I was contacted recently by Marian Rowley asking if I knew the date of an old photo on this web site - a black and white version of that shown above. It is a postcard of the Royal French Arms, a former pub on the Hexham Road. It's actually in Heddon on the Wall (despite the postcard caption) but right next to its eastern boundary with Throckley. She was interested as she had seen the name of Alexander Waters, the licensee, over the doorway.

A relative of Marian's of the same name, Alexander Waters, had been landlord of the Engine Inn / Locomotive Inn in Wallbottle for many years. His son in law, John Armatage, was landlord, of the Three Tuns in Heddon on the Wall, as also was his father.

Alexander Waters died in 1911 and Marian told me that records showed that he was at the Engine Inn at that time as he had been since about 1871. She was wondering if the licencee of the Royal French Arms was another Alexander Waters or the same man as her relative. A date for the photo might help.

The 1901 Census does show that John Armatage (born 1866 (was innkeeper at the Three Tuns, living with wife Mary (b.1871) and two children, Alex (b.1893) and Annie (b.1901). They had two servants.

However, in 1911, the Census shows that Richard Thompson (68, Burnopfield) had succeeded John Armatage (b.1866) as publican of the Three Tuns Inn.

John Armatage (now 46) was at that time at The Royal French Arms at Frenchman's Row. He is described as Manager of the Licensed House.

His brother, George Armatage (b.1852 in Wylam) was working as a blacksmith and horseshoer and lived with his family in a property identified on the 1911 Census as Quarry House, Houghton. 1901 has them living in Common House which was probably the same property (on the edge of Heddon Common). His son, George (23, Heddon) was in the same business. Another son, Robert Armatage (19, Heddon), a postman, was to be a casualty of the First World War.

The Royal French Arms was built in 1897 close to the site of a former beerhouse which stood at the east end of the terrace known as Frenchmen's Row. The new inn was built much closer to the Hexham Road and the postcard photo must be later than that year. The public house has now been converted into apartments with the name 'Royal French Court'.

Matthew Auty who founded Auty Ltd. died in 1895 but some postcards in the Auty Series seem to date from early 1900s, even up to 1910 or later. The initials G.H. and W.B. refer to Godfrey Hastings who took over the business in Whitley Bay.

Auty Ltd. claimed to have been the first to introduce the continental idea of picture postcards to the north of England and his views familiarised prospective visitors with the charms of the area. Source: vetraio50 on Collectors Weekly

Prior to 1899, British postcards were commonly 4.75 x 3.5 inches (115 x 89mm), known as court cards. A standard size of 5.5 x 3.5 inches (140 x 89mm) was introduced in 1899. The postcard shown above is standard size, although of course the photo itself could have been taken earlier as Auty's original plates were re-printed.

Marian kindly provided the following information.

Alexander Waters Snr., born in 1813, was the brother of my great-great grandmother, Jane Waters.

He married Hannah Nesbitt in 1838. They lived in Walbottle and had five children [known of] that survived into adulthood.
Alexander Snr. died in 1887 and in 1901 Hannah was living at Mount Pleasant in Throckley.

Their son, Alexander Jnr., was born in 1849 and in 1869 he married Jane Maughan who was born in 1852 in Newburn.
 
According to census information:
In 1871 Alexander, Jane and daughter Mary Hannah were living at 20 New Row in Walbottle.  Alexander was a coal miner.

In 1881 Alexander, Jane and Mary Hannah (aged 11) were living at the Engine Inn where Alexander was the Innkeeper.

Mary Hannah Waters married John Armatage in 1890.
 
The original pub was called the Engine, being associated with the nearby colliery stationary engine. The name changed to Locomotive Inn during the 1870's. Evidently the original pub building was demolished in 1907 with a new building being erected next door. At that stage the 'new' pub was named Locomotive Inn. In 1948 W.B. Reid acquired the pub from the Duke of Northumberland's Estate and it was renamed Engine Inn. It was taken over by Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in 1959 and became the Original Masons in 1991. Source: Steve Ellwood.
 
In 1891 Alexander, Jane, son Edward and daughter Anne were living at the Locomotive Inn where Alexander was the Inkeeper.

In 1901 Alexander, Jane and son Edward were still living at the Locomotive Inn.

