Some photos of the newly built houses on the former site of Town Farm (later Tulip's Yard) adjacent to the old A69 when it passed this way through the village. The line of Hadrian's Wall likes under the houses and was subject to excavation during development of the site. The development of two detached, 4-bedroom houses and three link-detached, 3-bedroom dormer bungalows was completed in the summer of 2019.
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Photos by A Curtis (May 2021) Link to 1:2500 georeferenced OS and LIDAR in Side by side view at National Library of Scotland. In LIDAR data, the digital surface model (DSM) represents the earth's surface and includes all objects on it. In contrast to a DSM, the digital terrain model (DTM) represents the bare ground surface without any objects like plants and buildings. The laser pulses from the tree canopy are effectively removed from the data allowing the model to see through the trees. Document about site history by Tyne Valley Gun ClubThe land which measures approximately 10 acres is contained wholly within the North Tyneside Green Belt and was formerly the Margaret Pit and Heddon Brick Works. It was active as a colliery and brick making works until 1947 when operations ceased.
Until 1949 the site was used as a printing works then for light engineering and thereafterwards for the storage of paper. In 1962 the then Minister of Housing and Local Government confirmed a Discontinuance Order requiring the use of the land for general industrial purposes to be discontinued and required all buildings and works on the land to be removed. Protracted negotiations took place regarding compensation payment, and in 1965 final settlement was agreed on the basis of a cleared site without industrial use but with the benefit of an alternative use as a single dwelling house. Since 1949 a series of applications were made for planning permission for various uses and details of these applications and their determination are as follows:
In September 1977, an application was received from the Tyne Valley Gun Club for the addition of two 25 metre pistol ranges. This application was considered by the Development Control Committee in October and approved subject to landscaping requirements, dates and times of shooting. Owner of adjoining property submitted technical details in respect of provision of earth ramparts in an effort to baffle sound from the ranges. The Club were prepared to implement these reccommendations in full and this was done. The application was further considered in January 1978 and deferred for a site visit to assess the problem of noise. On 2nd February approval was granted subject to revised shooting times. On 27th April 1978, because of continual complaints from adjoining owners and in an effort to establish better public relations a further revision of the shooting times was approved in order to increase the 'quiet period' until the second Sunday in September. An application by the Gun Club on 3rd July 1980 to extend shooting times into July was REFUSED. The story of Northumberland's foot and mouth crisis - from those who were there.
On February 19, 2001, Britain's first case of foot and mouth since the 1960s was confirmed - what followed was 12 months of horror which will never be forgotten in Northumberland. By Hannah Graham ChronicleLive - 19th February 2021 Link ArchiveLink ITV News - 17th February 2021 Link ArchiveLink I've not found a good local story for a while then this turned up which is definitely quite interesting. It comes from Chris Mitchell from Queensland, Australia who has strong evidence for being an ancestor of John Smith (1787-1853) who was brought up by George and Isabella Smith at what was then called High Close Farm. They had four other children, Margaret, Jane, George and Ann, all baptised at Heddon on the Wall. At the time, High Close House, now a private residence surrounded by a golf course, was probably the Home Farm of Close House Estate, owned by the Bewicke family. The family are remembered by a gravestone in St Andrew's Churchyard [14] which reads: Sacred to the memory of Isabella Smith wife of George Smith of Close House who died the 13th of November 1822 aged 71 years. Also to the memory of George Smith husband of the above Isabella Smith who died the 5th of June 1836 aged 82 years. Margaret Smith daughter of the above died at Close House 25th July 1858 aged 75 years. John Smith married Frances Jackson from Southwell, Nottinghamshire on 21 October 1816 and emigrated with one infant, George, on the vessel, Shipley, bound for Australia on 18 December in the same year. By coincidence this was the same vessel which carried John Gill to Australia in 1821, having been convicted for the Great Heddon Tea Robbery.
