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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: Pete E on Monday 02 June 08 15:38 BST (UK)
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Thought I would share this photograph with Rootschatters. Taken in the early to mid 1930's it shows a group of children with their nurse who I understand were recovering from Scarlet Fever at a fever hospital in Blyth. This hospital (?) was supposed to be located at Monkeys island and Blyth Staithes are visible in the background. My mother Irene Murray is on the left of the back row in the bonnet. Does anybody recognise the other children or know more about the hospital?
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There were two hospitals. If you go to http://gis.durham.gov.uk/website/interMAP/viewer.htm and do a post code search on NE245TG it will center the map on where one of the Infectious Diseases Hospitals was. If you zoom out and go to the 1938-50 map both hospitals are shown. They appear to have been built in the late 19th Century.
Stan
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The 1866 Sanitary Act (29&30 Vict., c.90) introduced penalties for persons suffering from dangerous infectious diseases who endangered others in public places, and gave powers to authorities to provide hospitals or contract for the use of hospitals or parts thereof. The 1893 Isolation Hospitals Act (56&57 Vict., c.68) enabled provincial county councils to establish isolation hospitals.
Stan
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Thanks for that Stan, located both the hospitals and viewed locale from above courtesy of Google earth. Wondering if they were for different diseases or if one was for children and the other for adults?
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Apparently it was Bedlingtonshire Urban District Isolation Hospital, Staith Quay, and there was also the Bedlington Fever Hospital.
Stan
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The Bedlington Fever Hospital was at Stakeford, Sleekburn.
Stan
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I hope this response generates more interest in the wonderful photo given now that there are more Blyth folk helping out with the Northumberland stuff.
This fever hospital was on the site of Monkey's Island also known as Factory Point. There had been an alkali factory on the site prior to the hospital.
In the background behind the children can be seen the West Staith which juts out into the River Blyth from the North side on an almost true North - South alignment. Factory Point is still a bit of an open space / wilderness with not much else to see in the close proximity of the Point. Judging by the shadows in the photo the sun is shining on their south side perhaps with a tiny bit of West in it, so I estimate the time of the photo to be late morning to early afternoon perhaps a little later if the photo was taken high summer.
This hospital was destroyed in an air raid in WWII. The site is now a boat storage yard with a slipway into the river.
Here is a photo of the hospital. I hope you get an email reminder Fremund.
Philip ;D
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I don't know what this hospital was used for. Perhaps someone can tell us.
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From the OED;
cottage hospital n. a small hospital, in a cottage or similar building, and without a resident medical staff, provided for the wants of a small community; also, a hospital arranged on the principle of having a number of detached cottages or buildings.
Stan
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Could anyone, including Philip, read the cottage hospital photo and determine where this building lay.
I am no expert on Cambois, but could it be ?
Michael
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A wonderful photo of the cottage hospital. In the background to the right of Bath Terrace is the South Staith. I think some also forget the significance of this photo today. The narrow patch of ground to the left of the hospital, that runs down that wall is the south most ropewalk of the two in this area of Blyth! If you look carefully you can also make out one of the buildings of the ropery. It is shame in some respects that the small trees on the opposite fence of the hospital mask the other low buildings of the ropery even though it would not have been in use at the time of this photo.
The photographer for this picture would have had his back to numbers 78 / 80 Folly Road as it was then (today's Park Road). The view towards Bath Terrace as was, is now obscured by the 'new' houses built on what is today Ridley Ave. and Park View. If you were to stand at the junction of Ridley Ave. and Park Road you can just about recreate the modern view with the old one. The land to the right side of the road in the hospital picture became Ridley Park, so the hospital photo predates the park. I guesstimate the photo was taken very late 1890's possibly 1900 / 01 but certainly no later than that. If memory serves me correct the Park House date stone says 1903?
Philip
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Hi Michael, here is a section of 1897 map showing the exact location of the hospital.
Philip
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In amongst hundreds of old Blyth photos I have collected, there is this one of the old hospital and the Bates Loaders circa 1935.
Philip
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Philip,
Super photo, and showing Cowpen Square, which has been discussed before
( showing the lavatories in middle of square, supposed culprits of epidemcs in 1800s) and the Sleek Burn at top.
Michael
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And how could I overlook the Goldern Fleece, at bottom left. One of my first pubs- great jukebox in late 1950s. And the local crack was avoid drinking there at high tide- as the beer cellars flooded lol.
Michael
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Glad you like it Michael ;D Do you know what the piece of land is that juts out into the river from the west side of the Sleek Burn mouth? That always intrigued me as it doesn't look like a natural feature of the river. You probably already know, but I do like a quizz once in while.
