Wallsend, Station Road, Buddle Schools, Handball Wall

HER Number:
5477

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
Wallsend, Station Road, Buddle Schools, Handball Wall

Place:
Wallsend

Map Sheet:
NZ26NE

Class:
Recreational

Site Type: Broad:
Sports Building

Site Type: Specific:
Handball Wall

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
The Buddle School or Wallsend Board Schools (for juniors and infants) were built in the mid 1870s. The handball wall is contemporary with the school. It runs east from the infant boys toilet block, partially subdividing the junior girls and boys playgrounds. It is 18.4 metres long, between 0.45 metres and 0.50 metres thick and 5.8 metres high divided into four bays per face by four stepped buttresses. It is built of yellow snecked sandstone with ashlar buttresses and rounded coping stones. It is presently free-standing to the east, but was once keyed into a lower coped wall. It appears that the wall started life as a standard dividing wall between the girls and boys yards, but was heightened later. The buttresses provided physical support for the wall and they allowed six separate ball games to be carried out at any one time. Markings remain on the junior boys side of the wall - four circles on the central bay and 'wickets' painted onto two buttresses. The date of these markings is unknown.

Easting:
2977

Northing:
6676

Grid Reference:
NZ29776676

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 5477 >> North East Civic Trust, 2002, The Buddle, Wallsend, Conservation Statement W. Richardson, 1923, The History of the Parish of Wallsend Tyne and Wear Archive Service, 1875, Wallsend and Willington School, Board Minutes Book 1, 1875-1881, SB/WA/1/1 Tyne and Wear Archive Service, 1881, Wallsend and Willington School, Board Minutes Book 2, 1881-1885, SB/WA/1/2 Shields Daily News, 31 July 1877 Alan Williams Archaeology, 2003, The Handball Wall, Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend, North Tyneside, Archaeological Recording A. Marston, International Journal of the History of Sport: Recreational Facilities in East Northumberland Rev. E B Lynn, 1987, Handball pencil sketch, Beamish Library (photo no. 54978) T. O'Connor, 2003, United States Handball Association, History of Handball, http://ushandball.org; Pearson, Lynn, 2010, Played in Tyne and Wear - Charting the heritage of people at play, 11