Front Street Cullercoats, including the Queen's Head

FRONT STREET nos 6,7,8 and 45, Cullercoats ACC 8226

(Photograph held within Local Studies) Annie Isabella Stanners' sweet shop, ran from the early 1900s into the mid-1920s. The shop, and the properties next to it, hide Nancy's Yard from view. The tall building, would have been the Ship Inn, one of the last properties in this block to be established. There is a reference to a Ship Inn in the village as early as 1746, although this building seems to be later. Beyond the Ship Inn were the traditional fishermen's cottages, dating from the early 1800s, and whose old world character helped to make Cullercoats a tourist attraction. Off in the distance Naters' House would be made out, standing on the corner of Eskdale Terrace and Windsor Crescent. The house may earlier have been Bridge House, Whitley. It was replaced by the Fishermen's Mission in the 1930s.

FRONT STREET nos 1 and 6, Cullercoats

From the 1870s Dial House can be traced in possession of Ann, and later Richard, Clayton. They were associated with Woods & Co. Bank. There are indications that this was not their usual residence, and the house may have been let out. Before the First World War it was George Snaith's refreshment rooms. When conveyed to the Council on 8th July 1929, the vendor was Frederick Marshall Dryden, architect.

In March 1929 the Tynemouth County Borough Council considered a petition from ratepayers and householders in the village of Cullercoats. It pointed out that there had been extensive damage to the cliffs in recent storms, and demanded that the Council do something to protect them without further delay.

The Town Improvement Committee inspected the cliffs on March 8 and decided to adopt the Borough Surveyor's suggestion that the Council buy the Bank Top properties and demolish those in most danger, prior to building a sea-wall.

The Town Clerk reported that he could obtain Dial House, seen in the foreground, for £700, and three unoccupied cottages for £150.

Early the following year, it was decided to demolish the cottages and retain Dial House, which was 1 Front Street. The Quinn and Storey families were to remain tenants until a use could be found for Dial House.

In October 1936 the last tenant moved out and the Council decided to demolish the building. It was, however, still there on March 4, when this, and other properties were recorded for the Borough Surveyor.

In the background is the Queen's Head, at 6 Front Street. There has been a Queen's Head in the village since at least the 1820s, although alterations and enlargements are noted in the newspapers of 1842 and 1865. At the time of the photograph, it was being run by Charles Alfred and Katherine Kings.

PLA 13.2.92 ROCKCLIFFE COACHWORKS, Factories

(Photograph held within Local Studies) Stone House, at 17 Front Street, Cullercoats, was photographed in the afternoon of 4 October 1954, when Tynemouth Council was recording the number and quality of advertising hoardings in the borough.

Although it has the appearance of an older property, the surviving deeds to Stone House only go back to a conveyance and mortgage in October 1820. The buildings were held by Christopher Bainbridge, as executor of Joseph Bainbridge, in part in trust for John and George Armstrong. The documents give a vague description, from which it would appear that this house was in occupation of John Storey, John Taylor and others.

In a mortgage of 1840, the house is described as previously the home of Eleanor Bonnell and John Mills.

Robert Cuthbert Armstrong came into possession of “the stone built messuage or dwellinghouse” in 1877. The tenants were then listed as Elizabeth Johnson, Thomas Smith, Richard Lawler, and the Widow Nicholson.

The house came in to the hands of James Radford, whose executors sold it, and neighbouring properties, to Dotchin Bros. & Byers in 1921. They conveyed the property to the Rockcliffe Motor Garage and Coachworks Ltd in 1922. From 1961 the Council was trying to relocate the business at New York Road, but the Ministry of Housing and Local Government refused to sanction their proposed site.

ACC 19335 BROWN'S BUILDINGS, Cullercoats

In the Spring of 1957 Tynemouth Corporation was well advanced in plans to clear away the older parts of Cullercoats, which had been condemned as unfit, or at least inconvenient. At one Council meeting Alderman J. Lisle moved to save six picturesque cottages on Front Street, as a major contribution to retaining the character of the village. In opposition Councillor L. G. Dolby claimed that they were not the old Cullercoats but a recent addition. He claimed that the older part was behind Front Street, presumably referring to Brown's Buildings.

W. W. Tomlinson's “Historical notes on Cullercoats …” (1893), suggests that they were built in 1836. The owner might have been Robert Brown, grocer, draper, and postmaster, who died in July 1845. Some of his descendants owned property in the village into the 1920s.