Philip
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Philip,
I don't know what that feature was. But my father, a Haltwhistle man who lived in Bebside but pent most of his working life down Bedlington "A" Pit, at Bedlington Station, always went on about how getting coal out of the ground was only the start of the difficulties and how getting the coal to a port was another.
Hence the Plessey pit owners developed the Plessey wooden waggonway to get coal to Blyth Harbour because the charge by landowners for taking the coal via the River Blyth was so expensive.
So I think that feature at mouth of Sleek Burn was a loading point for coal onto ships.
Greenwoods map of 1828
( http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006972FS.htm) shows a path/road from Bedlington area to the water's edge. Notice the place Mount Pleasant.
Map of north eastern waggonways ( and mineral railways)
http://sites.google.com/site/waggonways/nz/25/nz2585
shows a railway/waggonway following a similar route, just north of Mount Pleasant.
Michael
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Spot on Michael. That was the staith the Netherton Colliery used for exporting coal from the area. That is a unique subject on its own though. The colliery had a special vessel built named the 'Bedlington' which went into service circa 1842. It could carry 40 chaldrons of coal, about 95 tons. It collected the chaldrons from that staith and took them down to the Tyne where using it's own steam powered derricks the 'Bedlington' hoisted the chaldrons aloft and tipped the coal into waiting ships. It ran backwards and forwards from the Blyth to the Tyne until 1851 when it was sold to a Scottish ferry company that operated ferries across the Firth of Forth. It's service there as a ferry was short lived as it was then acquired as a transport vessel for the Crimean War effort. The vessel was lost during storms in the Baltic in November 1854. The Navy lost many vessels that night in the Black Sea too. I'd love to know where the vessel lies. In the frigid waters of the Baltic I imagine she is in a fine state of preservation. I'd love to see and image of her or even a plan of the mighty little ship. She was unique and most certainly a 'first'! I wonder if Newcastle or Woodhorn have any archive material relating to the little ship?
There are also some remnants of Netherton Staiths higher up the river which were used prior to the 'new' staith at the mouth of the Sleek Burn. They can be seen form the A189 river bridge over the River Blyth. In my youth a tug boat was moored there, I believe for renovation as a live aboard. I have heard that the tug was eventually scrapped! Amazing that some of the staith timbers are still visible all these years later, though in a decrepit state.
Philip
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Philip,
Been Bebside-born, the riverside, both banks, was my regular play area.
Still further up the river, from Kitty Brewster, on both sides of the Stone Bridge
( or the "Furnace Bridge" )were walls with metal rings.
Back to hospital angle.... On the 1897 Ordnance Survey map of 1897, 6 " version,
(httm://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006192FS.htm )
at the top is Infectious Diseases Hospital. To my eye this looks to be in different place to the one on the riverside ?
Michael
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There were two hospitals. If you go to http://gis.durham.gov.uk/website/interMAP/viewer.htm and do a post code search on NE245TG it will center the map on where one of the Infectious Diseases Hospitals was. If you zoom out and go to the 1938-50 map both hospitals are shown. They appear to have been built in the late 19th Century.
Stan
Yes, I got myself in a tizzy over the hospital location, thinking all manner of things like it could even be a cartographic error heaven forbid! Actually there were two hospitals in the vicinity of Factory Point, one on the Point itself and another hospital that is masked by trees a little to the west. If you can manage to follow the layers of maps as Stan above pointed out, the map reveals the two hospitals in close proximity to eachother. The 1898 map misses off Factory Point and only shows the hospital to the west and the map omits to include the wooded area. That is what threw me initially because the photo I have of the hospital has no visible trees and the original posters photo is def. on Factory Point.
I would post an image of the map showing both hospitals but I think there will a copyright problem and I don't want to get into trouble, so please try and see if you can look up the historical maps on the above link.
Philip
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I have managed to find a photo from my collection that includes the area where the hospitals were. The photo I posted of the tin shack and the nurse stood outside is the building on Factory Point.
Philip
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I wonder if there is indeed a difference between Monkey's Isalnd and Factory Point. I thought they were one and the same, but it would make sense if Monkey's Island was the hospital surrounded by trees. Factory Point of course was the place where the old alkali works was.
Any thoughts among the locals?
Philip
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Re Factory Point and Monkey's Island, I think they are two different locations. In the 1950s lived at Cowpen and used to end up at the location where the hospital had stood. We always referred to Monkey's Island as the land across the river on the Cambois side, more or less directly opposite.
