Download - Otherworld North East Research Society Journal Volume IV, 2010

OTHERWORLD NORTH EASTResearch Society Journal

VOLUME IV, 2010

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Otherworld North East Research Society Journal

Volume IV: 2010

This volume is a collection of website articles originally posted on the Otherworld NorthEast website between 2009-2010. This collection was produced in 2013. Edited by TonyLiddell.

http://www.otherworldnortheast.org.uk

Material found within this publication was also previously published as part of the OWNE2010 newsletter.

Otherworld North East Research Society Journal Volume IV © Otherworld North East. Allrights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, stored or introduced into aretrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of Otherworld NorthEast.

The Otherworld North East Research Society (OWNE) is a not-for-profit investigation andresearch association whose aim is to collate and examine the physical evidence for ghostsand other alleged supernatural occurrences with an objective eye. The Society is not anentertainment-based business, and do not run commercial ghost walks, nights or othersimilar events: we are not ghost-hunters, instead we simply seek to examine any physicalevidence brought forward that is commonly perceived to belong to alleged supernaturalphenomena. Otherworld North East was founded in August 2003 and is based in the NorthEast of England (though the Society has and will investigate outside of this area), withcurrent investigative members based in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durhamand Teesside.

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Volume IV, Journal 2010

Contents

1. Its a Mystery at the Marquis by Tardis Smith 3

2. Collecting Dead Relatives and Sometimes a Live Cousin by Sheila Convey 4

3. Agency Detection and its (possible) Role in Paranormal Experiences by Lee Munro 6

4. The Sensitivity of Animals by Sarah Liddell 8

5. In Search of the Thundering Earl by Tony Liddell 10

6. Hollinside Manor House by Sheila Convey 12

7. History of the Lit and Phil, Newcastle upon Tyne by Sheila Convey 17

8. Highgate Cemetery by Sheila Convey 28

9. Poltergeists by Sheila Convey 31

10. The Ghost of Robert Stephenson’s Birthplace by Sheila Convey 35

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Otherworld North East

Ghostsby Fannie Stearns Davis

“I am almost afraid of the wind out there.The dead leaves skip on the porches bare,

The windows clatter and whine.I sit in the quiet house. Low-lit.

With the clock that ticks and the books that stand.Wise and silent, on every hand.

I am almost afraid; though I know the nightLets no ghosts walk in the warm lamplight.

Yet ghosts there are; and they blow, they blow,Out in the wind and the scattering snow.When I open the windows and go to bed,

Will the ghosts come in and stand at my head?

Last night I dreamed they came back again.I heard them talking; I saw them plain.

They hugged me and held me and loved me; spokeOf happy doings and friendly folk.

They seemed to have journeyed a week away,But now they were ready and glad to stay.

But oh, if they came on the wind tonightCould I bear their faces, their garments white?

Blown in the dark around my lonely bed?Oh, could I forgive them for being dead?

I am almost afraid of the wind. My shame!That I would not be glad if my dear ones came!”

~Written in 1890

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1. Its a Mystery at the MarquisBy Tardis Smith

HALF WAY UP WATERGATEBANK on the A692 fromLobley Hill, Gateshead is the

Marquis of Granby public house; thescene of the murder of JosephLeybourne aged 47*, of Streetgate.He was a farm worker at Fen House,Marley Hill. His body was foundpropped up against a hedge, justbelow Swan’s stack yard in the earlyhours of Tuesday morning August28th 1865, his head having beenbattered by a stone.

He had been to a dance in connection with the local flower show, held in a marquee nextto the Marquis. He left the dance just after midnight and went into the pub for a drink inthe taproom. He was involved in an incident and the landlord cleared the pub. Mr.Leybourne left by himself about 0200. His body was discovered an hour later.

Lord Ravensworth, a Justice of the Peace was horrified that such a thing could happen inhis area and he sacked his workmen who had attended the dance. He also stopped theflower show from being held again.

Despite a thorough investigation led by Superintendent Squire the murderer was neverbrought to justice and Joseph’s death certificate simply states: ‘Found murdered byperson or persons unknown’. This was based on information received from J. MilnerFavell, Coroner for Chester Ward, Eighton Cottage, Gateshead. An inquest had been heldSeptember 21st 1865.

It was during the tenancy of the Scorer family (Arthur Dixon Scorer, 1938) at the pub thatthe first known sighting of the ghost occurred. It was young Arthur and his elder brotherwho witnessed the event one night in their bedroom. Since then each succeeding tenanthas experienced possible sightings and strange occurrences. It is believed to be the imageof an elderly woman looking for her son. Building workers who were employed at the pubalso witnessed ladders moving about.

* The 1861 Census gives Joseph’s age as 43 but his death certificate states that he was 52 atthe time of his death.

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2. Collecting Dead Relatives and Sometimes aLive CousinBy Sheila M. Convey

THE 1911 CENSUS FOR ENGLAND and Wales was released in 2009, nearly three yearsearly, under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. The 1920 Census Actdictated that census information be closed to the public for 100 years. The 1911

Census is not covered by the Act and in 2006 the Information Commissioner’s Office ruledthat access should be given to the 1911 Census but some information considered sensitiveshould remain closed for a full 100 years. This includes such things as health relatedinformation and details of children born to women in prison who were aged three orunder when the census was taken on the night of Sunday/Monday April 2nd/3rd 1911. Thisinformation will be released on 3rd January 2012.

The census recorded the details of 36,075,269 people showing an increase of 10.9 per centsince the 1901 Census. It covered England and Wales, the Isle of Man and the ChannelIslands, plus Royal Navy and Merchant Navy personnel who were on their vessels as wellas some army units stationed overseas.

In 1911, the largest category for workers in England and Wales was domestic service with1.3 million people working as domestic servants. Next came agriculture (1.2 million)followed by coal mining (971,000).

There is more information on the 1911 Census than previous censuses. People were asked:

▪ Name and surname;

▪ Relationship to head of family;

▪ Age (with separate columns for male and female);

▪ Marital condition;

▪ Number of years married (married women only);

▪ Children born to present marriage, still living, who have died (married womenonly);

▪ Personal occupation;

▪ Industry/service with which worker is connected;

▪ Employment status;

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▪ Birthplace;

▪ Nationality (if born abroad);

▪ Any infirmity

It was known as the fertility census as the government of the time were aware of the needfor a large and healthy workforce if Britain was to continue to develop as an industrialnation but many families were emigrating, there was a falling birth rate and there wereconcerns about the poor health amongst the population so that is why they includedquestions on children born alive and how many had died.

The information gathered by 35,000 enumerators and hundreds of clerks takes up a mileand a third of shelving, which is more than twelve times the size of the 1901 Census. Thereare eight million schedules, which were all gathered in one weekend. This was a massiveundertaking given the lack of technology at the time.

The 1911 Census is the oldest from which the original forms were kept. Previous censuseshad required the enumerators to copy the details supplied by householders on theschedules into summary books. A decision was taken to cut out this part of the processand use the schedules themselves.

Enumerators had complained since 1841 about the huge amount of work they had to doin order to copy out details supplied by householders and one wonders how they wouldhave felt about having to transfer the records of more than 36 million people fromthousands of heavy bound volumes to a website. This was achieved with great successbut what family historians appreciate just as much is that we are able in most cases toview our ancestor’s original hand written returns with their signatures and mistakes.We’re funny like that!

Almost 700,000 of the census entries were for people living in the North East. In August2009 The National Archives gave Tyne Wear Archives free credits for the census site. Itwas expected that they would last a year but demand was so great from local and familyhistorians that they only lasted a month.

Now the records will be free to access again from late March until late October at TyneWear Archives which are located within the Discovery Museum at Blandford Square inNewcastle. This means that people won’t have to pay a subscription or travel to TheNational Archives at Kew.

