Charles John Brandling, MP of Newcastle 1798-1812
Many of the cottages have long since disappeared, but the brightly painted houses at Brandling Place South Front are among the few surviving originals. As Jesmond became more affluent, the cottages were replaced by the larger terraces as well as notable Arts & Crafts style homes, built along Kingsland, Clayton Road and Eslington Terrace.
This map from the mid-19th Century (reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland) shows that at this point, only Brandling Village and St Andrew’s Cemetery existed in Jesmond.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the village’s history lies in the people who once lived here. Ann Gillies was born at 49 South Front and remained there until 1859, when, at just 14 years old, she emigrated to America with her family. They were among the Mormon pioneers, part of a group of around 70,000 members of a new religious movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, then part of Mexico but now in the US state of Utah, seeking refuge from religious persecution.
But it was her son Robert Parker, whom you might know better by his alias … Butch Cassidy. Robert fled his home as a teenager and, whilst working on a dairy ranch, met cattle thief Mike Cassidy. He also spent time apprenticed to a butcher in Wyoming, borrowing both names to create the identity that would make him famous. Butch Cassidy went on to lead a life of crime, robbing trains and banks across the American West. He has since been immortalised in books, films and other forms of popular culture. But his story begins here in Jesmond, with his mother’s journey from this quiet terrace to the wide-open plains of America.