The Fishermen’s Mission has had a presence on North Shields Fish Quay since 1899. It was opened by trawler owner Richard Irvin, whose own former headquarters has now been converted into apartments.

The mission was open from 5am-10pm daily, offering everything from first aid to a postal stop for letters from fishermen’s homes. The mission had a particularly important role in wartime. In the First World War, many fishermen served in the trawler section of the Royal Naval Reserve and a large number of boats and men were lost.

In the early 19th Century up to 500 boats could be berthed in North Shields harbour, including North Sea fishing fleets from Scotland, Russia and Iceland.

In 1953 the Mission moved into new headquarters on the quay which had accommodation for sick or stranded fishermen, cafe, showers, rest room and chapel. This building is now an Italian restaurant.

But as the fishing industry shrank in scale, the Mission moved out more than three years ago to its current, smaller premises (shown above), close to the Fish Quay’s historic Low Light. It still exercises an important spititual and practical role in the life of local and visiting fishermen, the Merchant Navy and even private yachts. The services provided include a meal, new clothes, money to telephone home, a bed for the night, breakfast and transport home.

Fishing remains a dangerous occupation. Each month in the United Kingdom an average of 3 fishing vessels are lost and 9 men are killed or seriously injured to the extent that they can no longer earn their living.

We were shown around the Mission building and Fish Quay by retired fish wholesaler Alex Hastie MBE, who has been associated with the Fish Quay for more than 50 years and was previously Chairman of the Local Advisory Committee, Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen at North Shields.

Information from Tomorrow's History and The Journal Live (29 May 2010).

The Fish Quay is the main area of quayside at North Shields, covering the sections known as Union Quay, Western Quay and The Gut. It is used for the landing of fish and also has a fish market. The 'dock' area between the quay and the projecting jetty is where trawlers and cobles moor.

From 1225 the Prior of Tynemouth had attempted to create a fishing port to provide fish for his religious house. To this end 27 rudimentary houses were erected beside the river at the mouth of the Pow Burn. Wooden quays were attached to these shielings (the origin of the place-name, 'Shields') to provide moorings for fishing boats and a place where fish could be sold. The quays were also used by the Prior to ship coal from the priory pits at Tynemouth.

The present Fish Quay was built at a cost of £81,000 in 1866 on the site of Dodgin's Shipyard, and by the beginning of the 20th century was landing and processing roughly 14,000 tonnes of fish a year. Herring was particularly important. It was extended in both directions towards the end of the 19th century. A new gutting and storage facility with refrigeration units, and a flake ice maker, was built at the east end of the quay in the 1990s.

Information from SINE and SiteLines.

There is lots more information about North Shields and its Fish Quay on Tyne Lives.

As the site of the former Elswick Lead Works just below the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle continues to get cleaned up, presumably  for eventual development, we remember one of the city's former famous landmarks that stood here from 1796 until 1969, The Shot Tower.

The only reminder now of the presence of this building is in the street name, Shot Factory Lane, that descends steeply from the junction of Pottery Lane, just east of the Arena, almost below the approaches to the new Redheugh Bridge, to Skinnerburn Road that runs parallel to the River Tyne. There are many remains of Tyneside's old industries in this now largely derelict area, on the steep bank above the river. Change in this area may be just round the corner, although dependent on the planning authorities, clean up of many difficult sites and the current economic climate.

Of course though, Newcastle's Shot Tower was here a long time, and is remembered in other ways. It features in a number of illustrations and paintings, many more modern photographs, and also in the written memories of those who worked there.

One of the most famous paintings which features the shot tower (in the background above the Tyne Bridge) is that by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) in London's Tate Gallery.

Turner's painting of Newcastle upon Tyne was engraved by F. Lupton as Plate 7 of the Rivers of England series, published on 2 June 1813 by W.B. Cooke. It is reproduced in the Newcastle Libraries Collection.

The landmarks of the city visible in this painting from Newcastle's Quayside, are discussed in a fine article by Timmonet called Turner Town, which was an inspiration for my personal discoveries in this area of Newcastle.

