View source for Percy Street

Origins<ref>From a Newsletter article for Friends of the Heritage Centre July 2019</ref>

I might not stay long but what I would give to be able to stroll along Percy Street in Bellingham in 1871. The mean cottages, long demolished, were home to a remarkably cosmopolitan community. The 1871 Census recorded their names, relationships, occupations, ages, marital status and where they were born. Some like the family of Margaret Telford were Bellingham through and through but others like those lodging with Bridget Docherty were here for a limited time. Characters like Hugh McGinley and Francis McDonald were in Bellingham on that April night either because they were passing through and in need of a bed for the night or were in town on a specific job. Even today there isn’t regular work in Bellingham for bell-hangers and cork cutters! There were people whose home might normally be in Percy St. but who were missed by the Census – almost certainly because they were working away from home. Their existence is known from their spouses being shown as ‘married’ and recorded as labourer’s wife or tailor’s wife.

There were sixty eight residents in 12 dwellings on the night of the Census. The minimum age for marriage was sixteen and using this as the division between childhood and adulthood (Mrs Ann Conley was sixteen) one can say that there were 39 adults in the street. Surprisingly, only five adults had been born in the North Tyne Valley or Redesdale. There were five who claimed Scottish birth but the predominant group was the Irish with fifteen adults (38.5%). Even if one records children born in Bellingham to Irish parents as being Bellingham natives the total population (68) has nearly as many Irish born (21) as North Tyne and Redesdale (23). 

Of the adults another seven came from other parts of Northumberland whilst the birthplaces of the others were as far afield as Gainsborough, Yorkshire and London – and Prussia.

Thirty one individuals were recorded as having occupations and even without Mrs Docherty and Messrs McGinley and McDonald they worked in an impressive range of jobs. Curiously only two occupations were represented by more than one individual. There was a stonemason, dressmaker, engraver, wire worker, groom, gardener and miner – all what we might call skilled jobs. There were eight labourers but the most common occupation was hawker/pedlar or traveller. A natural reaction might be to assume that this was because of the large proportion of Irish in the street. Such a conclusion would result in one being branded ‘racist’. Only two of the hawkers originated in Ireland, seven of the labourers were Irish, but so were the engraver and gardener.

The largest family of hawkers were the Wilsons. The head of the household was Henry who was 56 yrs old, was born in Warkworth and was married to 48 yr old Jane who was from Morpeth. Jane is also listed as a hawker. It seems that they were fairly settled because their three oldest children, aged 13, 17 and 20 (Thomas, Mary and Alex) were all born in Corbridge whilst the youngest, Robert (10) and William (8) had been born in Bellingham. One can assume that the Wilsons changed their operating base at some point between1858 and 1861. The Corbridge born children were all hawkers. Robert and William did not attend school although some of their neighbours did.

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[[Category:Streets and Premises]]