By the numbers
13,074 steps
9.5kms
Today is my second day in Newcastle and that meant I had set
it aside for the archives in Newcastle by the name of Tyne and Wear Archives
located in the Discovery centre within Newcastle and I also have a pass to pick
up for the English heritage sites, which means I will have one part of my
journey sorted. I needed breakfast and I had time before visiting the Archives,
so that meant, I had one thing I needed to do and that was to ring up about the
money that went missing last week from my bank account. When I did ring, they
scared the hell out of me as their system was slow in loading my details and it
wasn’t early morning over in Australia, it was afternoon. The bank were able to
help and passed me onto the fraud section who was a touch hard to hear due to the
Indian Accent, but I got the crap scared out of me again when he wanted some
details on my accounts and once I mentioned the very specific name of an
account the guy was satisfied. I didn’t want to lose all accounts or somehow
cancel my credit card. Not sure if anyone gets the concept that my wallet was
stolen with cards and the two disputed transactions were not me after my wallet
was stolen in Paris. The original guy several days ago really understood the
problems as he had something similar happen in Thailand.
Once that call was over, I had heaps of time before leaving
for the archives and I plodded along there to see what will happen. I was
actually outside the archives with 10 mins before opening and then I spotted
the two classes of children walking in opposite directions towards the museum.
I let out a quiet expletive while admiring the single files going inside the
building. I walked into the museum once it opened and got stuck with the books
as there were a few there especially on the history of Newcastle. I couldn’t
stick around there with not enough money on me for books. I found the Archives
and I had to put my bag into a locker, buy I had forgotten my pencil and pas as
well, so I had to rely on a new pencil and the sheets of paper that I already
had with my research. I found that I could take photos of records, but it would
be costly. If I had more than two at the time, then sure, but anything further
then I might not find that it would be worth the time. The records I was after,
I found pretty easily as I was after the registration of going into an
Industrial school for basically naughty kids and neglected ones too. I found
that William Tynemouth had been placed into ‘care’ for not going to school and
at 12 years old, he would be there until he was around 16. The record told of
his home state, where his siblings were located and worked. It was great when
the locations were listed including an employer’s name. There were other
records that included newspaper articles about robberies in 1910 from kids at
the age of 8. All this came about from looking at the 1911 census. I have
gotten further than that with original records now. The discharge register was
the same, but added his occupation and included inspections from the school
right until he was 19 and enlisted for WW1. He was a bands person and I had
glanced at that information in the Alnwick castle Museum. Hopefully with more
detail that what I had before, I might be able to get some of his life in the
military. He must have thought much of whoever handled the register as he had
sent them postcards. Since the record book I was using included dates that were
under the 100 year mark, the staff had bound that part of the book with string,
so I would not go past that point. I can respect that if my people were not
beyond that period.
By the time I had finished writing things out, I had been
given some books to read, which I wrote down details. I had another place to be
as I needed to pick up my Heritage pass for my trip as it would take me right
until I was in London. The one place that I knew, I could pick it up from was
the Tynemouth Priory and Castle in the Tynemouth area. It used to be a priory
where monks used to live and then there were attacks from Scotland and other
kings along the way. The building was a fortress and used during World War 2,
although there was some damage during bombing raids. Much of the remains are
still there and can be walked around. I needed to get a tram over that way and
I somehow ended up going the long way round, but I was happy to do that. I even
got a day pass as the system said it was cheaper than getting a return. I think
a return would mean that I have to return to the same station, which might not
be a good thing if you get stuck on a train. I was planning on visiting
Wallsend as well after Tynemouth. I found the castle pretty quickly from the
Metro station and it had turned out to be a nice warm afternoon. Apparently the
next day isn’t meant to be that crash hot, but I will be in the Archives when
that happens.. I wandered the whole complex enjoying the nice weather as it has
been really the first decent sunny day that I had not needed my jumper at all.
For the entire day. It was pretty funny telling them I had last been at that
site around 10 years ago. I think they were impressed and I don’t think things
have changed since I was here last.
By the time I finished my wanderings around the heritage
site, I looked at the time and realised that I was running out of time as
nothing would be open and it took at least half hour to get to the station on
my side on Newcastle. I could walk, but that would be 2 hours and I am not that
crazy. The train was late anyway and I jumped onto it thinking I would be stuck
at a stop further on, but it stopped at a station, I could get off that was
closer than I had thought. I originally wanted to visit Wallsend for the Roman
ruins, but that hasn’t worked out. I wanted to get back, so I could have a
decent meal and relax. I think I have been taking it easy over the last couple
of days. I know I have a train to catch early in the morning to Durham archive
centre and see what I come across there as there are some records I am looking
for, although newspapers would be the one that I want to be looking at.
Weatherwise I will see what happens as I will know if its wet when I have
breakfast. I did have a meat pie and chips for lunch, so that is something I
have not had for a little while.
No comments:
Post a Comment