© Copyright Stephen Richards and licensed for
reuse under this Creative CommonsLicence.
Head
north on the Great North Road and, a little short of
Stannington, you will stumble upon an old relic of Newcastle . The strange classical form
standing near the roadside, and within the bounds of Blagdon Hall, is Cale
Cross, looking more like a daft rich man’s ornament than anything else.
Unusually,
though, we have here a ‘folly’ that has – or rather had – a practical use. For
it once stood at the heart of old Newcastle , marking the spot where
cale (cabbage)* and other foodstuffs were once sold – a sort of mini-market which
gathered at the town’s Sandhill area, near the present-day Guildhall on the
Quayside. It also acted as a conduit head for some time. A commemorative plaque now marks the site,
attached, as it is, to the modern-day Cale Cross House near the footings of the
Tyne Bridge
Well,
Blagdon Hall, as you may know, has long been the home of the White Ridleys; and
the Sandhill area of Newcastle has long had a ‘Cale Cross’ – at least as far
back as 1309. For many years a more ancient ‘cross’ structure marked the spot,
but this was replaced by a fancier design in 1783 – drawn up by architect David
Stephenson and paid for by Sir Matthew White Ridley. However, nice though it
was, it soon got in the way of the local traffic and a decision was made in
1807 to dismantle it.
The
White Ridleys, presumably somewhat miffed at the corporation’s change of heart,
ended up carrying the said structure stone-by-stone to their ancestral home and
throwing it up at the side of the main road north – for no other reason than it
seemed a shame to ‘hoy it oot’. And so, like a nineteenth century Angel of the
North, it sits in a prominent spot near a major thoroughfare so that passers-by
can have a good gawp.
And
why not. It is rather splendid.
* Some think the word ‘cale’ is
derived from kail wort, a herb used in making broth and which may have been
sold at this spot in Newcastle
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