Grainger and Dobson’s unbuilt chapel

Posted on 30 September, 2024 by nspeccoll

Richard Grainger and John Dobson are regarded as the main movers behind the development of Newcastle town centre in the 19th century. Dobson is often cited as the main architect for the project. Grainger was the builder who raised the funds for the work and oversaw the building programmes.

Portrait of John Dobson by William Dixon (Public domain).

During his lifetime, Dobson (9 November 1787 – 8 January 1865) was probably the most noted architect in northern England. He is best-known for his work to develop the centre of Newcastle in a neoclassical style, although he designed over 100 private homes and 50 churches. In 1824 Dobson proposed that Newcastle council create a “civic palace”, with grand squares and wide tree-lined streets on the site of Anderson Place, a large house with extensive grounds. The scheme was hugely expensive and Dobson lacked the financial backing that Grainger was later able to secure for his less grand project.

Portrait of Richard Grainger, attributed to James Ramsay (Public domain).

Richard Grainger (9 October 1797 – 4 July 1861) was an ambitious builder and friend of town clerk John Clayton. Most of Dobson’s Newcastle designs were built by Grainger, including:

Eldon Square (pic)

Still the source of much controversy due to demolition of two of its three faces to free up space for the Eldon Square shopping centre, Dobson produced his Grecian-inspired designs in 1824. Most of it was built by Grainger.

Illustration of Eldon Square — Eldon Square (Local Illustrations, ILL/11/258).

St Thomas’ Church

Built to replace the Chapel of St Thomas the Martyr at the north end of the bridge over the River Tyne, which was demolished by the council to widen the road. Land belonging to St Mary Magdalene Hospital at Barras Bridge was selected as the location for the new chapel. It was designed in a modified Gothic style in 1827 and was completed by 1830 at a cost of £6,000.

The Royal Arcade

In 1832, the (in)famous Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street was completed. Modelled after an elegant London shopping arcade, it was intended as a commercial and shopping centre but was too far removed from the town centre to be a success. Sir John Betjeman, over 100 years later, described the arcade as “a highlight of classical town planning”. Demolition was first suggested in the 1880s, but the Arcade survived until the 1960s when it was cleared to make way for the Pilgrim Street roundabout. The facade was dismantled brick by brick in 1963-64 but plans to rebuild it next to Swan House never happened. The demolition of this building is still a subject of debate to this day.

Central Station

After the opening of the High Level Bridge in 1849, a station was required for the thriving town. Dobson’s original plan of 1848 showed an ornate façade with a vast portico and an Italianate tower. The enormous train shed was made up of three arched glass roofs built in a curve on an 800-foot (240 m) radius. Dobson’s design won an award at the Paris Exhibition of 1858 but he was forced to alter his plans to produce a much less substantial portico and remove the Italianate tower. The station was completed in 1850 without the portico. In 1863, Thomas Prosser’s portico was added.

Grainger Market

Grainger offered to build a new meat market and vegetable market to replace the old flesh market. Both new markets were designed by Dobson. The meat market had pilastered arcades, 360 windows, fanlights and wooden cornices, and four avenues each 338 feet (103 m) long. It contained 180 butchers’ shops when it opened. In 1835, to celebrate the opening of the markets, a grand dinner was given in the vegetable market, with 2,000 guests.

Illustrations of the Butcher's Market — Butcher’s Market (Local Illustrations, ILL/11/204).

Grainger Town

As mentioned earlier, Dobson had proposed a new town centre to Newcastle council but had been unable to find the funding for his scheme. Grainger secured funds for buying Anderson Place for £50,000 and an additional £45,000 to purchase nearby property with the help of John Clayton. He exercised close control over the master plan for what became known as Grainger Town. Dobson is given much of the credit for the detailed design, but other architects made significant contributions, including Thomas Oliver and John and Benjamin Green. Substantial work was also carried out by two architects in Grainger’s office, John Wardle and George Walker

Grey Street

The main thoroughfare in Grainger Town, Grey Street was completed in 1837 and is regarded as the centrepiece of the redevelopment of the centre of Newcastle. The design of Grey Street is often credited solely to Dobson but he only designed the south-eastern side of the street; architects John Wardle and George Walker were responsible for the western side. Prime Minister William Gladstone described it as the country’s “best modern street”.

The West End and the chapel

Grainger received many tributes for his transformation of Newcastle. William Howitt claimed in his 1842 book Visits to Remarkable Places,

“You walk into what has long been termed the Coal Hole of the North and find yourself in a City of Palaces, a fairyland of newness, brightness and modern elegance. And who has wrought this change? It is Mr Grainger.”

Buoyed by his successes, Grainger turned his attention to Elswick, an area to the west of Newcastle, just outside the town boundary. In 1839, he acquired a large area of land there for £114,000, with the intention of building homes, factories, and the city’s major railway station. Grainger moved into Elswick Hall, proclaiming that “Elswick will one day be the centre of Newcastle”.

However, Grainger was already in financial dire straits due to overspending on previous projects. He owed Dobson a large sum of money, which he tried to reduce by charging Dobson £250 for a staircase and ceiling removed from Anderson Place. Dobson was outraged and dissolved their partnership soon after. Grainger, sought the help of Clayton to pay off his debts and left Elswick Hall. He sold the riverside section of his Elswick land to William Armstrong who built up his armaments factory there.

Grainger was correct about the development potential of Elswick; during the second half of the 19th century, the area’s population grew from 3,550 to 59,000 and it became one of the foremost industrial areas of the world.

Grainger died in 1861 at his home at 5 Clayton Street West, Newcastle, and is buried at St James Church, Benwell.

Dobson died at his home on New Bridge Street in 1865, Newcastle, and is buried in Jesmond Old Cemetery.

We have recently digitised an 1840 manuscript volume of plans produced by John Dobson for a chapel for Richard Grainger. The full manuscript is digitised and available to view on CollectionsCaptured titled Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The title page and introduction are shown below.

Title page of plan book — Title page from **Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne** (Rare Books, RB-726-41-DOB-7).

Specification and contents list from plan book — Specification and contents list from **Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne** (Rare Books, RB-726-41-DOB-7).

The first paragraph informs the reader that this is a,

‘Specification of the several works to be done in erecting and completely finishing a chapel on a site Presented by Richard Grainger Esq. in the centre of a line of Dwelling house(s) which he is about to build on the north side of Scotswood Road in the Parish of St. Nicholas and in the parochial Chapelry of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne.’

The chapel was probably part of Grainger’s Elswick scheme.

The manuscript contains plans, specifications and estimated costs for the construction of a chapel for Grainger’s site. Within the handwritten volume are pencil annotations, modifications to plans, and other markings and wax seals. There is also a watercolour visualisation of how the finished chapel may have looked. The item is on permanent loan from the Northern Architectural Association, whose first president, in 1859, was John Dobson.