In January 1818 John Smith received a land grant of 500 acres at Bringelly, about 50km west of Sydney. He named it Close House. Owing to the effect of heat on Frances' health, in 1820 they decided to move to Tasmania. John applied for and received a location order for 500 acres at Breadalbane about 7 miles south of Launceston. The property was named Marchington, after property inherited by Frances from her father Magnus Jackson. Although Chris seems sure of John Smith's connection with High Close House he is not quite so certain of the rest of the tale, a collection of family stories, heirlooms, family likenesses and genetics which suggest that John Smith might actually have been the son of Prince George (later King George IV 1820-30) and Maria Fitzherbert. They were secretly married in 1785 but later annulled. Could John have been paid off for his silence and encouraged to emigrate as far away as possible? He is only one of several who claim to be children of George. If true, John Smith would have been a cousin of Queen Victoria. Is there another reason John could have been placed with the Smiths at High Close House? No connection is yet known between Maria Fitzherbert and George and Isabella Smith. However, there are local connections. Maria's cousin, Sir Edward Smythe owned Esh Hall near Durham until his death in 1811, and her uncle, Henry Errington posessed Beaufront Castle near Hexham, only 15km west of Close House estate. Henry's will referred to his nephews (Maria's brothers), Charles and Henry 'Smith'. Chris has produced a nicely written, well documented and balanced assessment of the evidence which you can read below. Perhaps more will come to light in the future. Read it and make up your own mind. Top row: Eddie Allen, Bob Armitage, George Laws, Ken Percivil, Reuben Willie, Joe Beilby, Jackie Hymers, Ken Ord Middle row: Tom Donaldson, George Graham, George Philipson, Bob (Tanky) Thompson, Billy Archibald, Billy Stuart, Hubert Laws, John Sanderson Bottom row: Tom Shield, Mansel Beilby, John Wall, Vaughan, Billy Moore, Tony Thompson (names courtesy of Philip Sanderson & Hazel Thompson) Caption of the photo above corrected from location against wall of Knott Hall to the east wall of The Swan (facing the Old Library) thanks to Neil McGreevy (comment below)..
Following the excitement with the find of a section of Hadrians Wall on the Town Farm development site we now report on a new archaeology find, close to the eastern entrance. We must await the full archaeology report but it is clearly a medieval or post-medieval corn-drying kiln, very simillar to that built into the conserved section of Hadrian's Wall, slightly further east, across Towne Gate. The excavation was undertaken by an archaeologist from Wardell Armstrong, and my photos taken, with careful regard for health & safety, through the wire fence at the east entrance to the building site. The location of the kiln is likley to lie close to, but just to the north of the line of Hadrian's Wall, which hadn't been visible in this area of the site. Behind the circular part of the kiln in the foreground is a deep fire-pit bounded by large masonry on the south side. LINK
Wardell Armstrong - Tulip Mews, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland. Watching Brief Report (2020). Photos below, taken in June 2017, are of the old Town Farm (Tulip's Yard) before demolition of the old buildings. Photos below of the revealed section of Hadrian's Wall taken by Bill Pointer 8th March 2019. Those who have followed developments of the former site of Town Farm, later Tulip’s Haulage Yard, on the East side of the village will have seen in the past weeks, the old, derelict buildings of the farmstead demolished, a new section of Hadrian’s Wall briefly found and cleared, and the site prepared for the building of five new bungalows. I don’t know much about the early history of Town Farm but have speculated that it was in place in 1750 requiring the slight adjustment of General Wade’s Military Road from using the line (and foundations) of Hadrian’s Wall, west from Great Hill. This led to the preserved section of the Wall otherwise largely destroyed and covered by the road. This road, the first properly constructed road in Northumberland since Roman times, became the Newcastle to Carlisle Turnpike and later the A69, before it was abandoned and the bypass constructed. Beside the old road, below the retaining wall of the Town Farm site, still stands a milestone recording a distance of 7 miles from Newcastle’s West gate. It is probably one of the original milestones of the turnpike road from around 1780. The original farm may have adjoined the old buildings, incorporating both farmhouse and barn as one long building. The two-storey farmhouse still standing on the north side of the old road, previously Four Winds and now Glanville House, was probably a much later addition. At one time, like much of the village, it was owned by the Clayton family. The farmer in 1901 was William Stephenson who lived in the farmhouse with his wife Sarah and six children. William had been born at Rudchester and was nephew of William Stephenson who founded Throckley Brick Works and whose son, Sir William Haswell Stephenson of the Throckley Coal Company was seven times Lord Mayor of Newcastle. In 1901 a gamekeeper, George Charlton, lived in what is now Keepers Cottage. He died in 1931 and has a gravestone in St Andrew’s churchyard erected by Brigadier General Sir Loftus Bates of Heddon Hall ‘in memory of an old friend’. There was a large fire at Town Farm in 1913 which destroyed buildings and livestock. It was fought by local people until the fire brigade arrived from Newburn, alerted by a youth on a bicycle. In 1918 it was bought for £3000, along with many of the other village properties, by Sir James Knott who had a vision of turning Heddon into a model village. However, after the events of the First War and loss of his two sons, his interest in the village came to an end. Town Farm was Lot 1 in his sale of 1924. Town Farm, on the site of the Roman Wall, including 38 acres of old grass land, was sold to Adam and James Hedley for £2800. They were already faming Bays Leap, bought from the Claytons in 1918. James Knott retained the small field containing the currently preserved section of Hadrian’s Wall which he later instructed to be gifted to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Around 1927, Town Farm was rented from the Hedleys by William Ward Sanderson. He lived in the farmhouse and farmed the fields on the east side of the village, milking cows in a parlour at the farmstead, cutting hay on the site of the Roman Wall and running a local shop selling cigarettes and confectionary. The end of farming came when the land was sold for the building of the Vallum housing estate in the 1950s. The farm buildings became part of Tulip’s Yard, base for a successful haulage company. The wall of the farm next to the old road sported adverts for the local shop and a Heddon on the Wall road-sign on a photo of army cadets resting on the grass below taken around 1950. Part of this photo was used on the album of The Eton Rifles by The Jam in 1979. Demolition of the farm buildings in the past weeks and thorough archaeological excavation of the site has revealed the continuation of Hadrian’s Wall in two runs of large stones marking the lower course of its north face, and rubble core set in clay remaining below the old buildings. Most of the stones had been previously robbed and presumably reused elsewhere, perhaps including the church and even the buildings of Town Farm. Milecastle 12, known by measurement to be in this vicinity, hasn’t yet been found and may have been further west, perhaps under the garden north of Tank House. Similar remains of the Wall are known to exist below the tarmac of General Wade's road something that causes all sorts of problems for utility companies wanting to dig holes. Cadwallader Bates in his History of Heddon published 1886: This mile-castle probably stood to the east of the pond, on the hill-top now covered with ruins of cottages. The Rev. G. Bowlker, vicar of Heddon, has heard that the people who lived in these cottages, in digging a hole in front of them for burying a horse, came on old foundations and what they described as a grave-stone with letters on it. This they promptly broke up. Nothing has been agreed to date but interest has been expressed in the village obtaining at least some of the Hadrian’s Wall stones if they are not wanted elsewhere, perhaps to enhance the area around the Victrix sculpture, letting us put the centurion close to a little part of the fabric of the original Roman Wall. Map rendering provided by houseprices.io free to use under Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC BY 4.0 The sections below are taken from: Wardell Armstrong - Tulip Mews, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland. Watching Brief Report (2020). The remains of Hadrian’s Wall identified at the site measured c.20 min length and comprised facing stones laid on a foundation of flat sandstone slabs, with a core of irregular sized sandstone fragments set in puddled clay. The Wall survived to a maximum height of 0.45m and was 2.9m at its widest surviving point. The width of the surviving remains is consistent with the Broad Wall sections of the monument, which was originally designed to be 2.9m wide (Symonds & Mason 2009, 38; Table2). It is also consistent with the surviving extant section of the Wall located to the east of the site (NHLE 1010616) which measures between 2.8m and 3m in width. In addition to remains associated with Hadrian’s Wall, the watching brief also identified a well preserved stone‐lined kiln with associated firepit and flue. The kiln was initially considered to be associated with the Roman activity at the site, but the recovery of several sherds of medieval pottery from the feature (the only medieval pottery recovered anywhere during the watching brief) and its location on the northern side of the Wall has highlighted that it relates to a later phase of activity, probably the 14th or 15th century. Apart from the recovery of oak charcoal, primarily from the firepit, no indication of use of the kiln was identified, although it is possible that the feature was used as a corn drying kiln similar to the medieval kiln built into the extant section of the Wall immediately to the east of the site. LINKS
The Wall at Heddon Heddon History - Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside (pdf) Hexham Courant - 19th March 2019 The Knott Memorial Hall was given to the village of Heddon by Sir T. Garbutt Knott, in memory of his parents, Sir James and Lady Margaret Annie Knott. Initially the hall was to be a more elaborate construction, the initial plans of 1935 included higher wings at the north east and south west corners to provide a news and games room at one end and a caretakers flat at the other. In view of the relatively small size of the village, at that time, and the existing news and games room at the Men's Institute, and the availability of other meeting rooms, it was decided to scale down the plans and use the money saved to create an endowment fund to assist with the future upkeep of the hall. This suggestion was agreed to by Sir Garbutt and his legal advisers, and the Hall in its present form was subsequently built in 1936. The site upon which it was built formed part of the Church Banks, this had been for many years previous an unofficial playground for the village children. Mr. L.Walton-Taylor of Heddon and Newcastle was the architect and the Hall was built by Messrs. Lowry of Newcastle. The original official opening ceremony was to have taken place on Saturday the 18th July, 1936 at 3pm by Lt.Col. Sir Alexander Leith, Bart, M.C; D.L, and the dedication service by the Venerable Archdeacon of Northumberland, a tea to be provided for all invited guests. The tragic death of the vicar, The Rev. Harold Nixon, in a motoring accident whilst on holiday in Wales, brought a sudden cancellation of these plans. It was later officially opened by Mrs. G.E. Wilkinson of Wylam and dedicated by the Lord Bishop Billrough, of Newcastle, on the 24th October, 1936. Program for original opening ceremony planned for 18th July 1936.