Tyne Wear Archives are advising people to make an appointment. You can do this bytelephone: 0191 277 2248 or email: [email protected]

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3. Agency Detection and its (possible) role inParanormal ExperienceBy Lee Munro

EVER TAKEN THE DOG FOR a walk in the woods and assumed that noise in thebushes was a rabid killer rabbit instead of the wind? Ever laid in bed and thoughtthat unfamiliar knocking must be an axe murderer instead of water pipes cooling?

This short article aims to introduce agency detection, why it might exist and how it mayrelate to some aspects of paranormal experience.

We are all products of an evolutionary process, natural selection. In one sense our bodiesand brains are a collection of adaptations, that is, evolved mechanisms for reacting to,interacting with, interpreting, surviving and reproducing in our environment. Forexample, it is proposed that our brain is not a general purpose information processingmachine but a collection of cognitive modules that serve a specific purpose (i.e. vision,taste, hearing, touch, emotions) but also interact and work with each other (Mithen, 1996;Pinker, 1997).

A vital aspect of our evolutionary past is that we evolved from, and are today, anextremely social species. It has been suggested that this aspect has been a driving forcein the evolution of certain cognitive abilities such as language, face recognition and theoryof mind to name a few. It is in this context that we turn our attention to agency detection.

Agency detection is essentially the propensity to see/interpret events in our environmentas being caused or related to other goal-motivated agents. These other agents don’tnecessarily have to be human, they could be any other living creature with intentions orgoals (i.e. feeding, sleeping, and searching). Guthrie (1993) proposed that, due to ourhighly evolved social cognition, humans have a tendency to over-attribute agency toevents, especially in ambiguous circumstances. As Barrett (2007) puts it, we have “anevolved tendency that produces false positives for the sake of survival”. Why and whatare false positives?

Imagine you are in the evolutionary past, walking through some woods. You see a shapeup ahead behind some trees. It looks like a bear and you know bears live in the area. Oris it a rock? Think of the saying ‘better safe than sorry’. Better for you to interpret a rockup ahead as a bear (a false positive) and avoid possible fatal injury but pay the cost offleeing, than to interpret a bear up ahead as a rock and continue on your merry way, onlyto end up as some hairy mammal’s dinner! Since there would be humans and predatoryanimals in the environment that would pose a threat to your being, it would beadvantageous to carry a cognitive module that erred on the side of false positives in thiscontext. Barrett (2000, 2004) called this proposed module the Hyperactive or

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Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device(HADD).

It doesn’t take a great leap to see howHADD may play a role in someparanormal experience. That bang inthe night must be a ghost moving a chair.That mist in the woods must be a spirittrying to manifest. The glass on the Ouijaboard moves because entities are tryingto communicate. All are examples of theattribution of intentionality and agencywhere none might exist. Couple theexistence of HADD with other knownpsychological phenomena such asexpectation bias or suggestion, and anapparently paranormal experiencecould be explained in more prosaicterms.

So there is the proposal that we have apropensity for interpreting aspects ofour environment in terms of intentionalagents, we can see why it would makeevolutionary sense and what role it mayplay in some paranormal experience.Does it conclusively explain why peoplesee ghosts, or the nature or reality of thesupernatural? Of course not, but it issomething to bear in mind next time thewind rattles your letterbox in the middleof the night and you think Freddie fromNightmare on Elm Street is at your frontdoor!

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4. The Sensitivity of AnimalsBy Sarah Liddell

ARE ANIMALS PSYCHIC? CAN THEY see spirits? Can they predict the future? Manypeople have asked these questions before and, equally, many people have set outto study this very concept. Very few people would argue that animals aren’t far

more capable of being aware of their surroundings that humans – their auditory systems,for example, are far more highly tuned than ours. They can normally hear outside of ahumans’ auditory peripherals – sometimes well into the infrasound and ultrasound range.(Humans can normally hear between the ranges of 20Hz to 20kHz (20,000Hz) – babiesand toddlers have the best hearing and, as we age, our upper range diminishes – it startsto diminish by the age of 8).

Pet dogs can easily hear into the ultrasound frequency range (ultrasound is above thatwhich humans can hear – it is also the method with which bats are able to “see” incomplete darkness. The principle behind the “silent” dog whistle is that the dog can hearit but that humans can’t. Infrasound is in a range below which humans can hear. Snakesuse infrasound and can “feel” it through their bodies, whales, giraffes, dolphins andelephants use it to communicate also.

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It has been said that many of our domestic pets (dogs and cat in particular) can “sense”when things like earthquakes are going to happen. In fact, there are people out therewho devote their lives to studying the pattern behind pets going missing on the days andweeks running up to disasters like earthquakes. Are these pets psychic? Or are theysimply “feeling” it somehow – the very fact that an earthquake results from two or moretectonic plates moving and colliding or rubbing against one another in such a manner thatsets off the chain-reaction of an earthquake suggests that our pets might well be able to“feel” it in the earth long before any sensors go off warning humans of the impendingdisaster. Dogs have been reported to act strangely (including barking excessively, actingaggressively when they were otherwise docile family pets and displaying other unusualbehaviour), sometimes up to two months before an earthquake and sometimes for up toa month or more after an earthquake. An example of this was the Kobe earthquake of1995 which killed over 6000 people in Japan.

Many people could argue that there is nothing “sixth sense” about it and it may well bepurely based on a physical thing that animals can pick up on simply through theirheightened senses. However, then you have to start questioning the dogs that aretrained to “sense” when a person is about to have a seizure. It has been shown time andtime again that these trained dogs can do it – sometimes hours before a seizure happens.What are these dogs sensing? Can it be a simple subconscious message given by theperson, even hours beforehand, when they don’t know it is going to happen themselves?Is that possible? I guess so. Or could it be something else? I guess so, also. Ultimately, atthis moment in time, scientists admit to simply not knowing the whole truth.

Other accounts of our pets being super-sensitive or even “psychic” include such things aspets knowing minutes (sometimes up to an hour) before their owner(s) returns fromwork. A cat can jump on a windowsill some time before the car pulls up outside – even ifthey don’t return home at the same time each day (so it isn’t routine or the light levelsoutside). What can this be? Can a cat hear a car from 5+ miles away? Can it learn torecognise the sound of its owner’s engine?

Sometimes people report their dogs barking seconds before the phone rings when acertain person calls – again, even if they never call at the same time each day or on aregular basis. How do they know?

On a rarer basis, pet parrot owners have sometimes reported their talking parrots havecome out with “answers” to things they were merely thinking! Is this just wishful thinkingon the owner’s part? Or can parrots mind-read? Can they hear our thoughts somehow?

Of course there has never been any definitive proof to say that parrots are mind-readersor that our pet dogs can sense who is about to call us on the phone. Research continuesin some UK universities and even more so in the US. The more research that gets done,the more questions it tends to uncover!

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5. In Search of the Thundering EarlBy Tony Liddell

“The romantic streams of the Devil’s Water retain their romantic qualities tothe last… you may stand on the bridge and watch them breaking out of thewooded gorge they have rioted in for so many miles, to run down under stillpendent foliage and in broad whimpling shallows to your feet. And high abovethe woody banks of the stream, at the outer fringe of the lawn of a later countryhouse, stand what is left of the halls of the ill-fated Derwentwater.”

So the site of Dilston Castle was described by the historian A.G. Bradley in his 1933publication “The Romance of Northumberland”. Nestled high above the banks of theDevilswater, near Corbridge in Northumberland, Dilston Castle and historic landscapenow resides in the grounds of the MENCAP College, and is owned and maintained by theNorth Pennines Heritage Trust.

The Castle and former Hall have a rich and varied history, many would say culminating inthe destruction of the Radcliffe seat in the early 18th century. In 1715 James Radcliffe,Third Earl of Derwentwater, left his ancestral home at Dilston and went to war against the

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crown as leader of the Northumbrian Jacobites. The first Jacobite Uprising, or Rebelliondepending on which faction you view the incident from, was doomed to failure and theunfortunate Earl was captured and executed on Tower Hill for treason.

