The Old Novocastrian: June 2009

Currently on sale on EBay.

The last illustration shows the Reverend Hugh Moises, Headmaster of the Royal Grammar School (1749 - 1787), watering his garden in the grounds of the Virgin Mary Hospital where the school was then located. I was on my way to buy a copy of this print from Steedman's the day I found the shop had closed.

Brian Mains writes "the scene is laden with symbols: the garden itself, sheltered, orderly and cultivated, reflects stability; the medieval church, long since the home of the School, proclaims continuity and strongly rooted tradition; the gardener, going about his task with unhurried purpose, brings his plants to useful fruitfulness" (Brian Mains and Anthony Tuck, Editors, (1986) Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne: A History of the School in its Community).

John Brand (the author) was himself an Old Novo and 'under-usher' at the school from 1778 (promoted to 'usher' in 1781) until he moved to London in 1784. I don't remember there being ushers at the school in my day, and I doubt WDH would have himself watered the plants.

In those days the colour (or rather the livery) of a town's buses were part of what would today be called its 'corporate identity'. Most places had red or green but Newcastle stood out in having yellow buses. When the buses in London were privatized the streets of the capital became a riot (in the negative sense) of colours before the powers that be wisely realized the damage this was doing to the capital's image and insisted that buses should be red again. Unfortunately this was not the case with Newcastle yellow. However, as the 1948 illustration shows, the yellow livery itself was an innovation. Corporation motor buses were originally blue, while the trolleybuses and trams appear to have been yellow and orange. I like the image of the Corporation single-decker speeding through the Northumbrian countryside.

The Trolleybuses of Newcastle upon Tyne 1935-1966 by T.P.Canneaux and N.H.Hanson Newcastle upon Tyne City Libraries 1985