Jane Waters nee Maughan died in 1910.
Alexander Jnr. died 12 Feb 1911.

Probate states:
WATERS Alexander of The Engine Inn, Walbottle, N'land, publican, died 12 Feb 1911. Probate Ncle/Tyne 15 May to John Armitage publican. Effects £6992. 2s. 8d. Re-sworn £8127. 2s. 8d.
 
John Armatage lived at the Three Tuns all of his life with his parents and when he married Mary Hannah he became the 'publican' and remained there until at least 1901.
 
There are several other ‘Alexanders’ in my family named after Alexander Snr. but I can find no other Alexander Waters that could have been the publican at the Royal French Arms. Alexander Jnr. may have taken over the RFA after 1901, had his name inscribed above the door and then at some time before 1911 returned to the Engine Inn leaving John Armatage, his son in law, to manage the pub. Marian speculates that this might have taken place in 1907 when the Engine Inn was demolished.

I've attached a photo of the Engine Inn with Alexander Jnr. and Hannah in the doorway.

John and Mary Hannah were living at Elm Lea House on Hexham Road at the time of the pre-war census in 1939.  John died in 1946 and Mary Hannah survived until 1958.
 
Probate for Mary Hannah states:
Armatage Mary Hannah of Elm Lea, Hexham Road, Throckley, widow, died 14 Dec 1958. Probate Ncle upon Tyne 17 Feb to Annie Armatage, spinster, and John Matthew Tingate, colliery bath attendant. Effects £3127. 12s.

Incidentally, Joseph Waters Spence, Mary Hannah's cousin and another Throckley lad, was a superstar who played for Manchester United.  He was known as Joe Spence, born in 1898 and died in 1966.  There is a lot of info about him on the internet and he ended his days coaching and scouting under Sir Matt Busby.

Our current best guess for the date of the Auty Series G.H. W.B. #4505 postcard of the Royal French Arms, Throckley is around 1900. Please let me know if anyone has a more accurate date.

Some photos from Bowes Railway Museum and the Springwell 1940s weekend.

The illustration above of Wylam Bridge by R P Leitch was made for the 3rd edition of Samuel Smiles’ book, The Life of George Stephenson, published in 1868. It shows an industrial village with a coal mine and iron works along the northern riverbank and few buildings higher up in the village, including the colliery school built in 1854. Between the colliery pumping engine and the blast furnace stand the buildings of Wylam Mill, with another tall chimney.
 
Smiles described the village at he saw it.
“The colliery village of Wylam is situated on the north bank of the Tyne, about eight miles west of Newcastle. The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway runs along the opposite bank; and the traveller by that line sees the usual signs of a colliery in the unsightly pumping-engines surrounded by heaps of ashes, coal-dust, and slag, while a neighbouring iron-furnace in full blast throws out dense smoke and loud jets of steam by day and lurid flames at night. These works form the nucleus of the village, which is almost entirely occupied by coal-miners and iron-furnace-men. The place is remarkable for its large population, but not for its cleanness or neatness as a village; the houses, as in most colliery villages, being the property of the owners or lessees, who employ them in temporarily accommodating the work-people, against whose earnings there is a weekly set-off for house and coals.”
 
“There is nothing to interest one in the village itself.”
 
An article in The Newcastle Courant of 17 January 1874 entitled 'Our Colliery Villages' still described the village as “...  the very worst colliery village that we have yet beheld …'
 
The late 18th century had been a period of prosperity for Wylam – the colliery was thriving and an iron works, a lead-shot manufactory and a brewery were all established in the village. In the mid 1750s, Blackett, the colliery owner had had the Wylam Waggonway constructed to transport coal from the Haugh Pit to Lemington, originally using horse-drawn wagons, but in the early 1800s using some of the earliest steam locomotives including Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly.
 
Benjamin Thompson established the Wylam Iron Works in 1835; one of its blast furnaces can be seen on the right, close to the location in Falcon Terrace where the school was built in 1909-10 (now the library and railway museum). Few remains of this industry can still be found, although many of the garden walls in Wylam’s Main Road are built of slag.
 
