Eddie Howe is set to be awarded the freedom of Newcastle after becoming the first manager of the city’s football team to win a major domestic honour for 70 years.
Howe’s nomination is poised to be rubber-stamped at the next full meeting of the city council after he led Newcastle United to last Sunday’s Carabao Cup triumph against Liverpool at Wembley.
It dictates that he can look forward to joining Alan Shearer, Sir Bobby Robson and Jackie Milburn in having his name carved into the walls of the civic centre’s banqueting hall, not to mention enjoying “herbage” or grazing rights for his sheep and cattle on the Town Moor.
Karen Kilgour, the council leader, has proposed Newcastle’s manager for the city’s highest honour. “What Eddie has achieved is nothing short of extraordinary,” she said. “He will be forever a hero to our city.”
Before becoming a freeman, Howe will need to swear to defend the city of Newcastle. A key part of the role involves protecting and conserving the Town Moor – 1,000 acres of green space and an area bigger than New York’s Central Park on which the Freemen sublet grazing land to farmers with the proceeds going to charity.
During his initiation ceremony Howe must hold a musket and bible and sign an oath. He will also need to present the city’s mayor with a silver coin, minted before 1910.
Given that Newcastle United’s Saudi Arabian owners are contemplating building a new stadium on Leazes Park, a part of the Town Moor, close to St James’ Park, Howe could soon find himself experiencing a conflict of interests. He will be invited to attend quarterly meetings of the the Town Moor joint working group.
In the 1990s assorted pressure groups strongly opposed the club’s previous, ultimately shelved, plan to construct a new ground on Leazes Park.
As guardians of Newcastle’s green spaces, the Freemen – some hereditary and others, like Howe, honorary after performing the “highest service” for Newcastle – remain an influential, if slightly mysterious body, proud of their medieval heritage.
These days they are no longer expected to carry arms but change has come slowly. It was not until 2009 that women were granted the right to “freelage”, an honour previously restricted to male heirs of Freemen.
In April 2010 the first 10 female “Freemen” were sworn in. They included professor Ruth Plummer, director of the Sir Bobby Robson cancer trials research centre at Newcastle’s Freeman hospital.
Other honorary Freemen of Newcastle have included Nelson Mandela, who was honoured for his “services to the cause of freedom” at a time when he was in prison in South Africa.
Dan Burn, the Blyth-born scorer of Newcastle’s first goal in the 2-1 win against Liverpool, has been nominated to receive the freedom of Northumberland.
