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.

I've been trying out some new software from my local archaeology group that makes 3D models from a set of digital photos.

Below is my trial of the west end of Heddon's preserved section of Hadrian's Wall.

It is for those who are not able to visit it (or sit on it, as I do from time to time). Click the big arrow to load the model, use the controls to alter rendering and the computer mouse to rotate (left-button and drag), pan (right button and drag) and zoom (wheel or ctrl-drag). For the truely immersive experience switch on full-screen mode!

It's just like being there yourself.

Shown here is a short section of Hadrian’s Wall at the west end of a length of preserved Wall about 255m long, consolidated and in the care of English Heritage, just east of Heddon on the Wall village. This represents a part of the planned ‘broad wall’; further west the structure was reduced in thickness to save time and resources.

The broad wall at Heddon is between 2.8m and 3m wide and up to 1.7m (7 courses) high. The rubble core was originally set in puddled clay, but was reset in mortar to preserve the section when it was consolidated. The first 12m at the west end has only the outer face exposed.
At the west end (NZ 13622 66942) a circular kiln was built into the wall in medieval times, probably to dry corn. It measures 1.9 m in diameter, has a paved floor, and the surrounding wall has a maximum height of 0.7 m (3 courses). The flue is in the south-west arc and is 1.4 m wide.

For those missing a visit to St Andrew's Churchyard, please see the 3D model below.

A flat-topped, table- or chest-tomb from the late eighteenth century, located in the graveyard close to the west end of St Andrew’s Church, Heddon on the Wall, UK. There are inscriptions on the top and on the two end slabs and on the south-facing side of a long slab concealed beneath, but these are not well resolved in the 3D model and largely captured by the texture.

The inscriptions are transcribed on this site under number [90] where there are also some standard, 2D photos.

If you are more interested in prehistoric rock art, there is another model here.

A couple of old photos kindly copied from Philip Sanderson of his father William Ward Sanderson. Some of the information below is taken from a previous blog after a talk to our Society by Philip entitled 'The House that Fell over the Cliff' in 2011.

William Ward Sanderson (1874-1963) was born at Dale House Farm near Whitby. He became interested in agricultural engineering and the pioneering use of steam engines for ploughing and threshing. After studying at Wye College, he had various jobs servicing and selling farm implements throughout the country and, for three years, in South Africa.

In 1927, William moved back to the north-east working for the Northern Agricultural Supply Company in Newcastle. He rented East Town Farm in Heddon on the Wall which was owned at the time by James Hedley of Bays Leap Farm.  The family lived in the farmhouse and farmed successfully on the fields here, milking cows in a parlour (now part of Tulip's yard), cutting hay on the site of the Roman Wall and running a local shop selling cigarettes and confectionery.

William Sanderson served for many years on the Parish Council, including a stint as Chairman in 1949.

William Harle was station-master at Heddon on the Wall Railway Station between 1898 and 1906. It has been said that he planted 13 trees at the station, one for each of his children. As pointed out on Disused Stations a line of trees extends east of the platform buildings on a photograph from 1910 shown below.

The line of trees is also visible in historical aerial imagery for 1945 on Google Earth. The railway line runs from left to right across the photo. The Newcastle platform lies east of the level crossing which provided access to the Station-master's House and fields to the south. The platform was on the north side and I can count 14 or 15 trees extending to the east on the extract below. The station was staggered and the platform for travellers to Wylam was just west of the level crossing, close to the Station-master's House.

There is a line of mature sycamore trees along the boundary in this location today but now many more trees have grown up both west and east along the line of the Wylam Waggonway, and an exact count is not easy. The Station-master's House is still in use as the farmhouse of Heddon Haughs Farm, located at the bottom of Station Road, just to the north of the station, although the building has been much extended and altered

A newspaper clipping shown below describes how 14 trees were planted in commemoration of his 14 children, to mark the Coronation of King Edward VII.

The 1901 Census records William Harle (aged 46),  wife Margaret (44), and 8 children: Ethel May (17), Isabella (15), Margaret (13), Lillian (10), William (8), Mabel (5), Sidney (2) and Ernest Edward (0). The Census fails to record the number of rooms in the Station Masters House but lodging with them at the time was a William W Watson (23), Railway Signalman (born in Newcastle).

I was pleased to have recently received more information about William Harle and his family from his great grandson, Brian Harle, who has kindly let me reproduce it here.

5b2    William (1854-1913)      
 
The previous section on his father George (6b3) indicates the poor living conditions to which this family had been reduced since the break up of Corridge. His birth certificate shows he was born at New Cassop, which lies a few miles south east of Durham City.

The family had moved to Trimdon by 1859 when his sister Mary was born and there was a church school here so he would probably have some education, the School Board Act was not introduced until 1870. The 1871 census shows him working as a stoker at Usworth Colliery at the age of 16 years. He must have obtained work on The North Eastern Railway soon after this as his marriage certificate dated 1875 gives his occupation as Block Instructor.

By the last quarter of the 19th century the laying of railway lines all over the country was almost completed and travelling by rail was so well established that a large number of trains was using each line and several accidents were occurring, According to W W Tomlinson's book "The North Eastern Railway" there had been several of these accidents on the NER in the 1860's due to incorrect signalling and experiments were being carried out with a system of block signalling designed to prevent any train entering a section of the railway which already has a train on it. As a result of serious accidents at Thirsk in 1869 and at Brockley Whins near Boldon, in 1870 it was decided in May 1871 to apply the block system to the whole of the NER system and "To arrange for the establishment of classes in which pointsmen, signalmen and other servants of the company might be instructed and trained to perform efficiently the duties required of them,"
 
It is assumed that the NER advertised for men to be trained as instructors and William was one those selected and hence is designated a 'Block Instructor' on his marriage certificate.

