QUAYSIDE

1778 ATKINSON & Co
1781 ATTLEY

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THE CLOSE

1778 FORSTER & Co
1787-90 FORSTER, RANKIN & ATKINSON
1795 FORSTER Joseph
1801 RANKIN & WALTON
1811 DOUBLEDAY & EASTERBY

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BROAD CHARE

1790- 1801 RUDMAN, CLARK, CARR & Co
1795 RUDMAN James & Co
1805-7 RUDMAN, CAR & Co

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GATESHEAD - Hillgate

Sugarhouse built in 1757.

1771 (VALENTINE Mr, clerk)
1781 SAINT Joseph
1787-9 HEWITSON, SAINT, ORMSTON & Co
1790 HEWITSON, ORMSTON & Co

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PANDON

1770s sugarbakers working there

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BACK ROW

1707/8 HUTCHINSON, Stephen

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NEWCASTLE upon TYNE

CLICK the for sugar houses in that street.

(For local directory of sugar houses, click here.)

(For national directory of sugar houses, click here.)

 

 

 

 

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Quote - "There is a sugar refinery in Newcastle, but they had to admit that
             they have by no means reached the state of perfection found in London." [1754]
 

 

There clearly was a refinery in Newcastle in the 1750s, and there are parish register entries for the 1770s showing sugarbakers working and living in Pandon, Quayside and The Close, however The First Directory of Newcastle upon Tyne (1778) shows just 2 sugarhouses - Atkinson's on Quayside and Forster's on The Close, but I have not yet found evidence of when they actually began.
There appears to have been 5 sugarhouses in total, though not all running at the same time during the short life of the trade there, and no mention of sugar refining in the 1820s directories.

** The sugarhouse at Back Row was built and owned by Stephen Hutchinson, and a lease (Durham RO D/St/D7/28) dated 1707/8 shows it being transferred to his son Robert Hutchinson. This was probably the earliest sugarhouse in the area ... was this the one still running in 1754 ?? **

There was a link to Bristol, which might indicate the precarious nature of the Newcastle trade. Robert Rankin was working in Newcastle from about 1790 through into the very early 1800s, however he is listed as also working in Bristol from about 1796 along with a Thomas Rankin also of Newcastle. He appears to have run 5 or 6 different sugarhouses in Bristol from 1796 to 1811 and is mentioned in the Bristol Burgesses in 1827. Like a number of Bristol refiners, Robert Rankin was a Non-Conformist - a Unitarian - and an Abolitionist. Along with fellow Newcastle refiner Robert Ormston, a Quaker, he was a member of the 1791 Anti-Slavery Committee. (1)

John MacComb (1789) and George Rosenbohm (1820), both listed as sugar boilers, were mentioned in deeds ... the first regarding the sale of land in Gateshead for a proposed new stone bridge over the Tyne, the second regarding a lease for two ninths of an estate at Elswick. (2)

1. "Hidden Chains - the Slavery Business and the North East England 1600-1865" by John Charlton, Tyne Bridge Pub, 2008.
2. Tyne & Wear Archives - DF.OX/12/2 & PU.NC/3/1/11.
 

 

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