Journal entry – John Grey – 21 Aug 1833

Wednesday 21st August 1833



Received the Boards Minutes of the 10th Instant, which shall be severally attended to and acted upon.  With regard to Crozier’s petition referred to me to report upon, I know only of the fact that two very good Horses were drowned in the flood of the Tyne, when leading gravel from a bed in the river, & that the younger Crozier narrowly escaped with his life.  The people are well spoke of, as being industrious and respectable.  They have not the appearance of poverty, but I believe wish to raise a subscription on this occasion & would like to see the Commissioners at the head of it; and as to a Lease of Throckley Colliery, I think that until the experiment of the present working, is more fully proved, nothing need be applied for more than the agreement to which I obtained the signature of the two brothers lately.  Should future circumstances seem to render a stronger instrument necessary, I shall attend to it.   My journal of yesterday will show that I have already acted upon the authority of Mr Hoopers previous letter, respecting the Stublick Crop & the sale of Newlands Park Wood, in the latter of which it was as well not to lose time, as Mr Johnson began to waver in his offer, and seemed inclined to recede.



Dilston  North Farm

Water machine

Mr Leadbitter of Dilston North Farm  came to me with two complaints, of which he is very fertile; one that, he had a very insufficient supply of water for his threshing Machine, only one of the two Springs having ever been brought to the reservoir, which were intended, & that if no additional quantity were obtained the machine  after having cost so much to the Hospital & £200 to him in carting for the building, dam etc would be very insufficient.  This I promised to lose no time in examining into.  The other was a complaint that only rails had been put up at the end of the bridge on his land, where the fence had been removed on repairing the Bridge, & that pigs got through and destroyed his Corn.  The greater part of this, I told him, belonged to the County to replace & only a small piece to the Hospital, and that I had sought and obtained an interview with the Surveyor of the County Bridges to call his attention to putting up a more substantial fence, in which the Hospital would join at their end, but that in the mean time, some tenants would have contrived to draw a few thorns through the rails to prevent injury to their crops.  It is a provoking fact, that the Tenants here are all so much accustomed to reckon on being paid for damages, that they will stand with their hand in their pockets looking on, rather than make any exertion to prevent them.  This day as well as yesterday is very wet & gives but bad promise for the harvest, which is only yet begun in the low lands.  



State of Crops

I wish I could report more favorably if the Crops generally.  Those on the Hospital Estates, but especially on the high rented Farms of Dilston, are very poor indeed, bearing strong testimony to the impoverished condition of the soil.  There are exceptions to this remark, creditable to the occupiers, such as Stephensons’ of Throckley - Scots of Thornbrough- who is restoring his by two years grazing with Sheep - Greens of Brokenheugh- Watson’s Allerwash - Langhorns’ and Harles’ of Millhills - and the farms of Landends - Lipwood & Whitechapel - as for Woodhall Haydon Town Farm & others newly entered to, they have been left in such wretchedness, that I do not hope to see good crops upon them for years to come, of the appearance of crops in the northern part of the County I hear much better accounts.  The return of the account from the Bankers this week shows the omission of two Sums of £36.14.6 and £104 for which they ought to have given credit.  This inaccuracy in such an establishment seems very extraordinary, & I have written to them strongly on the subject.