Heddon's history timeline 1800 to 1899
The Heddon history time-line is based on work by Pat Farnaby for his previous village web site.
1802 The Refuge French Clergy who had been occupying Heddon Square (Frenchman's Row) left under the terms of the peace of Amiens. They erected a sundial as a sign of their gratitude. After their departure the cottages were turned into a poor house.
1805 Battle of Trafalgar took place
1807 Slave trade abolished
1808 The Wylam Waggonway was converted from wooden rails to iron rails 1810 - 1820
1813 William Hedley produced a prototype steam engine for use on the Wylam Waggonway
1813 Mrs Ann Rutherford died on 1st September at the grand age of 102 years
1814 George Stephenson developed his steam locomotive
1814 The School House at Houghton was built, primarily to educate the children on the Close House estate
1815 Battle of Waterloo took place
1815 Williams Hedley's steam engines became established on the Wylam Waggonway
1821 The Great Heddon Tea Robbery
1823 - A school was opened at Houghton, by Mrs Margaret Bewicke, for the children of the Close House Estate. The building is still known as the School House
1829 The Newcastle to Carlisle railway line was incorporated
1829 The cottage at the junction of Heddon Banks and Towne Gate was built
1829 The terraced cottages on Hexham Road, to the east of the old Post Office, were built
c1830 The sale of ale was transferred from the Church House to a cottage almost directly opposite, which became known as the "Swan Inn"
1830 The six townships of Heddon Parish were taken from the Tindale Ward and added to the West Division of Castle Ward
1831 On September 8th 1831, at a celebration of the coronation of King William IV, an hot-air balloon piloted by Major Callender and Mr Green (aeronaut) flew from Spital Fields, Newcastle and landed on the grass outside Close House mansion. Link
1832 Carter's Cottages built
1832 Blue Row's cottages built
1832 Mushroom Row cottages built. Demolished in 1955 to make way for the new Library building
1832 On Monday December 10th a dreadful accident occurred at Heddon-on-the-Wall. A number of workmen had placed cannon on an eminence near that place, for the purpose of saluting the voters as they passed, and a person of the name of Potts, a mason, who was in the act of charging one of the cannons, it went off, and blew him to a distance of several yards, shattering his body almost to atoms. The mangled remains were soon afterwards gathered up, and presented a most shocking spectacle. The Local Historians Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences by M A Richardson (1844).
1833 On 1st January, owing to the genial state of the weather, Mr. George Smith agent to Mrs. Bewicke, Close House gathered a dish of green peas. Many fruit trees were in full blossom. Local Records: Historical Register of Remarkable Events ... by T Fordyce (1867).
1837 The railway bridge was constructed at Wylam providing an alternative route for the coal traffic using to the Wylam Waggonway
1839 New windows were inserted into the north aisle of St Andrew's Church
1839 The Newcastle to Carlisle railway line was opened for the full route in May
1842 The vicar, Rev J. A. Blackett, applied for a mortgage from the Queen Ann's Bounty Board for the sum of £702, to build a new vicarage. The loan was at 3.5% and to be repaid over 30 years, starting in 1842.
1841 East window of St Andrew's Church enlarged.
1841-45 A fourth bay was added to the knave of St Andrew's Church.
1842 The employment of women and children in mines was forbidden.
1842 The old vicarage house and an adjoining cottage were pulled down and a new vicarage erected on the same site.
1847 Barras & Co opened the firebrick works.
1847 Dr. Lyngard discovered two inscribed stones showing that parts of the Roman Wall were built by the fourth Cohort of the Twentieth Legion.
1848 George Stephenson, pioneer of the railway, died.
1849 The poor house was moved from the cottages at Heddon Square (Frenchman's Row) to Ponteland
1850 Queen Victoria opened the central station in Newcastle on the 29th of August.
1852 The village school was built at a cost of £732-4s-7d.
1852 Old Vicarage and adjoining cottage demolished and present Vicarage built.
1854 Five houses were erected opposite Mushroom Row, on what is now the site of Amos Bros Forge.
1855 James Knott was born in Howdon.
c1860 A series of revival meeting were held in Heddon, organised by the Heddon Methodist Society.
1861 American Civil War started.
1866 Present vestry built in St Andrew's Church.
1870 Education Act established elementary education.
1873 East window of St Andrew's Church was stained.
1873 Several new properties were erected in Heddon to assist with developments at the Colliery, which was owned by Mr. Thomas Bates.
1873-77 St. Andrew's Church was re-roofed, re-seated and a new organ, built by Bevington & Son of Soho, Birmingham, was installed at a total cost of £1100.00. This sum was raised at a meeting of the Church Restoration Committee in 1874, when Sir M. White Ridley, who then owned east Heddon, Mr J. Clayton, Mr Burdon and Mr Bates consented to their lands being taxed, according to their rateable value, to raise £500. Mr C. Bewicke provided £500 and Col Joicey £100.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
1876 The branch railway line from Scotswood to Wylam North was opened. Heddon Station was opened 5 years later.
1877 Methodist Chapel built in Heddon at a cost of about £450.
1877 An accident on the ferry boat, used by Heddon residents to cross the Tyne to the railway station at Ryton, caused the death of three people ( Gravestone inscription).
