The real Barras Bridge and Newcastle’s beautiful lost dean

Art   Collections & Objects   Laing Art Gallery   Local History   Social History
Posted by Sarah Richardson on May 4, 2012     Permalink     Comments (1)

Imagine a deep ravine slicing across the Great North Road next to the Civic Centre, replacing concrete and tarmac with a beautiful tree-lined dean. Well, it’s not fantasy – this was Pandon Dean (or Dene – spelling varied). Much of the dean was still there well into the 19th century, and some of it survived into the 20th century. At its widest parts, the dean was as broad as Jesmond Dene, probably wider.

Site of Pandon Dean at the Great North Road

In present-day terms, the dean cut across the Great North Road from beside Claremont Buildings (on the left of the photo) to the gardens in front of the Civic Centre. It continued in a broad arc on the east side of Newcastle, down to the Tyne.

Barras Bridge in 1788, copied by T.M. Richardson from a sketch by the Rev. W.N. Darnell. Laing Art Gallery

This little bridge – the original Barras Bridge – was Newcastle’s link with the main road to the north. The bridge crossed Pandon Burn low down in the dean. It’s shown here in 1788, shortly before it was rebuilt to a design by the Newcastle architect David Stephenson, in 1789. John Baillie described the changes in his An impartial history of the town and county of Newcastle upon Tyne of 1801:

This bridge, over a steep dean, was formerly narrow, ill built, and in dark nights dangerous to passengers, especially on horseback. Of late it has been widened about double its former extent, with a flagged foot way on each side, and is now made exceedingly convenient.

Arch of the old Barras Bridge in Pandon Sewer, City Engineer's Photographic Section, Pandon Sewer 860/4, 1968, © Newcastle City Library

Once I heard that there is a still part of old Barras Bridge in Pandon [Burn] Sewer, about 3 metres below the present roadway, I was keen to see what it looked like. This is David Stephenson’s bridge, I believe, and I’m grateful to the City Library Local Studies staff who helped me obtain this photo from an old negative. There was more work on the bridge in 1819, which seems to have taken the form of burying the bridge under a raised and widened roadway, and culverting the stream (in the comparatively small arch shown at the bottom of the photo) at the same time. The wall under the bridge arch in the photo would have been part of this later work. By the time of John Wood’s 1827 map and Thomas Oliver’s slightly later map (shown further down this blog), there’s no visible evidence of a bridge left, just a wide roadway.

Pathway of Pandon Dean between the Civic Centre and St Thomas’s Church. A bus, seen through the trees, marks the position of John Dobson Street.

From Barras Bridge, Pandon Dean cut across the ground in between the present sites of the Civic Centre and St Thomas’s Church. The dean then curved to the left of the view in the photo, continuing eastwards towards what’s now the University of Northumbria and the motorway beyond.

John Dobson Street looking north to the Civic Centre. Pandon Dean would have cut across this view from left to right

Having walked through the Civic Centre gardens, we’ve moved into John Dobson Street, south of the Civic Centre. Pandon Dean was starting to broaden out here. A path led from the end of Vine Lane (near side of white building on the left) down into the dean. The path can be seen on the map detail shown below (John Dobson Street didn’t exist at the time).

Detail from Thomas Oliver’s map of 1833. Laing Art Gallery, given by Edward Brough, 1909

John Baillie described walking from Vine Lane into Pandon Dean in his An impartial history of 1801:

…there is a handsome lane called Vine lane … passing down into what is called the Dean or Pandon dean, we … have … a small stream, with a pleasant walk; for this long winding hollow piece of ground, which was waste and wild, covered with brambles and thorns, is now totally converted, by the hand of industry, into a vast number of pleasant though small gardens, for the recreation of many of the industrious tradesmen of Newcastle.