James’ death heralded the first of the reports of paranormal occurrences at Dilston, withthe Devilswater running ‘red with blood’, and the sky cracking apart with a tremendousshow of the Northern Lights, henceforth known in the area as ‘Lord Derwentwater’sLights’. With the family shamed, Dilston fell into wrack and ruin, and in the three centuriessince the Earl’s death, the site has become a focus for tales of hauntings and ghosts.

All that remains of the Earl’s home is now a ruinous tower house (originally dating to themedieval period), a chapel, the grounds themselves and the foundations of his Hall, whichare being uncovered systematically by archaeologists from the North Pennines HeritageTrust. A walk down the wooded carriageway down to the Devilswater also reveals anancient bridge, once also part of the Derwentwater estates.

Since 2004, Otherworld North East have been conducting private investigations into thehauntings of the historic Dilston landscape, and in 2010 in conjunction with North PenninesHeritage Trust will be working to bring the paranormal findings of the Society to the publiceye. OWNE will be continuing with our private research, which will culminate in apublication in our Investigation Series books, and will be engaging the public to try andcollect tales and memories of the fantastic site.

If there is anything you can do to help with this project, please contact the Project Leader,Tony Liddell on [email protected], or look out for more details on the“Search for the Thundering Earl” Project on the main Otherworld North East ResearchSociety webpage.

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6. Hollinside Manor HouseBy Sheila Convey

HOLLINSIDE IS A FORTIFIED MANOR house built from local sandstone that is nowin ruins. It is also known as, or recorded in historical documents as Hollinside Halland Old Hollingside. The site is a scheduled monument and the building is Grade I

listed. The house lies to the north of the Nine Arches Viaduct perched on a hill to the east.It overlooks the Derwent Valley on the south side of Clockburn Lane in Whickham, Tyne &Wear.

English Heritage describes it as: “A fortified manor house probably dating to the late 13th

century. The upstanding remains comprise a fortified hall house, whose walls survive tobetween 6-10 metres in height, and the remains of a north east wing, surviving partly asearthworks and partly as masonry up to 2 metres high. A courtyard, circa 35 metressquare, with attached gatehouse is shown on 18th and 19th century maps to the south eastof the hall but the only possible survival of this feature are one or two scarps beyond thesouthern corner of the hall.” It gas been on English Heritage’s At Risk Register since 2002.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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Accounts do not state the date of the main building but local parallels suggest 13th centuryfor the start of the building with additional work during the 14th century. An 1858Ordnance Survey map shows that the house probably had extensive gardens that wentdown the hill towards Hollinside Farm. It shows the lines of the old foundations thatsuggest the manor was divided into five parts internally. The Tyne & Wear SpecialistConservation Team say that it perhaps the best example of an unaltered medievalfortified manor in the county.

Fortified manor houses emerged in the 13th century and were the residences of a locallord/landowner. Unlike castles they weren’t built specifically for fortification. Manorhouses were built in brick or stone with a timber roof. The nature of the homes varied butgenerally the servants and other retainers would sleep round an open fire in the centre ofthe hall, which was also used as a communal space for domestic and administrationpurposes. The lord would have a private room for his family. This was usually on the firstfloor, which was reached from a raised dais at the end of the hall. The kitchen space wouldusually be separated from the main hall by wooden screens. Later it became a separateroom. Manor houses changed in the 14th century, which brought a growing interest inpersonal privacy and they became more elaborate. Extra rooms were added such as foodstorage areas and accommodation for guests.

Hollinside is first mentioned in the early 14th century. In 1317 it was held by Thomas deHollinside who, in March 1318 granted his manor to William de Boyne (or Boineton) ofNewcastle, and Isolda, his wife, with all the land and free service of his tenants (signifyingfreedom from rendering military service to the Crown), a watermill called Clockemthemsor Clockinthenns (now known in the area as Clockburn), and his fishery in the Derwent.

By 1333 it was in the possession of the Burtons (or Burdens) as feudal tenants of theCrown with an annual rent of 6s 8d. in silver. There was no male heir so it passed to theRedheugh family through the marriage of Agnes, daughter of Hugh Burton (or Burden).The Bishop Hatfield’s Survey, 1377-1380, shows it as the property of Hugh de Redheugh,together with one hundred acres of land for the annual payment of 6s. 8d.

Between 1388 and 1416 it belonged to the Massams (or Mashams) but must have beenacquired by the Redheughs again as it passed to the Harding family (who came fromBeadnell in Northumberland) by the marriage of a Redheugh daughter to Roger Harding.Roger was a son of Sampson Harding, a mayor of Newcastle between 1396-7 and 1398-9who also represented Northumberland as a Member of Parliament. They were aprominent in the region in medieval times and other members of the family also served asMayors, Members of Parliament and Sheriffs of Newcastle.

The Harding men were extremely tall. It is said that at least one topped 7 feet andHollinside became known by the locals as the ‘Giant’s Castle’. They were also known fortheir prowess in battle. Records show that in 1312 Henry Harding fought a Scotsman calledWilliam Scynthaw (or Seyntlaw) for his title and coat-of-arms. The combat took place in

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the presence of Robert the Bruce at Perth. Henry was the victor and won his title to thefamily arms. This was a shield of gules with three running greyhounds. Legend has it thatthere was once a slab above a mantel in an outbuilding at Hollinside that was carved withthe initials R.H. and the coat-of-arms. It is said to have been removed in the early 19th

century by a relative of the Harding family through his wife, who was a descendant. Themost famous of the Harding warriors was John (from the Beadnell side of the family) whofought with Sir Henry Percy, better known as ‘Harry Hotspur’. He was with him atHomildon Hill, now called Humbleton Hill, (near Wooler) where Hotspur avenged hisdefeat at Otterburn in 1402. He also helped defend the Border, serving under Sir RobertUmfraville. Harding became Constable of Warkworth Castle and is well known for theHardying’s Chronicles which tell the story (in verse) of the march of the English armypreceding the battle of Agincourt in 1415. John Harding was a soldier, poet and historian.

The Hardings were associated with Hollinside for two hundred years but their fortunesbegan to wane in the 17th century following the union of England and Scotland and theymortgaged their estate to the Bowes family. By 1732 it had passed into the hands ofGeorge Bowes by foreclosure and became part of the Gibside Estate.

The house became a tenanted farm but had become abandoned by the end of the 19th

century.

Its position has made it vulnerable to vandalism. In a 2008 interview for NewcastleChronicle and Journal, Stuart Norman, planning officer at Gateshead Council said, “Thereis some graffiti and stones have been dislodged. Youths have been climbing up the walls,dislodging the stones and then rolling them down the bank. They get enjoyment fromdismantling it. There’s a vaulted area to the remains which is an attraction to youthsbecause it provides them with some shelter. It’s become a den they congregate in and it’sused for drinking and lighting fires. We get cans and bottles in there and the roof of thevaulted area is charred from the fires.”

An English Heritage grant enabled the council to begin a repair and consolidation schemein the summer of 2008.

In their annual report of 2007-2008 the Tyne & Wear Specialist Conservation Teamstated,” In cases like this, it is important to preserve the historic character of the attractiveruin, and so a light touch was employed which involved the minimum replacement ofhistoric fabric with new stone and the conservation of existing elements. Where possible,existing window jambs amd masonry were retained. Where a new carved window wasneeded, the old and new were pinned together with fixings of stainless steel. The problemof fire setting in the vaulted undercroft was addressed by fabricating a new grill gateacross the open end of the vault, an introduction that ensures better security withoutrestricting access to the central spaces of the manor house.” Hopefully this will detervandals and help to preserve the ‘Giant’s Castle’ for future generation.

