Ponteland Cottage Homes were built by the Newcastle Board of Guardians to accommodate pauper children away from the workhouse. Each block was supervised by a ‘house mother’ or ‘house father’.  

Lizzie was 12 when she went into the homes and claimed it was the best thing that ever happened to her as she loved her time there. She also had a sister and three brothers in the home. At 16 she became a Laundress for a wealthy family in Hexham, but she always came back to spend holidays with her siblings as she considered Ponteland to be her home. When she returned, she stayed with a house mother and would offer to cook and bake for the children. The children always had pudding, but the majority were milk based. Lizzie wanted to make fruit pies for a treat as fruit was usually used to make jams. She recalls the house mother was happy for her to do this if she could obtain extra and it didn’t come from her supplies. Lizzie was so intent on making the pies that she went to speak to the head gardener & managed to secure plenty fruit with the stipulation that the boys came to pick it themselves. The children loved the pies she made and would always be eager for her next visit.

Lizzie also recalls a heartbreaking tale of her younger sister Norah who liked to look after the other children in her house. She always wanted to be a nurse and would bandage their minor cuts and treat their chilblains. When she was old enough to leave Ponteland she found employment at Bellister Castle where she became an assistant nurse to three children. Two of the children were twin boys and one hot day she took the boys swimming in the river while the nurse looked after the baby girl. Tragically, Norah drowned but the boys survived. They saw her swimming in the water then disappear so ran home for help. The Doctor and Chauffer dived into the river and searched for her body, but were unable to find her. Sadly, Lizzie doesn’t indicate if she was ever found but states that the young boys never got over it. 

Billy went into the homes aged 13 and boarded there while he learned his trade as a Shoemaker. He didn’t enjoy his time there as a boy and thought that the staff were cruel. Despite this, he eventually ended up working there making and repairing shoes. He said he worked hard as there were about 300 children and each child had two pairs of shoes/boots so he was always busy! He would often show the young boys how to make shoes, boots and clogs. Billy wanted to make a difference and give the children more attention and support. Along with his wife, he became a house parent and, on a Sunday, he would take them out for walks and picnics and let them enjoy themselves. The children had tea around 4.30-5pm and while he worked there, no food was given after this time. Billy didn’t want them to go hungry, so he introduced super and gave them bread and butter. He must have been a good house parent as years later many of the children he looked after still came to see him. Some of them had moved abroad and when they visited this country, they came to stay with him. 

One lady called Josephine had very fond memories of Ponteland. She first went there aged two with her older brother George and younger sister Dolly. Josephine loved Mrs Young who was her house mother and she thoroughly enjoyed living with her. There were about 20 children in the house and when she was small, she thought that Mrs Young had given birth to them all! Josephine claimed that her house was lucky as not all the house mothers were kind, and she knew that one used to hit the children on the legs with sticks. If the children were going to have visitors, she would ensure that the girls wore thick tights, and the boys wore long thick socks to hide any bruises. 

Josephine recalled that Dolly hated Mrs Young and would take any opportunity to be troublesome. She was always up to ‘tricks’ and loved to misbehave. The sausage in the fridge was in a huge ring and Dolly would steal it and uncoil it then run around the field with it trailing in a long line behind her! When they baked bread, she would always stick her finger in the middle and a particular favourite was to clash together Mrs Youngs best silver teapots! 

Josephine loved the food and said that all the children were very well fed. They always made their own bread which was delicious. Her favourite meals were beef or pork with potatoes, suet pudding, onion pudding and Spotted Dick. There were always plenty of fruit and vegetables and when they had broth, there was always a sheep’s head in the middle of it!  

Arthur was in the homes aged 8-16. At 14 he became an apprentice decorator to Mr Jackson who was the homes decorator. At 16 he left to work in Newcastle but never forgot his mentor and kept in touch with him throughout his life. He claimed Mr Jackson taught him so well that he was eventually able to set up his own decorating business. Arthur was extremely grateful for all the support and education he was given in the homes and even wrote to the Education Committee to thank them.  

Despite being very well fed, the children were always looking for extra treats. Arthur talks about the stores where there were huge containers of food. The children were very interested in the large biscuit barrels and would often try to steal biscuits. One day his friend managed to get the lid open only to discover that his hand was covered in blue dye. The dye was very difficult to remove which enabled staff to easily identify the culprit! 

Lizzie – T/611

Billy – T/614

Josephine – T/616

Arthur – T/625

One of our customers came into the search room recently to enquire about the crew of the Steamer “Paris” that sunk off the Northumberland coast near Hauxley, South of Amble, on the evening of the 29th March 1901.

The archive didn’t have any records specific to the “Paris”, so we had to do some research. We started by identifying the parish that Hauxley belonged to in 1901, which was Warkworth parish. Having ascertained this, we could then search on “Reading Room” a piece of software available to use in the search room that has our collection of digital parish records. However not everything is on Reading Room and this particular record wasn’t, so we had to go to the microfilm parish records of St Lawrence church, Warkworth and look at the burial register. Sure enough there was an entry for the burials listed as “Five bodies cast up by the Lee at Hadston from the wreck of the “Paris””. They recorded the names as:

• A Thompson about 43 years old
• E Sawyers – 22 years
• R Felsed – 34 years
• Man Unknown – 37 years
• S Fergusen 22 – years

The date of burial was Aril 3rd 1901 and the ceremony was performed by Charles Baldwin.

A little more digging found a report in the Shields Daily News on the 3rd April 1901 listing:

• W Jennings, as the Able Seaman
• H Waterhouse, the Steward
• ? Bell, the Chief Engineer
• ? Tenby, 2nd Engineer

As the deaths were sudden and in suspicious or violent circumstances there needed to be an inquiry. The inquiry was reported in the newspapers and is available to view on the British Newspaper Archive (you can search for free in our search room). The Shields Daily Gazette on 3rd Aril 1901 reported the full list of the crew as obtained from a “pocket book cast up by the sea”. The list of the crew is as follows:

• W Hutton, Captain
• A Thompson, Mate
• T Bell, Chief Engineer
• ? Tenby, 2nd Engineer
• R Felsed, Boatswain
• W Jennings, Able Seaman
• Walter Smith, Able Seaman (survived)
• S Fergisen, Fireman
• E Sayers, Fireman
• H Waterhouse, Steward

As you can see the spellings differ somewhat, but eventually we found all the names of the crew recorded, albeit without the first initial of Mr Tenby, 2nd engineer.

Interestingly, Walter Smith, the only survivor of the wreck, appears on the 1901 census staying as a boarder with George Douglas a farmer at Bondicar in the Parish of Hauxley and unusually some additional information is recorded under “Profession or Occupation” recorded is “Sailor saved out of 10 men 29/3/01”. The census of 1901 was completed on the 1st April that year and, as the accident was just a few days before, the enumerator may have been sufficiently moved by the tragedy to feel the need to add the additional information.

The “Paris” was a screw steamer heading with its cargo of cement from Rochester to Leith when it struck the Bondicar rocks near Hauxley around 8 o’clock in the evening. The crew managed to get into the lifeboat but were capsized three times, each time less of the men were able to clamber back into the boat until Walter Smith was the only man left, the lifeboat eventually drifting him to shore.

All the bodies that were recovered from the “Paris” were buried at Amble East Cemetery. Perhaps you are related to one of the men, perhaps you can help us with some more information?