Blyth

[blythboy]

 from Wallace's History of Blyth (1869) This took place in 1795 and the Dule of G stayed at the farm

On the 28th of August the Duke of York, accompanied by the Duke of Gloucester, reviewed the troops encamped on the coast of Northumberland. The whole force consisted of thirteen regiments of horse and foot, comprising seven thousand men, took ground on Blyth sands, extending, when in line, about three miles. Precisely at seven o'clock, the Duke of York, attended by General Sir William Howe, commander of the northern district, came upon the ground, and rode along the line; after which the army went through various evolutions and firings, accompanied by the field and flying artillery, and at eleven o'clock the review concluded. This grand military spectacle, being so novel in this part of the country, attracted an immense number of spectators, calculated to amount to thirty thousand. There were on the ground many persons of rank; among whom were the Duke of Norfolk, Lords Scarbro', Falconberg, Mulgrave, and Dundas and Generals Smith and Balfour. The grand review was long talked of in the town by those who witnessed it, as the great event of their lives.

[blythboy]

 from Wallace's History of Blyth (1869) This took place in 1795 and the Dule of G stayed at the farm

On the 28th of August the Duke of York, accompanied by the Duke of Gloucester, reviewed the troops encamped on the coast of Northumberland. The whole force consisted of thirteen regiments of horse and foot, comprising seven thousand men, took ground on Blyth sands, extending, when in line, about three miles. Precisely at seven o'clock, the Duke of York, attended by General Sir William Howe, commander of the northern district, came upon the ground, and rode along the line; after which the army went through various evolutions and firings, accompanied by the field and flying artillery, and at eleven o'clock the review concluded. This grand military spectacle, being so novel in this part of the country, attracted an immense number of spectators, calculated to amount to thirty thousand. There were on the ground many persons of rank; among whom were the Duke of Norfolk, Lords Scarbro', Falconberg, Mulgrave, and Dundas and Generals Smith and Balfour. The grand review was long talked of in the town by those who witnessed it, as the great event of their lives.

[blythboy]

Well I was at BGS between 1963 and 1970 and the music teacher was a Mrs. Simpson as I recall, a large and formidable lady who played the piano with gusto. She had us sing probably because our grasp of key, scale and chord formation was at best limited and our interest (at least mine) somewhat minimal. In terms of age, I am heading for 59 at a rate of knots.

If you look at the maps for Factory Point you will see it was an alkali works and the first isolation hospital  was down the road from what is now Cowpen Road to FP about 3/4 of the way. Then a second one was built on the site of the alkali works sometime about 1919. The straightening of the river bank appears on the 1950s onwards map and the land is shown as reclaimed and the bank straightened. There were some stream s there but it was possibly to prevent erosion and the deposition of mud in the channel. (http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PResults?readform&FT=blyth)

Monkey's Island is the old Buck's Hill (i.e.  on the South Side of the river)and I have the following quote from 1902 stating that the name was then about 60 years old and had more or less replaced Buck's Hill in local parlance.

"This ford was close to a projecting mass of rock covered with greensward, which juts into the Blyth river, and is now known popularly as Monkey's island, but until about 60 years" ago was called Buck's hill. At this ford it is said in the times of the Border mosstrooping thieves, a watcher was stationed, to intercept them, and when finding it was too dangerous to return to Scotland by their usual routes they made a wide
detour to the coast." (http://www.archive.org/stream/s3proceedings10sociuoft/s3proceedings10sociuoft_djvu.txt). This is just to the West of Cowpen Square across a then tidal inlet.

[pityackafromblyth]

blythboy,
You have turned up a real diamond of information re Gloucester Lodge.  When I posted my query I did not get any feedback, and I thought it had died the death. I recall it (in the 50s) as a boarded up, but not derelict, building.  When I got no replies I went onto google and its map.  I was surprised to see it now occupies a fair amount of land - equestrian school etc.
BGS; music teacher; yes, Mrs. Simpson, in the 50s as well. Singing our hearts out one day in class, and she picked on me.  Said I was only mouthing the words, and not actually singing.  I could never sing on my own, but in a crowd I would give it full belt, which I was doing that day.  She used to live uo the road towards Newsham, on the opposite side, and last house on Plessey Road, next to a corner shop, at the turn for Barras Avenue(?) before you got to where the Seahorse pub now stands.
Thanks again for the info re the Lodge, and I will certainly look at the links you have mentioned.

