On Saturday 8^th October 2011 Mr Akira Mitsuzane (retired Chief of the First Criminal Investigation Division of the Tokyo Police Department), accompanied by his wife and an interpreter, presented to the owner of 1, James Street, Wolstanton a framed bronze cast portrait of Dr Henry Faulds. The portrait will eventually be installed above the front door and a brief description will be produced following discussion with both the owner and tenant.

The party then visited the plaque in Castle Comfort Centre and laid flowers on Dr Fauld’s grave in Wolstanton Churchyard.

On his return he became a well – known local character and ran a photographic and music centre shop originally next to his brother Roger’s pharmacy in the town centre.

Jim had a deep interest and care for his home town and watched its development keenly, sometimes seeming to spend more time in the Civic Offices than did those who worked there.

He was a determined, tenacious campaigner – a wonderful ally but a fearsome opponent !

Jim was a founder member of Civic Society and was, for some years, its Honorary Secretary. He championed many local causes the most recent being the Listing of Lancaster Buildings.

He was so highly regarded he was made an Honorary Member of the Society, one of only three in the Society’s history.

He was also, for many years, a member of Newcastle Rotary club taking particular interest in the activities of its Community Service committee.

He was kind hearted and generous and seemed to have an endless supply of sweets and cakes which he distributed freely.

Jim will be greatly missed by all his friends and colleagues in the Society.

In June 2009, Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council joined English Heritage in progressing PCISA for part of the Town Centre Conservation Area. The scheme was launched in April 2010 and its objective is to contribute towards the re-generation of the Town Centre through the re-invigoration of its historic environment. It will provide repairs to key historic buildings and re-instating traditional features and enhancing the Conservation Area within the commercial core.

The scheme will run for 3 years and a steering group, which meets at regular intervals, comprising Officials and Councillors from the Borough Council, English Heritage, the Civic Society and Chamber of Trade and Enterprise, was set up to oversee the scheme.

So far grants have been given to:-
a)    Lancaster Buildings for shop front improvements and re instatement,
b)    Lighting scheme in Market Lane, which will be the first of its kind anywhere in Great Britain
c)    “Mellards warehouse” in Market Lane.

Discussions are currently being held with the owners of Farmers Shoes, Comwalls Chemist and the agents of the Castle Hotel.

The Borough’s Conservation Officer and the steering group will continue to promote the scheme and encourage as much publicity as possible.

Contributed
by Diana Bevan

Heritage Open Days are to be held this year from Thursday,   8^th  to Sunday, 11^th September.

Some of Newcastle’s most interesting and historic buildings will be open to view, including  St. Giles Church, The Unitarian Meeting House, The Chapel of Rest, Holy Trinity Church and  St. Margaret’s, Wolstanton.

Each has a fascinating history and a wealth of architectural features.

There will be three heritage walks too, a combined Whitmore / Maer walk, a mining heritage walk in Silverdale and a walk at Mow Cop led by local historian, Philip Lees.

All events and openings are organised by enthusiastic volunteers. Take part in ‘Heritage Open Days’ this year and enjoy the history on your doorstep !

Look out for more details in August, in Newcastle Library , in ‘The Sentinel’ or on the Heritage Open Days website.

Contributed by

Angela Drakakis-Smith

The Local Register is the ‘new’ name for the Local List which was initiated last year.  The first round of buildings to be ‘listed’ now form the basis for this new Register.  At the time ‘foul’ was called when it appeared that some areas were over-represented on the list to the exclusion of others in terms of items to be listed and accepted.

If you sent in any items for inclusion and they were not selected, do not despair since the Newcastle Borough Council is calling for more items to be included this year – deadline August 2011.  Hopefully this time a more equitable way of judging items will have been drawn up and implemented.

The idea of a Local Register is a good one, since not all buildings, features and monuments etc., close to a community’s heart can be listed or protected by English Heritage, neither are they covered if they are not in a Conservation Area.  It was thus understood that being ‘registered’ would give such buildings / monuments / features etc. within a neighbourhood some protection, particularly against developers who appear to be
less than sentimental when it comes to removing anything that gets in the way of their development.

Unfortunately, we are told that this is not the case and being Registered does not necessarily protect an item. It means, only, that when a planning application is made note will be taken of any item which has been Registered and which may be endangered by the plan.  In essence this means that it will be up to the NBC Officer in charge of the proposal to judge the importance of the item to be removed by the developer.  This could be a stumbling block since not all Officers are au fait with some of the landmarks that residents hold dear within their neighbourhoods.