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pyfB,
Well it just shows you ....... I lived at Bebside then at Cowpen from 1952 and to me and my gang, Monkey's Island was on southern bank ( i.e. Cowpen) of the River !
Mick the Chimp.
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Michael, That is about the same 'era' we were kids playing in that area. I remember when we went down from Cowpen Road, past John Street, etc., and the corner shop/off licence, to get down to the river bank, before the sewage works were built there. If I remember correctly we may have seen your gang, and we assumed that you had swum across from Monkey's Island, so we all fled home shreiking and screaming. Generally got the belt for telling lies, saying that we had seen wild animals swim across from the island. ;D
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As a young lass I always thought there were 'real monkeys' down that way but could never understand why I never sow any ha ha!! How gullable can one be.
Barbara
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Some great responses and photos thanks all; sadly no other names for the children :-[
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Interesting view of the hospital sites as they were on the 1907 Blyth Harbour Commission map of that year. ;D
Philip
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Philip, Interesting post your last one with the map. Going back to your post on 21 September, 2011, - the aerial photograph. I am trying to get my bearings on the photo. I can see the river and the two points you have circled in red. There also seems to be the road running up towards Cowpen. I am assuming that the buildings at the bottom of the photograph are the streets of terraced houses which run back towards Blyth town centre, Salisbury Street, Goschen Street, Wright Street, etc. ? There is also a square towards the right hand side of the photo, so presumably Cowpen Square ?
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Hoping a little extra labelling will help. Trying to rotate maps in the minds eye and match them up with what we currently know and understand in 3D can be a little difficult, but you have got it right thus far especially with Cowpen Road and Cowpen Square.
Enjoy
Philip
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Philip,
A great panarama of north-east Cowpen !.
With Cowpen Cemetery ( civil cem opened c1877) just "under" John Street.
Michael
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Hello and this makes for very interesting reading, especially with events we have at work.
We've had what some may call "supernatural" occurrances for a long time however over recent weeks they've seemed to become more frequent at night. There's nothing sinister, more like playful and michievious. Several employees on late shift or night shift have seen on rare occasions a childlike figure, thought to be a girl (one relative picking up a daughter witnessed a girl in our doorway but the employee leaving was the only female on the premises), and very often there's movement sensed by employees or shadows moving that are human shadows.
After some unusual activity tonight my colleague and I had decided that it was time to research the site and find out what was previously on our location before the industrial estate was built. I'm from Yorkshire (hence the name) and my colleague is from Wallsend so we have no real knowledge of the area's history.
I stumbled across this thread purely by accident and was stunned when I saw the location of one of the hospitals on which is now Spencer Road / Cowley Road. What has really stopped me in my tracks is a snippet of information about a mortuary for that hospital which was said to be a few hundred yards away from the main hospital building. Now I'm the first to admit from old maps it's quite hard to judge a modern location however if my bearings are right I would guess this mortuary was located right by the river on what is now a tight right hand bend just after the APS factory and Northumberland Council Depot.
Can anyone confirm or deny this please?
If this is true then it would explain a great deal. If not then we're barking up the wrong tree and need to look for another reason for her presence. Whatever the reason is I'm determined to find it.
I have to put hand on heart and say in no way has she ever appeared threatening or made anyone feel at unease. Quite the opposite. The child-like antics of switching lights on or opening blinds etc when you know you've done your rounds to lock up make you give that old father-like grumble of "Bloody kids" but it is very funny in hindsight.
And for those that wonder about spirits or "ghosts", my late wife was a true psychic, not like the TV ones, she never charged a penny to anyone, and as sceptical as a dry Yorkshireman can be I can tell you hand on heart there are things we can't explain with science (to put it mildly).
So if anyone can offer any light on this then we'd be most grateful. The subject of a mortuary may be a grim one but our little "friend" is far from grim and keeps us on our toes.
Matt
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8) Cheers Matt, I certainly never expected this slant when I started the thread. Thanks to everyone else who has posted also for the great pics, maps and info.
Pete
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Well, I could imagine that quite a number of folk died at the hospital. Perhaps your wee ghostie is someone that died of illness there. Perhaps it is someone who got killed at the site when it was hit by a bomb during WW2.
I wonder what records exist about the hospital and its demise? Time to grill some of the oldies in Blyth about what they have heard happened. Hopefully there will be some hand-me-down stories that might explain it.
P
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I don't know what this hospital was used for. Perhaps someone can tell us.
In the last few days I have discovered an article about the hospitals that I never knew existed. It should answer all or most of our questions about the development of the hospitals in Blyth. The article includes the exact same image of the cottage hospital that you shared with us.
