Capital Of Scotland

This claim was made in a local history written in 1924: Newcastle upon-Tyne by F. J. C. Hearshaw. 

In the year 1138 Newcastle was occupied by King David I of Scotland (Feast Day May 24th) it did not return to the Kingdom of England until 1157. The New Castle on the ruins of the Roman fortress of Pons Aelius had been built in 1080 by Robert II of Normandy eldest son of William the Conqueror and hero of the First Crusade. David’s family already had associations with Newcastle because his Grandmother and Aunt fled there after the death of Malcolm III and St Margaret in 1093. Malcolm III was killed at Alnwick with his eldest son on the way back from a campaign in Northumbria during which he had attended the foundation of the new Cathedral Church at Durham. Hearshaw continues…

“Queen Margaret of Scotland (sister of Edgar Atheling) survived this double loss only four days, and Scotland became the prey of civil war and anarchy. In these circumstances Margaret’s aged mother, Agatha, and her sister Christina, fled to England, their native land, sought shelter in Newcastle, and there ‘were espoused to Christ’ in the newly founded Nunnery of St Bartholomew, first of Newcastle’s religious houses.” 

This Nunnery was destroyed at the Reformation. The indoor Grainger Market and Nun Street mark the land where it once stood. Now Hearshaw is certainly wrong about England being “their native land” as neither of them can have been born there. In fact the place of Agatha’s birth and how she fits into the great extended family of saints surrounding St Stephen of Hungary and St Henry the Emperor is a great historical mystery. Agatha lived out her remaining years as a nun in Newcastle but her daughter did not stay in Newcastle. Christina went on to be the Abbess of Romsey where she educated Malcolm and Margaret’s daughter Edith (later renamed Matilda) by whose marriage to Henry I the royal line of Wessex was united to that of Normandy. This union was later threatened by the survival of only one child of Henry I, his daughter Matilda. Although the Barons agreed to accept her as heir before Henry I’s death, when the King actually died most rallied to her cousin Stephen (famous coward of the First Crusade) sparking a protracted civil war. This helped to provide a pretext for expansion southward by David I (son of Malcolm III and uncle of Matilda)… 

“In 1137 a muster of local troops at Newcastle prevented David from pressing his attack far to the south. In 1138, however, his host reached Northallerton in Yorkshire; but there it met with a heavy defeat at the hands of the militia of Yorkshire in the famous ‘Battle of the Standard.’ Nevertheless, though this English victory saved Yorkshire from Scottish occupation, it did nothing to relieve Northumberland, nearly all of whose castles were by this time in David’s possession. The hopeless Stephen, distracted by civil war and debilitated by baronial treachery, felt constrained to make peace on his adversary’s terms. Hence by the Treaty of Durham (1139), the much coveted Earldom of Northumberland was revived and conferred upon Henry, David’s eldest son and heir. Newcastle was not included in this grant. In spite of that fact, however, the Scots took possession of it and held it for some eighteen years.

The Scottish occupation was a notable episode in the history of the town. It was quite clear that David regarded Northumberland as permanently incorporated into his kingdom, and many things indicate that Newcastle was soon in fair way to supersede Edinburgh as his capital and seat of government. He himself was much in the town; he showed it peculiar favour; he issued his laws therefrom; he adopted its customs as models for the four Scottish boroughs of Edinburgh, Stirling, Roxburgh and Berwick (hence the inclusion of the customs of Newcastle in the Scottish Statute Books); he caused, it is supposed, the old English church near the White Cross to be refounded and rededicated to the Scottish St Andrew; he refounded the nunnery of which his grandmother and his aunt had been inmates. From Newcastle he extended his wide authority over Northern England. Before the end of 1141 (when the cause of Stephen appeared to be ruined and that of Matilda triumphant) he had secured Carlisle, and had made himself master of Cumberland, Westmorland, and a large part of Lancashire. A dependent of his moreover acquired the palatine bishopric of Durham, and the largest dreams of Scottish expansion seemed likely to be realised. 

Three deaths, however, those of Henry, Earl of Northumberland, in 1152; of David himself in 1153; and of Stephen in 1154 – completely changed the political situation, and prepared the way for the English recovery of Newcastle and North.”  

