The Little Village Down the Bank

Low Prudhoe

Photographs relating to this article, including those in this extract, may be found in Gallery 1.03

A hamlet, or at any rate a small group of houses, must have grown up near the site of the present Prudhoe Station in the Middle Ages since there were two fords in this area. Traces of one of these can be seen a little to the west of the bridge. A ferry operated between Prudhoe and Ovingham where the bridge now stands; though it does not appear to have been of great importance. Mention of the ferry has been traced in old rentals of 1434-5 when it is stated that “there was no rent from the farm of the boathouse because a long time ago the boathouse was carried away by the waters of the Tyne”. The fords seem to have been used very much more than the ferry, that is until about 1586. Prior to the Reformation, with a chapel in the Castle and another at the Chantry on the site of the Grange on South Road, the few villagers of Prudhoe must have had adequate provision to supply their spiritual needs, and probably only needed to cross the river to Ovingham Church for baptisms, weddings and funerals and, possibly, to attend the Ovingham Fair. The suppression of the Reformation possibly increased the need to use Ovingham Church as a place of worship for the Prudhoe residents and the ferry would become of greater importance.

From 1586 we find a record of a ferryman named Wigert Stobbert who had “at the Lord’s will the Passage of the water between Prudhoe and Ovingham at a rent of 2s Od.” The boathouse seems to have been replaced on the Ovingham side of the river since it is recorded that on 17th November 1771, during that great flood, the boathouse at Ovingham was swept away drowning about eight people who lived there. The flood swept away every bridge on the Tyne except the one at Corbridge.

Sykes in his book “Local Records” describes the tragic event as follows; “When the water entered the house (i.e. the boathouse at Ovingham) there were ten people in it, John Johnson, the boatman, his wife and two children, his mother and his brother, his man and maid servants, with a young man from Prudhoe and a labouring man named George Simpson. On their perceiving the danger they were in, they all went upstairs, and as the water advanced, they ascended nearer the roof of the house, till at last they were obliged to break through the wall into the stable that was built at the end of the dwelling house, thinking it a place of greater safety, both by its strength and situation, and made themselves a temporary place to sit on, by putting a deal and a ladder betwixt the building balks, and there they remained until one o’clock in the morning, at which time, perceiving the dwelling house gone, and the stable beginning to give way, they got on top of the stable, when three of them climbed up to the chimney pot, viz. George Simpson, the young man from Prudhoe and the boatman’s brother. The boatman, his wife, mother and two children, and the man and maid servants remained as before, when in an instant, the building fell, and they were all swept away by the torrent, and carried down with the thatch, etc., for near 300 yards into the wood where the boatman, his brother, and maid servant got upon trees, and continued in that situation ten hours before they could be relieved, and the maid died soon after she got to land. The unhappy husband, when he seized the tree with one hand, caught his wife with the other and, after holding her a few minutes, she was wrested from him in fifteen feet depth of water, and in the midst of rapid current. The wretched husband and his brother were the only survivors left out of the ten persons to relate the sad catastrophe.”

In the grounds of the old vicarage at Ovingham one can see the height of that flood marked on the garden steps. Taking this level as a guide, the flood must have extended across the river to a point just below the roundabout of the Prudhoe By-pass, roughly where the premises of Centre Design now stands – a firm which produces large Christmas displays for shopping malls such as the Metro Centre.

The ferry, however, continued to be of significant importance for the transport of both people and animals up to the building of the current bridge in 1 883 in spite of the fact that a report of 1862 describes it as follows: “We cannot say that, to ‘foreigners’, the ferry is either commodious or agreeable, especially in conjunction with the assurance that not infrequently the boat has gone over the dam, along which the windy voyage is made”.

Low Prudhoe developed as a mining village with five rows of cottages, one of which was back to back, namely (on the station side of the road as one comes from the bridge) – Chapel Row, Tyne Row and North Row, backed by Castle Row; and (on the Adam and Eve Inn side) School Row and Castle Row West. Low Prudhoe had two public houses – the Adam & Eve and the Boat House which was opposite the Adam & Eve on the east side of the road leading to the station.

School Row, Low Prudhoe c. 1930

Low Prudhoe Methodist Church stood on the land now occupied by Glendinning’s Garage. This Methodist group grew out of the Prudhoe Society. It is recorded that originally the members “held cottage meetings in the little village down the bank”. Eventually the chapel was built, the local miners doing much of it with their own hands. This must have been a considerable undertaking both financially and physically, especially as the pit was only working four or five days a fortnight at the time. The foundation stone was laid on Good Friday 1879 and the chapel was completed the following October. It was demolished in 1970 when the last of the colliery rows, namely Tyne Row, was also razed to the ground.