Residents in Thistleberry are still fighting the decision by Officers, both paid and elected, to remove the historic bridge parapet wall on the A525 which was replaced by a metal crash barrier by the developer, and people of Newcastle borough still smart when the demolition of the Municipal Hall is mentioned (which was replaced by a 1960s concrete block with little or no architectural merit and even less aesthetic value!).

At the moment we wait to see how this Register will pan out in practice.  The only recourse for residents is to keep a close eye on planning issues and to lobby really hard for the preservation of those buildings that deserve to be kept for posterity – and there aren’t many of those left in Newcastle.

The Civic Society exists to protect the best of the built environment that the Borough has to offer.

Use it or lose it!

The list to date can be seen on the NBC web site.

http://www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/planning_content.asp?id=SXDC2D-A7811886&cat=1489

To include a new item an application form has to be completed and photographs and a history of the items have to be included if it is to be considered by the ‘judges’.

Don’t delay – do it now !

Contributed
by Joan Howe

We had been paying more than usual attention to the weather forecast in the days leading up to the 25^th of June. To mark the first ever Civic Day we were taking over a stall on the market.

Civic Voice, the national body for Civic Societies had requested that Societies organise various events during the week Saturday 25^th June to Sunday 3^rd July to raise the profile of Civic Societies and publicize the work they do.

We were lucky ! The weather was fine if a little chilly at times.

The Business Development Officer of the Borough Council co-operated with us on this event and organised various activities of an historic nature during the day.

We met an Anglo Saxon warrior who encouraged us to visit the displays of the Staffordshire Hoard being held in Lichfield, Tamworth etc. Many ‘new’ items are on show having been cleaned and conserved.

King Henry II visited the market and medieval musicians preformed while more energetic spectators joined in some dancing.

A gentleman dressed in Georgian costume took time out from performing at the New Vic Theatre to visit the market.

Children could enjoy the Jester in the Roebuck Centre and play traditional games.

A short walk up to the Museum enabled you to ‘touch the past’ with some hands-on activities.

If you were feeling energetic you could pick up leaflets to guide you on an Inner Town and an Outer Town Heritage Trail. There was a quiz for families to complete as they walked the trails, and a children’s “I Spy around the Guildhall” quiz.

Members of the Society produced the Trails in conjunction with the Borough’s Business Development Officer.

Our leaflets about our Blue Plaques Scheme were available together with our Town Centre Plaques Trail leaflet.

There was considerable interest shown in our display and publicity materials.

Eight members of the Society helped on our stall during the day and answered questions from members of the public.

We were very fortunate in having a stall in a very prominent position and were looked after extremely well by the Market Manager, to whom we extend our thanks.

As this has been a new venture for the Society we had no idea how successful it would be but feedback from all those involved indicates that it was considered to be very worthwhile from every point of view.

Finally thanks to everyone who helped in any way towards the success of this new venture – who knows ? – it may become a regular event !

Bernard Billington and John Sutton

The latter part of the nineteenth century was a time of invention and expansion for Britain, and many think it the country’s heyday.  The queen at this momentous time was Victoria and she must rank among the best loved of our monarchs.  Hospitals, railway stations, parks, streets and public houses were named after her, and many towns erected a statue of her in a prominent place.

Newcastle-under-Lyme was one of these towns.  In 1903 the Mayor of Newcastle, Sir Alfred Haslam,. MP presented the town with one of seven bronze castings by Charles Bell Birch A.R.A. of an original that stands in Oodeypore, in India.  It was unveiled in Nelson Place on 5^th November 1903 by His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael of  Russia,  where  she  proudly dominated that entrance to the town until 1963.  At this point it was removed to Station Walks to make way for the new ring road.

There she remained for thirty eight years, neglected, dirty and vandalised, her sceptre stolen, until a campaign by the Civic Society initiated by long-time members Bernard and Kathleen Billington led to a decision to restore this English Heritage Grade II listed monument to a more prominent position in the town as the Society’s project for the new Millennium.

A spot in the appropriately named Queen’s Gardens was finally selected as the new site, but it took some two years before all the problems involved in such a move were finally resolved.

The physical move was effected by monumental mason Wilf Burt and Martin Hood of Martin Hood Plant Hire and she was unveiled in her new setting at 2.00 pm on 27^th July 2001.

The Mayor, Mrs Gillian Williams, and John Wild, President of the Civic Society led the procedure, with children from St. Giles and St. George’s school attending in Victorian costumes.

