Today's Reminders of the Past. Post Box on Felling High Street

The post box is now outside the Felling Hub but how long has it been there? Before the Hub it was the Greyhound pub, which by this photo had become Roys, Furnishers

It's been on the High Street since the period 1901-1910 because this

is the Royal Cypher of Edward VII who was on the throne in that period
But this, or an earlier box was on the other side and further down. It was outside Walter Willsons shop that was created out of the Methodist Chapel

You can't tell from this pic that it was at that location but you can judge it by the shops on the other side. The two dormer windows near each other are just down from Costelloes, later Sauls..indeed you can see the three pawnbrokers balls on this pic

Its bigger than it was when it was first installed by virtue of the 30 or so layers of red and black paint it's had applied to it over the past 110 years!

Today's Reminders of the Past...Shadon's Hill

This is the first in a series of things that are reminders of the past that you see everyday in The Felling and neighbouring districts.

Let's start with Shadon's Hill which featured big style in the miners', including Felling miners, struggles over many years to get decent wages and working conditions from the uncaring mine owners. In 1831 local lad Thomas Hepburn was prominent in the creation of a collective voice to get better conditions. Sometime later he was sacked to silence him and he lived on the breadline, selling tea, until given a job at Felling pit provided he did not involve himself in union matters again.

On 2nd March 1844 there was a mass meeting of 20,000 men who gathered on Shadon's Hill. A month later another 40,000 men accompanied by bands and banners mass met on Shadon's Hill and there were further mass meetings in that place in that year.
Shadon's Hill was twice used for Coronation/Jubilee bonfires... Diamond Jubilee Celebrations 1897 and The Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902 . See pics here

So where is Shadon's Hill? You'll have passed it a thousand times

This is a photo of The Ship at Eighton Banks taken by me standing on Shadon's Hill. Over the back of the Ship is Blackim Hill...stand by for another posting on that and another on the near meeting of two waggonways in this locality

Here's another from Shadon's Hill.

When driving on the main thoroughfare thro' Eighton Banks passing the Engine Room, formerly the Lambton Arms on the left and at the defunct level crossing you turn 90 degrees to the right to drive down past the entrance road to the Bowes Incline on the right and on the left, before you get as far as the fishing lake on the right, you'll see Shadon's Hill. Next time you pass just imagine 40,000 men from the Durham and Northumberland coal mines gathered on that hill trying to fight for decent wages and conditions
To read about the strikes in greater detail go here

Derivation of the name of The Felling

Allen Mawer
This is the man who in 1920 got wrong the derivation of the place name "Felling"...in my view

He was born in London and in 1920, for a few years only, he was an administrator at Durham University, before moving on to Liverpool and ultimately returning to his native Smoke.
He got it wrong because he was not a local nor was he a hillwalker. Had he been a hillwalker he would surely have gone to the Lake District where he would have indulged in fellwaking following the famous book "Fellwalking with Wainwright". Only in this northern part of England and a bit of Scotland do we use the word "fell" for a spongy bleak hill, that the rest of the country calls a moor.
His book on the place names of Northumberland and Durham is online and I have read it from cover to cover. He has the well known item on The Felling but he does not deal with Low Fell, High Fell or Pelton Fell
This is his Felling entry on Page 83 continuing on to Page 84

