Cuddy Alder’s Goose Pies - How a Monument to Cuthbert Alder Came to Be Erected at Long Benton Church

In March, 1709, a strike by keelmen on the Tyne caused many men and their families to go without food for several weeks and brought many to the brink of death from starvation.  Some strikers and unemployed men heard about Cuthbert Alder, who lived near Long Benton and had a larder well stacked with food for the coming Christmas festivities.

When Alder’s house at Low Weetslade was besieged late at night, the attackers met with opposition much greater than they expected of the elderly gentleman.

Calling her an ‘Amazonian servant’, a contemporaneous newspaper account tells how a female servant in the Alder household fought and kept the intruders at bay for several minutes until her arm was broken and the men immediately set their attentions on removing Mr. Alder from the passage leading through to the larder.  Witnesses told how the attackers were inflamed by having met such opposition from a mere woman and were intent on despatching the house owner with haste.

Then one of the crowd recalled a kindness previously received from Mr. Alder and decided to intervene to prevent the slaughter.  The repentant robber had been in Alder’s home some time previously, by invitation, and knew of a shortcut to the larder which he revealed to his fellow intruders who then ran quickly to the spot where the Alder’s family’s Christmas fare lay waiting.

When police failed to determine the identity of the robbers, Mr. Alder took it upon himself to find and apprehend the villains.  By chance, he entered a shop at Newcastle Quay, where he received change including a silver coin recognised from the robbery.  The shop owner recalled the person who paid with the coin and following a few additional lucky breaks, Alder found and alerted the police to several of the raiders at his home.

Soon afterwards two of the ringleaders were hanged from gallows erected on Newcastle Town Moor despite no executions having taken place at the scene for more than thirty years.

Mr. Alder received a reward for bringing the burglars to justice.  The reward was donated to the poor in the form of a purchase made by Alder of four acres of land known as Dacre’s close, situated in the township of Murton and parish of Tynemouth.   By will, on 23rd May, 1736, Mr. Alder bequeathed the land to the use of the poor of the parish.  Upon his death a few months later, Alder’s remains were buried on the west side of the porch of Long Benton Church and a monument erected to his memory.