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#1
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Amble West Allotments
Putting in some new fence posts in my allotment. Digging down 24 inches. Near the bottom of the hole is a layer of ash. Bottles and bits and bobs down there.
I knew there was ash there from past digging. Others have mentioned digging bottles up there as well. I do not know whether it was an old tip at one time or just some rubbish put in to help the drainage. It is quite a thin layer where I am at the bottom of the dip. I'm under the impression it is thicker towards West Avenue road. First hole I hit a Turnbull and Williamson bottle. I actually think I broke this one with the spade. I could kick myself as this is a type I've not seen before: |
#2
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Digging them holes more carefully now. Last hole produced this weird object:
If anyone knows what Parian Ware is this feels very similar. |
#3
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Does anyone have any knowledge of that land prior to becoming allotments? I seem to recall it being just a horses field. I think the allotments appeared to replace those lost when Burside and Brinkburn houses went up on the East Allotment site.
West Allotments today: |
#4
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I've been trying to date the rubbish. Possibly post WW1 / early 20s is my best guess. There are a mix of machine and hand made bottles which is why I come to that conclusion
Machine made medicine bottle: |
#5
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I lived in West Avenue in the 60s, it was my sledging field! If you come across any wheels for a Corgi VC10 let me know.
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#6
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Quote:
On the 1920s and 30s maps that area is marked as allotment gardens so must have been abandoned after that time then came back to allotments in the 70s? More allotments at the other side of West Avenue on this map as well, behind Scott Street, now built over. |
#7
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In the 1890s my great great grandfather, Joe Marriott, was a carter with the contract to dump the council's rubbish and he used the field at the bottom of the Wynd, which was owned by the Dands, to dump the ashes, etc. The tenant of the market garden and fields adjacent was a George Murray Turner and the two men appeared to have clashed about its use.
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#8
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Quote:
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#9
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We used to play there in the 1950s and early 60s. Johnny Grenfell's dad had the field and the stables at the bottom and as you say kept three or four horses in there.
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#10
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It was still known as Grenfells Field in the 60s and the stables were still in use up to the 70s, there was a coal depot on the same site run by McDonnell. The top part of the field where the gate is now was kept short enough by grazing horses to play football on, the surrounding nettles where head high (when I was 6 in '66). High St v Westfield was a regular game, no limit on numbers but you could only play for High St if you lived north of Scott St.
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#11
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I was in Elswick Cemetery a couple of days back. It's on the north bank of the Tyne directly above the area where Armstrong's shipbuilding/ armament factories were.
Anyway, this one caught my eye: Same thing I dug up in my allotment. So Jumpy-shore is probably right - something tipped out of the west cemetery |
#12
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To the rear of the groundsman shed in the west cemetery was a site where they dumped the contents of cemetery bins old wreaths etc and the hands look like some thing that could have been attached to wreath of some kind, it was the kind of thing often left after the rest had been burnt. The area spread east over the years and became a big compost heap but was landscaped and levelled when the allotments were allocated.
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#13
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Many thanks for that.
I does look like it has been used as a tip then in some areas. Water is still flowing out of the ground in the place you mention I think. |
#14
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An early postcard of the cemetery road
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#15
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A little known fact, by the steps down from Bisley Road are about five small hollows in the road which overtime keep subsiding and the council periodically come along and fill them in. They were holes made for girders as part of the WW2 anti tank defences of Amble.
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