The early maps above show the Elswick Lead Works and the Shot Tower. The 1:500 plan shows remarkable detail of the internal spiral stairway.

The Newcastle Libraries Photograph Collections has the two old photographs shown below including one from 1968, just before the tower was demolished (click the photos for the links).

Elswick Lead Works opened in 1778  under the name Walkers, Fishwick & Co. After a few changes of ownership, ending with Calder Industrial Materials, it finally closed in 2002.

There is a good summary of the history of the lead industry here on the Newcastle University website, Structural Images of the North East (SINE).

The Shot Tower is almost in the centre of the above engraving published in Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, from drawings by J.W. Carmichael ; text by John Blackmore (Newcastle, 1838). As the drawings were done to illustrate the newly completed Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, the view is eastward, opposite to that of Turner, from the vicinity of Redheugh Station on the Gateshead shore. There is a zoomable image on Durham University's Pictures in Print.

The shot tower was a British invention by a plumber from Bristol called William Watts in 1782. He realised that raindrops falling far enough through the air are actually spherical, pulled into shape by surface tension. Molten lead has a much higher surface tension than water, and forms very precise spheres. The size of rounded shot that can be produced depends on the length of the fall and large shot needs high towers (or deep pits). There is a British Pathé news reel clip of the process filmed in 1950 here.

Droplets are formed by forcing a molten alloy of lead, antimony and arsenic  through holes in a sieve at the top of the tower. After the fall, the shot is caught and cooled by falling into a deep basin of cold water at the base. After Watt's patent, which was a huge improvement on shot previously made by casting, there was little further change apart from adding an updraught of air, and  ways to sort out deformed shot.

Watts's old house in Bristol - his original shot tower - kept producing shot until 1968. The full story can be read here.

Lead works can't have been pleasant or healthy places to work in their early days.  There is a very interesting account relating to the Elswick Works on Family Tree Forum written in 2009 and another, by Alan Edgar, on the Port of Tyne Writer in Residence site.

In an interesting connection with Heddon, the latter author reports that slag from the blast furnace at Elswick Lead Works was eventually recycled – to reinforce the Tyne riverbank on the north side between Newburn and the Hedwin streams.

He wrote:

Several shot towers still exist in Britain and around the world as historic artefacts. Some have even been modified into parts of modern buildings such as the Sheldon Bush Shot Tower in Bristol (above left) which replaced Watt's original tower in 1968 and is now part of an office ‘boardroom in the sky’ of a building called Vertigo.

Coop's Tower in Melbourne has been preserved under a 84m high conical glass roof of a shopping centre.

Many more, like those at Elswick, and at Lambeth on London's South Bank (above right), were demolished when their productive use was no longer necessary.

Francis Frith - Memories of Cookson's Lead Works - Part 1 - Part 2

The name 'Merci Beaucoup' carved in the door lintel stone of one of the cottages at Houghton, a rural hamlet neighbouring Heddon on the Wall on the road to Hexham, may puzzle the passer-by as to its origin.

During the 1914-18 war, Holeyn Hall in Wylam was used as a Military Hospital for wounded soldiers; this cottage was at that time unoccupied and Sir James Knott secured the tenancy of it.

The cottage was suitable furnished, food and victuals provided by Sir James and was opened as a guest house for wives and mothers of wounded soldiers invalided in Holeyn Hall. On a rota system these relatives came for a short stay to visit their dear ones.

Sir James asked these women to partake in a competition to name the cottage with the sum of £1 as the prize; the ascription Merci Beaucoup won the prize and this name was duly inscribed on the door lintel stone.

Taken from a book on Heddon on the Wall, handwritten, page 233-4, author, date and other details unknown.

Quoted from the website of the North East War Memorials Project.

In general, I'm more interested in places and the natural environment rather than people. However, I know from the few contacts received that this site attracts most interest from those studying their family history and,  when that leads them to Heddon, try to provide whatever help I can.

Eachwick was historically one of the six townships making up the parish of Heddon on the Wall. The early history of Eachwick is described on this site and in the history written by Cadwallader Bates in 1886.

