BERWICK ADVERTISER, 7TH JANUARY 1921

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LOWICK WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED

Sunday, the 2nd day of January 1921, will be a never-to-be-forgotten day in Lowick and parish, for on that day the memorial was unveiled in honour of the brave lads who went forward at their country’s call to make the great sacrifice. The memorial has been erected in the Market Place, opposite the Post Office, and is of Aberdeen Granite, with a Doddington Freestone base. The site is an ideal one, and the memorial standing 11 ft. 6 ins high, looks well and lends beauty to its surroundings.

Lowick War Memorial which was unveiled in 1921, amidst great ceremony.  © J Thomas – Geograph – Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

It was early evident the work of the Committee had been appreciated, for people came from all parts of the parish, many carrying wreaths. About 2 p.m. the crowd numbered anything from 800 to 1,000 persons. Promptly at 2.10, the procession was formed up at the churchyard gates and singing the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers,” moved slowly forward as follows: Buglers, Comrades of the Great War (under Capt. Gee and Sergt. Pringle), relatives of the fallen, Sunday School children, Church congregations, Church Officers and Choirs; Major Rea, Capt. Elliott, Capt. Alexander, Mr R. Barber, the Rev. C. V. Gee, and the Rev. G. Tait, followed by the general public.

On arrival at the memorial, the procession formed into a square with military precision. On the platform were the Rev. C. V. Gee, the Rev. G. Tait, Major J. G. G. Rea, Captain Elliott, Mr R. Barber, Capt. Alexander, and Capt. Gee.

LOCAL NEWS

Arrangements are being made for the distribution of guaranteed pure fertile Italian Queen bees during season 1921, at a cost of 11s 6d for each delivery during May and up to June 25th, and 8s 6d each for July and August. Beekeepers should apply not later than January 25th to the Director of Education, The Moothall, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

There is prevalent in London and throughout the country a rather mysterious infection, which causes swelling of the glands around the angles of the jaws and sometimes in front of the ears. At first it was supposed that the condition was mumps; but now it is evident that there is a difference. Happily, the glands seem to subside of themselves in a period of a few days or weeks. The nature of the condition is not clear; by some it is regarded as a complication of “influenza.”

On New Year’s night the Long Room of the Corn Exchange was comfortably filled when a whist drive was held under the auspices of the Berwick-upon-Tweed Public Bowling Green. Mr R. Logan officiated as M.C. This was a new role for Mr Logan and he fulfilled the duties very courteously and efficiently. Before commencing play Mr M. L. Walker, the President of the Club, on behalf of the Committee, wished the company a Happy and Prosperous New Year. This was reciprocated with one shout — “the same to you, Mr Walker.” Extra prizes were given on this occasion, the successful winners being: — Ladies — 1, Mrs Thompson, 234; 2, Mrs Hendry, 231; 3, Mrs Cowperthwaite and Miss Morton tied with 226 and on being drawn Mrs Cowperthwaite was successful; booby, Miss Drummond, 188. Gentlemen — 1, Mr T. Harbottle, 254; 2, Mr H. Jamieson, 231 Mr R. Butler, 226; booby, Mr Duncan, 191. At an interval in the proceedings the usual supper was served and much enjoyed. Mr Walker presented the prizes, and before the proceedings terminated intimated their next whist drive would be held in about a fortnight’s time.

On Wednesday evening, 22nd December, St. Andrew’s Church Woman’s Guild held their Christmas tea, at which the members of the congregation and children of the Sunday School were entertained. During the evening the Rev. J. Scott Morrison was presented with a wallet containing Treasury notes by Miss Tait, on behalf of the Guild and members of the congregation. Mrs J. Sanderson was also presented by Miss Bella Gemmel with a brush and comb on behalf of the Children’s Choir, and with a picture from the Rev. J. Scott Morrison for services rendered in training the children. Suitable replies were made by both recipients. There was a large gathering present. A splendid tea and varied programme of songs and recitations was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Fruit was served to the children, kindly provided by the Rev. J. Scott Morrison and Mr Landels.

CORNHILL

In the January “Border Magazine” “Herd Laddie” tells the following Border anecdote: — “One of the Askews, a former squire of Pallinsburn, was a very eccentric person, who frequently went about the district dressed with a threadbare black velvet suit and carrying under his arm a big old-fashioned umbrella green with age. Nothing gave him greater delight than people mistaking his social position, and at dinner parties he was wont to relate some of the ridiculous remarks made to him.

The Blue Bell Inn, Pallinsburn, where one of the Askew’s, a squire, had his encounter with the carter and his horse. © Andrew Curtis – Geograph –  Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

The following is said to have been his favourite: — One day he was sauntering down the steep bank between Pallinsburn and the Blue Bell Inn, when he met a lame carter with a very hard-up horse. The horse was struggling up the hill with the load of lime, and the carter was assisting it for all he was worth by pushing behind the cart. On seeing the old squire, and not knowing who he was, shouted, “Come and gies a sheet (push), man.” “Sheet yursel,” was the tardy response. “ Eigh! Yur just some auld lazy deevil,” was the disappointed rejoinder.