A Time Capsule containing various topical items was buried at the base of the plinth.

The cost of the move, originally estimated at £5,000 before problems of Health and Safety etc. intervened,  was £13,380, of which £4,600 was found by local businesses, including a generous £3,500  from Weatherspoons,  Newcastle Borough Council contributed £2,000 and the balance of almost £7000 was made up by the Civic Society. Two members of the Civic Society, Bernard and Kathleen Billington generously paid for the
new sceptre.

Due to the many years of neglect in Station Walks, the statue showed serious signs of wear, and rust was apparent in places where wet had reached the underlying armature.  The Civic Society paid £300 for a survey by the National Museums Conservation Centre who advised a course of treatment costing £14,600.

As the statue is the property and responsibility of the Borough Council the Civic Society felt that they had already contributed their fair share.  A joint application for Heritage Lottery funding was unsuccessful, and a modified joint bid has recently been submitted.

Many letters have been received by the Civic Society congratulating them on this project and we hope that the Queen will remain and be respected in her new site at the north-eastern gateway to the town centre for many years to come.

21^st May 2011

The Society will be manning a display at the Borough Museum

on Newcastle History Day.

Civic Day

25^th June 2011

We will have a market stall in Newcastle on 25th June.

Come along and find out what we do and perhaps take part in a guided walk.

There will be a competition for children to enjoy.

The veterinary practice in Queen Street, Newcastle, was established there in 1813 by Thomas Mayer (1764-1835) and his son, also Thomas, born 1791.

The sons of the younger Thomas also became vets. They were Thomas Walton Mayer and John Smith Mayer.

In 1835, when Thomas Mayer senior died, his grandson Thomas Walton Mayer, newly qualified, joined the family veterinary practice. So continued “Thomas Mayer and Son” of Queen Street.

The Royal Veterinary College in London had been founded in 1791 but there were no regulated standards or independent governing body for veterinary matters. There was disagreement nationally about this and Thomas Mayer and his son became involved.

They personally contacted every vet in the country urging support for a petition to the Privvy Council for a Royal Charter.

A committee was formed and the campaign started. After many setbacks they achieved their objective. In 1844, a “Charter” was granted to the “Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons”, a governing body at last.

Thomas Mayer and Son of Newcastle-under-Lyme had made their mark in the veterinary world.

The elder Thomas Mayer died in 1848 and his two sons then ran the practice in Queen Street, not always amicably it seems.

Both were active in civic life in the Borough of Newcastle, and in particular Thomas Mayer.

He had been elected to serve as a Newcastle Burgess and was a town councillor and magistrate.

He was a founder and committee member of Newcastle Literary and Scientific Institute.

From 1849-50 he was Mayor of Newcastle.

His book “Canine Pathology” was published.

Meanwhile the personal life of Thomas Walton Mayer was very complicated.

His first wife Mary Walters had died in 1841 leaving him with a young daughter. He remarried in 1844, Alice Mayer and they had two sons, one of whom died in 1850.

The 1851 Census indicates that Thomas and his wife were not living in the same household.

Alice Mayer was living in Wolverhampton. Thomas W. Mayer was living in Newcastle with his son and two servants. Sarah Millward, Nursery Governess, had lived with the family for over ten years and in 1848 had borne his child. She had a second son in 1852.

Shortly afterwards, Thomas made the decision to leave Newcastle and the family veterinary practice. He and Sarah Millward set up home together. Early in 1854 he joined the army and became a vet in the Royal Engineers and went immediately to the Crimean War.

In the summer of 1856, he returned to England. Alice, his second wife had been working as a governess in Suffolk and she died there in the August of 1856.

Two months later Thomas married Sarah Millward in London. They were living in Gillingham in Kent in 1861 where the census recorded him as Walter Mayer. A daughter was born at Aldershot in September 1861.

He was promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1867 before retiring from the army in 1871. He then became a college lecturer in veterinary science and also returned to practice for a while.

In later years he went through a difficult time financially. He died in Aldershot in 1887 and was buried in the military cemetery there.

John Smith Mayer had pursued other business interests as well as his veterinary work. He died in 1863.

So ended the veterinary connection of the Mayer family to Newcastle-under-Lyme, except that their houses, stable block and old veterinary surgery are still there in Queen Street.

Recently Newcastle-under-Lyme Civic Society placed one of their blue plaques on the old surgery. It is a reminder of the achievement of ‘Thomas Mayer and Son’ who led the successful campaign leading to the foundation of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1844.