Created 1st Baronet of Grinkle Park, Co. York in 1886
The History of Grinkle Park Hotel The Grinkle Estate Belonged for Centuries to the Conyers-Middleton family and its descendants. The seat of Grinkle was then an old Hall Mansion House. During the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century the North East of England saw many changes and Grinkle did not escape these. One of the great Industrialists of the time, Sir Charles Mark Palmer, whose influence on the area was enormous, was to bring great changes to Grinkle. Charles Mark Palmer was an example of industrial genius. He was successful with enterprises such as the transportation of coal and coke, the mining of iron stone, the manufacture of iron and steel and he was the worlds largest shipbuilder. His Moto was 'Par Sit Fortuna Labor - Let the success be equal to the Labor. In 1865 Charles Palmer bought the Grinkle Park Estate that was then considered to be in poor condition and not suitable for cultivation. This as with many other things, proved to be wrong. In the following years Mr Palmer bought up neighboring lands and expanded the estate. In 1881 the old mansion of Grinkle was demolished and Alfred Waterhouse was commissioned to build a house befitting the wealthy and now titled landowner, Sir Charles Mark Palmer. Over the entrance porch the Armes of the Palmer family can still be found. Grinkle Park was converted into a hotel in 1947 and became a country retreat for many a weary traveler. 1985 brought a revival of elegance and charm with a massive refurbishment program by the current owners, Bass P.L.C. Statue on the Quayside Jarrow. Tyne and Wear MONUMENT.
SACR TO THE MEMORY OF SIR CHARLES MARK PALMER BARONET OF GRINKLE PARK. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT 1874-1907 FOUNDER OF JARROW BORN 1822 DIED 19 AND AUGUSTA MARY HIS SECOND WIFE BORN 1844 DIED 1875 ALSO OF GERTRUDE HIS THIRD WIFE BORN 1845 DIED 1918
Letter from Palmer memorial hospital, Jarrow- Palmer Memorial Hospital opened in 1870 by Sir Charles Mark Palmer as a memorial to his first wife Jane. Decorative features include art work by Formica in the main Entrance and dinning room featuring Palmers cranes, dismantled in the 1930's, which used to be a Jarrow landmark, and the famous John Bowes. John Bowes was the first sea going Screw Collier built at Jarrow during the last century which in 1933 eventually foundered en route from Bilbao to San Sebastian whilst flying the Spanish flag. It was to make Palmer famous and put Jarrow on the map both locally and internationally. Charles was Member of Parliament for North Durham 1874-1885 and for the Jarrow Division of the County of Durham 1885-1907. He was one of the British Directors of the Suez canal Company. Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Durham and of the North Riding of Yorkshire. He was Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and Lazarus of Italy and President of the Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce. Jarrow's history is recalled in one of the outpatients areas with the bust of the town's famous shipyard owner Sir Charles Mark Palmer, Baronet, born 3 November 1822 and died 4th June 1907. A plinth and statuette were erected by public subscription in 1908, one year after Palmer's decease. Palmer was founder of the Palmer works and of the town of Jarrow of which he was first Mayor and originator of the first screw collier. In the minor Injuries reception area is the highly elaborate charter of the Palmer Shipyards and Ironworks at Jarrow. Hand painted and as fresh as new, it has recently been found in the Ingham safe, restored, cleaned and mounted as evidence of the goodwill contract between Palmer shipyards, rolling mills, engine and also furnace workers. Debret's illustrated Baronetage. The first Baronet, Charles Mark, was a coal owner and founder of the Town of Jarrow, of which he was the first Mayor 1875, and was MP for N. Durham 1874, and from 1874 to 1885, and for Jarrow division of co. Durham 1885 to 1907. The first iron vessal launched from the Jarrow yard was a paddle tug, the Northumberland. A cartoon portrait by "Ape" appeared in Vanity Fair in 1884 Census 1881 45, Grosvenor Sq. London. Charles Mark. Gertrude wife Godfrey son. Pioneers of the Cleveland iron trades:-
XIII-CHARLES MARK PALMER, M.P.
