Northumberland Archives

There was no discrimination of who suffered, young, old, rich or poor and we mustn’t forget that this was a worldwide epidemic, as it is today. No one was safe from it. Royal families around the globe also suffered. Prince Charles who had a mild form of Covid 19 in today’s pandemic while the Kaiser and the Kings of Spain and Belgium contracted influenza back in 1918. 

Locally, a report had been received on 4 November 1918 of a death at Studley Agricultural College of Doris Cicely daughter of the Honourable Francis and Lady Anne Bowes Lyon of Ridley Hall, Bardon Mill. She died after a severe bout of influenza.

The newspapers also published the death in late October 1918 of Dr A. Conan Doyle, son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died at St Thomas Hospital, London from influenza. 

On 17 December 1918 the Newcastle newspapers headlines reported the death of an Association Footballer. That player was Angus Douglas, who played Outside Right for Newcastle United. He previously played for Chelsea. From Lochmaben, [a small town 4 miles west of Lockerbie]. Angus was only 31 and had been married for 12 months. His wife had also died from the deadly disease, only 8 days prior to his death. He had been ill a few days with the flu when pneumonia set in, causing his death.

The Shrove Tuesday match held annually in Alnwick was the subject of a Northumberland Archives blog Football: A Matter of Life and Death? Folklore has it that a similar game was played in Ford between the married and unmarried men of the village in the eighteenth-century. Before the game could start, however, the men who had been married in the previous year had to ‘jump over, or wade through’ the Gaudy Loop.

The Gaudy Loop was a pit filled with water and rushes. Its connection was with marriage, and in particular newly weds, rather than football. ‘The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend’, Volume 3 states that the tradition of the Gaudy Loop is long gone and forgotten but its custom was to demand money from newly married couples before they could leave the church. A couple marrying at Ford Church had to jump over or wade through the Gaudy Loop “or forfeit money to be expended in drinking to [their] health”.

Sometimes a ‘paten stick’ was used instead as the Gaudy Loop was not near the church (being located in a farmer’s field, and subsequently filled in for ‘being a nuisance’); on these occasions both the bride and groom would have to leap over the stick before leaving through the church doors. This may have been discouraged by the church rector. The custom of stopping a newly married couple from leaving a church until a payment was made was not uncommon. Bamburgh and Holy Island had ‘petting stones’ for the bride to be carried over before leaving the Church.

This photograph shows the original Edwardian drinking fountain in Ridley Park. After a thorough assessment the water fountain was deemed not fit for purpose and could not be repaired.

Pictured below is the new water dispenser which was installed on the 28^th May 2019. Friends of Ridley Park Community Group worked with MIW water cooler experts and came up with this idea, for a water bottle filler. It’s weather-proof, vandal resistant, durable and easy to use, and the locals love it.

In 2013 a piece of public art which honoured three important Northumberland figures was unveiled. The three figures are of comedian Stan Laurel, who started his acting career on the stage at Blyth Theatre Royal.  PC David Rathband, who was shot and blinded by Raoul Moat. David then went onto set up the Blue Light Foundation.  However, sadly took his own life in 2012. Finally, guardsman Michael Sweeney who attended college in Blyth. He was deployed in Afghanistan and killed in 2010.

The artwork was part of a national art collection, and received monies from the  new lottery-funded Sustrans’ National Cycle Network in communities across the UK. The new walking and cycling routes are part of a national project creating new links within our communities across the UK and joins the popular Coast and Castle Route. The scheme received £50m from the Big Lottery Fund, and the Blyth scheme also received funding from Northumberland County Council.