Reports

South Tyneside Meeting - April 2004 "North East from Engravings and Photographs" by John Moreels A Report by Margaret Stafford

Well, you missed a good evening! Our guest was John Moreels, owner of the Ward Philipson group since 1996, having been associated with the company for more than 30 years-a sort of "I liked the company so much I bought it" story!

He brought slides of the North East from engravings and photographs from the last two centuries-I can only give you a flavour without graphics but here goes!

Ward Philipson is an amalgamation of 2 companies-one of which most of us have every reason to be very grateful to for the help with family history research-Ward's directories. Ward's printing family business was established in 1845, Philipsons were photographers from 1923 onwards. Thomas Bewick was linked to Ward's by the marriage of his son. From a shared workshop a hundred years ago silk programmes of theatre productions were produced. Amazingly some have been discovered and are now being restored. As near as 2 generations ago the company was run by Leslie Bewick Ward.

Ward's started at High Bridge in Newcastle and Philipson in Prudhoe before moving to Newcastle. HQ is now next to the Federation Brewery at Dunston where they have the best printing facilities in the North East. When the company was moving to its new site from its Blandford Square site the most amazing discovery was made in the loft-some 200, 000 glass plates in varying states of disrepair but salvageable, ironically, thanks in large part to modern technology.

The old etchings and plates go back to the 1800s and include Bewick plates, many of which have been donated to the Bewick collection, having been transferred to the computer so the images can be displayed and shared.

Ward's published the first halfpenny newspaper, the Newcastle Journal, in the UK in 1853-about the same time as the launch of the New York Times-incidentally there is no known copy so if you find one whilst rummaging in your loft John would be very interested in talking to you! The first Ward's Directory was published in 1850-how many times have you had reason to be grateful for the directory in locating a missing ancestor ? Philipson became an esteemed name in early photography, John Philipson being a founder member of the Newcastle Antiquarian Society.

It was in January 1997, following the amalgamation and takeover, that the company was moving premises when the discovery was made in the loft in a variety of cardboard and metal boxes. Only some 25, 000 of the estimated 200, 000 have been catalogued so far, so many more treasures await discovery. Eagerness to explore the treasure-trove led John to burn himself with the unstable chemicals and to learn the hard way how to handle the fragile items. Even broken plates can be restored via the computer and we saw an example of a plate which had been broken in 5 places, restored to full glory.

The company has worked closely with Beamish Museum to establish dates and places for the prints. There was also a considerable number of lantern slides-producing a slide show so long ago as their computerised offspring do now.

The earliest photos are thought to be from about the 1870s though there is one paper plate believed to be from the 1840s. Everything had to be taken out of its aging packaging to preserve it, restored and then transferred to modern negatives. They are now viewed all over the world-if you are going to Oslo look out for a picture of Newcastle on the side of a pub-10 feet x 15 feet!!

The find led to a determination to share the images and 2 books have been published with 2 more to follow. Many of you will have seen the postcards reproducing some of the more evocative images.

The company also accepts plates from anyone of anywhere and John told us of people arriving with boxes full or ringing him to say some had been spotted in a skip somewhere only for him to drive off to rescue them! (He does admit to having a very long-suffering wife!).

However the images come with a health warning. Engravings were made from original drawings and the artist was not above applying artistic licence, exposed where buildings remain or where photos exist (although of course the wheel has come full circle as with modern technology photographs can no longer be relied on for accuracy). The drawings were often simple affairs, with the details added by the engraver.

John's favourites are the "people photos" and the ones with the words of the local songs. Not all the photos are Ward's and they range from Norman forts to sheep going to the slaughter house, so many ragged urchins with bare feet, to the local washer woman complete with poss tub.

All sorts of techniques have to be used to date photos eg checking the time that businesses shown in adverts were operating. The photo believed to be from the 1840s depicts an area burnt down in 1854.

Many feature the Quayside in Newcastle, showing it as the hub of life and industry, again the wheel turns full circle as the Quayside emerges from its decades of decline to the point where apartments fetch more than one million pounds!

There is an engraving of the Great Bridge of Newcastle which was washed away in 1776. There is a close-up of the same bridge, wood on stone, showing the shops, houses and possibly a church built upon it!

By contrast to the urban scenes where so much has changed, the countryside photos could probably be re-produced today-though not the one of the Team Valley showing a lovely rolling landscape and trees-not a belching chimney in sight!

