Arthurs Hill

Whilst I am waiting for the sale of my house to go through I am staying at a friends house in the area of Newcastle known as Arthur's Hill (part of Fenham, to the west of the city). This area started being built in the 1820s and was called Arthurs Hill after the estate owner, Isaac Cookson's son. Now the area is a mainly Asian community with many people from Pakistan and Bangladesh living here. My street and most of the other residential streets lead to Stanhope street which has many several Asian restaurants and shops selling traditional clothes and fabrics and food stores selling halal meat and food imported from around the world. There are no pubs in the area. My friend tells my that this is a "dry" area and there are legal restrictions stopping pubs/bars opening here (not sure how true that is or whether there is just lack of demand in the area). The streets are traditional Newcastle terraced red brick houses similar to what I grew up in. My flatmate has been sorting out his workshop and had a load of stuff to throw away. Went out to the back lane and found this old wooden beer crate. It's stamped as "NORTHERN CLUBS FEDERATION BREWERY". I googled this and found that the brewery was in Dunston, Gateshead and brewed the Newcastle Brown Ale. However, the brewery closed in 2010 when owners Heineken transferred production to Yorkshire!! The brewery has since been demolished as photos show in this link. link

As the brewery closed down 4 years ago and marked the end of our local ale being made locally this crate is quite special. I hope to clean it up and keep it. I thought I'd blip it in the back lane against the traditional red brick wall with the old bricked-up coal hole in the background (which reminds me so much of my childhood, close to the local coal mine where my dad worked).