Something to Crow About

The top left bird is a crow, top right is a chow (aka chough) and the bottom centre one is a raven. They're very similar and belong to the same family..the crow family. They were common in the North East and are reflected in local place names..Split Crow Road and Crowhall Lane in The Felling, Chowdene Bank in Low Fell, leading down to Ravensworth Village and Castle

I've often seen questions posed on Facebook and elsewhere as to the origin of Split Crow Road. The Crow part comes from Crowhall and that likely comes from crows which flocked and nested in the area. The Split likely refers to the fact that it split away, at an unusual angle..see map below... from the then main road to Durham, now the Old Durham Road, and took the traveler through the countryside to Crow Hall and beyond. Most roads leaving the Old Durham Road do so, conventionally, at right angles

A Bit of History Revealed

. This is Felling High Street showing the position of Alnwick Cottage and Shields Cottages. They were built as cottages.

Printwise online occupy Shields Cottages. Underneath their sign is hidden this

It used to be on view at the time Peter Haywood published his book "Around Felling High Street" This pic is taken from the book

The other day, on the property just up from Shields Cottages a bit of fascia above the white door was removed to reveal this

Alnwick Cottage 1835 carved into the stone work. Per Peter Haywood's book..George Crawford of Low Felling,  along with Joseph Oliver, acquired this parcel of land. They built these as dwelling houses and the name was simply because Crawford was born at Alnwick. Later the ground floor rooms were converted to shops.

Immediately left of here is a very narrow passage separating this property from the set of four properties known as Costelloe's Building...look at the map again and you'll see that that space was previously occupied by the Old Poorhouse before the rich former mayor of Gateshead W. J Costelloe added to his other pawn shops in  Bensham and Gateshead High Street by adding one more in Felling.