Continuing with the work Assistants have been undertaking to summarize the archive’s oral history recordings, I have been listing to an interview with Nancy Clarke from 2015. Nancy had kindly shared her time with us to recount her experiences with the Women’s Institute in the Wark area.
Nancy joined the WI aged 16 in 1933 at the Carham and Wark branch. Before cars were common, life in rural Northumberland could feel far more isolated. Nancy’s mother had never been a formal member because the three-mile journey to meetings was too much after a long day of work but she did sometimes help friends with organizing the activities. Likewise, Nancy’s work friends were members and invited her to a meeting just to see whether she would enjoy it. Despite the formal atmosphere the Institute provided an opportunity to learn new skills and meet new people with the social nights providing a particular highlight. These social nights required a lot of planning but routinely featured concert parties, poetry, song and guest speakers sharing their knowledge.
A typical meeting could involve lectures on subjects such as health, cookery and raising children. In the early days meetings could be quite dry and formal so Nancy could be shy to contribute but over the years the organization grew more friendly and inclusive, giving members the opportunity to chat, especially during tea-breaks. More craft skills were introduced which included dressmaking, quilting, decoupage and cake icing, skills which Nancy used for friends.
During WW2 the WI members of Carham met each day to make jam for the war effort. The sugar was provided, the jars were sterilized and members brought along any fruit they could find including raspberry and rhubarb. Members also knitted socks, scarves and balaclavas which proved difficult work at night in blackout conditions. Nancy felt her main contribution to the war effort was looking after two boy evacuees from Tynemouth who stayed until long after the war.
The WI arranged a full-day outing every year with a meal at the end. In some years they would also go on a Mystery Tour which provided a lot of fun for members, guessing where the destination would be for bets of 10p which would go to the winner. Trips included a Tyne cruise from Newcastle and places in Scotland.
Nancy gradually advanced through the ranks of the WI becoming an Assistant and Vice President before attaining the role of President. She had remained shy but, supported by a professional and caring committee, found the ability to speak up for herself which helped with her duties welcoming and encouraging new members and leading the meeting ceremonies. She had skills and experience at Denman College and fondly recalled the experience of attending the Annual General Meetings at the Royal Albert Hall and the power of the spectacle of the uniformed choir singing Jerusalem.
When Nancy retired in 2014 she had been President for 40 years and witnessed massive change. Her contribution was recognized with an English Heritage “Care in the Community” award for the Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria area. Her most proud moment, however, was the night of her 90th birthday when a talk from her son David as guest speaker concluded with a surprise meal and entertainment.
Taken from an oral history, NRO T-959 (NRO 10888), Womens Institute
It has been found impossible, owing principally to the expense involved, to run a football competition for the above trophy, which was recently presented to the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers. Instead to save travelling it was decided to put the trophy for competition in connection with the miniature range competition at present being run. Competing platoon teams will thus fire on their own ranges and neutral referees have been chosen to see that the conditions are fulfilled to the letter. For this purpose Major Smail, Jobling, Booth, and Capt. And Quartermaster Price have been selected. The competition commences tonight (Friday) at the Drill Hall, Berwick, when 13 Platoon will shoot No. 14.
To augment the funds of the Berwick Company, Northumberland Fusiliers’ Cadets, it has been decided to promote a dance, and the date fixed is Thursday, March 10th. C.S.M. Tilley and C.Q.M.S. Boal are undertaking the duties of Joint Secretaries, and the services of the following have been secured to act on the Committee, viz.:- Major H. R. Smail (chairman), Capts. F. B. Cowen, M.C., E. H. Crow, E. D. Mackay, A. J. Kennington, and D. Hebenton, Sergts. H. G. Patterson, Ridpeath, M.M., and R. J. Swanston, D. C. M., and Messrs M. H. Blackett, A. C. A. Steven, and A. A. Crisp.
DEPOT NOTES
C.S.M. McClennan, M.C., D.C.M., formerly of the Depot, Berwick, and lately of Dumfries, who is under orders for India, has been made the recipient of a handsome silver spirit flask from the officers, N.C.O.’s, and men of the territorials there. Mrs McClennan, who is a Berwick lady, received at the same time a silver purse. We understand C.S.M. McClennan will be at Berwick Depot for a short period of duty before going aboard.
A draft of 39 men are leaving the barracks on Thursday (today) to join the details of the battalion at Devonport.
Gen. Sir Francis Davies, G.O.C. in C. of the Scottish Command, will visit the Depot, Berwick, on Tuesday next, and hold an inspection.
On Friday next Major-General Robertson, the G.O.C. the Lowland Division, will also pay a visit of inspection to the Depot.
BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS
His Father’s Maintenance
John Thompson, 75 Middle Street, Spittal, a stoker, was asked by Berwick Guardians to show reason that, he being of sufficient means, and being the son of Matthew Thompson, now an inmate of Berwick union, why he should not maintain his father. He did not appear.
