Frederick Todd 1858: The Newcastle Attempted Murder | A House Through Time | S2 E2

One address, many lives. From Frederick Todd's 1858 attack to seances and a girls rescue home, No. 5 Ravensworth Terrace exposes Victorian Newcastle. This episode of A House Through Time follows the residents of No. 5 Ravensworth Terrace in Newcastle upon Tyne. We uncover the 24 March 1858 scandal when glassworks heir Frederick Swan Todd burst into solicitor George Talentyre Gibson’s office with a dessert knife, shouting "I'll kill you." Overpowered and arrested, Todd received six months in prison. Crushed by debts of £60,000 to £70,000 amid the 1857 financial crash and cheaper imported glass, his fall dragged the Colbeck-Todd family into ruin. Matriarch Mary Colbeck sold Walton Hall and family farms to support nine grandchildren, sending some to apprenticeships and others to new lives overseas. Tragedy followed: James Todd died of consumption at 22, and six-year-old Mary Victoria, who had witnessed her mother’s fatal fire, died at 10 in Torquay. By 1886, No. 5 became part of the Diocesan Home for Girls, a religious rescue institution that trained vulnerable girls for domestic service. Among them was orphan Alice Coulson, who left the home to work as a housemaid in Filey, later marrying George Herbert Fletcher and raising four children — a rare Victorian story of recovery and hope. Soon after, draper and spiritualist evangelist Bevan Harris moved in. A prolific contributor to The Two Worlds, he preached under a blue-and-white flag reading "There is no death," projected spirit photographs via magic lantern, and hosted a séance at No. 5 with famed medium Mrs Annie Mellon. Witnesses described child-spirit "Sissy" and the Scotsman "Geordie" appearing from the cabinet. For Harris, grieving multiple family losses, spiritualism offered solace. At the turn of the century, sea captain William Henry Oram and his dressmaker wife Mary Ellen took over the house and adjoining drapery. As department stores like Fenwick transformed retail, her business failed; he was fined for overloading a coal steamer and lost his job. Mary Ellen was admitted to St Nicholas’ Asylum with melancholia; years later, William returned from Canada, incapacitated, and died in the same asylum. Through triumphs and calamities, No. 5 reveals how one home mirrors the precariousness of Victorian life. #AHouseThroughTime #Newcastle #VictorianHistory #Spiritualism #SocialHistory #Documentary #HouseHistory