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Charles Radcliffe and Freemasonry in FranceBy Sheila Convey

THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY IN France are uncertain and the first 50 years areopen to doubt. It is thought to date from 1721 when an unofficial Lodge wasallegedly founded in Dunkirk but no Minutes relating to the years before 1773 can

be found.

According to tradition the first Lodge in Paris was founded in 1725 by Charles Radcliffe, thetitular 5th Earl of Derwentwater. In his, ‘Histoire des Trois Grande Loges’, (History of theThree Great Lodges) Rebold claims that the Earl received from the Grand Lodge in Londonfull power to constitute Lodges in France and was invested as Grand Master.

Mackey (‘History of Freemasonry’) and other Masonic scholars disagree. They say thatthere is no authentic record that the Grand Lodge of England or any Grand Master ofEngland ever granted a Warrant, Deputation, Dispensation or Authority for theestablishment of a Provincial Grand Master or Grand Lodge of France. Mackey says that itwould have been impossible because of the political implication. “He was a convicteddisloyalist to the English Government and his execution had only been averted in 1715 byhis escape from prison.” Instead, Mackey claims that it would have been a clandestinebody.

The man who reportedly founded Knights Templar Masonry in France at this time wasAndrew Michael Ramsay, commonly called Chevalier Ramsay. In 1723 Ramsey wasknighted into the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem, which originated as a Crusadermilitary order in France for the protection of pilgrims. Ramsay was a Scotsman, an ardentJacobite and a convert to Roman Catholicism. He wanted to institute a form of Masonrywhich would work towards putting the Stuarts back on the throne. As a Jacobite he wasprepared to use all his powers to get them their ‘lawful rights’. He considered that theinstitution of Masonry would be a useful instrument to this cause. It is accepted at thistime that the political adherents of the dethroned and exiled family did exercise aconsiderable effect on Masonry.

For a short time, in 1724 Ramsay was tutor to the children of James Francis Edward Stuartin Rome before travelling back to Paris in the same year. It is at this time that Ramsay wasassisted by Charles Radcliffe and other Stuart supporters to organise a Masonic Lodgebased on the Templar format. Ramsay had a theory that Freemasonry originated in theHoly Land during the crusades and was instituted by the Knights Templar. He rejected theidea of a confraternity founded on a system of architecture but embraced the idea that itwas based solely on the military prowess and religious enthusiasm of knighthood.

Charles Radcliffe was totally committed to the Jacobite cause. Wild and headstrong in hisyouth he had willingly joined his older brother James, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater in the

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Jacobite rebellion of 1715 in a bid to show their support for their cousin James Stuart. Heappears to have been the ideal man to support Andrew Michael Ramsay’s cause and so itwas that he presided over a meeting to organise a Masonic Lodge. It is said (althoughthere is no recorded evidence) that it was a Jacobite Lodge consisting solely of theadherents and partisans of the Stuart cause.

In 1745 Charles Radcliffe sailed to join Charles Edward Stuart, the ‘Young Pretender’(known by the English and Scots as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’) in the Jacobite uprising of thatyear. His ship was captured and Charles was arrested and taken to London where he wasbeheaded in December 1746.

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7. The History of the Lit and Phil Society ofNewcastle upon TyneBy Sheila Convey

ASMALL PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY FOR‘the consideration of questions ofmental and social philosophy’ was

started in Newcastle on March 15th 1775. Themeetings were held in Westgate Street andnever had more than twenty members. Itappears to have been short-lived and wasdescribed as a’ priggish, conservative sort ofsociety, with plenty of limitations’.

Another Society came into being on 1st

November, 1786. The Philosophical andMedical Society was started by members ofthe medical profession but was not meant tobe restricted to doctors. In 1787 they drew upthe outlines of a library that was for the towngenerally. In the event most of the memberswere medical men and the discussions mainlyconcentrated on subjects of interest to them.They couldn’t attract many to their events andthe Society was dissolved in 1800. Its books were passed to the Medical Book Club, whichhad been formed in May 1790. The name was changed to The Medical Society and wenton until 1875. The Society did not have any premises so they met at each other’s housesonce a month and their books (according to a Club Minute of 1799) ‘lodged in a book casein the possession of the Librarian of the Literary and Philosophical Society’.

The Reverend William Turner had become minister of the Unitarians in Hanover SquareChapel in Newcastle. It was 1783 and he was only 21-years-old. He started the first Sunday-school in Newcastle a year later and went on to become a great educator who advancedthe anti-slavery movement in Northern England.

In 1792 William Turner and a group of friends came up with the idea of starting a‘conversational society’ and they asked him to put forward a case. He produced a paper,‘Speculations on the propriety of attempting the establishment of a Literary Society inNewcastle’ that stirred up a lot of interest. A meeting was held at the Assembly Rooms on24th January, 1793 where William Turner outlined his reasons for believing that Newcastlewould be eminently suitable for such an institution. The only other Literary and

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Philosophical Society in provincial England at the time was in Manchester and had beenstarted in 1781.There was obviously a thirst for such a place and he mentioned thePhilosophical and Medical Society at the beginning of his paper. He described a societywhere papers could be read by the members who were specialists in their fields and thendiscussions could take place.

Turner convinced the meeting that a society should be formed and it appointed acommittee to bring the plan to fruition. It totalled fourteen in number and included theRev.William Turner, William Cramlington, twice mayor and half brother of Lords Stowelland Eldon, Robert Hopper Williamson, Recorder of Newcastle and Chancellor of theCounty Palatine of Durham, the Reverend Edward Moises, headmaster of the RoyalGrammar School, the architect David Stephenson, who was responsible for Mosley Streetand Dean Street, Robert Doubleday, secretary to the Lying-in-Hospital, Fever Hospital andNewcastle Dispensary who was also a vice-president of the Royal Jubilee School and oneof the founders of the Newcastle Savings Bank. There was also Dr.Ramsay the Presidentof the Philosophical and Medical Society and various members of the medical profession.

The next meeting was held at the Dispensary in Pilgrim Street on Thursday 7th February,1793 where they resolved to call themselves ‘The Literary and Philosophical Society ofNewcastle upon Tyne’ and laid down the rules. The annual subscription was set at a guineaand meetings would be held once a month. The ‘conversation club’ would welcomesuggestions from members for the subjects of those conversations and the books thatsupported them but religion and politics were banned.

The Rev.Turner had not considered starting a library but the subject was raised at the firstmeeting by Edward Moises, headmaster of the Royal Grammar School. They decided togive further consideration to establishing one but did agree on a system of bookborrowing between the members that was based on issuing receipts and agreements forthe date of return.

There was no suggestion of women becoming members and it took until 1804 for this tohappen however young men between seventeen and twenty-one were to be activelyencouraged. It was resolved that, ‘this class of visitors will be expected to withdrawimmediately after the reading of the papers is concluded’. It was six years before youngerpeople were allowed to join in the discussions.

At the meeting in March of 1793 it was reported that one month had brought in seventy-three Ordinary Members and fifty-four Honorary Members. The number of HonoraryMembers seems high in relation to Ordinary Members but the rules stated that anyoneliving more than five miles from Newcastle would be classed as ‘Honorary’.

The Officers of the Society were elected that month. The first President was JohnWiddrington.

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The Society was barely through the first six months when the subject of a library wasraised again by Edward Moises. A special committee was appointed by December of 1793,which resolved that one should be formed.

The Society had always used the Governor’s Hall of the Dispensary for the meetings.When it moved from the bottom of Pilgrim Street to Low Friar Street the Society agreedto pay six guineas a year to the Dispensary for the use of the new premises and was givenpermission to put up a bookcase. Costing five pounds and eighteen feet wide it would bethe start of a collection of 150,000 books with a bookbinding and restoration service forolder volumes.

