Reports from 2025
April 2025.
Coal mining in the Glendale area
Speaker: Michael Simpson
Being a geologist by training, a semi-retired petroleum engineer, and a member of GLHS, Michael Simpson was supremely qualified to speak about coal mining in Glendale, not just from a historical perspective but also from a scientific background which put the history into context. I had visited Hadrian’s Wall the day before with our grand-daughter and Michael made the pertinent point that the Romans who departed Britain in 410 AD left more artefacts than did the mining industry of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Coal, like any other mineral which is extracted, requires a market and that of the north Northumberland coalfield was local, for domestic consumption and for use in lime kilns, of which many remains can be seen in our locality. Distribution to households was by horse and cart – something I can remember in Gosforth in the 1950s, albeit from local collieries.
Michael explained that the Glendale area has the oldest coal deposits in Europe, laid down some 345 million years ago, but the quality is relatively poor. Some thirty feet of peat and dead trees in time result in three feet of coal. The poorest form of coal is lignite and the north Northumberland coal is only slightly better, being sub-bituminous or bituminous. This contrasts with the south-east Northumberland and Durham coalfields which yield anthracite, a much higher quality fuel. Moreover, while a seam in S.E. Northumberland could have a diameter of fifteen feet, those of north Northumberland could be only six inches thick and also the collieries were prone to flooding.
Michael showed a map of the collieries in the area and explained that they began as ‘bell pits’ such as on Alnwick moor and Etal moor. Bell pits involved nothing more than digging a shaft and digging around it once the miners reached the seam; when the roof became unstable the chamber would be left to collapse. This led to the development of tunnels and the propping thereof. Coal was transported in small wagons pulled by ‘putters’ who pulled the full wagons to the surface or to the cage and then pulled the empty wagons back. Exeter ponies were used to lift the coal by means of a gin wheel before engines were introduced. Children were more able to reach smaller seams and pull wagons in confined spaces. They were eventually supplanted by the ponies which were more economical.
There were a large number of collieries from Chatton in the south to Scremerston and Felkington in the north, largely following the Till valley. Little is known about many of the collieries although their locations can be divined from the remains of substantial buildings such as the engine houses. The colliery at Ford Moss is the most extant and includes the Cooper Eye chimney.
Ironically, the opening of the Alnwick to Cornhill railway led to the demise of the north Northumberland coalfield as it allowed the importation of cheaper, better coal from the south-east of the county. Production in north Northumberland dropped from 32,000 tons of coal a year to 3,334 tons after 1887. The Black Hill Unthank pit opened in 1940, however, but it closed in 1959. The Allerdean Drift pit finally closed in 1959; from a hundred or more employees in 1883, it had only four below ground and two above in 1917.
Michael reminded us of the chase for precious metals and that the coalfields have much iron pyrites from which selenium, used in computing, can be obtained. Will there be a re-industrialisation of Glendale, therefore?
It was a most informative talk.
Peter Davies
Coal mining in the Glendale area
Speaker: Michael Simpson
Being a geologist by training, a semi-retired petroleum engineer, and a member of GLHS, Michael Simpson was supremely qualified to speak about coal mining in Glendale, not just from a historical perspective but also from a scientific background which put the history into context. I had visited Hadrian’s Wall the day before with our grand-daughter and Michael made the pertinent point that the Romans who departed Britain in 410 AD left more artefacts than did the mining industry of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Coal, like any other mineral which is extracted, requires a market and that of the north Northumberland coalfield was local, for domestic consumption and for use in lime kilns, of which many remains can be seen in our locality. Distribution to households was by horse and cart – something I can remember in Gosforth in the 1950s, albeit from local collieries.
Michael explained that the Glendale area has the oldest coal deposits in Europe, laid down some 345 million years ago, but the quality is relatively poor. Some thirty feet of peat and dead trees in time result in three feet of coal. The poorest form of coal is lignite and the north Northumberland coal is only slightly better, being sub-bituminous or bituminous. This contrasts with the south-east Northumberland and Durham coalfields which yield anthracite, a much higher quality fuel. Moreover, while a seam in S.E. Northumberland could have a diameter of fifteen feet, those of north Northumberland could be only six inches thick and also the collieries were prone to flooding.
