St Anne's Ropery

The name Ropery Banks indicates the site of the former St Anne's Ropery of Joseph Crawhill, which is shown on Corbridge's 1772 map of Newcastle. Joseph Crawhall, born in 1793, came to Newcastle in 1809 as apprentice rope maker to Alderman Smith of St Peters. He eventually purchased St Ann's Ropery and by the 1820s had become part of the local elite. He built a rope-shaped tower at his ropeworks … "a curious chimney, in form like a gigantic rope's end turned into stone… It was well known by sailors all over the world". Crawhill was elected Sheriff in 1846 and Mayor in 1849. He died in 1853. In the 1820s and ‘30s the Crawhill family lived in St Ann's House next to the rope works. The house and garden are shown on a painting of 1827 by J W Carmichael. The house later became Ouseburn Police Station and then an engineering works. No ropery is shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan.