The original infirmary was run on a subscription basis. It started in a house in Gallowgate in 1751. In 1751-2 the Newcastle Common Council provided land in the Forth for the foundation of an infirmary. The hospital remained on this site, first open, finally surrounded by the railway and livestock markets, until replaced by the RVI in 1906. Building phases: 1. 1751-53, an L-shaped block: 2. 1801-03, S block extended to the W: 3. 1830, a third floor added to the E wing: 4. 1852-55, John Dobson added a N-S wing at the W end, and a yard with domestic offices: 5. 1885, the Ravensworth wing was added to the S front. The main part of the building was demolished in 1954.³ Remains surviving in Jan. 1994: the base of the E and S walls (the latter showing traces of phases 1, 2 and 4; and fragments of Dobson's yard, perimeter wall etc. Thomas Oliver (1844) reported that the infirmary cost £3000. It was finished in October 1752. In 1802 £5329 was spent on its enlargement. Warm baths were built by subscription in 1817. The Bishop of Durham was the 'grand visitor'. There were 6 presidents, 6 vice-presidents and 6 stewards. Subscribers of 2 guineas a year and donors of £20 were considered governors. An outpatient cost 1 guinea, an in-patient cost 2 guineas. Non-emergency admittance was on Thursdays. The basement floor included the kitchen, scullery, a cellar under the chapel, a bottle room, dairy, two coal cellars, bath boiler house, mangle house, potato house, wash house and examination room. The ground floor housed an entrance lobby and gallery, matron's room, closet, house surgeon's room, governor's room, physician's room, waiting room, out-patient's room, surgeon's room, water closet, pupil's room, porter's room and storage closets. In the western extension west of the gallery were a scullery, nurse's room, dining room, 2 bathrooms and 4 male wards. The first floor had a further 5 male wards, another dining room, 2 bath rooms, another nurse's room, water closet, scullery, storeroom and medical storeroom. There were 6 female wards with their own dining room, nurse's room, scullery and coal house. The second floor of the south wing housed the house surgeon's bedroom, pupil's bedroom and two bedrooms for matron, a dining room, operation room, store room, servant's bedroom, scullery, water closet, nurse's room and 4 male wards. The second floor of the east wing housed the apartments of the Lock Hospital (with 3 wards), a bathroom and water closet, night nurse's bedroom, scullery and coal house. Daniel Garrett designed the infirmary (1751-2) demolished 1954. The information provided to the City Guides suggests a demolition date of 1960.

The common of the manor (shire) of Tynemouth, enclosed in 1790 by Act of Parliament (28 Geo. III). It lay between grid lines NZ 301(W), 340€, 720(N), 689(S), had a maximum altitude of 70 m OD, and amounted to over 1000 acres. To the W it marched with Killingworth Moor. Rights of common were confined to the copyhold tenants of Preston, East and Middle Chirton, Whitley and Monkseaton, Murton, Earsdon and Backworth, and to 6 freehold farms belonging to the lord of the manor of Tynemouth. Early surveys recorded a pinfold and the herd's house on the moor. Were these together, and can they be identified with SMR 750?

Ridge and furrow cropmarks shown on aerial photograph 1947.

The Scottish army was camped at Benwell during all or part of the siege of Newcastle in the autumn of 1644. Two letters were dated from Benwell on 19 October 1644. Although the name Scotswood "is commonly explained by the fact that the Scots army had a camp there", the NCH goes on to say that the name in fact derives from the C14 enclosure of the wood by Richard Scot. The site of the Scots camp is thus not known with any precision, and the grid refs are a guess.

Staiths were included in the $40 rent to Tynemouth Priory for their coal pits and way in Elswick in 1378. In his lease of the Elswick pits of 1530 Christopher Mitford had liberty to take timber to maintain the staiths, and staith leave was included in 1538. No precise location is known; they were presumably sited somewhere on the bank of the Tyne within Elswick. Dated C14th.

