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From Denes to Parks At first glance our inheritance of Victorian Parks appear to be urban versions of Country Parks, but on Tyneside most Parks have a strong evolutionary heritage that follows the history of the River, or like the Town Moor and the Forth, have a social history that began centuries ago. A Dene is a favourite part of the Northumbrian landscape - a wooded valley or ravine with a stream - a rural escape from the world of work - sheltered from wild weather and the industrial landscape.
Northumberland
Park (Pow Dene) North Shields From pre-history Tyneside Denes joined the Tyne or the sea to form safe havens for trading and fishing boats. The connection between the River and the land was the inlet at the mouth of the Dene. From these landings salmon fishing was almost certainly the area’s first industry which together with the easy supply of coal and timber made living on the Tyne viable. Denes also provided cover in times when local knowledge could outwit an invader. With their combination of natural beauty and legend, many were also places of ritual and celebration and therefore the most treasured parts of the local landscape. It is not surprising that many of the Denes of the Tyne remain as best parks in the Region. (By contrast an early visitor to the exposed Tynemouth Priory complained bitterly about the weather and that the skin of the Monks was turning black because of the iodine in their diet of seaweed). Denes were naturally the first points of arrival for any new population from Romans, to Saxons and Vikings. These inlets to the land naturally attracted clusters of settlements and if there was a defendable hill nearby it became a fort. It is probable that there was a fortified settlement at Newcastle before the Romans arrived, the current castle site may well have been used for more than 2 millennia. The Denes each side of the castle provided: a defence, a harbour and a route down to the best crossing point for a bridge. The Saxon monarch of Northumbria, Edwin, had a palace at Pandon Dene east of the site of the Roman Fort and Bridge. The Dene of the Lort Burn became a central route north and the town’s first port at the Side and Dean Street. “The very early commerce of Newcastle appears to have been carried on, not on the Tyne itself - the Sandhill and lower parts of the Town then being covered with the tide - but in the Lort Burn, which passes down a ravine under the present Grey Street, Dean Street and the Side. The tide ran far up this valley. The first houses erected in the Cloth Market had warehouses behind them, communicating with this burn, which was navigable to their doors up to the High Bridge. Afterwards the merchants moved lower down nearer the river, to the Side and the Sandhill.” (The River Tyne, James Guthrie 1880) In times of peace the Denes became pleasant country walks outside of the Town Walls and the idea of “people’s parks” was well established by the 18th Century. To the East of the Town was Pandon Dene and the Ouseburn..... Charleton paints an 18th Century picture ... “Up to the beginning of the present century Pilgrim Street was the extreme eastern verge of the town. The back windows of the houses, then occupied by the Chief Townsman, looked out upon pleasant gardens which sloped downwards to the Erick Burn. On the opposite bank the smooth green sward of the Carliol Croft extended to the eastern line of the town wall with its old towers and turrets. Beyond could be seen the wooded banks of Pandon Dene, and further away the Shieldfield, and the rising ground over the Ouseburn. Nearer still were the orchards of Stepney, and far away in the distance, turned the wands of the windmills of Byker. There was a footpath which was a favourite summer evening resort of the Newcastle people commanding a view of the Windmill Hills rising behind the steeple of All Saints Church with a little burn rippling past the trim gardens of Pilgrim Street.” (A History of Newcastle, R.J. Charleton) To the West of the Town was the Skinner Burn and the Forth, an area of about 11 acres “in ancient times it was a dark and gloomy forest, sacred to the rites of Druids” (Charleton) Henry III licensed the townsmen to dig coal and stone. During the 17th Century Feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide celebrations became established and this tradition became the Easter Hoppings (Fair and side-shows) in the19th Century. About 1670 it became a public park with a walled bowling green and a lane lined with lime trees. In 1682 the Corporation ordered, “make the Forth House suitable for entertainment’s, with a cellar convenient and a handsome room”
Newcastle Infirmary was built on part of the Forth in 1752 and Parker added “a great Amphitheatre” to the gardens and grassy fields in 1789. The park was lost during the Victorian expansion of the City to provide the Central Station, the Cattle Market and Pugin’s Catholic Cathedral of St Mary. The year 2000 saw the International Centre for Life open on the space that was once a Hospital, a Cattle Market and the Forth. Today, Forth Lane, the original route through the City Walls, still exists as the southern boundary of Newcastle Arts Centre. The Skinner Burn has long gone but its route is now Forth Banks, a road down to the river. The rapid industrial development of Tyneside during the Victorian era swept away the natural beauty of the riverside through Newcastle and down to Tynemouth, but outside of the City Centre many of the Denes were preserved as public parks to be urban lungs, recreation areas and wildlife sanctuaries. Many had the protection of professional park keepers and were walled and closed at night. Seafarers returning home from a distant voyage often brought gifts of rare plants and trees adding family links to the legends of the Denes.There is no doubt that Victorian Parks were a subject of Civic pride and care long after their beginnings were forgotten. The Industrial Revolution on Tyneside is a short and explosive chapter of its history beginning about 1820, peaking within a single lifetime to be in decline by the launch of the river's most famous ship, the Mauritania. The river today is in state of recovery and renewal with many opportunities to re-establish the "Queen of English Rivers" as the green banks of the Tyne and the salmon return. Mike Tilley, November 2000
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