In 1946 a Ferguson tractor was bought for £350 and continued in use 'till 1990. The Clydesdales were phased out by 1949. Charles Sidney Easton (pictured above on the right with Noel Tate), ran the farm on a small scale and kept 4 suckler cows and a couple of ponies on 10 acres. He usually managed to grow some hay, but some years due to a dry summer, he has had to put the cows onto the hayfield.
No.54, Hole Lane, the Bungalow, was built in 1922 by John James Barrass, using pitch pine brought from the Vickers Armstrong Scotswood works, where Mr.Barrass worked as a clerk. His son John brought up a family here in the 1950's and was a fitter by trade but also worked as a green-keeper at Whickham Golf Course. The other son, Ron, went to live at Leap Mill, Burnopfield, where he did a good job in restoring the mill. Beside the bungalow is an old quarry which the Ordnance Survey maps of 1896 and 1919 mark as being disused. John made a rockery garden here. T
On the opposite side of the lane to the Bungalow a coal pit was sunk by George Hare of Tanfield, about 1920. He also worked the Dyke Head drift, Burnopfield. The pit closed in 1925 and worked the Hutton seam. In 1928 it was derelict, though the headgear and hauler shed were still standing. Inside the shed was a stationary engine for hauling the cage up the shaft. This was all dismantled and taken away for scrap by Dicky McGlen of Whickham.
In the 1930's a drift was opened out just above the pit by John Hastie of Laundry Cottage, Burnthouse Lane. He was assisted by James Thorpe of Pennyfine Road and his two brothers who managed to win some good coal. The pit closed in 1936. The Council eventually levelled the waste heap and the site came to be used for a cesspit to take sewerage from the private housing developement of 1975-77. A steel framed pyramid structure was built over the cesspit. This was removed when a pump was installed to move the sewerage along a pipe towards Whickham.
The earliest account of coal mining at Gellesfield is in 1578, when William Blaxton of Gibside, leased the mines to Cuthbert Hunter of Newcastle a Merchant, the term to last 15 years at an annual rent of £10.
In 1617, William and Ralph Blackiston of Gibside settled half their mines at Gellesfield on the marriage of Nicholas Blackiston, 2nd son of brother John Blackiston. Mention was made that coal was being wrought at Gellesfield in 1716 and from 1724-1738 John Robinson owned the colliery. In 1749, Mr.Hutchinson was working the Hutton seam 16 fathoms below the surface at the Calf Close pit on behalf of Mrs. Frances Robinson, output being about 2,000 tons.
On April 13th, 1754, Gellesfield colliery was advertised to be let, in the Newcastle Journal, containing several seams of coal, with heap room, wayleave, and staith room. Enquiries to Mrs. Robinson at Sandhill, Newcastle, or to Amos Barnes, colliery viewer, at Little Benton. However, a week later Brignall Grainge of Sunniside, stated in the paper, he was the sole owner of Gellesfield and permission to work any colliery on his estate had not been sanctioned by him. The following week Mrs. Robinson replied in the Newcastle Courant, saying, that her husband bought the royalty lease (she didn't say from whom) for the right to work coal at Gellesfield some years before. In the same paper it was advertised, a large quantity of coal at bank, was to be sold on 2nd May at Gellesfield near Sunniside. June 1756, Gellesfield Colliery was up for sale.
The Croft, was built in 1927 for Mr. Holliday, who worked in the insurance business. His daughters, Margery and Edith, formed the 1st Sunniside Company Girl Guides, about 1928 and met at the old Chapel, Ravensworth Terrace. Mrs.V. Holliday was the District Commissioner of Girl Guides. the Guides formed a guard of honour when Edith married Dr. Charles C. Ungley at Jesmond. Dr.Ungley was a Consultant at the R.V.I. Newcastle, and specialised in pernicious anaemia.. He was a Commander in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves and during the,2nd World War, he was stationed at a military hospital near Aberdeen, and at Durban, South Africa. Edith could remember soon after she came to Hole Lane, that 3 gas lamps were set up, one near the top, at Foncett, one outside her house, the other at Dene Farm. She kept some ducks and these could be seen in the late 1940's by the small burn which ran down the dene, to the west of the Croft.
In the late 1920's Albert Bird built the bungalows at Elm Street West, he built the bungalows at Highfield in 1932. He was a member of Sunniside Social Club and made the "black- out" for the club at the beginning of the War. During the War he was a Special Constable.