1878 A serious outbreak of Typhoid was recorded in Heddon, resulting in ten deaths.
1878 James Knott married Margaret Annie Garbutt.
1878 Killibrig quarry was opened near Close Lea.
1881 Heddon on the Wall Railway Station opened
1882 The Married Women's Property Act abolished the law whereby upon marriage a woman's property became her husbands.
1883 The cottages at Heddon Square (Frenchman's Row), were thoroughly repaired and became known as the Frenchman's Row. The cottage at the eastern end of Frenchman's Row was converted into a beer-house.
1844 The vicar of Heddon produced a report on the conditions in the 64 houses in the village, 26 of which only had one room. A particular one roomed house, measuring 16 feet by 16 feet 7 inches, housed a family with nine children. (A copy of the report is available in the village Library).
1885 Cadwallader Bates wrote a history of Heddon (published in 1886)
1886 Daimler invented the Internal Combustion Engine.
1888 Average attendance at the village school was 133 children.
1889 Blaney Row cottages were built.
1891 Free education was adopted at the village school and the average attendance rose to 152.
1894 First meeting of the Parochial Parish Council held in the Schoolroom on the 4th of December - a copy of the minutes of this meeting are held in the Library. Prior to this the responsibilities of the Parish Council had mainly been undertaken by the vicar.
1894 A schoolboy at Heddon-on-the-Wall stabbed his headmaster in the leg as he was being punished for bad behaviour, a court in Newcastle heard. The boy admitted a common assault on Mr Thomas Child, and it was ordered that he be removed from the neighbourhood. His father was bound over in the sum of £5.
1896 Daniel Lynch (a Platelayer) drowned while swimming with five friends at Bates Hole (later named Hedwin Streams) in River Tyne. An onlooker called John O'Neill spotted him and he and his brother tried to save Daniel but lost him in the water. Daniel's body was found 3 hours later. It was the middle of June and it had been very hot. The inquest was held on 16th June 1896. Reported in Newcastle Chronicle.
1897 The Royal French Arms was built, partly on the site of the cottage at the eastern end of Frenchman's Row, which had already been converted into a beer-house.
1897 J. W. Thompson sold the "Swan Inn" to Newcastle Breweries. The old cottage was demolished and rebuilt on it's present site.
1897 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on the 22nd of June (Photos of the celebration bonfire)
1897-8 The Men's Institute (Reading Room) was built.
1899 Start of the Boer War
1899 The "Swan Inn" opened as a beer-house on Christmas Eve.
1805 Battle of Trafalgar took place
1807 Slave trade abolished
1808 The Wylam Waggonway was converted from wooden rails to iron rails 1810 - 1820
1813 William Hedley produced a prototype steam engine for use on the Wylam Waggonway
1813 Mrs Ann Rutherford died on 1st September at the grand age of 102 years
1814 George Stephenson developed his steam locomotive
1814 The School House at Houghton was built, primarily to educate the children on the Close House estate
1815 Battle of Waterloo took place
1815 Williams Hedley's steam engines became established on the Wylam Waggonway
1821 The Great Heddon Tea Robbery
1823 - A school was opened at Houghton, by Mrs Margaret Bewicke, for the children of the Close House Estate. The building is still known as the School House
1829 The Newcastle to Carlisle railway line was incorporated
1829 The cottage at the junction of Heddon Banks and Towne Gate was built
1829 The terraced cottages on Hexham Road, to the east of the old Post Office, were built
c1830 The sale of ale was transferred from the Church House to a cottage almost directly opposite, which became known as the "Swan Inn"
1830 The six townships of Heddon Parish were taken from the Tindale Ward and added to the West Division of Castle Ward
1831 On September 8th 1831, at a celebration of the coronation of King William IV, an hot-air balloon piloted by Major Callender and Mr Green (aeronaut) flew from Spital Fields, Newcastle and landed on the grass outside Close House mansion. Link
1832 Carter's Cottages built
1832 Blue Row's cottages built
1832 Mushroom Row cottages built. Demolished in 1955 to make way for the new Library building
1832 On Monday December 10th a dreadful accident occurred at Heddon-on-the-Wall. A number of workmen had placed cannon on an eminence near that place, for the purpose of saluting the voters as they passed, and a person of the name of Potts, a mason, who was in the act of charging one of the cannons, it went off, and blew him to a distance of several yards, shattering his body almost to atoms. The mangled remains were soon afterwards gathered up, and presented a most shocking spectacle. The Local Historians Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences by M A Richardson (1844).
1833 On 1st January, owing to the genial state of the weather, Mr. George Smith agent to Mrs. Bewicke, Close House gathered a dish of green peas. Many fruit trees were in full blossom. Local Records: Historical Register of Remarkable Events ... by T Fordyce (1867).
