Tynemouth

“ Lady Tynemouth's face grew soft. "He has done great things for so young a man. What a distance he has gone since he pulled me and my red umbrella back from the Zambesi Falls!"
Then proceeded a gay conversation, in which Lady Tynemouth was quite happy. When she could talk of Ian Stafford she was really enjoying herself. In her eyes he was the perfect man, whom other women tried to spoil, and whom, she flattered herself, she kept sound and unspoiled by her frank platonic affection. ”

“ The municipal buildings of the borough of Tynemouth are situated in North Shields, where are also the custom house, a master mariners home, a seamen's institute, and a sailors home founded by the late duke of Northumberland. Shipbuilding is carried on, and there are rope and sail works. The fish trade is of considerable importance and employs several steam and sailing boats. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough of Tynemouth (incorporated in 1849; area 4303 acres) , divided into the three wards of North Shields, Percy, and Tynemouth, was 38,941 in 1871, and 44,118 in 1881. ”

“ In process of time these customs, which may be supposed to have prevailed at Tynemonth, apparently became blended, and that of the Goths and Frisians, who, perhaps, were the more numerous section of the inhabitants, became the more prominent. The custom of descent in Tynemouth is, or was, partible inheritance among sons only; in default of sons, the eldest daughter came into the inheritance for her life, and afterwards the next heir male who could derive his title through a male. ”

“ Tyne, river of North England, formed by the confluence near Hexham of the N. Tyne from the Cheviots, and the S. Tyne, which rises on Cross Fell, in E. Cumberland; forms the boundary between Durham and Northumberland, and after a course of 32 m. enters the sea between Tynemouth and South Shields.
Tynemouth (28 township, 46 borough) , a popular watering-place of Northumberland, at the mouth of the Tyne, 9 m. E. of Newcastle; has a fine sweep of promenaded shore, an aquarium, pier, lighthouse, baths, &c.; North Shields and several villages lie within the borough boundaries. ”

“ Its ruins are situated on a high rocky point; and, doubtless, many a vow was made to the shrine by the distressed mariners, who drove towards the iron-bound coast of Northumberland in stormy weather. It was anciently a nunnery; for Virca, abbess of Tynemouth, presented St. Cuthbert (yet alive) with a rare winding-sheet, in emulation of a holy lady called Tuda, who had sent him a coffin: but, as in the case of Whitby, and of Holy Island, the introduction of nuns at Tynemouth, in the reign of Henry VIII, is an anachronism. ”

“ The stormy nights are passed much in the same way. The men who are not looking out sit smoking and gossiping; the foam piles itself softly to the weather side of the house, and the spray falls with a keen lashing sound on the stones outside. Towards the end of the pier there is nothing to be seen but a vague trouble, as though a battle were going on in the dark, and to the north the Tynemouth light throws a long shaft of brightness through the mist. Presently a light is seen away southward or out to the east, and all the men are on the alert directly. ”

“ The municipal buildings are in North Shields, which is also an important seaport. The coast is rocky and dangerous, but a fine pier protects the harbour (see North Shields) . The municipal borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 4372 acres.
Tynemouth is supposed to have been a Roman station, from the discovery of Roman remains there, but its early history centres round the priory, supposed to have been founded by Edwin, king of Northumbria, between 617 and 633, and rebuilt by king Oswald in 634. ”

“ By this I discovered, as I thought, the married but not the maiden name of old Nanny; and very probably, also, that Tynemouth was her native place. She was married, too, in 1738, that was more than sixty years back—and her age was, therefore, in all likelihood, nearly eighty years. I pondered over this for some time, and then I commenced reading; and so interested was I with the contents, that I did not raise my head until the candle had burnt to the socket: as I was about to light another, I perceived daylight through the chinks of the window shutter. ”

“ The ruins of Tynemouth priory, which, with the adjacent lighthouse, form one of the most conspicuous landmarks on the eastern coast of England, lie to the eastward of the village. The priory is built on a small rocky peninsula, which is bound, from south-west to north-east, by a steep and lofty cliff; and the entrance to this enclosure, which is of about six acres area, is through the gateway underneath the castle. The whole of the enclosed space is fortified according to the rules of modern defensive warfare, and a party of artillery are always stationed at the castle. ”