This item was presented by Hicks & Charlewood, architects. William Searle Hicks (1849-1902 was President of the Northern Architectural Association between 1891-1892. In 1885, he went into partnership with Henry Clement Charlewood (1856-1943). Charlewood was President of the Northern Architectural Association between 1910-1911.

The text is all handwritten and gives instructions as to the construction of the chapel, which was designed to seat 1064 people. It describes construction, and specifies where materials are to be sourced. This includes wood from Gottenburg, Memet or Riga, and Welsh lady slates. However, some materials could be found closer to home,

‘The mortar to be made of the best stone lime from Cleadon, Whitley, or Allawash and the best sharp sand from the mouth of the Derwent River, in the proportion of one part of lime to two parts of sand.’

Cleadon is just south of South Shields and remains of the quarry are still visible. All plastering was to be done with Cleadon lime. Whitley (now Whitley Bay) Quarry is now occupied by Marden Quarry and stretched to the site of Whitley Bay Cricket Club pitch. Before the establishment of the railways, Whitley Quarry was probably the biggest lime producer in Northumberland. By 1850 it was in decline, with the flooded portion in use as a reservoir. There were (and still are) numerous quarries near Allerwash, Newbrough, and Fourstones in the Tyne Valley.

For the glazing, Dobson specifies the use of ‘Newcastle 2nd Crown glass’. Crown glass manufacture was one of the two most common cheap processes for making window glass until the 19th century. It had a distinctive disc-like appearance, common in church windows.

An example of ‘Newcastle 2nd Crown glass’ with the distinctive disc-like glass.

Within the hand-lettered specifications are drawn diagrams showing how individual parts of the chapel should be constructed.

Page with integrated diagrams from plan book — Page with integrated diagrams from **Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne** (Rare Books, RB-726-41-DOB).

Page of specifications and diagrams for the ‘octangular’ tower, which have been crossed out in pencil — Specifications for the ‘octangular’ tower, which have been crossed out in pencil from **Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne** (Rare Books, RB-726-41-DOB).

To provide an easy-to-understand representation of the chapel, there is a watercolour visualisation of the building.

Watercolour visualisation of the proposed chapel (Rare Books, RB-726-41-DOB). — Watercolour visualisation of the proposed chapel from **Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne** (Rare Books, RB726.41 DOB).

One of the most ingenious devices in the manuscript can be found on the page showing the plan of the east transverse section. This has two overlay flaps with changes or alternative designs for that portion of the chapel. As the chapel was never completed, we do not know which variation was selected!

Plan with overlay flaps showing alterations or alternative designs of the east transverse section of the chapel

The images above show a plan with overlay flaps showing alterations or alternative designs from Design No. II: Plans, specification and estimate for building a chapel in the township of St. John, Newcastle upon Tyne (Rare Books, RB-726.41 DOB).

The seals

The specification, estimates, and plans were approved on 14^th July 1840. Each approval is accompanied by two wax seals and a signature. The seals reveal bear the name of the COMMISSIONERS FOR BUILDING NEW CHURCHES. The signature is of W. J. Rodber, who was secretary of the Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building and Repairing of Churches and Chapels. This organisation was founded in 1818 to provide funds for the building and enlargement of Anglican churches throughout England and Wales. The Society required building request applications to be submitted in a consistent and uniform fashion, with drawings and plans of the proposed work. So, in addition to providing Grainger with plans and costings, this is possibly also the purpose of these detailed chapel plans.

Enlarged stamps, showing the imprints of the COMMISSIONERS FOR BUILDING NEW CHURCHES (Rare Books, RB726.41 DOB).

A Northern Legacy: Spotlight on Flambard Press, in memory of Peter Lewis

Posted on 9 September, 2024 by nspeccoll

Flambard Press was a small-scale, independent, publishing press focused on new and neglected writers. It was started by Margret and Peter Lewis in 1990 and ran until 2012, supported by Arts Council England funding. This press was not a household name; they published their 129 books in small releases and focused on mostly northern authors whose work was otherwise neglected and unrecognised. Peter and Margaret worked out of the Phillip Robinson Library before moving the press to their home near Hexham, making a great deal of difference to the northern arts scene using less than £30,000 worth of funding a year. The two worked tirelessly and the Flambard Press archive at Newcastle University shows that Peter Lewis organised the printing of their books personally, including those published by his wife Margaret. They were involved in every aspect of their books’ publication, from editing, to cover design, to marketing – each aspect personalised and considered to get the best from the resources they had.

Photograph of Margaret and Peter Lewis — The photo was published in The Journal and taken on 24 April 1991. The caption was ‘Partners in Crime’.

Despite the size and capacity of Flambard, they gained a great deal of recognition in their 22 years of operation. Their writers were nominated for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Poetry Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Prize, among many others. The writers that Flambard worked with, though starting out unknown, frequently did not remain so. Many of the authors have become household names across the north of England and stretching out into the whole of the UK. Particularly notable is Neil Astley, now the influential editor/founder of Bloodaxe Books (founded 1978), whose patrons include Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy and Chancellor of Newcastle University Dr Imtiaz Dharker. Another notable author published by Flambard Press is Val McDermid, prolific Scottish crime writer and winner of the Crime Writer’s Association Diamond Dagger in 2010; published her second collection of short stories Stranded with Flambard Press in 2005. Also, Courttia Newland, a British writer of Jamaican and Barbadian heritage who has been awarded the Tayner Barbers Award for science fiction writing and the Roland Rees Bursary for playwriting. These three authors are only a small sample of the depth and talent of the authors who worked with Peter and Margaret; because of their small capacity Flambard had to be selective with the writers they worked with and whose talent they would put their considerable talent and effort into. This critical judgement paid off with the press receiving recognition and awards well beyond its size.

Flambard Press inspired a loyalty in their authors that those who read the acknowledgements sections of mass produced books rarely witness. Rather than lukewarm statements thanking a corporate entity and switching from publisher to publisher with little ceremony; Flambard Press was a family. It was run by a family and its authors were taken into that family, without scruple. Although Flambard provided a jumping off point for many incredibly successful authors, it is the importance of the press to the more unknown authors that is so visible in the special collections archives. Kelly Swain, author of Darwin’s Microscope, said about Flambard when it closed; “Flambard Press made me believe I could do this writing thing. That I should do it. And I love them for that, and I feel a fierce loyalty to the press” (Farewell, Flambard – Kelley Swain (wordpress.com)). Similarly, Martin Edwards, another crime author in the Flambard roster, in his tribute to Peter Lewis on the event of his death on his blog, said about his book Dancing for the Hangman that it “didn’t make any of us a fortune, but I’m still proud of it”. This seems to be Flambard’s unofficial ethos, they didn’t search for funding from private donors or work under a cooperate umbrella; Peter and Margaret worked for the love of literature and for the betterment of northern writing. The Flambard outfit was small and content to remain so if it allowed writers that would not otherwise see the light of day to be recognised.