The article appeared in Tyne & Tweed in spring of 1983. I have looked for copyright notice and reproduction restrictions within the publication and there are NONE! On the basis of that, I feel free to post the article in full on this forum. It is definitely of such local importance that it should be brought into the public domain and a modern media format so that others can benefit from and enjoy the article and information that it holds.
This is the first instalment
Some Notes On Blyth Hospitals
By James Scott (for Tyne & Tweed 1983)
(formerly the deputy headmaster at Ridley High School and founder member of the Blyth Local History Society and Blyth Railway Museum)
In the autumn of 1832 cholera morbus reached Blyth, it's first victim being Peggy Lamb, a widow living in Church Street. A day or two later Andrew Steel, a roper, died and before the epidemic subsided eighty of Blyth's then population of 3000 had succumbed to 'the mysterious scourge'.
During the 1832 epidemic a young doctor, Gilbert Ward, came to Blyth. He was a Newcastle man, and his early medical training was with Dr. Andrew Trotter at North Shields. He continued in practice in Blyth throughout the subsequent cholera visitations of 1848 (when six or seven died within three weeks) and 1853 (when about 20 died).
There still was no provision in Blyth for isolating infectious patients, which was a special problem when seamen in port needed medical treatment ashore. Often, a lodging house keeper was persuaded to take in the sick man. In 1863, however, a French sailor was found to have typhoid fever. Dr. Ward at that time was French Vice-Consul for the port, and made himself responsible for finding a lodging-house keeper wiling to offer accommodation. The sailor gradually recovered, but the keeper caught the fever and almost died.
When told of this incident Sir Matthew White Ridley, landowner of most of Blyth, generously placed a cottage rent free, for the use of Dr. Ward, and so was established Blyth's first hospital. The site was at the Park Road end of Ridley Avenue. The Cottage Hospital was used not only for infectious diseases but also for accidents and other cases. While the costs of running this establishment seem to have been borne by the South Blyth Local Board it was generally known as 'Dr. Ward's', because of the doctor's great interest and work in it.
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and the next;
Dr. Ward was a prime mover in the establishment of the next Blyth hospital to be mooted. This was designed to be a memorial to Thomas Knight, a self made Blyth business-man and ship-owner. Thomas Knight had started life as a seaman in 1818. By thrift and hard work he saved enough money to buy his own keel to work for the Sleekburn Coal Company. He then bought a schooner of good sailing qualities and invested in other ships, retiring as steam ships began to supersede sailing vessels. He died on 28 March, 1878, and his widow dying in April 1879, left in her will a legacy of £6000 to endow a hospital for 'the sick and lame poor of the townships of South Blyth, Newsham and Cowpen'. The hospital was to be named after Thomas Knight, and must be erected within ten years of her death, failing which the £6000 would be distributed among the next of kin.
None of Mrs. Knight's endowment might be used for the hospital building. This was to be the responsibility of the townspeople of Blyth, and was estimated as likely to cost £2500. Because of the depressed state of trade at this time there was little hope of raising such a sum (approximately £2,500,000 at 1982 values (£6.4 million as at 2012)), Dr. Ward, however, was able to persuade Sir Matthew White Ridley to donate the hospital site and a generous gift of money. Other contributions were received from the Duke of Northumberland, Lord Hastings, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Sir John Johnson, Mr. Edmund Watts, Mr. E. H. Watts and friends in London, the owners of the coal-pits at Cowpen, Bebside, Seaton Delaval, Washington, Pelaw, Burnhope and West Stanley, Messrs. Lambton bankers, and Messrs. Wood bankers. The ladies of the various churches in the town raised £251 by a bazaar. In all, over £2000 was raised, and the contract for the building was placed with J. & W. Simpson of Blyth, a firm which is still in business.
The Newcastle Daily Chronicle of Wednesday, 28 December, 1887, told readers; 'Thomas Knight was one of the leading and wealthiest of the Blyth shipowners.... a new hospital named after him is to be opened today .... the members of the hospital committee will receive Sir Matthew and Lady Ridley in the boardroom of the Mechanics Institute at 1:15 p.m. and walk in procession to the hospital. The subscribers and general public will follow. At the door of the new building Dr. Gilbert Ward (who has taken immense interest in the undertaking) will present the key to Lady Ridley and ask her to open the hospital. After Lady Ridley has declared it open a portion of scripture will be read by the Rev. Peter Peace and prayers will be offered by the Rev. W. Greenwell, Vicar of Horton. An inspection of the interior will follow and there will be a luncheon in the Lecture Hall of the Mechanics Institute. Up to the present the hospital requirements of Blyth have been met by a small cottage hospital close to Blyth links'.
