Earlier in the year I was asked to write an article about Dr Ethel Williams, Newcastle’s first female GP and suffragist, who retired to Stocksfield in 1924. I was keen to continue learning more about the life of this remarkable lady and some of her friends and associates, in particular once the office re-opened exploring the resources available at Northumberland Archives. Whilst there are many areas of Ethel’s life I am keen to explore, I decided to find out about her final resting place first.
Newspaper articles and obituaries at the time of her death in January 1948 indicated that Ethel had died at home. The Newcastle Journal reported that the funeral was to be held at Hindley Churchyard, Stocksfield. The will of Mabel Annie Burnip, Ethel’s private secretary and main beneficiary, set aside a sum of money for the upkeep of Ethel’s grave at the burial ground at Hindley, Stocksfield. So, on a sunny Sunday afternoon in September that is what I set off to find.
Now I must admit, I’m not very familiar with that part of Northumberland, and without a postcode to put into the satnav I was just hoping that I would find it based on loose sense of direction with a little bit of luck thrown in. Hindley itself is a couple of miles outside of Stocksfield, the churchyard about quarter-mile from Hindley in the Bywell St. Peter parish. Exploring the country roads, I could see why Ethel had returned to Newcastle during World War Two; the temptation to explore the beautiful open countryside must have been strong, but perhaps not wise when petrol was rationed…I decided I better put some fuel in just in case!
OS 2nd Ed 104 NE
What do we know about the church and cemetery? The balance sheet of the ‘Building Fund of St. Margaret’s Mission Room, Hindley, in Bywell St. Peters’ dated February 1891 indicates that building was underway at this time [EP 45/80]. The second edition Ordnance Survey map for the area (1895) shows St. Margaret’s Mission Chapel not far from Broomley. Minutes taken at the parish meeting of the Broomley and Stocksfield Parish Council in October 1930 ask that additional land is purchased at Hindley Church for a burial ground [PC 7/2]. By May 1931 this piece of land which was 3,383 and one-ninth yards squared had been fenced, drained and considered to be in a ‘fit and proper state’ for burials; a petition was raised for the land to be consecrated. The land was consecrated the following month [DN/E/4/1/27/1]. By 1979 the Chapel was in decline; “St. Margaret’s Church has not for some years been used for regular services, but only for occasional funeral services, and constitutes a potential liability for maintenance and repair”, the decision to sell the building was made. A stained-glass memorial window was removed and relocated to Bywell St. Peter and the building subsequently sold [DN/E/8/2/2/3848].
The building itself is now a private residence, the burial ground is accessible by a gate from the roadside. It looked small, neat and ordered. It didn’t take long to find Ethel’s grave, although it is hard to read as the stone is worn, some of the words illegible, but it is undoubtedly her final resting place. Continuing to look around, I also found the grave of Mabel Burnip, her will was instrumental in taking me to this peaceful corner of Northumberland. Mabel died in 1984, if anyone recalls her and would like to share their memories, we would love to hear from you.
Within three months from the last outbreak the Tweed Brewery, Berwick, was again the scene of a startling fire on Tuesday morning. The blaze was the biggest, and most appalling that has been seen in Berwick for many a long day, while the damage wrought in such a short space of time was well-nigh staggering. Even a rough estimate of the damage to buildings and material destroyed cannot be given, but there is a likelihood of this being well over £12,000. It is expected that Insurance will cover the heavy loss, and it is not anticipated that the work of the Brewery will be greatly interfered with.
It was on June 17th that the rafters of the malting barley kiln took fire and it is a strange that last Monday, the night after the work of repairing the damaged kiln was completed, fire should again reduce to cinders the labour spent upon it. A little window frame, with the sizing coat of paint and putty still fresh upon it, set in the gaunt wall of the now partly gutted kiln, is a pathetic witness to how the work of mortal man can be undone in a night. As a matter of fact several of Mr R. Sidey’s plasterer’s men had not removed their tools from the building where they had been at work that afternoon before, and these have been lost in the fire. There is no night watchman on the premises, this not being considered necessary with the residences of directors in the firm in the vicinity and adjoining, but when the last of the workmen left on Monday night everything appeared to be all right and nothing out of the way was observed up to a late hour. The cause of the fire is therefore unknown, though it is suggested that the fusing of one of the electric wires which run through the building caused the outbreak. The Inspector from the Insurance Company however, who examined the premises on Wednesday, came to the conclusion that it was highly improbable that the fire had been started by one of the electric wires. There was no fire in the kiln to throw a spark, but the kiln had been whitewashed and got ready for malting to start this week.
