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Newcastle
Historical and geographical information
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Dates
are in red.
Hyperlinks
to other pages are in dark
blue.
Headlines
of the history of the Newcastle are in brown.
References
and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual
history is in purple.
This
webpage about the Newcastle has the following section headings:
- The Farndales of Newcastle
- Newcastle
- South Shields
- Jarrow
- Links,
texts and books
The Farndales of Newcastle
The following Farndales were associated
with Newcastle and South Shields: Jane Ellen Farndale (FAR00458);
John Willie Farndale (FAR00591);
Albert Farndale (FAR00604); Georgina
Farndale (FAR00679);
John Arthur Farndale (FAR00723);
Thomas Farndale (FAR00732);
Joseph Farndale (FAR00739);
Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00758); William
Farndale (FAR00770);
James Farndale (FAR00784);
Emily Farndale (FAR00802);
William A J Farndale (FAR00829);
Margaret L Farndale (FAR00838);
John W Farndale (FAR00854);
Catherine Farndale (FAR00864); George
T Farndale (FAR00871);
Barbara Farndale (FAR00877);
William Farndale (FAR00893);
Janet Farndale (FAR00906);
George H A Farndale (FAR00926);
John H Farndale (FAR00940);
John Farndale (FAR00978);
William Farndale (FAR01013);
Denise Farndale (FAR01020);
John Anthony Farndale (FAR1021);
James Farndale (FAR01022);
John W Farndale (FAR01023);
Janet C Farndale (FAR01025);
Joseph W Farndale (FAR01026);
Maron Farndale (FAR01028);
Margaret E Farndale (FAR01039);
George W Farndale (FAR01040);
and George William Farndale (FAR01209).
The South Shields 2 Line are a
large family who descended from John Willie Farndale (FAR00591)
who settled from Barrow in Furness in the South Shields area (especially
Jarrow) by about 1905. The South
Shields 1 Line was a small family who settled in South Shields in about
1933.
Farndale Master Mariners operating out of Whitby regularly traded coal out of Newcastle in the nineteenth
century.
Between 5 and
31 October 1936, John William Farndale was the youngest
member of the 185 men who set off on the Jarrow marches. See his webpage for
more about the Jarrow marches and John’s involvement.
Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne, commonly
known as Newcastle, is a city in Tyne and Wear, North
East England, 103 miles south of Edinburgh and 277 miles (north
of London on the northern bank of the River Tyne,
8.5 miles from the North Sea. Newcastle
is the most populous city in the North East, and forms the core of
the Tyneside conurbation, the eighth most populous urban area in
the United Kingdom.
Newcastle was part of the
county of Northumberland until 1400, when it became a county of
itself, a status it retained until becoming part of Tyne and Wear in
1974. The regional nickname and dialect for
people from Newcastle and the surrounding area is Geordie.
Newcastle also houses Newcastle University, a member of the Russell Group,
as well as Northumbria University.
Roman
The city developed around
the Roman settlement Pons Aelius.
1080
Newcastle was named after
the castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the
Conqueror's eldest son.
Fourteenth century
The city grew as an
important centre for the wool trade in the 14th century, and later
became a major coal mining area.
Sixteenth century
The port developed in the
16th century and, along with the shipyards lower down the River Tyne, was amongst the world's
largest shipbuilding and ship-repairing centre
1530
From 1530, a Royal Act
restricted all shipments of coal from Tyneside to Newcastle
Quayside, giving a monopoly in the coal trade to a cartel of Newcastle
burgesses known as the Hostmen. This
monopoly, which lasted for a considerable time, helped Newcastle prosper and
develop into a major town.
1538
The phrase taking
coals to Newcastle was first recorded contextually in 1538. The
phrase itself means a pointless pursuit.
In the 18th century, the
American entrepreneur Timothy
Dexter, regarded as an eccentric, defied this idiom. He was
persuaded to sail a shipment of coal to Newcastle by merchants plotting to ruin
him; however, his shipment arrived on the Tyne during a strike that had
crippled local production, allowing him to turn a considerable profit.