1837 The railway bridge was constructed at Wylam providing an alternative route for the coal traffic using to the Wylam Waggonway
1839 New windows were inserted into the north aisle of St Andrew's Church
1839 The Newcastle to Carlisle railway line was opened for the full route in May
1842 The vicar, Rev J. A. Blackett, applied for a mortgage from the Queen Ann's Bounty Board for the sum of £702, to build a new vicarage. The loan was at 3.5% and to be repaid over 30 years, starting in 1842.
1841 East window of St Andrew's Church enlarged.
1841-45 A fourth bay was added to the knave of St Andrew's Church.
1842 The employment of women and children in mines was forbidden.
1842 The old vicarage house and an adjoining cottage were pulled down and a new vicarage erected on the same site.
1847 Barras & Co opened the firebrick works.
1847 Dr. Lyngard discovered two inscribed stones showing that parts of the Roman Wall were built by the fourth Cohort of the Twentieth Legion.
1848 George Stephenson, pioneer of the railway, died.
1849 The poor house was moved from the cottages at Heddon Square (Frenchman's Row) to Ponteland
1850 Queen Victoria opened the central station in Newcastle on the 29th of August.
1852 The village school was built at a cost of £732-4s-7d.
1852 Old Vicarage and adjoining cottage demolished and present Vicarage built.
1854 Five houses were erected opposite Mushroom Row, on what is now the site of Amos Bros Forge.
1855 James Knott was born in Howdon.
c1860 A series of revival meeting were held in Heddon, organised by the Heddon Methodist Society.
1861 American Civil War started.
1866 Present vestry built in St Andrew's Church.
1870 Education Act established elementary education.
1873 East window of St Andrew's Church was stained.
1873 Several new properties were erected in Heddon to assist with developments at the Colliery, which was owned by Mr. Thomas Bates.
1873-77 St. Andrew's Church was re-roofed, re-seated and a new organ, built by Bevington & Son of Soho, Birmingham, was installed at a total cost of £1100.00. This sum was raised at a meeting of the Church Restoration Committee in 1874, when Sir M. White Ridley, who then owned east Heddon, Mr J. Clayton, Mr Burdon and Mr Bates consented to their lands being taxed, according to their rateable value, to raise £500. Mr C. Bewicke provided £500 and Col Joicey £100.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
1876 The branch railway line from Scotswood to Wylam North was opened. Heddon Station was opened 5 years later.
1877 Methodist Chapel built in Heddon at a cost of about £450.
1877 An accident on the ferry boat, used by Heddon residents to cross the Tyne to the railway station at Ryton, caused the death of three people ( Gravestone inscription).
1878 A serious outbreak of Typhoid was recorded in Heddon, resulting in ten deaths.
1878 James Knott married Margaret Annie Garbutt.
1878 Killibrig quarry was opened near Close Lea.
1881 Heddon on the Wall Railway Station opened
1882 The Married Women's Property Act abolished the law whereby upon marriage a woman's property became her husbands.
1883 The cottages at Heddon Square (Frenchman's Row), were thoroughly repaired and became known as the Frenchman's Row. The cottage at the eastern end of Frenchman's Row was converted into a beer-house.
1844 The vicar of Heddon produced a report on the conditions in the 64 houses in the village, 26 of which only had one room. A particular one roomed house, measuring 16 feet by 16 feet 7 inches, housed a family with nine children. (A copy of the report is available in the village Library).
1885 Cadwallader Bates wrote a history of Heddon (published in 1886)
1886 Daimler invented the Internal Combustion Engine.
1888 Average attendance at the village school was 133 children.
1889 Blaney Row cottages were built.
1891 Free education was adopted at the village school and the average attendance rose to 152.
1894 First meeting of the Parochial Parish Council held in the Schoolroom on the 4th of December - a copy of the minutes of this meeting are held in the Library. Prior to this the responsibilities of the Parish Council had mainly been undertaken by the vicar.
1894 A schoolboy at Heddon-on-the-Wall stabbed his headmaster in the leg as he was being punished for bad behaviour, a court in Newcastle heard. The boy admitted a common assault on Mr Thomas Child, and it was ordered that he be removed from the neighbourhood. His father was bound over in the sum of £5.
1896 Daniel Lynch (a Platelayer) drowned while swimming with five friends at Bates Hole (later named Hedwin Streams) in River Tyne. An onlooker called John O'Neill spotted him and he and his brother tried to save Daniel but lost him in the water. Daniel's body was found 3 hours later. It was the middle of June and it had been very hot. The inquest was held on 16th June 1896. Reported in Newcastle Chronicle.
1897 The Royal French Arms was built, partly on the site of the cottage at the eastern end of Frenchman's Row, which had already been converted into a beer-house.
1897 J. W. Thompson sold the "Swan Inn" to Newcastle Breweries. The old cottage was demolished and rebuilt on it's present site.
1897 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on the 22nd of June (Photos of the celebration bonfire)
1897-8 The Men's Institute (Reading Room) was built.
1899 Start of the Boer War
1899 The "Swan Inn" opened as a beer-house on Christmas Eve.
