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  #21  
Old 14-03-2016, 04:00 PM
Derilda Derilda is offline
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Question Re.Amble

Can I just add a uneducated guess re the road to Warkworth.
If, when Amble was just a small settlement, could the road through not have been straighter, running from Marks Bridge, down Albert Street and across The High Street. That would take the road west of the Manor House, east of where the Gas Works grew up and re-join the road along the river roughly where the entry is for the marina. Other developments later could have necessitated the extension westward of High Street and the two right angle turns in the road as it now is.
Just a thought and no doubt historical facts will disprove my lay theory.
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  #22  
Old 14-03-2016, 07:03 PM
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Now that is interesting. At the top of your red area, the gut has a substantial dressed stone retaining wall, any idea on its age? I always thought it was to do with land reclamation behind, but your map suggests it is on the original river course. How could we date this retaining wall?
Dressed stone, someone spent a lot of time and money building it, wouldn't it be wonderful if it was on a Roman foundation!
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  #23  
Old 14-03-2016, 07:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Derilda View Post
Can I just add a uneducated guess re the road to Warkworth.
If, when Amble was just a small settlement, could the road through not have been straighter, running from Marks Bridge, down Albert Street and across The High Street. That would take the road west of the Manor House, east of where the Gas Works grew up and re-join the road along the river roughly where the entry is for the marina. Other developments later could have necessitated the extension westward of High Street and the two right angle turns in the road as it now is.
Just a thought and no doubt historical facts will disprove my lay theory.
Interesting, there is quite a height difference, I wonder if it dog legged down to the bottom of the Wynd via Victoria Place from the Manor house, as Leslie says there is a lovely single span bridge under the roadway at the bottom of the Wynd, entrance to the allotments

Last edited by hollydog; 14-03-2016 at 07:40 PM.
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  #24  
Old 14-03-2016, 08:43 PM
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Coquet Coquet is offline
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Default Re: Olde Road to the River

There must have been something published in the 1820s for the trade directory to be quoting, but no guarantee it will state the precise location even if we found the original record/article.


Here's the 1842 tithe map again for reference. Not that it helps much in finding our ancient road.


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  #25  
Old 16-03-2016, 04:12 PM
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As you can see a substantial retaining wall on the old course of the river Coquet
Why would this be so well built?
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  #26  
Old 17-03-2016, 10:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hollydog View Post
As you can see a substantial retaining wall on the old course of the river Coquet
Why would this be so well built?
I've often wondered about the age of that wall. Behind, including 'Campbell-Smith's' land, is allegedly 'made ground'. Beneath that, behind the base of that wall is the old (Medieval/Tudor/Stuart!) banks of the Coquet, now buried. Be some interesting things in there with your detector Hollydog. Only problem is the original surface is 6-10 feet down!

My new pet theory is that the olde road is in there too. Connecting, somehow, up the hillside to olde Amble. Old salt pan lagoons in there somewhere too, with controlled filling on the spring tides.
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  #27  
Old 17-03-2016, 11:19 AM
janwhin janwhin is offline
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McAndrews and the Count History make no mention of an old causeway or building foundations. McAndrews does give a throw away comment about one Northumberland history mentioning the stone foundations of round Anglo Saxon buildings but he dismisses it on the basis that no physical evidence has been found.

When the Manor House was operational and collecting dues there was apparently a jetty where boats moored below the Manor and Hallbank Well. Could this stone wall have anything to do with that??

Before the road between Warkworth and Amble came into being along the river, the old road went up past Gloster Hill and Gilden.
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  #28  
Old 17-03-2016, 08:12 PM
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The land where the proposed Tesco was to have been was all built up with builders rubble and rubbish by Campbell Smith over quite a long period. I was surprised that it was given the go ahead for the Tesco due to the type of stuff that went in there.
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  #29  
Old 17-03-2016, 09:42 PM
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That land is about a hundred yards further east of the wall in the photo. I know what you mean about the rubbish, in the 1940s it was dads saturday job to wheelbarrow the business rubbish; glass, paint etc down there, next to where the foot bridge is now.
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  #30  
Old 18-03-2016, 06:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
On the subject of 'Ancient Britons' and Amble, the 1827 Parson and White trade directory for Amble on the communities website states:


AMBLE, a village and township, advantageously seated near the
mouth of the Coquet, 1 mile SE. by S. of Warkworth, on an eminence
which commands an extensive view of the sea coast. The foundations
of buildings, formed of undressed stones, and built in a circular form,
without mortar, after the manner of the ancient Britons, have been
found here
, as also have Roman coins. These remains clearly prove
that this was once a place of considerable importance. A strongly
paved causeway, 24 feet broad, was discovered a few years ago, about
a foot below the present surface, extending in a direct line from Amble
to the old bed of the Coquet. Here was formerly a monastery, subor-
dinate to Tynemouth Priory, but it has long been. in ruins ; though a
man did penance in its chapel for fornication so lately as 1765. Near
the ruins, a large quantity of human bones were found a few years ago,
deposited in a thin layer of red clay. The manor of Amble, with its
valuable coal mines, has, since the Reformation, belonged to different
proprietors.