'Pandon Dean' by Robert Jobling (1841-1923), in 'The Monthly Chronicle of Lore and Legend', 1890. Newcastle City Library Local Studies

This part of the dean was still there 90 years after John Baillie wrote his account. If we had walked down the path from Vine Lane into Pandon Dean, and then turned around to look back, this is the view we would have seen. This picture was used to illustrate an article by R.J. Charleton in The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend in 1890 (apologies for the 1890′s photo reproduction quality). Charleton wrote:

Mr. Jobling’s view … shows some of the old gardens in front of Lovaine Crescent, with the little houses in which many of the occupants lived, the mill house [of the Oatmeal Mill] in the middle distance, and St. Thomas’s Church behind.

The oatmeal mill-house is on the right of the view. We can see a fenced-off oval in the centre of the scene where the stream cut down into the dean, while the path curved down the bank.

Detail of Thomas Oliver's map of 1833. All Saints' Church is bottom left, with Pandon Gate a little to the right of it

The Newcastle historian Henry Bourne, in his History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1736), enthused about walking up the dean from Pandon Gate, which was near the Quayside:

After you are out of Pandon gate there is one [passage] on the left Hand leading to Pandon Dean, a very Romantick Place full of Hills and Vales, through which runs Pandon Burn. It is a very entertaining Walk in the Summer to Magdalen Well.

Pandon Gate was an old gateway in the town wall. It’s shown on Thomas Oliver’s map a little way to the right of All Saints’ Church, which is at the bottom left of the map. Magdalen Well isn’t visible on the map, but it was located towards the top of the dean on this map detail. R.G. Charleton mentioned that the stream from Magdalen Well joined Pandon Burn in the dean approximately opposite the end of Vine Lane.

On the map, we can also see outlines of some of the gardens that lined the banks of the dean, making it such a pleasant place. As well as being attractive, the dean was huge – at its broadest parts, Pandon Dean was about 42 metres wide.

Thomas Miles Richardson, ‘Pandon Dean’, Laing Art Gallery, given by Miss Winifred Smith, 1993

The long valley illustrated on Thomas Oliver’s map was the main part of Pandon Dean, where people walked and enjoyed the views. However, the stream and dean actually began further west – another blog looks at Thomas Miles Richardson’s Young Anglers, Barras Bridge, showing a scene in the dean west of Barras Bridge.

'The New Bridge Pandon Dean 1821', engraving by John Knox after John Lumsden, Laing Art Gallery, given by Mrs T Warden, 1934

At this point, we’ve travelled about half-way down the main part of Pandon Dean. This view was published in Eneas Mackenzie’s Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1827). According to The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore And Legend, which published a sketchier version in 1890, this scene was:

taken from near the foot of the steps which used to lead down from Shieldfield at the end of the lane called “the Garden Tops.” It was painted by John Lumsden in 1821, and shows the old water corn mill, afterwards the Pear Tree Inn, the town in the middle distance, and the Windmill Hills at Gateshead beyond.

New Bridge over Pandon Dean, probably by John Lumsden, painted about 1820. Laing Art Gallery

This painting is so similar to John Lumsden’s view in the print that it’s probably also his work. John Lumsden (1785-1862) was a landscape, portrait and animal painter of St John’s Lane in Newcastle.

The view is dominated by the New Bridge of 1812. All Saints’ Church is in the centre of the scene, behind the bridge. St Nicholas’ Church (now Cathedral) is on the right of the picture. Windmill Hills in Gateshead are in the distance, topped by several windmills. The River Tyne is not visible in this painting as it’s hidden in the valley between Newcastle and Gateshead.

View from foot-bridge over the motorway

I thought I would see if I could get a snap of a modern view of the scene in the painting, and this is what it looks like now – it’s the A167 Central Motorway East. The modern New Bridge Street raised roundabout (almost hidden by the far foot-bridge in the photo) crosses the road at roughly the same place as the New Bridge crossed the dean. All Saints’ Church is visible on the left.