Of course, the Scottish Kings were rather more English than the Kings of England at this time as they represented the elder branch of the house of Wessex. Hearshaw is probably wrong about St Andrew’s as well. It is likely that it was always dedicated to the Apostle on account of the devotion to him in the region stemming from St Wilfred’s translation of relics of Andrew from Rome to Hexham in the seventh century. In fact, I am reliably informed, it is quite likely that the relics of St Andrew in Fife and the consequent dedication to Scotland to him probably stems from the theft of some or all of these relics in one of the many raids of the period or their transportation to Fife by a disgruntled deposed Abbott of Hexham. In fact, it was not until after the period discussed here that the term Scotia was used to include the region bellow the Firths of Clyde and Forth. The eastern part of this region still being seen as Northumbrian, giving rise to the surprising fact that St Cuthbert is the patron of Edinburgh and St Andrew of Newcastle.


Newcastle Gaol

The New Gate, previously known as Berwick Gate was one of the most formidable gates on the town wall of Newcastle, similar in design to Pilgrim Gate and West Gate. In 1390 a barbican was added to increase the strength, from then it became known as the Newgate. In 1399 it was turned into a gaol. 



In 1820, the Newgate gaol was deemed "as being out of repair, and inconvenient, insufficient and insecure". An application was made to Parliament for building a new Gaol and a new House of Correction. The architect was John Dobson - his most important civic enterprise. The ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place on 4th June 1823. Cost just over £35,000. 

 
The gaol contained an elliptical building for the residence of the keepers in order that they could inspect unseen the radiating wings of the prison. The building was enclosed by a thick wall, 25 feet tall. The entrance was a strong tower on the west side, in which was an arched gateway 14 feet high. Above the outer entrance, was a stone on to which the town's coat of arms was to be inscribed. Two gates secured the entrance with a porter's lodge in between them. The viewing vestibule was ascended by steps in the centre tower. On the ground floor there was a coal cellar, wash house and storeroom. There was a committee room and living quarters and office for the governor, apartments for the prison matron and keeper of the house of correction. The gaol also had a chapel. 


Newcastle gaol was a detached radial prison, a design which was employed for most large-scale prisons built between 1800 and 1835. It consisted of a number of wings (Newcastle's had 6) arranged around a central building which contained the governor's accomodation, the committee room and the chapel. The hub was polygonal or circular (Newcastle's was elliptical) in plan to allow the supervision of the yards around the house. Each wing contained dayrooms and workrooms on the ground floor with sleeping cells above. They were attached to the central block by iron walkways that allowed direct access from the sleeping cells to the chapel. The wings normally held two classes of inmate separated by a spine wall. The 'treadmill' labelled on Oliver's map of 1830 refers to a treadwheel. Sir William Cubitt had patented a new type of treadwheel in 1818, on which prison inmates walked around the exterior of a cylinder on a series of steps. By 1824 there were at least 75 wheels in 49 prisons. The treadwheels were used to create power to gind floor, pump water and to create unproductice labour. Some wheels were purely punitive. The 1823 Gaol Act specified that inmates sentenced to hard labour had to work a maximum of 10 hours a day. A treadwheel survives in the former gaol at Beaumaris in Wales. Further wings were added at Newcastle Gaol during the 1850s and early 1860s and another in 1871.


After 1844 hangings took place at the Newcastle Gaol, in full public sight on top of the wall facing Carliol Street. Patrick Forbes was executed 24th August 1850 and it is reported that some 16,000 members of the public attended to watch the spectacle.

The last public was that of George Vass (19) on 14th March 1863. Vass had brutally sexually assaulted and murdered Margaret Jan Doherty at the rear of Stowell Street early on New Years morning. The last hanging in Newcastle occurred at the Gaol (then known as HM Prison Newcastle) on 26th November 1919, when Ambrose Quinn was executed. He was hung at 09.15 but at 08.00 on the same day Ernest Bernard Scott had also been executed. 

Prisoners from the Gaol executed after 1829 were buried within the Gaol, altogether 14 persons met their deaths at the end of a rope and were buried in the prison.

The gaol closed in 1925 and was demolished.

Rumour has it that there were 14 trees planted to the eastern side of the Telephone Exchange (which replaced the Gaol) on Carliol Square, and these were meant to represent the 14 bodies exhumed and moved during demolition.




Siege Of Newcastle

The Siege of Newcastle in 1644, happened during the Civil War. Lord Leven led a Scottish Army and laid siege from February until October. The Scots had previously occupied the town in 1640 following the Battle of Newburn, named after a small village 5 miles upriver. 


The town had been resolutely defended throughout the year by William Cavendish, the Marquis of Newcastle, who had defied both the Covenanters and Northern Parliamentarians. Newcastle had held sway in the north-east since the outbreak of the war in 1642. The Marquis had defeated the Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor and secured the City of Newcastle as the major coal exporter and port of entry for vital Royalist munitions and supply. In July the Royalists were beaten at Marston Moor by a combined force of Parliamentarians and Scottish Armies. Newcastle was classed as 'A Royalist stronghold' which after Marston Moor needed to be broken down. 