Michael showed a map of the collieries in the area and explained that they began as ‘bell pits’ such as on Alnwick moor and Etal moor. Bell pits involved nothing more than digging a shaft and digging around it once the miners reached the seam; when the roof became unstable the chamber would be left to collapse. This led to the development of tunnels and the propping thereof. Coal was transported in small wagons pulled by ‘putters’ who pulled the full wagons to the surface or to the cage and then pulled the empty wagons back. Exeter ponies were used to lift the coal by means of a gin wheel before engines were introduced. Children were more able to reach smaller seams and pull wagons in confined spaces. They were eventually supplanted by the ponies which were more economical.
There were a large number of collieries from Chatton in the south to Scremerston and Felkington in the north, largely following the Till valley. Little is known about many of the collieries although their locations can be divined from the remains of substantial buildings such as the engine houses. The colliery at Ford Moss is the most extant and includes the Cooper Eye chimney.
Ironically, the opening of the Alnwick to Cornhill railway led to the demise of the north Northumberland coalfield as it allowed the importation of cheaper, better coal from the south-east of the county. Production in north Northumberland dropped from 32,000 tons of coal a year to 3,334 tons after 1887. The Black Hill Unthank pit opened in 1940, however, but it closed in 1959. The Allerdean Drift pit finally closed in 1959; from a hundred or more employees in 1883, it had only four below ground and two above in 1917.
Michael reminded us of the chase for precious metals and that the coalfields have much iron pyrites from which selenium, used in computing, can be obtained. Will there be a re-industrialisation of Glendale, therefore?
It was a most informative talk.
Peter Davies
March 2025
Mystery domestic objects Speaker: Martha Andrews
It is often said that ‘the past is a different country’ and Martha Andrews proved this to the nth degree in her talk about Georgian and Victorian items taken largely from domestic life. Martha had given us a talk in January 2024 on ‘The most dangerous place in England’, viz Norham; this was an altogether gentler excursion into the past.
The evening took the form of an ‘Antiques Road Show’, but where Martha brought items for members to identify and determine the uses thereof, not the other way round. We were split into two groups and while one group inspected items displayed in another room, the remaining members were regaled with a lecture on what really went on in a Georgian home. Inevitably, there was a bias towards upper class items for the simple reason that they were more likely to survive.
The wide variety of items included, and I trust that I can do them justice: a slop bucket which, Martha explained, it was important to empty down the side of the cesspit the next morning as the previous ‘doings’ formed a crust and if this was broken by fresh input, there would be a considerable stink; a dessert fruit knife and fork with serrated edge to remove apple skin; a miniature cup which would have been used by an 18th century sales rep to demonstrate his company’s wares while saving him the trouble of carrying large items about; and a snuff bottle.
None of us were able to identify the flea traps: one was an intricately carved and pierced coquilla nutshell in which would be placed a little blood to attract the fleas and some honey to stop them escaping. The flea trap would hang in a lady’s cleavage and, although the mind boggles at the thought, later held in water until the fleas were dead.
Martha showed us implements to prepare sugar, which was sold in cone-shaped blocks then chipped off and ground down in the kitchen, roughly for granulated sugar and more finely for icing or ‘powder’ sugar. She showed us a ‘go to bed’ box which provided light for thirty seconds after one shut the gas light off to allow one to get to bed safely. There was a box to hold a lady’s patches which were popular at the time, although given that they were made from mouse skin one wonders why. What looked like a large gravy boat was for ladies to relieve themselves, especially during lengthy sermons. The word ‘drawers’ comes from the fact that ladies knickers used to consist of two leggings with nothing between so that a lady could use the ‘pot’ without disrobing; her drawers which were fastened at the top by ribbon and, of course, some brands still have a tiny false ribbon at the front which is a throwback to those days. More prosaically she explained that she had tried to find an eight minute candle which was used in the brothels of the day to limit the attention that a man could spend with a lady of the oldest profession. I suppose these days one would use the timer on an iPhone; although I do not know, of course!
While one group tried to identify the various items, Martha referred to Elizabeth Cleland of Edinburgh and her cookery book of 1755: “A New and Easy Method of Cookery”. This ran to several editions in Scotland and later in England. Martha explained how a patty of butter was kept in the wall of a well above the water line as evaporation would keep it cool; how our Georgian ancestors roasted larks, and how a cook would know that a ‘jugged’ hare was cooked because its fur would fall off. Cooks would learn how much wood to use; usually coppiced and in different sizes of bundle.
The Georgian world was very different from ours but the problems were often the same, except for the fleas perhaps. Yet our ancestors were dealing with their everyday problems, making their lives easier and more enjoyable, as we do today with ours.