Detail of New Bridge over Pandon Dean, about 1820

Zooming into the picture, we can see people strolling by the burn and enjoying the beauties of the dean. These were described in an old song, published in Newcastle in 1826, fairly soon after the New Bridge was completed:

The shrubs and flowers, sae fresh and green… the burn  That wimples through the bonny Dean.

The New Bridge was built where the dean narrowed again. The depth of the dean in this area was about 70 feet (roughly 21.5 metres). This was the height of the Pandon Dean Embankment, built for the Newcastle and North Shields Railway in the 1830s, a little way south of the New Bridge (recorded by The Railway Times in 1839).

Looking through the left arch of the bridge in the painting, we can see yet another mill – the mustard mill.

Bewick Workshop artist, 'Mustard Manufactory, Pandon Dean', after 1798. Laing Art Gallery

The New Bridge marked the beginning of a period of change for Pandon Dean and the area further east. The bridge was built by the Newcastle master mason John Reed. In a footnote in his Historical Account, written at the time of Reed’s death in 1820, Eneas Mackenzie noted:

Mr. Reed … was the only regular-bred master-mason in Newcastle in his time. [He suffered financial difficulties after building the bridge] … in consequence of the trustees being unable to pay for the work. A great part of the expense of the building still remains due; but the interest is regularly paid.

The cost of the bridge was £7448, 12 shillings and 10 pence, and building was started in 1811 and was completed in 1812, according to Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831. People had to pay tolls to use it, and it joined with the Newcastle to North Shields Turnpike road. It led to increased development in the Shieldfield and Byker areas.

From right - Plummer Tower, St Nicholas Church, and the Castle

On the right of the painting, we can see Newcastle’s ancient architectural heritage in the form of the castle, St Nicholas Church, and the town-wall fortification of Plummer Tower. This is the cylindrical tower with its blue-slate pointed roof at the end of the New Bridge, on the right of the picture.

Plummer Tower, Croft Street, off Market Street, Newcastle. The rectangular building was added later to the tower.

Plummer Tower was built in the late-13thcentury and is still standing in Croft Street, off Market Street, fairly close to the Laing Art Gallery. The dean was a natural defensive barrier, and the town wall was built on its upper edge on the east side of town (the wall took in a short stretch of the dean that originally existed close to the Tyne).

The New Bridge lasted just over 50 years. It was removed in 1865 due to the filling up of the dean – its demolition was recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72. The trains of the Blyth & Tyne Railway occupied this part of Pandon Dean in the second half of the 19th century, and The Monthly Chronicle commented that the ‘shriek of railway whistles’ had replaced ‘the sweet songs of birds’.

Detail of map of Newcastle produced for the Jubilee Exhibition, 1887. Laing Art Gallery

The Blyth & Tyne Railway’s New Bridge Terminus was just north of where the New Bridge had stood. On this map detail, we can also see the area of Pandon Dean that still remained below Lovaine Crescent – it’s this area that Robert Jobling drew for the picture illustrated in The Monthly Chronicle (reproduced towards the beginning of this blog). There is a fascinating later map – Thomas Oliver’s 1830 map overlaid with the outlines of streets and buildings of 1909 – which shows that small parts of Pandon Dean remained even in the early 20th century, including the gardens of Lovaine Place, near the present Civic Centre (Oliver’s plan of Newcastle, 1830, modified 1909, Tomorrow’s-history website – this map can be zoomed to see details.)

A photograph of Pandon Dean, taken prior to the building of the motorway and the New Bridge Street flyover, shows the remains of the dean’s railway use (the railway lines either side of the New Bridge area had been joined in 1909.)

Excavation of Pandon Burn in the Stockbridge and Broad Chare area. Photo by Jimmy Forsyth, Newcastle City Library collection

This photo was taken by Newcastle photographer Jimmy Forsyth, and records excavations of Pandon Burn in the 1990s. The location is close to the Tyne, and the Tyne Bridge is visible in the background. The dean skirted the east side of the mound on which All Saints’ Church stands, which is just out of shot on high ground to the right. (Jimmy Forsyth’s negatives are now held by Tyne & Wear Archives.)