In the autumn of 1644, forces under the Earl of Leven arrived at the King’s greatest bastion in the north-east with over 30,000 men. John Marley the Mayor and The Town with only 1,500 defenders were for 3 months attacked constantly before in October 1644 the walls were eventually breached with mines. The remaining defenders finally took refuge in The Cathedral Bell Tower and The Castle Keep, the Scots, (Parliamentary Supporters), then took the Town.

Without this the north was lost, if anything Newcastle was more important, in strategic terms, than York and it was the City’s fall in October which marked the final demise of Royalist domination of the north. A consequence of this incident was that the Scottish thus controlled the rich and prosperous Coal Trade in the area and was totally supported by the Parliamentarians in neighbouring Sunderland. This escalated the opposing views of the two towns. The Scottish left Newcastle 3 years later. 

The siege is celebrated by the motto under the city coat of arms. King Charles I after hearing how long the town had held out gave Newcastle the motto ‘Fortiter Defendit Triumphans’. Which translated means, triumphing by a brave defence.



Great Flood of 1771



About two o'clock on the morning of Sunday the 17th of November 1771, the inhabitants of Newcastle were alarmed by an unprecedented inundation. In consequence of an unremitted fall of heavy rain in the west, the water in the Tyne rose upwards of twelve feet above the common flow of a good spring tide.



All the cellars, warehouses, shops, and lower apartments of the dwelling houses, from the west end of the Close to near Ouseburn, were totally under water. The flood was so rapid and sudden, that it was with the greatest difficulty the inhabitants, who slept in the lower parts of the houses, escaped with their lives.



The middle arch of Tyne Bridge, and two other arches near to Gateshead, were carried away, and seven houses with shops standing thereon, together with some of the inhabitants, overwhelmed in immediate destruction.



The Sandhill was a capacious flood; and boats plied thereon some hours. In some parts it was six feet deep. All the timber, merchants' goods, etc lying upon the Quay, and on the several shores in the neighbourhood, were entirely swept away with the current, as were most of the ships lying at the Quay, and a number of keels, boats, and other small craft, both above and below bridge, carried down the rapid current, and scattered and stranded on each side of the river to Shields, or otherwise borne onwards to the sea, and there sunk or wrecked along the coast. Three sloops and a brig were driven upon the Quay, and left there when the flood abated; they furrowed up the pavement, and broke down a great part of the Quay.



But Newcastle did not alone suffer by the terrible violence of this flood; scarcely a village or cottage house, from Tynehead, in Alston-moor, to Shields, escaped its destructive fury. The bridges at Alston, Ridley-hall, Haydon, Chollerford, and Hexham, were all carried away by the torrent; many people were drowned; a prodigious quantity of horses, black cattle, sheep, and other animals perished.



The wooden bridge at Allendale was swept away entire, and was discovered the next day lying across a lane near Newbrough, as exactly as if fixed there by human means.

At Haydon Bridge it overflowed the whole town, which obliged the men, with women and children on their backs, to wade almost up to their necks to the church, where they found sanctuary.



The bridge at Hexham, consisting of seven arches, and which had only been finished the year before, with great rejoicing; was totally demolished during the night. An inscription on a stone, near Warden, informs the passenger that the water rose 13 feet above its level at that place.



The only bridge upon the river Tyne which was left standing was that at Corbridge, which was built in 1674, on the old Roman foundation. The water at this place was so tremendous, that some persons, late in the night, stood upon the bridge and washed their hands in the rolling river. The preservation of this bridge was attributed to its Roman foundation, and a vast quantity of water having passed it at its south end, which is low ground.


The Great Fire



The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead was a tragic and spectacular series of events starting on Friday 6 October 1854, in which a substantial amount of property in the two North East of England towns was destroyed in a series of fires and an explosion which killed 53 and injured hundreds.


The towns were linked by two bridges, built no more than 100 feet (30 m) apart. The older was a nine-arched stone bridge, built in 1771, the third to have been constructed on the site. Slightly upstream was Robert Stephenson's new High Level Bridge, completed five years previously in 1849, an ingenious double-decker design allowing railway traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower.


At half past midnight on Friday 6 October 1854, the worsted mill belonging to Messers Wilson & Sons was discovered to be on fire; the cry was raised and immediately the streets crowded with people hurrying to the scene of the growing conflagration. The fire being confined to the upper stories of the building, efforts were made to salvage stock on lower floors; but the great quantities of oil in the premises, used to treat wool, added fuel to the fire and quickly curtailed the attempts. Despite the prompt attendance of the North British and Newcastle fire engines, within an hour the building was one mass of flame and within two the roof fell in and the building was a total wreck.



