The Felling Park's Journey Thro' Time

Love Parks Week

14-23 July 2017

Holly Hill..a grassy area shown on this map

became this, when it was discovered that stone lay beneath

When the quarry was exhausted the hole was filled in and it became a pocket of land which could not be built on. There was a number of exhausted quarries in Felling and they became a cricket pitch, a cemetery, a nature park or in this case, a recreation park. A park was an obvious choice anyway when Felling Council built their Council Offices on the land next door. This was a great showpiece place for the Council's Parks Dept, sloping as it does towards the then main road linking Newcastle with Sunderland.
And what a showpiece it was..

To the left, on this picture, the land flattens out and at one time there was a bandstand there.

When life was simpler, when houses were not centrally heated and there were no TVs or computers a park was used more than it can be expected to be used now. Kids certainly use swings, slides and roundabouts but they do not use, but do abuse, a showpiece park as this was and will be again soon

The Felling Heritage Group , in 2014, did some work in the Park to bring it some way towards what it was

as it was the venue for the culmination of a march to recognise the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I

This pic was taken today, 18 July 2017.
The Friends of Felling Park and Town Centre Group are now working to bring new life to the park, again.  It's a big job and they need more volunteers. If interested, click this Friends link

Something's Smelling in The Felling

A Felling circular of 1838 called upon farmers to meet at the Mulberry Inn to discuss steps to protect their property from the injurious effects of the chemical fumes from the neighbouring works.

So, where were the chemical works?

Hugh Lee Pattinson and his partners had set up their chemical plant at the bottom of Bath Lane in Low Felling 4 years earlier in 1834. (It wasn't called Bath Lane at the time..it was called that much later in recognition that Hugh Lee had provided baths at the factory not just for the workers but for their families as well)

It is unknown whether any canny farmers turned up for the Mulberry Inn meeting. Given that cows chew the cud for the whole of their waking hours, the farmers probably considered cow gas masks to be an impractical solution

In 1827, a decade earlier, Friar's Goose Chemical Works had been established by Anthony Clapham, who had been harassed out of a number of works in the North-East after complaints of pollution caused by his factories. Technically, Friars Goose is outside of The Felling's boundary but noxious fumes tend not to respect borders.

"Soap making was conducted at the site until 1829 and by 1831 the works had been altered to become a caustic works operating the Leblanc process, mainly producing bicarbonate of soda and Epsom Salts. In an overblown gesture to alleviate pollution, Clapham built a chimney in 1833 that was 263 feet high and the highest on Tyneside at the time. 

Holzapfels didn't get to The Felling until 1904 but they've been here ever since. They always were also known as International Paints and their Felling premises for the past 60 years or so have said so..

Holzapfels is a difficult spelling for the folk of Felling..fortunately the current owners have the much easier name of AkzoNobel.

Public Art in The Felling

The Pant, Felling Square

The Pant is long gone (broken up and used as landfill) and Felling Square is currently nondescript, in need of demolition and a fresh start. The creation of a piece of public art as a centre piece seems to be the general view. Not only would it be a homage to the well loved and missed Pant but it would be in keeping with many of our neighbouring towns which have in their town centres an item of public art...see examples below.
We have a couple of examples, currently in The Felling. The sculptured shop front

Neil Talbot's relief sculpture of a Victorian Baker's Shop, at the junction Carlisle Street/Sunderland Road.
 

has been around for a long time but since 2010 we've had this (albeit, moved slightly)

‘Water Wheel’, by artist Jim Roberts, at the entrance of the High Lanes estate since 2010

This circular shape is attractive and it is said to be based on a water wheel, which is not particularly associated with The Felling (altho' one did exist at Heworth). A pit wheel would perhaps be more fitting, but no matter. Attached to the wheel there's a football, which is fair enough and a pitman's helmet..just seen on the right of the wheel. There's a train..good...and a tunnel that's reflects, I suppose, that the train does at one point run below the motor traffic. The spider could at a stretch represent industry and the ship represents both ship building and, more particularly, that coal and grindstones were shipped out of the town to London and, grindstones in particular, all around the World (Wherever in the World you are you'll always find a rat, a Scot and a Newcastle grindstone (Newcastle? damned cheek). Notable by its absence is any reference to the Chemical/Paint industry, which was a large industry in The Felling area, competing with mining and quarrying for the work force and while it did not employ as many then, it has probably employed more than those given that, half a century later, paint production is still in full flow
The one mooted for Felling Square is based on human figures, which appears to be in fashion judging by other recent monuments in the North East

Horden

Seaham

Washington Town Centre

There are exceptions to figures at Sacriston and this one at Watergate Forest Park
Here's a sketch, commissioned by The Felling Heritage Group, of a possible art feature. It's similar to the Washington one but has a pitman, a soldier and a child standing on two grindstones. The book carries an inscription but could represent not just a) locally created education by Church & Industry a hundred years earlier than the eventual education operated by Government but b) the Felling-on-Tyne based Walter Scott Publishing Company, which published masses of books, worldwide. Personally,  I'd also like to see something like a pestle & mortar to represent the paint/chemical industry, as mentioned earlier

Views from the canny folk of Felling will be sought and you could express your own view here, should you be so inclined. Gateshead Council have major revamp plans for The Felling with demolition of high rise & other blocks of flats and a revitalisation of Felling Square so progress on a public art feature will be done in conjunction with the Council.