In the Sandgate area, to
the east of the city, and beside the river, resided the close-knit community
of keelmen and their families. They
were so called because they worked on the keels, boats that were used to
transfer coal from the river banks to the waiting colliers, for export to London and elsewhere.
1636
In the 1630s, about 7,000
out of 20,000 inhabitants of Newcastle died of plague, more than one-third
of the population. Specifically within the year
1636, it is roughly estimated with evidence held by the Society of
Antiquaries that 47% of the then population of Newcastle died from the
epidemic. This may also have been the most devastating loss in any British city
in this period.
1644
During the English
Civil War, the North declared for the King. In a bid to gain Newcastle and
the Tyne, Cromwell's allies, the Scots, captured the town of Newburn.
In 1644, the Scots then captured the reinforced fortification on the Lawe
in South Shields following a siege and the city was besieged for
many months. It was eventually stormed "with roaring drummes" and sacked by Cromwell's allies. The
grateful King bestowed the motto "Fortiter Defendit
Triumphans" ("Triumphing by a
brave defence") upon the town. Charles I was imprisoned in Newcastle by
the Scots in 1646–7.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century,
Newcastle was the country's fourth largest print centre after
London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of
1793 with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several
languages, predated the London Library by half a century.
Newcastle also became a
glass producer with a reputation for brilliant flint glass.
1806
A permanent military presence was
established in the city with the completion of Fenham
Barracks in 1806.
1817
In 1817 the Maling
company, at one time the largest pottery company in the world, moved to the
city.
1842
The Victorian industrial
revolution brought industrial structures that included
the 2 1⁄2-mile (4 km) Victoria Tunnel, built in 1842,
which provided underground wagon ways to the staithes.
1832
An engraving
by William Miller of Newcastle in 1832
1854
The Great fire of
Newcastle and Gateshead was a tragic and spectacular series of events
starting on Friday 6 October 1854, in which a substantial amount of property in
the two North East of England towns was destroyed in a series of fires and an
explosion which killed 53 and injured hundreds.
1879
On 3 February 1879, Mosley
Street in the city, was the first public road in the world to be lit up by
the incandescent lightbulb. Newcastle was one of the first cities in
the world to be lit up by electric lighting. Innovations in Newcastle and
surrounding areas included the development of safety
lamps, Stephenson's Rocket, Lord Armstrong's
artillery, Be-Ro flour, Joseph Swan's electric
light bulbs, and Charles Parsons' invention of the steam
turbine, which led to the revolution of marine propulsion and the production
of cheap electricity.
1882
The status of city was
granted to Newcastle on 3 June 1882.
In the nineteenth
century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to
the city's prosperity and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. This
revolution resulted in the urbanisation of the city.
In 1882, Newcastle became
the seat of an Anglican diocese, with St. Nicholas'
Church becoming its cathedral.
1886
Based at St James' Park since
1886, Newcastle United F.C. became Football League members
in 1893. They have won four top division titles (the first in 1905 and the
most recent in 1927), six FA Cups (the first in 1910 and the most
recent in 1955) and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969. They
broke the world transfer record in 1996 by paying £15 million
for Blackburn Rovers and England striker Alan Shearer,
one of the most prolific goalscorers of that era.
1901
Newcastle's public
transport system was modernised in 1901 when Newcastle Corporation
Tramways electric trams were introduced to the city's streets, though
these were replaced gradually by trolley buses from 1935, with the tram service
finally coming to an end in 1950.
With the advent of the
motor car, Newcastle's road network was improved in the early part of the 20th
century, beginning with the opening of the Redheugh
road bridge in 1901 and the Tyne Bridge in 1928.
1904
The city acquired its
first art gallery, the Laing Art Gallery in 1904, so named after its
founder Alexander Laing, a Scottish wine and spirit merchant who wanted to
give something back to the city in which he had made his fortune. Another art
gallery, the Hatton Gallery (now part of Newcastle University),
opened in 1925.