At the opening ceremony Sir Matthew White Ridley praised the wisdom of Mrs. White in not providing the money for the building ---- he said it had been a stimulus for the townspeople and others to raise the money for the building so that they could earn the endowment. Mr. William Marlow Sidney, a solicitor, paid tribute to the work of Dr. Ward and said on him alone rested the honour of having erected the building.
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and the final instalment;
The hospital is described in T. Bulmer's History and Directory (1887) as 'a very effective structure, with a white fire brick casing, adjoining the Mechanics' Institute' in Beaconsfield Street. It was designed to accommodate eight bed-patients in two wards on the upper floor while on the ground floor were a large committee room, a waiting room, dispensary, two consulting rooms, a kitchen and offices. During 1913 there were 82 in-patients and 620 out-patients. In 1896 a marble bust of Dr. Gilbert Ward was placed in the entrance hall, the doctor having died in 1894.
In 1922 the Thomas Knight Memorial Hospital was enlarged, thanks to the Red Cross and the blyth War Memorial Fund, which provided the money. The re-opening ceremony was performed by Viscountess Ridley. Finally in 1948 the Hospital was absorbed into the National Health Service. Mrs. Knight's £6000 is still earning interest for the work.
Returning to provision for the fever cases, the old Cottage Hospital seems to have continued in use as an isolation hospital from 1888 (when the Knight Memorial took over its other functions) until 1893, when the Blyth Port Sanitary Authority opened their Infectious Diseases Hospital at Old Factory Point (so named from a chemical factory manufacturing alkalis and vitriol which failed there in 1836). The Isolation Hospital closed about 1938.
Dr. Gilbert Ward not only established public medical services in Blyth and stood by to give aid during the terrible pit disaster at New Hartley in 1862. An F. R. C. S., he was Medical Officer for the Tynemouth Board of Guardians; District Vaccinator; Certifying Factory Surgeon; Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths for Blyth; and latterly Chairman of the Blyth Local Board. He was a Trustee of the Blyth Mechanics Institute, a founder of the Blyth Harbour & Dock Companyand later a member of the Blyth Harbour Commission. He owned shares in several Blyth ships. His son Dr. Henry De Bord Ward was Acting Surgeon and Medical Officer at the Knight Memorial Hospital and would doubtless have succeeded Dr. Gilbert had he not pre-deceased him in 1891. His daughter married Willaim Hannay Watts, a member of a local shipping family. On one occasion Dr. Gilbert had the honour of entertaining Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, a son of Queen Victoria, at his home in Bridge Street.
On the day of Dr. Gilbert Ward's funeral police were out to control the crowds, many shops and places of business closed, blinds were drawn at the Hospital, the Mechanics Institute and the banks. Among the wreaths was one from the French Government.
Sources: John Wallace, History of Blyth (1869) & Kelly's Directory (1914)
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The Thomas Knight Memorial Hospital was demolished to make way for the new Thomas Knight care home facility. Such a shame that another old building of Blyth has been lost in the name of progress. One would have thought that they might have been able to keep and incorporate the original frontage given that it is within the Blyth Conservation Area. It was a pleasing structure. The new building which replaced it and opened in 2003 can be seen here;
http://www.tth-architects.co.uk/?pid=41&ct=p&cid=14
P
The hospital was on the east most side Beaconsfield Street. The building gable on the left is the back wall of the old Mechanics Institute / today's Library.
Nice to know that William George Armstrong of Crag Side House was involved.
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Fancy putting up such an eyesore of a building in place of such a lovely piece of architechture. I bet the new building is not there as long as the old one>
Barbara.
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Such a mine of useful information re the Thomas Knight Memorial Hospital. I did not know it had been demolished. How many of us in here were patients (as children) to have their tonsils removed ? And the treat afterwards, probably the day after the op. - jelly and ice cream. A few years after the war I suppose that was a luxury for many of us. It is still a vivid memory recovering after the op and coming out of the anaesthetic - vomiting, vomiting, and bringing nothing up but bile, plus the smell of the ether. Happy Days ?? I don't think so. It seemed to be a normal course for Blyth children to have their tonsils removed, yet having lived in various parts of the country, it was not the norm in other areas. I was also a patient in my early teens when there were 2 Polish and 1 Dutch sailors in the ward at the same time. They were from the herring boats and had been injured whilst at sea.
