canon Ralph Nicholson and Margret Nicholson. Ralph was for some years curate and later vicar of St Stephens in Elswick. Margaret a forward-thinking woman, encouraged not only her son but her daughters to acquire professional qualifications and Ruth decided at an early age to train as a doctor. Ruth graduated from Durham University in 1909 the only woman in her year at Newcastle School of Medicine.
At the outbreak of war, Ruth joined a volunteer medical unit. However, standing on the platform at London’s Victoria Station about to depart she experienced the humiliation of being rejected by the doctor in charge who refused to have a woman on his staff. Undated Ruth immediately contacted Dr Elsie Inglis, the founder of the Scottish Woman’s Hospitals, a pre-war colleague whose offer of a 100-bed hospital run by women was turned down by the war Office; My good lady go home and sit still she was told.

Fortunately, the French were more welcoming and offered Dr Inglis the beautiful 13th Century Abbey of Royaumont, 30 kms north of Paris. Miss Frances Ivens was posted there as medical chief. Ruth Nicholson served as a surgeon and second in command at Royaumont from its opening in January 1915 until its closure in 1919.

The hospital at the Abbey of Royaumont

The Abby was bitter cold with no heating or lighting or lifts and the plumbing was medieval. It was also filthy having been uninhabited or used as stables for over a decade. With additional funding from the Women’s Suffrage movement Miss Ivens established what became the largest continuously operating voluntary hospital in France, initially with 100 beds and later, at the requests of the French military, it was expanded to 500 beds. The hospital was entirely run by women: surgeons physicians, scientists, nurses’ orderlies’ administrators, the Chronicler (who kept the records), ambulance drivers and mechanics, all women and many of them unpaid volunteers.

The only exceptions were two male patients who returned to help; one a skilled mechanic the other a celebrity chef who was an inspired cook with a gift for finding food in difficult circumstances. Laurence Binyon the pot also visited Royaumont several times and wrote enthusiastically of its work.
The hospital was very close to the front line and at peak times it was admitting as many as seventy patients a day, many suffering from new types of wounds caused by machine gun fire and shrapnel, one ward had over 100 beds and linen was so short new patients were often put in old sheets. A total of 10,861 patients were treated as inpatients, of whom 8,752 were soldiers manly French and French Colonials. A few British and American troops and some German prisoner of war were also admitted, together with 1,537 civilians, most of them out-patients. The death rate for the injured servicemen was 1.82%, a tribute to the skill of the surgeons and nurses when medical science had so little to offer.

The hospital was heavily in the offensives of 1915, the Somme battles of 1916 and the final struggle of 1918 when the casualty clearing station was overrun. Throughout this time Ruth Nicholson worked as a surgeon, in fact she and Miss Ivens were the only doctors to stay for the entire war. Alison Nicholson Ruth’s younger sister, served at Royaumont as a volunteer auxiliary nurse from 1916. When the Armistice was declared on the 11th November 1918, Miss Ivens and Ruth were chaired around the hospital to the strains of the Marseilles and God save the King and cheers from patients and staff alike.

After the War

The French army were prompt and generous with its decorations for the staff a Royaumont. Ruth and twenty-two of her colleagues received the Croix de Guerre and Miss Ivens was also awarded the Legion d’Honnur, the first foreign woman to receive this medal in France. After the war Ruth specialised in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She gained a consultant post in Liverpool and later succeeded Francis Ivens in her post at Liverpool University. She developed a reputation for inspiring confidence in her patients and was known for her sympathy and dedication. Furthermore, and perhaps unusually, she was a favourite with the nurses.

Ruth Nicholson become one of the first Fellows of the new College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the first woman President of the North of England Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
After the war and until the 1960’s, the Royaumont women met for regular reunions. The storey of the Scottish Women’s Hospital at Royaumont was published in 1977. Ruth Nicholson died in 1963, having been nursed, at the end by one of the Royaumont Sisters.

Ruth Nicholson
Born 02-Dec-1884
Died 18-Jun-1963
Residence: 32 Kenilworth Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne (1911 Census)
Education: Durham University

Shelagh adds’ I hope the doctor who refused Ruth to have her on his staff, was alive to see her remarkable achievements.'

I can only add that dinosaurs still roam the corridors of institutions with their intolerance and inability to see equality and diversity in women today.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday 11 April10:30am,  in our new venue, our next project is to look into the Local History connections to the Slave trade.

February Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes for February

Our new meeting venue at the Newcastle University cafe in the Haymarket ; which is on theformer site of the Haymarket pub which we will mention later. We got off to a good start with the highest number of members attending since we began. There was plenty of room for us and refreshments were quite reasonable both in price and quality. I was reminded of the time I first went to university and was told to meet my lecturer in the Reflectory. I though what’s a reflectory, a sort of conservatory with mirrors? I had miss heard, it was the Refectory;  a posh academic word for canteen. If you think that was a bad introduction wait until you read more of my anecdotes about Cinemas in Newcastle which brings us on to the main topic for February which was a project done by our members on:

The Haymarket and other Cinemas

We had a bit of duplication of efforts with the Haymarket Cinema but as the information came from different sources it was good to have these as verification. I have summarized our members efforts here and many thanks to Val, Moira, Shelagh, Andrew and Irene for their input.

Newcastle Haymarket Cinema in Percy Street was opened on 21 December 1933 by Dixon Scott, later of Newcastle / Tyneside Cinema fame. The film shown at the opening was “Just Smith” with Tom Walls. The architecture style was Egyptian and a dramatic combination of oriental and art deco said to be inspired by a Cairo Cinema and Dixon Scott’s extensive travels in the middle  east and far east. Dixon Scott had been in the business for 25 years and used the profits from cinemas he already owned in a number of small northern towns including Jarrow, Prudhoe and North Shields., together with money raised from investors, to provide the £50,000 capital required to build his new cinema. Dixon Scott also commissioned the news theatre on Pilgrim Street which is now the Tynside Cinema. He died in 1939 and was buried in Egypt.

Haymarket (Newcastle libraries (Flickr)

There are various numbers for its seating capacity between 1280-2000 people, this corresponds to its acquisition and enlargement by  ABC during 1935-36 period. Previous to its acquisition by ABC, the cinema was described as a cinema with emphasis on leg room and luxury offering a continuous programme which included two feature films that had previously opened in other cities first. Scott’s  policy was to play the best of what had been relinquished by the cities main cinemas. After 1936 the cinemas ran first run films by MGM, Warner Brothers and Associated British Pictures in competion to the Paramount and Queens cinemas.  The accent on luxury went as far as having a upstairs Hunters the  Bakers restaurant used for functions and press shows later to be taken over by Carricks the Bakers who ran a cafe there. In 1942 the cinema was seriously damaged by fire and due to wartime shortages of materials remained closed for seven months before opening with luxurious upholstery fashioned out of newly discovered Dunlopillo and velvet.

Haymarket (Newcastle Libraries (Flickr)

The ABC Haymarket business prospered and was one of the biggest cinema money-makers in the UK. However this was not to last and it became disadvantaged by being compulsory purchased by Newcastle University (Kings College Durham University until 1963) in the early 1950’s by means of a National Act of Parliament for Universities to purchase land. ABC was to continue to use the Cinema on a 5 year lease from the University, because the lease back periods were short term ABC was reluctant to invest large capital sums into the building this would have included widening the relatively narrow presidium  during the wide screen era of thee 1950’s and 1960’s or by conversion to multiscreen during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In 1974 when the University offered a 6 month leasehold, ABC, by now a part of EMI, acquired the Essoldo which was in financial difficulty instead. This prompted the University to have a change of heart and offer a new 5 year lease which ABC accepted and proceeded to carry out a full refurbishment.

Haymarket (Newcastle Libraries (Flickr)

After ABC declined the offer of a 3 year lease the Haymarket closed 20^th September 1984 the final film was Prince in “Purple Rain”.  Along with its neighbour the Haymarket public house it was demolished in 1985-87. The demolishing of the Haymarket public house was met with some impassioned opposition and its regulars turned out in Victorian Funeral dress on its last day of business. The pub had opened in 1833 and items from the pub were salvaged with the intention of refitting them into the Cumberland Arms Byker.

The struggle for Sunday opening

Val found some information about the struggle for Sunday Opening:

All picture halls were licensed under the Cinematography Act of 1909 with local authorities responsible for the regulation of cinemas within their jurisdiction. In Newcastle the local authority was steadfastly opposed to Sunday opening although many neighbouring authorities were more liberal. The chief opponents of Sunday opening were the churches, the trade unions and owners of smaller cinemas who feared the threat of the hooliganism and damage done by Sunday night audiences elsewhere. The main pressure for Sunday opening came from the large circuit cinemas.

The Sunday Entertainments Act 1932 permitted the opening of cinemas on Sunday often on  a vote of the townspeople and after debating the issue 4 times in 4 years the committee agreed to a public vote. A poll of electors was held on 30 October 1952. A 20% turnout resulted in a 2 to 1 victory for Sunday opening and licenses were issued in April 1953.

30,000 queued up to attend the 24 cinemas in Newcastle which opened from the first Sunday shows but only the Haymarket had thought to start its week on Sunday rather than Monday else where cheaper, older films proved a disappointment. Other cinemas quickly followed the example of the Haymarket but it was all something of a hollow victory because Sunday opening coincided with a decline in cinema audiences. UK cinema attendances peaked at 1.64 billion in 1946 and dropped to 54 million in 1984.