Mr Robert Reay

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I’ve been sat here in my kitchen ‘office’ during lockdown doing a bit of time travelling for the County Archives. So no, they didn’t give me a Marty McFly DeLorean or that spinning thing Hermione Grainger has, or even an H.G. Wells time machine, but they did give me two beautiful hours in the company of Mr Robert Reay and his life memories, as recorded back in 1971 when he was 78 years old. In my efforts to transcribe these tapes, I have been to another time and place – time travelling between the cups of coffee and emails to a mining heritage so familiar to me as a miner’s daughter and yet so removed from the modern world in which we live.

In 1971 Mr Reay recorded his memories of living at Coxlodge, Northumberland (now City of Newcastle Upon Tyne) and working at Hazlerigg mine for the County Archivist, Mr Robin Gard in the front room of Mr Reay’s house at 24 Mary Agnes Street, Coxlodge. His soft Pitman accent, alive with Northumbrian tones and rolling ‘r’s invites us into the near past to explore the everyday lives of our colliery forebearers.

Working man and boy in the mines, Mr Reay relates his memories of over 50 years of unprecedented change in the colliery villages of south east Northumberland. He recalls his life in vivid colour, leading us through the day-to-day of the colliery before and just after the First World War, describing the advent of mechanisation and the hopes of a new dawn that nationalisation promised. Through his warm dusty words we meet this mother and glimpse the difficult life a colliery wife led and his father who links us to earlier times in the mines of Seaton Delaval and Seghill. He shows us the shadows of men and boys in the underground lamp light, working along side him to ‘hew’ (hand digging coal) and ‘put’ (transporting tubs of coal from the coal face) the black gold that fuelled England’s place in the world.

We see the lost streets of Coxlodge Colliery through Mr Reay’s bright descriptions of the buildings and people that made up this thriving village community. I had to go! Armed with an old map and sat-nav, I spent an afternoon circling the streets and avenues of a now suburban Coxlodge, imagining the farms, the brickyard, the fields, the mine yards, the stone quarry and the rows of colliery dwellings that vanished under the spread of ’50s and ’60s housing development. Glimpses of old Coxlodge are still there if you are willing to look. Tantalising road names that echo earlier days – Regent Farm Road and Jubilee Road, reminders of the Regent and Jubilee pits sunk in the early 19th century and heralding the start of Coxlodge village. The Trap, the Coxlodge Inn public house, is still there on Kenton Road; a grand old establishment that was in Mr Reay’s earlier days the life blood of the colliery community, now shut up and showing signs of vandalisation and decay. And then, surprisingly and delightfully, tucked away amongst Coxlodge’s anonymous ’60s and ’70s developments, hidden from the modern world by the back wall of St Nicholas’ Hospital, is Mary Agnes Street, Mr Reay’s colliery row home from boyhood. There stands this neat little terrace, unchanged as the concrete world of the Newcastle’s suburbs engulfed it and looking very much like it probably did on that day back in 1971 that the County Activist and tape recorder came to call. A pocket of colliery history in the midst of a rainy suburban landscape – I could almost see the young Mr Reay racing through his front door, hoping to beat his brothers home to be first in the tin bath – or wiping tired sleep from his eyes as he set off in the early morning with bottle and bait in hand to catch the wagon-way down to Hazlerigg mine. And in concluding my Coxlodge adventure, it was lovely to realise that the final words on the tape, Mr Reay’s parting hopes, came true – Mary Agnes Street was reprieved from demolition to survive as a token of the world he knew.

So thank you Mr Robert Reay, miner of Coxlodge, for the chance to spend some time in your world. It’s 50 years since that tape recorder clicked on to record your words. We became such good friends, I couldn’t bring myself to look up the day you passed away – but bless you Mr Reay and know that your memories of Coxlodge and Hazlerigg, Seaton Delaval and Seghill are cherished in the County Archives so that the world you knew stays with us; a heritage in which we are proud.

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 24 DECEMBER 1920

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CUSTOMS PECULIAR TO BERWICK

(LET’S US HOPE!)

Dear Sir, – This old town, in many things, seems to be “a law unto itself.” To an incomer there are, now and again, what might be termed “different ways of doing things”; but, really, the other evening there came “a startler.” Thus am I compelled to write, in order to convey to these “Christmas Waits” (?) how such extraordinary conduct appears to a stranger.

