2017 – history of the Little Moor paths

Maintenance of Little Moor paths by resident volunteers.

FOVALD’s Lending a Hand group recently undertook maintenance work on the paths across Little Moor which you can read about elsewhere on this website.

Here is some history of those Little Moor paths from Chris Morgan

This is the older of the two paths across the Little Moor, possibly constructed about the time the estate was being laid out around 1900-10.

Until at least the 1970s there was a dark blue vitreous enamel sign facing town beside the gate at the Great North Road end to announce arrival at High West Jesmond.

In those days Moorfield did not run through to the Great North Road beyond the Lodore Road junction. There used to be cows on the Little Moor so gates were essential.

The trees planted alongside the paths were probably planted about the 1920/30s when the second, longer, path was constructed. Most of them haven’t survived!

September 6, 2017September 6, 2017

Centenary of Newcastle Allotments

1917 – 2017 – a hundred years of allotments in Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne will be celebrating a centenary of allotments with special events on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 September 2017.

The Newcastle Allotment and Garden Fete 2017 will take place in Leazes Park celebrating 100 years of allotment growing 1917 – 2017

A weekend for friends and family, with market stalls, fresh produce, honey bee demonstrations, garden advice, family fun fair, children’s crafts and activities.

Saturday 23 September – staging

Staging will take place on Saturday 23 September between 10am – 4.30pm when exhibitors only will be allowed in the main marquee.

Sunday 24 September – open day

Following staging there will be an open day for members of the public on Sunday 24 September 11am -4pm.

Activities will, include family entertainment, children’s activities, music, face painting, a climbing wall and more, all taking place within the beautiful setting of Leazes Park, Newcastle’s oldest park, close to the city centre.

You can find out more details and enter the competitions – details are part of the Newcastle Allotments website.

High West Jesmond’s 3 allotments

High West Jesmond has three seperate allotment sites. You can find out their location and learn a little bit more following the link below:

Little Moor Allotments
Triangle Allotments
High West Jesmond Allotments

You can find more details about each of the allotments on our Allotments page within this website.

August 15, 2017September 16, 2017

1950 – Kingswood Avenue

Parking was not a problem in High West Jesmond in 1950.

A heritage post by Chris Morgan

Visting High West Jesmond this weekend I couldn’t help noticing how difficult it is to park. Not like when this picture was taken in early spring 1950 in Kingswood Avenue.

Gas lamps. Wooden lock up garages on Lodore Road.

One poplar tree, the last remaining in the road from the time when the estate was laid out with each house supposed to have 2 trees!

One parked car, probably outside the bottom house of Charles Nichol, photographer.

In those days there may have been only 4 or 5 cars in the entire road, but we were troubled by learner drivers practising 3 point turns outside.

In those days, certainly until at least the late 1960s, many of the cars weren’t left on the street overnight. Those lock up garages (shown in the distance in the photograph) housed Jesmond Farm Dairies milk delivery vans and some cars.

Several houses in Kingswood were using backyards to park cars – many of those spaces now used for house extensions.

Jones’ Garage, now North Jesmond Garage, must have kept at least a dozen cars tightly squeezed in each night. In 1967 I paid 10/- (50p) a week to park my Morris Minor in there. That would probably equate to about £10 a week today.

July 29, 2017September 16, 2017

1964 – Music with Movement on Moorfield

Moving a piano in High West Jesmond in 1964

A heritage post by Chris Morgan

Back at West Jesmond Junior School in the 1950’s we used to have to take part in exercise sessions to the tunes of “Music with Movement” from the BBC schools service, played on big Rediffusion loudspeakers.

In the 1950s many High West Jesmond houses would contain a piano.

Television was still very new and there were probably only 3 radio stations most people would listen to, the Light programme (now Radio 2), Home Service (Radio 4) or the Third Programme (Radio 3). Hilversum was probably the only other listened to by teenagers and young people.

As TV became more popular, and radio programmes more diverse, lots of pianos were no longer wanted. I never found out where this piano was going to, had come from, or why.

This picture was taken in Moorfield, by the junction with the Great North Road in autumn 1964. I have no idea who these lads were, or what they were doing with the piano at this time or place! Possibly on the way to a Guy Fawkes bonfire?

June 29, 2017September 5, 2017

1967 – Moorfield, Newcastle 50 years ago

A little nostalgia, here’s Moorfield 50 years ago this month

A heritage post by Chris Morgan

In those days Moorfield was a rat run from the A1 Great North Road out of Gosforth to Osborne Road.

This was a quiet evening, and by modern standards there weren’t too many cars. Today, the whole of High West Jesmond is packed with cars, including many park-and-ride users of Ilford Road Metro station.

The trees in the grassy verge in this picture were all planted as saplings in 1956. Some died, some may have been cut down, but those that remain are quite large now!

June 29, 2017September 4, 2017

1962 – The Valley and Little Dene, or Blackies Valley, Newcastle being filled in

Little Dene, aka Blackies Valley, or what was left of it before they finally filled it in, around 1962

A heritage post by Chris Morgan

This small stream flows east from high on the Newcastle Town Moor near Kenton Bar, and formed the boundary between the City and County of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gosforth, which was then in Northumberland. Ultimately it joins the Ouse Burn just beyond the foot of Matthew Bank where it is known as Craghall Dene.

It flowed below the Great North Road roughly where Moor Road now joins Moorfield, that point being known as Little Bridge. By the time the large house Little Dene was built on Lodore Road the stream was in a culvert, probably beside the south side of Moor Road. It emerged to the north-east side of the old house through an ornamental angelic water feature in the garden, then flowed at the north side of Lodore Road until the bottom of Newlands Road.

An open culvert (no gating of any kind to prevent entry) then took the stream to the bottom of Mathew Bank. Braver boys than I said they’d worked their way all the way through! The wooden structure at the base of this picture is immediately above that entry.

The Blyth and Tyne railway was built on an embankment across the dene, but that small culvert was extended when material from the clearance of the Forth goods depot was used to broaden the embankment, sufficiently for the building of houses on Ilford Road and Newlands Avenue – and possibly parts of Lodore road itself. The Craghall Dene side of the railway has also been filled at various dates almost up to Matthew Bank.

This picture was taken from the bottom of Newlands Avenue, looking towards Lodore Road and the bottom of Albemarle Avenue. By this time the trees, mostly willow, had been cleared off and the line of the new culvert had been excavated. I think the rubble subsequently used to fill this area came from demolished slum housing in Shieldfield, where tower blocks were built. This site is now a gently sloping grassy area.

Before this it had been a more natural dene, with willow trees, and some sloping allotments on the Gosforth northern side. The south side next to Lodore Road was steeper, comprising building rubble that must have been dumped to make the High West Jesmond site more level when Lodore Road was formed.

Note the line of wooden garages on Lodore Road. These could be hired, 2 or 3 storing small Ford vans for the delivery of milk by Jesmond Farm Dairies on Newlands Avenue (where the convenience store is now). Others were used by local residents. In 1962 very few cars were kept overnight on the roads.

North Jesmond Garge on Lodore Road, just to the left of this picture, was then Jones Garage with 3 petrol pumps – hand operated. At night it also stored residents cars. In 1968 I paid 10/- a week to keep my 1952 Morris Minor there.

Incidentally, North Jesmond originally referred to the part further to the east of the railway, towards Matthew Bank – the garage should really be called High West Jesmond Garage!