The Palace Theatre

Irene found some interesting information on the Palace Theatre:

The Place Theatre of Varieties, started out its life in 1889 and was known as the Peoples Palace, built on Percy Street and St Thomas Street, where the Oxfam shop is now. By 1895 a new theatre was designed by Newcastle architect J. W. Taylor, this was a reconstruction on the original Peoples Palace, built on the same site, when opened on 23 December 1895 this was known as the Palace Theatre.

Palace Theatre (Newcastle Libraies)

This new theatre could seat upwards of 2,000 people. The auditorium was built on three levels; the pits, stalls, two circles and four boxes. The stalls were fitted with tip up seats, richly upholstered in dark crimson plush with gold embellishments, the whole theatre is lit with electric lighting.

The stage covered a large area and is adequate to almost any production, the dressing rooms are amply provided for the comfort of the artists. By 1903 the theatre was deemed to be in need of alteration and redecoration. In the main entrance from the Haymarket side, the new stairs are of marble, there were heavy mahogany panels, and plush thick carpets, paintings in the ceiling panels, were muses. The interior of the theatre had been entirely redecorated and refurbished. In 1908 the theatre was visited by King Edward the VII and Queen Alexandra, who came to Newcastle to open the R.V.I. and the new wing of the Armstrong college on 11 July 1906. The theatre closed in 1958 when the touring shows dried up and TV was growing in popularity. The theatre was demolished in 1961. A row of unremarkable shops stand on the theatre site today

The building news and engineering journal provided information on the construction of the 1895 theatre

A Few Recollections

Sadly my contribution is a bit more anecdotal:

When I was a young lad in the 1950’s I lived in the West End of Newcastle.  In those times there were lots of local cinemas and I was lucky to live 20 minutes from the Regal on Two Ball Lonen. One of the first films I saw was when my elder sisters took me to see Hop along Cassity which we thought was a cowboy film showing but it turned out to be a cute cartoon about a grass hopper called Hoppity Goes to Town aslo known as Mr bug goes to town.. It was the first film I saw in colour.

There was another cinema about two miles away at Benwell called the Rex. It was here that my friends from the street would go every Saturday morning to see the matinee which was a Laurel and Hardy comedy and an adventure of Flash Gordon who each week seemed to fall off a cliff or was trampled by some horses driven by the Merciless Ming only to return unscathed, the following week.  I remember we had a long walk back home each week because we spent the bus fare money on sweets.

The first film I saw at the Haymarket was Pirates of Blood River with Burt Lancaster by that time there was only a single feature film because films had become longer. Before that there was usually two films an A film which was the feature film and a B film which was much shorter, or Pathe News was shown to fill out the session.

The first film I saw in glorious CinemaScope at the Haymarket was How the West Was Won. CinemaScope was a process where a special lens called an anthropomorphic lens would create a wide view of the scene filmed. This would have been twice the width of conventional screens and almost the same format as we view today but via a different process. The cinemas screens would have to be enlarged for these viewings. Many of the smaller theatres would be stuck with the conventional format screen.

As the screen size got wider and bigger so did the film productions. I remember How the West Was Won was so long at the time that you had to have an intermission for the projectionist to change reels and for those who wanted to spend a penny. Another intermission film I saw at the Haymarket was Laurence of Arabia, now we sit for up to 3 hours with crossed legs.

The last film I saw at the Haymarket before it was purchased by the University of Newcastle and torn down was Superman the Movie with the late Christopher Reaves. Advertised as you will believe a man could fly. I remember coming out at 10pm and looking up at the sky wishing I could fly. The reality of flying brought me to a literal sicking thud to the ground when in the early eighties I was asked to take some photographs from a helicopter over Northumberland. I was so ill in the back of the helicopter that I filled three sick bags. I could not face the prospect of taking them back to Newcastle Airport, so I stuffed them out of a small ventilation slot in the back-passenger window to my dismay and the residents of Morpeth Town three bags of exploding vomit would be coming their way.

 Hi again friends,

Our latest offering is a humble tribute to master engraver and artist, Thomas Bewick.

Thanks to John Mitchell for his sympathetic video - great work John.

You will notice that 'Our Ben' (Benedict Alpin) features again on mandolin. We think it is about time he joined us more formally. Ben has kindly accepted our offer and is therefore now part of the Sawdust Jacks songwriting project. Thanks Ben.

This song also features John Mitchell on lead guitar and John Leslie Jnr. on acoustic guitar.

We hope you like it.

As usual, the link is below

Best wishes.

John Leslie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsa4zr0Ox48

 

 

 Our next meeting will be held at Newcastle University cafe in the Haymarket (Into Newcastle University) opposite the Haymarket Bus Station, Wednesday 14 March 10:30.

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.

Our next meeting will be at the new venue INTO Newcastle Building, Barras Bridge Wednesday February 14, 10:30 am