There can be no doubt that the fire must have been smouldering for some considerable time before it was observed, for when Mr Thos. Darling was aroused at 2.45 by Mr Younger the flames were through the roof of the malt barn and were shooting for nearly twenty feet into the air. The fire originated in the malt barn without a doubt, and the portion of the building and the kiln were the first to be destroyed.
THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE
When day broke the fire was still raging furiously, but the buildings at the malting were little more than gaunt smoke-blackened and flamed-scared walls. The lower concrete floor, or first floor of the building, held, though upon it were tons of smouldering debris, which blazed up at intervals in spite of all the water poured upon it. The bulk of the floor, however, fell on Wednesday night and now lies smouldering in the ground floor. All through the day on Tuesday the first floor of the maltings smouldered and blazed up, and though all immediate danger was then past, fire-hose had to be kept playing on it.
The heavy rain which fell on Tuesday night damped down the smouldering mass but did not succeed in putting it out. A look through the gutted building on Wednesday morning revealed a truly appalling sight. Where large stocks of barley, hops and other brewing materials had been stored was a pitted mass of smouldering debris, with twisted and broken angle irons and bare sticking through. \the screening machinery and other plant used in the malting were entirely destroyed.
Section of the O.S. Map Second Edition, Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1852 showing the Tweed Brewery. Reference: BA-U10-04
The experience gained in this fire will have to be carefully weighed. Had it taken place in the High Street the steam fire engine could have been got to work, there being plenty of water, but in the Palace and no doubt other parts of the town the use of the steam fire engine is impossible. We cannot expect Berwick to maintain a fire prevention equipment like Glasgow or London. We know therefore that under the most favourable conditions, it will be half-an-hour before the Brigade turns out, that their best efforts are bound to be below the standard of city firemen, and that in many cases there will not be sufficient water to put out a big blaze. If there had to be a fire, a better night could not have been chosen for it than Monday. With a gale or a strong wind from the sea the damage must have been very much more serious. Are we going to continue to run the risk of this? If not, there seem to be two lines of defence- Either to increase the pressure of water all over the town, which would be very expensive, or to arrange that the storage of inflammable goods takes place only under approved conditions, which should include patrolling by night watchmen. Otherwise the safety of large blocks of the town may be at stake. One small improvement that could be made straight away is to connect up the telephone with the Superintendent and members of the Brigade, so that the alarm reaches them in their houses immediately, whether they are waking or sleeping. Again, the Brigade and equipment might, with advantage, be inspected annually by an independent expert, and a report presented to the Town Council. The police are inspected annually; why not he Fire Brigade?
THE CLOSE OF THE SALMON SEASON
The season which closed on September 14th is one of the most disappointing there has been. Not that it has been failure, but that at one time it promised to be a record success and then at the beginning of July the fish seemed to disappear in a body. Up till then exceptional catches were obtained both at the netting stations on the river and at the fixed nets on the coast north and south of the river-mouth. The first grilse was caught on April 27th, being earlier than last year, but the yield since then has been poor in number and quality. The great catches of the season were in trout and salmon. The prices realised for Tweed salmon have been good. Most other things have at any rate doubled in price; but this has not been so with salmon, which have therefore been relatively cheap, and certainly, on the whole, considerably lower than last year.
