General

Come with me on a journey long ago. A coach and four strong horses, jolts and judders its way down the Great North Road.  Next stop is Morpeth, a fair market town, and there will be time to stretch your legs there. The coach stops at The Queen’s Head, a fine establishment with good fayre to revive the weary traveller. You are hopeful of a slice of their famous meat pie, as you breakfasted long before the sun rose, and your packed bread and cheese was gone by the time Belford was reached. Can you hear the horse hooves drumming? The drivers’ chatter above the crack of the whip and rumble of wheels? Can you smell the sweat of the horses? Can you taste the dust in your throat? Pull that thick travel coat tightly around you now, as even the expensive purchase of a cushioned seat inside the carriage, does not stop the cold northern winds from clawing at your bones. And your destination, still many miles down the hard open road, is Newcastle upon Tyne.

Catalogue reference B/DAT/9/2/ is a collection of carriage licences and permits covering the period 1812 to 1834. They provide a tantalising glimpse into the vast industry of passenger coaches and carriages that traded up and down the Great North Road. They are evocative of a time where steam was yet to mobilise the traveller and the horse and carriage was the principal means of movement between towns.    

The licenses were issued by a Mr Robert Thorp, Distributor of Stamps for Northumberland,  to run passenger services along the Great North Road between Berwick upon Tweed and Newcastle upon Tyne, taking in stopping points at Alnwick, Belford, Felton and Morpeth.  Those applying for license to run a carriage tended to be innkeepers, with a vested interest in bringing coach trade to their door. The document shown is the carriage license issued in 1834 to Mr. Joseph Henderson, innkeeper of Morpeth, to run a service between Morpeth and Newcastle upon Tyne on a Tuesday and a Saturday. Pigot’s Trade Directory of 1834 identifies Joseph Henderson as the proprietor of The New Phoenix Inn in Morpeth. Like the The Queen’s Head or The Black Bull, well beloved of more modern Morpethians, The New Pheonix Inn was one of many inns in Morpeth that thrived as a coaching hub in the Georgian era. Whilst the New Pheonix Inn is long gone, New Pheonix Yard still exists off Bridge Street in Morpeth, suggesting Mr Henderson’s establishment had a prime location for coaching, opposite the then newly built Telford Bridge over the River Wansbeck (built 1831).

The Great North Road that these travellers would have known is all but gone now, by-passed and built over in the ever-demanding needs of the motorcar. But atmospheric snippets of it are still to be found in our county back lanes. Across the hedge from the A1, just south of where Stannington Vale crosses the Blyth, is Shotton Lane. Where this old road skirts the grounds of Blagdon Hall, it very much retains the character of The Great North Road – a narrower, windier, greener route than the adjacent modern arterial road that replaced it. So perhaps….if you go there and listen carefully, hidden within the roar of passing traffic……you might just hear the gallop of horses, the rattle of carriage wheels or the crack of a coachman’s whip.   

A typical day in the Study Centre can result in a variety of emotions. If people are looking at parish records, they often get excited and quite animated when they find a baptism, marriage or burial. This is especially true if they have been searching for a long period of time and they suddenly find it. Over the years I have heard many a whoop of delight coming from the microfilm area of the room! There is often an insistence that relatives are Anglican despite not being able to find them anywhere in the Anglican parish records. One man was adamant that his great grandfather wasn’t a non-conformist then after much persuasion, he agreed to look at these records. Within minutes he had found him. I think he was rather happy as the words “I love you” escaped from his lips.  

Photographs and maps evoke a similar reaction. Photographs of old shops and pubs are always very popular, and it is lovely to hear our users chat about them. People reminisce about how they used to look, who owned them and whether they are still standing today. We also get many requests for old maps, the most popular being our Ordnance Survey collection. Researchers may be looking for a particular building or farm, or they may simply be tracking changes in an area over time. The red/pink colour of the 1^st edition 25” maps (c.1860) is visually appealing but if they wish to find street names, then the 3^rd edition (c.1920) will provide this. It is very easy to get lost in maps and even if they don’t always provide the information they were looking for, it is rare for somebody to leave without saying that they still thoroughly enjoyed looking at them. Our Reprographics department receive many requests for copies. Some ask for a digital version so they can have it on their screen and zoom in on areas, but many prefer a print so they can frame a little bit of history.  