By the beginning of 1794 it was agreed that the Society needed more suitableaccommodation so they moved to an upper room in a building in St.Nicholas’ Churchyard.Within three years that proved inadequate so they took a larger room below the originaland used the original room for meetings. The new room was the library. The rental for thetwo rooms was twenty guineas.

Two members of the Society, Charnley and Bell, were book sellers and orders for bookswere split between them providing that they acted as librarians. However they were onlyin attendance twice a week for two hours and this proved inadequate so in 1798 theSociety employed Robert Spence who, for twelve guineas a year would work from elevento two o’clock every day.

It was now necessary to move to larger premises so they took over the Old AssemblyRooms in the Groat Market at £18 a year. Robert Spence had his hours increased and wasnow earning the same amount.

The Society had been given an extensive collection of books, papers and essays as well as‘various curiosities of Nature and Art’ that was the beginning of a huge collectionsubsequently passed onto the Natural History Society.

Women had started to express an interest in joining so they brought in Reading Memberswho had fewer rights than other members. It wasn’t until 1804 that women took up theoffer and then it was only two. It took until 1856, when Robert Stephenson paid off a largepart of the mortgage and the cost of a subscription was reduced that women’smembership increased.

The new library was ideal as a lecture room but the increased demand for this purposecaused too much disturbance for those wishing to read and the owner of the OldAssembly Rooms wanted to sell. Things came to a head in 1809 so all lectures weretransferred to a room attached to the Turks Head, which was in the Bigg Market. This andalterations to the Old Assembly Rooms did not entirely solve the problem and by 1813 thehunt was on for larger premises.

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Various sites were considered and rejected and it wasn’t until 1821 that the Societyresolved to take over a site in Westgate Street, which had been purchased by a group ofmembers led by Doctor Headlam who would go on to become President in 1850.

The land was once part of an area occupied by the town house and grounds of Walter deBolbec and named Bolbec Hall. It later belonged to Sir John Nevill of Raby. When Sir Ralphde Nevill owned it in 1398 he was created Earl of Westmorland and re-named the propertyWestmorland House. It passed through various families until it was purchased for theSociety from Silas Angas for £1,000.

The Society had a fund of £3,600, raised by such things as increased subscriptions anddonations. The rest would be covered by a mortgage.

By the time of the Annual General Meeting in 1822 they had twelve sets of plans and thetask of choosing an architect. A building committee was appointed with instructions tospend no more than £4,000. They chose John Green as architect and his plans wereformally approved in April 1822.

The foundation stone was laid on 2nd September, 1822 by the Duke of Sussex, the ninthchild and sixth son of King George III. He become the favourite uncle of Queen Victoriaand gave her away at her marriage to Prince Albert. A Freemason, he was the GrandMaster of the Grand Lodge of England so this was cause for great celebration by theBrothers who planned to welcome him with a Masonic festival. The Mayor, AuboneSurtees and the rest of the Corporation arranged an extravagant reception for the Duke,even going to the lengths of building a throne and commissioning special songs and poems.

The Duke was the guest of John George Lambton (future first Earl of Durham) whorepresented the county of Durham in Parliament.

Joseph Price who owned the Durham and British Sheet Glass Works in Gatesheadpresented a specially made vase that was embedded into the foundations. It wasdescribed as ‘an exquisitely-wrought glass vessel, thirteen inches long and three inches indiameter and was richly cut with pointed diamonds and strawberry diamonds, rings, andtwist’. The vase held all the coins of George III’s reign, the last report of the Society, a listof the members, and plans of the proposed building.

The brass plate for the foundation stone was enclosed in glass and surrounded by a blackoak frame. On one side was inscribed: ‘This Foundation Stone of a new building to beerected for the use of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, waslaid on the second day of September, 1822, by His Royal Highness Prince AugustusFrederick, Duke of Sussex and Earl of Inverness, in Great Britain, Baron of Arklow, inIreland, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, President of the Society of Arts,Colonel of the Royal Artillery Company, etc., etc., and Most Worshipful Grand Master ofthe United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England; assisted by Sir J.E.Swinburne,Bart, F.R.S. and F.S.A., Provincial Grand Master of Northumberland, and President of the

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Literary and Philosophical Society; and by J.G.Lambton, Esq., M.P., Provincial GrandMaster of Durham.’

The other side listed the Officers of the Society; the President, the Vice-Presidents, theTreasurer, the Committee, the Building Committee and the Architect.

The crowds were so great that the Duke had difficulty being driven up to the entrance.Fights had broken out between the Constables and the crowd. In the event, barriers weretorn down, which left only a small space for the ceremony to take place.

The dignitaries then went on to the Turks Head Inn, where a Lodge was held. This wasfollowed by a banquet at the Assembly Rooms. A salute was fired from the guns at theCastle after many of the toasts, which led Robert Spence Watson (in his history of theSociety) to remark, ‘After the amount of firing done that day, the fact that the old Castlecontinued to stand its ground is an excellent tribute to our Norman conquerors.’

Eighteen toasts had been drunk and twenty-seven speeches made before a toast wasproposed for ‘the Father and Godfather’, (of the Society), the Rev. William Turner.

The banquet concluded after thirty-five toasts and fifty-three speeches.

The actual building work had only been going for six months when ‘certain alterations’ tothe plans were going to cost an extra £1,000 but the changes were given the go-ahead.The masonry contract had been given to Mr. Ions, of Gateshead,(at £1,977) and he madea good start but they were hit by one of the worst winters in living memory at the start of1823 and the bad weather lasted six weeks. Heavy snow halted all travel. It was reportedthat the stagecoaches stayed in town and the mail coach had to be abandoned nearSwarland being completely buried in snow. The snow on Gateshead Fell was said to belevel with the top of the two-storey houses.

When the Society’s building opened its doors on 18th July, 1825 it was far grander than hadbeen originally envisaged. It had cost £13,756 5s 11/2d., which is worth over £600,000 todayand was more than three times the original budget. They had to borrow £8,200.

The Building Committee took almost two years to provide accounts of expenditure. Themost worrying aspect was the amount borrowed on a mortgage. They decided to increasethe two guinea subscription. This was unpopular and someone commented that thelibrary ‘would become merely a fashionable lounging place for the opulent classes ofsociety.’ Another said that the Society would have to borrow £200 every year in order topurchase books. There was a general feeling of unease about the finances and that theCommittee had concealed the true situation for so long. A positive aspect was the giftsdonated to the Society that grew apace and the lecture programme started in 1803 waswell established.

One of the most unusual gifts was contained in a package that had been sent fromAustralia by John Hunter, an Honorary Member and Governor of New South Wales.

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Thomas Bewick, also part of the Society wrote, ‘The cask containing the two specimensreached Newcastle late in 1799, transported from quayside to the Society’s rooms by awoman servant. She carried it on her head and, by mischance the bottom of the case gaveway, dousing her with pungent spirits. But her dismay was reportedly the greater when,looking down, she saw not only the small chunky wombat, but the remains of a strangecreature, half bird, half beast, lying at her feet.’ It was a species unknown to Europeansand many thought it a hoax. The British Museum received one the same year and GeorgeShaw, one of the keepers, looked for stitches thinking a duck’s head had been sewn ontothe body of a beaver. Shaw was the first to describe it in Naturalist’s Miscellany - it was thePlatypus. Thomas Bewick began working from the skin and went on to produce anengraving for the 1807 edition of his book A General History of Quadrupeds.

The first Society which was formed from the members with specialised interests (but notthe first to be an independent body) was the Natural History Society. The collections werehoused in two rooms on the ground floor of the building and by 1829 there was frictionbetween those who valued a library over a museum and those who thought the opposite.Adding to the problems was the fact that the Society could not afford the costs incurredin looking after an already overcrowded museum. A meeting was held on 19th August, 1829and the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne(now the Natural History Society of Northumberland) was founded. It decided that itwould buy land from the Lit & Phil in order to build its own museum.