Mr Peters, appearing for the Guardians, said the man had been paying under a verbal agreement to the Guardians, and his payments had been very irregular. This was the reason the case had been brought. A return of his wages had been secured from his employers at the gas Works, and this, up to the 20th January, showed that he had been earning on an average £5 1s per week. He was a married man, with a wife and three of a family, the eldest of whom was 14 years of age. The cost of his father’s maintenance in the Workhouse was 15s 2d per week. The verbal agreement under which the man had previously paid, was based on a much smaller rate of earnings. He had then agreed voluntarily to pay 4s weekly, and he now asked that the Bench fix the amount which they thought he could reasonably be expected to pay. Ordered to pay 6s per week and court costs.
NORHAM & ISLANDSHIRES RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL
The District Roads The Best In the County
The Surveyor then submitted his report and estimated on the amount of road material required during the ensuing year. The report was as follows:-
The season that is closing has not been a favorable one for road upkeep. The changing conditions and more exacting nature of the traffic on our highways makes it imperative to approach the maintenance problem in a different manner to that adopted years ago, when motoring and motor haulage was not so great the nature of this traffic is greatly increasing, and the roads occupy a place of great importance in the industrial life of the district. The quantities given in this estimate are the very minimum required, and I trust in the forth coming season there will be a better supply available than there has been for some time past. Regarding the method of application of material, I beg to suggest that the Council continue to make and use tarred chips upon the roads now being thus treated. This method gives us a very good wearing surface that suits all traffic. As instructed by you, I carried out some short stretches of tar painting as an experiment. From my observations of what was done, I find that as a preservative of the road surface it is certainly good. For motor car, motor haulage, and motor char-a-banc traffic it is of the utmost benefit. It is beneficial in the saving of the machine or car, and it is beneficial to the comfort of the users through the surface being fairly smooth. It is also a benefit to those having to keep up and pay the cost of maintaining a road, in the fact that the tar painting increases the life of a road. Of course, I would point out that a good road is smooth, and that it is an important matter in a district such as this. Tar painting makes a road smoother than before painting: It is becoming recognised generally as an economical method of road preservation, and I would not like the Council to altogether discard tar panting because of its chances of getting slippery a few days in the year. My opinion is the benefits outweigh the occasional inconveniences. I would suggest that I treat the matter in an experimental manner for another season.
The total quantity of stones estimated to be required is 5550 cubic yards, and 750 tons ¾ in. chips and dust.
In reply to Mr Wood, the Surveyor said these estimated quantities were 500 cubic yards up on those of last year, the extra material being for the Duddo, Grindon Bridge, Ord and Sandbanks (Scremerston) roads. It was agreed to forward the quantities required to Mr Hogg, Kyloe Quarry, and get his estimates. At present the chips are taken from Kyloe to the Norham depot to be treated with tar, and the suggestion was made by Miss Greet that a tar depot might be made at Kyloe to save the expense of carting the chips likely to be required for use on road in the Kyloe area to Norham and back. Mr Wood agreed it was ridiculous to take the chips to Norham for tar treatment and then bring them back to Kyloe, but he suggested, with the approval of the council, that they wait Mr Hogg’s reply before taking any step in the matter.
Mr Collingwood thought that the roads treated with tar chips were excellent and far away in advance of the roads kept up by the County Council, whose roads were a disgrace to the County.
Mr Wood – The roads in this district are the best in the County.
SPORT
Badminton
BERWICK V. NEWCASTLE
The Officers’ 7th N.F. Club played their most important match so far this season on Saturday last, when they tried their strength against the Newcastle Club, and came successfully through the test, beating the visitors by 9 matches to 7, 19 sets to 18, and 469 games to 394. The Newcastle Club were handicapped by having a man short over the 4 couples. Their strongest couple were Professor Hounte and Mrs Davidson, who played with fine combination, and beat all the Berwick couples, though Miss Mackay and R. Bishop succeeding in taking them to 3 sets. The visitors adopted different tactics, standing more on a level in the courts than the home couples, whose combination was, on the whole, good, one player guarding the back line and the other playing well up. The Newcastle ladies placed their shots more skillfully than the Berwick ladies. Berwick’s strongest couples were Mrs J. E. Carr and the Rev. J. H. Cutherbertson, and Miss Mackay and R. Bishop, each couple winning 3 out of the 4 matches played, Mr Cuthbertson, playing well forward, specialised in tricky shots at the net, combining well with Mrs Carr, who was as steady as a rock on the back line. Miss Mackay and R. Bishop also played a well-combined game, the former hitting with vigour from the back line, and the latter getting in a record number of brilliant “smash” shots that were quite unreturnable. Miss Caverhill and J. A. Herriot played steadily, but Dr Caverhill was not up to his usual form, though his partner, Mrs Fedden, played a steady game at the net. Ther was quite a crowd of spectators in the gallery, and after the match friendly games were also played between the teams.