The bridge, built by the Ovingham Bridge Toll Company, was opened on December 1883, the foundation stone having been laid in June of that year by Mrs J H Ridley of Wellbum House, Ovingham, the wife of the chairman of the Bridge Company. Mrs Ridley received a silver trowel from the shareholders of the company to assist her in the laying of the stone. With it were enclosed copies of local newspapers, a prospectus of the Ovingham Bridge Company and some coins of the day. Later many of the spectators adjourned for tea in a tent on the village cricket field (presumably that at Low Prudhoe between the railway and the river, to the east of the bridge). A press cutting declares that “all expressed their delight with the new bridge which meant that hardships involved in crossing the river by ferry on dark stormy nights would be done away with.”

Sketch Map of Low Prudhoe c. 1920

Low Prudhoe Church c. 1950

On the official opening day the bridge was decorated with flags and there were crowds on either bank of the river. When the first vehicle (a rolley pulled by two horses) crossed the bridge a great cheer went up from the assembled crowd. After the ceremony “a large number of ladies and gentlemen sat down to luncheon in Ovingham Inn, the chairman being the Rev W M Wray, the vicar of Ovingham”. Mr Ridley received a gold ring on “behalf of the working men as a token of their appreciation for the new bridge”. (At this time a considerable number of miners had to walk to and fro from Ovington, Horsley and Ovingham to the pit at Hedley-on-the Hill!). He also received a silver salver from the Rev Wray from the “grateful inhabitants of Ovingham”. To mark the opening of the bridge a ball was held three days later in the Ovingham Inn.

At the ceremony and the subsequent celebrations many stories were recounted about the inconvenience of the ferry. Some told of a horse and cart being washed away down the river, while others recalled the day when the ferry boat was swamped and the passengers were hurled into the river. All spoke of the inconvenience of having to shout from the river bank to summon the ferryman and then having to wait for as much as half an hour for his arrival.

For many years tolls were paid at the toll house on the Prudhoe side of the bridge. It was a favourite occupation of the children to dodge under the window of the toll house so as to avoid paying the toll for crossing the bridge. The lady toll keeper is said to have been very strict about the collection of the tolls. It is said that once when a funeral cortege was passing over the bridge she carefully counted the number of mourners who had to pay a penny each and then declared that she needed an extra penny “for the one in the box”. One means of avoiding paying the toll was for farm lads to hide under the tarpaulin of the cart. Great self-discipline was required and no cry of pain could be emitted as the lady toll keeper brought down her stick on the tarpaulin.

The bridge was taken over by the County Council in 1914 and was eventually freed from toll on 5th July 1945.

Ovingham Toll House, South end of bridge

Until 1930, the bridge was used by both pedestrians and vehicular traffic with no footpath being provided for those on foot. In 1930, however, the County Council placed a footpath on the bridge. In 1974 a separate foot bridge was constructed on the downstream side of the bridge for pedestrians.

Prudhoe’s railway station was built in 1835. For a while, from 3rd May 1937 until March 1971, it went under the name of “Prudhoe for Ovingham Station”, but has since reverted to its original name. As well as the Newcastle to Carlisle route, a passenger service from Newcastle via Prudhoe to Hexham, Bellingham, Kielder, Riccerton Junction and Hawick ran until October 1956.

Originally only a wooden shed provided shelter on the station platform. The reason it did not have an attractive stone built station like Wylam, Stocksfield, Riding Mill and Corbridge is explained by Douglas Mennear in his book “The Mid Tyne Villages of Northumberland”. In this he puts forward an explanation given by Dr Fawcet, namely that “in the early days of railways, stations were built according to who the railway directors thought would use their stations. Evidently, there were not sufficient gentry in the locality of Prudhoe Station for a stone station, so a wooden shed was provided.

Discussions with agents for the landowner in 1846-7 for the site of a better station building were fruitless. A platform and stone shed were built for passengers in 1852. Finally, after the line became part of the N.E.R., a standard brick station with ticket office and waiting room was supplied in 1884 – and probably opened in 1885. This lasted until 1971”. The single storey station was then removed and by 1980 was replaced by two Perspex shelters.

Low Prudhoe – View of Prudhoe Castle from the allotments c. 1900
Note the lack of vegetation around the castle at this time. The house on the right was at the end of Chapel Row. Castle Farm is at the foot of the hill.

The growth of the pits in the 1870’s brought with it the laying down of rail sidings and goods facilities. Prudhoe Colliery was alongside the path which led from Mickley via Master’s Close Farm to the station. It was a pit without a pit heap, since the waste was re-stacked underground.

This area must have been very busy at the height of the coal boom since there were ten or more pits in the region of Low Prudhoe, Eltringham and Mickley, to Eltringham brick and pipe works. The produce of Eltringham was originally taken down to The Quay sidings by a rope hauled system. The double track was very steep and a full truck going down helped to pull the trucks up. From the Quay the goods were loaded into North Eastern Railway wagons for transportation.