In the 1870s the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle published a series of articles under the heading " Our Colliery Villages" a sort of travelogue on colliery life, history, housing, sanitation etc.
On 4th Oct 1873, the reporter covered Cowpen.
Some extracts mentioning Cowpen Square and its environs .....
" We last week attempted to show what Cowpen had been like as a colliery village in it's early days; this week we desire to present it to our readers as it is to be seen at present. "
"Previous to the year 1864 Cowpen was but a a small village with little prospect of enlargement: but in that year an Act of Parliament was passed, which by setting free the land on the Thornto or Crofton estates, gave a mighty impetus to the enterprise of the district. It was then that Cowprn Quay was built, and what had previously been a vast waste of mud when the tide was low, or a broad expanse of shallow water when the tide was high, ( such as Jarrow Slake is now) was reclaimed by degrees from its useless state to become the site of a flourishing town. "
Reporter writes of the condition of cottages on Kneelman's Row ( today Regent St of Blyth)..
" They were built at a time when sanitary arrangements were never dreamt of, and as a consequence we find at the back of the gardens behind the houses the usual offensive ash heaps."
" From hence we walk towards the Square, where we find everything in a state of confusion. AA revolution is going on amongst the old house which we last week described. nThey are falling before the pick of the labourer and in their are rising up modest mansions of dun-coloured brick with slated roofs, which put to utter confusion the antiquated shams which, with drooping chimneys and tottering walls, tremblingly await their gradual extinction"
" The ramshackle erections which used to fill up the centre of Cowpen Square have disappeared for ever: but the ugly open ashpits still remain, and it is to be hoped the hand of improvement will not be stayed till they also have disappeared to be replaced by the sanitary reforms of modern civilisation. "
" Outside the square is Cowpen Mill, its giant arms whirling round merrily to the piping of a stiff westerly gale"
"Long years ago there was another mill known as Buckshill Mill. which stood upon the centre of what is now known as Monkey's Island. Not a vestige of it now remains but our venerable guide points to some stepping stones left bare by the receding tide which foot passengers used to cross when they went to the mill."
" Near the square is the ferry boat landing for the convenience of the good people of Cambois who depend on it as a means of communication with Blyth . A bridge across the river here would be of infinite service : and Monkey's Island offer an elligible foundation of one end of it; but the owner refuses to give up an inch of the land for such a purpose"
" .... we wend our way towards the North Pit, across the field over which the skirmishers of the 93rd, under the leadership of the late Lord Clyde ( who was then Colonel Campbell) spread themselves when they made their bloodless assault upon the square "
Then reporter makes his way to the "A" pit ( also called South Pit, site now at "top" of Waterloo Rd) then to Isabella Pit.
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Old maps showing Cowpen Square...
Fryer's 1820 map
http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/007179FS.htmSquare only three-sided
Greenwood's 1828 map
http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006972FS.htmSquare just south of Buckshill Mill.
1860 Ordnance 6" version
http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/004890FS.htm~~~~~~~~----------
On the 1841 census Cowpen Square follows on from "North Pit Houses" and Buck Hill Mill, page refs, from 821/4a 23-2 to 821/4a 31-18. Many of the residents are coal miners, and would likely have worked at the North Pit/ " A " pit ( later to become Bates Pit)
Michael
