Ordnance Survey Map 1896, 25 inch series, 2nd edition. Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead & Environs. Sheet 76 [showing Rye Hill]. Courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums.
Rye Hill
The Trevelyan Building, part of the Newcastle College Rye Hill Campus, stands on the original site of our Rye Hill school, our home from 1870 to 1906.
Rye Hill originated in the reform of the charitable trust of the Virgin Mary Hospital in 1858. A new scheme was introduced where the school received surplus income from the Hospital. RGS received an annual endowment of £440 as well as a separate pot of money for a new school building in Rye Hill.
Return to Our Heritage
This new location in the West End of Newcastle was the furthest away we had even been from the heart of the town centre. The land belonged to the Hospital, which gave it to the school for free. The school itself was a striking neogothic design, the first purpose-built home we had ever occupied.
Located next to the church of St. Mary the Virgin and the Hospital Almshouses, we were almost returning to our heritage of the Hospital on Westgate Road. The church even had an exact copy of the stained-glass windows that were formerly in the old Hospital chancel on Westgate Road, which had been demolished along with the rest of the buildings in the 1840s.
Advertising poster for RGS at Rye Hill, c. 1873-83 [RGS Archives, ref: 215]
Illustration of the laying of the foundation stone at Rye Hill, from the London Illustrated News, 6th June 1866. RGS Archives.
Photograph of Rye Hill, c. 1950s [RGS Archives, ref: 149]
Photograph of the stained glass windows at St Mary the Virgin Church, Rye Hill, 20th century. [RGS Archives]
Laying the First Stone
The ceremony of laying the first stone was performed by Lord Ravensworth in 1866. This was a huge event for the town, attended by the Mayor, Sheriff, city Aldermen, other local dignitaries, the Headmaster, Dr James Snape, school staff and students. Starting at the Town Hall, the procession led the way to the new Rye Hill site. They were escorted by the 13th Hussars and an artillery volunteer band! After Lord Ravensworth laid the first stone with the ceremonial trowel, the party continued long afterwards for the masters and students.
Silver & ivory ceremonial trowel, used to lay the first stone of the new RGS building at Rye Hill, 1866. RGS Archives ©RGS Newcastle
Rye Hill’s Expansion
The site was further developed in 1891. A gymnasium was built, and Fives Courts opened. When St. Mary’s Elementary School was closed, its location adjacent to Rye Hill was perfect for converting into a new laboratory and lecture rooms.
There were plans in place to start accepting boarding students, to live on the upper floor of the school. This did not last long, however, and by the 1890s, any boarding had ceased.
Photograph of the doors to Rye Hill, c. 1950s [RGS Archives, ref: 149]
Group photograph taken outside of Rye Hill, with teaching staff on the steps. Includes Headmaster Samuel Logan (c.1896). Elliot & Fry (1863-1962), Photographers of Baker Street, London. [RGS Archives, ref: RGS/PHO/1/3]
Old Novocastrian, Austin Bibby (RGS 1897-1900) attended the Rye Hill school:
“I entered the R.G.S. as a “scholar boy” in September 1897. My three-year scholarship, of value £30, covered the cost of school fees, text books, stationary, apparatus and chemicals. Rye Hill, where the school was situated, was only a ten-minute walk from where I lived. It was a rather imposing stone building. The main entrance, which we boys were forbidden to use, faced south and overlooked a grassy stretch used for very junior games [...] The R.G.S. was a happy place. I enjoyed my three years there and was sorry to leave"
- Novocastrian News Issue 9, p.10
A New Era
It started to prove difficult to attract fee-paying students to the school in this area. With the growth of William Armstrong’s Elswick Works, Rye Hill was becoming more of a manufacturing district. Pressure from parents began to mount to open a ‘branch school’ in Jesmond. In response, RGS opened a separate Branch School in the Barras Bridge area in 1897. It was initially housed at No. 5 St. Thomas’s Place, then moved to No. 1 Jesmond High Terrace.
OS Map, 1861, 25 inch series, 1st edition. Co. Northumberland Sheet XCVII.3. Courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.
By the end of the century, calls were coming in to move the school from Rye Hill to Jesmond permanently. Numbers enrolling at Rye Hill were falling, compared to the Branch School, where they were rising. The need for more sports and recreational space was also a significant factor.
Photograph of the windows at Rye Hill, c.1950s. [RGS Archives, ref: 149]
Town Plan of Newcastle [and Gosforth], 1950. Lithographed and published : Andrew Reid and Co. Scale : 6 inches to 1 mile [1 : 10560] 44 X 30 inches. Courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums [Ref: D.NCP/2/31]
Experiencing the very last years of Rye Hill, another Old Novo Edward Anderson (RGS 1904-11) had less than fond memories of the place:
"Two years at Rye Hill - "Shades of the prison house", a dark, depressing building, which had large form-rooms flanked by a corridor which seemed to go down by a succession of short staircases into a gloomy pit where we believed the Headmaster to be closeted, like a spider waiting to devour any unfortunates who ventured too near."
- Novocastrian News, Issue 28, p. 6
After only 30 years in Rye Hill it was time to move again. Students from both Rye Hill and the Branch School moved to the new Eskdale Terrace buildings in September 1906. The old building was taken over by Rutherford Girls’ School, until it was demolished in the 1960s. Only a small section of the original perimeter wall remains.
Photograph of a group of nine RGS students, standing on the steps outside of the Rye Hill building, c.1901. From a notebook kept by teacher AR Laws [RGS Archives, ref: 416]
Photograph of Rye Hill RGS Newcastle building, after building completed, c.1870. From the collection of J & W Lowry Ltd., builders and contractors. Courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums [ref: DS JWL/31/13]