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I remember vividly having my tonsils out at the 'Knight Memorial' and having free ice cream afterwards from someone from the Seghini family who brought in a huge trayful.
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My mother had a spell in a scarlet fever hospital in 1920s. She lived in Throckley. Which hospital would she go to? ???
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I remember vividly having my tonsils out at the 'Knight Memorial' and having free ice cream afterwards from someone from the Seghini family who brought in a huge trayful.
Me too :)
I had scarlet fever, probably in the early 40s, and I stayed at home, we were still living with grandparents in Marine Terrace. Perhaps the hospital had been closed then.
I was put in a room with a disinfected curtain over the door, and was quarantined for 6 weeks.
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Thank you so much for this topic, particularly as I have worked out that "Mrs Knight" per posts #34 -#36 is my great-great-great-great-aunt:
Thomas Knight (widower, master mariner), of age, of South Blyth, son of George Knight (butcher), married Margaret Hogg (spinster), of age, of South Blyth, daughter of Thomas Hogg (farmer) Witnesses: Thomas Hogg, Clement Kell. Source: Durham Records Online and Free Reg.
Margaret's niece was called Margaret Knight Bennett - so I know now where that name comes from in the family. It is helping me connect a lot of dots. Lots of probate information making sense and making more family connections through this information. It is a great example of how the wider clan helps you understand your more direct relatives.
Also as a health professional it is very interesting.
Had also just come across the Lady Ridley mentioned in other family history - so thank you :) :) :)
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Wonderful stuff Nova67. Glad the info has at last had a beneficial use rather than just conversational. ;D
Thank you.
Philip
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At the risk of going off topic ::)
It is interesting with the Northumbrian tradition of surname as middle name that I have found a few examples of it being attributed to an Uncle by marriage. Sometimes it is the mother's maiden name, or something much more complicated. Often the Aunt and Uncle by marriage might be childless. I guess it was a way of honoring them and still carrying on a family name. Then this middle name might be passed down to successive generations - totally baffling the family historian ??? Check out those side arms of the tree ;D
Many thanks to you Philip!
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Hello Fremund.
I have been meaning to contribute to this post for a long time. So here is my contribution.
My mother who was born in 1931 lived at Beattie Road at Bedlington as a child. This was one of the properties on the 'Free Wood' side of the woods at Bedlington. She has mentioned a young child that she could remember - even way back then - who was sent to the Fever Hospital at the bottom of the woods but never came home. The way that she describes it is where the bus company Coopies - or Coopers have their property now. This is on the left hand side of the river at Blyth just tucked under the Kitty Brewster bridge. I hope this helps.
NG
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More information re Monkey Island at Blyth. I just found an old postcard with the title Monkey Island, and it is a scene taken on Bucks Hill Point looking to the north, taken pre 1910 whilst dredgers were making preparations to the river for the West Staith in the Upper Basin.
So this photograph places Monkey Island in a totally different place to where later generations of people put it.
Most interesting!
P
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Hi Philip
Thanks for the wonderful photograph of the Isolation Hospital you posted earlier.
Are you sure it is the one from Monkey Island and not the earlier one from down the road?
The reason I ask is that the earlier one was cruciform in shape and had trees around it, which seems to match the photograph, whilst the one on Monkey Island was T-shaped with no trees (see the attached map).
What do you think?
Regards
Richard
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Some fascinating photos. My mother was in one of the hospitals after contracting diptheria when she was a child. She used to tell us that the hospital was hit by a mine rather than a bomb - I always bowed to her first-hand knowledge (she lived on Beecher Street, quite close to the explosion). My grandma used to tell of another woman on Beecher Street, who had been nursing her baby in front of the fire when the mine exploded. The shock-waves caused a fall of soot and the distraught young mother ran into the street holding aloft her soot-covered sprog shouting "Me babby... me poor little babby". The babby came to no harm, and I was talking to her in Blyth town centre just before Chriistmas.
By the way, am I right in assuming that the building in the Monkey Island postcard is the same one seen in this photo from the Buck's Hill Mill thread (link below)? If so, does anyone know what it was?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51893012@N05/10217404016/in/set-72157641931957224
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15 – 16 April 1941 between 22.45 and 04.57
2 parachute mines and 1 shell landed in fields near the auxiliary hospital on Factory Point causing damage to the hospital and surrounding buildings.
12 March 1943
A 50 kg bomb landed in the grounds of the hospital at Factory Point – this didn’t explode and was cleared later
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Around about 1930-1933, my mother (Eva Cornick, b.1927) and her brother (Billy, b.1922) caught scarlet fever, and were put in isolation at 'the Blyth fever hospital'. They may well be on the photo, but the jpeg resolution is too low to tell - do you have a higher resolution version? I can see two potential candidates for each of them.