Pandon Dean near the Quayside had been filled in at a very early date, and the burn channelled in a pipe. Pandon Burn originally entered the Tyne between Broad Chare and Love Lane. Part of Pandon Bank can still be seen at the end of Broad Chare (now widened).

Detail of 'Newcastle upon Tyne in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth', 1852 by John Storey (1828-1888). Given by the Port of Tyne Authority, 1998

John Storey’s imaginative reconstruction of Newcastle in the 1550s shows Pandon Dean on the right of the scene, with All Saints’ Church on higher ground to the left of the dean. The painting gives us a good idea of how Newcastle was built on a series of hills with deans between them.

In 1890, R.J. Charleton wrote sadly of Pandon Dean in The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend:

To write of Pandon Dene is like writing of some departed friend. There is a tender melancholy associated with the place … And when we think of it as it once was gay with foliage and blossom and look upon its condition of to-day, buried far beneath a mass of ever accumulating rubbish, our melancholy is not unmingled with regret…

Well, this has been quite a long tour through Pandon Dean. This blog started out as a look at the Laing’s painting of the New Bridge over Pandon Dean. However, the dean was so huge and so startlingly close to the city centre of today that it seemed a pity not to start where the main part of Pandon Dean began, at Barras Bridge. If the dean had not existed, there would not have been a conveniently blank area available for building a 19th-century railway. When that was obsolete, motorway took over part of the dean’s site. It’s intriguing to think that as a result of that development, Pandon Dean, formed by the scouring of ice in ancient times, still shapes part of the city today.

Interesting personnel records uncovered by the Sunderland Shipbuilding Archives project

Collections & Objects   Discovery Museum   Local History   Maritime History   Social History   The Archives
Posted by Alan Hayward on April 23, 2012     Permalink     Comments (2)

During the past month I’ve been cataloguing the administrative records of Austin & Pickersgill Ltd and its two predecessor companies, S.P. Austin & Son Ltd and William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd. These include an interesting set of personnel records, which may be of interest to family historians whose ancestors worked in the Sunderland shipbuilding industry.

The Archives holds records of many shipyards on the River Tyne and the River Wear but these generally include little in the way of personnel records. Those that survive are often wage books, which contain very few personal details and often just relate to the shipyard’s clerical staff, draughtsmen and foremen. The records of Austin Pickersgill and its predecessors are unusual, though, because they contain information about the shipyard workers whose personal details are rarely found in other collections. 

The archives of S.P. Austin & Son include a large quantity of personnel records. Of particular note are nine drawers of index cards (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/9/1-9) containing brief details of men and women employed by the yard from the 1910s to the 1940s. A couple of examples are shown below. 

Index card for James Bulmer, 1927-1936 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/9/1)

 

Index card for Emily Bush, 1943 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/9/9)

The card for Mrs Emily Bush is part of a small but interesting series in the final index card drawer relating to women who worked in the shipyard during the Second World War. Although the information given on these is slim it is relatively rare for any of these details to survive for the catchers, fitters, heaters, holder ups, joiners, labourers, painters, platers, plumbers, rivetters, red leaders and other employees who worked in the shipyards. Helpfully, the cards are arranged in alphabetical order, which makes it easy to search for an ancestor’s name.

The Austin’s records also include six apprentices wage rate books (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/10/1-6), covering the years 1924-1964. These are arranged by trade and the information given for each apprentice includes:

  • Name
  • Date started
  • Date of birth
  • Details of wages.

    Details of apprentice fitters at S.P. Austin & Son, 1924-1928 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/10/1)

 

There are fewer surviving personnel records for William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd but these do include some interesting items. For example, there are two registers of starters dating from 1930-1939 and 1948-1956 and these include useful personal details such as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Date of birth
  • Date started
  • Last employer
  • Trade

The information about previous employers is likely to be of particular interest to family historians and also reflects how a significant number of workers moved from one firm to another.