This family-oriented ideology makes for a moving experience when looking at the Flambard Press archives. After searching through files on individual authors; skim reading magazines with favourable reviews; and acknowledgements of prizes the Flambard family had won; by sheer luck the final file I looked at was one containing administrative documents for the company. An innocuous start, expecting a thin file with employee lists and financial documents, I was shocked when a full to bursting file landed on my desk, containing what appeared to be reams of letters and emails. This file, clearly lovingly compiled, by photocopying handwritten notes; taking extracts from magazines and printing off emails; contains the legacy of Flambard Press. The press dissolved unexpectedly in 2012 after their Arts Council funding had been reallocated elsewhere, and this was the response. Letter after letter, not addressed to Flambard Press or to ‘the editor’ as so many are; but to Peter, Margaret and Will (Mackie, the managing editor at the time) expressing their sympathy, sorrow and offering any kind of help they could possibly give the people of the press, as well as the press itself. This file contained testimony of the hope and kindness Peter, Margret and their employees had given the authors they worked with, the eloquently written tributes are too numerous to cite here but here is a selection:

“I just wanted to say again how good it has been to work with you over the last twenty years. The fact that you had faith in that first book set me on track and your support has been vital all along”
– Cynthia Fuller (Instructions for the Desert, Background Music and more)

“I can’t believe it. I saw a post by Simon Thirsk on FB and thought, well they’ll never do that. But they have.”
– Courttia Newland (A Book of Blues)

“Please pass on my grateful thanks to Peter and Margaret. They took Fear of Thunder on when no one else wanted it, and hopefully it’s various success have repaid their faith in it.”
– Andrew Forster (Fear of Thunder, Territory)

“I have appreciated being a Flambard poet. I want to express my sincere thanks for your dedication. It felt the perfect place to be a poet. The books were produced to the highest standards and the covers were inspiring.”
– Jackie Litherland (The Apple Exchange, The Work of the Wind, The Absolute Bonus of Rain)

The closure of Flambard did not go unnoticed outside of those who were directly affected by it; Carol Ann Duffy (Poet Laureate at the time) mentioned Flambard by name in her poem ‘A Cut Back’. She wrote:

Three little presses went to market, Flambard, Arc and Salt;
had their throats cut ear to ear and now it’s hard to talk.
(Guardian, 2011)

A copy of this poem can be found in the Flambard archive; diligently highlighted; presumably by the person who compiled the file that is an eloquent lament to a northern icon.

The legacy of Flambard Press, and of Peter and Margaret Lewis, is contained in these archives, in the letters from well-wishers and, lastingly, in the books the Press created. Flambard did so much good with so little in the north of England, for writers that could not or did not want to publish using mainstream publishing houses. Their 129 titles will remain in circulation for many years, and the writers whose careers Flambard began, or made, will continue to create amazing fiction.

This blog post was written in memory of Peter Lewis (1937-2024) co-founder of Flambard Press.

The Death of Theodore M. Trevelyan – A Human Story:

Posted on 20 June, 2024 by nspeccoll

Author: George Evans-Hulme, Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society is currently researching for his MPhil in Modern British History at the University of Cambridge. This post is one output of a visit to Newcastle University Special Collections to investigate the Mary Moorman archive.

The wonder of archival research is that it connects us to the people of the past who were once as real as we are but have now passed away. From the remnants they left behind, we can catch a glimpse of their hopes and dreams, their thoughts and passions.

The Mary Moorman archive provides a deep insight into the life of Mary Moorman (a Wordsworth scholar) and that of her father, the eminent historian George Macaulay Trevelyan.

The material within the Moorman archive paints a detailed picture of Trevelyan’s public-spirited life, including his work with the National Trust and as an ambulance driver during the First World War.

It also sheds light on the great tragedy of the historian’s life: the death of his eldest son, Theodore, at the age of four and a half.

Theodore was an intelligent, humorous child who delighted in dressing up as one of his beloved Household Cavalry soldiers and reciting poetry. He died unexpectedly of appendicitis on a family trip to Swanage in April 1911.

George Trevelyan, and his wife Janet, were initially numb with grief. George’s sister-in-law, Molly, who was with them, thought the couple were ‘wonderfully brave’ in the days that followed. But all the heartbroken George could bring himself to say about his eldest son was: ‘he will never grow up’.

Theodore was taken up to the Lake District for burial. ‘It was raining, and mists were on the hills’ when Theodore and his parents arrived in Windermere. But the sight of the ‘primroses and the anemones in the woods and the green spring’ brought some consolation to George and Janet.

Theodore was buried close to nature in the fellside graveyard of the Holy Trinity Church, with ‘the flowers and deep peace of the mountain resting over him’. The landscape of Langdale, which already meant so much to the grieving couple, brought them ‘courage’ and the comfort of the familiar backdrop helped them process their loss.

The Holy Trinity Church, Langdale, where Theodore was buried in 1911. His parents were later laid to rest with him in the Lakeland graveyard, beneath the bracken and the rocks of the fells which meant so much to them – Source: GOT 9/28/109

After Theodore’s death, G. M. Trevelyan decided to formally purchase the family’s holiday cottage in Langdale. He had ‘long thought of it’ and, now Theodore was buried there, the Langdale Valley took on even more importance as ‘the place of my heart’ – Source: MM 7/3

In the days that followed, George Trevelyan was inspired to reflect on his own life. He no longer aspired to a ‘great and important future’. Now, ‘the family is what I care for, and looking at nature’.

Janet Trevelyan, from the outset, had sought comfort from the happier memories of Theodore. In the Lakes, she decided to write down ‘a continuous story’ of his life. This story was shared with family and friends as a memorial to the young boy.

Forty years later, with the encouragement of her husband, Theodore’s story was published publicly. Janet felt that, even so many years later, ‘the larger world should have a share in him’.

Extract from Janet Trevelyan’s letter to her Mother-in-Law, Caroline Trevelyan, requesting she send any letters detailing ‘little stories’ that she could use to help write the ‘continuous story of all that I can remember’ of Theodore – Source: GOT 9/28/101

Some of Janet’s relatives have since suggested that it was perhaps a mistake to make so private a situation public. However, as a letter written to Mary Moorman, Theodore’s elder sister, several decades later, explains: ‘sometimes seeing a sort of new picture of a grief, and how it can be borne, shifts all one’s own learning towards a new kind of love and understanding’.

For the historian, who requires a cold analytical eye but also a sympathetic heart, these records of the past allow us to connect with a family who suffered a dreadful tragedy more than a century ago. They also remind us that others have lived and walked this earth as we do today but are now all gone, like ghosts at dawn – a point which G. M. Trevelyan himself once made a very long time ago.