Peter Davies
Mystery domestic objects Speaker: Martha Andrews
It is often said that ‘the past is a different country’ and Martha Andrews proved this to the nth degree in her talk about Georgian and Victorian items taken largely from domestic life. Martha had given us a talk in January 2024 on ‘The most dangerous place in England’, viz Norham; this was an altogether gentler excursion into the past.
The evening took the form of an ‘Antiques Road Show’, but where Martha brought items for members to identify and determine the uses thereof, not the other way round. We were split into two groups and while one group inspected items displayed in another room, the remaining members were regaled with a lecture on what really went on in a Georgian home. Inevitably, there was a bias towards upper class items for the simple reason that they were more likely to survive.
The wide variety of items included, and I trust that I can do them justice: a slop bucket which, Martha explained, it was important to empty down the side of the cesspit the next morning as the previous ‘doings’ formed a crust and if this was broken by fresh input, there would be a considerable stink; a dessert fruit knife and fork with serrated edge to remove apple skin; a miniature cup which would have been used by an 18th century sales rep to demonstrate his company’s wares while saving him the trouble of carrying large items about; and a snuff bottle.
None of us were able to identify the flea traps: one was an intricately carved and pierced coquilla nutshell in which would be placed a little blood to attract the fleas and some honey to stop them escaping. The flea trap would hang in a lady’s cleavage and, although the mind boggles at the thought, later held in water until the fleas were dead.
Martha showed us implements to prepare sugar, which was sold in cone-shaped blocks then chipped off and ground down in the kitchen, roughly for granulated sugar and more finely for icing or ‘powder’ sugar. She showed us a ‘go to bed’ box which provided light for thirty seconds after one shut the gas light off to allow one to get to bed safely. There was a box to hold a lady’s patches which were popular at the time, although given that they were made from mouse skin one wonders why. What looked like a large gravy boat was for ladies to relieve themselves, especially during lengthy sermons. The word ‘drawers’ comes from the fact that ladies knickers used to consist of two leggings with nothing between so that a lady could use the ‘pot’ without disrobing; her drawers which were fastened at the top by ribbon and, of course, some brands still have a tiny false ribbon at the front which is a throwback to those days. More prosaically she explained that she had tried to find an eight minute candle which was used in the brothels of the day to limit the attention that a man could spend with a lady of the oldest profession. I suppose these days one would use the timer on an iPhone; although I do not know, of course!
While one group tried to identify the various items, Martha referred to Elizabeth Cleland of Edinburgh and her cookery book of 1755: “A New and Easy Method of Cookery”. This ran to several editions in Scotland and later in England. Martha explained how a patty of butter was kept in the wall of a well above the water line as evaporation would keep it cool; how our Georgian ancestors roasted larks, and how a cook would know that a ‘jugged’ hare was cooked because its fur would fall off. Cooks would learn how much wood to use; usually coppiced and in different sizes of bundle.
The Georgian world was very different from ours but the problems were often the same, except for the fleas perhaps. Yet our ancestors were dealing with their everyday problems, making their lives easier and more enjoyable, as we do today with ours.
Peter Davies
February 2025
The history and heritage of central Alnwick Speaker: Peter Reed
Harry Hotspur with Peter Reed to the left. Walking tour February 22nd 2025
Peter Reed gave an enthusiastic and light-hearted presentation on the history of Alnwick how it was shaped by early settlers, medieval conflict, powerful families, Georgian taste and Victorian innovation.
Peter began intriguingly with a map of the Alnwick area before there were any settlements, showing the course of the river Aln and its small tributaries. There are some remains of Neolithic and Iron Agesettlements in the valley. There is no evidence of the Romans ever having settled here. The Devils Causeway from Corbridge to Tweedmouth is the only Roman road in the area and that passes some 9 miles west of Alnwick; however the Ordnance Survey map does show the possible presence of a Roman fort near the Bridge of Aln.
From as early as the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century,Alnwick lay on an east-west route (rather than north-south, long before the Great North Road). The basic shape of the settlement is the same today as when the Norman town was developed; it is built not next to the river but some distance away as the banks of the Aln can become very boggy. You only have to do the Pastures Park Run on Saturdays to find that out – I lost a shoe there a few months back!
Peter took us from the Conquest to the present with maps to illustrate the gradual development of the town. In the Middle Ages the town was centred on the Norman castle, owned originally by the de Vescys. In 1309 the Bishop of Durham sold the castle to the Percys as the de Vescys had no heirs. Two abbeys were built, the impressive Carmelite monastery in Hulne Park and the earlier Premonstratensian abbey of which nothing now remains.