In 1954 S.P. Austin & Son Ltd merged with William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd to create Austin & Pickersgill Ltd. The employee records for the amalgamated company survive pretty well and include details of starters and leavers from the 1950s to the 1980s, although there are some gaps. 

Entries from register of new starters at Southwick yard, showing details of previous employers, August 1956 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/16/1)

It’s interesting to note that one of the employees listed above was 67 when he started at the Southwick Yard. We’re approaching a time when many people will have to work longer before retirement but it’s clear that to some of our ancestors this would have been the norm.

There are also twenty yard employees registers (sometimes referred to as ‘hands on books’) for the Southwick Yard. In the yard employees registers the workers are grouped by trade (in order of board number). A separate register was kept each year and these include names and addresses and also give dates of leaving and reasons for leaving, where applicable. 

Details of shipwrights at Southwick yard, from a yard employees register for 1956-1957 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/23/2)

Access is restricted to these registers because some entries contain sensitive personal information about dismissals. An example of such an entry is given below. 

Note regarding the dismissal of a shipwright, from a yard employees register for 1956-1957 (TWAM ref. DS.AP/2/23/2)

 

Even though direct access is not available to leavers registers and yard employees registers it is possibly to request searches of them by the Archives staff. These searches are carried out through our paid research service and details of this can be found on our webpages.

Colin and have both recently started working on the records of William Doxford & Sons Ltd and I look forward to reporting more exciting discoveries next month.

‘Young Anglers, Barras Bridge’, painted by Thomas Miles Richardson: a picture of old Barras Mill-pond?

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions   Laing Art Gallery   Local History
Posted by Sarah Richardson on April 16, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

This idyllic scene by Thomas Miles Richardson senior (1784–1848) shows the dell that opened out near Barras Bridge, Newcastle to become Pandon Dean.

'Young Anglers, Barras Bridge', by Thomas Miles Richardson. Given by Lord Joicey, 1921

Although Pandon Dean disappeared long ago, it was known for its beauty in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A song published in 1776, under the name of Rosalinda (republished in 1812 by John Bell of Newcastle) described the loveliness of Pandon Burn and Pandon Dean (sometimes spelled Pandon Dene):

Above me stand the towering trees,   While here I feel the gentle breeze;   The water flows by chance around,   And green enamels all the ground,    Which gives new splendour to the scene,    And adds a grace to Pandon Dene.

The lush green trees, golden sunlight and shining reflections on the water in Thomas Miles Richardson’s painting reveal the dean’s appeal. Richardson composed his picture to include picturesque buildings and children fishing, creating an image of people living in harmony with nature.

Some other early-19th-century artists expressed a similar Romantic feeling for the landscape surroundings of their homes. John Constable, who painted Suffolk landscape, is the best known of these artists. Francis Danby also painted comparable views inspired by the beautiful Bristol countryside.

Detail of 'Young Anglers, Barras Bridge' by Thomas Miles Richardson

There is a possibility that Thomas Miles Richardson was influenced by Constable’s paintings. Richardson was in London in August 1822, when he painted a view of George IV setting off for a visit to Scotland. It was exhibited in Newcastle in 1826, and is thought to be this watercolour.

As Richardson was in London in early August, he would almost certainly have visited the Royal Academy exhibition before it closed at the end of July. Richardson showed a view of Edinburgh at the Royal Academy, and Constable exhibited View on the Stour near Dedham. It’s tempting to think that if Richardson travelled down to London a few months earlier, for the beginning of the Royal Academy exhibition in May, he may also have seen Constable’s great painting The Haywain at the British Institution, exhibited under the title ‘Landscape, noon’ (the exhibition ended shortly before the Royal Academy exhibition began.)  

Richardson’s painting isn’t dated, and it wasn’t exhibited in the artist’s lifetime – only in a memorial display in 1848. However, it may have been painted in the mid-1820s, when the artist exhibited two similar pictures, of approximately the same size, showing children fishing.

