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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 1h

I feel a little bit under qualified to talk about Amsterdam, but I think like they had quite an active culture shift in the 70s/80s towards public & active transport?

Feel like there’s only pockets of political will to get that kind of change in this country!

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 2h

Sorry about the radio silence, but I’m back and will ease in over the end of this week. What an amazing city Amsterdam is though - I feel like our urban planners who take a ton of tips from their transport network. They’re gifted with a much more trusting social contract though.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 3d

Oh how my heart aches I can’t go to the railway museum in Utrecht. Their first locomotive was built at Bedlington!

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 3d

My first time in Amsterdam - holy double decker!!!!

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 4d

There’s not too many about now - there’s one at Haggerston which survives and you’ll find some in private country estates.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 4d

The ice could last well through to the summer or even full year if the conditions were decent enough meaning meats, desserts and fresh goods could be packed in here for banquets and daily sustenance.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 4d

A lot of them were excavated hollows in hillsides, or mounds, and were packed full of ice from water sources nearby. This one probably grabbed ice from the pond next to the country house.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 4d

Every estate had one of these little grottos through the 18th and 19th centuries. They’re called icehouses and featured prominently before the invention of refrigeration.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 4d

Just a quick one this evening, as I really wanted to share this little ice house on the grounds of Close House - now a golf resort but once the estate of the Bewicke family who featured fairly high ranking politicians of the county and nearby town of Newcastle.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

A shot from the same angle in 1932. Unknown source.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

It's had a decent level of limewash to protect it for years to come, and some further restoration over the years, but it's still a beautiful little cottage which forms the pilgrimage site for one of the North East's greatest sons.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

This is seen below waiting to depart from Forth Banks, and included such locomotives as Locomotion and Killingworth Billy.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

The house was a principal landmark of Stephenson's centenary celebrations in 1881, when a long procession of early locomotives trundled to Streethouse in homage to their forefather.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

It is clear the great influence he had on his son, whose tinkering and knowledge of machines clearly rubbed off.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

His father Robert was the mechanic for a Newcomen pumping engine on the edge of the river. There were two in Wylam owned by Blackett at this time - both around the site of the Jubilee Field today where the waggonway terminated.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

We can presume he walked from here or hitched a waggon over to Newburn where he worked at the Water Row Pit when he was 17, uneducated but by all accounts well loved.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

Now it was built in the 18th century, though there's little indication as to whether there was a previous occupant to Robert & Mabel who were George's parents. He was the 2nd child born in 1781, birthed into a pit family with only a pittance.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

This is High Streethouse, a cottage on the fringes of Wylam which stood on the Wylam Waggonway and later the formal railway from North Wylam to Newcastle.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

The North East was the Silicon Valley of the early 19th century. Innovation and invention accelerated the world into coal-powered smog, and much of it was down to a man born here - George Stephenson.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 5d

Ha, the first time satanists, golfers and coal miners have all featured in one Venn diagram! I'd be interested to know more!

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 6d

My pleasure - up via Close House to Heddon next. Lots of little hidden gems.

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 6d

We've about 440 entries from various projects on the library now. As you can see though, still plenty of gaps to fill!

North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 6d

The last addition to the site I have for you this week is North Wylam Railway Station, effectively the commuter terminus for the line through Newburn and Scotswood - one that would come very handy these days!

www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/features/nor...

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 6d

Yep!

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North East Heritage Library @neheritagelib.bsky.social · 6d

A great shot at the head of the station with a DMU and steam service in the 50s. Quintessential Northumberland railway shot this.

Unknown photographer.

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