Thank so much Geoff It is amazing to hear so much local history. I am yet to link the two families, but I have many Elsdon families living in these streets in St John and St Nicholas and the more I can learn about how Newcastle fitted together, the more interesting it gets. Judith ----- Original Message ----- From: <NEGenealogy@aol.com> To: <northumbria@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 5:24 AM Subject: Re: [NMB] Back Row and High Friars St in Newcastle > > In a message dated 01/12/2009 05:13:41 GMT Standard Time, > pnjmillington@bigpond.com writes: > > Hi, I have a hairdresser, James Elsdon in High Friars St, Newcastle St > John, > and a cordwainer, Stephen Elsdon in Back Row, Newcastle St John from > 1790-1820. > > Does anyone know where Back Row was? I can see the modern Friars St but > not > Back Row on the maps. > > Judith > > > > > Judith: > > If you can see a modern "Friar Street" on maps, be very cautious. > There are two Friar Streets in the centre of Newcastle. > > The most prominent, and so most likely to get onto a map is Low Friar > Street, which runs from Fenkle Street (near Charlotte Square) to Newgate > Street, which it meets at the modern entertainment/leisure complex caled > The > Gate. Its name refers to the Friars from the Blackfriars monastery, the > ruins of which are nearby. > > High Friar Street used to run east from the other side of Newgate > Street, but further north, near the New Gate itself, and is supposed to > have > been the route by which the Grey Friars from their establishment on the > west > side of Pilgrim Street, near Pilgrim Street Gate, used to access St > Andrew's church. When Blackett Street was built the eastern end of High > Friar > Street was merged into it, but when Anderson Place, the later embodient > of > what had originally been the Grey Friars Monastery, was demolished and > its > attached land used to build some of what is now "Grainger Town", that and > of > High Friar Street was recreated a few yards further south, so that it no > longer lined up quite conveniently with its western end, from which it > was > then separated by the tops of Grey Street and Grainger Street and the > imposing Grey's Monument. Now that eastern end still exists but the > older, > western, end was flattened c1970 by part of the Eldon Square shopping > centre, > inside which the shopping mall which more or less covers the same ground > is > officially named "High Friars" (I have yet to hear anyone actually call > it > that, but then I'm not the shopaholic type). > > Back Row was further south again and linked the bottom part of > Westgate Road with St Nicholas Street. That district was competely > altered in the > middle of the 19th century by the building of the High Level Bridge > (opened 1849) and the associated lines, embankments, etc, at which time > Back Row > disappeared entirely. It's eastern end was in St Nicholas Street, > opposite the Black Gate, where Westgate Road now emerges, and its western > end > lined up with the Postern, which was more or less where Forth Street is > today. > That means that most of its route is now under the main London to > Edinburgh railway line and will be travelled by rail travellers bound for > places > north of Newcastle just after they leave Newcastle Central Station. Come > to > think of it, that means it will also be under what was for many years > billed as "the largest level crossing in the world", a complex of points > between > the station platforms and the Castle Keep, where the numerous lines all > have branches leading across the others and onto the High Level Bridge.. > > Geoff Nicholson > > > > > > The NORTHUMBRIA FAQ page is located at > http://www.bpears.org.uk/NorthumbriaFAQ/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NORTHUMBRIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message