Eachwick Hall is a  fine Grade II* listed building dating from the early 18th century and is described here. There is another photo on Keys to the Past.

_ A contact made to the site by a lady called Angela Raby in October 2011 was as follows:

R Spearman of Eachwick Hall listed in P O Directory 1879 on your site.

Just discovered a WW1 Memorial to Officers who served with their later dates of death, in York Minster!  My cousin a Captain is listed there, 1 of 26 officers. His stepfather was John Spearman, with associations to Eachwick Hall and Jersey.

John Spearman married in 1908 when my cousin was sent to school in Jersey where the Spearmans also had property.

I read your history of the Hall & wondered if there is a link between John Spearman and the Hall. If there is, you might be interested to have a copy of the write up I am doing.

I read that the Hall gardens were opened and wondered if the owners would know any details.

Thank you Angela

I had little to help other than the information already on this site and that from a Google search. I wasn't sure that the current owners were related, but the old directories did show a John Hunter Spearman at Eachwick Hall, although it looked like he took the surname on being left the estate by his friend Ralph Spearman, who died childless and was buried at Heddon.

Eneas MacKenzie in his history of Northumberland (1825) added the following footnote to his account for Eachwick:

John Gorton, for example, wrote the following in 1833:

William Fordyce provided more detail in 1857:

Ralph Spearman (1749-1823), as an antiquarian, was following the interests of his cousin, John Spearman of Thornley (1645-1703), notable lawyer and under Sheriff of County Durham. His son, Gilbert Spearman (1675-1738), also a lawyer, published much of their work in An Enquiry into the Ancient and Present State of the County Palatine of Durham (1729)., still cited today.

Cadwallader Bates in 1885 didn’t seem to hold Ralph Spearman in any great regard as an antiquarian and historian.

"Ralph Spearman of Eachwick acted the part of a great antiquary, so much so that he was erroneously believed to have been the prototype of Sir Walter Scott's ' Jonathan Oldbuck.' It is doubtful, however, whether his learning was even so sound as that of the Laird of Monkbarns. [104] His vanity led him to endeavour to trace his descent and name from the ' lords of Aspramont, a castle and county on the confines of Lorraine and Bar.'  His new hall at Eachwick was built entirely for show : being three stories high, with gingerbread battlements, and of great length, though only one room thick. At the time of the window-tax this led to its being rated at a very large sum. Seen from a distance, it quite deceives a stranger by its palatial appearance. Mr. Spearman was so far successful that the neighbourhood still believe that Eachwick belonged to his family for generations. A letter accidentally preserved in the church books at Heddon is a capital illustration of his combined pedantry, liberality, and pride:

In his will he stated that he was determined to follow "the example of Abraham, and to consider his Eleazar as heir to all his house," and consequently entailed his property at Eachwick on his steward Mr.Hunter and his elder sons, on condition of their taking the name of Spearman, with a remainder in favour of his very distant kinsmen, the Spearmans of Thornley, co. Durham. In equity the estate should have gone to Sarah Bell, granddaughter of his great-uncle Charles Bell, and wife of Eobert Clayton, Esq., of Newcastle. His aged sister survived for about four years, and left written testimony of her gratitude to Mr. Hunter Spearman for the way in which she was treated after her brother's death. The entail was not barred, and took effect on the death of the last Mr. Hunter Spearman, to the prejudice of his younger brother who is a land-owner in the township, and continues to bear the name of Spearman. [105]

Heddon-on-the-Wall: The Church and Parish by Cadwallader J. Bates M.A. Archaeologia aeliana v11 p240-294 (1886). His paper is available online here.

Friends remember him in a more favourable light here:

I had also come across a multitude of Spearman memorials during my photographic sessions of gravestones in St Andrew's churchyard. They are numbered 93, 96, 137 & 139.

True to her word, Angela Raby unravelled the whole complicated story about the Spearman's of Eachwick Hall and kindly provided me with two detailed pdf documents earlier this year. I don't think she'll mind me including her summaries here. If there's anyone else out there interested in the Spearman family, Angela is the person to contact. The two volumes contain family trees and considerable detail I am unable to go into here. You can only admire someone who has the skills, ability and stamina to sort out the difficult topics that pervade family inheritance.