Little need be said to justify the inclusion in the present series of articles of the name of Mr. Charles Mark Palmer. If not so immidiately connected as some of his contemporaries with the earlier development of the CleveIand iron trade, he has done much to promote its exuberant growth,in all it's various ramifications; and throughout the whole of his long buisiness career he has displayed an amount of energy, foresight. and enterprise that can scaircely be paralleled in the industrial annals of the North of England. To him it is greatly if not mainly due that the Tyne has taken a leading position as a mart of naval architecture.The renown of Palmers shipbuilding works is more than merely loca1. It has spread to the remotest corners of the earth, fostering and maintaining as much as the Lairds of Birkenhead or the Napiers of Glasgow the prestige of Great Britain as the greatest naval power in Europe. Nor is it in naval architecture alone that thewell-known Jarrow form have won their laurels. They occupy a position scarcely subordinate to any held in the North of England as mineral owners and iron manufacturer 17 more pages follow. filed in "Charles" grey folder. Summary of RAIL 252/1002
PRO Piece details for RAIL 252/1002
Browse the catalogue from here Contract between George Palmer and Charles Palmer (contractors, Neath, Glamorgan, trading as G and C Palmer) and Great Western Railway Company for reconstruction of viaduct over River Gwendraeth at Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire; with specification and tender 1893 Jan 01 - 1893 Jan 31
Piece details for RAIL 529/195
Browse the catalogue from here Agreement between J Bowes, W Hutt, N Wood & C M Palmer and Charles Miller (coal merchant, Shoreditch, Middx) for supply of coal via railway 1850 Dec
1901 Census Charles Palmer 78 S Shields Middlesex St George Hanover Sqr M P
St Pauls Six Bells were installed in 1865 as a gift of Sir Charles Mark Palmer and inscribed with the Palmer Coat of Arms. At the turn of the twentieth century at around 1912 the bells were re-cast and two trebles added to make a ring of eight. These were dedicated on Saturday 25th January 1913
Marley Hill Board School, which was built by Isaac Bewley, was opened by Sir Charles Mark Palmer, a major industrialist of the region, on August 1st 1895. The school is now Marley Hill County Primary School and in its 105 year history to the end of the twentieth century has had only 7 Headteachers. The history of Marley Hill School has been recorded in a book written by Mrs Joan Telford, a former teacher at the school and a member of the Sunniside Local History Society.
PALMER, SIR CHARLES MARK, BART. (1822—1907), English shipbuilder, was born at South Shields on the 3rd of November 1822. His father, originally the captain of a whaler, removed in 1828 to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he conducted a shipowning and ship-broking business. Charles Palmer at the age of fifteen entered a shipping business in that town, whence, after six months, he went to Marseilles, where his father had procured him a post in a large commercial house, at the same time entrusting him with the local agency of his own business. After two years’ experience at Marseilles he entered his father’s business at Newcastle, and in 1842 he became a partner. His business capacity attracted the attention of a leading local colliery owner, and he was appointed manager of the Marley Hill colliery in which he became a partner in 1846. Subsequently he was made one of the managers of the associated collieries north and south of the Tyne owned by Lord Ravensworth, Lord Wharncliffe, the marquess of Bute, and Lord Strathmore, and in due course he gradually purchased these properties out of the profits of the Marley Hill colliery. Simultaneously he greatly developed the then recently-established coke trade, obtaining the coke contracts for several of the large English and continental railways. About 1850 the question of coal-transport to the London market became a serious question for north country colliery proprietors. Palmer therefore built, largely according to his own plans, the “John Bowes,” the first iron screw-collier, and several other steam-colliers, in a yard established by him at Jarrow, then a small Tyneside village. He then purchased iron-mines in Yorkshire, and erected along the Tyne at Jarrow large shipbuilding yards, blast-furnaces, steel-works, rolling-mills and engineworks, fitted on the most elaborate scale. The firm produced war-ships as well as merchant vessels, and their system of rolling armour plates, introduced in 1856, was generally adopted by other builders. In 1865 he turned the business into Palmer’s Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Limited. In 1886 his services in connexion with the settlement of the costly dispute between British ship-owners and the Suez Canal Company (of which he was then a director) were rewarded with a baronetcy. He died in London on the 4th of June 1907.
Eric Palmer May07
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