monkey island
 

Can anyone help me with information on Monkey Island ,while looking into my family tree it reads that one of my family line married a young women who was born there in about 1872. I can remember my mother pointing out Monkey Island as we past by it when I was younger but that's all I know. With the knowledge some of you have within the forum I am hopeful.

I notice you haven't had a reply on this one, which was what I was hoping :) I may be completely mis-remembering but I've got a vague recollection that it was another name for the North Side. Maybe someone will shoot me down in flames :eek:

I might not be so off beam as I thought, Little Drift Lass. I've had a look at the newspaper archive and there is a report from 1891 of a drowning in the Coquet near the harbour. Someone called Smith living at Monkey Island saw the accident and put off in a boat to try to save him.

This is an even better article, from 1899, Morpeth Herald 23 December: "Charles Middleton, a miner, residing at a place called Monkey Island, on the north side of the Coquet, was summoned for neglecting to send his three children regularly to school....the distance to Warkworth school was about a mile and a half. The father went to work at Radcliffe Colliery, and would have to cross the river in a boat.......When the tide was up it went right round the house where Middleton lived."
I wonder what sort of properties were over there and if there's any trace. Interesting.....Coquet??

Monkey Island
 

Thanks janwhin I think you maybe right on point as that is the location that my mother used to point out to me as a child ,don't know how many dwellings or what area they covered but as they say the night is young I am still hopeful

The 'North Side' would be a tidal island for quite a while until the old river mouth silted up so that will be the place in the newspaper. There was a cottage there in the earlier part of the 20th century, but how far back does that building go?? Also an an on-line small scale map of the 1860s, a few buildings are shown.

I cannot find anyone with a strange address such as the "North Side" on the 1891 or 1901 census returns in the Amble Parish which is a bit of a mystery.

We need a look at the 6 inch to the mile Victorian ordnance survey maps for a better idea.

North Side Cottage:
http://www.fusilier.co.uk/amble_phot.../boat_race.htm

I noticed buildings on the 1920 map of Amble which reflect what is on the boat race photograph (lots of little gems on this website :)). Apart from 1899 and the Middletons and 1891 with Mr. Smith, the only other reference I could find was a wedding in 1881 of a Charlton and Matthewson. The census doesn't seem to help unfortunately. Relatively few inhabitants I would think as it is so inconvenient.

Monkey Island
 

Thank you so much janwhin & coquet between you ,you have hit the nail right on the head ,the name of the young women my relative married was Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart born on Monkey Island about 1872 and married in 1894 in Alnwick registration district. That photo of the feast race confirmed the name and the dwelling, my thanks also goes to the fusilier brilliant photo, Cheers.

The little whitewashed, red tiled cottage at the North side was there, at least, until the 1960's possibly into the '70's. In the late 1950's a family called Easton was living there, as a girl from there attended the Amble modern school. She must have had to walk along to Warkworth to get the bus to school, then back later. Not bad exercise each day!!
For a number of years they had the RAF as neighbours when the marine craft unit was operating out of Amble.

The Girl was Mary easton, I knew her she was couple of year older than me, I seem to remember a younger brother! it must have been late fifties very early sixties, when became empty. Around that time we spent a lot of time on north side as Mark Winlow had a boat, but no memory of anyone living there, the area belongs to WHC.

Monkey Island to us as kids was a lump of rock that stuck up out of sea at high tide at the White Hoose Sands

R.A.F. Depot Amble
 

I found this old map. ( sounds like the opening line to a treasure hunt), from before the Coquet changed course(I think, maybe not but looks like it), and you can see an island shaped like a monkey. A few houses/buildings are shown. I've just had a long and interesting phone call with my mum about this but no real conclusions. When we were little, Monkey Island was the rocks where the old Dredger sank between the Jumpy Shore and Coquet Island , there used to be a large pole there, at a really low tide, you could see the wreck. Anyway, here is the map, well a little chunk of it. There's definitely a monkey shape there if you look for long enough. :)

https://db.tt/ax7cVQYJ

This map from 1868ish shows a small island to the south of the harbour, pretty much in the area we knew as Monkey Island when we were kids, but it might be the quarry, it's difficult to tell. I've rather handily put a red ring around it. (Just for the record I wasn't around in 1868). It would be nice to overlay this old map onto an up to date one to see all the changes. I'll have a go at that over the winter.

https://db.tt/3ZTM6Avi

Hi Rachel, missed you posts for some reason, now your links are kaput.

Re the Dredger location; don't know if this link will work but the dredger wreck is marked.

http://www.visitmyharbour.com/harbou...our-chart-2012

zoom in and find the north pier and follow a line straight out to sea to the "1/8 wk" -(wk = wreck) it is about 275 metres from the end of the pier, and about the same distance north from the pole on the pan rock ends you mention (pole is now keeled over and gone)

If you follow the line above out to behind the island you will find the dumping ground for the loaded dredgers over the years, marked "Spoil Ground".

Sure there will be some interesting artefacts out there. Beyond my metal detecting capabilities though unless I grow a pair of gills. :D

Coquet Mouth Dredger Amble
 

I know a lot of individuals have dived the dredger over the years (not sure if it is still permitted?) Perhaps someone might come along with some underwater photos to share one day?