1917
Newcastle city centre, 1917
1920
Council housing began
to replace inner city slums in the 1920s, and the process continued into the
1970s, along with substantial private house building and acquisitions.
1930s
Unemployment hit record
heights in Newcastle during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
1934
Efforts to preserve the
city's historic past were evident as long ago as 1934, when the Museum of
Science and Industry opened, as did the John G Joicey
Museum in the same year.
1939
During the Second World War the city and
surrounding area were a target for air raids as heavy
industry was involved in the production of ships and armaments. The raids
caused 141 deaths and 587 injuries. A former French consul in Newcastle called
Jacques Serre assisted the German war effort by describing important targets in
the region to Admiral Raeder who was the head of the German Navy.
1956
The city's last coal pit
closed in 1956, though a temporary open cast mine was opened in 2013. The
temporary open cast mine shifted 40,000 tonnes of coal, using modern techniques
to reduce noise, on a part of the City undergoing
redevelopment. The slow demise of the shipyards on the banks of the River Tyne happened in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
View northwards from the Castle Keep,
towards Berwick-on-Tweed in 1954
1960s
The public sector in Newcastle began to
expand in the 1960s. The federal structure of the University of
Durham was dissolved. That university's colleges in Newcastle, which had
been known as King's College, became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (now
known as Newcastle University), which was founded in 1963, followed
by a Newcastle Polytechnic in 1969; the latter received university status in
1992 and became the Northumbria University.
1983
Further efforts to preserve the city's
historic past continued in the later twentieth century, with the opening of
Newcastle Military Vehicle Museum in 1983 and Stephenson Railway
Museum in 1986. The Military Vehicle museum
closed in 2006. New developments at the turn of the 21st century included
the Life Science Centre in 2000 and Millennium Bridge in
2001.
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in
the North East of England at the mouth of the River Tyne,
about 3.7 miles downstream from Newcastle upon
Tyne. Historically part of County Durham, it became part
of Tyne and Wear in 1974. According to the 2011 census, the town had
a population of 76,498, the third largest in Tyneside after Newcastle
and Gateshead. It is part of the metropolitan
borough of South Tyneside which includes the towns
of Jarrow and Hebburn. The demonym of a person
from South Shields is either a Geordie or
a Sand dancer.
Pre
historic
The first evidence of a settlement
within what is now the town of South Shields dates from pre-historic
times. Stone Age arrow heads and an Iron Age round house
have been discovered on the site of Arbeia Roman
Fort.
160 CE
The Roman garrison built a fort here
around 160 CE and expanded it around 208 CE to help supply their soldiers
along Hadrian's Wall as they campaigned north beyond the Antonine Wall. Divisions
living at the fort included Tigris bargemen from Persia and modern
day Iraq, infantry from Iberia and Gaul, and Syrian archers and
spearmen.
Fourth century CE
The fort was abandoned as the Roman
Empire declined in the 4th century CE. Many ruins still exist today and some structures have been rebuilt as part of a
modern museum and popular tourist attraction.
Post Roman
There is evidence that the site was used
in the early post-Roman period as a British settlement. It is believed it
became a royal residence of King Osric of Deira; records show that his son
Oswin was born within 'Caer Urfa', by which name the fort is thought to be
known after the Romans left.
647 CE
Bede records Oswin giving a parcel
of land to St Hilda for the foundation of a monastery here in c.647;
the present-day church of St Hilda, by the
Market Place, is said to stand on the monastic site.
Ninth century CE
In the 9th
century, Scandinavian peoples made Viking raids on
monasteries and settlements all along the coast, and later conquered the
Anglian Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East
Anglia. It is said in local folklore that a Viking ship was wrecked at Herd
Sands in South Shields in its attempts to disembark at a cove nearby. Other
Viking ships were uncovered in South Shields Denmark Centre and nearby Jarrow.