No idea what that is going on about. Made up story?? And someone think of the poor fornicators, doing penance on High Street.


A Durham university archeology dissertation by a friend of mine references this, I will get more details from it and credit him, but the causeway reference is 2 1/2 feet wide not 24. I will get the detail and reference from him tomorrow. He strongly suggests a roman signal station on Gloster Hill, a Roman road in the Chester House direction from there and a very good guess at which part of the army the broken Roman altar belonged to that was found in the field nearby. He also looks at the Roman coin found on Coquet Island.
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  #31  
Old 19-03-2016, 08:50 AM
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According to "Mackenzie''s History of Northumberland" a Mr John Shanks while forming an embankment discovered an ancient causeway one foot below the surface about two and a half feet wide, strongly paved and running in a straight line from Amble to the old bed of the Coquet, possibly Roman origin. He also refers to a village leaving circular foundation marks, and some monastic ruins.

A 7th C publication of the "Ravenna Commography" also refers to Roman camps at Aluana (Alnmouth) and Cocuenda - presumably mouth of the Coquet (Mcinnes 1880)
Credit to J M Hobrough for the above.
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  #32  
Old 19-03-2016, 10:04 AM
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Shanks was also in the salt business. The land in question probably extended down to the gut behind the Queen's Head. Probably the area in your photos. (I think '2.5 feet' in Mackenzie must be an error?) I would not be surprised if the circular stone work were more salt making pans. Here are some circular Elizabethan specimens in Cumbria. http://www.visitcumbria.com/wc/crosscanonby-saltpans/
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  #33  
Old 19-03-2016, 11:24 AM
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Perhaps the speculative Roman settlement was at Amble rather than Gloster Hill. I think Gloster hill was investigated but nothing more that the altar fragment was found. The Romans we the masters of the paved road, and roman coins were found at the bottom of the Wynd in a works trench.


British Roman trunk roads were an average 23' or 7 metres wide. I think Amble must have been an important Roman Port at one time. - just kidding!
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  #34  
Old 19-03-2016, 03:40 PM
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The altar fragment was found two fields away to the west of Gloster Hill, its marked on old ordnance survey maps.
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  #35  
Old 19-03-2016, 03:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hollydog View Post
The altar fragment was found two fields away to the west of Gloster Hill, its marked on old ordnance survey maps.
Have you seen the paragraph on the Gloster Hill page re: The altar slab and 'Wallington Green'?

http://www.fusilier.co.uk/amble_nort...oster_hill.htm


I've just realised, in the note after, Hodgson is referring to a Roman road to Chester house, not the existing road, which is interesting, as the road I am sure is visible on Google Earth. I've mentioned that before- and before I was aware of meaning of Hodgson's note.
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  #36  
Old 19-03-2016, 03:59 PM
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That's got us thinking. If a Roman road crossed from Chester House to Amble, via Gloster hill, where would it lie in Amble, assuming Shanks uncovered a part of it down by the Gut??
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  #37  
Old 19-03-2016, 06:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
That's got us thinking. If a Roman road crossed from Chester House to Amble, via Gloster hill, where would it lie in Amble, assuming Shanks uncovered a part of it down by the Gut??
On the Keys to the Past Site, the altar is marked as found in the field on a straight line from Chester House to Gloster Hill. Where can you see evidence of the road Coquet?

I assumed the causeway path would be from Gloster Hill down to the river bank roughly in the direction of the wall discussed earlier. Perhaps discovered when the coop gardens were begun?
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  #38  
Old 19-03-2016, 06:48 PM
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There is something across the field next to Gloster hill farm, visible on Google Earth, a change in the crop pattern, it is straight, position in blue below. Might be nothing of significance. I've also drawn a straight line to Chester House just for interest. The alleged location of the Altar stone is on there, some distance from the straight line to Chester house, but actually on the extrapolated blue line.

The blue line east would pass through Mariner's Court.


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  #39  
Old 19-03-2016, 07:46 PM
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Ah That blue line is close the route of a water main from Morwick. Back in another era in the early eighties I had a summer job helping farm those fields for Ian Forsyth.I remember a leaking pipe close to that line and various contractors trying to locate the leak.
I do know of a detectorist who found roman coins in that area as well. Ian gave me permission to detect but there is literally only a two day window in those fields between harvest and ploughing / new crop going in, v frustrating.
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  #40  
Old 19-03-2016, 08:28 PM
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Laying pipes across there would be interesting in itself but I doubt they would be looking for anything at the time. 1,500 years of ploughing doesn't help either.

I wonder what road evidence Hodgson had?
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