Becky Cessford

Oral history interview of William Pattinson (with some help from Mr Sullivan).

William Pattinson decided not to follow the route that most boys in the area took when they left school; to the docks or down the mine. Instead, he chose to work on the land. At 17 he started at the Cowpen Colliery Company farm, Malvin’s Close Farm, where he took care of the pit ponies.

Robin Gard, the County Archivist at the time, made this oral history recording with Mr Pattinson in 1974. Mr Pattinson had just retired from his job the year before and obviously enjoyed reflecting on his working life with Robin.

In the extracts that we have chosen here, he talks about the scope of his job and how many ponies he looked after. He goes into some detail about his day-to-day responsibilities and the process of getting a new pony down the mine. At the end of the podcast he describes the ponies’ holiday during the pit shut down in the summer and the problems that it caused.

Trigger warning: some description of animal remains

William Hall was born in Netherton on 3 May 1892. He claims to have started school at the age of three years and was helping his father and grandfather to shoe horses by the time he was seven.

In this oral history recording that was made on 15 October 1971 (T/10), he talks about the family blacksmith business and the fate of his favourite horse.

You can also read about his experience as a scout master on our blog: https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/2021/04/28/mr-william-hall/

You can listen to the complete recording at Northumberland Archives: https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/contact-us/

Northumberland Voices

Archie Dagg was born in Coquetdale at the very end of the nineteenth century. His father and grandfather were shepherds and when he left school at 14 years of age, Archie joined the family trade. Many of the tasks related to the job were dictated by the seasons and the weather.

This is an extract of Archie’s oral history recording that was made in 1978 by Northumberland Archives.

In 2011, Berwick Record Office (part of Northumberland Archives) was involved in an oral history project to collect the memories and experiences of sheep farmers and shepherds in Northumberland. Links to the website and clips of the interviews can be found below:

Sheep tales website

Sheep tales website oral histories