1245
The current town was founded in 1245 and
developed as a fishing port. The name South Shields developed from the Schele
or 'Shield', which was a small dwelling used by fishermen.
Another industry that was introduced,
was that of salt-panning, later expanded upon in the fifteenth century,
polluting the air and surrounding land.
1642
In 1864, a Tyne Commissioners dredger
brought up a nine-pounder breech-loading cannon; more cannonballs have been
found in the sands beside the Lawe; these artifacts belonged to the English
civil war. At the outbreak of the war in 1642, the North, West and Ireland supported
the King; the South East and Presbyterian Scotland supported
Parliament. In 1644 Parliament's Scottish Covenanter allies, in
a lengthy battle, seized the town and its Royalist fortification, the
fortification was close to the site of the original Roman fort. They also
seized the town of Newburn. These raids were done to aid their
ongoing siege of the heavily fortified Newcastle upon Tyne, and in a bid to
control the River Tyne, and the North, and the Shields
siege helped cause their battalions to manoeuvre south to York; this may
have also led to a brief winter skirmish on the outskirts of Boldon,
though the topography is not favourable for a battle.
Nineteenth century
In the 19th century, coal mining,
alkaline production and glass making led to a boom in the town.
1801
The population was 12,000 in 1801
1832
With the Great Reform Act, South Shields
and Gateshead were each given their own Member of Parliament and
became boroughs, resulting in taxes being paid to the Government instead of the
Bishops of Durham.
The rapid growth in population brought
on by the expansion of industry made sanitation a problem, as evident by
Cholera outbreaks and the building of the now-listed Cleadon
Water Tower to combat the problem.
1850s
'The Tyne Improvement Commission' began
to develop the river, dredging it to make it deeper and building the large,
impressive North and South Piers to help prevent silt build up within the
channel. Shipbuilding (along with coal mining), previously a monopoly of the
Freemen of Newcastle, became another prominent industry in the town,
with John Readhead & Sons Shipyard the largest.
1861
The population had increased to 75,000,
bolstered by economic migration from Ireland, Scotland and
other parts of England.
1916
During World War I,
German Zeppelin airships bombed South Shields in 1916.
1939
During World War II,
the German Luftwaffe repeatedly attacked the town and caused massive damage to
industries which supported the war effort, killing many innocent residents.
Particularly, a bomb shelter in the market place of
South Shields, where the deceased were commemorated in a cobblestone of the
British flag.
Twentieth century
Gradually throughout the
late 20th century, the coal and shipbuilding industries were closed during the
Thatcher political era, due to competitive pressures from more cost effective sources of energy and competitive
shipbuilding in Eastern Europe and in South East Asia.
Jarrow
Jarrow is a town in South
Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of
the River Tyne, about 3 miles from the east coast.
731 CE
In the eighth century, the
monastery of Saint Paul of Tarsus in Jarrow (now Monkwearmouth, Jarrow Abbey)
was the home of The Venerable Bede, who is regarded as the greatest Anglo-Saxon
scholar and the father of English history. Bede’s whose most notable works
include Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the translation
of the Gospel of John into Old English. Along with the abbey at Wearmouth,
Jarrow became a centre of learning and had the largest library north of the
Alps, primarily due to the widespread travels of Benedict Biscop,
its founder.
750 CE
The town's name is
recorded around 750 CE as Gyruum, from Old
English Gyrwum " the marsh
dwellers", and from gyr meaning "mud"
or "marsh". Later spellings are Jaruum
in 1158, and Jarwe in 1228. In the
Northumbrian dialect it is known as Jarra.
794 CE
In 794 Jarrow became the
second target in England of the Vikings, who had plundered Lindisfarne in 793.
Nineteenth century
From the middle of the
19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding.
Jarrow remained a small
mid-Tyne town until the introduction of heavy industries such as coal mining
and shipbuilding.