To be informed that there were men waiting at the door, begging a Christmas Box, for doing work they are PAID to do – making a house-to-house visitation – came as a surprise. Ugh! I refer to the scavengers of the town. Their work, no doubt, is lowly – but mighty useful all the same. Still, surely when night comes on, ‘tis a pity to go around doing still more lowly work. Can they not trust to the generosity of the inhabitants, who surely would remember those to whom we owe so much, in the same way as the postman, milk boy, baker’s boy, et., or any other dependent, whose faithful services throughout the year are never forgotten?

Or is it that the salaries of the scavenger are so meagre and inadequate that they resort to begging? There must be something wrong somewhere. Surely real Scotch pride might be expected to be found amongst workers in the Borderland – I am, Sir,

“ASTONISHED RESIDENTER.”

LOCAL NEWS

In response to an urgent appeal for the Russian Relief and Reconstruction Fund, to relieve the distress in Russia, the pupils of the Girls’ National School on Monday last took a collection at their school concert, amounting to £1 1s 6d.

© Author: Unknown.  Source: International Committee of the Red Cross.  Wikimedia Commons.

In Russia the conditions of the people are terrible, says the appeal, owing to the shortage of food, the scarcity of clothes and the expensive fuel. Typhus ravages the people, and the death rate has averaged 30,000 per month. The shortage of fuel is more especially felt just now when often the thermometer registers 25 to 27 degrees below zero.

The leasing of the Mariner’s Cottage on the North Road, Berwick, to Mr Lyal Irvine, Tweedmouth, calls to mind how these two cottages got their name. Many years ago, in the time of the Lamberton Toll marriages, an old sailor, named Capt. Sharpe, becoming tired of a life on the ocean wave, came to live at the cottage, and being a bit of a sea lawyer he took up the duty of “Lamberton Priest.” On the end of his cottage facing the road he put up a board, which announced that he was prepared to tie the happy knot, and each day he attended at Berwick station to ascertain if any couples had arrived wishful of being tied up at Lamberton Toll.

Pictured is Lamberton Toll, REF: BRO 515-296.

When given notice, he was prepared to hire the carriages to convey the contracting parties to “Gretna.” Sharpe was known to the people of Berwick as the “Ancient Mariner,” and the cottage soon became known by the name it now bears.

Next week, commencing on Monday, the Northern Entertainments Coy. will present in the Queen’s Rooms their smart revue musical comedy “Lizzie.” A treat is certainly in store for patrons of the “Queen’s” as this talented Company have performed to large houses recently. A special matinee will be held on Monday first, when, owing to the limited accommodation in the gallery, intending patrons should make sure of a seat by booking early.

NOTES FROM SPITTAL

In the November number of the “Lifeboat,” the journal of the R.N.L.I., there is a very interesting article on a new device used for launching lifeboats, known as the “Platform Lift Launching Method,” which, we understand, is to be adopted at Spittal when the new motor lifeboat comes to the river. The platform system has been adopted at Sunderland, and it is specially suited to rivers where the difference between high water level and low water at spring tides is over twelve feet. Shortly the system is this. The boathouse is built on piles above the river with a well channel between the side piles in which the boat will float at any state of tide. The lifeboat is placed on a platform inside the house, which can be raise or lowered from or to the “well” by wire ropes and winches manipulated by man power or by petrol engine power. When the boat has to be launched the crew enter the craft in the boathouse, and at a given signal the winding gear is released, and she sinks down into the well between the piles. The boat is still moored to her platform carriage, but when a slip chain is released and the landward end of the platform tilted up by the winches, she glides into deep water down between guide rails. The motor can be started as soon as the vessel leaves the platform. When the boat returns she is backed in on to her platform, and once secured with the slip chain can be raised to the boathouse above by the winches. When man power is used to lower and raise the boat, two men at the crank handles can lower her safely, but it needs eight men to raise her. When funds permit, however, the Institution intend to put in petrol engines at the boathouse, where this system prevails, and this will save a great amount of manual work.

SPORTS, AMUSEMENTS, & C.

FOOTBALL

BERWICK RANGERS’ MATCH ON CHRISTMAS DAY

The Rangers hope to be well patronised on Saturday, as they have gone to considerable expense in securing a visit from the Edinburgh Civil Service Strollers – one of the best amateur teams in Scotland. The kick-off will be at 2.15. The Rangers will put a good team into the field, the majority of them cup players, but names cannot be given yet, as the Committee are waiting to see what players are at home in the town for the holidays. The Rangers are holding a whist drive and dance in the Corn Exchange on the 27th, and are looking for a bumper house.

ISLANDSHIRE FOR LOWICK

Lowick Rovers engage Holy Island at Lowick on Christmas afternoon. A good game is sure to be the outcome. Rovers: – E. Henderson; Carr and Foreman; Swan,Weddell, and Waters; Dalgleish, Henderson, Robertson, Harmiston, and Murray. Kick-off 2.30 p.m.

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