Days 11 to 15

Day Eleven:  Monday.

My Uncle Leslie, my Mum's brother, was killed in World War II.  He was in the RAF and on the night of January 29th 1944 the plane he was in was shot down in Hennickendorf near Berlin.  He died along with his six comrades.  I had already discovered his name carved in memoriam on a prominent pew end at St. James Congregational Church (as was, now United Reformed) in Newcastle.  That was the family's church.  But recently I found out that his name was on a memorial to all the employees of Newcastle Breweries who died in the two world wars - and this included Uncle Leslie - and that this plaque had, in 2011, been given a new home and a rededication in St. Andrew's Church in central Newcastle.  The church stepped in just in the nick of time as it was about to be "binned" when the brewery where it had been on display was closed.

This morning we went to St. Andrew's Church and saw the memorial.  It is a very fine place for the memorial to be - St. Andrews  is the oldest church in Newcastle dating from the 1200s though there is evidence of parts being older (!).  We could see that it was beautiful, inside and out, but unfortunately there was a massive road construction going on outside and inside there were lots of scaffolding as they're dealing with dry rot and damp rot and something else - so good photos weren't possible.  

If you're interested in reading a bit more about this church (and seeing photos of it), I'd recommend this article:

http://home.freeuk.net/timarchive2/html/standrews.htm

But, of course, I photographed the plaque.  Note the famous blue star of the Newcastle Breweries at the top.  This star represents the five breweries who amalgamated in 1890 to become Newcastle Breweries (I actually learned this at the talk on Pubs, Brewers and Beers last week).

A stone's throw away from the church is Percy House where the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society have their offices and library.  You could say this is the equivalent of the Manitoba Genealogy Society which I'm involved with.  I have been a member of the society for a couple of years but, because of location don't have very much to do with it.  So sad because they are absolutely desperate for volunteers. We popped into the office and I'm not sure that I'm going to say much more about this because I found the welcome anything but welcoming.  Weird.  I'm taking another tack.




I had had some high hopes for the register office (at City Hall) - our next port of call - but that proved useless so we crossed the road and had a great pub lunch at The Five Swans.  That cheered us up a bit so we went back to the library (and Dennis's pal from a few days ago was there again) and kept following up on a few things from before.


The evening was a special one.  The long-running amateur theatre group, The Tynemouth Priory Theatre,  was presenting the first performance of Star Quality - a play (presumed to be his last) by Noel Coward.  We went and WOW - it was great!  What a fabulous way to spend an evening.  Amateur????  Every performance was "star quality".  How nice it was to go out in the evening an enjoy such an event. 

 After the play we popped into the Grand Hotel (such a nice lounge) for a night-cap.  Lovely finale.

Day Twelve:  Tuesday.

Oh, what an interesting day this turned out to be!  I went back to the church where I was baptized.  That happened on January 6th 1952 at the West End Congregational Church in Newcastle.  I had been in correspondence with Doug Fox, the church secretary, and already knew that they had a few treasures for me to look at - records that hadn't gone to the government-run archives.  I had suggested Tuesday to Doug for our visit and he said lovely, that's the day of the lunch club - join us for lunch.  

When I googled the West End URC (as it is now - that is United Reform Church - like Canada's United church) I saw a picture of a building not very church-like and not all that old looking.  But it is indeed the original "church" but as I learned when we were there, a decision was made in the late 20's early '30's to build a Congregational church in the West End of Newcastle and the decision was made to build the church hall first because the community needed it.  Then came the war and all such things as the building of churches took a back seat and then after the war there wasn't the funds to build any further.  So actually the "church" is still just the church hall.  

But of especial interest to me, the baptismal font is still the same one and in the same place as it was 66+ years ago!

The lunch with "the bunch" was just lovely.  We were served roast beef, yorkshire pud, tatties and peas and carrots.  With gravy of course.  Dessert (or sweet as we'd say) was a meringue with cream and strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate.  All finished off with the inevitable cup of tea.  (And it was here that I discovered the habit of the English to assume you want milk in your tea.  They put it in for you.  I've now had a few cups of tea with milk - and I actually quite enjoy it - that's certainly how I drank tea in my childhood and youth)

But the real dessert was going through the records they had and sitting and talking with Doug.  What a lot of congregational history I learned.  I saw the hand written register of my baptism.  I also read bits about my dad in the church newsletters including this note about our leaving....

Day Thirteen:  Wednesday.

Today was the day we went up to Woodhorn.  Woodhorn is an old pit village in Northumberland where the old colliery has been made into a mining museum.  It is also there where the Northumberland Archives are located.  These archives don't have a lot of records of particular interest to me, but they did have a couple from the church of my great grandfather - so it was worth the trip.  It's not an easy journey - not sure if I've mentioned this or not - but, while the

metro is great - dead easy in fact - navigating the buses is a nightmare.  Different (private) companies and two counties (Tyne and Wear, and Northumberland).  It takes a lot of time to get things coordinated.  Anyway, we made it.  And actually the last couple of miles was very nice as we had to walk - and that took us through the lovely Queen Elizabeth Park.

And unfortunately this was also the day that Dennis and I became unravelled and so this blog now tells the tale of a solo adventure.

Day Fourteen:  Thursday.

This was a day at the archives for me - the Tyne and Wear Archives that is.  A place where I think I could spend the rest of my life!  Like the Northumberland Archives, they are also housed in a museum - the Discovery Museum in central Newcastle.  I look forward to the day when we take Isla to this museum!  Lots of fun for children.

I shortened my visit to get back to Tynemouth to deal with personal matters but then scooted off to North Shields - one metro station down from Tynemouth - to do a little shopping etc.  I found myself in the local library and enjoyed browsing old copies of the Whitley Bay

Guardian - the weekly newspaper of my childhood.  Remember I won that elephant playing tombola on day 9...?  Well, it wasn't the first time I played tombola I discovered.  The proof is in the photo in this January 9th 1965 edition of the Whitley Bay Guardian!

Day Fifteen:  Friday.

And I might as well finish up this blog post with today.  Nothing much to report.  I got back to the archives in Newcastle and continued what I was doing yesterday.  While this may be of little consequence to anybody but me, I will report that, after years of trying to figure this out, I discovered that 88 Ethel Street (a significant family address in the Benwell district of Newcastle), was not owned by anyone in my family.  It was rented.  But rented for many many years to various combinations of two lines of the family.  

So I will close with a photo you have probably already seen.  My Grandmother Glover and my dad (and also Auntie Vera who married my dad's brother) outside 88 Ethel Street in 1934.  Love

this photo ❤️