A life-size sculpture of a Roman Centurion carved from the trunk of a diseased and dying horse chestnut tree by Consett tree sculptor, Tommy Craggs. It is situated opposite the shops, Dingle Dell cafe and the children's nursery at Taberna Close. The carving took place in October and November 2018, with money for the project raised by a local group, 'Heddon Branches'. The name comes the Fourth Cohort of the Twentieth Legion, Valeria Victrix (Valiant and Victorious), who are known to have built part of Hadrian's Wall in the Heddon area about 121AD as shown on a building stone found in 1807 in the vicarage at Heddon but now lost. Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix Hexham Courant 1st November 2018 The official unveiling of the statue, hosted by Dingle Dell cafe, was held on 22nd November 2018. On a wet afternoon, the ribbon was cut by local resident Emily Taylor who had painted an inspirational picture featuring a Roman soldier in a tree. Hexham Courant 28th November 2018 "I march alone and gaze afar
across these windswept glades for sight of those this wall to breach the hoards who would invade Though far from home I tread this wall with hardships yet untold though days are long and winters cold its beauty in my soul Marching men with boots on earth the sound of thunder brings faint lights from distant fortress guide to shelter winter winds One dawn did break I left this land no lesson more to learn though time had chosen I would leave I vowed I would return And now once more I cast my gaze beyond a distant plain and in this place and from this tree stood proud I shall remain" 'I Am Victrix' by Edmund McGough (displayed in the window of The Dell (Cafe, Bar & Bistro), Taverna Place, Heddon on the Wall. The most interesting place name that appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of Heddon on the Wall is 'Haddocks Hole'. On the 6" map of Northumberland LXXXVII surveyed in 1860 and published in 1865 the name is shown along the Hexham Road. The Name Book entry (kindly supplied by Prof. Diana Whaley of Newcastle University) written at the time of the survey reads: The name is applied to all houses on trace No. 5 in the village of Heddon on the Wall. As part of the name survey task, the correctness of the name was authorised by three local men, recorded as: Mr Armstrong Mr Charlton Mr Hogg Without the draft map we can't be sure which houses the name actually refered to but later oral memories indicate that it was certainly applied to the cottages just west of the Three Tuns Inn between the Hexham Road and Military Road. They were demolished in the mid 1950s, creating the small car park at the side of the pub, open onto both roads. The Co-op building, formerly a smithy, adjoining the south side of the inn, was reduced to a short stub at the same time. The authorities for the place-name can however be identified. A directory of 1855, for instance, tells us that John Armstrong was the farmer at Bay's Leap, whose farmhouse was originally to the north of the Three Tuns. He died on January 21st 1886 aged 65 years. There were several families with the surname, Charlton in the village at the time of the survey. John Charlton, a Joiner & Cartwright, died April 12th 1870 aged 59 years. In 1855, Jane Hogg is shown as victualler at the Three Tuns Inn; her husband, Thomas Hogg was a blacksmith and took over the Three Tuns when she died in 1860. He died on August 5th 1863 aged 60 years. The larger scale map (25" to a mile) moved the name to the west of the Vicarage on the south side of the Hexham Road. Later editions ommited the name altogether. We only have a single photo of Haddocks Hole showing a short row of single storey cottages.
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