Men were digging for coal on Elswick moor as early as 1293. In 1330 the Prior and Convent of Tynemouth granted a formal lease of the coal mines at Elwswick for $5; in the 1378 priory rental the coal pits with way and staiths were let for $40. In the 1530s Christopher Mitford had leases of the Elswick pits, with liberty to take timber from Elswick woods for shoring, and maintaining staiths and houses, plus way leave and staith leave. The mines next went to the Anderson family, and though the rent reached $68 in 1578 it had fallen to $20 in 1608 "by reason of the decay of the mine". No precise location is known. IN the 19th century most but not all the Elswick pits were fairly close to the Tyne. Dated C13th.

Elswick was probably given to Tynemouth Priory as early as 1120, it was certainly in their possession in 1189, and the manor was one of ten listed in 1292. The demesne lands and customary services were itemised in 1295, and there are references in the C14 to the manor as a site, i.e. a farm, and house. It is possible, though not certain, that the manor was located NW of Elswick Hall, on the S side of Elswick Road, opposite the S end of Mill Lane. There was still a farm here in the mid C19. Dated C12-13th.

In 1337 the prior and monks of Tynemouth were attacked and besieged in their house at Elswick by men from Newcastle. Many years later, 1575/6, a lease of Elswick tithes refers to "the castle in Elswick lately belonging to Tynemouth". This is the only known reference to a fortification here. A tower (cf. Benwell, also belonging to the priory) seems much more likely than a castle. Since the priory had the manor of Elswick it seems reasonable to suppose that the tower, if it did in fact exist, would have served as the living accommodation of the manor. Dodds then suggests that, as the tower had probably been incorporated in the old hall (date? medieval or later?) at Elswick, it was destroyed when the old hall was demolished and replaced by a new one in the early C19. There is a lot of supposition here. Dated C14-16th.

Among the C14 leases by Tynemouth Priory is one of the quarry: "The quarry of Elstewyk next the manor is demised to Robert de Neuton to hold from Christmas (1337) till the same feast in the next year, paying therefor 30s ... or 3 little milll stones for the mill and 5s as it shall best please the lord and his servants to receive. And he shall have in the aforesaid quarry only 4 workmen, and he shall give for a way from the quarry to the water of Tyne 40d". The 1st ed. OS map shows several quarries on the north side of Elswick Road, and one - at the above grid ref. - just west of the supposed site of the manor. At that time there was a straight route from the quarry at least as far south as what is now Scotswood Road. Dated C14th.

Perhaps given to Tynemouth Priory as early as 1120; named in the confirmation charter of 1189. 16 tenants in 1294 tallage; 6 paid lay subsidy of 1296. 30-31 Henry VIII there were 7 free tenants, 10 copyholders, and the numbers were much the same in 1608. By 1747 all 10 copyholds belonged to John Hodgson, and it was his grandson John who built Elswick Hall (HER 1864) in the early C19, demolished in 1970s. A map of 1780 shows 2 rows of houses on either side of a S continuation of Mill Lane, a road which no longer exists but which once ran down the W side of Elswick Park. By 1839, however, the houses had gone and their sites had apparently been absorbed into the park. A farm, with assorted buildings, survived in the SE angle of Elswick Road and the onetime lane. In 1839 Richard Grainger bought Elswick Hall from John Hodgson Hinde with the view of creating an industrial suburb at Elswick with quality residential accommodation. There was rented terraced housing in Benwell and he named the streets after his thirteen children. There are some surviving large villas at Grainger Park and Bentinck Road, and Graingerville South on the West Road is listed, but the project as a whole was a failure, it almost bankrupted Grainger and he began selling the land off to repay his creditors only after a few years. William Armstrong bought the land along the riverfront in 1848 for his Elswick Works (HER 4315). Dated C12th.

The 1578/9 survey of the onetime manor of Benwell mentions a watermill, worth 20s. This is repeated in the 1608 survey of crown property when it is specifically described as a water corn mill, let at 20s p.a. On the 1637 map a mill is shown near the foot of the "Lysdon Burne" running S into the Tyne. On the 1st ed. it is either the East Denton Burn or Dean; today it is no more than a ripple in the contour lines. The grid ref above is an estimate of the mill's position, close to the railway line in Paradise.