The Illuminated Sheep Project is taking the opportunity to produce a series of Podcasts from the oral history archive created by Sheep Tales in 2011 and 2013. https://www.sheeptales.org.
This is the second podcast, Births, Bottles and Blizzards, Northumbrian shepherds talk about lambing.
Northumberland Archives and Libraries have planned a series of events from September to December 2022 as part of the Illuminated Sheep Programme, inspired by the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to the North East in 2022. https://laingartgallery.org.uk/lindisfarne-gospels-2022
Whilst researching for my previous blog on Parish records, I came across a record of a couple getting married in St Mary’s Church Morpeth on the 13th of November 1943. They were Arthur James Turner aged 24, a soldier and a bachelor and Elizabeth Ann Hill also 24 and a spinster, so far not that remarkable. It gets interesting however when you note her address, which is given as St George’s Hospital, Morpeth.
St George’s Hospital was then the County Asylum, so was Elizabeth a patient there? Well after much searching through our patient records for the asylum no record of her could be found. We also searched their staff lists, but again found no record of her. We do not know of any other people living at the asylum who were married, whilst there either as a patient or as a member of staff, perhaps you know otherwise? If so, please let us know.
On their marriage record their fathers’ names and occupations and the names of the witness were also recorded. Elizabeth’s father was a Thomas Hill, a boilerman and one of the witnesses was a Daisy Hill. So, with this information I was able to do some more digging.
Using the 1939 Register, which is free to access via our computers, using the Ancestry website, I found Elizabeth, living at home with her father Thomas, Ethel (presumably her mother), Daisy (presumably her sister) and Cecil (presumably her brother).
As for the address, well this time it was Stannington Land Settlement number 29. I had no idea what this meant, so with a bit of ‘googling’ I discovered that the Land Settlement Association (LSA) was a scheme set up in 1934 by the then government to help unemployed workers, giving them a small holding, approximately 5 acres, to produce goods as part of a cooperative.
Turning to our own records [NRO 5702/1 Land Settlement Association file of correspondence], I was able to find some very interesting material relating to Northumberland’s only LSA site, Moor Farm at Stannington, near Morpeth. We are lucky enough to have information relating to the sale of the estate at the County Hotel in Newcastle on the 7th of January 1969. The sale catalogue lists the estate as comprising of
“The manager’s house with homestead and field. Eleven well-built semi-detached dwelling houses and 126.07 acres of highly productive arable land and 2.41 acres of scrub land.”
Lot number six of the catalogue relates to Elizabeth’s home (number 29 holding) and says the property consisted of a semi-detached brick-built house containing front entrance, living room, kitchen, larder, back porch, wc, coal house, 3 bedrooms and bathroom, an outbuilding suitable for conversion to a garage and a garden. Number 29 sold for £2,400.
NRO 5702/1
Also included in our records are promotional pamphlets produced by the LSA giving information such as;
“All holdings are designed to provide a full-time occupation with pigs, poultry and horticulture, including glass (heated and cold) In no case are they suitable for dairy farming. The average rent is in the region of £75-£100. On each estate there is a central packing station where the tenants produce is graded, packed and sent to market. Capital of approx. £2,000 required to start and the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will loan up to three quarters of the cost on easy repayment terms for 15 yrs. Applicants must have some money to live on until the holding comes into production”
On each estate there was an estate manager and staff for small holders to consult with, although the requirement for previous horticultural or agricultural experience of min 5 years was stipulated.
According to Wikipedia between 1934 and 1939, 1,100 small holdings were established within 20 settlements. The allocation of settlements to the unemployed was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War in order to increase food production. After the war the Association was incorporated within a County Council scheme for statutory provision of smallholdings designed as a first step for those going into agricultural production. In 1983 the scheme was wound-up, and all the properties were privatised, by which time it was producing roughly 40% of English home-grown salad crops. Quite an achievement!