Manners Shaping Morals: Conduct literature at Newcastle University

Posted on 3 June, 2024 by nspeccoll

Conduct literature is a little-known genre nowadays; it has been absorbed mostly into magazine culture and advice you get from your grandma. But in the 18th and 19th centuries it was a genre of literature that shaped, and was shaped by, popular culture. Conduct literature is texts that give advice on how to behave in polite society and how to run a successful household; in other words, on a person’s conduct. This advice ranged from the practical; how much credit it was acceptable to run up with household vendors; to the philosophical; how best to educate children to make them into functional citizens. The vast majority of these texts were aimed at women: in their capacity as mothers, as wives and as daughters. These manuals formed an influential industry in the late 18^th and early 19^th century as the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars raged and the British propaganda machine cultivated the idea of the French as immoral and dissolute compared to Britain’s steadfast morality. This deep-seated aspiration for ethical superiority is seen in the conduct literature of the age, conduct literature found in the 18^th century collection at Newcastle University. As part of this collection the University holds books by Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft (among others), authors who, despite their varied political viewpoints, used their writing as a way of giving women more power.

Title page from Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman — Title page from *Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman* (18^th Century Coll, 18th C. Coll 396 WOL)

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), widely regarded to be one of the first works of feminist philosophy and the precursor to the organised feminist movement. A first edition of this is held in the 18^th Century Collection in the Phillip Robinson Library, previously owned by Joseph Cowen, revolutionary Member of Parliament for Newcastle Upon Tyne. This manifesto for female education was a well-known, radical example of the conduct literature genre. Wollstonecraft famously wrote in her introduction to the volume: “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.” (6, emphasis original). This sentence is a decisive judgement on both women and the men who interact with them. Wollstonecraft invokes rationality to justify the language of her doctrine; a characteristic that was considered the defining trait of humanity in the 18^th century. She also implies that women were treated as being in a ‘state of perpetual childhood’ by men in this era, something that can be seen in the conduct literature written by men in the 18^th century. For instance, in Fordyce’s Sermons for Young Women he states, “The Almighty has thrown you upon the protection of our sex. To yours we are indebted on many accounts. He that abuses you dishonours his mother. Virtuous women are the sweeteners, the charm of human life.” (9). Not only does Fordyce imply women to be incapable of functioning without male protection in this statement, but he also designates them as ‘the charm of human life’ thus suggesting them not to be human at all. This is where the different political viewpoints of the female conduct literature writers held in Special Collections at Newcastle are united. Although they differ in how it should be expressed and used, each author acknowledges the female capacity for rationality.

Title page from More’s strictures — Title page from *More’s strictures* (18^th Century Collection, 18th C. Coll 828.69 MOR)

Another deeply influential text that is held in the 18^th Century Collection at Newcastle is conservative moralist Hannah More’s Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education (1799). This is one of many texts by Hannah More that is held by the university, but Strictures is her best well-known work. The text discusses both the practicalities and the moralities of raising children, especially young women. More grounds her philosophy in the importance of the family in raising future citizens and in shaping society. On the title page of the fourth edition copy held in the Newcastle University archives (shown above) she places a quote from Lord Halifax which states, “May you so raise your character that you may help to make the next age a better thing, and leave posterity in your debt, for the advantage it shall receive by your example.” This statement embodies More’s attitude to female morality and education; in Strictures she passes judgement on aristocratic women and their perceived indolence. More, like Wollstonecraft, values the emerging middle-class and their work ethic, manifesting in women through their cultivation of useful employment such as mending, rather than the frivolous, impractical embroidery typically undertaken by the aristocracy. When quoting Lord Halifax, More also invokes the concept of debt to a nation; she perceives women as being as much the cause of Britain’s intellectual superiority as men and as owing their full potential to their country.

The idea that citizens owe their nation morality stems from the conflict with France mentioned earlier; the prevailing opinion in Britain was that the French were immoral and prone to excess, and therefore one way in which Britain was superior to them was through their morality. This created an anxiety around female morality that both informed and was informed by the conduct literature genre, including those held by Newcastle University. Hannah More and Mary Wollstonecraft are two of the most well-known conduct literature authors from the 18^th century and occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum. Nevertheless, they are united in their anxiety about female morality during this period and how any degradation of that would affect the nation at large. This collective anxiety eventually led to a societal idolisation of the middle class, whose ideology and ethics would come to set the standard for British society. Mary Wollstonecraft and Hannah More, therefore, form part of a genre that shaped British culture and therefore its history.

Written by bequest student Charlotte Davison, Postgraduate student from the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics.

Gertrude Bell’s Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General

Posted on 29 April, 2024 by nspeccoll

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was a writer, archaeologist, and colonial diplomat who played a significant role in the creation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1921. Although Bell spent the latter years of her life living in Baghdad, her archive and book collection were donated to our library by her family following her death in 1926. Bell’s archive remains one of our most heavily used collections and has recently been made available on our dedicated Gertrude Bell website after being digitised and catalogued to current archival standards. Bell’s book collection, which comprises her working and personal library, complements the archive by contextualising her activities and providing an insight into the way she worked and learned throughout her life.

Although Bell’s own output is impressive (the archive contains over 12,000 unique items), her book collection reflects her diverse interests and shows us the ways in which the work of others supported and inspired her travels. Additionally, Bell’s books are often annotated with notes which document the learning process whilst also serving as reminders of key information she regarded as important. The selection of books in her library and the copy specific information they contain can be interpreted by researchers looking to further understand the work and methods of this unique historical figure.

One item within Bell’s book collection which illustrates the way she used and interacted with her books is her copy of Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General (B910.2 REE) published in 1906 by the Royal Geographical Society. Hints to Travellers was originally created by the Society for,

“a person who, proposing to explore a wild country, asks what astronomical and other scientific outfit he ought to take with him, and what observations he may attempt with a prospect of obtaining accurate results”.

The guide included sections on a wide variety of topics including climate, geography, anthropology, and astronomical observations as well as comprehensive lists of pieces of equipment a traveller would need to take with them on their journey.

Front cover of Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General (Vol. 1) — Bell’s copy of the ninth edition of *Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General* (Vol. 1) [Gertrude Bell Collection, B910.2 REE]

Bell owned a copy of the ninth edition of the Guide (above), which was published in 1906 and split into two volumes. The first volume, which focused on “Surveying and practical astronomy”, is particularly special as Bell has filled many of the pages with handwritten notes and diagrams. These notes document both her learning process and her use of the methods explained within the book.

Pages from Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General (Vol. 1) showing Bell's handwritten notes and diagrams — Pages from *Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General* (Vol. 1) showing much of the blank space in the first section of the book filled with Bell’s handwritten notes and diagrams [Gertrude Bell Collection, B910.2 REE]

Bell has also included the latitude and longitude of locations in Lebanon (“Beirut”) and Iraq (“Baghdad Citadel”), which she has presumably been able to calculate using the guide.

Pages from Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General (Vol. 1) showing Bells handwritten notes — Pages from *Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General* (Vol. 1) [Gertrude Bell Collection, B910.2 REE]

Many of the books within Bell’s library, such as language and grammar books as well as works focusing on history and culture within the Middle East, provide a unique insight into the ways in which Bell prepared herself for her travels across the region. They also indicate the voracious appetite she had for reading and learning, and the wide variety of subjects in which she took an interest.

