Secrets of Newcastle revealed! Wednesday 18th June

Today has been a pretty special day, sunny, warm, with the sun having a punch and a wonderful experience for both of us, especially in relation to my ancestors.

I don't want to bore the socks off those who are not part of my quest for research, I hope that you will appreciate that I have spent months trying to piece together the Newcastle ancestors.

But I am a bit late posting this because we have had no wifi for 12 hours, so my photos don't load, and I did feel a bit bad about not visiting the Angel of the North, but thanks to modern technology, our house sitters have shared their photos with me.

The base, pretty impressive

First off we went to find Arthur St, Gateshead, home of John's Sedgwick grandfather, while we found Arthur Street, it was now home to the Hospital and Police station, no houses here, later we learnt why.
 But first a bit     of Gordie Slang!

Into the city and we walked around until we could find the Tourist Bureau and information office.  We then walked downhill towards Westgate Street, which was the home of Sir William Creagh, my grandfather and a Lord Mayor of the City.

The city abounds with beautiful buildings, and has heaps of pedestrian areas

The building is Grade 2 listed and is undergoing renovation, for the Arts Centre.  Over the years the facades have been rebuilt, and other modifications made.

Sir William Creagh's home 55 Westgate Street Newcastle, in the old Merchant's quarter, to quote Debbie from the Council, he must have been a very rich person to have built a home of that calibre.

The surrounding areas in the Merchant's Quarter

We then walked along to St Nicholas's Cathedral, an Anglican Cathedral where some family members were buried. But before we went inside we hopped on the hop on bus for a 60 minute City Tour.  Talk about almost information overload!  The city used to be contained within city walls, and the area around the cathedral was within that area.  More about our tour later.

15 witches were hung and are buried in this church 

Hoping for a win for the World Cup everywhere there are flags!

Their football stadium

And Chinatown

At 1.00pm we had an appointment with Debbie from the City Council.  Turns out she is the conventions organiser, and we spent a fantastic hour with her, looking into all the aspects of the Civic Centre.

 Now I thought that we were meeting at the Town Hall, only it was locked?  Apparently it is used for performances, and the Civic Centre now holds all the offices and the council.  Designed and built, and then opened 42 years ago by King Olaf of Norway.  Turns out the Norwegians have close ties to Newcastle, which go back thousands of years to the days of the Vikings.  The Vikings had settlements in the North of UK, and nowdays, every Xmas a Norwegian pine tree is sent to Newcastle to be put in the City Square.

Civic Centre

Back to the Civic Centre, Debbie took us behind the scenes, and pointed out all the aspects of the hall, which was really ahead of its time when it was built.  The use of skylights, raw silk for the walls, lots of Danish furniture all added to the centre's "points of difference".

Firstly we went into the Banqueting Hall, where up above, on the ceiling was plaques depicting the 49 different trades that the Merchant's undertook in the city.  
 The walls around the Hall, feature the names of all the Lord Mayors and the Sheriffs since 1200's so it was a matter of trying to find mine.

Each year the council vote, and it has to be unanimous, for a Sherifff.  He serves for 12 months and then the following year is automatically made Lord Mayor.

In the 1600's when so many of my family were Lord Mayor's the role of the Sheriff was as a right hand man to the Lord Mayor.  The LM would travel up the river on his barge, and the Sheriff would collect all the taxes from the merchants or travelers, it was a rather important role.

Now days of course that doesn't happen, but the LM is there for ceremonial purposes only.

I was looking for John Rogers and Sir William Creagh.  I wasn't sure about William because he was appointed LM by King James when he was about 35.  William was from Ireland and a Catholic.  King James installed him as LM to bring Catholicism to the town, but the townfolk objected.

William Blackett he was a step g.grandfather

Another from the Shafto line

John Rogers, his name was split in the panels

And here is Sir William Creagh

William traveled to London to collect a statue of King James, had it erected, then the townspeople pulled it down and dumped it in the river!  That probably was the reason that he had an "r" beside his name, resigned? or pushed?  Whatever happened, William then seemed to be rather quiet, and from what I have found, I think he made out he was an Anglican from that point forwards.  He took over some coal mines and was buried along with his wife Lady Margaret in St Nicholas's Cathedral.

How exciting it was to find and touch his name.  Debbie then took us to the Trophy Room, which is bathed in natural light, and that was where the symbols of office were stored.  The LM's chair, now recovered, was also upstairs in the LM area.  We spent some time admiring the works and the thought that had gone into the building.  There was a large wall hanging depicting the different eras of the town, unfortunately due to the light and the reflection from the glass, it was not easy to photograph.

