Appendix E from
Heddon-on-the-Wall: The Church and Parish.
Cadwallader J. Bates M.A.
Archaeologia aeliana v11 p240-294 (1886)
Heddon-on-the-Wall: The Church and Parish.
Cadwallader J. Bates M.A.
Archaeologia aeliana v11 p240-294 (1886)
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Tyne & Wear Historic Environment Record (HER) - Sitelines - lists two cinemas in Throckley, both buildings now demolished. Tyne and Wear HER (7963): The Picture and Variety Palace, Bank Field Terrace. Shown on third edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch to 1 mile of 1920. The planning application for the picture theatre was made in 1912. The building was to be single storey, 70 feet long by 45 feet wide, and constucted of timber with a corrugated iron roof. The picture theatre was demolished by 1952 and the site was turned into a car park in the 1970s. Cinema Treasures website provides further information. The Picture & Variety Palace: 1 screen, 600 seats. Located on Bank Field Terrace, off the main Newcastle to Hexham Road, in the village of Throckley to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The building was constructed out of corrugated iron on its side walls and roof. It was the former Picturedrome of Newburn (October 1910-1911) which was designed by architect E. Tweddle of West Hartlepool. It was dismantled and and transported to Throckley by operator Towyn Thomas in October 1912. An additional 12ft was added to its length. It was granted a Cinematograph Licence on 12th November 1912. In July 1922 it was taken over by Charles Nichol and was re-named Imperial Cinema. On 12th December 1922 it was destroyed by fire. A car park now occupies the site The village of Throckley was without a cinema until the Lyric Cinema was opened in 1935 (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures). Tyne and Wear HER (12844): Lyric Cinema, Newburn Road. The Hinge circuit built the Lyric to designs by Percy L. Browne. It had a 850 seat auditorium with a dance hall and 7 shops. The Lyric opened on 15 May 1935 and the proceeds were donated to the Newburn and District Nursing Association, Newburn Cottage Homes and other local charities. The cinema had ruched curtains which changed colour from orange to green to red before the show started. The Lyric closed in October 1966 and became a bingo hall. It closed in the mid 1970s when permission was refused to convert it into an amusement arcade. Cinema Treasures website provides further information. Lyric Cinema, Throckley 1 screen, 858 seats. Located in the village of Throckley, which today is a district to the outer west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Lyric Cinema was built by the E.J. Hinge Circuit and opened on 15th May 1935 with William Powell in “The Thin Man”. Designed by architect Percy Lindsay Browne in an Art Deco style, seating was provided in stalls and circle levels. There was also a cafe & darts club in the building, which also had a row of shops attached. It was equipped with a British Talking Pictures (BTP) sound system. The Lyric Cinema was closed in October 1966 and became a bingo club. It was closed in 1976 and the building became derelict and vandalised. It has since been demolished and the site is now a car park for Sainsbury’s Supermarket. The end shop unit still stands and is in use as Lyric Wines.  Lyric Cinema, Throckley (1963). Newcastle Libraries ref. 068682  Lyric Cinema, Throckley (1938). Newcastle Libraries ref. 068806. Photograph of the auditorium of the Lyric cinema Newburn Road, Throckley. The photograph has been taken from the proscenium looking towards the back of the cinema and up to the circle.  Newcastle Libraries (ref. 056515): decribed as Hexham Road/Coach Road, Throckley (but actually top of Newburn Road), Francis Frith c.1956.  "Blast from the past, Lyric Cinema at Throckley, Tyne & Wear. We demolished this building in the early 1990s (Synergy Demolition Group).  Junction of Newburn Road & Hexham Road, Throckley. Photo A Curtis (2011). Taken from the roundabout at the junction with Hexham Road. St Mary's Church is on the left NZ1566 : St Mary the Virgin Church, Throckley. The small building behind the car is the only reminder of the Lyric Cinema which used to be at this junction. The store is called, 'Lyric Wines'. The Lyric Cinema opened in 1935 and closed in 1966. Screenshots and information below taken from Martins Bank Archive. The Bank of Liverpool and Martins opened a branch at FIELD HOUSE, Throckley in July 1922 – one of fifteen new branches and sub-branches opened that year. It was in service for fourteen years until 30 June 1936. More than thirty years later, Martins decided to open a sub-Branch in Throckley once more, this time choosing ALLENDALE HOUSE. This opened on 23rd October 1967. Martins merged with Barclays in 1969 and the Throckley branch finally closed ten years later on 29th June 1979. In both cases Throckley operated as a sub-Branch to Newburn, and the more recent bank opened across the full banking week.   Field Terrace, Hexham Road, Throckley. Photo A Curtis (2013). Field House is on the right, next to the Sandwich Bar.   