2 pages from Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General (Vol. 1), left page depicts an advert for 'Norris' Boots for Travellers, and the right page depicts an advert for 'Benson's £25 'field' watch — Pages from *Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General* (Vol. 1) [Gertrude Bell Collection, B910.2 REE]

Bell’s copy of Hints to Travellers: Scientific and General can be requested here.

The Gertrude Bell Collection can be viewed online using Library Search.

Paper Scraps in the Rare Book Collection

Posted on 24 April, 2024 by nspeccoll

Written by Newcastle University Special Collections & Archives bequest student, Sam Bailey.

Books have a limited lifespan. The idea that one might deliberately take apart a book and use it for something other than the transmission of the written word might be cringe-inducing, but it was a practice that was widespread in the medieval and early-modern periods. When a book was no longer of use – because it was undesirable, out of date, or had been used to destruction, the expensive materials used could be recycled. John Dryden wrote in Mac Flecknoe (1678-83) that even the works of modern authors were destined to be ‘Martyrs of pies, and reliques of the bum.’ Anna Reynolds has recently shown how early-modern England was brimming with reused and repurposed scraps of paper, which provided imaginative inspiration for a variety of literary works. To our knowledge, the Philip Robinson Library does not contain any books that were once used in pie crusts or as lavatory paper, but it does contain books that were repurposed as binding material. Two books held in Newcastle University Special Collections & Archives, from the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively, offer a window into the way that people recycled old books into new ones.

Binding of Tacitus’ *Opera* (Venice: 1497) [Incunabula, Incunabula 11]

Incunabula 11 is an edition of the complete works of Tacitus, printed in Venice in 1497. Unfortunately for Tacitus, most of the attention that this copy receives is due to its remarkable binding. As you can see from the images below, this book is bound with a limp membrane cover, which was once a beautiful piece of sheet music. The music that is visible here is from a chant: De Sancti Martyribus, which was sung to commemorate Christian martyrs. This is a well-presented manuscript, in a regular hand with decorated capitals. Why is this high-quality music manuscript on the binding of a printed book? The historian of medieval music Margaret Bent can help to answer this; she argues that in the medieval period:

Musical styles changed almost as rapidly as in pop music today, and even new pieces were often adapted, with added or removed voices or changed text. Old music books were regarded as expendable, sometimes dismembered within half a century; parchment was recycled for miscellaneous purposes, paper usually discarded. (623)
Margaret Bent

This chant most likely fell out of fashion and ended up as waste material. It is likely, based on the observable structure of the book, and the dating of both the text and the binding, that this manuscript was used to bind the book shortly after it was printed. From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, most printed books were sold as ‘quires’ – unbound stacks of printed sheets that needed to be folded, trimmed, and then covered by a bookbinder. Bindings could therefore be customised based on the budget and tastes of the buyer. Music manuscripts were widely used as binding materials, a well-made manuscript made for a visually appealing cover. As membrane or leather were expensive animal products, reusing material in this way could cut costs for the purchaser. We do not know who first purchased this book, but if they were in an institution such as a monastery, it is possible that they already owned this discarded music manuscript, and reused what was available to them.

Our second book rockets us forward two hundred years, to the midst of the English Civil War and Interregnum of the 1640s. This is a copy of Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia epidemica, also known as Vulgar Errors, a work of natural philosophy. It was printed in London in 1646, and it is bound in a typical mottled brown leather binding, with decorative blind rules on the top and bottom covers. Binding styles can be somewhat misleading when dating a book, particular as a style as generic as this endured for so long. Understanding precisely when a book was bound can offer a vital insight into provenance, and luckily, the wastepaper used in this book’s binding gives us a vital insight into its history.

Binding of *Pseudodoxia epidemica or Vulgar Errors* (London: 1646) [17th Century Collection, 17th C. Coll. 398.3 BRO]

Peeking out between the top cover and first leaf of the printed book, we can see the edge of a single leaf of another book. This is a leaf used as a binding scrap – a piece of paper used to maintain the structure of the binding, that is a feature of many hard-cover bindings. Binding scraps were made from wastepaper that was available to the bookbinder at the time. If we can date the binding scrap, then we can identify more precisely when the book was bound. At the top of this scrap, we can see part of the word ‘Apocrypha’, and we can see in a small blackletter typeface, a number of lines from scripture. A quick comparison between some of these lines and quotations from the Apocrypha sections of English Bibles reveals that this leaf contains lines 26-32 of the 2^nd verse from the 2^nd book of Maccabees, and lines 1-29 from the 3^rd verse of the same book. From that, it is possible to compare printed editions of English Bibles that contain Maccabees and find out which edition this leaf originated from. At the bottom of the page, we see a ‘signature’ – an alphanumeric representation of the position of the leaf within its sheet, that would help bookbinders to keep the sheets in the correct order. In this case, the signature is ‘Yy’ which we can express as 2Y1 (i.e. the first signature of the second sheet labelled Y). To find the edition of the Bible from which this binding scrap was taken, all we must do is find Bibles where these verses are found on leaf 2Y1 and compare them. Only one edition of the appropriate period has these verses, in the same typeface, on sheet 2Y1: the 1641 Authorized King James Bible printed by Robert Barker and John Bill in London. If you compare our scrap to a full leaf from this edition they match perfectly.

Binding scrap found in Pseudodoxia epidemica or Vulgar Errors — Binding scrap found in *Pseudodoxia epidemica or Vulgar Errors* (London: 1646) [17th Century Collection, 17th C. Coll. 398.3 BRO]

1646 – the year that this edition of Vulgar Errors was printed – was a tumultuous year in England. The parliamentarians had won the civil war against Charles I. The new Puritan-controlled Church issued a new Catechism, a Confession of Faith and a Directory of Worship – documents that sought to transform the nature of the established Church of England. That Confession would reject the authority of the Biblical Apocrypha. Our scrap of Maccabees 2 – from a 1641 Bible, was an example of this newly rejected scripture. New Bibles would be issued without the apocrypha and some old Bibles had their apocrypha sections removed. This is most likely how these verses from Maccabees 2, taken from a fairly new 1641 Bible, ended up as scrap paper in the binding of a 1646 book. The removal of this leaf was intended as an act of textual destruction, but it lives on by serendipity in the spine of another book. This scrap of paper, tucked into the binding of an otherwise unrelated book, is a register of the ways in which political and religious turmoil shaped the lives of books.

Acknowledgement

I must give all credit to any meaningful identification of the sheet of De Sancti Martyribus to my colleagues in the department of music at Newcastle University: Michael Winter and James Tomlinson. What took them minutes would have taken me days!

References and Further Reading

17^th C. Coll. 398.3 BRO. Browne, Thomas. Pseudoxica epidemica. London: 1646. Philip Robinson Library, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Authorized English Bible. London: 1641.

Bent, Margaret. ‘Polyphonic Sources’ in The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music. Cambridge: 2011.

Dryden, John. Mac Flecknoe, Or, A Satyr upon the True-Blew-Protestant Poet, T. S. by the Author of Absalom & Achitophel. London: 1682.