In 1825, he became a director of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and surveyed the route for the line, supervising the later stages of its construction between 1833 and 1835. At the iron works, locomotives were built for several years and in 1836 he was responsible for the erection of Wylam Bridge to link the village (and his works) to the new railway. It was originally a combined road and railway bridge with a timber deck supported on stone piers. It was funded by public subscription and tolls. This replaced a small ferry boat and earlier, often hazardous ford.
 
In 1864 the iron works closed. Four years later the colliery was closed, Haugh Pit below the river flooded for the last time. The brewery ceased to operate sometime in the 1870s. In 1876 Wylam Mill was modernised and converted into a steam mill. In 1931, most of its buildings including its chimney were destroyed by fire although the former Mill Stables is now the new Co-op store.
 
In 1876 the Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway was completed with its arch-rib designed bridge at Hagg Bank, too late for much of Wylam’s industry. The track of this railway, serving a new station at North Wylam, was built along much of the course of the old waggonway.

The timber decking of Wylam Bridge was replaced with steel in 1897 when the bridge was no longer in use by rail traffic. It was again replaced in 1946. In 1960 the bridge still had an old tollhouse at the south end where the station car park entrance is today, although the company had erected a new one at the north end in 1899. The house sports a Puffing Billy weather vane on its dormer window.

Pedestrians were charged one penny to cross but an agreement between the landowner and the bridge company allowed free passage to some of the well-off residents. Opposition to the tolls led eventually to its acquisition by Northumberland County Council and it was freed from toll in 1936.

In 1942 strengthening and widening was carried out by the Ministry Of Transport so that it could be used by tanks. Flood damage and erosion forced replacement of two piers in the 1950s and the bridge was widened in 1959 to 24 feet, including a 6 foot wide path. A weight restriction of 9 tons was imposed in 1960, later raised to 10 tons. Following concerns over the safety of the railings following impact by cars, the bridge was closed for several weeks in 2007 for safety improvements.

The decline of industry in the 19th century led to a substantial change in the character of the village. By the 20th century Wylam was almost entirely a residential settlement, its transport well served by two railway stations.

The length of river bank east of Hagg Bank is known as Wylam Scars and it was here that work on the Newcastle-Carlisle railway began in 1831. The scene was delightfully illustrated by J.W. Carmichael in one of his famous views of this railway. This was the first cross-country line to be built and the first section, between Blaydon and Hexham, opened on March 9th 1835.

LINKS
Wylam History Walk on ViewRanger, free navigation app for mobile phone.

I was re-reading the leaflets from last year's Tales of the Frontier which reminded me of another 'Little Man' located in the Tyne valley, potentially much older than 'Heddon Man', the subject of my, tongue in cheek, April 1st post.

The sandstone sculture was found in 1970 at Waters Meet, where the North and South Tyne Rivers converge, and is something of a mystery.

Believed to be of Romano-British origin, the stone represents a rare, previously unrecorded style. The figure, possibly ‘Hercules’, carries a club in right hand. The carving was kept in Acomb House for 30 years, then spent 5 years in a barn. It now stands just off the bridleway at the edge of the village.

The carved sandstone block about 86cm high bearing the figure of 'Acomb Man' was installed in 2011 where the bridle path joins The Green in the village of Acomb, Northumberland.

It was found in 1970 at Water's Meet (Howford), where the Rivers North & South Tyne join west of Hexham and remained at Acomb House for 30 years until the house was sold.

Stan Beckensall compiled a report on the carving and sent it to English Heritage. He said experts at the Museum of Antiquities and the Vindolanda and Arbeia Forts on Hadrian’s Wall had confirmed the carving was probably made during the Roman occupation in the 2nd or 3rd century.

"Paul Bidwell, an expert at Arbeia Fort in Wallsend, says it’s in a native style and therefore very unusual and very rare – perhaps unique,” said Stan.

“The carving is obviously meant to be Hercules; he’s holding a club across his chest in one hand and a round object in the other that might be a purse or a dish."

Dr Sharpe remembers being intrigued by the ‘Little Man’ of Acomb, which appears in leaflet ‘No. 7 The Tyne Valley: Old Stones and New Faith’.

“It’s a carved figure of a man with a very sweet smile on his face. There is still some debate as to whether it’s actually Roman,” she says. “It was found at the Tyne Waters Meet in 1970 and was kept in a barn for many years before it reappeared. The villagers wouldn’t let it go to the museum – it’s now on a concrete plinth at the edge of the village."

