Shotley Bridge swordmakers

[urbanspaceman]

Hi Peter. The only foto we have of the lintel is very poor and the 6 looks like a 5.
It was 1691 when the building was dedicated.
There was another lintel recorded prior to it being lost and that includes a quote from Psalms:

DEUTSCHLAND IST UNEVER VATTERLANDS
SOLINGEN IST DIE STADT VERLASSEN
HERR BEHUT DEINEN AUSGANG
UND EINGANG

GERMANY IS OUR FATHERLAND
SOLINGEN IS THE TOWN FORSAKEN
LORD PROTECT YOUR ENTRY
AND EXIT

"The last line is taken from Psalm 121, verse 8:"
"The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
from this time forth and even for evermore."

[Peter Hudson]

Ah yes I see it on page77 of your book... Got that... The date of first Cutlers Hall dedicated by Adam Oley in Wood Street.. Thanks...

I cannot upload the pictures but you have it also outlined relating to the variety of names applied to The Crown and Crossed Swords and the next door Commercial Inn at page 78 of your book. At some point it became Commercial Hotel....Those buildings near the carpark are all disappeared now and the shops in the village centre have changed hands several times... I agree that the Wilsons shop was a hardware shop..and you know my views on the real reason that I reckon the Germans chose the Shotley Bridge location and unrelated to any of the previous theories. If they could have fitted a moat and searchlights around it Im sure they would have done so..

[Peter Hudson]

Commercial Hotel.

Please see https://shotleybridgevillagetrust.co...-carousel-4439

Other detail on this site are in my view incorrect as the new sign above the door was fitted at about 8am as I was standing outside waiting for the works bus to go to the new reservoir...in 1964 ..summer holiday job. That sign comprised a fairly lumpy and horrible crossed sword arrangement which is still there! Next door was the Crossed Swords... given the name The Crown and Crossed Swords.... at some stage. Opposite was The Kings Head on the Durham side of the Derwent which used to be called The Bridge End...

Peter Hudson

[Peter Hudson]

From a museum in Hawick in the Scottish Borders which will be an absolute must to visit when it opens in the new year. The Curator is Mr Brian Moffat an expert in all things Border Reivers...and a member of this Forum. Illustrated here are Swords of Shotley Bridge thus indicating probable strong links as Jacobite swords entering the Culloden sphere pre 1746.

Regards,
Peter Hudson.

[urbanspaceman]

The above sword was forged in Shotley Bridge by Adam Oligh for John Holles.
Although a staunch royalist, Holles was a devoted Protestant and supported Danby when he held York for Prince William during the Glorious Revolution in 1688.
His father-in-law had left all the Newcastle estates to Holles but not the title until 1694 when he became Duke of Newcastle.
Whether the swords were made for his militia in 1688 or after 1694 is not known, but regardless they were Shotley Bridge blades; I personally think the latter.
Lord Gort of Hamsterly Hall (adjacent to Shotley Bridge) collected several swords made in the village: the smuggled blades with the Passau Wolf remain in storage at the Laing Art Gallery (see image) but that back-sword (along with another) with only the script ,stayed with the descendants of Lord Gort who was, incidentally, younger brother of WW1 Victoria Cross hero Viscount Gort (John Vereker).

[urbanspaceman]

Here is a Holles back-sword from the Laing.

[Peter Hudson]

I see that Thomas Bewick has much work at the Laing. He was apprenticed to shotley sword makers and much involved in illustrations and engraving/ decorationon blades etc.

I have no proof at all that he was instrumental at bringing the emblem of the Running Fox ...we sometimes call the Bushytail Fox to the swords of Shotley Bridge ...except that he was probably the finest illustrator of wild animals in this country and was the source of many vast works on the subject.

Bewick also pointed to the fact that many retired sailors and soldiers took their knicknames from those various wild animals ...like Hawk, Wolf, Raven, Fox etc...

He wrote: A History of British Birds, A Conspiracy of Ravens: A Compendium of Collective Nouns for Birds, Uit de Hooglanden - Zes Schotse Fantastische Vertellingen, Memorial Edition of Thomas Bewick's Works: A Memoir of Thomas Bewick, Written by Himself. a New Ed., Prefaced and Annotated by Austin Dobson, My Life, The Fox at the Manger, Memorial Edition of Thomas Bewick's Works: A History of British Birds: Water Birds

My favourite is Memorial Edition of Thomas Bewick's Works: A Memoir of Thomas Bewick, Written by Himself. Chapter iv
states that he etched sword blades for W and N Oley at Shotley Bridge.

Regards Peter Hudson.