Sunderland

Antiquarian Society

Newsletter Oct/Nov 2011

Sunshine Corner – Sunday School on the beach

Antiquarian News

The Society’s membership continues to grow, locally, nationally and overseas. The research mornings at the Minster are very well attended so do please come along – assistance and guidance is always at hand. The monthly evening talks are also being well attended. The society’s website goes from strength to strength and can be accessed at:

www.sunderland-antiquarians.org The site has a ‘Members Only’ area which current members can log in to with their password. Non-members do not have access to this part of the site. Any members who have not yet received their password should simply send an email to the Secretary of the society at P11cur@aol.com and a password will duly be issued. New articles, photos and features are being uploaded into this area on a weekly basis so do keep accessing this part of the website.

Forthcoming Lectures The new season of monthly talks commence in September and will continue on the second Tuesday evening of each month. Please do come along and support the society.

8th Nov ‘The Poison and Filth of Old Sunderland’ by Norman Kirtlan 13th Dec Christmas Evening. – ‘The Lost Shops of Sunderland’ Buffet included. This will be held in The Minster Restaurant and admission is by ticket only as numbers are limited. They are now available from the Secretary, Phil Curtis, @ £8.00 each.

Our normal (all but December) illustrated monthly lectures take place each month in The Minster Vestry commencing 7.45pm and last approx

one hour (doors open 7.30pm with coffee being served, if required). Non-members are always very welcome.

Fortnightly Research Mornings The Society’s archives at The Minster continue to be open for research fortnightly on Saturday mornings 10a.m.-noon on the following dates: 29th October; 12th and 26th Nov; 10th and 24th December. Non-members are most welcome.

THE DAY TOM MIX CAME TO TOWN On 13

th November, 1938 it seemed that a legend had arrived in Sunderland – Tom Mix. –

The star of stars. He was booked to appear at The Empire and the whole town was in a

high state of excitement for his visit. What’s more he was bringing his famous horse, Tony.

Tom Mix, the cowboy, had starred in numerous films. He reputedly wore five hundred

dollar hats and drove a car with a saddle on the bonnet and his monogrammed initials on

the door.

In his wonderful book published over thirty years ago, “The Johnson Street Bullies,”

Patrick McLoughlin recalled the visit:-

“Tom Mix? Not the Tom Mix?”

“And Tony?”

“I don‟t believe it.”

Yet there it was. Can you imagine how we felt when we looked at the advance posters

which told us that the great Tom Mix and his horse Tony were coming to our town? It

just didn‟t seem possible that such a personage would actually grace us with his

presence, walking the same cobbled streets, breathing the same air, bowing before the

same wind. Not Tom Mix. He was one of the shadows around which we wove some of

our dreams. Such shadows didn‟t belong in Sunderland. They should remain shadows,

parts of dreams that can

never come true.

Tom Mix and Tony!

The Legend himself. The

man who was supposedly

tied together with wire

but who could throw and

tie a steer in sixteen

seconds flat. Whichever

way we looked at it, there

was no getting away from

it. No dream. No illusion.

There it was in black and

white, red, green and

yellow on the advance

notices in the Box Office

of the Empire. Of course,

we knew from the papers

that he was in England;

that the authorities had

taken away his guns when

he docked at

Southampton. No jets in

those days, but can you

really imagine Tom Mix

in an aeroplane? He

belonged to the plains on

the back of a horse, the

wide open spaces that had

spawned him. But come

to Sunderland? Why, man...it was like closing a P.C. Wren book and turning around to

find Beau Geste or Jean Boule standing right behind you – or opening a coffin in the

Gill and coming across a valuable pearl necklace.

Anyway, he got his guns back and came to Sunderland.

My mate Ernie and I were real Stage Door Johnnies. And when Tom Mix played at

the Empire, that stage door in Paley Street – it is still there - saw more of us ion the

week he was there than all the other weeks in the year put together. We waited until the

early evening to see him arriving by taxi from the Grand Hotel, where he was staying,

shouted “Howdy Tom!” got a “Howdy!” back from him with a wave of the hand, and

sometimes got ourselves each a faceful of whisky-laden breath as he staggered past us.