Some of the locations are long-gone or cannot be identified but every so often, with care, a bit of lateral thinking and luck some reveal their secret. Wrangham's entry for example- a lovely photo of some bare -footed children being roundly scolded-can be found if you go to the Millennium Bridge, face Newcastle and look to the left of the converted hotel the Mal Maison and there is Wranghams Entry, now a big road.

John reminded us how easy it is now to take photos quickly and to see the results with digital technology. In the days when it took 20 minutes to take a picture, the street was the studio and many of the pictures must have been posed (though how anyone could get the flock of sheep on their way to the slaughter house on Westgate road had me baffled!).

The early photo of the Great Bridge showed the ravine very clearly which Bill Saunders referred to when he took us on the virtual tour of the Quayside, where the river ran down what is now Grey Street.

An engraving of Durham in 1848 by Billings used in the book "Great architecture of England" had long caused puzzlement because of an industrial building in the foreground. It took a look at the Ordnance survey map of 1857 to identify it as a cornmill and there are indeed fields either side with haystacks in them. The mill was probably situated on the site of the present day bus station.

John often turns to Ian Robinson of Radio Newcastle and the listeners for help with identification or to test out hypotheses e. g. that the Castle Keep is now the oldest building in Newcastle. He always welcomes challenge and information.

There was a photo of the Quayside in the 1920s which took a moment to place-because it pre-dates the Tyne bridge. There are the famous photos of the building of the bridge, proving that the arch came before the road. Another one of the Customs House shows the river full of tall ships. The appearance of tramlines helps with dates and some photos show both horse-drawn transport and trams in the same shot. Often the transport carries advertising, in fact many shots of buildings show adverts, confirming it is not a modern scourge! One shot of 1915 was advertising Craster kippers!

We saw a photo and an engraving of Grey St where artistic licence had prevailed-the monument was much higher and the street narrower though the buildings were the same. We saw a shot of St Nicholas' Cathedral where Bewick's son had his first work shop.

There is a shot of the pant in the Big Market-a watering hole in quite a different way then! There is a very detailed engraving of the High Bridge area and Bessie Surtees's house and one of the stone bridge built about 1781, lasting about 90 years until it was demolished because its 9 arches were preventing access to the river. It was replaced by the Swing Bridge.

The High Level Bridge, built around 1845, is the oldest bridge remaining on the main River Tyne (though not the oldest on its tributaries). For those who complain about its narrowness it is as well to remember it was built for carriages not for double-deckers!

Shots from the 1930s and 40s seem to suggest some days were "bowler hat" or "cloth cap" days and there is a lovely shot of the Sunday market which seems entirely populated by a huge crowd of men (but some women have been identified in there!).

It was a reminder of how the memory can play tricks when we saw a photo of the Quayside with the railway running right by the river. It was astonishing to think the tracks had been there as late as 1972.

We sampled all sorts of delights-an engraving of Dean Street with what looks like a drunken horse, the top of Grey Street with the glorious YMCA building, pulled down to be replaced by the not quite so glorious Eldon Square. Some in the audience could remember taking their sandwiches to the original Eldon Square at lunchtime and there was a lovely shot with cars parked sedately and the police box on the corner.

The engravings of North Shields in the 1830s could be identified by the High and Low lights, there is an engraving of the Quayside in North Shields in 1835 which bears no resemblance to today's Quayside. We saw Tynemouth paddling pool when it was a paddling pool, the old pier at Saltburn, the Mauritania's maiden voyage in 1906, an accident at Wooler Bridge, shots of Sunderland High Level bridge and Castle Eden hall. The depiction of Barnard Castle bridge-the old route to the Lake District for folk from the North East has changed little, but by contrast the huge crowds shown at Durham miner's gala in 1950 are long gone. Incidentally Beamish helped to date this one by enlarging a vehicle in the shot.

There were flower sellers carrying their baskets on their head in search of a suitable pitch, paper boys who looked relatively prosperous, one set of children with a very lop sided cart, shop with their wares displayed on the pavements outside, in short something for everyone.

One final description caused much comment. It shows a group of children near St Mary's Church in Gateshead. Mostly boys, some have taken all their clothes off and appear to be queuing to wash under a tap. There was much speculation about children being the last in line for the weekly bath, taking advantage of a public tap but on closer inspection all becomes clear. One of the boys is having his hair cut, it looks like this was a hair-cutting session for the group. Well, no one likes an itchy back where the hair tickles, so off came the clothes to wash away the stray hairs under the tap!! Try doing that now!

All in all we had a most enjoyable evening and the chance to browse though a selection of postcards from the slides and look and buy some of the books rounded it off nicely!