FAMILY researcher Jane Woolley’s work at her Surrey home turned up an illustrious ancestor in the shape of one of the North East’s 19th Century greats.
Jane discovered that she is a descendant of coal mining pioneer John Buddle, whose stature in the region was such that his funeral procession on Tyneside in 1843 was more than a mile long.
When Jane visited the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in Westgate Road in Newcastle where 150 of Buddle’s notebooks are kept, she found that the bust of her ancestor was missing from its 20ft high wall alcove.
The plaster bust of Buddle, erected when the institute opened in 1870, had been taken down six years ago when cracks made it unsafe.
So Jane immediately donated the cost of the bust’s restoration by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museum’s conservator Rachel Metcalfe.
Last night, as part of the institute’s annual general meeting and president’s dinner, Jane travelled from her home in the village of Hambledon near Guildford to unveil the newly-restored image.
Now her ancestor can once more gaze down on the institute’s splendid Nicholas Wood Memorial Library.
Jane, now retired from her job of running the international department of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London, is Buddle’s great, great, great, great niece.
Her great uncle, Frank Buddle Atkinson, lived at Gallow Hill at Lowick in Northumberland and was a director of the Stella Coal Company in Gateshead.
He settled a trust on her grandmother and when it came down to Jane, she used some of the money to buy the freehold of her village’s community shop, so securing its future.
She said: “I thought it was important for the village to know where the trust money had come from.” During her research she came across John Buddle. “I had absolutely no idea I had such a remarkable relative. I felt pleased and proud, and very moved,” she said. “I never realised when I started that it would lead to such a rollercoaster ride.”
Jane, who has visited Buddle’s grave at St James Church in Benwell, Newcastle, said: “When I found out that the bust had had to be taken down, I thought he had to come back.
“The feeling of unveiling the bust was a mixture of pride and pleasure. John Buddle is back in the place he belongs. I hope he will be pleased.”
Institute president Bill Bell said: “John Buddle was called the King of the Coal Trade in his own lifetime and it is marvellous to be able to return the bust to its position in the library and continue to honour a lifetime of achievement.
“It would not have been possible without a very generous gesture by his descendant Jane Woolley, to whom we extend our sincere thanks.”
Jane will stay in the North East for a week to further her research with visits to North Shields library, and archives centres at Woodhorn in Northumberland and Durham.