Then we went to see the show – every night, both houses, with a meal of fish and chips

in between shows to sustain us – got back to the stage door for another glimpse of him

after the last show, and then, while he was busy with autograph hunters, we ran all the

way down the High Street to the Grand, to be on hand waiting for him to arrive in his

taxi.

“Goodnight, Tom!” we would shout.

“Night, boys!”

Another wave of the

hand, the tang of whisky

in the air, and off he

would stagger through

the swing doors. Have

you ever seen a cowboy in

high-heeled boots – with

an obvious load on –

going through a set of

swing doors? It was

worth the run down the

High Street.

Mix shot off six-guns and

Winchesters all over the

place when he was on the

stage at the Empire. He

also played about with

ropes and whips and

spoke in a voice that no-one in the audience could hear, not even from the front row of

the pit stalls. As for us in the gallery, he might just as well have been dumb.

I had read bits of his official biography, which I believed implicitly because I wanted

to believe it and told the other lads about his body being all wired up like a doll‟s. This,

the stories went, was why he drank so much, to relieve the pain. One of his specialities

was to shoot a rifle at a razor-edge axe set between two targets, split the bullet on the

axe-edge and get both bulls. Takes some doing, even when you‟re sober. God knows

how he managed it in the condition we saw him in. Coming from Johnson Street, we

knew a drunk when we saw one. But it was a long time ago, I was only a boy and,

memory being what it is, I may be maligning him unfairly. Drink affects different

people in different ways and from what I‟ve heard and seen since, those Hollywood folk

certainly knew how to put it away. As it is, I am reporting what I think I heard and saw

then and I don‟t like doing it one little bit. – He used to be one of my heroes.

Tony, his horse, must have been pretty old then if he was the same one Mix had

acquired in 1908 or thereabouts, was never drunk and had a spot on his own where he

Tom Mix and Tony on stage at The Empire

galloped on a moving conveyor belt against a film backdrop of blazing flames. I‟d never

seen an animal look more terrified and at that time I did know a bit about horses. I

think it was round about Wednesday or Thursday that the gloss began to wear off for

Ernie and me. He loved horses as much as I did.

When Tom left town, it must have been the next Sunday morning, we found him

standing in the concourse at the north end of the railway station and posing – he must

have been posing for his fans, there is no other word for it – in a ten-gallon Stetson, the

high-crowned hat he made famous, cord breeches almost like jodhpurs, tooled leather

high-heeled cowboy boots, string tie and a military-style raincoat. He was smoking a

cigarette, posing on Tony, one leg nonchalantly crossed across the pommel and also

rolling a cigarette.

“Gan up an‟ ask for „is tab-end, Ernie prompted me.

I went up to the imposing figure, leaving the crowd behind me. He was talking to a

woman who might have been his wife. All my attention was on him and his cigarette.

“Er, Mr Mix...” I began.

He looked down at me and smiled while I waited for some gem of Western philosophy

to come out of his mouth. Then in a soft, throaty voice, almost a whisper that I could

hardly hear and I‟m sure no one else did, not even his wife, who was standing right next

to him, he said “Haul your ass outa here, you Limey punk!”

Then he smiled again, took the cigarette out of his mouth, regarded it carefully as

though he had known what I was going to ask, and ground it under the toe of one of his

beautiful boots. After that he further tightened his already tight lips and just looked

into space. Maybe he knew he was heading for the last round-up. At that time he was

about fifty six or seven. He died about three or four years later in a car crash.

I never went to see another Tom Mix picture again. He had stopped making movies

anyway and there weren‟t many re-runs as I recall. That was the day a legend died for

me, almost before it had come to life...

