NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, the chief t. of Northumberland. Lat. 54° 58' n., long. 1° 36' west. It has the privileges of a county of itself. Gateshead, which :muds upon the opposite side of the river, though in a different county and having a separate jurisdiction, is virtually a part of Newcastle. According to the census of 1671, Newcastle contained a pop. of 128,443, Gateshead, 48,627 ; making together 177,070 inhabitants. Newcastle sends two members to parliament.
The Romans had a stationary camp here, called Pons ...Rill—one of the chain of forts by which the wall of Hadrian was fortified. On the withdrawal of the Romans, the deserted camp became the residence of a colony of monks, and the town was called Monkchester. Robert, eldest son of the conqueror, commenced to build a castle here in 1079 or 1080. Hence the modern name of New Castle. William Rufus built his brother's castle, surrounded the town with a wall, and gave the inhabitants peculiar privileges. The present castle, which displays better than any other in England the genius of Norman military architecture, was erected by Henry II. between the years 1172 and 1177. Newcastle being made the rendezvous of the vast armaments which the first three Edwards led into Scotland, it was in their time surrounded with new walls of unusual strength and magnitude; portions of them yet remain.
The town stands partly upon an elevated platform, and partly upon the n. bank of the river. The more ancient houses in the lower part of the town are chiefly built of timber; those in the center of the town are mostly of stone; but the houses generally are of brick. Chiefly through the instrumentality of one man of humble origin—Richard Grainger—Newcastle has in modern times received the addition of many elegant streets, squares, and public buildings. The river is crossed by three bridges—the High level bridge, the Redheugh bridge, and a swing bridge (completed in 1874), one of the largest structures of the kind in the world. The High-level bridge forms one of the engineering triumphs of Robert Stephenson. It consists of six cast-iron arches, sup ported upon piers of masonry. The length of the viaduct is 1337 feet, and the height of the railway above high-water mark, 112. It has a broad carriage-way, by which the
ordinary traffic avoids the precipitous streets on both sides of the river, with passenger path on each side, and the railway above. A quay, at which the depth of water at ebb tide is 22 ft., has been constructed by the corporation, at a cost of over a quarter of a million, or at the rate of about £120 per lineal yard There are 16 churches and chapels in the town connected with the Establishe; church, and about 60 belonging to other classes of worshipers. The mother church (St. Nicholas) is a noble edifice, chiefly in the decorated style; its steeple, which is singu larly light and bold, is early perpendicular. In the Guild hall, an old and somewhat inconvenient building, situated beside the river, the town assizes arc opened, and the quarter sessions held. Under the Guild hall proper there is an exchange for the -mer chants, ship-owners, and brokers of the quay-side. In the Moot hall, a modern and very alsome Grecian building overlooking the swing-hrid•e, the town and county assizes are held. A new and very spacious town-hall was built about twenty years ago on a block of ground facing St. Nicholas's church; associated with it are a corn market and offices for the transaction of the town business. The market for the sale of butcher meat and vegetables is probably the most spacious and commodious in the kingdom. All the railways mitering the town terminate in a large station near its center. The jail, a heavy and costly mass of bullding, occupies a low and confined situation. The central police station, police court, and offices, built in 1873, are comprised in a large and handsome structure in Pilgrim street. The new postal and telegraph office, begun in 1873, is one of the largest and finest of the public buildings in the town. There are two theaters—the Royal (the great ornament of Grey street, the handsomest street in the town), and the Tyne theater in Westgate street. Newcastle has two monuments—a column surmounted by a statute of earl Grey, to commemorate the passing of the reform bill, and a. bronze statue to George Stephenson.