Journal entry – John Grey – 8 Aug 1833

Thursday 8th August 1833



Dilston Road

Went by appointment to attend a meeting of the Gateshead and Hexham Road Trustees at Riding Mill, to discuss the proposed change of Road at Dilston hill a proposition respecting which from the said meeting, I shall have the honor to forward for the consideration of the Board.  Some of the Trustees spoke of a former correspondence on this subject with Mr Brandling, & entertained the idea that a grant of land to form the new Road had already been promised to the Road gratuitously.  On referring to me, I said, with all the willingness with which I felt assured the Commissioners would at all times meet their views in effecting such an obvious and great improvement.   I conceived that any grant of land for the line of new Road could only be made in consideration of their undertaking, as soon as the new Road should be fit for use, to remove the fences from the sides of the old road, take up the Stones and put the land into such condition as to be taken possession of,  by the Tenant or Tenants, such Tenants being remunerated for any loss they might sustain in the interval.  And that besides, as the removal of the Road would render useless in point of situation a public house & Smithy now standing by it, it would be expected that the Trustees should either remove those to a suitable situation, or purchase them by valuation from the Commissioners having then to rebuild them elsewhere, or not, as they might see fit.  These terms were in substance acceded to & will form the grounds of the proposition to be made. The public house is an old bad building, & had better be dispensed with altogether, the rent paid for both it & the Smithy, being only £20 a year, including a field worth from £8 to £10.  If it should be rebuilt, the best situation for custom would be at the junction of the two roads at Dilston Desmesne Haugh Farm, but that being so near the farm offices & close to the back of the farm house, would be an insufferable annoyance to the inhabitants.  And having Hexham on the one hand & Corbridge & Riding Mill in the other directions, it could hardly be much used as a house of call, & if not for the purposes of public accommodation, the rent which it would yield would never be sufficient inducement to infringe up the quiet and moral conduct of the neighbourhood.  A Smith’s house & forge might be placed very conveniently at the west end of Dilston bridge.



I took the opportunity of being at Riding Mill to see the manager of the Railway & request his immediate attention to the discharge of our claims for damage done to the road to Snokoe  Quarry and also to request, that in the course of the autumn, the line of way through Allerwash should be staked out, that when the Farm comes to be advertised the exact quantity of land to be taken from it, may be ascertained, both of which he promised to attend to.