Inc.11. Tacitus, Cornelius. Opera. Venetis: 1497. Philip Robinson Library, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Korpman, Matthew J. ‘The Protestant Reception of the Apocrypha’ in The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha, ed. Oxford: 2021.

Marianai, Angela., Giger, Andreas and Thomas J. Mathiesen (eds.). ‘Regino Prumiensis’ in Theseaurus Musicarum Latinarum. REGTONA_TEXT (indiana.edu). (Contains the text of Di Sancti Martyribus)

Morrill, John. ‘The Puritan Revolution’ in The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism, ed. John Coffey and Paul C.H. Lim. Cambridge: 2008.

Reynolds, Anna. Waste Paper in Early Modern England: Privy Tokens. Oxford: 2024.

Benjamin Zephaniah

Posted on 13 March, 2024 by nspeccoll

In honour of the life and works of Dr. Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023), March 2024’s Treasure of the Month is his work from the Bloodaxe Books Archive. Benjamin Zephaniah was a dub poet born in Handsworth in Birmingham who rose to become Britain’s third favourite poet, according to a BBC poll in 2009. He was known for his hard-hitting performance poetry about race, class and injustice in modern Britain as well as his portrayal of preacher ‘Jeremiah Jesus’ in Peaky Blinders.

Benjamin Zephaniah reading his poem Money in Newcastle City Centre in 1991

Zephaniah also famously rejected an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 2003, his response was a decisive, honest commentary focused on his relationship with empire:

“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and we were born slaves, and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don’t even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I’m certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.”
Benjamin Zephaniah, Gaurdian (2003)

The self-proclaimed anarchist’s commitment to his views extended to work that was consistently radical. Zephaniah used the controversy he inspired to fuel his work and draw attention to injustice. Of the artifacts kept in the Bloodaxe Archive, one such document is the information sheet for his 1992 collection City Psalms. In this Zephaniah actively acknowledges the racist prejudices levelled on him by tabloids such as The Sun, which is quoted directly.

City Psalms Information Sheet, includes an image of Zephaniah at the top with 'BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH' across the image in capitals and then descriptive text underneith. — *City Psalms Information Sheet* (BXB/1/1ZEP/1/4, Bloodaxe Books Archive)

The archival material on Benjamin Zephaniah at Newcastle University contains proofs of Zephaniah’s collections: City Psalms; Propa Propaganda; Too Black, Too Strong and To Do Wid Me. These collections were published by Bloodaxe Books and as such the material held also includes internal documents from within the publishing house concerning edits and forewords. These artifacts give both an insight into Bloodaxe Books’ workings and attitude to a radical poet such as Zephaniah.

Zephaniah’s social commentary covers key political conflicts over his lifetime; he was involved in Nelson Mandela’s campaign against apartheid, commented on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the 1990 poll tax riots, among others. His work covers all formats, printed, spoken word and digital, allowing for an accessible form of poetry that does not adhere to the traditional British literary cannon. Zephaniah commented on the need for accessibility in his poem “Dis Poetry” which he performed at Live Theatre in Newcastle in 2009.

Benjamin Zephaniah reading Dis Poetry at Live Theatre in Newcastle in 2009.

One of the collections held in the Bloodaxe archives is Too Black, Too Strong, published in 2001. This collection was born of a residency at Tooks Barristers’ Chambers funded by The Poetry Society and as such contains poetry that comments on legal systems and notable cases that occurred during Zephaniah’s residency there. One such poem is called What Stephen Lawrence has taught us, a poem commissioned by Independent Television News for Channel 4 News which discusses the well-publicized murder of 18 year old Stephen Lawrence whilst he waited for a bus in April 1993. This attack initiated a public enquiry, resulting in the Macpherson report, which deemed the Metropolitan Police Service institutionally racist and incompetent. Zephaniah’s poem talks about the state of Great Britain after Stephen Lawrence’s murder and declares that institutional racism “is now an open secret”. Despite this damming conclusion the poem has a thread of hope running through it, Zephaniah states,

“The death of Stephen Lawrence / Has taught us to love each other” and the final stanza of the poem contains a plea to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Condon asking him to “Pop out of Teletubby land, / And visit reality”.

The vibrant life of Benjamin Zephaniah will leave an imprint on Britain’s art and literary scene for generations to come, his infectious passion for the work that mattered, for the future of the British people and for the potential they have, will, I hope, never be forgotten.

The artifacts surrounding Benjamin Zephaniah’s work are accessible via the Special Collections Reading Room at Newcastle University, and his spoken word poetry is available through Bloodaxe Books’ YouTube channel or Zephaniah’s own website.

Written by Charlotte Davison, PGR student at Newcastle University English Literature, Language and Linguistics.

Unravelling the Theatrical Tapestry: A Glimpse into Special Collection’s Rare Books and the Legacy of the Playbill

Posted on 21 February, 2024 by nspeccoll

Written by Megan Hardiman, an undergraduate English Literature student.

Over the last few months, I have been working within the Special Collections team, focusing on material from the Rare Books collection. Here, I was tasked with collecting metadata for over two hundred playbills that advertised performances from 1819-1820 at the Theatre-Royal, Newcastle. From the Shakespearean classics of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’ to the forgotten plays of ‘Bamfylde Moore Carew’, each playbill offered a unique window into Newcastle’s theatre scene.

Page from Play bills and notices, 1770-1820 with the title 'Mr Young and Mrs Garrick, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark' — Page from *Play bills and notices, 1770-1820* [Rare Books, RB 792(4282)]

As a third year English Literature student, I am admittedly an avid theatregoer, and often find myself at Northern Stage or Alphabetti Theatre indulging in upcoming and new material, so to see experimental plays were the heart and soul of the theatre in the 1820s was a pleasant surprise. However, the very nature of the plays has changed significantly, with titles such as “Of Age Tomorrow” and “The Day After the Wedding; Or, a Wife’s First Lesson” seldom featured in contemporary theatre. After reviewing the collection, there were thirty-four different titles that had negative gendered connotations, with some performances featured several times throughout the recorded year. The attached playbill illustrates the relationship between male and female performing bodies. Both Mr Young and Mrs Garrick are advertised as featured actors from London, yet Mr Young plays Hamlet, the fallen hero in Shakespeare’s tragedy, whereas Mrs Garrick is cast as Ophelia, who is driven to suicide as a consequence of Hamlet’s control, and Maria, the principal female role in ‘Of Age To-Morrow’. The playbill, like a time-traveling portal, allowed me to witness the disparity in roles assigned to male and female actors. While Mr. Young graced the tragic heights of fallen heroes, Mrs. Garrick drew the short end of the stick, predominantly featuring in what was deemed a musical farce.