Lord Mayoral chair sheriff sat to the side, legal eagle to the Left of LM

Beautiful room all done with natural light

Swords and Orb and hat of office

I wanted to know why the Town Hall was so far away from the Merchants Area, but apparently the original town hall was wooden, and burnt down, and they built the other one up the hill.  There was a major fire in mid 1800's in Gateshead, and all the houses were burnt to the ground, that is why we couldn't find Sedgwick's home.

Debbie was really pleased that I was able to find my ancestors, and she told me that they had never had anyone ever visit in order to learn about their past.  That made me feel pretty good!

So on with the bus tour.  Lots of things to see in Newcastle.  It holds more Georgian building than any other  town in UK apart from London and York.  There are hundreds of them, and most are listed.  The whole place undertook rebuilding during Queen Victoria's time, and this was another of those places where she pulled the blinds down everytime she went through!

St Nicholas Cathedral very hard to photograph

The old city wall

The old Quay side houses the Customs House and the Guildhall and Merchants Court.  There is so much roadworks going on, roads are closed and blocked, and trying to take photos from the bus is not very easy.

The seagulls call the Guildhall home these days!

Concert hall, the Hollies are coming might have to come back!

Then around the corner to the more modern side of the town across the River Tyne.  

My scrapbooking/photographic teacher Sally always stressed the importance of getting different objects within a photo, so I hope I have achieved that today, as I love to photograph the bridges looking into each other!

Six bridges in a short space, including a swing bridge, and the latest the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which we saw open, then close.  Took 22  million pound to build, and 4 minutes to open or close.

Going, going, and then gone, back to a walking bridge

Back to St Nicholas Cathedral, I had found reference on the internet that Anthony Isaacson was buried there and his headstone and crest were at the South end.

The guide was very helpful, he directed us to the south part, not far from the front entry, and we started to look for the plaque as I thought it was, he explained that the cathedral had undergone many changes.

 Over the different periods, the cathedral had been stripped of its plaques, headstones, glass and timber pews. He told us that all the bodies had been removed long time ago, and the archaeologists had found bits of the cathedral in various building sites in the area.

Then John noticed we were almost standing on the plaque, which in fact is a large stone tablet, and the writing is still very legible.

Position of Anthony Isaacson Grave tablet

I really never thought that I would find it, given it was 350 years ago, and there are not many tablets or plaques left inside the cathedral.  In fact when they remodel it shortly, in their plans, everything will be removed from the floors to heat them, and then they hope to erect the wall stones on the side of the walls so that they can be more easily read.

Oldest stained glass window in a church, most churches have stained glass from the 1800's because throughout the different periods the cathedrals were stripped of their glass and timber.

Baptisimal fountain which has the heraldty on it, similar to that of the Lawson side of the Isaacson slab, several family members were christened in this church

Used to be the biggest Cathedral in the land, now it is one of the smallest

  

Had to share this impressive grave marker.

Queen Victoria in black and they have one of her in a white statue!

To finish off the day we drove to the coast, to St Mary's lighthouse.  John walked across the causeway to have a closer look, but I have been suffering a rather sore right leg for the day, and instead had a coffee and donut in the car.  The beach area is rather special, seems funny to have such a lovely area and no high rise, just more of the same up and down terraces.

The smell of the salt was very strong in the area and you have to pay to even park at the beach to walk the dog!

But there is real sand in Whitby and the beach areas, and today being so warm there were lots of people enjoying the beach.  Last night my friend showed us the glass stones she collects from her local beach.  I had no idea what they were, but apparently there was a glass factory and they threw all the excess glass into the river, and over time it washed out to sea, and the tides have tumbled the coloured glass and washed it up on the beaches.   Probably more interesting than picking up shells!

It's 6 o'clock somewhere!

The Monastry of Tynemouth overlooks the headlands, and while we were there the ferry left for Netherlands.

We struck a lot of trouble getting back through the city, as they were pulling up the road where we needed to turn off, then a car had broken down and a semi was blocked on the outside of the car, not able to complete his turn.  Heidi has no hope in these situations, but eventually I was able to get us clear of that mess, and then we had a quick snack at the local pub.

Everyone here is World Cup oriented, cars with flags, all the pubs decorated accordingly, tomorrow night England play so I guess all the pubs will be packed.

There is one thing for sure, if you live in UK and plan on visiting Australia, don't expect to be served the quantity of food that you are here!