An short amateur film produced with support of the ‘Tomorrow’s History ‘project about the famous George Ridley song that follows the route of the 2001 Blaydon Races to tell the history and some of the characters made famous by the song. The film uses both a phantom car ride of the route, archival photographs and a group of older residents of a Gateshead day centre singing along to the song. Title: Tomorrow’s History Project. The Blaydon Races Title: On 5th June 1862, Geordie Ridley...

An short amateur film produced with support of the ‘Tomorrow’s History ‘project about the famous George Ridley song that follows the route of the 2001 Blaydon Races to tell the history and some of the characters made famous by the song. The film uses both a phantom car ride of the route, archival photographs and a group of older residents of a Gateshead day centre singing along to the song. Title: Tomorrow’s History Project. The Blaydon Races Title: On 5th June 1862, Geordie Ridley performed his song ‘The Blaydon Races’ for the first time at The Wheatsheaf Inn run by John Balmbra on the Cloth Market in Newcastle A black and white drawing of George Ridley (1835-64). Title: This short film takes in the sites and characters detailed in the famous song as it follows the route from Newcastle to Blaydon, now the route of the present day road race A 19th century advertisement for John Balmbra and The Wheatsheaf Inn changes to runners and spectators standing in the rain on The Cloth Market on the 9th June 2001 waiting for the start of The Blaydon Races. A group of female dancers perform a can-can while some of the runners do stretching exercises to get ready to run. The race gets underway with runners picking up speed as they make their way through The Cloth Market. In July 2001 a group of elderly residents sit in the sun outside the Blaydon Day Centre, some drink glasses of orange squash. Inside the residents make up a choir, they begin to sing ‘The Blaydon Races’ accompanied by someone on piano. The words from the song appear on the screen. As the residents continue to sing a phantom car ride heading west along Neville Street past Newcastle Central Station towards the junction with Clayton Street West. The sequence is intercut with a photograph of Collingwood Street. Title: Following serious injury in an accident at the Gateshead Iron Company in his early twenties, George Ridley was forced to seek alternative employment Title: Drawing on a considerable talent for writing and performing, he made his name filling his songs with references to local characters and events Title: It seems likely that in this tale of the chaotic journey by horse omnibus from Newcastle to Blaydon, he was recalling events from 1861, the previous year The phantom car ride continues along Neville Street passing the Tut ‘n’ Shire public house while back at the Blaydon Day Centre residents and staff begin to sing the second verse of The Blaydon Races’. The phantom car ride travels along Scotswood Road past the Cruddas Park high-rise apartment blocks. A series of archival images showing ‘Armstrong Factory’, ‘The Robin Adair’ Public House and ‘Railway Bridge’ all along Scotswood Road. Title: W.G. Armstrong first established his armaments works at Elswick in 1847. By the time Ridley wrote the song fifteen years later the success of the ‘Armstrong Factory’ was transforming the areas, as a rapidly expanding workforce were housed in terraces north of Scotswood Road Title: By the end of the century the population of Elswick had risen from 1800 to over 60,000, and Scotswood Road flourished becoming famous for its 44 pubs – one on every street corner – such as the ‘Robin Adair’ The phantom car ride continues along Scotswood Road intercut with a photograph of the same street in 1910. Back at the Blaydon Day Centre the residents begin to sing the third verse with the words again appearing on screen. A photograph of Gibbs’ Chambers entrance and iron gate on Westgate Road. Back on Neville Street the car drives past the International Centre for Life. A photograph of the site today changes to an image of The Infirmary, Forth Bank which was on that site and demolished in 1954. Title: Dr Gibb (1824-1916) was originally House Surgeon at the Old Infirmary from 1849 to 1854, later setting up private practice