Stephensons of Throckley

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).

Close to the former site of Throckley Isabella Colliery on a wooded site within the Newburn Riverside Park are the ruins of four beehive coke ovens and a brick-lined flue. The earthwork footings of further ovens lie to the north. Evidence of additional ovens, the flue system and possibly a brick-built coke bench lies buried in the undergrowth.

The ovens were built by the Throckley Coal Company, formed in 1867 by Messrs. Stephenson, firebrick manufacturers and Messrs. Spencer, Newburn steel manufacturers, etc.

The sinking of the Isabella Colliery began in 1867 and the construction of the coke ovens in 1869. 22 ovens were built at a cost of £260, the embankment and necessary retaining walls for the attendant railway line costing a further £132. In 1875 a further 22 were constructed and in 1878 a disintegrator for crushing the coal was installed. In 1890 a further 20 ovens were added.

The ovens were constructed using bricks from Stephenson's brickworks and the main market for the coke was Spencer's Newburn Steel Works.
Tyne and Wear HER(1035): Newburn, Throckley Colliery, Isabella Coke Ovens

There is a photo of a horse and its driver riding in a dandy cart behind two waggons loaded with bricks on a downhill section of the waggonway from Throckley Brickworks dated 1909 in the Newcastle Libraries Collection (ref.050280).

The remains of the dandy cart were photographed by Billy Embleton in 1966 when the brickworks was in NCB ownership. It is now at Beamish. There is a replica in the National Railway Museum.

Diagram showing method of using Dandy Cart which operated at Throckley 1825-1841. Beamish People's Collection NEG5028.

A bronze statue of Queen Victoria seated on an elaborate throne was commissioned from sculptor Alfred Gilbert and unveiled on its present site outside St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle in 1903.

Statue of Queen Victoria, St Nicholas Square. Photo A Curtis (2010).

The statue was the gift of Sir William Haswell Stephenson (1836-1918), whose father was the founder of the fire clay and gas works in Throckley in Newcastle. Sir William set up the Throckley Coal Company and was seven times Mayor of Newcastle.

He was in the habit of making grand donations to the city, having already provided Heaton, Elswick and Walker libraries and Methodist chapels in Throckley and Elswick.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Statue+of+the+week.-a0119602434

Assistance towards the cost (around £450) of building the Methodist Chapel in Heddon were received from Mr. William Stephenson of Throckley House (father of Sir William H. Stephenson), Mr. Thomas Bates of Heddon Hall, and Mr. John Clayton of Chesters.

The chapel was opened for public worship on May 21st 1877 by the Rev. Thomas Overton, superintendent minister of the Blenheim Street Circuit in Newcastle. Trustees at the opening of the church were: Charles John Stephenson, William Haswell Stephenson, Edward Richardson, William Harriman, Arthur Richardson, Thomas Barras Sambridge, Thomas Arthur Potts, Robert Bell, Utrick Alexander Ritson, James Stobert, Guy Murray, Robert Robson, William Kirton, Robert Haworth, John Charlton and William Shaw.

Gates of Throckley House. Photo A Curtis (2013).

Sir William Haswell Stephenson's father, William Stephenson, was born at Earsdon in 1802. His mother was Elizabeth (nee Ward) Stephenson (born Edmondbyers 1805). The 1861 Census records William Stephenson as
'Farmer Of 1290 Acres (20 Lab And 6 Boys)'. This was down to 330 acres (8 men and 6 boys) in 1871. He died in 1876.

The Isabella Pit of Throckley Colliery was named for Isabella Jane Stephenson (b. Newburn 1840), the youngest daughter of William and Elizabeth of Throckley House.

Capped shaft of Throckley Isabella Colliery. Photo A Curtis (2016).

William's parents were William and Hannah (nee Nixon) Stephenson who farmed at Earsdon, and later Rudchester in the 1800s. Their son John Stephenson (born Earsdon 1803) was farming at Rudchester in 1841 and 1851. He was married to Elizabeth Stephenson (born Simonburn 1810) and 9 children are recorded on the 1851 Census.

I am not sure if the family were related at all to the Stephenson family living at Towne Farm in 1901.

---

Stephenson Brick found in old fireplace, North Yorkshire. Photo courtesy of Gordon Hull (2017).