Archaeologists conducting a laser scan of the interior and exterior of St Andrew's Church at Heddon on the Wall rediscovered the 'lost' sculpture dubbed, 'Heddon Man'.

Work is now underway to investigate the particular village worthy modelled by the clearly skilled medieval stone mason.

One villager noticed the distinct features of one of her neighbours but didn't want to be named.
"The hair's a bit odd, but those eyebrows and nose are a clear giveaway", she said.

The University are now considering a DNA study of older village residents in order to locate possible living relatives of 'Heddon Man'.

"We are making good headway in locating the origin of this ancient resident of Headon on the Wall", reads a University press release, under the headline, 'Anyone know this man?. At least now we have a good idea of how the village got its name."

Although a big headache of organisation, an annual 'Heddon Man' festival is a likely spin-off of this facinating study. I am imagining, local school children dressed up in Heddon Man masks and all manner of head-related festivities. Just need the agreement of the head-master, I suppose.

Watch this space.

The Stone Sourcing and Dispersal project (SS&D, also known as Where’s Hadrian’s Wall Gone?) is part of a proposed three year project, the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project, which in parallel with the SS&D will be working with community groups to investigate a significant number of areas along the entire length of the Wall that are currently classified as Heritage at Risk. Work will also be carried out to take action, working with the community, to ameliorate the risks to the Wall.

During the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the government forces based in Newcastle, under Field Marshall George Wade, were unable to cross to Carlisle in time to intercept the rebels and in fact bad weather and poor roads halted them near Hexham.
 
It was reported that departing Newcastle’s Town Moor on the 16th November, infantry only made it to Ovington by night. The roads were “terribly broken and full of ice” and men were sent out with lights and carts to bring them up, a process that went on till the march was continued next morning at nine. The first troops reached Hexham about four that afternoon, the rear at midnight, when, they could proceed no further because of the snow. They pitched camp on the south side of the union of the two Tynes and were provided with straw by the townsfolk who also kindled fires all over the ground as a protection against the severe cold. Wade waited three days for a thaw and, when none came, returned to Newcastle. He arrived on 22nd November, his army almost spent with fatigue and having failed dismally to halt the progress of the rebels.
 
One of Wade’s party, Thomas Sayer, later reported, “That he is well acquainted with the Road from Carlisle to Hexham, which is mostly through an open Country, with very few Houses, not One Part in Ten of the said Road being through inclosed Grounds: That the Country is rocky, mountainous, and boggy, and absolutely impassable, both in Summer and Winter, for heavy Carriages; and there are several Waters in the said Road, which frequently overflow and render it impassable.” The maps designated it as a ‘Summer Road’.
 
In 1749 a letter from the Duke of Northumberland with attached petition was referred to the Surveyor General. They asked “That Leave be given to bring in a Bill for laying out, making, and keeping in Repair, a Road proper for the Passage of Troops and Carriages between the said City of Carlisle and Town of Newcastle, in such Manner as to the House shall seem meet.”

In July to September 1749, a survey was undertaken by two military engineers, Dugal Campbell and his assistant Hugh Debbeig. Although it is often called ‘General Wade’s Military Road’, Field Marshall Wade (to give him his correct rank) in fact died in his home in Bath in 1748 and there is no evidence he had anything to do with it. It is suggested, however, that a possible instigator of the proposal, Lancelot Allgood  of Nunwick, who became Sheriff of Northumberland in 1745, may have heard, first hand, the Field Marshal’s bitter remarks about the roads over which he had just struggled to Hexham, comparing them with roads that he (Wade) had made in the Highlands some years before. Allgood became a Member of Parliament in 1749 and was actively associated not only with the Military Road but also with the Corn Road from Hexham to Alnmouth.
 
The outcome of the survey was a map measuring about ten feet six inches long by two feet wide covering five sheets joined together to make a roll. It covered an area roughly sixty miles long (i.e. from about three miles east of Newcastle to about two miles west of Carlisle) by about six miles broad at a scale of just over two inches to the mile. There are five insets all concerned with the Roman Wall and its attendant works and the course of the proposed road is shown as a dotted line co-incidental with the Wall from Newcastle to a point nearly thirty miles west. The surveyors estimated the cost of the road as £22,450.