Page from Play bills and notices, 1770-1820, with the title 'Hamlet, Prince of Denmark' — Page from *Play bills and notices, 1770-1820* [Rare Books, RB 792(4282)]

Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Hamlet’ was also paired with ‘Ladies at Home; Or, Gentlemen, we can do without you’. This disparate pairing seemed strange at first, and I spent a while scratching my head as to why the company would have done this. After some deliberation, I came to the assumption that it was an opportune moment to trial the new experimental play and measure its success with a large audience. ‘Hamlet’ generally attracted a bigger reception due to its popularity, and this is evident through the notice at the bottom of the item stating, “Nothing under FULL PRICE will be taken”, which suggests that a sell-out audience was likely. This then gave way for the Farce “Ladies at Home” to be aired. Perhaps this was revolutionary, or simply a marketing technique to test the waters of a female cast, but either way the playbills have given scope for a gendered analysis.

Page from Play bills and notices, 1770-1820, with the title 'Fazio; or, the Italian Wife's Revenge.' — Page from *Play bills and notices, 1770-1820* [Rare Books, RB 792(4282)]

The relationship between the Theatre Royal and gender has inspired me to write a dissertation on the lying-in hospitals around Newcastle, by using the playbills as a portal into the comparative analysis of the presentation of performing female bodies and pregnant women. As seen in the playbill, there were benefit performances for the building of a lying-in hospital, that was completed in 1826 and built opposite the city library. As such, the playbill has become a window into the gendered expectations imposed on both actors and women during the nineteenth century, and I will use the research gathered in Special Collections to inform my third-year dissertation.

Michael Chaplin – Newcastle United

Posted on 12 February, 2024 by nspeccoll

If you have lived, worked, or visited the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne during match days, you may have seen the sea of fans, all wearing the iconic black and white shirts. You may have heard the roar of the fans emanating throughout the city whenever a goal is scored, or the fans disagreeing with a decision from the referee. Newcastle is a city proud of its football team. The stadium, affectionally known as the ‘church,’ is central to the culture of this part of the Northeast. As a one team city, the love and at times distain for the club runs deep through Geordie blood. For those new to Newcastle, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and become an adoring fan. Newcastle United, for those not native to the city, can give a sense of belonging. Michael Chaplin, whose archive is located in Newcastle University Special Collections and Archives, is an example of just that…

Michael Chaplin, born in County Durham, moved to Jesmond in Newcastle as a young boy after his family moved back to the Northeast from Essex, where his father (Sid Chaplin) had been working as a writer. Although he attended schools in the area, his accent was different to those around him made, and often made it hard for him to feel like he belonged. But, whilst playing outside with a friend one day, he heard the Geordie roar from the stadium and became intrigued by what could cause such a sound that reached over a mile away. This was the beginning of his life-long love for Newcastle United and in the future would be the inspiration for some of his works in local live theatre, literature and tv dramas.

Fans of Newcastle United will be familiar with some of the famous chants, such as The Blaydon Races pictured below (part of the Michael Chaplin Archive and used as research material for the theatre production Beautiful Game: The Newcastle United Story). These chants fill the stadium grounds whilst the players are on the pitch. They fill the local pubs while the matches are shown on the tv, and they fill public transport across the country and worldwide when the black and white fans are travelling to support their team. They are vital to the club, urging the team to do well, cementing the love of the team between fans, and showing their rivals that they are serious.

‘The Blaydon Races,’ from United: The first 100 years (Michael Chaplin archive, MC/4/1/4/2)

In 1996, Chaplin’s live theatre production Beautiful Game: The Newcastle United Story, was performed at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle. The production told the story of his much-loved club through the eyes of three generations of the Purvis family and includes the trials and triumphs the team faced in the past through to present through affection, humour, and song. The period before had been a hugely successful year at the theatre. It became Newcastle’s first arts institution to receive a substantial National Lottery Award, and after a post-match pint between Robson Green and Max Roberts about Michael’s ideas for the new production, the history of the Newcastle United production was born.

The programme that was produced for Beautiful Game: The Newcastle United Story described how Michael’s love of Newcastle United evolved, with key images and special event dates included (see the images below). This biographical information was later developed into a book called Newcastle United stole my heart. It tells of the growing sense of belonging that was gained from hearing the crowds and attending matches. It tells the story of his own changing life and career. This book is currently on display within the Sid Chaplin and Michael Chaplin Archives exhibition case, near to the exhibition area on Level 2 of the Philip Robinson Library.

The theatre production of Beautiful Game: The Newcastle United Story, was a tremendous success and enticed those that would normally be at a football match, to come to the theatre and enjoy the ‘game’ in a format different to the usual venue.

Pages from *‘Beautiful Game – the Newcastle United Story’ programme –* Michael Chaplin’s story of falling in love with Newcastle United (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/4/1/4/3/7)

Local newspapers wrote of the enjoyment of the production and reviewing Chaplin, Roberts and Green highly. These cuttings are a few of many which we hold in the archives. Many of them sing the praises of the trio and tell the individual stories that brought them together for this production.

Page from The Journal – Toon Barmy Mike on the Ball’ (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/4/1/4/3/6) — Page from *The Journal – Toon Barmy Mike on the Ball’* (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/4/1/4/3/6)

Page from Evening Standard – ‘Curtain up on a tale of the Toon’ (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/4/1/4/1/1) — Page from *Evening Standard – ‘Curtain up on a tale of the Toon’* (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/4/1/4/1/1)

Years later in 2009, a new play was written by Michael Chaplin and his son Tom, titled, You Couldn’t Make It Up. The production told of the story of the current turbulent events of the team they both loved. This ‘script in hand’ style of play was created in line with the theatres theme of real-life stories, with other plays such as From Home to Newcastle being an enormous success. This new production centred around key members of Newcastle United and included the characters of Mike Ashley, Kevin Keegan, and Alan Shearer. Key goals from across the seasons were shown on video during the interval. Unlike the previous Beautiful Game production, which was written as a ‘love letter’ to Newcastle United’s history, this new performance was written and performed in a manner to describe the most recent turmoil the club was facing and expressed how much the fans yearned for change. The programme sold during the performance (images below) was designed with the iconic black and white strips and the magpie (the Northeast icon for the nickname of the Geordie team), with the headline ‘Toon fans Vs the Management.’

'You just couldn’t make it up’ programme, themed in the style of a Newcastle United match day programme with the traditional black and white strips and and iconic magpie (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/411/8/4) — *‘You just couldn’t make it up’ programme,* themed in the style of a Newcastle United match day programme with the traditional black and white strips and and iconic magpie (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/411/8/4)

‘You just couldn’t make it up’ programme, short paragraphs describing the back story to the play (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/411/8/4) — *‘You just couldn’t make it up’ programme,* short paragraphs describing the back story to the play (Michael Chaplin Archive, MC/411/8/4)

The Michael Chaplin Archive holds scripts, correspondence and some key research material used in the planning process of Chaplin’s journey writing the live theatre plays Beautiful Game and You Just Couldn’t Make It Up, alongside his other successful pieces of work.

