His was a life less ordinary
HERITAGE OPEN DAYS IN HONOUR OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CITY FAMILY
STARTING work at 14 and one of a family of 10 children, James Knott went on to found his own shipping line.
James had been born in Howdon on Tyneside in 1855, with his parents moving to North Shields shortly after.
His first job as a boy was in a Quayside shipping office but by 23 he had bought his first vessel - an old collier brig, called Pearl, for £85.
It was the beginning of the Prince Line, with James Knott’s first steamer being launched at Swan Hunter in 1881. In addition to the shipping line, which was based at Milburn House in Newcastle, James set up the Ashington Coal Company.
His increasing wealth enabled him, with wife Margaret, to move into a succession of fine homes, from Monks Haven which still overlooks Cullercoats Bay, to Manor House in Jesmond in Newcastle then Close House near Wylam in Northumberland, which was bought by businessman Graham Wylie in 2004 and is now the Close House Hotel.
Not content with shipping and coal, James studied law and was called to the Bar at the age of 34.
In addition, he also found time to be MP for Sunderland.
But, like so many lives, that of James Knott with his prosperity and achievement, was dealt a devastating blow by the First World War.
Two of his three sons were killed in France – Henry Basil Knott in 1915 and James Leadbitter Knott in 1916.
James and Margaret paid for the building of the Church of St James and St Basil, on the corner of Fenham Hall Drive and Wingrove Road in Newcastle, as a memorial to their sons.
The church, consecrated in 1931 and now listed as a fine example of the Arts and Crafts movement, was one of more than 200 buildings and events in last weekend’s Heritage Open Days programme in Tyne and Wear.
Visitors could see a display of the work so far of the Fenham Remembers the First World War project, launched with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant secured by the church’s Rev Canon Nicholas Darby.
Next week project co-ordinator Mike Greatbatch will lead a guided walk from the church which is already sold out.
Mike has delivered a programme of talks, walks and archive visits that have attracted over 300 people, learning about the impact of the war on Fenham and west Newcastle.
They will also have learned about the Knott family, who have been researched by church archivist Joan Duckett.
James Leadbitter Knott was born in North Shields in 1883 and became a director of the Prince Line and the Newcastle Journal.
Enlisting in the Northumberland Fusiliers, he rose to the rank of major. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the