Residents and those with connections to the West End of Newcastle gathered at a celebration event at the John Marley Centre, Scotswood to launch the Stories of the Stones poetry book and website.
Members of local history group, Stories of the Stones presented memories of their relatives laid to rest in St. John’s and Westgate Hill cemeteries. There were songs sung, poems read, photographs, film and presentations shared from professional historians, and project artists Julie Ballands and Donald Jenkins. The audience were fully engaged with the audience avidly listening to the history and moving stories told.
Group member, Susan McGarry said, “Donald Jenkins poem – ‘Who is he to Me?’ told the touching story of Jackie and Muriel Keg which gave me a tear in the eye. This poem recounted a story of romance, of loving, losing, and finding again. Ian Royal’s poem, ‘Not just the little things’ with its choking ending of him missing his parents was similarly heart wrenching and poem ‘Much more than an Epitaph’ about my own ancestors emphasized the importance of these gravestones throughout my life.
John White, a member of the Stories of the Stones group said, “We heard a fascinating story about the Native Americans that stayed in Elswick in the mid 1800’s as part of a show they were performing in the area supported by the Quakers. Members of the Ioway tribe lodged in houses in Gloucester Terrace in Elswick as the Quakers had links with Elswick Hall and Hopedene. I was interested by this as I used to live in Gloucester Terrace and was actually born in the Hopedene Maternity Home. A moving piece of history was that Corsair, the 8-month-old son of Shon-Ta-Yiga, the Ioway leader is buried at Westgate Hill Cemetery. Though the infant child died in Dundee in Scotland, his grieving parents wished that their child to be interred in Elswick as a mark of respect to the kind welcome that was given to them when they lived there.”
Accompanying each poem recited was a background of related imagery, photos of relatives, cyanotype blueprints created by the Stories of the Stones group, and photographs taken in in St John’s and Westgate Hill cemeteries of inscriptions and nature.
The evening ended with an uplifting singalong with Geordie music provided by local band, The Belta Reivers and John White, a member of the Stories of the Stone History group. The smiles of the fifty plus attendees emphasised the success of the evening and each was given a memento of a free poetry book to take home.
