Geoff, I do enjoy your notes on local history. It can also be good fun as well as per the following. Yesterday I took a Northumbrian pal down to the Quayside, so he could test his photographic skills. All went well until we passed under the High Level Bridge and saw a prominent marker in the centre of the roundabout, it was labelled 'Javel Groupe' but with no further explanation. What's that about I was asked, not having a clue, I offered up .....most likely the name of a prominent industrialist.....probably Scandanavian. Well he wasn't having that......No, more likely to do with the Boer War. Well I wasn't having that and so the discussion.....argument continued, with him eventually throwing down the challenge, that as I was the local, he would give me 24 hours to come up with the correct answer! Well last night after frantic Googling I discovered 1. Javel Groupe was the name of a narrow alley that used to run down to the river 2. A groupe was a channel to carry water. 3. Javel was a weak sodium hypochlorite solution. So most likely the alley was built over a chemical waste outlet to the Tyne. Mystery solved, I think, but then....Why would it have been deemed necessary to erect a fairly expensive structure to mark a narrow alley? Norman NEGenealogy@aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 02/12/2009 02:55:58 GMT Standard Time, > pnjmillington@bigpond.com writes: > > It is amazing to hear so much local history. > > >