on Westgate Road Title: His consultation fee for rich and poor alike was 2/6d and, evidently popular enough to merit a mention in the song, was said to have ‘taken the Infirmary with him’ when he left The phantom car ride continues to follow the route of The Blaydon Races along Atkinson Road passing vehicles travelling in the opposite direction. Back at the Blaydon Day Centre residents begin to sing another verse, an old woman singing into a microphone. On an Ordinance Survey map the settlement of Paradise is circles changes to photograph of a modern dual-carriage way now passing through it. Back at the Blaydon Day Centre one of the women singing also shakes a tambourine. Title: Before Geordie Ridley’s time the route leading west from Newcastle took in areas of great natural beauty. Title: A writer of the time told of ‘…kingfishers seen flashing their way across the Tyne, larks hovering over the water meadows and foxes spotted on their bellies in the undergrowth’ Title: Inevitable the effects of industry made the naming of places like ‘Paradise’ appear quite ironic over the years Runner taking part in the 2001 Blaydon Race cross the Scotswood Bridge into Gateshead. Through the rain they race pass spectators standing on the pavement behind barricades. A drawing on the Scotswood Chain Bridge from 1831 changes to a photograph of men working on the new Scotswood Bridge in 1965. Another image, this time of the Blaydon and Stella Mechanic Institute. Title: Like the old ‘chain bridge’ replaced by the present day Scotswood Bridge in 1965, much of the old ‘Blaydon toon’ has now disappeared or been replaced Title: Similarly, gone are the day when the town-crier Jacky Brown could be seen pronouncing the days news or event or, as Geordie Ridley slyly reminds us, his own show that evening at the ‘mechanics hall’ The phantom car ride travels through Blaydon passing St Cuthbert’s Church turning onto Bridge Street. Back at the Blaydon Day Centre elderly residents bring ‘The Blaydon Races’ to an end singing the final verse. Traffic moves along Hexham Road in Stella changes to a Tyne and Wear County Council and Winlaton Local History Society plaque on a nearby wall commemorates the site as being the starting point of the Blaydon Races. A drawing of John Oliver – ‘Coffee Johnny’ 1829-1900. Title: John Oliver, the ‘Coffee Johnny’ of the last verse of the ‘Blaydon Races’ was born in nearby Winlaton. He had a great reputation as a bare-knuckle fighter and was an ardent fan of hunting and horseracing Title: His joke ‘who stole the cuddy’ was a reference to the lack of horses on race day due to torrential rains. This made it difficult to get the horses across to Blaydon Island where the races were then held. From Summerhill overlooking the River Tyne, Blaydon Island below. An old map of the area with the site of the Blaydon Races 1861-70 on Blaydon Island circled in red. Title: In it chequered history the Blaydon Races took place at three different locations from 1811, finally being abandoned in 1916 after a riot sparked by accusations of race fixings broke out Title: However, 1915 saw the publication of the book ‘Tyneside Songs’ in which the ‘Blaydon Races’ was collected, and a song which had remained largely forgotten after Geordie Ridley’s death in 1864 captured the imagination of the public and was embraced as the ‘Geordie Anthem’, as it remains to this day The film ends on the William Irving painting ‘The Blaydon Races’. Title: Financial assistance provided by ‘Tomorrow’s History’ which is managed by North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund Title: Acknowledgement Julian Harrop Beamish Museum, Janice Davison Gosforth Park Hotel, Anthea Lang Gateshead Central Library, Dilys Harding Newcastle Central Library, Elsdon Watson Gateshead Council, Keith Gilfillan T&G Allan Title: Rachael Peacock Tomorrow’s History Project Coordinator, Val Gardener Teacher of Music/Musician, Darren Fiddler Photographer, Gary Mills Camcorder Operator, Jeff Gardener Photographer Title: Des Watson West Newcastle Local Studies Group, Staff Team Blaydon Library, Staff and Members Blaydon Day Centre, Jim Ward Photographer/Editor, Community Photography Group Newcastle The film ends on an older woman wearing a tartan cap and playing a set of Northumbrian smallpipes.