He and his bride Margaret Ann Mariner lived close together as the 1871 census shows their families adjacent to each other:-
 
            At 57 Old Engine
Matthew Mariner        Head   39        Coal Miner      Birtley
Isabella Mariner         Wife    33                                Washington
Margaret Ann Mariner Daughter    14                      Washington                 Thomas Mariner       Son           9          Scholar      Washington                 Jonas Mariner           Son          5                             Washington
Robert Mariner          Son          3                             Washington
 
 
            At 58 Coxons Row, Usworth
George Harle         Head               45        Labourer          Witton Gilbert
Isabella Harle         Wife                38                                Pelton
Robert Harle          Son                 18        Labourer          Cassop
William Harle         Son                 16        Stoker              Cassop
Mary Harle           Daughter           12                                Trimdon
 
The first child was born four months after their marriage, so the addresses on the certificate are probably false, and was used to avoid having the banns read at the local church, few neighbours at Washington would hear any details of weddings at North Shields in those days.

It will be seen that Margaret's father was a labourer but it is known from the previous census that he had been a coal miner and was born at Birtley, her mother was Isabella and some idea of Margaret's family can be obtained from these extracts from a letter from Mabel Topping (nee Harle) c1971.
 
"I'm afraid I do not know much about my father really. I was only a small child, about seven when he remarried. I cannot remember any of his people coming to stay or even hearing of them. He had one sister, Mrs Hall who I met once she lived at Low Fell if I remember rightly. Both my mother and father came from the same village, Usworth near Washington, My mother Margaret Ann Mariner had three brothers Jonas, Thomas and William and a sister Mrs Rutherford who lived in Jesmond. I knew uncles Thomas and William's families very well, they were very good to me, they all lived around Washington and their families live there today. My maternal grandmother, when I knew her was Mrs Pringle having remarried. Uncle Jonas was manager of a working men’s club in Usworth or thereabout. I only met him in 1936."
 
The first child mentioned above was Mary Alice born at Brandy Row Washington on the 7 December 1875 and the certificate gives William's occupation as signalman, it was quite common for women to go home to mother to have the first child so William and Margaret may have had a home away from Brandy Row perhaps a railway house.

By the February of 1881 the family had moved to Harvey Street in Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne, William is still a signalman but will have been upgraded and is probably in one of the larger signal boxes on the main London - Edinburgh line.

They lived in Harvey Street until 1889 when they moved to Tynemouth Road not far away. It can be assumed that William had a few promotions during the ten years they lived at Tynemouth Road as his next move was when he was appointed stationmaster at Heddon on the Wall, quite an important position in those times when the railways were the most important means of transport. It must have been a great blessing to Margaret to have a large detached railway house after living in a small terrace house, since by this time their family had grown to ten, seven girls and three boys, the oldest only fourteen years of age. The railway is long since gone but the station house is still occupied and was only recently modernised.

Margaret had one more child, Ernest Edward in 1901, the last to have a tree planted in his name as shown in a cutting from the Hexham Courant. (The original dated 19 August 1903). She did not have the pleasure of living in the large house for very long as she developed pneumonia in the first days of 1903 and died of heart failure on the 13th January. They had fourteen children in the twenty years of their marriage, three had died and the oldest two were married leaving William with nine still to be looked after.

From Mabel's letter (op cit) it would seem that Margaret's family were very helpful with the younger ones and may have had some of them to stay at Usworth. As a stationmaster William may have had domestic staff but even so the long-term solution to his problem would be to employ a nanny. It is thought that Mary Henderson was chosen for this position but whether this is true or not William was definitely married to her before the year was out.

Mary Annie Henderson was the daughter of Luke and Jane and was baptised at Whittingham Parish Church, Northumberland, Octavia Annie, it is not surprising that she changed the first name to Mary when she was a few years older. Luke's first wife Margaret was a local girl and they were married at Whittingham but his second marriage to Mary's mother Jane took place elsewhere and the certificate has not yet been found. Mary's address on the certificate is Glanton, which is close to and in the parish of Whittingham and could be where her mother was living so if her brother and sisters were still in the area her family would be well represented at her wedding. Mary was fifteen years of age when her father died so she should have remembered his name and occupation, which for some reason are omitted from the marriage certificate.

Not long after his second marriage William added a codicil to his will omitting his daughter Lilian out of any benefit. She left home and went to live with her mother's family, whether she left of her own free will or was forced to leave is not known but all the older children also left home as soon as it was conveniently possible.

Matthew immediately went to live with his sister Kate, married and living in the west end of Newcastle, and Margaretta left home and went into service at Ebchester, Alice and probably Ethel were already married. Isabella if not married at this time was married soon after but she kept in touch with the family as a postcard dated April 1908 confirms. The postcard is from William who is 15 years old and still at home, to Barbara Watson a sister of Isabella's husband.

The family moved to Appleby c1906 and William was stationmaster here until 1913, when he retired due to ill health and moved back to Newcastle. He died at Bolingbroke Street, Heaton in May of the same year and their last child was born some months later. Mary and the family continued to live in Heaton until about 1925 when they moved to a farm at Blencarn, at the foot of Cross Fell in Cumbria, Mary died at Barningham in Yorkshire in February 1947 at the age of 72 years.
 
William and his two wives had 18 children 4a1 to 4a18.