That's all he says
He is an expert on place names and you can be certain therefore that if he knew the Northern word "fell" he would have had to discuss it, even if he then discounted it and favoured the silly notion that it was about trees being felled. The Oxford dictionary says that a fell is "a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England" and I am as certain as I can be that, had he known the word 'fell' as a stretch of high moorland and had he physically left his Durham University and came to The Felling travelling uphill from Birtley and downhill to The Felling he would not have written the Felling entry as he did. Of course even in 1920 he would not have been able to discern that it was fell land but he could have read Thomas Wilson's poem about the building of the New Durham Road in 1826 which contains this line "Then reet ower the Fell, and by Carter's famed well.."
Or he could have read John Wesley's  accounts of his preaching visits to Gateshead and The Felling in the 1770's when he deplored one journey in the bleak of winter but on another occasion admired the views he got from crossing The Fell. Or he could have read the Trade Directories which listed The Felling, The High Fell and The Low Fell. As you can see from Mawer's entry he was clearly influenced by the fact that the locals called it..and still do... The Felling but he did not know that the locals also said The High Fell and The Low Fell...and still do in relation to the New Durham Road which to this day is referred to as ...The Fell. When someone says "last night I was drinking on The Fell everyone knows that they are referring to the pub circuit on Durham Road (and including Beaconsfield Road and Kells Lane)
You may read the entry or indeed the entire online book here
This blog entry compliments my first piece on the subject here. This blog is to further assert my view which has been strengthened by reading Mawer's entire book
(David Mills in his 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' has gone with Mawer's explanation. I may have to read it cover to cover to see whether he knows the word 'Fell' as a 'Moor' See here where Chas C Taylor, a local historian and place name expert does not go along with Mawer

 

Robert Sisterson..Felling's Most Photographed?

Was Robert Sisterson, a Famous Felling Fella, in his time,  the most photographed man in The Felling?

Back row 2nd from left

Front row 6th from left

Front, 5th from right, seated, and highlighted below

That's him on the right

That's him on the left (not counting the horse)

Or is he just the most distinctive?

T P Heslop, Pork Butcher

T P Heslop, a Famous Felling Fella...& Pork Butcher

Did the T P stand for Totally Pork?
Of course not, but why restrict yourself to pork? You're cutting down your market unnecessarily, man! So I'm not convinced you're a good butchery business man
And...but..here's my main point
You didn't think this photo shoot through.
First, the name of the shop almost misses the picture.
Secondly, you look stand offish. Not good for team building
Thirdly, where you're stood, it looks as though you are scratching your head with your right hand, like life puzzles you.
Fourthly, standing uphill does not make you look taller
Don't get me wrong..that you were a good pork butcher I don't doubt..the chickens were too fast for you, were they?.. but you fell down badly on image promotion.
That's all I'm saying
Was it real handy that one of your rellies had the Advertiser...must have saved a bit on promotion costs?

My Felling by Joyce Wilson

On The Felling Group on Facebook appeared this poem

My Felling
by Joyce Wilson

The Felling was once a sleepy place,
Friendly and homely, knew everyone's face
Then they came and pulled it down,
Gone went the streets of our little town
The high street remains but it's looking forlorn,
The echoes of the past await a new dawn
The square at its centre was awash with colour ,
Passing folk meet to chat to one another, 

Ladies with shopping, mothers with kids,
Dads going for a pint , 10 for a quid
Sunday was special, to Dragones we went,
The best ice cream around , was heaven sent,
Dads and sons came from the bars,
Meandered home across roads with few cars
Wednesday afternoon was a quiet affair,
Shops closed at one for the rest of the day,
The Felling will always be with me
Wherever I go,
The sights , the sounds,
The people I know
My Felling
It received much comment and Joyce added this  "Going to Harold Yorkes for your fish n chips , Dixons for a paper, Lavenders to get your shoes cobbled, the Palais first or second house, the Hadrian for broken biscuits"
Another poem on its way, perhaps

There sure was

Felling , to us was a Shangri-la, 

Where we lived and played and Newcastle was far

Back lanes were our kingdom we had to defend,
Don't venture to another without a friend,

Cut through at your peril like an alien from Space ,
Footsteps quickening at a fast pace

Bonner night was magic looking for gear,
A settee, a table ,a tree, we showed no fear,

Back gates got blistered from the flames that leapt high,
Roasted tatties all black and dry

Faces streaked with soot, hands the same,
Dreading the sound of Mam calling your name

"Get in here now" a familiar sound
But no backchat from me, that was never allowed,
We had respect for our parents or a clout we'd get ,
Pleading for a little bit longer but her mind it was set

The tin bath was taken from the nail on the wall,
Buckets of water on the stove stood tall,
A loofah that took the skin from your knee
With Derbac soap and a comb aimed at me,

Clean once more with hair that shone,
My winceyette pyjamas I then put on,
"Sit down hinny I'll do some supper"
Toast done on the fire and a nice steaming cuppa