It seems likely that Richardson’s Young Anglers, Barras Bridge shows the Barras Mill-pond as it was before redevelopment in about 1819, even though it was probably painted a little later as a recollection of past times. The picture shows a wide sheet of water (not a narrow stream as Pandon Burn was), and the sides are stone, as would be likely for a pond built to feed a watermill. (Ponds ensured there was always enough water to create a fast-flowing mill stream to turn the water-wheel.)

Children fishing, detail from 'Young Anglers, Barras Bridge'. The children are equipped with bowls for bait and the minnows they hope to catch.

Like the children in the painting, the Newcastle antiquarian the Reverend J Collingwood Bruce (1806-1892) had spent boyhood hours at Barras Mill-pond and the burn. In a book of about 1870, he wrote:

The writer has often, when a boy, sailed his boats in the pond, and fished for minnows in the upper part of the stream.

So, where was the attractive scene shown by Thomas Miles Richardson located? The Barras Mill-pond and burn alongside were built over in the early 19th century. The photo below shows their approximate site today – in the paved area (Eldon Place) between the two Newcastle University buildings in the photo below, over the main road from the Civic Centre.

Eldon Place, alongside left side of Claremont Buildings, on the corner of Claremont Road (right). INTO building (2010) is on the left and the Claremont Buildings (1896) are on the right. © Andrew Curtis and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence

Ralph Beilby’s map of 1788 shows the mill-pond and burn in existence (top left of the map detail).

Detail of Ralph Beilby's map of 1788

The North Post Road at the top of this map detail is today’s Great North Road. The road further left of this later developed into Claremont Road. The dark rectangle on the tongue of land between the two roads is St James’s Place, which was knocked down to build the museum that became the Great North Museum: Hancock. The burn with the mill-pond is to the left of that. The stream runs past Barras Mill, shown as a dark rectangle, and a path from the left side of the mill leads to the Barras Bridge. The stream here was known as Bailey (or Baillie) Burn in the 18th and early 19thcenturies. After flowing under the old Barras Bridge, the stream continued into Pandon Dean, which is shown opening up into a huge valley on the right of the map.

The stream at old Barras Bridge in 1788, from a drawing by the Reverend WN Darnell

We know that, in the late-18th century, the stream at Barras Bridge was narrow, unlike the pool shown in Thomas Miles Richardson’s painting. It probably stayed much the same in the next 30 years, though the bridge was widened and heightened in both 1789 and 1819 to make it safer for travellers. Unfortunately, we don’t have a later image of the bridge.

After development of the Barras Mill-pond and the burn in this area in about 1819, a pool appeared on the east side of Barras Bridge. However, from Thomas Oliver’s map (below), it looks like it formed naturally following culverting of the burn on the other side of the bridge, and the pool here seems unlikely to have stone sides.

Detail from Thomas Oliver's map of 1833

Considerable changes took place in the early 19th century. Eneas Mackenzie, in his History of Newcastle of 1827 tells us that, as the result of alterations taking place about the same time as the widening of Barras Bridge in 1819:

the Bailey Burn is now arched over, the mill-pond filled up, the inequalities levelled, and the whole converted into gardens, which are attached to a neat row of airy houses, called Eldon Place. … The ancient mill is also to be pulled down…

Entrance to Eldon Place from Percy Street/Barras Bridge. Claremont Buildings of 1896 are on the right.

 

Thomas Miles Richardson (1784-1848)

Thomas Miles Richardson (1784-1848) was the leading artist in Newcastle in the early 19th century, and painted many local views.  He taught several other artists, and he also set up artists’ societies and exhibiting organisations. He exhibited his paintings in London and all round the country, as well as in Newcastle.

It’s not known if Richardson visited London (apart from the 1822 visit) to accompany pictures he showed at the Royal Academy and British Institution exhibitions (his son Henry Burdon Richardson exhibited at the RA from London addresses 1828-1832, so Thomas Miles Richardson might have visited).