“ Moreover, in spite of the protests of the monks of Durham, Mowbray gave the church of St. Oswine to the Benedictines of Saint Albans to be a cell of their house, and it became the priory of Tynemouth (ib. ; Monasticon Anglicanum, iii. 312; Simeon, Gesta Regum, p. 116; Hist. Translations S. Cuthberti, ib. p. 180) . In the opinion, however, of the St. Albans historians the earl was divinely inspired in his gift. The foundation of Tynemouth priory is dated by Roger of Wendover (ii. 39) about 1091, the year of the return from exile of Bishop William of Durham ”

“ This incident, so effectively and appropriately introduced by the artist, Balmer, who has frequently witnessed the scene which he has depicted, is peculiarly characteristic of the neighbourhood of Tynemouth; for, in consequence of the danger of the entrance to Shields Harbour in stormy weather, with the wind from the eastward, more vessels are there lost than at the entrance of any other harbour in Great Britain; and in no part of the kingdom has the value of the life-boat been more frequently experienced. ”

“ According to this threat, the Red King mustered an army and marched northward. Besieging the castle of Tynemouth, which was held by a garrison commanded by Moubray's brother, he, after two months, took that fortress, and then marched on to Bamburgh, where Moubray was spending his time in the company of a young woman of great beauty, whom he had recently married. ”

“ He attempted to raise Newcastle against the Scots in 1640 (Diary of Ambrose Barnes, pp. 330, 336) , and subsequently became colonel of a regiment in the royalist army, was knighted, and appointed governor of Tynemouth Castle. Thence he made an unsuccessful sally in support of the Duke of Newcastle on 9 March 1643–4 (State Papers, Dom. Car. I, D i. 13) . When the parliamentary forces gained possession of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Riddell was summoned, in October 1644, to yield up Tynemouth, but refused (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 33a) . ”

“ Bishop Randolf of Durham was there, Abbot Richard of Saint Alban’s, and “Abbas Salesberiensis Hugo,” where we may see (see Mon. Angl. iii. 495) the old confusion (see N. C. vol. iv. p. 799) between Salisbury and Selby.
Tynemouth then, at the time when the revolt of Robert of Mowbray began (see p. 47) , was already a monastery and a cell to Saint Alban’s, though the monks of Durham still held that they had been wrongfully deprived of it. But it appears from the narrative that, besides the monastery, there was also a castle. ”

“ Three miles to the north is the tower of Highfarland. Warkworth, built by one of the Fitz-Richard family in the reign of Henry II., was much injured by William the Lion, who laid siege to it in 1176, but still retains large remains of the original work. Tynemouth, an island fortress, seems to have been a seat of Earl Waltheof; it was long afterwards a Percy castle. Prudhoe, a castle of the Umfravilles, built in the middle of the eleventh century, has a small Norman keep, and most of the original curtain wall. The additions include a barbican and a curious chapel over the gateway. ”

“ After the Napoleonic wars the trade of North Shields rapidly increased. The borough was incorporated in 1849, and has returned one member to parliament since 1832. In 1279 the prior claimed a market at Tynemouth, but was not allowed to hold it; and in 1304 a fair, which had been granted to him in the preceding year, was withdrawn on the petition of the burgesses of Newcastle. A market and two fairs on the last Friday in April and the first Friday in November were established in 1802 by the duke of Northumberland. In the 17th century the chief industries were the salt and coal trades. ”

“ This points strongly to special local conditions and it is borne out by the facts with regard to rural districts. Northumberland and Durham show a great excess of overcrowding over other counties; and some of their rural districts even surpass any of the towns. The highest of all is the district of Tynemouth, with 38.18% of overcrowding. The explanation lies in a special combination of large families and small houses prevalent in this area. All the rural districts are seats of coal-mining, and miners are the most prolific section of the population. ”

“ The area of the administrative county is 1,291,515 acres. The county is divided into nine wards, answering to hundreds. Population is densest in the south-east, where the mining district and the Tyneside industrial area are situated. The municipal boroughs in this district are: Newcastle-upon-Tyne (city, county of a city and county borough; pop. 215,328) , Tynemouth (county borough, 51,366) , Morpeth (6158) , Wallsend (20,918) . ”