Ralph stated that he had selected his heir in the same manner as Abraham who had chosen the natural first son of his concubine to inherit. Might one conclude that John Hunter was a natural son of Ralph? Had this been the case, the entail was unnecessary: it would have been sufficient to leave the estate to John Hunter and his heirs.

However the entail stated that, upon the death of John Hunter Spearman, the Manor of Eachwick pass to Robert Reay Spearman named by Ralph ‘my Godson and Adopted son’ .No mention is made that Robert is John Hunter’s son. In fact the penultimate group of beneficiaries is named as ‘the eight Heirs of said John Hunter’: by implication Robert and brother John, although listed with John Hunter’s family of ten, are ‘not of his body’.

The ancient rules of entail dictated that the person inheriting must be an ‘heir of the body’ - to preserve the bloodline. This suggests that Robert Reay Spearman was the illegitimate son of Ralph: probably his mother was Ann Hunter née Reay. It would seem that John Hunter was allowed to inherit initially because his son Robert might not be twenty one at the time of Ralph’s demise: a condition of the entail.

Unfortunately Robert had no heirs and the entail moved inexorably on to search out three distant Spearman kinsmen. Ralph was related to these three families by a common ancestor born circa 1519—about six generations earlier. [Both fact and fiction weave many plots around the iniquities of entail.]

Contemporary writers, unaware of the purpose of the entail, had favoured the Manor being returned to the Bell family since Ralph’s father had inherited through his marriage. There was surprise locally that, following the death of Robert, the Estate did not pass immediately to Richard Spearman his younger brother, farmer, landowner and family man of Eachwick.

While researching a John Spearman who married my widowed Great Aunt Mary née Kinsman, it was found that his father, Major Henry Charles Spearman was, ‘Lord of the Manor of Thornley County Durham and Lord of the Manor of Eachwick, Northumberland and Grenville, Jersey’. His grandfather Charles, named as a beneficiary under Ralph’s Will, provided the connection between these two Spearman families. John’s elder son, Lieutenant Colonel Leo Spearman is mentioned in the preface of the book, The Northern Spearmans  (1984).

James Losh, an eminent Newcastle lawyer drew up Ralph’s Will according to the rules of entail. By choosing to entail the estate a landowner stipulated that only ‘heirs of his body’, his bloodline, would inherit in perpetuity. To the antiquarian the prospect of ‘his adopted son’ Robert Reay Hunter carrying on his line through subsequent heirs must have been appealing. So appealing in fact that James Losh overlooked advising his client that Robert might not marry and have sons.

Ralph Spearman was a bachelor who named Robert a putative son of ‘his friend John Hunter’ to inherit Eachwick. By so doing Ralph announced that this child was an heir of his body and as such could inherit under the entail. Since Robert did not bear the name Spearman he instructed John Hunter to change his surname. Due to the fact that Robert might be underage at his death, Ralph passed the estate first to John Hunter stipulating for his life time only. Had James Losh advised against an entail, and named John then the estate would have passed down through the family of ten children and still be in hands of a former
Eachwick [Hunter] Spearman.

Fifty three years after Ralph’s death, Robert Reay Spearman died a bachelor and the Manor of Eachwick was lost to the local Spearman family in preference for a retired Major living in Jersey, Channel Islands.

Major Henry Charles Spearman inherited at Eachwick from Ralph Spearman when Robert Reay Spearman died without heir. John a son of Henry, married Mary Kinsman, the Great Aunt of the writer. Mary had previously been married to Great Uncle Henri and had two sons by him, Oscar and Eric Gustavus. John and Mary had two sons, Leo and Robert. Leo Spearman born 1904 is mentioned in the book, The Northern Spearmans, by Charles Richard Spearman. The author, in the preface acknowledges his debt to Lt Col Leo Spearman.