The date of Richardson’s painting of Young Anglers, Barras Bridge is uncertain. On the back of the picture, the artist’s address is written as 53 Blackett Street, where he worked in the 1840s (probably from 1837 when his son Thomas Miles Richardson junior started using this address).  However, the picture might date from the mid 1820s – Richardson exhibited two similar subjects at the British Institution – Minnow Fishers, a view near Newcastle, in 1825, and The Young Angler…Jesmond Dean in 1826 – for both, the listings give measurements very close to the frame size of Young Anglers, Barras Bridge.

Paintings of Pandon Dean on display

This snap shows Thomas Miles Richardson’s painting of Young Anglers, Barras Bridge alongside another painting of Pandon Dean. They are on display until May 6th 2012 in the exhibition ‘19th Century Art in Newcastle’, selected from the Laing Art Gallery collection, until April 29th 2012.

Another of Thomas Miles Richardson’s paintings – Excavations for High Level Bridge – is on show in the Northern Spirit displays on the ground floor of the Laing Art Gallery.

Monkwearmouth Station Bombed!

Local History   Military History   Monkwearmouth Station Museum   Social History
Posted by Martin Routledge on April 5, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

When first built there was a roof over the lines between the main building at Monkwearmouth Station and the Goods Yard on the west side. This roof provided shelter for the passengers waiting for their trains. On the night of Saturday 1 April 1916 the First World War came to Sunderland in no uncertain terms when German Imperial Navy Zeppelin L11 rained down high explosive and incendiary bombs on both sides of the River Wear. A casualty of the raid was the roof over the railway lines and was never repaired, being removed completely 12 years later in 1928 when the still to be seen platform shelters for the passengers were built.

At about 10pm on the evening of 1 April 1916 German Imperial Navy Zeppelin L11 under the command of Korvettenkapitan Viktor Schutze, who joined the Zeppelin only as recently as 5 March 1916, flying at a height of about 2,200 metres, crossed the coast to attack Tyneside. It had left its base at Nordholz, along with L14, at mid-day with orders to attack southern or central England but the wind was such that L11 found itself approaching the River Tyne in the dark. Following a Zeppelin raid on Tyneside by L10 on 16 June 1915 the defences around the River Tyne had been strengthened and at its relatively low height and experiencing difficulties gaining height in the weather conditions, Schutze decided to manoeuvre round and attack the less well protected port of Sunderland.

At about 11pm Millfield and Deptford were first to be on the receiving end of L11’s deadly payload before it crossed the River Wear and turned its attentions on Monkwearmouth. This is when the Goods Yard was hit and the roof over the railway lines at the Station damaged. Bombs also damaged Thomas Street School, Victor Street and Whitburn Street where St Benet’s Church was damaged. There had been warning of the impending attack and the trams had been evacuated as was the practice. In North Bridge Street Tram No. 10 had been pulled up and was hit along with a house. The conductress, Sally Ann Holmes, was injured and an Inspector was killed. In all 22 people were killed that night with others amongst the 25 seriously injured dying over the following days. Over 100 people received less serious injuries. The local newspaper, the Sunderland Echo, in its report on an air raid on a ‘north east town’ played down the damage and affect on the people saying three small fires were started and quickly dealt with and the people remained calm. Other reports would suggest this was not the case. Shutze himself reported:

‘I decided not to cross the batteries on account of not being very high in relation to the firing, and also because of slow progress against the wind and the absolutely clear atmosphere up above. I fixed, therefore, on the town of Sunderland, with its extensive docks and the blast furnaces north-west of the town. Keeping on the weather side, the airships dropped explosive bombs on some works where one blast-furnace was blown up with a terrible detonation, sending out flames and smoke. The factories and dock buildings of Sunderland, now brightly illuminated, were then bombed with good results. The effect was grand; blocks of houses and rows of streets collapsed entirely; large fires broke out in places and a dense black cloud, from which bright sparks flew high, was caused by one bomb. A second explosive bomb was at once dropped at the same spot; judging from the situation, it may have been a railway station.’
(http://www.richthofen.com/scheer/scheer09a.htm)

Coming under fire from a gun at Fulwell the Zeppelin turned to the south east and after dropping bombs on the docks flew down to Middlesbrough where it caused more destruction before returning to base at Nordholz at 10am on 2nd April.


