Felling Park Spooktacular

Felling Park's first Spooktacular at 

Halloween 2017

The Friends of Felling Park and Town Centre, a small team of local volunteers, are in the course of bringing back Felling Park to the showpiece that it was, back in its heyday, when it had a large team of professional gardeners at its disposal. The first main event to which the public were invited is the Spooktacular held on 31st October 2017

And it can now be reported that it was a magnificent success, very well supported by the folk of Felling

This is the final preparation of several week's work for the evening event which started at 5.30pm. The biggest job was putting in place the strings of lights that were stretched from tree to tree throughout the park.They were intended to twinkle for the few hours of the event but their batteries were made of stern stuff and twinkled on for more than a further week

Some of the team of support workers

Pics of the event

John Gibson was the event's impresario that led a strong team of dedicated volunteers headed by

Charley Rutland

This occasion which will make it into the annals of The Felling's history, is, perhaps, this immediate locality's most significant in the past decade of centuries (a millennium by any other name). It must, and will almost certainly, become an annual event.

The Boy Scouts, The Girl Guides,The Oldest Story in The World

This topic is not local history but this is the only blog I write and I wanted to write on the subject described above. If I was to justify it, the only two long term live-in relationships I've ever had were with Felling lasses. When I "scouted", as boys do, these were the lasses who"guided" me.
It was back in 1967, when I joined a new company I heard the branch manager say to a member of staff that the oldest story in the world, going back to the fictional Adam & Eve, is that in the development of a heterosexual relationship the bloke does the 'scouting' and the girl, if responsive, does the 'guiding'.
When I heard it, I liked it and there have been only rare occasions in my life when it was appropriate to say it... if indeed I ever did. I can't remember..but I've never forgot the expression. I liked it then, and still do. Why am I writing about it now, you're entitled to wonder?
Well, it popped into my head and, as one does nowadays, I googled it and was astounded to find that this concept is not mentioned anywhere on the internet.
Now I know that times have changed. Back then the boy did make the running and the girl responded whereas, quite rightly in these enlightened times, it is perfectly normal for the girl to take the initiative, should she wish. Nevertheless, I'm surprised that it doesn't come up on google..that no one, such as on relationship forums, has ever used this expression.
Well, several days after I press the 'publish' button on this blog I'd be very surprised if it doesn't come up on google. And if so, though this blog has only limited spread on the internet, some people 'hearing' it for the first time may be like me and like it and store it somewhere in their brain and use it. Indeed, I've not looked but I'm sure there'll be forums out there where folk discuss relationships and that would be a good place to throw it into the mix.
Let's see...

Not Just Chris Waddle but Peter Wilson

We all know of Pelaw-born Chris Waddle's football career but Felling born Peter Wilson? That's him in the No 3 shirt as captain of the Australian national side shaking hands with East Germany's Bernd Bransch before their match at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
Peter Frederick Wilson was born in The Felling on 15th Sept 1947 and grew up in Elldene Crescent. He went to Heworth Secondary School and played football for the school team and then St. Mary's Boys Club in Newcastle.

He joined Middlesborough in 1968 but was released by them at the end of that season. He emigrated to Australia and ultimately was Captain of the Australian National Side for 9 years from 1970 until 1979.

Quotes by, & Tributes, to Peter

Despite being the holder of 64 international caps, 60 as captain, with a street in Sydney named after him, he's now a recluse near Wollongong, south of Sydney and shuns all publicity...aye but I bet he'll be chuffed he's featured here in The Felling's bite sized bits

Following the Local History Trail

This, being sold on eBay, was posted on The Felling Heritage Group's Facebook page by Brian May and knowing about George Bolam, Head of Felling Urban District Council and James Steel, Vicar at St. Mary's Church, Heworth I was curious about the Chairman of Heworth Parish, A. S. Palmer (1834–1910).
So I googled and discovered that Alfred Septimus Palmer was not only the brother of Sir Charles Palmer of Jarrow shipyard fame but was a Newcastle mining engineer who had been a major in the 1st Newcastle and Durham, became commanding officer of the third unit. He became the manager of Wardley Colliery .. and built and lived at Wardley Hall

 now Wardley British Legion Club.
Read more about him here

So this humble card posted on Facebook lead me to a Famous Felling Fella I hadn't previously come across

To finish, here's a smashin' set of pics from Norman Dunn, who worked at Wardley Colliery 

Where & What Were The Laireys?

Where & What Were The Laireys?

A better question...Where did the name come from?

This is a pic of what remains of The Laireys. Drive down Carlisle Street and hang a right at The Malting House pub and there is the bit of The Laireys that remains..the rest has factories on it. It was suggested on Facebook that perhaps this was once a farm but I doubt it. If it was a farm it would be shown as such on the Ordnance Survey map. On the O.S. map of 1897 it is shown as a rifle range. .

My thoughts were that to be leery is to be suspicious or cautious, which you would be if you were walking in the area of a rifle range. Over time that could morph into lairy.
To be lairy means to be aggressive and anti-social, so perhaps parents named it The Laireys to discourage school children from using it as a short cut. We do know, anecdotally, that parents did discourage children from using it, but that was probably to do with it being a place where a nonce might lurk.
Anyway, perseverance has prevailed. I was aware that this was a route from the Pattinson school that became the Catholic school largely used by Irish emigrants so I sought an Irish derivation
Bingo
'As lairy as a wolf' is Irish meaning 'afraid' but in the positive sense of 'alert, watchful and cautious' rather than the negative sense of 'cowardly'

Dogged perseverance got me there.. that's why I'm a local historian

The Cumbrians in The Felling's History

                                     Map of Cumberland & Westmoreland

Perhaps the best known Cumbrian who came to The Felling is Rev. John Hodgson but there are a number of others who made their mark. (Of course there were also lots of others who did not make their mark, like my Grandma on my Dad's side and my Great Grandad on my Mam's side, who gave up being a scarecrow to work down the pit.)

This is me with my Great Grandad

Hugh Lee Pattinson
Dept Store Felling High Street
John Grundy

The Quarries Were Where the Green Bits Are Now

The Quarries were where The Felling green bits are now. That's not a guarantee but its a knocking bet if the green bit is in the middle of a built up area. 

If houses could have been built there they would have been. The big exception is the Oliver Henderson Park which could not be built on but not because of quarrying

The last working quarry in Felling closed in 1972. When they started is unknown but goes back at least to Roman times. In written records times, we can go back to
 1478 when "gryndstones" were quarried from under the Hayning (large wooded area)

Per Joan Hewitt (JH), not just a well versed local historian but the granddaughter of a quarry owner,  there was "a great sweep of carboniferous sandstone known as the Heworth Band".

In 1807 twelve separate quarries were listed in Heworth Chapelry rates book. 

The biggest was that of Richard Kell and Co and the last was that of Tate Brown & Co. (Brown being JH's grandfather)

The High Burn hole was very deep, water filled and dangerous, the stone of increasingly poor quality. In about 1948 a young lad drowned. The quarry finally closed in 1952.
After filling with Heworth Colliery pit waste it became Felling Cricket Club.

Felling Park is another obvious one. (Felling Park also had a colliery shaft, another reason for it not being built on)

Heworth Low Burn Quarry was worked on until 1970  and eventually became a cemetery
The Bankies was formerly a quarry as was the Windy Nook Nature Park