Fountain(s) Yard - Glebe Row/Road/Bank

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Does anyone know anything abut the Fountain Inn or Fountain9s) Yard?

On the Bedlington remembered Facbook group a Mikki Lee Townley commented :-  'Does anyone please have any info on fountain yard off glebe road in bedlington, (I'm not local- I'm doing family research) my grandads sister Isabel Thompson was born there in 1904. Many thanks.'

I had heard of the Fountain Inn but not of Fountains Yard. The info in one of Evan Martin's books said that Fountain Inn was across the road from the Mission Room building.

I am wondering if what was Blackbird Hall became the Fountain Inn and Fountains yard.

I don't have access to the census records so I checked the North east War Memorials site and found there were 5 residents of Fountain(s) Yard listed.

[Canny lass]

I've come across this in my search for "Arcade", Bedlington. It's just a few doors down the road.

1911 Fountain yard comprised six dwellings. Nr. 1 and 2 were somewhat larger, both having 2 rooms while nr. 3-6 had only one. The families living there ranged from 2 to 8 persons and the majority were miners, though one bricklayer is recorded.  Fountain Inn and Fountain Yard appear to have been  neighbours of the Tankerville Arms public House on Glebe Row but they may have been opposite or adjacent to it. I'm tempted to think it was on the same side of the road, partly as it was located next door to the "Dr Pit Cottages" (logically these would be beside the pit) and partly because in 1904 the west side of what we now call Glebe Road was not built upon. It was farmland, so called 'Bishops Meadow', for the needs of the vicar of St Cuthberts. The housing area retains that name even today.

If Mikki Lee Townley can give me some more information about Isabel (her parent's names would be a good help) I'll see if i can find anything nearer 1904. Glebe Row was a complicated area. The adress of every dwelling was simply Glebe Row but residents put their own names to various parts of it and these were later made official.

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

11 hours ago, Canny lass said:

If Mikki Lee Townley can give me some more information about Isabel (her parent's names would be a good help) I'll see if i can find anything nearer 1904. Glebe Row was a complicated area. The address of every dwelling was simply Glebe Row but residents put their own names to various parts of it and these were later made official.

 

@Canny lass :- Than you. I will post your comment for Mikki and suggest she joins this group if she wants more help and info.

I found the entry in Evan Martin's book - Images of England Bedlingtonshire - where the Fountain Inn gets a mention :- 

[Mikki Lee Townley]

hello sorry its taken some time I lost the details. It was me looking up family history in fountain yard. I have access to the 1911 census which stated my grandads family lived at 2 fountain yard bedlington at that time. Isabell was born there in 1904, parents robert thompson born 1873 cambois and Jane ellen born 1877 co durham and brother George thompson born 1902 also a jane ellen 3 days old. 

[Canny lass]

Hi @Mikki Lee Townley, welcome to the forum!

Have a look at this map from 1922. It’s a bit later than your granddad’s time but not much had changed. I’ve marked the Fountain Inn in green and immediately behind it you’ll see the rear boundary of Fountain Yard comprising six ‘dwellings’ each for one household.  Numbers 1 and 2, marked in red, were somewhat larger than numbers  3 – 6 which make up the rest of the row. I choose to call them ‘dwellings’ because I’ve no idea how they were. I’ve heard, but never been able to confirm, that they were no more than lean-to buildings against the back wall of the pub yard. The Fountain Inn certainly stood on the site of Blackbird Hall but if was housed in the hall or built on the site of the hall I can’t say.

 

 

The address can be confirmed by following the route of the enumerator from the  1901 census as he left  the High Street (West End) turned right onto Glebe Row visiting all the yards in turn as he went from door to door, northwards along Glebe Row to the northern boundary of Bedlington District 7. The boundary lay a little further north than this map shows and included all the pit rows. The Fountain Inn is the last building before Shiney Row and Fountain Yard is the enclosure to the south of that building, skirted on the south by the rear of Tankerville Yard’s dwellings.

I had a look at your grandad’s census form from 2011. I’m sorry to have to say that the baby, Jane Ellen, was probably already dead when the census form was filled in by your grandfather. You can see this in the “particulars of marriage” section. Here your grandfather states that he has been married for 9 years during which 3 children have been born alive. He also states that only 2 children are still living – that would be George and Isabell. Poor Jane Ellen doesn’t appear to have lived more than three days and has mistakenly been taken up in the census. The details have been crossed out, maybe by your grandfather but maybe by the enumerator. I checked his summary book and he does not take up Jane Ellen. She may have been born and died as early as 1907.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Canny lass

[lilbill15]

On 27/06/2019 at 11:34, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@Canny lass :- Than you. I will post your comment for Mikki and suggest she joins this group if she wants more help and info.

I found the entry in Evan Martin's book - Images of England Bedlingtonshire - where the Fountain Inn gets a mention :- 

🌈xx Recycling xx

[lilbill15]

😉 @Josimarsz xx