In the immediate neighbourhood of Wilson & Sons was a bond warehouse belonging to Bertrams which reached seven storeys. It was at the time used to store thousands of tons of sulphur, nitrate of soda, and other combustibles. The intense heat caused the sulphur to ignite, melt and stream in a burning blue flame liquidised state from the windows. The authorities, abandoning the mill, sought to save the warehouse, directing all their efforts on it, and were reinforced by the military with their fire engine. 


A small explosion warned the crowd that there was something more perilous than sulphur alone in the burning pile. A second slight explosion did not warn the firemen and surrounding crowds. A third passed unheeded even.


After a few minutes, the final explosion occurred. The vaults of the warehouse were burst open with a tremendous and terrific explosion, heard 20 miles (32 km) away. Vessels on the river lifted as if lashed by a sudden storm. The old bridge shook, and the new quivered. Massive walls were crumbled into heaps, houses tumbled into ruins. The venerable parish church, on the hill, was shattered to a wreck. Gravestones were broken and uplifted. The hands on the dial of its clock stood at ten minutes past three.


The force of the explosion was immense, and heavy debris was thrown as much as 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) from the seat of the explosion. Huge granite blocks forming the tramway for carts outside the warehouse were flung over the church for two and three hundred yards into neighbouring streets and buildings. One is recorded as falling 400 yards (370 m) away through the roof of the Grey Horse pub. A stone of 20 stone (280 lb; 127 kg) weight damaged property in Oakwellgate. Large blocks of wood and stone were projected widely over Newcastle, reaching the west end of the quayside. The Courant newspaper office in Pilgrim Street was hit. A stone weighing 18.5 pounds (8.4 kg) fell through the roof of an opticians in Grey Street; when workmen discovered it in the morning it was still too hot to touch. A huge beam of timber, six feet long, was found on the roof of All Saint's Church. Another, ten feet in length and weighing 3 cwt (150 kg) landed on the Ridley Arms in Pilgrim Street; and others on the roof of a house in Moseley Street.




The reverberation of the explosion was heard at North Shields, 10 miles (16 km) distant, where residents thought the shock was an earthquake. Gas lights in a Jarrow paper mill were blown out. Light debris from the fire was scattered across 6 miles (10 km) of Gateshead and environs. Miners in Monkwearmouth colliery, the deepest in the country and 11 miles (18 km) away, heard the explosion and came to the surface, concerned as to the cause. 20 miles (30 km) westward at Hexham; 35 miles (56 km) north at Alnwick; and 40 miles (64 km) south at Hartlepool the explosion was heard distinctly; and for 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi) out to sea. The light of the flames could be seen, reflected in the sky, 50 miles (80 km) away at Northallerton. And whilst the report of the explosion travelled so far, people on the scene were insensible of it. They describe themselves as having been lifted from their feet and dashed down, the violence completely stunning them; and when they awoke in a stupor they had only the dim idea of a rolling sound in their ears. The explosion crater was measured to have a depth of 40 feet (12 m), and a diameter of 50 feet (15 m).


The projectile power of the explosion scattered burning debris widely across Newcastle; and the blast peeled off roofs as if to receive this flaming rain. One hundred yards of street frontage—offices, shops and warehouses—were in a short time in flames, the conflagration running up the hill, Butcher Bank, to Pilgrim Street. A second conflagration, in a triangle bounded by Pilgrim Street, Butchers Bank and George's Stairs took hold. The entire combined strengths of the local fire brigades had been directed on the Gateshead properties and were, besides, buried beneath the rubble. So quickly did the fire move through the packed buildings that it was impossible to put out.


The scale of injury and loss of life was smaller than might be imagined from such an infernal night. Some 53 people were accounted as having died, including Alexander Dobson, the 26-year-old second son of the renowned Newcastle architect John Dobson; Charles Bertram, owner of the exploding warehouse; and William Davidson, scion of the mill-owning family. Figures for the injured are less reliable, but it is supposed that from 400-500 people were injured, some horribly, and many receiving treatment at the Gateshead Dispensary and the Newcastle Infirmary. At the latter hospital, the beds of the existing in-patients were given to the newly injured, and the existing in-patients—where able—tended the new charges in their beds, under the direction of the medical staff.


Two hundred families "of the poorer classes" were burned out of their houses; amongst which were several orphans and widows. Each was calculated to have lost, on average, £15 of property.