Inspired by a talk to the Heddon Local History Society by Peter Ryder on Monday 15th January 2018 using photos from Geograph. Any mistakes in this report are of course mine.

It is believed that the island’s early monastery had several churches, with one on the site of the present St Mary’s Church and another where the priory ruins now stand.

Although the current Church of St. Mary the Virgin, adjacent to and inline with the Priory, mainly stems from the 12th and 13th centuries, it was considered to be the oldest building on Holy Island from previous observations by Peter Ryder.

He had shown that the building combines stone-work from the Saxon period. Removal of internal plaster had revealed parts of a round-headed Saxon arch touching the later Early-English arch in the wall that divides the nave from the chancel. High above this is a typical Saxon ‘door’.
 
On the outside of the building where the nave joins the chancel, long and short quoins are seen, typical of the Saxon period. It had been considered that some of these stones could be from the church that was built around St Aidan's original wooden church which dated from his arrival on the island in 635 AD.

Over two seasons in 2016 and 2017, excavations directed by Richard Carlton of the Archaeological Practice Ltd concentrated on a ridge of Whin-Sill grassland located due south of the Church and Priory, protecting them from the sea, known as the Heugh Hill.

Here were found the foundations of a stone building in a location shown on a plan in unpublished work by Hope-Taylor in 1962.

The church is pre-Norman Conquest and could date from the 630AD to 1050, although an early date was thought the most likely. On the ridge it would have been entirely visible from Bamburgh, the seat of political power at the time.

The dig revealed sandstone blocks a metre long, foundations of more than metre wide, a probable altar base and the division between the nave and the chancel.

There is the possibility that the building was placed on the site of the wooden church built in 635AD by St Aidan. There are traditional tales of two chapels on Lindisfarne: one is St Cuthbert of the Sea, which is probably the building on a small island adjacent to Lindisfarne, but the other is St Cuthbert of the Sky. This may well be the church just uncovered.

Peter Ryder, who was recording the dig, said that the building was 'very likely' to have resembled the Seventh Century church which can be seen at Escomb in County Durham and  may have been built to commemorate where St Aidan’s wooden church stood,

Apart from some roughly carved stone-work there were few datable finds although radiocarbon dates are still awaited from a small amount of charcoal.

In 2017, the second Summer season of the Peregrini Lindisfarne Community Archaeology project on Holy Island was successfully concluded with spectacular results.

To the West of the chapel, close to the existing war memorial, further investigation was carried out on the remains of a substantial stone-built platform structure partially uncovered in 2016, which has been tentatively identified as the base of a tower, again possibly of Anglo-Saxon date. Mortared into the south face of the platform structure, which consisted of a single course of rough cobbles, the excavators discovered a socketed stone, thought to be a reused stone cross-base, and an external surface of small rounded cobbles in the same area. The presence of a cross-base suggests the possibility that the platform feature may have originally been the site of a ceremonial cross.

The Lantern Chapel, at the west end of The Heugh, was also investigated. This has been a poorly understood building and, in its current form, bears little resemblance to a chapel, although a chapel-like structure is depicted in this position on a map of the island dating from 1548. Excavation here seems to have confirmed the existence of this chapel by uncovering the footings of an east-west wall sitting directly upon the natural bedrock, apparently the remains of an older, narrower building on an east-west axis beneath the visible walls. A grave had been cut into the bedrock within the chapel and the disturbed remains of several individuals were found above it, but left undisturbed.

Although the dates of construction and use of the three major structures excavated on The Heugh in 2017 remain unclear, it is likely that they represent a long period of sacral activity and it is hoped that the analysis of samples taken from all three sites will provide significant additional information in the coming months.

LINKS
Archaeologists’ dig reveals ancient Lindisfarne church - Church Times, 7th July 2017.

Archaeology The Heugh Final Press Release July 2017 - Peregrini Lindisfarne Landscape Partnership.

Remember the above photo used on the promotion flier for 'The Eton Rifles' single by The Jam in 1979 which we discussed in a previous blog? A close crop of this photo, of just the soldiers without the road sign, was used on the record cover.

Although we know where the photo was taken, we do not know who took it, or when. Yesterday a local copy turned up along with three others, all taken in Heddon.