The town walls were built in the 1450s and there is little now in evidence. The walls had three main towers: Clayport Tower, now lost; Pottergate Tower; and Hotspur Tower which is the only original. Pottergate Tower was re-built in the 18th century and used to have a lantern feature on top like St Nicholas’s church in Newcastle. A church dedicated to St Michael was built in the late 15th century and is the parish church of Alnwick today.
Later, as the town gradually became more prosperous, many elegant Georgian and Victorian public buildings including a workhouse, banks and the current town hall were erected on the burgage plots.
A serious cholera outbreak in 1849 was caused by overcrowding and a contaminated water supply. To prevent further such epidemics, a piped water supply was installed and the pants or fountains were largely disused.
The Alnwick –Cornhill railway came in 1887, with a magnificent station which now houses Barter Books on the outskirts of the town. The railways changed the layout of parts of Alnwick and there was a noticeable increase in the population and in commerce. The railways closed completely in 1968.
Battle lines were drawn in the 1960s to defend Alnwick’s town centre heritage against levelling and ‘reconstruction’. Thankfully, an Act of Parliament Private Members’ bill and the staunch protests of the local people protected threatened towns like Alnwick.
The guided walk
Peter took us on a walking tour of central Alnwick to seesome of the rich history he had talked about. He gave us sketch maps showing the outline of the mediaeval burgage plots and the route we were to take.
Our first stop was the 15th century Hotspur Tower, then two 18th and 19th-century coaching inns, the White Swan and the Black Swan. In the White Swan is the panelling and mirrors from the RMS cruise liner Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic.
The walk continued up Hotspur Street, tracing the line of the old town walls. The walls provided a ready source of building material and by 1734 there was no trace of them. Our route followed the course of a buried stream called the Allerburn, once used by tanners hence the pub named the Tanners Arms. At the top of the street is a circular structure known as the Pinfold, used to hold stray animals; it had been moved from Bondgate to Green Batt in 1819.
Along Green Batt is evidence of the medieval burgage plots in the width of most of the buildings. The burgage plots were strips of the castle nobleman’s land, farmed by local men in return for rent and service. In Alnwick the plots are two poles wide, or 28 feet, or 8.5m.
We passed the boys school built in 1810, where misbehaviour was punished by hoisting the offending boy up the bell towerin a basket!
Percy Street held three points of interest: the Science and Mechanical Institute with its doorway shaped like the base of a pylon; St Paul’s Church; and holes in the road. The holes– now filled it – were dug in World WWII to be filled with lengths of railway line to stop enemy tanks. Wouldn’t it have been a sight to have kept at least one such obstacle remaining!
After admiring F R Wilson’s Methodist manse and chapel we stopped at St Michael’s Pant; built in 1759, this water fountain is still flowing.
We crossed to Fenkle Street, which once had many inns. Here also was the first savings bank which went bust. On the corner was another bank which failed, where later, in the 1920s a barber kept a bear in the cellar, its hair oil said to be a cure for baldness!
At Pottergate the impressive 4m-high bronze statue of Harry Hotspur, erected in 2010, soon loomed into view. Hotspur was the most famous of the Percys and a great grandchild of Edward III. Mentioned in Shakespeare, he fought just about everybody and at 13 was knighted.He died at the battle of Shrewsbury aged 39 in 1403 after rebelling against King Henry IV. Gruesomely, his body was cut into pieces and the parts sent all round the country so that he would not become a martyr. His wife spent a long time gathering all his body together so he could be given a decent burial.
The walk continued past Jacobite Dorothy Forster’s house, stopping at Bailiffgate opposite Alnwick castle barbican, or gatehouse.
The first stone motte and bailey castle was built by Yvo de Vescy, continued by Eustace Fitzjohn, in the early 12th century, probably replacing a wooden structure. Much of the castle has been rebuilt and refashioned over the years but the barbican is original.
After a thoroughly interesting morning we returned to the market square via Narrowgate, which was once part of the Great North Road!
Michael Simpson
January 2025
Tin tabernacles – a Victorian story
Speaker: Sandra Gann
Tin? No, but iron! Tabernacles? Not really, but related to the Old Testament concept of a portable shelter for prayer or dwelling.
