In a message dated 06/02/2004 12:57:10 GMT Standard Time, helen .aust@btinternet.com writes: > I've today received a birth certificate for an ancestor of mine who was > born in 1855.  I believe the family were living in Waggon Row or > Waggonman's Row in Usworth in 1851 &1861.  His sister's birth certificate > clearly says Waggonrow Usworth.  His birth certificate is not very clear, > but it looks like Washingtonrow, Washington.  It definitely isn't Waggon > Row, and it certainly says Washington rather than Usworth.  Could we be > talking about the same place?  Or is there a Washington Row that the > family could have moved to (and then moved back again)? >        Waggonman's Row seems to have been on a site in Blue House Lane now occupied by a row of "Aged Miners' Homes".  One small piece of old stone wall on a short stretch of the property boundary seems to be all that may remain of the old buildings.  At that point Blue House Lane formed the boundary between the Towenships and, after 1835, the parishes, of Washington and Usworth.        There were "Old Rows" in the Village Lane district of Washington but, more to the point here, some "New Rows" were built in the latter half of the 19th century a little further east on Blue House Lane, east of the junction with what became Heworth Road immediately to the west of that junction there used to be the New Rows Methodist Church, now demolished.  These "New Rows" became the centre of what was known as "New Washington" and although they were all on the Usworth side of the road, a row of shops etc developed on the south (Washington) side of what became called "Victoria Road".  Opposite the east end of the New Rows was the junction with Spout Lane, which led to Washington Village, and on the SE corner of that junction a pub was built to serve the "New Washington" community.  Naturally it was called the "New Inn".  It still remains, under its modern twee name of "The New Tavern".  The New Rows were demolished in the ?1950s and their site used for (a) road widening, (b) another row of shops ("Arndale House") and (c) a bus station and Health Centre.  The name of "New Washington" for such an old part of town was considered too out of date when Washington was declared a "New Town" in the 1960s (yet nearby Newcastle is now over 900 years old!), and so the district around there, on both sides of Victoria Road, had the name of "Concord" foisted on it by planners with no sensitivity for local culture or for national or local pride or history.        Yor family could easily have moved from Waggonman's Row to Washington New Rows and then moved back again.  We are talking here of only a couple of hundred yards or so and coal miners in particular moved around an awful lot, even after the abolition of the Bond (?1869) removed their incentive to do so - it had become a habit which was not completely given up for a further generation.              & nbsp;      Best wishes,              & nbsp;             Geoff Nicholson 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU (0191 417 9546) Professional Genealogist - Northumberland and Co Durham.