Callers, December 1964

‘How dare you call me Thread Bear?’ Green Ted works his evil curse magic on Pink Ted, Callers window, December 1966

It was one such presentation in 1969 that very nearly caused the destruction of the entire city centre. On the evening of Sunday 30^th November, the usual crowds of excited children and psychologically-battered parents had turned out to see Callers’ attractive and magical animated Dickensian-themed display. However, one sharp-eyed father, his mental faculties not yet fully smothered by the demands of the festive period or an excess of cheap sherry, found his attention drawn to a thin plume of smoke rising gently from the head of a mechanical street urchin, and rushed to a nearby telephone box to alert the fire service.

Ape hates it when those two fight. Callers, December 1964

Within a few minutes the entire ropey display, built mostly of papier-mâché and polystyrene, was alight, the flames being helped along nicely by the electric fans powering the toy windmills decorating the ceiling of the store’s arcade entrance. The fire quickly took hold, spreading throughout the shop and into the building’s upper floors by the time Newcastle & Gateshead Fire Service arrived. They could do nothing to save the building, but their efforts were vital in ensuring the flames did not spread any further, or leap across the road to the other side ofNorthumberland Street, which would have been disastrous. 88 firefighters using 15 appliances struggled for five hours to bring the blaze under control, and another four to extinguish the conflagration using high expansion foam.

This was the worst fire seen in Newcastle’s city centre, causing upwards of two million pounds worth of damage. Callers and the adjacent Van Allan and Richard shops were completely gutted. After inspection, the building façade was declared unsafe, and demolished shortly afterwards. Miraculously, only three people were injured – including Leading Fireman Harry Louvre, commended for his bravery, who continued to fight the blaze for four hours after sustaining severe burns to the hands and face.

A series of photographic negatives held by the Archives and taken by Newcastle photographers Turner Visuals Ltd. (our ref: DT.TUR) on the morning of 1^st December 1969 shows the aftermath of the festive conflagration that almost ruined everybody’s Christmas.

Callers and Richard Shops, 1st December 1969Callers interior, 1st December 1969

Tyne & WearArchives wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and would like to remind them to switch off their fairy lights before they go to bed.

(This post was originally written by former staff member Roy Young in 2007)

I wonder how many of those who now live in the Garth Heads student accommodation know the history of this listed building.

Garth Heads today (© Andrew Curtis under Creative Commons Licence)

During the 19^th century concern grew about the poor conditions that many working class families lived under in Britain’s large cities, whose population had expanded hugely during the industrial revolution. There was no social housing and poorer people rented whatever rooms were available, often lacking in basic amenities such as water and sanitation. In Newcastle in 1867, a report showed, 10,000 families were living in single rooms. In response to this situation, a number of Model Dwellings schemes were established, usually by philanthropists but still intended to earn a profit. Among the most famous are the Peabody Trust Estates in London, many of which still exist.

Newcastle Improved Industrial Dwellings Ltd was formed by James Hall, philanthropist and businessman, of Hall Bros Steamship Co. A prospectus was issued in 1869 for a block of 40 tenements in New Road opposite the Ragged Schools, and the buildings were opened in September 1870. They were extended in 1872 and 1878. The original building was four stories in height and the extensions six. Shops were included and eventually 108 separate flats, and there was also a social recreation room, including a library.

The Industrial Dwellings in the 1900s (DT.NID/12/p156)

The architect of the buildings was John Johnstone, a Scot who had worked with Sir George Gilbert Scott, and who also designed Gateshead Town Hall and Leazes Park synagogue in Newcastle.

The flats didn’t have internal sanitation but there were two WCs on each landing and communal washhouses for laundry in the courtyards. Tenants of the Dwellings were offered electric light as early as 1904, but opted to stick with gas. Electricity was installed in 1930. The lack of luxury of the flats illustrates how poor conditions must have been elsewhere.

Advert for a flat (DT.NID/12/p82)

The interior of a flat in 1909 (DT.NID/12/p175)

A soup kitchen was operated from the Dwellings in 1892, 1908 and 1909 in response to hardship in the town.