As the centenary of the First World War approaches, and we remember the dedication and sacrifices of the people, families and communities of the people who went through it, this is a story that I will be researching in greater depth as at the moment there are some conflicting accounts around. Defences were strengthened around the area afterwards and the establishment of a home defence air squadron, 36 Squadron, based at Ashington, Seaton Carew and Usworth is well recorded but a listening post was built at Fulwell and this is less well documented. I would be delighted to hear from anyone who believes that they can help with information.

barque Lota 1891 (2)

Art   Collections & Objects   Maritime History   Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Posted by Ian Whitehead on April 2, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

It is time for me to post again about the Sunderland-built barque Lota. There has been a surprising volume of traffic in response to the original posting. I am amazed at how our shared knowledge of the ship, her voyages and her crew has increased as a result. 

barque Lota 1891

oil painting of the 3 masted barque Lota by John Hudson 1891

Accounts of Lota’s launch on Wednesday 19th August 1891 were published in the Sunderland Echo on the 20th and then a day later in the Newcastle Journal – pretty much a copy of the Echo but with one line missing! Here’s the Newcastle Journal version with the missing line restored.

“On Wednesday there was successfully launched from Messrs Robert Thompson & Sons’ Southwick yard, Sunderland a handsomely-modelled steel barque, built to the order of Messrs Turner, Edwards and Co. of Bristol, of the following dimensions:- Length, 232 feet; breadth, 37 feet, depth to floors 21 feet 10 ½ inches, gross tonnage about 1,367 tons. The vessel has raised quarter-deck aft, 48 feet, for the accommodation of captain, officers, and passengers, also rooms for apprentices. Amidships is the large and spacious house for crew, petty officers, galley etc. Under the topgallant forecastle are lamp and oil rooms, patent windlass etc., lighthouses are on the after part of the forecastle head, patent pumps amidships, and fire engines forward. Everything is fitted with the latest improvements. During construction the vessel has been superintended by Captain Langford, who takes command when completed. As the vessel left the ways she was christened the Lota by Miss March of London.”

Back in December 2011 Peter Robinson commented that he had come across the blog while researching a caption for the photograph collection of the Cumbrian Railways Association. The research was for a photograph of Lota moored at Carrs Quay, Silloth, which Peter has kindly given me permission to show here.

The sailing barque Lota moored alongside Carrs Flour Mill in Silloth

barque Lota moored alongside Carrs Flour Mill, Silloth (copyright Cumbrian Railways Association)

I am pretty sure that this is the Sunderland-built Lota but while I was checking the possibilities I came across another near contemporary 3-masted steel barque of the same name. She was built at Port Glasgow in 1893 by Archibald Russell & Co. and apart from being 13 feet longer than ‘our’ Lota is likely to look very like her. So when researching you should be aware that there were two very similar Lotas trading from 1893 to 1910, after which the Clyde-built ship disappears from the register.   

JH - A1 House flag

The special house flag - A1-JH - that John Hudson painted on his portrait of Lota

Something I didn’t comment on when I first posted was the peculiar flag which is being flown from Lota’s mainmast . Since the original owners were Turner Edwards of Bristol, one would expect to see their house flag of a white star on a red background flying from the masthead. Instead there is flag carrying the very clear message A1.JH! It seems that John Hudson, who painted the picture, was probably having a little joke by pairing his initials with the top Lloyds insurance classification. He definitely wasn’t expecting to sell the painting to Lota’s owners.

Finally may I say thank you to everybody who has posted. I have greatly enjoyed learning more about one of the last of the Sunderland-built sailing ships.