Judging by others with similar serial numbers, the postcard was issued about 1928. There are no house numbers visible, but the cottage with the lean-to seems to be 4 Brown's Buildings. In the mid to late 1920s it was home to the Taylor family. Electoral rolls listed David, Elizabeth Ellen, William Scott, David jun., and Elizabeth Ellen jun. as residents.

Notices to quit Brown's Buildings were issued in the summer of 1958. There were still David Taylors at 4 and 5. Other names listed were Purvis; Scott; Moyle ; Lisle; Kruemmel; Dodds; and Ord.

ACC 10560 FRONT STREET nos 27 to 33, Cullercoats

Sometimes erroneously called Brown's Buildings, the white cottages were 27 - 33 Front Street. However, No 33, to the left, was certainly owned by a Robert Brown, as revealed in the transcript of its deeds, at the Local Studies collection

Robert Brown had a grocery, drapery and Post Office in Cullercoats. He died in July 1845, leaving his estate to his wife, Ann, and children, Martin and John Brown, and Mary Hall and Ann Sims. The business was continued until John's death in 1867. Mary and Robert Hall emigrated to Australia, and their many children and grandchildren inherited small portions of the original estate. This must have made life difficult for James Alexander Dewar, who spent the years between April 1891 and February 1921 acquiring the properties in shares as small as 1/20th.

Mr Dewar seems to have retired about 1921, and began selling off the houses. Nos 32 and 33 Front Street were sold to George Laidler and Edith May Olive respectively. In 1950 Mrs Olive sold the shop to fishmongers Colin and Elizabeth Lisle, who had been the tenants since before 1910, and they sold it to Tynemouth Council on 24th January 1962.

ACC 11458 FRONT STREET nos 10 to 12, Cullercoats

(Photograph held within Local Studies) Looking along Cullercoats Front Street towards the harbour, the photographer has included the Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House in the distance. It opened in October 1879. There are few other clues to the date.

The two-dormered building to the left comprised 10 - 12 Front Street. A ladder is leaning against an extension on the front of No 10. Tynemouth's index to planning applications, 1878 - 1902, refers to a James Dewar receiving permission for a new shop front in March 1891. He was probably applying on behalf of Isaac Westgarth. Previously a County Durham resident, he was a confectioner and dealer in beer at Whitley Bay before he arrived in Cullercoats about 1890, and ceased trading by 1899.

The central section of the house was home for many years to John George, and later Thomas Taylor, and their families. About the time of the photo, No 12 was home to the Stocks and Wilson families.

At the far end of the row of white cottages is the tiled roof of a building on the site of the Ship Hotel. The pub which some readers will remember was given planning permission in 1894. There was an old established Ship Inn at that point of the street, but the Ordnance Survey sheet of 1858 suggests that it was set well back from this building line.

ACC 3975 FRONT STREET nos 24, 25 and 26, Cullercoats

(Photograph held within Local Studies) Looking towards Cullercoats Bay, the tallest building was 26 Front Street, and No 24 was to the right. William Coats Armstrong bought 24 Front Street in 1874, although he lived in No 42. His brother, George Henry, was then in Australia; he may have decided to return after the death of his wife later that year. For a time he lived at 26 Front Street. Both brothers died in 1898, leaving their bakery business to George's children. William John Armstrong died in Australia in 1905, after which the firm was called Armstrong & Co., with a bakery at 42 and a cafe at 26 Front Street. Jessie Armstrong continued the bakery until the late 1920s, then ran a drapery at No 26; she died in 1938.

No 24 had various tenants, including George Dodds, a prominent Temperance worker. Born in Newcastle, he claimed to have led a dissolute life before marrying Frances Middleton in 1833. He took up a 6 year Temperance campaign in the North and at Inverness, before opening an hotel at Newcastle. His wife's illness in 1864 led to his settling at Cullercoats, where he influenced the building of the Primitive Methodist chapel. In 1887 he was Mayor of Tynemouth, but fell ill and died in 1888.

From about 1871 the little shop to the right was run by Thomas Appleby, a provision dealer. The birthplaces of his children suggest that he came to the village via Monkwearmouth, West Denton, and Percy Main. He settled at 25 Front Street until his death in 1890. The shop was kept up for a time by his widow, Hannah, but later was held by Robert Jevons Kyle.

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