1852
Charles Mark Palmer
established a shipyard, Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron
Company, in 1852 and became the first armour-plate manufacturer in the world.
John Bowes, the first iron
screw collier, revived the Tyne coal trade, and Palmer's was also responsible
for the first modern cargo ship, as well as a number of
notable warships.
Around 1,000 ships were
built at the yard, they also produced small fishing boats to catch eel within
the River Tyne, a delicacy at the time.
1857
1904
Jarrow Town Hall was
erected in Grange Road and officially opened in 1904.
1915
The Jarrow rail disaster
was a train collision that occurred on the 17 December 1915 at the Bede
junction on a North Eastern Railway line. The
collision was caused by a signalman's error and seventeen people died in the
collision.
1918
1920s
Although the First World War caused an economic boom in Britain,
it masked a slow industrial decline from the country's Victorian heyday. As
wartime demands gradually fell away, these failings again came to the fore and
during 1920 Britain was plunged into an economic slump accompanied by high
levels of unemployment and poverty.
1929
The situation was made far worse by the world-wide recession of
1929 and, having remained relatively
constant, though high, at 10% throughout the 1920's, unemployment peaked at 22%
in 1932.
Britain's traditional industries were particularly hard hit
meaning that the North of England, Wales and
Scotland, which had economies heavily dependent upon manufacturing, were
disproportionately affected by the slump. This meant that these regions actually suffered far higher levels of unemployment
than those suggested by the national average. And the effects were
long-lasting, rather than following a regular economic cycle of prosperity and
recession.
During the 1920's, the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (“NUWM”)
organised a serious of 'hunger marches' to London in the hope that these would
force the Government to radically rethink its economic policies. The term
'hunger march' was a recent one, first coined to describe a march by London's
poor in 1908. The marches achieved nothing, however, the official view being
that they were being high-jacked to serve
the aims of their 'Communist' organisers.
1932
The end of the world-wide recession in 1932 allowed Britain to
begin a slow path to recovery.
1936
By 1936, economic growth had reached 4% and mini-booms were being seen in housing and consumer
spending. The recovery was badly uneven, however, with those areas which had
seen their traditional employers devastated during the slump slow to see any
improvement.
The town of Jarrow, lying on the southern bank of the River Tyne, had undergone a massive period of expansion
during the Victorian era. However its
economy was based on precisely those industries - iron, steel, shipbuilding -
which were so badly hit by the recent depression. Charles Mark Palmer, the
so-called 'King of Jarrow', had created an industrial empire in the town but
gradually each of these businesses failed in turn. Unemployment stood at 3,300
in 1930 (75% of the working population) and at 6,793 in 1932 (80% of the
insured population). When Palmer's Shipyard failed in 1934, the town lost its
last purpose for existing. As the town's newly elected MP, the firebrand 'Red
Ellen' Wilkinson, so forcefully pointed out in the Commons in December,1935:
"The years go on and nothing is done ... this is a desperately urgent
matter and something should be done to get work to these areas which, heaven
knows, want work."
The hunger-march had become an accepted form of protest and
in July 1936 the town's political leaders set in progress plans to
mount a march from Jarrow to deliver a petition to Parliament calling for the
opportunity to work.
Over 1,200 men came forward to take part, but it was decided to
limit numbers to the 200 fittest and hardiest to make the logistics manageable.
A fund was started to pay for supplies and equipment and
this would continue to collect donations as the men marched south. Rallies were
scheduled for the march's overnight stops to spread the word of what it was
trying to achieve. As one marcher put it: "We were more or less
missionaries of the distressed areas, [not just] Jarrow."
On Monday, 5 October, the date set for the start of the March, the
Marchers received the blessing of the Bishop of Jarrow at a dedication service
in Christ Church. This gained the venture a boost in credibility, but the
service was condemned by Hensley Henson, the Bishop of Durham, who was
unflinchingly opposed to the Trades Union movement and Socialism. Henson
condemned the hunger marches as a whole as nothing
but a vehicle for the Labour Party and his colleague in Jarrow, James Gordon,
was later obliged to state that the service was not intended to condone the
March. To add injury to insult, the Marchers later discovered that their dole
had been stopped as the March had made them unavailable for work!
