Beating the bounds on 'Barge day': civic ritual and riparian rights on the river tyne
Paper given to the Royal Geographical Society - with Institute of British Geographers - annual conference. 1st September 2021.
Panel on 'Bordering inland waterscapes: materialities, mobilities and politics', convened by Maarja Kaaristo (Manchester Metropolitan University), Mathew A. Varghese (Mahatma Gandhi University) and Francesco Visentin (University of Udine)
This paper examines the materialities, mobilities and politics of the River Tyne ‘Barge Day’ procession. This Ascension Day custom, which ended in 1901, was a major public holiday and transformed the river into a festive space as civic elites, trade guilds and ordinary Tynesiders joined with the Newcastle Corporation and its Mayor in ‘beating the bounds’ as exclusive riparian rights were asserted over the river. I demonstrate how Barge Day involved a complex mnemonic system of performance in which the sonic, haptic, and embodied were enrolled in the ritual demarcation of civic jurisdiction, helping to consolidate the legal privileges and economic power that flowed from the River Tyne into Newcastle. As well as detailing the everyday importance of the event to Tynesiders, the paper draws attention to the specific geographic dimensions of the Barge Day ritual, and its specific incorporation of tidal boundaries, river islands, littoral zones, as well as the unpredictable liquidity of the River Tyne itself in the making of the procession. By focusing on the hydrological properties of Barge Day and its linear spatial configuration, I seek to add to the historiography of ‘beating the bounds’ rituals (Bonaventura, 2007; Hindle, 2008; Brady, 2018) through a focused consideration of the agentive materialities and liquid affordances of the river (Rhoden and Kaaristo, 2020). By making visible these elements through the historic reconstruction of Barge Day I highlight the overlooked practices of riverine riparian rituals to the performative cultures of property rights that endured into the nineteenth century.
This is a part of my Bard of Tyneside research.
Panel on 'Bordering inland waterscapes: materialities, mobilities and politics', convened by Maarja Kaaristo (Manchester Metropolitan University), Mathew A. Varghese (Mahatma Gandhi University) and Francesco Visentin (University of Udine)
This paper examines the materialities, mobilities and politics of the River Tyne ‘Barge Day’ procession. This Ascension Day custom, which ended in 1901, was a major public holiday and transformed the river into a festive space as civic elites, trade guilds and ordinary Tynesiders joined with the Newcastle Corporation and its Mayor in ‘beating the bounds’ as exclusive riparian rights were asserted over the river. I demonstrate how Barge Day involved a complex mnemonic system of performance in which the sonic, haptic, and embodied were enrolled in the ritual demarcation of civic jurisdiction, helping to consolidate the legal privileges and economic power that flowed from the River Tyne into Newcastle. As well as detailing the everyday importance of the event to Tynesiders, the paper draws attention to the specific geographic dimensions of the Barge Day ritual, and its specific incorporation of tidal boundaries, river islands, littoral zones, as well as the unpredictable liquidity of the River Tyne itself in the making of the procession. By focusing on the hydrological properties of Barge Day and its linear spatial configuration, I seek to add to the historiography of ‘beating the bounds’ rituals (Bonaventura, 2007; Hindle, 2008; Brady, 2018) through a focused consideration of the agentive materialities and liquid affordances of the river (Rhoden and Kaaristo, 2020). By making visible these elements through the historic reconstruction of Barge Day I highlight the overlooked practices of riverine riparian rituals to the performative cultures of property rights that endured into the nineteenth century.
This is a part of my Bard of Tyneside research.
"Barge Day on the Tyne," at Newcastle. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 25 May 1844.