Children wait for soup in 1909 (DT.NID/12/p177)

The buildings were sold to Newcastle Corporation in 1968 and the company wound up. They are now Grade II listed and in use as student accommodation. The company archives are available at Tyne & Wear Archives. You can find details at http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/DServe2/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28RefNo=%27dt.nid%27%29

Robert Coulthard after his arrest in 1913

The album unfortunately only gives the name and date of arrest, and the records from the North Shields Police Court that would have contained the details of the crime don’t seem to have survived. Finding out more about the circumstances therefore entailed a trip to Newcastle Central Library to research their excellent collection of local newspapers. Armed with the man’s name – Robert Coulthard – and the date of his arrest as 10 December 1913 it was reasonably easy to find the account of his appearance before the court in the following day’s paper.

A single paragraph reports that Robert Coulthard, 25 “who appeared in the dock stylishly dressed as a woman”  was charged with “having loitered in Charlotte Street and Church Street for the purpose of committing a felony” and was remanded for eight days.

More interesting, however, was a much longer report immediately above of five young men who had been arrested the same night at the Mill Dam in South Shields, also dressed in female clothes. A police witness reported that they were “dancing about and shouting to some sailors” and that he had previously seen some of the defendants similarly dressed. The men, however, claimed that they were in fancy dress and had been to a carnival. Nevertheless the chairman of the magistrates “remarked that the Bench regarded it as a very serious charge, and they were determined to put this sort of thing down”.

Circumstantially it would appear that Robert Coulthard had been in company with these men before making his way across to North Shields, and that they all regularly wore women’s clothing, although the court reports are vague as to what their actual offence was.

I then tried to find out a little more about Robert Coulthard. The same album of photographs shows that he had been previously arrested for indecent assault in 1903, when he was only 15 , but this case does not seem to have been reported in the newspaper so the circumstances remain a mystery.

Robert Coulthard in 1903

It is possible to piece together a little more about Robert Coulthard’s life. I discovered from the 1911 census that he was born in Gateshead and at that time was a servant in a sailors’ boarding house at East Holborn, South Shields – providing another link to the South Shields men. In 1891, aged 4, he was living in Oakwellgate, Gateshead with his mother Mary, a charwoman, and four brothers and sisters aged from 11 to 2. Mary is listed as married but her husband was not at home. By 1901 he was an inmate of the Abbot Memorial School in Gateshead, an “industrial school” designed to reform wayward children.

Postcard from http://www.picturesofgateshead.co.uk/postcards_gateshead1/index.html

Unfortunately after 1913 Robert Coulthard can’t be positively identified in the records. What happened to him? Did he serve in the First World War? Did he end up in prison? Or did he go on to lead a long and happy life? Perhaps the release of the 1921 census in 10 years time may tell us more, or other records may turn up in the meantime to help fill out an intriguing life story.

The book covers the launches of over 170 ships, with the signatures of those who attended. There aren’t many very famous names, unlike the royals who launched Navy ships at the Wallsend yard but there are a few notables. These include the parties of Chinese who attended the launches of for example the SS Hai Yuan in 1934. The ship was launched by Dr Quo Tai Chi, Chinese ambassador to Britain and his wife. Their son Merlin Quo aged 9, also present at the launch, was to become a TV producer and died in New York City in 2008.

Launch of SS Hai Yuan 1934

Also present at a number of launches was Susan Auld, nee Denham Christie, the first woman to graduate as a naval architect from Durham University and designer of battleships and of the landing craft used to land Allied troops in France on D-Day.

Launch of HMS Bullfrog (TWA ref ds.swh/5/1/6/3)

By far the most attractive thing about the book is the individual paintings that illustrate each launch, in some cases just flags, but in others very detailed illustrations such as the one of Bamburgh Castle.

Launch of MS Bamburgh Castle, with illustration of Bamburgh Castle (TWA ref ds.swh/5/1/6/3)

We’ve only actually featured in one programme – the one on Jodie Kidd but we’ve helped out with a few others either by helping the production company’s researchers or by them commissioning research from us.