Northumberland Archives hold a large newspaper collection and newspapers are also regularly requested by our users. Looking for old wedding photographs of parents/grandparents is popular as is searching for sporting images of football and cricket teams. You know somebody is happy when you hear “yes, I’ve found it!” However, not all newspaper searches are for happy reasons. Over the years I have been on duty in the Study Centre, I have advised users to search newspapers in order to find information about traffic accidents, court hearings, house fires, bankruptcy and murder.  

Sadly, we hold many records that can be extremely distressing yet despite this, it is important that we hold sensitive material and allow access to it subject to strict closure periods. Often, we are asked to produce coroner reports so people can discover more about how their ancestor died. Our leaflet about these records states that Coroners undertake inquests and post-mortems to determine the cause of death particularly on those who have died suddenly, alone, in suspicious or in violent circumstances. As you can imagine, these documents can be extremely painful to read. They can also be difficult records for staff to work with as they need to read them during the cataloguing process. 

Unfortunately, many early reports haven’t survived but inquests were often reported in great detail in the local press, so it is always worth checking our collection. Again, another example of how important old newspapers can be. Currently, coroners records are closed to public inspection for 75 years. However, if a request is made for a report that falls within the closure period, the Coroner will make the decision about access. Proof of a close family relationship to the deceased is usually needed in order to achieve this.  

Our St. George’s hospital (former County Lunatic Asylum) case books are another class of records which make people emotional. Mental Health is widely discussed today but, in the past, there was a huge stigma attached to it. Northumberland Archives hold numerous patient case books, beginning in 1890. We get countless requests to view these records and I have witnessed many shed a tear when reading through them. Often there is a photograph of the patient and when people see them, they are surprised. There is always a mixture of emotions as they are happy to see their ancestor but then sadness hits them when they remember where the photograph was taken. Many say that the patients have a haunted look which makes it even more poignant.  

One lady who visited our Study Centre had discovered that her female ancestor was a patient in St. George’s, and she had never seen a photograph of her before so was hoping to find one. I found the case book and luckily there was an image attached to the notes. I left the lady to read through the material and look at the photograph then returned to her later to make sure that she was ok. She said that she felt very emotional which seemed silly for a lady she had never met. I assured her that these types of records often seemed to elicit a reaction like that. She then touched my hand and said, “thank you for finding her.” For me, that was a very good day on duty in the Study Centre.  

Today sees the release of the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU], ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’.  You may wonder what on earth this has to do with Northumberland Archives?  It turns out that Joan Boocock, wife and muse of the legendary comic book writer, Stan Lee, was born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Joan’s parents, Norman Dunton Boocock and Hannah Clayton, were married at the parish church of Gosforth St. Nicholas on 8 November 1920.  The entry from the marriage register held in the Archives shows that Norman was a Clerk and was living at 2 Woodbine Road at the time of the marriage.  Hannah was living at 5 Field Street which was a 15 minute walk from Norman’s house.  

Joan was born on 5 February 1922 and we can find her in the baptism register, again for Gosforth St. Nicholas.  The baptism took place on 9 March of that year, and we can see that the family were now all living at 5 Field Street, Hannah’s old family home.  Joan’s mother is listed as ‘Nancy’ in this entry, and we can only presume this was a mistake on the part of the Vicar, or that it was a nickname of Hannah’s.  The Field Street house still stands today, and we did take a little trip to locate it.

Joan moved to America as a war bride after the Second World War, before meeting and marrying Stan Lee in 1947.  Stan claimed that Joan was the inspiration behind Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s first girlfriend; she also lent her voice to various characters in several Marvel cartoons during the 1990s, and made a cameo appearance in ‘X-Men:Apocalypse’ in 2016.

Although she died in 2017, aged 95 years, today we remember Joan Boocock Lee and acknowledge her part in an incredible legacy that continues to thrive today.