Bill Feaver talks about the Pitmen Painters on Michael Portillo's Great Railway Journeys.

Quaker Burials at Cullercoats

The Society of Friends or 'Quaker' burial ground at the north end of John Street in Cullercoats was in use from 1661 to 1818 and enclosed by a high wall in 1819. It was was removed in 1872 when John Street was extended to join Whitley Lane (now Road). The remains of the Cullercoats Friends and their headstones were transferred to the south side of Preston Cemetery in North Shields and an explanatory plaque erected.

An Elegy written on viewing the Quaker Burial Ground at Cullercoats

All Right Then!

The ON's Dinner

I am delighted to see that my old friend Tom Gutteridge will be addressing us at the ONA Dinner on 14 October. Tom was rightly critical of last year's carry-on and I am sure we can look forward to something much better from him. But one thing concerns me: What is Tom going to wear? He long ago came out as a 'no-tie' man. He has written eloquently on the subject of dress codes and his dislike of them. He even resigned from the Athenaeum when the membership voted, yet again, against modernising its rules (fortunately the Lit and Phil has no such code). Why, Tom even got tied to the delightful Jo tie-less.

What are any of us to wear at the ON bash? The invite flyer says Dress Code: Formal (Optional Black Tie/Evening Dress). But what does that mean?

Dress codes are supposed to make it easier for the guests; they are meant to put our minds at rest about our togs. Unfortunately nowadays the people who do the inviting are as ignorant about 'proper' dress as the guests are worried. 'Formal' evening dress is 'White Tie' (and tails). 'Black Tie' is actually 'informal' or 'semi-formal' evening dress. So a correct literal reading of the ONA invite is that we are required to wear White Tie ('Formal') but if we want we can wear 'Black Tie' (because 'Black Tie' is 'optional'). I thought at first 'Evening Dress' was just an oxymoron until I remembered the ON lasses. Now an 'Evening Dress' is a long dress worn by the ladies when chaps wear 'White Tie' - which confirms my reading of the dress requirement.

This is not, of course, what is meant. The writer thinks 'Black Tie' is 'Formal' but wants to say it is optional (you can wear a 'lounge suit' if you want, but he really wants you to wear a dinner jacket). He certainly doesn't want you to wear anything from the ONA 'merchandise' section.

He has probably not taken into account that nowadays 'Black Tie' can mean 'No-tie'. Howard Jacobson discusses this in today's Independent:

Like many working-class northerners, I am never happier than when dressed formally. A dinner suit irons out all social uncertainty and makes us equal to every occasion. And so I would look at the end – a man appropriately attired for whatever solemnities awaited him: meeting God or meeting the devil. But suddenly I'm told that a bow tie with a dinner jacket is passé.

"Yes I know the invitation says black tie," my hostess told me a couple of months before the event, "but I'm assuming everyone knows black tie means no tie.”

I bet Tom knows this and I am predicting he will appear in a dinner jacket without a tie. However I am a little worried he might wear a black shirt (he is a media man after all).

Tynemouth trams carried the magnet and wheel emblem of their parent British Electric Traction company. I still have a magnet and wheel cap badge given to me by a bus conductor in the 1960s. The trams had finished in 1931 but if you got your school bus pass from the office in Northumberland Square it was stamped 'Tynemouth Electric Traction' even in the early '70s. There was also at that time still a bit of old track round the corner in Suez Street where the depot had been.