These photos have been kindly supplied by Philip Sanderson whose family used to live in Town Farm. There is a short blog about his father here.

I suppose that leaves two possibilities. Perhaps the photos were taken by someone in Philip's family close to where they lived at Town Farm, or perhaps they were just acquired from elsewhere because of their local interest.

The third photo (below) shows a dog in the long grass to the right of the soldiers. Did this belong to the photographer? Was one of the cadets a family member or friend?

The soldiers do appear quite young, possibly school cadets, and someone suggested that the badge resembles that of the Tank Regiment. There are 17 soldiers in the photos.

The other thing we don't know of course, is how one of these photos ended up associated with The Eton Rifles.

Although the above photo already features on this site, a much better resolution of it has become available today courtesy of Isabel Tooze, daughter of the former Heddon historian, George Clark.

This has enabled me to produce the following cropped images.

This would make a good Past & Present but I would need an aeroplane or at least a drone to take my own present photo. Below is an image from a similar viewpoint generated by Google Earth.

For those who understand such things, below is a Google Earth (kmz) file which you can download to your PC and double click to open the view at the same location.

Village development in the 1960s
Article published in Heddon Gossip, December 2017
Today I want to discuss just one photograph in our collection that was taken at probably the most important time for our village. It was the time when housing developments on both the west and east sides saw an expansion of Heddon from its original tiny core around St Andrew’s Church, greatly increasing the population and making it the dormitory village it is today.
You can view the photograph on the Heddon Local History website above.
The photo I am describing is a black and white aerial photograph of the village taken from a location high above the quarries on Heddon Common looking east towards Throckley. It dates from around 1961, some 56 years ago. Who flew the plane and took the photo I don’t have recorded; I think it may have been one of the local newspapers or even publicity to sell the new houses.
We had a small copy of the photo for some time but an enlargement of 15 x 12 inches recently came to me courtesy of the daughter of George Clark, our former village historian.
The focus in the foreground is mainly on the Bainbridge Estate. The name comes from George Bainbridge, a local builder. It shows many newly built houses and bungalows, neat drives (with the gravel centre where my wild strawberries grew on Aquila Drive) and pristine white pavements. Some houses on the outside edge of this estate are still only foundations or as yet un-started.
Killiebrigs and the lower properties of Heddon Banks came even later.
East of the village is another building site for the Vallum Estate (Craigie was the builder) with the roads laid out, but only a few houses completed, mainly on Valerian Avenue.
Grass fields run from beside the old Post Office on Hexham Road. The Welfare Field (park) is little more than a field but next to it another field would eventually be the site of the new school. Building was started in 1962, held up by the severe winter weather and completed in 1963. The shops in Taverna Place were built around the same time.
In the older part of Heddon between the two estates, many of the old properties have been demolished, including the Square Yard adjacent to the Swan, Mushroom Row, and Jubilee Houses near the modern library. The single storey houses that made up the north part of the terrace of Blue Row were removed to provide access to the Vallum estate. Centurion Way had already been built to connect Heddon Banks and Station Road, and the bungalows of Overhill and the Council houses were completed.
The Three Tuns is very prominent on the left side of the photo and the Hexham Road makes a sharp S-bend in front, as the Co-op store still occupies the old smithy that jutted out from it opposite the Memorial Park. Later, this was partly demolished, the road realigned, and Throckley Co-op relocated to its new store on Taverna Close (now the children’s nursery).
The straight line of the old road through Heddon to Throckley and Walbottle (largely on the line of Hadrian’s Wall) makes a prominent diagonal on the left side. This was the old A69. Beyond it, the fields have been devastated by open-cast coal mining with an access road provided just beyond where there are now trees on the Great Hill, close to where the houses start on Throckley Road. The new road layout in Heddon to the north of the farmhouse of Town Farm would come later with reinstatement of the land and the new A69 bypass to the north.
In the distance you can just make out the Throckley Isabella pit and the pit at North Walbottle before the view east is lost in 1960’s smog towards Newcastle.
This would make a good photo for a Past & Present comparison but you would need an aeroplane or at least a drone to take the present photo. On the website you can find one I have made from a modern aerial image from a similar viewpoint flying with Google Earth.