Regards,
AllanH.
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Hi Allan, best I have is this; I hope it helps particularly if you find your relatives.
Pete
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Hi Pete,
Many thanks for posting the higher resolution image. Having looked closer, I don't think it is my mother in the photo, but the middle row/4th from left looks like one of mum's half-cousins (I have a very similar image of her face in a family group photo). Frustratingly, I don't have the girl's name. It was a significant epidemic and I suspect that the hospital staff took pictures of their successful 'recoverees', so there may well be other surviving hospital photos. I believe that my mum's elder brother became blind in one eye due to scarlet fever.
Best regards,
Allan Hodgson.
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Please accept my apologies for going slightly off-topic , but I think it's useful to comment on Nova67's 'naming' comment (see below) from last October (2016?):
Nova67's COMMENT: It is interesting with the Northumbrian tradition of surname as middle name that I have found a few examples of it being attributed to an Uncle by marriage. Sometimes it is the mother's maiden name, or something much more complicated. Often the Aunt and Uncle by marriage might be childless. I guess it was a way of honoring them and still carrying on a family name. Then this middle name might be passed down to successive generations - totally baffling the family historian ??? Check out those side arms of the tree ;D
Many thanks to you Philip!
MY COMMENT: I mentioned my mother, Eva, and her brother, Billy (my uncle), in my previous-but-one post. My Uncle's full name was William Powell Cornick, as was my grandfather's name. My grandfather's sisters' names were Emma Powell Cornick and Emily Powell Cornick; 'Powell' was NOT as such a surname, and the 'Powell' naming tradition went back (I think) at least another two generations. As to my COUSIN Billy's full name ... I'm sure that you can guess!
Regards,
AllanH.
PS. Just recalled two memories that mum (Eva) told me (I guess around 1930):
(1) My mum's family used to go to Blyth beach (sand dunes, not cliffs). They would bring sandwiches with them and purchase a tray of tea from a nearby large building called 'Links House'.
(2) My mother used to visit her granny at Seaton Sluice near Blyth. There, she and her cousins would play on a rock that they called 'St. Mary's Island' - ring any bells? Googling has brought up nothing.
I promise not to post off-topic again, honest!
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You'll find more about Link House, including photo, on this thread -
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=488089.msg6027370#msg6027370
St. Mary's Island has a lighthouse on it - midway between Seaton Sluice and Whitley Bay
Christine
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I have family associations with Blyth Link House, Laverock Hall Farm, Stickley Farm (Sticklee Farm) and my great-great-great grandfather Timothy Potts Bennett was Superintendent of the Blyth and Newsham Cemeteries. Some of my family were born at the Cemetery.
Were these cemeteries separate?
Still wondering how the Potts name came about?!
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Just to add, St Mary's Island was historically called Bates Island.
St. Mary's Island was originally called Bates Island, Hartley Bates or Bates Hill as it was originally owned by the Bates family who were prominent locally. - Wikipedia
The Blyth & Newsham Cemetery is on Link Road (near to where Link House was), long before Blyth became a singular town, it was divided Newsham & South Blyth and Cowpen to the north :)
More info here: http://northumberlandpast.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/link-house-blyth.html
I have familial links to that building too, though far more recent.
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The gateway to the Blyth Cemetery as was;
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@55.1055749,-1.4991254,3a,75y,251.3h,83.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_Bq6_MvzRZcsnQbyuP06Nw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1?hl=en
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St Mary's Island;
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Whitley+Bay/@55.0692198,-1.4523044,3a,75y,30.86h,81.86t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sRP6Cb_GJmNq3Sy0Kez7dGA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DRP6Cb_GJmNq3Sy0Kez7dGA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D77.31008%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x487e6c207152e101:0x118a2ccfbe535cf4!8m2!3d55.046389!4d-1.4512989!6m1!1e1?hl=en
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allanh, Re Seaton Sluice, if you visited the 'rock' there, I would think it would be by using the footbridge in the harbour area; cross the footbridge and there was a pub on the other side. Go down the grassy slope and onto the rocks below. I used to go there in the 1950s. The view northwards was towards Blyth, and the view west was of the entrance to Seaton Sluice harbour. Hopefully, that will clarify things. ;)
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Allanh - if your relatives were visiting in Seaton Sluice it's a long way to walk to St. Mary's Island.
Though not quite so unusual to walk that far in those days.