Ed: Tom stayed at The Grand but just where did Tony, his horse, stay? Perhaps it was

at West Herrington: - In the Sunderland Echo of 7th

February 1963 Mr Ernest

Weightman (late of West Herrington) recalled a "distinguished visitor" to Herrington

was the late Tom Mix the famous US cowboy of silent films. "He was my guest” says Mr

Weightman “for two days shooting in 1938 when he was appearing for the week at the

Sunderland Empire. I counted it a great privilege to be his host and was fascinated by his

tales of real life experience in the Old West. I wish to say that Mr E V Smith,

Superintendent and Deputy Chief Constable of Sunderland facilitated the entertaining of

this great American"

The Echo did a review of the show and stated: “When Tom Mix takes the stage, assisted

by three other cowboys and Rosa, there is an orgy of rope-spinning, crack-shooting and

whip-cracking. I do believe Bud Cardell could remove a threepenny-bit from the pocket

with his whip.”

Nevertheless the visit of Tom Mix to Sunderland was memorable and is still recalled

fondly by many Wearsiders.

.....................................................................................................

CROWTREE ROAD – A few reflections

Crowtree Road was originally the back lane of the town of Bishopwearmouth and took

its name from a large rookery that stood on the grounds of a house known as Holmeside

at the south end of the road. The Londonderry public House, which today stands at the

north end of the street, was originally known as the Peacock Inn and used as the

coaching stop between Sunderland and Durham. Another old inn, the Red Lion, which

had been founded

in 1630, was also at

the north end of the

street.

An old etching

(right) shows the

street in 1838

consisting of a

block of houses

leading to a

number of garden

walls which

belonged to the

houses on

Bishopwearmouth

Green. One of the

houses on the

Green was

Crowtree House on

whose site the Green Terrace School was later built.

As Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth grew so the area around Crowtree Road began

to be developed with new streets leading off in all directions. Housing brought with it

shops, theatres and many public houses. The Crowtree was one of three pubs in a row,

the other two being the Red Lion and Three Tuns. Across the road was the Lambton

Arms. Along at the south end of Crowtree Road were the Marine Alms Houses which

had been built in 1820. These had been paid for by a Mrs Woodcock to give homes to

ten widows or unmarried daughters of Master Mariners.

By the 1930s the road was packed with shops. These included: Johnson‟s the

Tobacconist, Salmon‟s gents outfitters, two furniture stores - Berg Bros and Wearside

Furnishing, Tate‟s Electricals, Reynolds Army Stores, three butchers in Stiers, Grays

and Jeffrey‟s, Style Drapery, Moore‟s Stores and Hodgson‟s. The street at that time also

boasted the King‟s Theatre and Louis cafeteria. Very few shops then existed in

Maritime Place, the long-established Burnand‟s shoe shop being the most prominent.

In 1958 the almshouses were demolished and new shop units built on the site.

Greenwood‟s gent‟s outfitters moved into the corner unit with Tate‟s Electricals, Stylo

Shoes and Moore‟s Stores taking up the other units. Kennedy‟s store relocated from

High Street West and occupied the large unit close to Blandford Street. All this made

Crowtree Road and Maritime Place very popular shopping centres and Lloyds Bank

moved into premises opposite Kennedys. Other shops in Crowtree Road included The

Red Radio Shop and Brechner‟s, the latter carrying on the old tradition of the Arcade

with a lot of stock set out on the pavement in front of the shop.

Crowtree Road 1838

Practically all the old established shops in Crowtree Road were swept away with the

building of a Leisure Centre and Bus Station and later redevelopment brought a

shopping mall, The Bridges, to the street.

Crowtree Road - now part of a shopping mall

........................................................................................................

The Monkwearmouth and Southwick Hospital

Monkwearmouth Hospital was built in Newcastle Road in 1932 to replace the old

Monkwearmouth and Southwick Hospital which had existed in Roker Avenue since the

1870s.

The original hospital in Roker Avenue had been opened in the nineteenth century

with the intention of helping to cope with the numerous accidents which were occurring

in the heavy industries on the north side of the river such as coal mining and

shipbuilding.

The founding of the Monkwearmouth and Southwick Hospital, was due to the efforts

of a former vicar of the local parish, Reverend Canon Miles, with his assistant the

Reverend J.H. Hancock and Captain Colver, a gentleman.