Leo Spearman and his half brothers attended Victoria College, Jersey. They all had careers in the military: Eric Gustavus is remembered in the Chapel of West Yorkshire Regiment at York Minster on the 1914-1918 War Memorial.

Photos received with thanks from Jennie Parsons (2013).
More can be seen in Old photos of Eachwick Hall on the Blog.

Update and photo
Henry Charles Spearman
from Mark Galvin                         28 August 2013

A talk on 21st May 2012 to Heddon Local History Society about life in the Newcastle area of Ouseburn during Victorian times by Mike Greatbatch. Mike was active in the Ouseburn Trust in opening the Victoria Tunnel to the public.

Historical context taken from:
Ouseburn Valley Urban Landscape Study, May 2007
Insite Environments commissioned by Newcastle City Council.

The Lower Ouseburn Valley was originally part of the township of Byker, one of the first outside of the town walls and prior to the industrial revolution of the 19th Century, was largely agricultural.

The Ouseburn is the longest of Newcastle’s Tyne River tributaries and is tidal up to the base of Stepney Bank. It was traditionally a fast flowing stream, however the nature of the water course has changed considerably due to developments up stream and is now slower moving and of poor water quality. The Ouseburn is edged from Stepney Bank to its confluence with the River Tyne by a mix of retaining structures from a range of periods.

The overall character of the area has been shaped by the industrialisation of the Ouseburn and its banks during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries although few buildings remain today. The Ouseburn was a major factor in the type of industrial development attracted to the Valley and its built form. The Ouseburn was an effective transport route, its tidal nature permitting keels and the later wherries to travel up stream from the River Tyne. As a result, processing industries located in the Valley and relied on the watercourse for the delivery of materials and export of the finished products. The dense corridor of buildings (mills, warehouses etc.) were built right up to the stream's edge and incorporated slipways and shoring for boats, as well as loading equipment, mill races and waterwheels.

Glass making was the first known industry to be located in the valley with three glasshouses established by 1619 at the mouth of the Ouseburn.

The pottery industry located in the valley in 1782 and culminated in the establishment of the Maling Pottery on Ford Street in the 19th Century. The population in the valley expanded and types of industrial commercial activity developed to include shipbuilding, masonry, lead works, iron foundries, soap manufacturers, tanners, saw mills, corn mills and flint mills. The area provided substantial employment and had the infrastructure to support the development of a self-contained community with brick terraces, tenements, a doctor’s practice, school and approximately fifteen public houses.

The industrialisation of the Lower Ouseburn Valley was in direct contrast with the upper section of the Ouseburn valley which lent itself to the development of Victorian parks such as Jesmond Dene, Heaton Park and Armstrong Park.

North of the railway viaduct (the site of the City Stadium and the former Ouseburn Lead Works) the Ouseburn was culverted and the valley was used as a tip until the 1950’s. The landfill effectively cut off the Lower Ouseburn valley from the Victorian parks to the north. The landfill was used to create the bowl of the stadium and steep sided valley landscape facing the viaducts; these sides where planted in the 1970s to create an area of semi-natural woodland with open fields which have been used since as pastures by the Ouseburn Farm.

Mike Greatbatch told us about what life was like for the people who lived and worked in the Ouseburn valley, illustrated with old photographs and maps. It was a vibrant community of squalid tenements where people shared a limited space with heavy, dirty, and frequently dangerous industrial processes.

'Slaughter houses, coal wharves and dwelling houses of not the most desirable appearance environ the burn… Just above the bridge the keels may be seen lying and delivering coal in carts while horses stand impatiently in the cold water. In the cold water too, we see ragged groups of people with baskets and bags, wading and groping with their hands for coals which has fallen overboard. Where Lime Street now is, on the right bank used to stand the lime kilns by the waterside, and opposite where the engine works are, used to be a little boat builders' yard, while a little higher up gardens ran to the quay wall of the burn and their trees hung over the edge.'
ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, 16 JULY 1887

Ouseburn links:

Ouseburn Trust
Welcome to the Ouseburn
Photographs of Newcastle
Geograph project - Ouseburn