Beverley Terrace Cullercoats

Opposite Beverley Terrace, near the Pilot Beacon is the Wasp Fountain. After passing out First Class, Midshipman Bryan J. H. Adamson of Cullercoats was posted to the Mediterranean flagship. In 1887, as Lieutenant Adamson in command of H.M.S. Wasp, he sailed from Singapore, never to be seen again. A few friends put up the fountain, which quickly became purely ornamental.

One of the most famous residents of this part of the terrace was James Knott, shipowner, of "Monkshaven". Born at Howdon, he spent his youth in North Shields. By the time he moved to Cullercoats in the 1890s his Prince Line was building up an extensive trade. Mr Knott, later Sir James, had high commercial and political ambitions, but also took an interest in Cullercoats, from writing to the press about the condition of the village, to presenting a concertina to a blind boy, Martin Henderson, which launched him on an international stage career. A long-awaited book on the history of the Prince Line, "Pride of the Princes", by Norman L. Middlemiss, has been published, and is available in local bookshops or ask your library reception. James Knott's neighbour was Robert Jobling, the artist, one of whose Cullercoats paintings is sold as a reproduction in libraries.

CULLERCOATS HARBOUR

In a collection of ephemera - posters and leaflets - in the Archives at the Old Central Library, North Shields, is an illustrated brochure, appealing for cash to aid the rebuilding of the Cullercoats South Pier. The artists were Robert Jobling, who contributed this sketch, and Henry Hetherington Emmerson. Both were local men, and regular contributors to the Royal Academy. The sketch shows the North Pier, which had been built by, and partly at the expense of the fishermen of the Village, during 1869. The South Pier had been built about 1850, and had been severely damaged by the storms of the late 1880s. The leaflet bears no date, but was probably printed in 1890.

Richard John Leeson, an architect living at 43 Beverley Terrace, Cullercoats, wrote to the Tynemouth Borough Sanitary Committee in the autumn of 1888, asking for £300 towards the cost of repair, but was refused. The old Council minutes show sporadic and unsuccessful attempts to get the Council to change its mind. In July, 1890, Mr Leeson informed the Council that the village had raised £700, but needed £400 to complete the work. A year later the Council agreed to provide £150, and the committee which had been set up in the village was able to see the work through to completion, although to a lesser standard than originally planned.

HENDERSON, Martin

Martin William Henderson appears on the 1881 Census of Eleanor Street, Cullercoats, as the 6 month old son of Joseph Henderson, a clagger and model maker from Morpeth. Both his parents are shown as deaf, and shortly afterwards he was to lose his sight. Educated at the Royal Normal College, London, Martin Henderson became an accomplished musician. He taught himself to play the concertina, and performed on the sands at Whitley Bay. Sir James Knott, the shipping magnate, was so impressed that he gave him a valuable instrument. At the age of 20 he went on the music hall circuit, travelling throughout this country and around the world.

About 1929 he returned to Whitley Bay, where he set up in business as a tobacconist and piano tuner. He became best known in the district as the originator of Busking Day, during which he would tour Whitley Bay on the fire engine, collecting for hospitals. The Local Studies Centre has the sheet music for a song dedicated to him by Uncle Merry Mack, the children's wireless cornerman. "Whitley's Carnival is on, hip-hip-hooray", has a chorus - "You know what we are endeavouring to do, To help the hospitals pay their way, It's a duty not a charity, It's up to you and me, To pay, pay, pay. Pay ! Shell out now ! Pay !" (also read about him in Accounts)

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