Felling Social Club Set Apart From Other Defunct Clubs

What sets Felling Social Club apart from other defunct clubs in the Felling area is this
pic of a cleared site

It's the only club to be demolished, rather than being put to another use.

Just as some of Holly Hill's comfortable accommodation was converted to a Catholic Club

(St Patrick's Knights of St. Columba Club)...and later, in 1989, split from the church to become

Holly Hill Sports and Social Club, so too was..

 Heworth Hall's comfortable accommodation converted to a Conservative Club and later acquired by Aspire to be converted into a computer company's accommodation. Felling Gate club was converted into a Theatre School

Windy Nook Club was converted into an Hotel

When in 1911 Robert Bagley fell out with Felling Social Club and created Collingwood Working Mens Social and Recreation Club and Institute that venture only lasted 2 years but the premises, Collingwood Building, still exist as commercial offices and apartments

The building occupied by Wealcroft Club, opened in 1979, was eventually demolished but by then it had become The Willows pub

So why wasn't Felling Social Club building put to another use. Was it demolished because of its value as a development site plus the sale of all the recycled stone?

 Felling Social Club began life at 18 Gosforth Street..that's where the lamp post is.

Isn't it ironic...that building is still with us!!

The Felling's Timeline

 1091 Heworth as a village appears in records



 1314 Scots army destroy both the manors of Heworth and Wardley
 1348 Black Death hits the area
 1362 Bishop Hatfields survey says "a great many people in a pitiable condition of want and destruction" 
 1372 Watermill is established
 1473 Quarrying is being carried on 1478 Grindstones are being made

 1509 The Brandlings get Felling
 1530 White House, a mansion is built 1536-1539 Church of England takes over from Catholic as main religion
 1590 Brandling family acquire manor of Felling

 1670 Brandlings commence coal mining in The Felling
 1717 Haddon's Tomb in St May's Churchyard
 1794 Kell Quarrying commences at Heworth Shore
 1795 Thomas Hepburn dies
 1796 Hugh Lee Pattinson, industrial chemist born in Alston, Cumbria
 1779 John Hodgson, antiquary/clergyman born in the same year that the Brandlings open Felling Colliery....
...they'll regret it when that sharp Shap lad grows up
 1800 Kell Quarrying at Windy Nook
 1805 Methodist Chapel built at Felling Shore 1808 John Hodgson becomes vicar of Jarrow with Heworth
 1812 Felling Pit Disaster
 1813 Coins and earthenware beaker discovered at St. Mary's, Heworth
 1815 Miners Safety Lamp developed
 1821 New High Heworth Colliery opens 1822 Current Heworth Church is built
 1823 John Hodgson still vicar but also vicar of church at Kirk Whelpington  1825 Thomas Hepburn forms a miners' union
 1827 Felling Lodge built for surgeon Mr. Lammas and Friars Goose Chemical works opened
 1831 Matthew Plummer becomes curate of Heworth 1834 Heworth becomes a separate parish from Jarrow
        Hugh Lee Pattinson sets up chemical works at Felling
 1836 The Railway comes to The Felling..Brandling Junction beginsWilliam Falla committed suicide in Ravensworth Wood
 1842 St Alban's Church in Windy Nook opens
  St Patrick's RC Chapel in Felling Shore opens.
Brandling Station opens 
  1845 John Hodgson dies
 1847 Ardallan is built
1853 John Hodgson's wife dies 
Son Richard Wellington Hodgson, inheritor of the Kell Quarry fortune builds North Dene House
 1854 Richard W Hodgson becomes mayor of Gateshead
 1856 Joseph Hopper, creator of Aged Miners Homes is born
 1857 Historian John Oxberry is born at Windy Nook
 1858 Hugh Lee Pattinson dies
 1863 CWS comes to Pelaw
 1864 Felling Local Board begins..30 years becoming an Urban District Council
 Thomas Hepburn dies
 1866 Christ Church opens
 1871 Wardley Colliery opens and Richard W Hodgson is again mayor of Ghd
 1872 Railway line from Pelaw to Tyne Dock opened
 1877 James Steel becomes vicar at St. Mary's Heworth 1881 Sir Godfrey Hilton Thomson is born
 1882 Walter Scott buys publishing company and links Felling on Tyne with London, New York and Melbourne 1885 Richard W. Hodgson dies 1894 Felling Urban District Council is formed 1895 St Patrick's Church opens on St Patrick's Day
 1896 Pelaw Station in its current position opened
1898 Joseph Hopper of Windy Nook creates the Aged Miners Homes Association

 1902 First CWS factory opens..Drugs and Drysaltery
1904 Boer War Memorial (The Pant) is unveiled
 1907 Costelloe's Building built on Felling High Street
         Murder of John Patterson at Windy Nook Co-op
         Express passenger train derailed.
              The Wheat Sheaf pub is built

 


 
 








