Bessie Surtees House, Sandhill, Newcastle upon Tyne by Chris

Canon Ixus 800is & Gigapan...

Near the Newcastle Quayside this road called the Sandhill is where some of the oldest remaining houses of the Newcastle Quayside can be found. They date from the 16th (centre) to 18th (right) centuries and were once occupied by wealthy Newcastle merchants. Much of the older Quayside housing was lost due to a big fire which spread from the Gateshead quayside across the river, in 1854.

In the black & white house in the centre left of this panorama there once lived a girl called Bessie Surtees who in 1772 defied the wishes of her wealthy merchant father and secretly climbed from an upstairs window to elope with a humble young man called John Scott. Scott later become a wealthy peer, acquiring the baronry of Eldon near Bishop Auckland. In 1801 he became the Lord Chancellor of England. Lord Eldon's name lives on in Eldon Square, the modern commercial shopping centre of Newcastle upon Tyne.