The NHS paid the Lit & Phil £400 for a plot of land at the back of the building together withright of way along Library Place for the public. There was to be a communicating doorfrom the Library to give members free access to the Museum. In return the Lit & Philwould pay the NHS £40 a year and the members of the NHS would be allowed to takebooks on Natural History from the Library to the Museum. The building was completed in1834 and formerly opened on 3rd December, housing the Antiquarian Society and later theFine Arts Society.

In 1849, the Annual Report showed that the mortgage debt was £6,200 and many of thesubscriptions were unpaid. It was decided to hold a ‘Bazaar or Fancy Fair’ to raise funds soon 2nd October, 1850 they threw open the doors. There were stalls (one hosted by theDuchess of Northumberland), brass bands and a horticultural exhibition. It ran for threedays but despite its success the Society only came out with £420, which was less than halfof the takings.

The mortgage debt had not been reduced by the end of the financial year so theyappealed for donations from ‘the Nobility, Gentry, Manufacturers, Merchants andInfluential Inhabitants of the North of England.’ The response was less than enthusiastic.

Robert Stephenson (who was appointed President in 1855) proved to be its saviour. Heoffered to pay half the debt if the members and friends of the Society could raise the

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other half by the time of the next Anniversary Meeting in February 1855 and if thesubscription were reduced to one guinea.

Robert Stephenson felt that he owed the Society a great deal. He said that he hadbenefitted greatly from the library when he was a youth and would never forget the helpand guidance he and his father had received from Mr. Turner who had lent theminstruments and books and gave them ‘valuable counsel.’

Surprisingly, given the poor state of the Society’s finances the offer was not welcomed orappreciated by everyone and two opposing camps developed, even within theCommittee. Some thought it was not in their best interests to reduce the subscriptionclaiming that it would become ‘too popular’ and that would degrade it. Despite the violentopposition the fund grew slowly but they did not meet the deadline. Robert Stephensonwas aware of the efforts to undermine his offer and kept it open. Fortunately the fundswere raised by 1856 and an agreement was reached at the next Annual Meeting thatmembership of the Society should be reduced to a guinea.

By the time of the next meeting membership had increased from 506 to 1,016.

Robert Stephenson died in 1859 and left the Society £7,000 in his will, with strictinstructions that it was not to be used (in part or whole) for any building work.

The arrangement between the Lit & Phil and the NHS continued until 1884. AlbanyHancock had written a report twenty years earlier about the unrest felt by members ofthe NHS. They found it annoying to be seen as a junior member of the Society, down aside-alley of the Lit & Phil and the accommodation was proving inadequate. The NHS soldthe site and building to the North Eastern Railway for £12,830 and the collections weremoved to the Newcastle Museum at Barras Bridge.

The naturalist John Hancock died in 1890 and the Museum was re-named the Hancock inhonour of him and his late brother Albany. Both men had been heavily involved in theSociety and had served on the Committee. John had been instrumental in the campaignfor setting up a new museum.

After purchasing the old NHS site the North Eastern Railway served a notice on theSociety that they were going to take away the yard under parliamentary powers. As ithappened the library was now too small to hold all the books and an arrangement wasagreed between the two bodies. The Company had already acquired land to the south ofthe Society’s building so it was agreed that they would give to the Society as much land tothe south as it took from the west and provide enough funds to enable a fresh wing to bebuilt at right angles to the existing building. The Company gave £5,500, Lord Armstrong£700 and the Members £750 and the plan was carried out.

The Society reached its centenary on 7th February, 1893 and they celebrated in style,taking over the rooms of the Society and the Mining Institute. There was an orchestra in

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the galleries, singers from York Minster, demonstrations of new inventions, talks andrefreshments, which were rounded off by a dance. Little did they know the devastationthat was to follow in the early hours of the next day.

A telegraph clerk was on his way to work at around 5.45 in the morning when he saw thebuilding was on fire and he raised the alarm. By the time it was extinguished all parts ofthe premises had been affected by fire or water. The library had suffered the mostdamage. The roof was completely destroyed, the floor had partially fallen in and over9,500 books destroyed. Others had various degrees of damage.

Investigation showed that the fire had started in the south-east corner of the old libraryand probably due to a large wooden beam that ran beneath a fire place. The fireplace inquestion had not been used for a few years since the library stopped using hot water forheating but they needed hot water for refreshments during the centenary celebrations soa fire was lit. The beam had become overheated and caught fire. It was discovered thatone of the main supporting beams lay under each hearth-stone. When alterations weremade to fix the hot water pipes for the heating there was gaps left round the beams thatallowed for air circulation and that fed the fire. When other beams were checked theywere found to be charred.

The insurance company paid out £10,648 14s 2d and restoration works were planned bythe Committee, not least of which was the removal of all open fireplaces. The rooms wereopened up on 1st October, 1894 following changes made to help prevent fire spreading soquickly in the future. Some rooms had kept their wooden floors so ceilings of steel andplaster were installed and marble floors were placed at the openings. By 1895 it wasreported that almost half the lost books had been replaced and they had received manyworthwhile gifts. The rest were considered out of date, duplicate copies, or not worthre-purchase. Of the 16,000 books that were slightly damaged 11,000 had already beenrepaired and 3,400 new books had been purchased in addition to those replaced. It wasconsidered that the library would be, ‘in a more satisfactory condition than before’. Thatwas very important because books were such an integral part of the Society’s interests.Some had fought to keep out fiction and, ‘any other things objectionable’ but a decisionhad been made in 1891 to purchase novels and they proved very popular.

When it opened in 1894 the whole building was lit by electricity, which came from adynamo driven by a gas engine in the basement.

The Society’s lecture theatre (removed in the 1960s) was the first public room to be lit byelectric light. On 3rd February, 1879 Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, (President of the Society from1911 to 1914) delivered a lecture and demonstrated his Incandescent Electric Lamp to anaudience of over seven hundred people. The following year on 20th October, 1880 Swanlectured on electric lighting and during it he gave the signal for all the seventy gas jets tobe extinguished. He then switched on twenty of his own lamps, which ‘amazed the

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audience with its suddenness.’ The start of 1881 saw the first commercial manufacture oflight bulbs in Benwell.

Other groundbreaking technology was demonstrated at the Lit & Phil. Amongst them wasGeorge Stephenson’s Safety Lamp, which was shown on 5th December, 1815.

Lectures have always been important and were delivered from the very beginning, albeitrather spasmodically until 1803. There have been hundreds of eminent speakers includingOscar Wilde, William Rossetti, Hillaire Belloc, John Masefield, Edith Sitwell, Mary Kingsley,Dorothy Sayers, John Betjeman and Walter de la Mare.

During the nineteenth century the Society became part of the University ExtensionScheme, which continues.

The music library is an important part of the Society. It possessed a large number of bookson the subject but around one hundred years ago scores were acquired. More than sevenhundred were added in 1914 alone. The aim was to form a collection that would containthe complete works of all the great composers as well as a selection of others, especiallynorth-country composers. Lectures and recitals were regular occurrences. In 1942 agramophone library was begun. This was the start of one of the finest collections in theNorth of England.

The Society keeps a complete list of members since 1895 and it reads like a who’s who ofthe North East’s intelligentsia. They include:

William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong

Inventor, industrialist and businessman, President of the Society 1860-1900

Richard Grainger

Architect

Charles, 2nd Earl Grey

Prime Minister and social reformer

Robert Stephenson

Mechanical and structural Engineer, President of the Society 1855-1860

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan

Pharmacist, chemist, electrical engineer and inventor, President of the Society 1911-1914

Sid Chaplin

Prize-winning writer and founder member of Northern Arts

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Robert Spence Watson

Solicitor, lecturer and writer, President of the Society 1901-1911

Elizabeth Spence Watson

Pioneer of the women’s movement

George Macaulay Trevelyan

Historian, author and lecturer

Thomas Bewick

Wood Engraver

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons

Engineer, Vice-President of the Society 1912-1916

A Society Book Scheme was set up in 2001 to help with conservation and Lottery fundinghas been obtained for particular binding projects.

