High Street, Powell's Almshouses

About 60 yards above the railway bridge crossing High Street, on the right hand side going downwards, was a narrow entry opened by an iron gate named Powell's Court. Above the gate was a slab bearing the Powell coat of arms, and an inscription recording that the almshouses were built in 1731 at the charge of Thomas Powell of Newcastle, thought to have been a native of Gateshead. In 1932 the almshouses were still in use. Described as "a quiet little nook, with its poor sprinkling of dingy-looking grass".