[c-side]

My abiding memory of Mrs. Simpson was one year end assembly (or could have been Christmas).  We were allowed home early as soon as assembly was over.

All poised for the school hymn and she came crashing down on the piano keys (as she always did) but not a sound came out.  Someone had managed to disconnect the keys (don't ask me how).  The expression on her face was worth all the hours of agony I spent in music lessons.

We weren't allowed home early that day though!

Christine

[pityackafromblyth]

Re Gloucester Lodge, and the military display. The year 1795 would be during the Napoleonic wars.  Perhaps a show of strength to keep the Frenchies away. It did not keep the Onion Johnies away in the 1950s. I have never seen any reference, whatsoever, to the event, and may try and delve further into it.So after remembering the dates of the Napoleonic wars, I did learn some history at BGS.  One history teacher was Mr. Jack Tait, and I believe his brother was Alec, who played for Newcastle United.

[blythboy]

I have downloaded this from;

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyblythfro00wallgoog/historyblythfro00wallgoog_djvu.txt

But has been scanned and the OCR programme converted big chunks into what looked like John Prescott's utterances or total gobbledegook (is there a difference?) and the formatting was all over the place as well.

I spent God knows how many hours reformatting, correcting spelling (u was OCRd as ll and -orn as -om - just surprising how many modems were in the modern world of 1869).

I have the Index as a  word files, the heading and index and the main body. If any (reasonable number) of people would like the main body send me you Email contact.

According to Wallace, the beaches at Blyth may have been considered suitable invasion beaches by the French.

[c-side]

According to Wallace, the beaches at Blyth may have been considered suitable invasion beaches by the French.

They certainly were and you will also find in Wallace a description of the location of a battery built at that time to protect the river entrance.

Down at the current battery we now have a map dated 1797 showing the proposed location of four batteries along the bay.  The one Wallis mentioned was built on a high sandhill and all signs of it have disappeared but Philip (who started this thread) located a couple of old maps showing its location.

There was also one built at Rocky Island at Seaton Sluice - this is mentioned in the History of Northumberland, Vol. 9.

As for the two proposed in between these ones - we have found nothing of them yet.

Christine

[rentaship]

New to RootsChat but originally hail from the Bebside and Cowpen area and have an interest.

A little bit of history that interests me is as follows:

My grandparents James(Jim) and Jemima (Mima) Walker were caretakers at the Welfare Hall, Bebside until sometime in the fifties. On leaving the Welfare Hall, they did not want to be publicans, they moved to stay with my parents, Ralph and Isabel Carnaby, in Dovedale Avenue. Grandfather became an attendant at the pithead baths and was lucky enough to have his name drawn from the hat, to become part of the demolition team, when the pit closed.

It is the references to High House Farm that have caught my attention. I spent many happy hours there and even ended up with an after school, work, job until my early twenties.  I see that the name Liddell keeps appearing in messages but should it not be Little?  I have some pages from undated electoral rolls and they refer to Little rather than Liddell, James and Sarah. Maybe the Liddell name is from a different era?

They had a son, James who farmed at Follansby, South Shields and a daughter Madge(Margaret?) who was married to a minister from the Scottish borders area. James as far as I am aware was divorced and his ex wife, Mary, lived in Front Street. He had a son James and a daughter Eileen who stayed with her mother in Bebside.  Madge had a daughter Avril.  Can anyone fill in any dates or provide any information on the Madge side of the family?

When James and Sarah retired he moved to Front Street.

I had always believed that James owned the farm but doubt is now in my mind as according to the sales catalogue for the farm it was sold on 10th April 1957 at the Town Hall Morpeth on behalf of John Anderson, deceased.  A figure of £3,900 has been written on the document.

The buyer was Henry (Harry) and Annie Harper who farmed it until they retired. Who bought it thereafter is unknown to me.  Last time I passed, it was in a severe state of disrepair.

I can add more if anyone is interested.

Peter