This fascinating, though perhaps niche, interest talk attracted a large audience. Our speaker, Sandra Gann, had been prompted to research the subject after noticing the site of an ‘iron chapel’ in Spittal, near Berwick, and she soon become hooked!
In her stimulating talk she referred to Victorian values, urbanisation, colonisation, church schisms, social history, engineering and geography – all with anecdotes and humour.
Huge industrial and social changes occurred during the Victorian era. Abraham Darby smelted iron ore with coke rather than charcoal, accelerating the Industrial Revolution. In 1829 Henry Palmer developed corrugated iron sheets and in 1837 Richard Walker used zinc to galvanise the sheets preventing rust. The corrugated sheets were easily transported by the new railways and steamships as flat packs and were widely used. These developments made possible the production and distribution of Tin Tabernacles. Numerous manufacturers advertised their wares in journals and what we would call mail order catalogues, including kits to build tin churches.
The population of England & Wales trebled in the 19th century, from 8.9m in 1801 to 32m in 1901. We were told that in 1801 only 17% of the population lived in towns; by 1891 72% lived in urban areas, with people moving for employment in industry.
The Victorians were great church-goers, encouraged by religious faith, social norms, and/or by their employers, many of whom were patrons or benefactors of churches. At the beginning of the 19th century there were about 10,000 parishes in England but by the 1870s, 3,000 new churches had been built.
During this period of the British Empire, ‘Tin Tabernacles’ were easily bought, transported and erected wherever people were settling. Our speaker told the stories and showed photographs of such churches built in the Diamond Rush area in South Africa, the Gold Rush areas in the Yukon and Australia, the Falkland Islands, South America and the Hudson Bay area of Canada. Missionaries all required churches and increased demand.
Meanwhile in Britain, in 1843 the ‘Disruption’ in the Scottish Presbyterian Church split congregations, so that 75 kit churches were supplied to the Free Church alone. Production of tin tabernacles only stopped in the Second World War.
This wide-ranging talk inspired the audience to look out for tin churches on their travels. Nearer home there are several tin tabernacles – at Town Yetholm, Mindrum, and Low Newton by the Sea – so keep your eyes open!
Rosemary Bell
Tin tabernacles – a Victorian story
Speaker: Sandra Gann
Tin? No, but iron! Tabernacles? Not really, but related to the Old Testament concept of a portable shelter for prayer or dwelling.
This fascinating, though perhaps niche, interest talk attracted a large audience. Our speaker, Sandra Gann, had been prompted to research the subject after noticing the site of an ‘iron chapel’ in Spittal, near Berwick, and she soon become hooked!
In her stimulating talk she referred to Victorian values, urbanisation, colonisation, church schisms, social history, engineering and geography – all with anecdotes and humour.
Huge industrial and social changes occurred during the Victorian era. Abraham Darby smelted iron ore with coke rather than charcoal, accelerating the Industrial Revolution. In 1829 Henry Palmer developed corrugated iron sheets and in 1837 Richard Walker used zinc to galvanise the sheets preventing rust. The corrugated sheets were easily transported by the new railways and steamships as flat packs and were widely used. These developments made possible the production and distribution of Tin Tabernacles. Numerous manufacturers advertised their wares in journals and what we would call mail order catalogues, including kits to build tin churches.
The population of England & Wales trebled in the 19th century, from 8.9m in 1801 to 32m in 1901. We were told that in 1801 only 17% of the population lived in towns; by 1891 72% lived in urban areas, with people moving for employment in industry.
The Victorians were great church-goers, encouraged by religious faith, social norms, and/or by their employers, many of whom were patrons or benefactors of churches. At the beginning of the 19th century there were about 10,000 parishes in England but by the 1870s, 3,000 new churches had been built.
During this period of the British Empire, ‘Tin Tabernacles’ were easily bought, transported and erected wherever people were settling. Our speaker told the stories and showed photographs of such churches built in the Diamond Rush area in South Africa, the Gold Rush areas in the Yukon and Australia, the Falkland Islands, South America and the Hudson Bay area of Canada. Missionaries all required churches and increased demand.
Meanwhile in Britain, in 1843 the ‘Disruption’ in the Scottish Presbyterian Church split congregations, so that 75 kit churches were supplied to the Free Church alone. Production of tin tabernacles only stopped in the Second World War.
This wide-ranging talk inspired the audience to look out for tin churches on their travels. Nearer home there are several tin tabernacles – at Town Yetholm, Mindrum, and Low Newton by the Sea – so keep your eyes open!
Rosemary Bell