Shops on Hexham Road, Throckley. Photo A Curtis (2013). Allendale House is the middle property with the blue shutter.  The Prohibition Movement Papers and Proceedings of the National Convention for the Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, April 3rd to 9th, 1897. Edited by Guy Hayler (1897). The following is reported on pages 25-26. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle gives the following testimony in favour of Prohibition. “As at Ford, at and Scot's Gap, as at Belsay, so at Throckley. But there is a difference. The former places are rural villages devoted to agriculture and the peaceful pursuits of the country. But at Throckley, only six miles west of Newcastle, the hum of modern life is distinctly heard, and the quiet seclusion Of the other Prohibition estates mentioned is wanting. It is a place no less ancient, however, than the rest, for it dates back further than the ancient city of Newcastle. When William the Conqueror's eldest son Robert led, as far north as Falkirk, the expedition which was principally memorable from the fact of his founding the New Castle upon the Tyne during his homeward march, and the real conquest of Northumberland began, the county was parcelled out among the warriors who helped to win the victory at Hastings. Throckley, however, with other sundry small places, remained in the hands of its Saxon proprietor. There had been people at Throckley long before this, and a very fine ancient British barrow at Dewley, which is now considered part of Throckley, is not yet obliterated by the plough. Dewley, it may be recalled, was one of the places where George Stephenson, the great locomotive engineer, lived in his early years,while he was married at Newburn, of which parish Throckley is a part. It was not far from Throckley, it is said, that Martin the painter selected the view over the Tyne towards Wylam for reproduction in his picture, 'The Plains of Heaven.' "Prohibition has existed at Throckley for some thirty years, since the starting of the colliery. Formerly there were two public-houses. Now the sale of drink is prohibited on all the estate, which is leased by the colliery company, and on the land which belongs to Greenwich Hospital, and which was formerly owned by the ill-starred Derwentwater family. Not only can the inhabitants not buy drink, but they may not keep dogs or pigeons, and so gamble on the result of rabbit-coursing, greyhound-racing, or pigeon-flying. It is estimated that the number of inhabitants now reaches close upon 2,000, and for a pit village it is claimed that in the orderliness and prosperity of its people it is second to no other in Northumberland and Durham. More than half of the miners are total abstainers, for the prohibition of drink, dogs, and pigeons keeps away those that are inclined thereto, and the result of the repulsion of these is a sort of artificial selection of steady workmen, who have in the course of years formed themselves into an industrious, peaceable and thriving community, as is evidenced on every hand. The Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist Chapels and the Church (which is an offshoot of that of Newburn, the head of the parish) are all well attended, and the ministers and clergy report that the number of men they find attending morning service at these places of worship is quite exceptional. The miners are equally good in turning up for work in an efficient condition on Monday mornings, guiltless of 'after-damp' from any Saturday and Sunday potations—and it is said that Throckley Colliery leads all the collieries of the county in this respect. Fortunately in regard to work the pit is one of the most regular in the district, having worked eleven days per fortnight for several years past, and the men earn an average of 5s. a day. At the excellent and commodious British Schools there is an average attendance of 500 scholars, and the Board of Guardians at Ponteland is called upon to pay the fees of only three. Pinching poverty is almost unknown in this healthy and well-conducted village. "One of the plainest manifestations of the thriving character of Throckley is to seen in its Co-operative Society. The members' share capital amounts to over £14,000, and each quarter's sales exceed £8,000, while it pays a dividend averaging 3s 8d. in the pound. Besides the handsome block of store buildings in which its business is carried on, the Co-operative Society has built at a cost of about £I,500 a large handsome hall of corrugated iron on a brick foundation. The build- ing is handsomely fitted up inside, and contains a smoking room, a reading room, a billiard and games room, and an entertainment hall with accommodation for nearly 600 persons. Members of this institution. which is also carried on on Temperance principles, obtain for a small fee valuable social privileges, and in the winter a busy round of entertainments of various kinds is kept up almost nightly. During the summer. these entertainments are not entirely suspended, and