My friend and I use to visit her Auntie Jane at Seaton Sliuce, and played on the rocks in Collywell Bay. There's a large rock there called Charlie's Garden, which has shrunk over the years.
http://www.superstoked.me/charlies-garden-collywell-bay-seaton-sluice-superstoked/
When I was a child it was in 2 parts close together and the dare was to jump from one to the other. I never did it.
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Thanks Blythian and phodgetts.
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In a book, "Lonely Road" by Nevil Shute, first published in 1932, there are many references to this hospital.
The book is a novel about a town with a declining shipbuilding industry. It doesn't use the name Blyth, but anyone reading it will have no difficulty recognising that the story is based upon Blyth.
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I bought Loney Road and read it yesterday. No reference or markers to Blyth or Northumberland in any setting. However on doing more research I came across this. It seems the story you refer to is actually Ruined City.
https://www.nevilshute.org/PhotoLine/PLD-1931-1940/pl-1931-1940-05.php
I shall now get a copy and read that! Fortunately I enjoyed reading Lonely Road very much.
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Phodgetts,
You are completely correct. The book based upon Blyth is Ruined City.
I can't think how I managed to get the books mixed up. Perhaps old age and mental degeneration is creeping up on me :-[ .
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What a fascinating thread!
"Please accept my apologies for going slightly off-topic , but I think it's useful to comment on Nova67's 'naming' comment (see below) from last October (2016?):
Nova67's COMMENT: It is interesting with the Northumbrian tradition of surname as middle name that I have found a few examples of it being attributed to an Uncle by marriage. Sometimes it is the mother's maiden name, or something much more complicated. Often the Aunt and Uncle by marriage might be childless. I guess it was a way of honoring them and still carrying on a family name. Then this middle name might be passed down to successive generations - totally baffling the family historian ??? Check out those side arms of the tree ;D"
I had a cousin who was delivered by C section at the Thomas Knight Memorial hospital. His three forenames were Gordon Mason Knight - the names of the surgeon and doctor and also the venue of his birth!
I'd also like to add a thanks for the image in reply 11, which shows Folly Road. Does anyone know precisely where the Wood Houses, or Wood Row, Folly Road were located? They were made of mahogany and provided a very poor quality of home, eventually being declared unfit for habitation by the medical officer for Blyth, and condemned in 1891.
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"Does anyone know precisely where the Wood Houses, or Wood Row, Folly Road were located? They were made of mahogany and provided a very poor quality of home, eventually being declared unfit for habitation by the medical officer for Blyth, and condemned in 1891"
Not an easy question to answer.
I followed the Enumerator on his travels through the 1891 census in this area of Blyth. He visited Folly Terrace 1-19, Folly Cottage Hospital, Folly Cottages 1-5, Folly Wood Houses 1-4. He then made his way to Church Street now lost under the 1896 Police Station. He then went along Northumberland Street north to south, King's Head, Star & Garter, Odd Fellows, Vicarage, Ridley Arms, Ridley Street and then Tate Street.
Various maps of the time have slightly differetn details, but the Cottage Hospital shows on both versions giving us at least one acurately identifiable location. It seems on the basis of that, that the Wood Houses were located at the end of the northern most Ropewalk. The cottages do not show on the 1896 map, but do show on the 1859 edition, and on one edition that I cannot share on here, that small row is marked as having 4 individual properties in it.
The attached map will show you what I mean. Also follow this link to the area covered in broader detail; https://maps.nls.uk/view/101027304
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Many thanks for that, Phodgetts :) as usual, you're a veritable mine of information.
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No problem Bobs Lass. Just in case you were wondering what the place looked like back in the day, check out the Cottage Hospital. Though the Wooden Houses cannot be seen in this image, they would have been just out of sight off to the left.
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Thanks again. I've often wondered if they were demolished after they were condemned as not fit to live in, fell down after further decay, or the plot sold on by the landlord. He obviously wasn't prepared to invest in the major repairs detailed in the Medical officer of health's report.
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No doubt the Landlord sold them to make a quick and easy few pounds. This area of Blyth was redeveloped as of 1896 onwards, new buildings went up along the newly built road and houses of Ridley Avenue and Park View. Forster Street, Percy Street, Horton Street and Rosamond Place all went up in quick succession. Wooden Houses stood in front of the gables of Stanley Street South which can be seen in this skyline view of the Park and the new streets beyond. Sadly the Wood Houses were long gone by the time this photo was taken, but again, you get a good idea of how Blyth changed at that time.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51893012@N05/14158927263/in/album-72157641931957224/
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Thanks again for your time :)