Immediately after the service, the Marchers assembled at Jarrow
Town Hall and made their last preparations before setting off. Although 200 men
had been accepted for the venture, only 185 made it to the start-line due to
sickness, changes in personal circumstance, etc. Around half of those taking
part were veterans of the First World War and the Marchers walked in step and
in military ranks to show their discipline and proclaim their past service.
They took a 10-minute break every hour, in the military manner, and a harmonica
band encouraged the singing of popular songs of the day to keep their spirits
up. Before them they carried a blue-and-white banner proclaiming the ‘Jarrow
Crusade’ though in Jarrow it was never known as anything other than ‘The March’. Again in the military tradition, behind them followed a
bus with a field kitchen, a medical facility, and camping equipment for when
beds were not available.
It would be a mistake to think that the Jarrow March took place in
isolation. The sixth National Hunger March was setting off from 6 regional
centres and these were due to unite in London a week after the arrival of the
Jarrow men. Meanwhile, a group of blind veterans were marching in protest at
the treatment of the nation’s 67,000 registered blind persons. The National
Marches were seen as hostile and confrontational, and this undoubtedly aided
the high level of publicity given to the Jarrow March which, by contrast, was
recognised for its moderation and quiet dignity.
Ellen Wilkinson temporarily left the march at its first stopping
point, in Chester-le-Street, to attend the
Labour Party's annual conference in Edinburgh. Although it was proclaimed to be
non-political, the Jarrow March was very much a product of the town’s
Labour Council and she may have hoped to
gain some support from her colleagues. In this she was to be disappointed,
however. The Parliamentary Labour Party (“PLP”) was a minority part of the
National Government of the time and anxious to distance itself from any
accusations of ‘Communism’. So, neither this nor the Trade Union Congress (“TUC”)
would offer its endorsement. David Riley, the Chairman of Jarrow Borough Council and a leading light in the organisation of the
March, later complained that they felt that they had been "stabbed in the
back".
As they moved south, the reception extended to the Marchers varied
from indifferent to warm and welcoming. Local accommodation was secured in a
series of Schools, Church Halls or other
spacious buildings, and often gifts were made of food and clean clothing. What
soon became clear was that the reception received bore no link to the political
affiliation of the local Councils and the organisers of the March were at pains
to avoid any action that might alienate any political body. Often the weather
was bad, cold with driving rain.
Very quickly the March began attracting wide publicity and the
Government in London, afraid that it was gaining Royal attention, acted to
limit sympathy for it, claiming that such Marches only resulted in “unnecessary
hardship for those taking part in them”. Wilkinson continued to push for an
official reception for the Marchers, but received
no encouragement from Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin during heated exchanges in
the Commons. In truth Baldwin was in an impossible position, for opening
Parliament’s doors to the Jarrow Marchers would have set a dangerous precedent.
The March reached Edgware in northern London on Friday, 30
October, leaving a relatively short 8-mile walk to Marble Arch the following
day. It had been denied permission to deliver its petition to Parliament and so
Ellen Wilkinson had to make the last stage of the journey alone. The original
petition, calling for Government aid for the Town, had 11,000 signatures and
was carried in an oak box. An additional petition had been made available to
those who had wanted to sign on the way.
A new session in the House of Commons was convened on 3 November –
the March had been timetabled to take advantage of this – and next day the
Petition was presented. A (very) brief discussion followed
after which the House returned to its normal business.
The March garnered a lot of publicity, a lot of soft words, but
achieved little real change. This was not lost on the marchers themselves and
the return journey home by train was a sombre affair.
1939
Not until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 did the
Town start to recover from its long period of depression. When ‘Red Ellen’
published her history of Jarrow that same year she titled it: "The Town
that was Murdered”.
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