Next day a pile of ashes stood
Where the night before it had been so good,

Christmas was coming , dreaming of toys ,
Roller skates with laces and bikes for the boys

My Felling childhood I'll treasure forever ,
My roots so deep no one will sever

Cobblers to The Felling

I came across this great pic of an old fashioned shoe maker or cobbler and it got me thinking. As an amateur local historian I've waded through many Trade Directories and I was aware that those involved in footwear were invariably Boot people...the word 'shoe' was barely used. So I took a closer look and found that in the mid to late 1800's the Trade Directories listed 'boot makers' but by the turn of the century they listed 'boot repairers'. Google helped me find the answer. There was no boot/shoe manufacturing industry until about the 1850/80's. Before then local blokes in local towns made the footwear.

Here's our local blokes, shown as boot makers, in The Felling per Ward's 1879
John Ancrum, Windy Nook Lane
John Armstrong, 15 High Street
John Graham, 22 High Street
William Edward Burke, 19 High Street
Mark Sharp, Wesley Tce
John Thompson, Tyne Street
William James Murdoch of Wesley Tce was listed as a boot dealer

....expect puns, this article is a bit tongue in cheek

The Felling King of the Cobblers was undoubtedly George William Moses who mended souls from 1903, starting for the first couple of years at 4 Morley Tce before moving to 5 Victoria Square in 1905. 

Here is that very shop being demolished 60 years later..note his son, along the way, joined him. Just as well. George must have been pushing 80 by this time. After awl, 60 years is a long time and there’s only so long a cobbler can last!
There were of course other fellows who fixed the Felling's footwear, which initially was boots, then later, shoes. Here's those of 1939 :-
Thomas MacKay at Bill Quay (Cromwell Road),
Fenwick Watson was at 27 Wesley Street (more below)
Joseph Simpson at 2 Davidson Street,
Robert Goldsworth at 8 Carlisle Street and
William Donaldson's address in Pelaw was odd... 5½ Joicey Street.
 No cobbling was happening in Windy Nook

Here's GWM when he was a young man. His shop was in an iconic place so it was photographed often

That's his shop that looks church/chapel like, with the steeple above the arched window. Note, Pant

Here, the Square has been revamped...bye bye Pant, never to be seen again 

William Pine worked for G. W. Moses and eventually opened his own shoe repair shop

Thanks to his son, Peter, we have lots more on Fenwick Watson. This is he

Most cobblers of that time "didn't serve an apprenticeship, whereas my father did and was classed as a master boot and shoe repairer. He started his career before the war at Wesley Terrace. He was called up and served in WW 2 in the Royal Engineers, mostly in Gibraltar. I was nearly 3 when he returned to our home in Thomas Street, Felling. He started back at his business in Wesley Terrace until it was pulled down in the 1950’s. He then moved to an empty house not far away. (The steps that lead from Sunderland Road, opposite Felling Station, were built for people to access the shop, as previously it was steep cobbles). After that he seemed to follow the Post Office and moved to the bottom of the High Street, just up from the Brandling pub. This previously had been an undertakers. He then moved further up the High Street where he eventually retired in his early 70’s. This was just below Boots the chemist, where there was a telephone box which is still there. I remember visiting Wesley Terrace and helping in his other 3 shops. It was a very dusty job and my father ended up with chest problems after he retired. There was another repairer opposite whose son worked with him on the opposite side of the High Street, but don’t remember his name. When he finished he worked for my father for a few years. Moses was a well established business for many years in the Felling who also sold new shoes. My uncle who also served an apprenticeship, also worked with my father at Wesley Terrace, and finished at St Mary’s Hospital, Stannington. It used to be Gateshead’s mental asylum. He died last year aged 98. Billy Pine I think might have worked for Moses, until they finished." 
Here's more Felling Cobblers

Ken Cooper

W. Nichol was in the BOOT era

A. E. Jones,
Boot & Shoe Repairer
91 High Street, Felling
1948

Finally, there are too few people in this World who are familiar with an aglet so follow the link to enlightenment