Category: Stephenson

Stephensons of Throckley

10/6/2016

W Stephenson & Sons, Throckley. Poster for Thos. Pope of New York (c.1870).

William Stephenson & Sons, Throckley. The poster is in Italian to publicise the firm at the International Glass Exhibition, London 1862. Beamish People's Collection NEG5733.

Stephenson brick, Close Lea, Heddon on the Wall. Photo A Curtis (2011).

Mr William Stephenson had established a brick and tileworks near the Maria coal pit by 1849, making firebricks, common bricks, quarls, field drainage tiles and soles. Early handmade firebricks were marked “W.S.& Sons, Throckley”, or “Stephenson, Newcastle”. In the 1920s a new grinding plant was installed and two new brick machine presses. The brickyard eventually had 34 Newcastle-type kilns.

In 1951, these kilns were replaced by a 20-chamber Staffordshire transverse-arch kiln, and produced six million bricks per year. A tunnel kiln was built in 1965 and the works modernised by the Northern Brick Company.

The Throckley yard is the only survivor of a group of 26 brickworks that were owned by the National Coal Board in 1947. In 1973, Gibbons (Dudley) Ltd took over the remaining nine brickworks and by 1977 only Throckley and Cramlington were still working.

A brickworks at Newburn was in existence from the 1850s to 1965. The buildings were demolished in 1979 and is now occupied by a recycling plant on the Newburn to Walbottle Road.

The Throckley brickworks is now owned by Ibstock plc, registered in Ibstock Leicestershire.
http://www.penmorfa.com/bricks/england20a.html

Isabella Coke Ovens made with Stephenson bricks. Photo A Curtis (2016).

Locally made bricks on pedistal for information board, Isabella Coke Ovens. Photo A Curtis (2016).

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Walbottle Moors Waggonway

28/12/2013

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Walbottle Moor Waggonway is known to have been in operation from 1769. This Waggonway ran from old pits north of Hexham Road past the location of Duke Pit in Walbottle down to coal staiths on the River Tyne at Lemington. The network is one of the last surviving examples of an 18th century waggonway to survive in Newcastle.

The system was still in use in 1860, using horses and employing 50 keelmen at the riverside staiths for transport down river.

This now disused network provides the village of Walbottle with picturesque paths allowing easy access to the surrounding countryside. These waggonways also have historic importance due to their connection with railway pioneer George Stephenson, who as a boy worked on them as a fireman and horse driver.

'Waggonways Walk' marker, Black Callerton. Photo A Curtis (2013).

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Town Farm, Heddon on the Wall

15/12/2011

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The photographer, Caroline Briggs, got in touch recently with a link to her blog, entitled, Picturing the Past which refers to an old postcard she had acquired. She asks if the house could be Town Farm in Heddon.

Postcard courtesy of Caroline Briggs.

The postcard was franked 19 April 1907, posted in Heddon-on-the-Wall and addressed to Mr J W Stephenson of Ravensworth Road, Dunston.

We don't have an old photo of the Town Farm farmhouse on this site, although there is one taken close to its former farmyard off Towne Gate here. The farmhouse itself was located north of the old A69 road (now disused), and the house in that location was recently called 'Four Winds', but is now, 'Glanville House'. It has been much changed and modernised over the years.

The map here from 1897 clearly shows the shape of the porch on the south side of the building. The house is not easily seen from the road but the porch and upper central window in my photo taken from the public road (below) appear to be a good match. If it is the house, the other windows must have been widened.

Caroline tells us that one of the signs on the wall of the house reads ‘New Milk & Soda’. This fits with one of our Memories.

Alec and Winnie Watson gave the following description:

The house (now called Four Winds), opposite Towne Gate, was Town Farm. That farm owned the buildings now in Tulip's Yard which were the farm buildings. Alec would go along to Town Farm with a milk can to collect the milk.

Caroline found out that Mr J W Stephenson, the recipient of the postcard, was born in 1869 in Newburn, and had 11 siblings. The youngest of these were still living with his parents, Sarah and William Stephenson, at Town Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall, in 1901. She speculates that it his parents and younger siblings that are posed for the photograph outside Town Farm farmhouse, and she could well be right in that too. Caroline told me that she pieced this all together from the 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 census.

The brief message (given in full on Caroline's post) is signed 'Cissie'. Although this was often applied as a nickname to several different girl's names, it is often applied to Sarah and that would fit too, inviting her son to visit on Sunday. Caroline found out that John also had a sister called Sarah, who would have been about 27 when the postcard was sent. Perhaps she was Cissie...? The only thing we don't know is what they had for Sunday dinner.

A great feat of detective work and a very interesting find. Many thanks for getting in touch, Caroline.

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Stephensons of Throckley

Walbottle Moors Waggonway

Town Farm, Heddon on the Wall

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