Pictured, in 1956, are sisters Grace and Annie Meston, employees at the former premises of Ralph Holmes & Sons in Bridge Street, Berwick. The salmon was caught at the North Bells Fishery, and weighed in at 38¼ pounds. Reference: BRO 1944-1-1341-3
The most disquieting feature is that for quite a number of years now the fish have fallen away in the latter months of the season. There have been various explanations of this year’s shortage. One of them is that the fish have been driven away by porpoises and dolphins. From the salmon caught it is easily seen that the porpoises have been busy, but they have been no more numerous than they have been in the past, though, of course, the shortage of herring has been put down to the high temperature of the water allowing the sharks to come north. But even if porpoises or sharks explained this year’s shortage that would only be a temporary cause. It is the constant shortage in the later months of the season which is the serious problem. What is more likely to be the correct explanation is that we used to be able to rely on getting floods, say about Tweedmouth Feast time and the Fair, which thoroughly cleaned out the river. These have been wanting in recent years. We have has rises in the river, after rain, but not sufficient in volume to make a clean sweep. They just serve to bring down the accumulated pollution of the river to the river-mouth, nut they do not scatter it out to the sea. The result is that the foul water drives off the fish and they disappear from the neighbourhood entirely. We have had heavy rain lately, and there is osem sign of the fish returning to the river-mouth, which seems to support the theory. On the other hand, it may be simply that they have had their usual tip that the close season is at hand.
The necessity for flooding the river is what makes the abstraction of the Talla water so serious. Most of that water is flood water, and if it were all returned to the river at regular intervals the necessary scouring would not result. We have turned the tweed into a sewer and a sewer needs flushing. To do what is needed, the reservoir’s contribution should be let out once or twice in the season at a gush, when the river is high without it. This unfortunately the reservoir authorities are not prepared to do, but until we can arrange for flushing we may have to do without the fish.
NRO 1051/1 (Matthew Robson, father of the interviewee, mole catcher, in the doorway of Swarland Mill, c.1930).
Listening to the oral history testimonies allows your mind to drift to an earlier time, one that may seem very different but somewhat familiar at the same time. The interview with Mr. Robson begins with Robin Gard, Archivist at the time of the recording in 1974, asking Mr. Robson to generally chat about his memories of the Felton and Swarland area (Northumberland Archives reference number T/56 and T/57). And that he does.
Mr. Robson tells the listener that his father and grandfather had been mole-catchers in the area, his father working on the farms between Coal Houses at Acklington and up to the Felton area. He remembers his school days, being taught reading, writing and arithmetic using a slate and pencil to write with. His first job, aged 14, delivering milk from a pony and trap, pouring it into jugs or basins from a large can with a tap. He had always wanted to be a miner, he joined his first pit, Widdrington Colliery six-months later. He worked at the Isabella Pit and Bullocks Hall bore hole before beginning to work on the roads and helping with the first tarred stone surface on the A1. He also recalls his time in France during World War One as part of the Royal Artillery protecting the barrage balloons from attack.
Mr. Robson also reminisces about life in an agricultural village; the majority of people worked on the farms, although he chose not to. A horse-drawn machine would work the field, one man would stand on it reaping the corn using a hand scythe whilst another would use a rake to sweep it off the blades for the men on the ground to tie it into a sheaf. Between the Wars new machinery was introduced which put the corn into the sheaf, all the men in the fields had to do was ‘stook it up’ or stand it on its ends. The sheaves would be left in the fields for a couple of weeks, depending on the weather, before being taken to the farmstead. The corn would be stacked in round or square stacks first before being taken to the ‘gin-gang’ to be threshed. A gin-gang was a horse-engine house, usually a round building, attached to a threshing barn. A threshing machine in the barn was connected to the gin-gang and powered by horse walking round and round inside the building (https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/gin-gang/). Nearly every farm one; Mr. Robson had observed a gin-gang using eight horses, four sets of two, being used. Horse-power was later replaced with a steam boiler. After threshing, grain would be taken to the nearby windmill to grind into corn flour.
Mr. Robson also recalled seeing the women working in the fields, they were known as ‘bondagers’. Typically used in the north-east of England and southern Scotland, these were women supplied to the farm owner by the tenant to undertake work on the farm. They would wear what Mr. Robson described as ‘rough clothing’ as well as a straw hat to protect themselves from the weather. Through the ever-changing weather, the introduction of more modernised machinery over the decades, the harvest still gets done, the same but different.
SANT-PHO-SLI-10-77 (‘waiting for the reaper’ bondager in Craigsfield, Morebattle, Roxburghshire, c. 1900).