Still on the theme of football, but with an entertaining story about a canine, we also hold the archival material for the wonderful drama of Pickles the dog (written by Chaplin and shown on ITV). The story is about the canine that found the stolen World cup in 1966. More information on this can be found here: Pickles – The Dog Who Won the World Cup – Newcastle University Special Collections and Archives (ncl.ac.uk)

If you are interested in Newcastle, football, theatre, television, literature, community and culture, the Michael Chaplin Archive is highly recommended. You can find more information and links below:

A ‘humble feast’ for Christmas

Posted on 12 December, 2023 by nspeccoll

A kitchen interior with a young maid hanging carious meats, figures preparing food beyond, oil on canvas, circle of Jan Baptist Saive, 1563. Public Domain.

Are you in the midst of preparing an elaborate Christmas meal? How about some inspiration from a seventeenth-century recipe book? From turkey sauces and minced pies to gingerbread and marzipan, Gervase Markham’s The English Housewife (17th Century Collection, 17th C. Coll. 338.1 MAR(3)) contains all the recipes you’ll need to create the perfect early modern festive feast.

About the Author

Gervase Markham was born around the year 1568 into a well-connected country gentry family, although not much is known about his early life. It is possible that, like his elder brother Francis, Gervase was educated at Cambridge. We do know that later, he spent several years serving with his brothers in Ireland and was also somewhat active at court. By 1593, he appears to have settled in London, and it is at this point that he turned his attention to writing.

He penned an astonishing variety of texts spanning multiple genres including poetry, drama and prose alongside a wide range of non-literary works on topics such as horsemanship, veterinary medicine, husbandry, domestic economy and military training.

The English Housewife

First published in 1615, The English Housewife is a handbook that, as its full title suggests, contains ‘all the inward and outward Vertues which ought to be in a compleat Woman’. Markham had an extensive list of demands and expectations when it came to the early modern English homemaker. She should be, above all, ‘of an upright and sincere religion’, and ‘a woman of great modesty and temperance’. She should ‘shunne all violence of rage, passion and humour’, and always remain ‘pleasant, amiable, & delightfull’ towards her husband.

The English Housewife provides recipes, methods, and instructions to help its reader accomplish these lofty expectations by mastering a range of skills including cookery, brewing, baking, perfumery, spinning, dying, and ‘all other things belonging to an Household’. As was customary for recipe books in this period, it also includes treatments for a range of medical ailments and advice on the prevention and cure of everything from the plague to bad breath.

It is worth noting that the contents of the text are not entirely original. Markham specifically credits an unnamed Countess as the source for many of the recipes in the text, and it is likely that many others had been in circulation in manuscript form or communicated orally for many years.

Nevertheless, the handbook remains an invaluable resource offering rare insight into the practicalities of early modern life. It was enormously popular, going through nine editions and at least two additional reprints by 1683. The edition currently held at Newcastle University’s Special Collections and Archives dates from 1649, several years after Markham himself had died.

Whilst not explicitly festive, The English Housewife contains recipes for early versions of many of our holiday favourites. Below you’ll find recipes for minced pies, turkey sauce, gingerbread and ‘marchpane’: everything you’ll need to complete your ‘humble feast’, which, according to Markham, should consist of ‘no less than two and thirty dishes, which is as much as can stand on one table’.

A Sauce for Roast Turkey

Roast turkey will no doubt be the centrepiece on many of our tables this festive season. Take a look at this recipe for an accompaniment for this Christmas staple:

Take fair water, and set it over the fire, then slice good store of Onions, and put into it, and also Pepper and Salt, and good store of the gravy that comes from the Turky, and boyle them very well together: then put to a few fine crums of grated bread to thicken it, a very little Sugar and some Vinegar, and so serve It up with the Turkey: or otherwise take grated whitebread and boyl it in white Wine till it be thick as a Gallantine and in the boyling put in good store of Sugar, and Cinamon, and then with a little Turnesole [turnsole] make it of a high murrey colour, and so serve it in Saucers with the Turkey in manner of Gallantine.

A Recipe for A Minced Pie

These minced pies are quite different to the ones we can buy in supermarkets today. They were more savoury than sweet, and combined meat with dried fruits, sugar and spices. They also were rectangular, rather than round, and were baked into a self-standing pastry known as a ‘coffin’.

'A mince't pie' recipe — ‘A minc’t pie’ recipe from *The English Housewife* (1649)

Take a legge of mutton, and cut the best of the flesh from the bone, and parboyl it well: then put to it three pound of the best Mutton suet, and shred it very smal: then spread it abroad, and season it with Pepper and Salt, Cloves and Mace: then put in good store of Currants, great Raisins and Prunes clean washed, and picked, a few Dates sliced, and some Orange pils [peels] sliced; then being all well mixt together, put it into a coffin, or into divers coffins, and so bake them: and when they are served up, open the lids, and strow [strew] store of Sugar on the top of the meat, and upon the lid, And in this sort you may also bake Beefe or Veale, onely the Beefe would not be parboyld, and the Veale will aske a double quantity of Suet.

A Recipe for Gingerbread

What Christmas would be complete without gingerbread? Here you’ll find a recipe for spiced gingerbread made with liquorice, aniseed and cinnamon:

'To make gin-gerbread' recipe — ‘To make gingerbread’ recipe from *The English Housewife* (1649)

Take Claret wine and colour it with Townesall [turnsole], and put in sugar and set it to the fire, then take wheat bread finely grated and sifted, and Licoras [liquorice], Aniseeds, Ginger and cinamon beaten very small and searsed [sieved] and put your bread & your spice altogether, and put them into wine and boyle it & stir it till it be thick: then mould it and print it at your pleasure, and let it stand neither too moist nor too warme.

A Recipe for ‘Marchpane’

Marchpane was early version of marzipan. Like modern marzipan, it was made using ground almonds and sugar. For the Tudors and the Stuarts, no banquet was quite complete without it. It could be carved into elaborate shapes and covered in gilding to create a glamorous centrepiece. According to Markham, it should have ‘the first place, the middle place, and the last place’ of a banquet. For our last recipe, take a look at the work that went into preparing this luxurious dish:

'To make the best Marcpane' recipe — ‘To make the best Marcpane’ recipe from *The English Housewife* (1649)

To make the best march-pane, take the best Iordan [Jordan] Almonds, and blaunch them in warm water, then put them into a stone morter, and with a wooden pestel, beat them to pap, then take of the finest regined sugar, well searst [seived], and with it Damaske Rose-water, beat it to a good stiff paste, allowing almost to every Iordan Almond, three spooneful of sugar: then when it is brought thus to a paste, lay it up a fair table, and strowing [strewing] searst sugar under it, mould it like leaven, then with a roling pin role it forth, and lay it upon wafers washt with rose-water; then pinch it about the sides and put it into what form you please; then strow searst Sugar all over it; which done, wash it over with Rose-water and Sugar mixt to gether, for that will make the Ice, then adorn it with Comfets, guilding, or whatsoever devices you please, and so set it into a hot stove, and there bake it crispie, and so serve it forth. Some use to mixe with the paste, Cinamon and Ginger finely searst, but I referre that to your particular taste.