“ Tynemouth 1816; apprenticed to his brother James Joicey, colliery viewer 1838–41, partner in the firm to death; sheriff of Durham 1878; M.P. North Durham April 1880 to death; A.I.C.E. 2 March 1875; erected and endowed Newton Hall church 1877; gave sum of £12,000 to Museum of natural history society of Northumberland and Durham 1881. d. Newton Hall, Stocksfield on Tyne 15 Aug. 1881, personalty sworn £678,000, 28 Jany. 1882. Min. of Proc. of I.C.E. lxix 417–18 (1882) .
JOLLIE, Patrick. Oldest bookseller in the world. d. Leslie, Fifeshire 3 Oct. 1885 aged 97.
JOLLIFFE, Peter William. Ed. at St. ”

“ Manor Water, 110; grave of the “Black Dwarf,” 110; Stobo Bridge, 110; Drummelzier and its castle, 110, 111; a queer story, 111; Merlin the Wild, 111; by the Edinburgh road, 111; Stanhope Bridge, 111, 112; the Crook Inn, 112; at the fountain heads, 112 Tyndrum, Bruce’s defeat near, 22 Tynemouth, 170, 171 Tyne, The, Sources of, 129, 130; South Tyne, 129, 130; North Tyne, 130; Peel Fell, 130; the border railway, 130; Debateable Land, 130; Deadwater Bog, 130; Source of the North Tyne, 130; Keilder Burn, 131; Keilder Castle, 131; Keilder Moors, 131; good sport, 131; ancient camps, 132 ”

“ It is outside the immediate fringe of such a river that local character and features assert themselves. The South Tyne, from Haltwhistle to Hexham, sweeps bravely down a valley of grass farms, with here and there a village of stern uncompromising stone and slate set on its banks. There is no charm of village architecture in Northumberland, or scarcely any. Nor on the lofty slopes of Tynedale does the rose-embowered, orchard-girdled, thatched-roof cot that Wordsworth saw on the high terraces of the Wye, and sang of, send up its smoke wreaths. ”

“ From the Exe onward, especially near Dawlish, the coast is exceedingly pretty, and it becomes more and more charming as one approaches Teignmouth, which lies chiefly upon a tongue of low land stretching from the wooded hills or cliffs to the mouth of the estuary, with Little Haldon’s crest 800 feet above sea level in the background, and the other hills sheltering the pretty little town from the north and north-east very effectively. The harbour of Teignmouth is a fair one, and might easily be much improved. ”

“ It is because I love Teignmouth so well that I criticise it so closely. For the sake of the place that nature has endowed so richly, one must needs protest against the things that have been done, the blunders and the vulgarities that have been perpetrated. Was ever there a place where advertisements could look more offensive? Yet the entrance to the pier is smothered with them. They stand boldly out against the scenery, and your view across to Torbay or to Exmouth is obliterated by the pushful poster and the enamelled iron sign. ”

“ From this point to its mouth, nearly fifteen miles away, both banks of the Tyne present an unbroken scene of industry. Between the steel works of Newburn and the iron and chemical works, the brick and tile works of Blaydon and past the famous yards of Elswick, down to the wharves and shipyards of North and South Shields, the Tyne rolls its swift dark waters through a scene of stirring activity; the air is dusky with soot and smoke, and reverberant with the clang of hammers and the pulsing beat of machinery. ”

“ Behind the lifeboat-house is the harbour, where is to be found the real life of the place, as distinguished from that entirely different existence lived in summer months on the sands, the pier, or the Den, that wide lawn fronting the sea.
Teignmouth, in fact, is not merely a summer resort. It has a select and proper society, which is nothing if not dignified and stately, Teignmouth society being composed of retired half-pay officers and their families, with slim purses and inflated pride—a curious and exceptional combination. ”

“ Our greatness shall appall,
And their topsails straight they'll lower to the lords of the Tyne.
'Twas thus with idle rumours poor gentlemen delighted,
The honest men of North Shields to fancy gave the rein;
Sad proof that when ambition with folly is united,
Astonishing chimeras oft occupy the brain.
But soon their joy was banish'd,
Soon each illusion vanish'd,
For news arriv'd the Butcher the Branch could not obtain.
Deep, deep in the dumps,
(After playing all his trumps)
Just as branchless as he went he was 'toddling hyem' again,
Newcastle, thou dear canny town! ”