There were other Land Settlement Association small-holding settlements around the country, situated at:
• Abington, Cambridgeshire
• Andover, Hampshire
• Broadwath, Cumbria
• Chawston, Bedfordshire
• Crofton, Cumbria
• Dalston, Cumbria
• Duxbury, Lancashire
• Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire
• Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire
• Foxash, Essex
• Fulney, Lincolnshire
• Harrowby, Lincolnshire
• Newbourne, Suffolk
• Newent, Gloucestershire
• Oxcroft, Derbyshire
• Potton, Bedfordshire
• Sidlesham, Sussex
• Snaith, Yorkshire
• Yeldham, Essex
N.B. You may have noticed something strange about the photo of the 1939 register above. Our friend Elizabeth is initially recorded with the surname Hill, which was her name at the time, but this is crossed out and her married name of Turner is written above. We know that Elizabeth did not get married for another four years after the register, so how does her married name appear on the register?
The National Archives website explain that,
“The register was continually updated while National Registration was in force, when it was a legal requirement to notify the registration authorities of any change of name or address. This ended in 1952, but since 1948 the Register had also been used by the National Health Service, who continued updating the records until 1991, when paper-based record keeping was discontinued.
Changes of name for any reason were recorded; in practice this was mostly when women changed their surnames on marriage or re-marriage, but also includes changes of name for any other reason, such as by deed poll.
The majority of these name changes appear in the indexes so you can search for a person using either their name in 1939 or any subsequent name.
The monthly meeting of the Berwick Board of Guardians was held in the Board Room of the Workhouse on Monday afternoon. Miss C. H. Greet presided, others present being Miss J. E. B. Miller, Messrs J. H. Armstrong, bell, T. Bolus, T. Aird, E. Waugh, J. R. Wood, R. Rea, P. G. Peacocke, J. R. Mountjoy, and T. A. Summerfield. Mr H R. Peters, Clerk, Messers Short and Kennedy, Relieving Officers, and Mr A. H. Banks, Workhouse master, were also present.
The receipt of fruit and vegetables was intimated from Miss Greet and Mrs Sitwell, and from St. Mary’s Church, books and periodicals from the King’s Arms Hotel, Mrs Purves, and Mrs Aitken, fruit from Scremerston Parish Church, and magazines from Mrs R. R. Riddell. The thanks of the Board were directed to be conveyed to these donors.
DECREASE IN NUMBER OF INMATES AND TRAMPS
The inmates for the four weeks ending 21st October were as follows:- In the sick ward 12 men, 9 women, 1 child, and 2 infants, and in other parts of the House 11 men, 4 women, a total of 23 men as against 24 for the corresponding month last year, 13 women as against 19, 1 child as against 1, and 2 infants as against 1, a total of inmates of all classes of 39 as against 45 last year, a decrease of 6. The casuals numbered 13 as against 19 last year, also a decrease of 6.
Mr Wood commented on the decrease in the number of inmates. In view of the extra ordinary amount of unemployment and depression all round, the decrease was extra ordinary. The number of tramps was also reduced.
FIREWOOD TO BE CHEAPER
On recommendation of the Workhouse Committee, it was agreed to reduce the price of firewood sold at the Workhouse from 4s 6d per cwt. to 4s as from 1st November. Mr Bolus, in moving the adoption of this, stated that they had made a reasonable profit by the sale of firewood in the last 12 months, but the Master reported the sales were going down on account of competition. They thought it wise to reduce the price, which would also give them a good reasonable profit if the sales continued.
BA-U10-2 SHEET , 1852 cropped. Pictured above the layout of the Berwick Workhouse, Board Room (centre of image).
WATER FOR BULL CLOSE HOUSES
The Committee also reported on having been obliged to connect a water supply to the Board’s property in Bull Close at a cost of £14. Mr Bolus explained that there had not been water laid on to the property, the tenants getting their water from a pipe in a yard near St. Mary’s Church. There had been a leakage which had flooded the stokehole of the heating apparatus at St. Mary’s Church and when this insisted on them putting in their own water supply. They had got an estimate from Mr Lamb, plumber, to connect the water outside on the roadway with the property and this had been completed. The Committee took expert advice on the question before accepting the estimates.