It all began in 1873 when two rooms were taken at the Workmen‟s Hall to be known as

Monkwearmouth and Southwick Infirmary but as the population grew so the number

of patients using the rooms greatly increased and the need for larger premises became

obvious. Help was at hand through a local businessman, Samuel Tyzack, who stepped in

and purchased a building further down Roker Avenue, (then called Broad Street). This

was a large house next to The Causeway and known as The Babbies, then the residence

of Mr Matthew Robson.

The house took its name from four statuettes which stood at its front and these were

eventually to be donated to Roker Park. The amount paid for the house at that time was

£1,500. Mr Tyzack also left a legacy to the treasurer of the hospital and in 1877 its

committee undertook the training of nurses with the intention of supplying treatment to

families in the district and also providing for the poor of Monkwearmouth.

The hospital flourished and on 16th

February 1896 further wards were opened. It

served the area until July 1932 when it closed and the move was made to the new

premises in Newcastle Road.

The Babbies – purchased for the hospital. Note the

statuettes which were eventually donated to Roker Park

The building, however, remained and was taken over and used as a rope works,

eventually being owned by British Ropes Limited. The building remained in use until

the last few years of the twentieth century when redevelopment of the area led to its

demolition

The Monkwearmouth and Southwick Hospital - note the sign above the clock ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Remember the society’s archives are packed with documents, maps and

photographs that may be of assistance to members in their family or subject

research. Where we are able, we will provide help and assistance for

research. Contact our map archivist, Norman Kirtlan, email:

oldsunderland@yahoo.co.uk or our Chairman, Douglas Smith, email:

douglassmith2007@aol.com

The Society is keen to add to its growing collection of copies of Wearside

family trees and would be delighted to accept any details for our files. These

may be handed in on any research Saturday or emailed to our President,

Douglas Smith, at the above email address.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Membership subs are paid annually - £15 for an adult and £25 for husband and wife. If your subs are due then please do forward the same to the Treasurer, Mr R. Hope, 25 St Gabriel’s Avenue, Sunderland, SR4 7TF. This entitles you to a 6 bi-monthly newsletters per annum; a free booklet on an aspect of Sunderland’s History (published annually) and free admission to the archives which are open

Saturday mornings (fortnightly) 10.00 – noon at The Minster. The monthly talks held in The Minster Vestry are also free (details on page 1) There is also access to the Members Only area of the Society’s website with an

exclusive password being issued to all members.

Go to www.sunderland-antiquarians.org

NEW MEMBERS ARE MOST WELCOME and should send subs to the Treasurer

(address below) who will arrange for a welcome pack to be sent. Alternatively

you can join through the website (PayPal)

Officers of the Society 2011-12 President: Mr D.W. Smith, 7 Crow Lane, Middle Herrington, Sunderland, SR3 3TE Tel: 5220517 Vice President: Mr F. Lowes Hon Vice-Presidents: Mr R. Lawson, Mrs C. Davison Secretary/Web Editor: Mr P. Curtis, 14 Park Parade, Roker, Sunderland, SR6 9LU Email: P11cur@aol.com Tel: 01915101923 Treasurer: Mr R. Hope, 25 St Gabriel’s Avenue, Sunderland. Image Archivists: Mr R. Lawson, Map Archivist: Mr N. Kirtlan email: forensicart@yahoo.co.uk Librarian: Mrs C. Davison Ms E.Tinker Donations Sec: Mr G. Prince, 15 St Nicholas Avenue, Sunderland, SR3 1YG Tel: 5287307 Membership Secretary: Mr R. Davison, 17 Marion Street, Sunderland SR2 8RG Council Members: Mr J. Cheesebrough, Mr D. Bridge, Mr W. Hawkins, Mr C. Metcalf

Hendon Road

Bede’s Cross Opening Ceremony 1904

Roker Park Lake 1952

Roker Park Lake c.1902

The Gill Cemetery. The Ship Isis pub can be seen on the horizon