monkey island

Little Drift Lass · #1 31-07-2013, 10:03 PM

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.

janwhin · #2 02-08-2013, 10:24 AM

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

janwhin · #3 02-08-2013, 10:48 AM

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.

janwhin · #4 02-08-2013, 11:13 AM

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??

Little Drift Lass · #5 02-08-2013, 09:55 PM

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

Coquet · #6 03-08-2013, 09:03 AM

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