Mr J. R. Wood supported the action of the Committee. He was surprised to hear that water had not been connected up with property when it was purchased. If it had been done at the time the cost would have come as a capital charge on the premises and they would have heard no more about it. They must just pay the money and look pleasant.
BOILER UNSATISFACTORY
A report as to the condition of the boiler at the Workhouse was submitted from the Insurance Inspector, who drew attention to a bulge on the side of the boiler and also pointed out that they were only insured up to a pressure of 10lbs. with a blowout at 25lbs. and had been working the boiler up to 25lbs. He suggested that the repairs should be carried out within 12 months and that the safety valves should be readjusted.
Mr Bolus pointed out that a certain amount of responsibility rested with the board in view of the Inspector’s report as to the boiler. They had only a premium up to 10 lbs. and had been working the boiler from 15 to 25 lbs. This was important as the disinfector would not work under a pressure of 15 lbs., and in addition the heating apparatus and the laundry had to be worked, which would require not less than a 20 lbs. pressure, and if they were only allowed a pressure of 9 or 10 lbs., the boiler was no use for the work it was wanted to do in the Workhouse. He moved that the matter go to the Workhouse Committee for them to deal with it. He wondered as to why a boiler had been put in that did not to the work required to carry on the work of the Institution.
The Workhouse master thought the Inspector’s report was misleading, as it inferred that the boiler had been worked regularly to 25 lbs. that was not so. It was worked to anything between 10 and 25 lbs. and only occasionally up to 25. He thought it was peculiar that they were only allowed a pressure up to 10 lbs. but a blow out up to 25 lbs. The disinfector was not efficient till a 15 lbs. pressure. They might be able to carry on as at present but in a very unsatisfactory way. On account of the low pressure of the boiler the disinfector was not sufficient to kill vermin, and he had to rig up a cupboard in the tramps’ ward to fumigate the tramps’ clothing when necessary.
After further discussion the motion was agreed to the Committee being empowered to get expert advice on the matter, but to report to the Board before going further.
TWEED ROW, HORNCLIFFE
Dr McWhir reported as follows: Three cases of scarlet fever have been notified- one at Horncliffe, a second at South Ord, and a third at Shoreswood. Removal to hospital of the patients at Horncliffe and Shoreswood was deemed advisable. A case of scarlet fever in one of the cottages at Tweed Row, Horncliffe, had a fatal termination. The house, which has only one apartment with a capacity of 1798 cubic feet, accommodated five inmates- the father, the mother, and three young children. The floor is badly broken and the window is a fixture. The walls, roof and chimney of the dwelling all call for repairs, and the soil which is heaped up behind it ought to be removed.
The state of housing in the area in the early part of the 20th century is exemplified in this picture of Golden Square, Berwick, similar problems being experienced in the Norham and Islandshire District.
There is no privy for the household. Opportunity was taken to visit other cottages in the same row. One, also consisting of a single apartment with capacity of 1848 cubic feet, is tenanted by a family of five- the father, two daughters both over 20, a son aged 25, and a child of 4 years. The window of the apartment is a fixture, and there is no privy accommodation. The masonry is in much need of repair, and soil ought to be removed from the back. A third single-apartment house furnishes a home for five inmates- a mother, two girls aged 14 and 9 respectively, and two boys of 12 and 10 respectively. Here, again, there is no privy accommodation. A fourth house boasts two apartments with capacities of 1550 and 1300 cubic feet respectively, and shelters three inmates. The kitchen floor, framed of broken paving flags and concrete, is in need of repair. Both apartments are insufficiently lit. A down-spout is unprovided with a trap; there is no sink, and the chimney has a twist, which, to the mind of our Surveyor, rivals that of the leaning tower of Pisa. The wood of the back door, which is only 5ft. in height, is defective.
