New Stone for Old. Newcastle Keep

By Chris Lee

Between 1975 and 1979 a lot of time was spent cleaning the outside of the Keep and I remember the stonemasons carefully replacing the stones in the outer walls. What a contrast to my visit in the 1960s when the walls were black and grimy, the stones eroded by weather and pollution.

I went down to the garrison room it was cold and forbidding and around the walls were stones with coats of arms from buildings now long gone. There was a simple stone with a blue hue and the Newcastle coat of arms; this was called the blue stone. The story is if you were running from the law and the diesis of Durham or Northumberland, you could find safety in the opposite diesis simply by crossing the centre of the bridge. This was the keystone in the Tyne Bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead.

Finally I remembered the great hall and its enormous height, I was told there was once an extra floor here, you can see the holes in the wall for the timber joists. It is now 2013 and the castle goes on much as before.

The new stonework is gradually mellowing and the castle Keep will stand for another thousand years.