The Society is a registered charity. This year (2010) they are launching an appeal. TheGrade II* listed building needs updating and requires repairs to the main library.Commercial activities are planned to help raise much needed funds.

The Society is also selling the adjacent Bolbec Hall, which they hope will raise around £1.5million. It was built specutively in 1909 and has had Grade II listing since 1987. Debts werepaid off in 1948 and various tenants have rented the six-storey building over the years sothat has helped to cushion the Society. However in 1972 it needed a great deal of work tobring it in line with the requirements of the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act.Many other repairs were needed and dry rot was discovered. The costs were estimated at£33,000 and the Society reluctantly agreed to sell eighty illustrated books of naturalhistory at Sotheby’s. The money was raised and work was completed in 1975. Majorrepairs were carried out to the roof in 1984. It appears that it may now be a drain on theSociety’s finances.

Charles Parish, Librarian of the Society from1963 to 1987 said, ‘The history of the Literaryand Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne from its beginning to the present daymay be divided into three parts. The first is the story of the Society as a learned societyconducting and encouraging research by means of its lectures, its laboratory apparatus,its museum and its growing library. The second part shows much of the work it initiatedbeing gradually taken over by institutions with specialised interests which had their rootswithin the Society. During this period the Society materially assisted the setting up of theSociety of Antiquarians of Newcastle upon Tyne, the Natural History Society ofNorthumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne, the North of England Institute of

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Mining and Mechanical Engineering, and the College of Physical Science which evolvedinto the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, while itself becoming a major centre forfurther education by its work through and for the University Extension Movement and bymeans of its miscellaneous lectures and concerts and its association with UniversityExtension classes, its library plays a dominant role.’

At the beginning the founders did not consider a general library but it is now obvious thatthe Society’s survival is probably dependent on it although it has always been a vital partof the Lit & Phil. It was founded at a time when there were no rate-supported libraries andno university libraries outside Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Dublin. It is the largestindependent library outside London and has some rare and valuable works. There arearound five hundred books that were printed before 1700 and one of the oldest datesfrom 1570.

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8. Highgate CemeteryBy Sheila Convey

CEMETERIES AND GRAVEYARDS HOLD A fascination for many of us. HighgateCemetery in London is famous for being the burial place of Karl Marx but theauthor Douglas Adams is there too as well as many other famous people. In the

early decades of the nineteenth century London faced a crisis. Inadequate burial spacealong with high mortality rates resulted in a lack of room for the dead. Graveyards andburial grounds were created between shops, houses and taverns - anywhere there wasspace. On occasions, undertakers dressed as clergy and performed unauthorized andillegal funerals. Bodies were wrapped in cheap material and buried amongst other humanremains in graves sometimes just a few feet deep. Quicklime was thrown over the bodyto help decomposition, so that within a few months the grave could be used again. Thestench from these disease-ridden burial places was terrible. They were overcrowded,uncared for and neglected.

Part of the problem was that in the early 1800s London had a population of just 1 million.Within a few decades the population had increased to 2.3 million and was still rising. By

Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

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the 1830s the population of London had virtually doubled and the authorities realized thatprovision would have to be made for the increasing numbers of deaths and to that endParliament passed an act that saw the creation of seven new private cemeteries. Thesecemeteries were Kensal Green (1833), West Norwood (1836), Highgate (1839), Abney Park(1840), Brompton (1840), Nunhead (1840) and Tower Hamlets (1841).

Then in 1836 an Act of Parliament was passed creating The London Cemetery Company.Stephen Geary, the company's founder, appointed James Bunstone Bunning as surveyorand David Ramsey as landscape gardener. A head office was opened at 22 MoorgateStreet, London.

Just over three and a half thousand pounds was paid for seventeen acres of land that hadbeen the grounds of the Ashurst Estate, descending the steep hillside from HighgateVillage. Over the next three years the cemetery was landscaped to brilliant effect byRamsey with exotic formal planting which was complimented by stunning and uniquearchitecture by Geary and Bunning. It was this combination that was to secure Highgateas the capital's principal cemetery.

The unparalleled elevation overlooking London, with its highest point being 375ft abovesea level, along with unique architecture, meant that the wealthy were encouraged toinvest.

Two Tudor style chapels were built, topped with wooden turrets and a central bell tower.In the very heart of the grounds was created the grandest and most eccentric structure,an avenue of vaults on either side of a passageway entered through a great arch. It wascreated in the Egyptian style which was so in vogue following the discovery of the Valleyof the Kings. These vaults were fitted with shelves for 12 coffins. The avenue led into theCircle of Lebanon, built in the same style. This circle was created by earth being excavatedaround an ancient Cedar of Lebanon, a legacy of the Ashurst Estate and used to greateffect by the cemetery's designers. Above this, catacombs in the gothic style, with animpressive 80 yard frontage, with room for a total of 825 people, were completed in 1842.

The 20th and 21st Centuries

By the turn of the century the desire for great elaborate funerals was waning and familiesbegan to choose less ostentatious memorials than in previous decades. At the outbreakof the Great War, many of the cemetery's gardeners and grounds men were called up tofight. Despite this diminished workforce, the grounds continued to be smart inappearance, held under the strict authority of the superintendent.

Although some wealthy families continued to purchase rights of burial during the 1930s,Highgate Cemetery was passing into a long, slow, terminal decline. Greater and greaternumbers of graves became abandoned and maintenance became minimal. The chapelswere closed in 1956. In 1960 the London Cemetery Company, facing bankruptcy, was

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absorbed into the larger United Cemetery Company, which struggled to keep thecemetery afloat until funds ran out in 1975.

In the same year, The Friends of Highgate Cemetery was launched to secure access to thecemetery for public benefit and future generations. Over the last 30 years muchrestoration and conservation work has been carried out on buildings, boundary walls,architectural features and the landscape. Several features and monuments have beenlisted as of special importance by English Heritage.

Extensive work has been carried out on the chapels, which lay derelict until 1985. TheEgyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon have been conserved and the exterior of theTerrace Catacomb has been restored. Several monuments, including the massive Beermausoleum, have also had expert attention. The grounds of the cemetery, which hadbecome an overgrown wilderness, have had extensive, but sensitive, clearing.

The National Lottery and English Heritage have given considerable advice and help.Recently the cemetery was proud to become listed as a Grade 1 park by English Heritage.

-----------------

Source: http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/index.php/home

Audio slideshow: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12060599

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9. PoltergeistsBy Sheila Convey

POLTERGEIST IS A COMPOUND GERMAN word,often translated as ‘noisy spirit’-Poltern ‘to makenoises’ + Geist ‘ghost’. It was first used by the

German religious leader Martin Luther as a way ofdescribing events attributed to spirits of the dead or theDevil. The term is associated with disturbances such asnoises, with no visible cause, objects being flung aroundby unseen hands, strange odours and physical assaults.Fires are sometimes started and water appears from noknown source.

Poltergeist activity can be traced back to ancient Romantimes. In Ab Urbe Condita Libri, the Roman historian,Titus Livius (59BC-AD17) wrote of a shower of stones thatfrightened the Roman army. It has been reported globally since then, appearing to haveadapted to modern technology.

A census taken in 1935 by the International Institute for Psychical Research under the titleHistoric Poltergeists put on record 300 cases from AD530 to the 1930s.

Some still consider it a mischievous spirit, which is occasionally malevolent whilst othersregard it as phenomena produced by subconscious psychokinesis - from the Greek psyche‘mind’+ kinesis ‘movement’.