Number 22, Hole Lane, was built about 1934 for Joseph Naisby. He dug the foundations himself and when the local Building Inspector came around to check the work, he told Joe the foundations were deep enough to build a factory on. The bungalow was built by a bricklayer and joiner from Marley Hill, and Joe chose all the materials for quality and substance. The front gates were hung on lengths of railway line, sunk into the ground, then pillars of brick, built up to enclose the steel posts. Joe's wife, Nora (Nee Dawson), was one of a family of 9 brought up at the Low Lodge on Carr's Bank and at Market Lane Farm, where Thomas Dawson farmed from 1901-1935. Nora was a descendant of John Alexander Craiggy, a noted schoolmaster of Crawcrook, and she named her home at Hole Lane, Craigie Lea. For 21 years a Magpie, which was found as a fledgling, deserted and forlorn, was cared for by Nora. The bird was called Maggie and was a great mimic. It's most remarkable 'trick' was to smoke a cigarette and occasionally featured in the local Newspapers it was recorded once on film and shown on ‘Pathe News’ in the cinema. Local children were always welcome to visit and watch the bird perform, he was a great favourite. About the same time, (1958), a semi-tame Magpie caused havoc at Sadie Barrass' home. It had the annoying habit of pulling the clothes pegs from the washing line when the clothes were out drying.
In 1932, Billy Rutherford of Streetgate, built No.28, Hole Lane, when his brother Eddy, married Maimi Wallace.
In the 1930's, Jack and Tommy Long, of 10, Hole Lane, worked in show business as acrobats. Their stage name was Donovan and Hayes, and they toured Britain, Ireland, and on the Continent. Their brother Joe worked with them for one and a half years. While staying at home they could be seen practising their act outside on the lawn.
Alec Watson, built Fellside Avenue in 1958. At the top near number 15, there was a bit of a pond and near number 8, Tom Liddle of Sunniside Road kept a few pigs adjoining his back garden.
Since the completion of the Kingsway loop in 1977, to give better access to the Old Sunniside Farm estate, Hole Lane has become much busier with traffic and children no longer play cricket on the lane, From the bottom of the lane, beside the Bungalow, we can walk up the original lane towards the junction with Burnthouse Lane. The field on the left was a favourite place for sledging near where the gas sub-station is now. On arriving at the junction, there is to be seen a short embankment on the left with sycamores growing on it. This is thought to be part of the Northbanks waggonway leading down to the Whaggs. The embankment forms a barrier to the natural drainage in times of prolonged heavy rain, which results in a pond forming temporarily in the hollow.
On crossing the road we come to Sandy Lonnen, the surface of which is now stony and cobbly, but presumably was once of a sandy nature. Sand was probably deposited hereabouts during the Ice Age from an overflow channel of Lake Derwent.
The dry stone dyke to the left formed the northwest boundary of the Gellesfield Estate and at one time there was a boundary stone in the corner.
To the right of the Lonnen is Sunniside Park which Gateshead M. B. Council has developed as a public recreation area since 1982. The park, (known locally as ‘the dogs toilet’) including Lambing Hill, covers about 16 acres and formed part of Riding Barns Farm on the Strathmore Estate. An attraction in late April and May are cowslips which carpet wide stretches of the grassy areas. The land here was known as the Cross Moor in the late 16th Century.
There is still some evidence of coal mining in the vicinity in the shape of a few coal pits, long since worked out, the site of the pit shaft being now only a sunken hollow. The coal pit up in the field on the left, towards Riding Barns, is now filled by a small pond, and the pit waste heap covered with gorse. It is designated a nature conservation site due to the pond being here. The pit lies just within Whickham Fell and is one of 5 old shafts which lie in a straight line from Sunniside Petrol Filling Station to the east side of Long Hill, a distance of about 1,500 yards.
We know that coal mining for purely commercial gain was begun hereabouts about the middle of the 16th Century. The See of Durham held the mineral rights and in 1570, Bishop Pilkington leased the coal within the Cross Moor to three Newcastle Merchants. Extraction was controlled to 3 pits working at any one time. In 1582, a new lease lasting for the extraordinary long period of 99 years (the Grand Lease) was contrived. It covered the Bishop's land in the Manor of Whickham and thus began the systematic plunder of the upper seams at a right good will.
In 1647, the Grand Lease had 15 coal pits opened out in the area. Whickham Church burial register mentions some pit - men slain in the coal pits :-Lance Marshall in 1639, at Edward Trimble's pit, John Matthew in 1647, at John Layborne's pit, both on the Cross Moor, and Roger Maddison in 1649, at Cuthbert Gibson's pit on Gladeley Hill.
In 1681, the Grand Lease expired and Bishop Crewe granted the lease to Colonel Liddell and Partners, from whom it passed into control of the Grand Allies partnership in 1726. The See of Durham meant to keep the right of wayleave over the ancient copyhold lands in Whickham Manor, but over the years the Grand Allies presumed they had this privilege.
In 1734 the Sandy Lonnen area came under Whickham Moor colliery and by the end of the 1760's most of the upper seams had been wrought and there was a lull in coal mining 'till the 1830's when the lower seams were tapped.
In July 1783 a landsale colliery on the Cross Moor belonging to Lord Ravensworth and Partners was leased to John and James Fiddes of Streetgate, at an annual rent of œ5. In 1789 Sir Henry Liddell and Partners had the wayleaves over the Manor of Whickham, the lease of which ran out in 1807.
The lower seams beneath Sandy Lonnen were eventually wrought by John Bowes and Partners from Marley Hill Colliery.
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