How many hopes lie buried here? Plague in Newcastle 1905
There is (or was?) an unofficial car park at the eastern boundary of the Stockton Centre where fishermen would leave their cars before walking to the beach. Beside the wooden barriers that marked the car park's edge stood a lonely tombstone. The inscription told of a teenager's untimely death on April 2, 1905, just one day before his 17th birthday. At the foot of the white marble monument is a century-old question that asks passers-by to reflect on the long-forgotten heartbreak of a Newcastle family: "How many hopes lie buried here?" The name on the tombstone…