 1908 Joseph W Noble hanged for Co-op murder
 1909 Joseph Hopper dies
 1910 Imperial Cinema. Wellington Str opens
 1911 Corona Picture Hall opens, Wardley Colliery closes, Follonsby Colliery opens
 1912 Printing Works, Pelaw opened
 1917 Charles Gwilliam becomes vicar at St Mary's, Heworth
 1929 Imperial Cinema, Wellington Str burns down
 1932 large chemical works at Felling Shore closes
 1936 Felling Colliery closes
 1937 John Oxberry, Historian is made a Freeman of Gateshead
 1940 John Oxberry dies
 1946 Rev Dennis is vicar at St. Mary's, Heworth
 1951 Pant removed to Council depot where it lanquishes until broken up for  landfill. David Almond is born
 1954 Leam Lane Estate development commences
 1955 Gateshead Stadium opens
 1956 White House mansion demolished
 1958 Merry Widow of Windy Nook sentenced to death..later just prison sentence
 1959 Felling Bypass opens and Wardley Colliery reopens and merges with Follonsby Colliery
 1960 Felling Swimming Baths opens and Chris Waddle born
 1962 Crowhall Towers built
 1963 Heworth Colliery closes
 1974 Follonsby Colliery closes and The Felling becomes part of Gateshead County Borough Council
 1975 Pelaw Main coal staithes dismantled 
 1979 Heworth railway station opens
 1981 Heworth Metro Station opens
 1984 The Cup and Coins discovered in 1813 at Heworth are found to be 19th Century forgeries
 1986 Richard Cole's artwork "Windy Nook" is installed
 1990 Harrison's Ship Repair Yard, Bill Quay closes
 1993 Pelaw CWS works ceased
 2016 ASDA Felling Supermarket opens
 

John Hodgson at Kirkwhelpington 1823-1833

 St Bartholomew's

This is Rev. John Hodgson's second parish as the boss man, although he was still the rector of the Jarrow/Heworth parish where he had two curates taking care of things for him. See below, his letter of resignation from the Jarrow/Heworth parish. Hodgson had a very close personal relationship with the Bishop of Durham, who at this time was 89 years old. If you're wondering how the Bishop of Durham had jurisdiction over churches in Northumberland it's because Durham is a County Palatine 
Hodgson knew this as Whelpington. It didn't become Kirkwhelpington until the 1950's.

The Bishop wanted the Hodgson family to live in a healthy rural place like this rather than the chemical works/coal mining area that was the Felling area back then.

This is the main door into the church

John Hodgson and family lived in this Vicarage for a decade.

When he came here his family consisted of 7 children, 4 boys and 3 girls, the eldest of whom, a daughter, was now 12 years of age

From "A Memoir of John Hodgson"
"He was now able to send his eldest son and daughter to school, and to engage the services of a governess for his younger girls, and for his boys, a young man of education. 

To the children themselves how beneficial, and delightful to boot, must have been the change. For those of them who had suffered so much from illness a while before, there was the healthy and bracing air of the Northumbrian hills in all its uncontaminated purity, and for all of them there were new scenes and new subjects to engage their attention at a most interesting period of their lives"

He left here to go to a nearby parish at Hartburn, but not before officially resigning from Jarrow/Hebburn..on 21st Oct 1833, 10 years after he had left it.

Rev John Hodgson's Final Resting Place

                      If you came here to find the grave's location it is next to the right hand end wall..the end wall at the opposite end to the tower

When John Hodgson left his parish of Jarrow with Heworth, which was a busy job he took an easier one so he could concentrate on finishing his History of Northumberland which he had started when living at Upper Heworth Farmhouse. Whilst remaining as the vicar of Jarrow & Heworth until 1833 (with curates acting in his place) he left Heworth in 1823 to go to Kirkwhelpington and then, in 1833 to here, St Andrew's Church in Hartburn. If you go to Morpeth and hang a left before getting into town you're on the road to Hartburn. The whole area is nice so there's more than just a John Hodgson pilgrimage to justify the trip.
The church was locked so didn't get in to see the inside but I found this pic on the internet

Click on photo to enlarge it.

There's John Hodgson 1833..7th bottom on left hand side board. 1833 is the date he became vicar at Hartburn. He was 53 then and he was 65 when he died in 1845 having been vicar for 12 years.
Notice that on the board next but one down from John Hodgson is Beil. P. Hodgson which is the abbreviated name of Beilby Porteous Hodgson. So was he related to John? Well, I know they were both members of the Archeology Society and both vicars at Hartburn but beyond that I can't say. It's probably just a coincidence as is the spooky coincidence that in 1539 the vicar was John Brandlyng (namesake of Hodgson's "enemy" in The Felling). The Brandlings were Catholic and Rev John Brandlying and all vicars of this church before him would have been Catholic because 1539 was right in the period of Henry VIII changing the country from being Catholic to Protestant.

Before watching video see comment at the bottom of this page

Inside St. Andrews Church

Before leaving, here's a pic of the Hartburn Vicarage where John Hodgson wrote a large part of his History of Northumberland. The old vicarage is now split into two houses and has a complex history. The earliest part of the building may be medieval, dating back to the 13th century. If so, it could be one of the earliest non-religious buildings in the county, not including the castles. The main block of the vicarage was built later and is probably 16th century. It has walls nearly one metre thick and has often been called a tower. This part was altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a Grade II Listed Building