every pay-day a ball is held, which is carried on merrily into the small hours like any city dance. This does not end the Society's enterprise, for it has bought a piece of land adjoining the highroad on which members have built eleven cottages, costing a sum of £2,640. These the owners do not themselves occupy. for they are pitmen living in colliery houses rent-free, but. having by their thrift become small capitalists, they have adopted this manner of investing their savings. It is the exception for members of the Co-operative Society to withdraw their quarterly dividends, and nearly every member has a tidy little sum to his credit in the Society's books. Others of the miners have bought from the Greenwich Hospital Trustees plots of half an acre of land on part of which they have built houses, and they employ their leisure in cultivating these little estates with considerable skill. The rows of miners' houses are very neat and clean. and all the gardens fully worked, while several occupants have erected small greenhouses therein, and others have built stables and sheds and are the owners of horses, traps, and carts, which they let on hire or use for adding to their incomes. "On what is known as the Bank Top is the Mechanics' Institute, in which are a reading room and recreation room, the latter containing a billiard table and facilities for playing other games. In the summer time a large flower show is held, managed by a committee of working men, and the members of the Co-operative Society promote a leek show, which is held in the Co-operative Hall, as a counter attraction to the leek shows held at the public-houses in the neighbouring villages. The Mechanics' Institute members also hold picnics during the summer, as rival attractions to those of the inns, that, taking things as a whole, the Throckley people contrive to get for themselves plenty of recreation, amusement, variety, and excitement on strictly Temperance principles. Full employment is found for three abstinence societies. each flourishing and with a membership continually at work—the Good Templars, the Rechabites, and a branch of the British Women's Temperance Association. Possibly one active cause of the maintenance of Prohibition in Throckley, more potent, perhaps, than all the efforts of the proprietors of the colliery, is the existence in the village of a perfect water supply. The Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company have filtering beds at Throckley, and they supply the village with water of a quality that is not obtainable at every mining village in the North Of England. This is a great and exceptional advantage, and must be held to supplement very materially the eflorts which have been made by all parties to make Throckley a striking instance of the beneficial results of the application of Prohibition in regard to drinking and other habits which militate against thrift and prevent the acquisition of comfort and independence amongst the working class inhabitants." The population on the 1891 census was 1,464.  OS Northumberland (25" to 1 mile, Old Series) LXXXVII.15. Revised: 1895, Published: 1897. National Library of Scotland. Showing former location of the Mechanics' Institute (at Bank Top), Newcastle & Gateshead Water Comapny Filter Beds, Wesleyan Chapel and Colliery Schools. Tyne & Wear HER (Sitelines ref 1957) provides the following information: In September 1870 the Throckley Coal Company determined upon building day schools for the children of its employees, and the following year a site was chosen on the north side of the Hexham turnpike, belonging to the Lords of the Admiralty, at a cost of 1/- per annum. The school buildings, constructed of local sandstone after 1872, cost £1,293.16.4d. About the same date a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was built immediately west of the schools (the chapel was demolished in 1998/9 and has been replaced by two houses). The school was opened in 1873, a fact recorded on a sign adjacent to the main entrance and on a commemorative stained glass window inside. The Throckley Colliery School was later renamed Throckley Undenominational School. During the Second World War air raid shelters were built on the north side of the playground. The original stone school buildings were altered and adapted throughout the 20th century, but were due for demolition in 2003.  Photo from p.241 of Williamson, W. (1980) Class, culture and community a study of social change in mining through biography. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.  Photo from p.181 of Williamson (1980)  Throckley Methodist Church, 1906. Newcastle Libraries ref. 024553. A view of the exterior of Throckley Methodist Church Hexham Road Throckley taken 1906. The Church is in the centre with the Church Hall to the right and the Water Company Resevoir to the left. Two groups of children are standing/sitting outside the Church and Church Hall.The Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in 1871 and the Church Hall in 1905. |
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