From the book "Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia, which looks at town and cities which have Jewish
Everyone (?) knows that there is a location in
London called Old Jewry, so I wondered how many other street/road/way etc names
had a Jewish flavour to them. Here's one - Newcastle.
Strange how things change. There is an interesting little area in Newcastle, bounded upon one side by the A167(M). At one time it was clearly bustling with commerce, for it was near the quayside on the River Tyne.We are told that at one time it was prosperous, but became slums when the people of wealth moved out to the suburbs.
The area is now nondescript, its only claim to fame being that it hosts All Saints Church, the only elliptical church building in England. The church is near to Silver Street, which was so called, it is said, because the Jews that lived there dealt in silver plate.
The presence of Jews in Newcastle in medieval times seems to have been short.
The Jewish Virtual Library states that “its small medieval Jewish group was expelled in 1234 at the request of the townspeople”, and this is probably because they were becoming involved in trade. Expelling Jews from an area in order to monopolise trade is a popular manoeuvre which has been repeated down the centuries. Look what happened under Catherine the Great when she shunted everyone into the Pale of Settlement.
In any case for a short period of time, this small community formed near Newcastle Castle. It wasn't uncommon for Jewish communities to live near the local castle for protection, and the community lived in the location of the aforementioned Silver Street, which was originally called………..Jewgate!!
These books are available from Amazon:
Kosher Foxtrot
Jews and the Sea
The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia
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