George Stephenson's Cottage from the rear
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Description
"George Stephenson was born here on 9th June 1781. An old photograph from 1890 shows that it probably looked more like it did in 1995 [[2257617]] than it did in 2003 [[5428]] and today. In 1881, a regional holiday was declared on the centenary of Stephenson's birth, and among many other events that day a special train ran from Newcastle Central Station to North Wylam. It was accompanied by 16 modern locomotives loaned by the major railway companies. The trains stopped outside the cottage and after a suitable ceremony, the Mayor of Newcastle planted the oak tree shown in the foreground of this photograph. The tree is now 132 years old and in good health. "There is nothing to interest one in the village itself [Wylam!]. But a few hundred yards from its eastern extremity stands a humble detached dwelling, which will he interesting to many as the birthplace of one of the most remarkable men of our times — George Stephenson, the Railway Engineer. It is a common, two-storied, red-tiled, rubble house, portioned off into four labourers' apartments. It is known by the name of High-street House [Street House], and was originally so called because it stands by the side of what used to be the old riding post-road or street between Newcastle and Hexham, along which the post was carried on horseback within the memory of persons living. The lower room in the west end of this house was the home of the Stephenson family, and there George Stephenson was born, the second of a family of six children, on the 9th of June, 1781. The apartment is now, what it was then, an ordinary labourer's dwelling; its walls are unplastered, its floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed overhead." The Life of George Stephenson by Samuel Smiles (1857) http://gerald-massey.org.uk/smiles/index.htm" Photo by Andrew Curtis, 2013. -
Owner
Andrew Curtis -
Source
Geograph (Geograph) -
License
What does this mean? Creative Commons License
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Further information
Link: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3446387
Resource type: Image
Added by: Peter Smith
Last modified: 6 years ago
Viewed: 548 times
Picture Taken: 2013-05-06 -
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