Folly Road, Blyth

[Phodgetts]

This has been an interesting subject to look into, though it has to be said that there seems to be nothing written about the folly. 

However, Blyth did indeed have a 'folly'! I never new that, so thank you very much for asking the question. I just hope you get an update via email that this subject is still alive. The folly can be seen on this small extract taken from an 1860 map of Blyth. I cannot decipher if the 'folly' was behind the Horse & Wagon pub or if it is the small round object marked on the map close to the end of the rope walk under the 'F' of the word folly. I am guessing that it is the 'round' structure marked beside the rope walk, now the site of number 12 Rosamond Place. Wonderful stuff. Just wish I was living much closer to Blyth and Woodhorn so I could research it more fully.

It is purely a guess, but it might be something to do with the Ridley family. The whole of the land in the Blyth area was part of the Ridley Estate.

Wonderful stuff! 

Philip

[Phodgetts]

Has to be said on closer inspection and with comparison of the 1897 map that the folly was likely under what is now 83 Stanley Street. Certainly within a few feet of that location anyways.

Philip

[Michael Dixon]

 Philip,

 I hope someone tackles a proper bit of research into the matter of the "Folly".

 My concept of Blyth's Folly is that it was an area that earned the title of Folly rather than a construction.

 Where Union and Beaconsfield Streets are today, used to be a wide swamp-like tidal area with no housing. Eventually work on better defining the south bank of the River Blyth succeeded on keeping this area dry and the building of streets.

The southern part got the name "Folly" as this was where a local entrepreneur sited his salt pans. His venture failed. New street built near site of failure gets called Folly Street, now Park Road.

Just at the south end of Beaconsfield St there was pub called Royal Tavern. This pub/hotel started in 1889 when licence was transferred from the Waggon in Folly Road.

 Maybe I am just perpetuating an old wife's tale that has no basis in fact ?

Notice on the 1860 Ordnance Survey map, the dotted line running along Plessey Road then turning northwards through the middle of the Gut. This was the boundary between the two parishes of Horton (west) and Earsdon (east)

Bridge St in the centre of today's Blyth got it's name from bridge(s) constructed to prevent wet feet
(site was supposed to be adjacent to the Blockbuster shop)

Michael

[Pete E]

It appears to me that "Blyth Folly" on the map is indicating either the houses to the left of the name or that area of the map rather than a "thing".

[Phodgetts]

I sought out the thread you mentioned Michael and thought I'd link to it so as to have as much information as possible gathered to one spot. Thanks for the heads up on it.

Philip

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,331622.0.html

[Michael Dixon]

 Last night TV Channel BBC2  showed the programme "Coast" featuring Brittany, France.

 Presenter Neil Oliver visited modern day operations in Guerande of harvesting salt from
 "salt marshes". Workers shovelled the shallow water back and forth , helping the sun evaporate the sea water, leaving the salt deposits.

Past salt operations in Britain made up for the lack of sunshine by encouraging sea evaporation by boiling the sea water in saltpans ( Low Pans at Cambois, Hartley Pans at Seaton Sluice, Howden Pans at Wallsend,)

 So did a Blyth entrpreneur try the same in the messy tidal area of the Blyth Gut ( once called Cowpen Brook).

Looking at the 1860 Ordnance Survey map of 1860, I wonder what those rectangle shapes are just to the south of Bridge Street, to the east of the Gut. Gardens or what ?

httm://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/004891FS.htm

[kathboon]

Wow, loads of information regarding the Folly.  Unfortunately I have now been informed that 'Donkin's Folly' was not in Blyth at all, so has no connection with Folly road.
My cousin has since told me that Donkin's Folly was actually in Cramlington.  It was on the roundabout outside the MSD factory.  It was a brick structure that actually looked like a derelict windmill, but it was actually used to help sink a pit to see if there was any coal underground.  Her grandmother (my g.aunt) said that her father sank a pit shaft there, but came up with nothing (this would probably be around 1880ish as my g.aunt was born in 1876).  It wasn't until the 1900s that people realised that the whole area was  full of coal (but on the surface.  She was often said to be really saddened by the fact that her father had failed to find coal.

[Phodgetts]

A little more info re the Folly and the salt pans, whether related or not!

It would be good to refer to the Ridley Papers. I have no idea where they will currently be, if they still exist. They do make mention of 8 salt pans in Blyth, 4 at North Blyth and two pans at The Folly. 

Heavy taxation ruined the industry which by 1825 was in severe decline nationally. I have no idea whether some salt was produced at Blyth in the years after that, because the last of the old salt pans was not destroyed until 1876!

The juicy bit I am waiting to get to can now be imparted to you. Two men, James Nelson and a man by the name of Douglas (I assume surname) tried to revive the trade in Blyth in 1838, probably using some the abandoned pans in Blyth, possibly even the ones at the location we are now discussing as The Folly. Sad to say that their efforts did not pay off.

So over to the experts now. Where are the Ridley Papers? Can they be read?

Philip

I have got the above info from an old book published in 1971 titled 'Blyth in the Eighteenth Centruy' by W.R. Sullivan published by the Oriel Press, ISBN 0 85362 135 7

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL7278747W/Blyth_in_the_eighteenth_century

[kathboon]

Hi Phodgetts, regarding the Ridley Papers.  If you are meaning any papers regarding the Blagdon Hall Ridleys, these papers are kept in the archives at Woodhorn.  The only reason I know this is that my g.g.g.grandfather was a Colliery Agent for the Ridleys and when I wrote to Blagdon Hall to see if they had any information on this fact, they directed me to the archives at Woodhorn