A common complaint about the programme from archivists is that it makes the process of tracing your family history look too quick and easy, but helping out behind the scenes shows just how much work is put in before filming even starts.

We recently did some research for the programme on comedian Alan Carr, whose father’s family is from the north east. In the end the programme focussed on Alan’s mother’s family, one of whom was a deserter in the First World War, and our research wasn’t used at all but it’s still an interesting story.

One of Alan’s forebears, John Carr, together with his son Samuel, was killed in a colliery disaster at Burradon on 3 March 1860 along with 74 other men and boys. John Carr had been active in a movement to set up a Miners Provident Association to set up a relief fund for the victims of colliery accidents, but this was not to be established until the Northumberland and Durham Miners Permanent Relief Fund was set up in 1862 in the aftermath of the Hartley disaster. Instead a charitable fund was set up by the Newcastle Daily Chronicle.

Extract from Tynemouth Poor Law Union minutes (PU.TY/1/1/9)

We were asked to research the records of the Tynemouth Poor Law Union, which covered Burradon, to see whether they had supported any of the victims’ families, and in particular John Carr’s widow Dorothy and her six children. We found that they had not, and in fact had only allowed three widows relief from payment of rates on grounds of ill health. The board unanimously resolved “that no such destitution exists as would warrant the board giving out relief as a charge on the poor rates”. It would be interesting to know if the people of Burradon agreed……

On the surface it is an L-shaped map of the River Tyne from Heddon on the Wall to the sea, with an account of the opposition of the Masters and Pilots of Trinity House, Newcastle, to a proposal to erect a ballast shore at Jarrow Slake. This is dated 1670.

It has been put together in stiff covers, using an old deed, perhaps to give an impression of antiquity, which led to the idea that the whole thing might be a forgery, particularly as the binding has pasted to it a catalogue entry for the item declaring it to be “OF SUPERLATIVE RARITY”

The map binding

However, further research showed that the case was certainly a genuine one, arising from a proposal by Newcastle Corporation, which was vehemently opposed by Trinity House on the grounds that it would potentially block the channel and impede the coal trade. We could also see that the case, now mounted on linen, had writing on the back of the paper. Photographing it in reverse on a light box revealed this to be a title in a 17^th century hand.

17th century handwriting on the back of the map

We also found that the British Library has a copy of the map and accompanying case, but it is described in their catalogue as showing the river only from Newcastle to the sea.

The broadsheet from Newcastle to the sea

Further investigation showed that the map of the river from Newcastle westwards was in fact a separate piece that had been joined on, presumably when the binding was put together. So, was it from the same date?

Eventually we found a reference in Brand’s “History and Antiquities…of Newcastle” to just such a map commissioned by the Common Council in 1675, just five years later than the other piece. This appears to be it.

The western portion of the map, probably from 1675

We don’t know how many of these maps were originally printed, but as far as we can tell this now seems to be the only one still in existence, so an exciting find, and a puzzle apparently resolved.

The most exciting recent development for the Archives, however, has been the opening of the BFI Mediatheque “a digital jukebox of film and TV programmes, giving us access to the British Film Institute’s extensive collections”. Click here for more details.

The first weeks of July were a scramble to get the room fitted out with new carpet, specially designed viewing booths, and computer screens in time for the grand opening on the 20^th, but we managed it, and it was a great occasion in spite of being possibly the wettest evening of the year!

There was a real buzz as visitors saw the Mediatheque for the first time, after speeches from Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI and Graeme Thompson, formerly of Tyne Tees Television and now of Sunderland University. People immediately started searching for their favourites – from TV programmes like Basil Brush and Monty Python to full length British films like The Wicker Man and 1984.

There was also a lot of interest in the local content from both the national and regional collections – the building of the Tyne Bridge, skipping grannies in Benton in the 1920s, competitive leek growing in Ashington, Durham Miners Gala and the Hoppings a hundred years ago.

Durham Miners’ Gala 1910, just one of the early films in the Mediatheque

Since the opening we’ve seen a steady stream of viewers, but there’s still plenty of space at the moment so it’s a good chance to see what’s available before everybody hears about it.