What is sure is that poltergeist activity tends to occur around a single person, called anagent or focus. It is often attributed to a pubescent female. In ancient times it was blamedon the Devil, demons or witches.

It is still considered a mystery by many. The parapsychologist and psychologist, NandorFodor who was one of the leading authorities on poltergeists said: “A first-yearastronomer may be able to figure out the orbit of a planet, but who could figure out theorbit of a fly? Poltergeist disturbances are more erratic than the flight of flies. They do nothappen under direct gaze, but always at the moment when attention is diverted.”

Between 1934-1938 Fodor was director of research for the International Institute forPsychical research and he investigated many poltergeist cases. He came to the conclusionthat many of the manifestations were real but added, “I consider them, however, to bemanifestations of major mental disorder.” He regarded the agents as suffering fromrepressed anger, hostility and sexual tension.

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It is usual for poltergeist activity to start and stop abruptly. Generally the activity isshort-lived, lasting from several hours to a few months but some have been known to lastfor several years.The phenomena usually starts with scratching noises whish grow instrength to become bangings and rapping. At first they can sometimes appear to becoming from the outside of the building but as they progress, they seem to be on the inside.

It is common for poltergeists to mimic noises. It has been known for the sound offurniture being dragged around, pots and pans being thrown and crockery smashing tocome from behind closed doors but on investigation everything in the room is in place andundamaged.

One of the most common events is spontaneous movement of objects. More often thannot the objects aren’t seen as they start to move. They odd item can become damaged orbroken but this can escalate into a house being totally vandalised and all in a matter ofminutes. There is a 1981 account from Bournemouth where food and furniture weretossed around rooms. When photographs were taken they showed that hardly anythingwas left intact.

Stone throwing is another very common phenomena. Showers of pebbles and rocks havebeen known to fall both inside and outside buildings. It is not restricted to stone though.Garage owners in Nottingham reported ball bearings being thrown around.

What is curious about stone throwing and kindred disturbances is the seeming slownessof motion of the objects. They are often reported as moving at a much slower speed thanthey would have if they had been thrown. In many cases the objects take a curved pathand can sometimes be warm or even hot to the touch.

Objects have been known to pass through windows or holes that appear too small toadmit them and some have appeared through closed doors from empty rooms. Anotherfrequently observed phenomena are objects falling from ceilings. Despite the manyreports of so many objects being thrown it is rare for anyone to receive injuries. Somehave been struck lightly but most not at all.

It is very rare (but not unknown) for people to be attacked and seriously hurt although itis quite common for minor scratches and bite marks to appear. Another common featureof poltergeists is the appearance and disappearance of objects such as coins, jewelleryand even food. Poltergeist activity in a house in Cambridgeshire brought bread rolls. Testsconfirmed they had been baked over a hundred years before. Fires have been widelyreported as well as the appearance of water and other liquids. Less common than theso-called ‘core phenomena’ are apparitions, levitation and the spontaneous appearanceof blood.

Poltergeist activity is wide ranging but the character of the phenomena is nearly alwaysthe same. Psychical research increased during the late 19th and early 20th centuries,confirming that poltergeist activity was genuine. The well-known British investigator of

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psychic phenomena, Herward Carrington said: “It appears incredible that suchcoincidental happenings could possibly have taken place in all ages and in all parts of theworld, had there not been some genuine manifestations behind these reports.”

In a paper which Carrington contributed to the Fifth International Psychical Congress(Oslo, 1935) he said: “Were poltergeists merely due to trickery, on the one hand, andcredulity, on the other, we should assuredly expect to find more in relatively uncivilizedcountries, or at least expect to find them in which the level of culture is not high. But anexamination of the material shows that precisely the reverse of this is in fact the case-England, Germany, Italy and the United States having the greatest number.”

In the 1960s William G.Roll of the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, NorthCarolina explored the psychological theory. He noted that the ‘agent’s or ‘focus’ are oftenexperiencing repressed psychological tension or emotional problems. He studiedhistorical reports of poltergeists activity and investigated 7. He named the phenomena‘recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK). Recurrent refers to the fact that the eventsare typically repeated and spontaneous because it has not been possible to discover anyway to control or predict the occurrences. He noted that the agent is usually oblivious tothe fact the he or she caused the disturbance but was, at the same time, secretly or openlypleased that they occurred.

Poltergeist activity has been described as ‘extrasomatic’, literally outside the body. Anexpression of psychological stress in the same way that an ulcer can be a psychosomaticexpression of said stress.

Other researchers have disputed the psychological dysfunction theory and some claimthat Roll’s case studies are too small and individual to begin applying widespreadhypotheses to them. Thousands of people suffer psychological trauma but they don’t allbecome poltergeist agents.

In their book, Poltergeists Alan Gauld and Anthony D.Cornell list 500 cases. In the late1970s they did a computer analysis of those collected since 1800. They identified 63general characteristics, which include the following: 64 per cent involved the movementof small objects; 58 per cent were most active at night; 48 per cent featured raps; 36 percent involved movement of large objects; 24 per cent last longer than one year; 16 percent featured communication between the poltergeist and agent; 12 per cent involved theopening and shutting of doors and windows.

The Gauld-Cornell analysis found 9 per cent attributed to demons; 7 per cent to witchesand 2 per cent to spirits of the dead. Most of the demons and witches attributionsoccurred in non-Western countries. There are hardly any reports of poltergeists frompeople who live alone. The majority occur in families, or where there is someone to sharethe experience. In contrast people living alone appear to be the most common victims ofSpontaneous Human Combustion. In The Poltergeist Phenomenon John and Anne

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Spencer speculate that “Perhaps the energy that leaks from a person in frustration tocause a poltergeist, if not dispelled, can become a violent inner force. If there is no one todisplay frustration to, even in a seemingly absurd a manner as a poltergeist phenomena,perhaps the force turns inward and is self destructive.”

In the words of Hereward Carrington: “When all has been said and done, however, it mustbe acknowledged that the true nature of the poltergeist phenomena still remains amystery-both to the character of the physical occurrences themselves, and also as to thenature of the ‘mind’ instigating them. If such phenomena were subject to any form ofcontrol we might have some hope that progress would be made towards their solution;but in the great majority of cases their occurrence is so spontaneous and sporadic that,seemingly, scant hope can be offered that such control conditions can be applied.”

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10. The Ghost of George Stephenson'sBirthplaceBy Sheila Convey

The pioneering locomotive engineer George Stephenson was born in 1781 in a humblecottage in Wylam, Northumberland that was owned by Christopher Blackett. He hadWylam Colliery where George's father worked as a fireman.

The family moved to Killingworth when George was around eight and many families havelived there since. It is said that at one time each of it's four rooms were occupied by adifferent family so no one knows who the resident ghost is.

Owned by the National Trust, one volunteer has seen the ghost nicknamed Mabel. Shewas coming out of what is now the sitting room and appeared to be wearing clothes fromthe Victorian era. She wore a long black dress with a white apron over the top.

A bedroom appears to be the focus of paranormal activity. When a recent custodianmoved in a spare room emitted a disgusting smell for months. Plumbers and builderscouldn't find any problems and it wasn't until one plumber joked that "there must be apoltergeist" did the stench disappear, never to return. The custodian's dog would neverenter the room though and was given to howling inexplicably.

Mabel appears to be most active when there have been lots of visitors and busy BankHolidays seem to be her favourite time with power surges and blown fuses. Electricalequipment is also interfered with, especially a microwave.

A particularly active time was experienced when a group of visitors chorused, "GoodbyeMabel!" as they left the house after hearing the story from one of the guides.

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Useful Link: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-georgestephensonsbirthplace

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Download - Otherworld North East Research Society Journal Volume IV, 2010

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