In 1924 Dr Ethel Williams and her lifelong companion Frances Hardcastle chose to retire to a corner of Northumberland to a house that they had built together, Low Bridges at Stocksfield. Two extraordinary, determined and active women, who in many respects lived ahead of their times.
Ethel Mary Nucella Williams was born in Cromer, Norfolk, the daughter of a country squire and is the better known of the two ladies. She was physician, suffragist, pacifist and car driver. After qualifying as a doctor, which had included travelling to Vienna and Paris to obtain practical experience as women were not able to train in British hospitals, Ethel came to settle in Newcastle. In 1906, she became the first women in the city to open a general medical practice alongside Dr Ethel Bentham in Ellison Place, later moving to Osborne Terrace, Jesmond. She worked tirelessly to promote issues affecting health and wellbeing of women and children, especially amongst the poor. In 1917 she founded the Northern Women’s Hospital on Osborne Road (now the Nuffield Health Clinic). By the time she retired from general practice there were 14 women doctors’ in Newcastle. During the First World War, Ethel supported the pacifist aims of the International Congress of Women and highlighted the impact of naval blockades on starving refugees.
Ethel was a tireless advocate of women’s suffrage; she was an active member of the Suffragist movement (The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, NUWSS), believing that suffrage should be achieved through non-violent means. She went on to become the chair of the North East Society of Women’s Suffrage, and reportedly as the first woman in the north of England to own a car this came in very useful for organising marches and processions. Ethel was said to have ‘unflagging energy’; she spoke at rallies, attended demonstrations and was involved in marches, including one from Newcastle to London. In 2018 to mark the centenary of some women getting the vote, a ‘blue plaque’ was mounted on her former residence in Osborne Terrace to mark her many achievements.
Frances Hardcastle was born near Chelmsford, Essex, her father was a barrister and her maternal grandfather was Sir John Herschel the astronomer. Frances’ background was in mathematics, being a founding member of the American Mathematical Society in 1894 whilst studying at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. Like Ethel, she was also an advocate for women’s suffrage, joining the Cambridge Association for Women’s Suffrage whilst at Girton College, and later working as Honorary Secretary of the NUWSS until 1909 under Millicent Fawcett, supporting the non-violent stance. Like Ethel she supported the aims of the International Congress of Women, travelling to Zurich in 1919.
How and when exactly Ethel and Frances became acquainted is unclear, however, it was undoubtedly through their shared interest of women’s suffrage.
The Second Annual Report of the North Eastern Federation of Women’s Suffrage dated April 1912 records Dr. Ethel Williams as a member of the Executive Committee for Newcastle upon Tyne and Miss Hardcastle as Honorary Secretary; the address given for Frances is Osborne Terrace (no address is given for Ethel). The 1915 Annual Report records both ladies living at 3 Osborne Terrace, although Ethel was now ‘chairman’ and Frances added Treasurer to her duties.
On 18th June 1913, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle newspaper reported on a 50-strong suffragist walk from Newcastle to London with the aim of engaging “in propaganda work en route” to a larger gathering to be held at Hyde Park, London the following month. Ethel addressed the group before setting off, and then alongside Frances and Miss C.M. Gordon, organising secretary, they followed in a motor-car, probably Ethel’s own.
The Electoral Registers between 1918 and 1924 show Ethel and Frances registered to vote at 3 Osborne Terrace, Jesmond Ward, Northumberland; their right to vote recorded as ‘O’ meaning ‘occupational qualification’.
In 1924 they moved to Low Bridges, Stocksfield a house that was purpose built for them upon Ethel’s retirement from general practice. A copy of the architects’ plan for the proposed house has recently been discovered at Northumberland Archives. The property and its ‘famous garden’ was opened at a charge of 6d. to benefit Stocksfield Show in 1939; it was described as “by the side of a delightful natural dene with a running stream and many wild cherry trees. Full advantage has been made of this and rock plants and spring flowers clothe the natural slopes”.
The Newcastle Journal reported on 2nd December 1936 that Ethel and Frances attended a Women’s Club dinner to listen to the address by Mrs. Walter Elliot, wife of the Secretary of State for Scotland and sister-in-law of Mr. Asquith (former Liberal Primer Minister). The article describes them as founder-members of the Club, stating that Ethel worn raspberry lace and Frances burgundy velvet (the article gave almost as much detail of the dress of the attendees as it did the speech).
The 1939 Register, records the occupants of Low Bridges in Stocksfield as Ethel and Frances along with their private secretary Mabel Annie Burnip and two female domestic servants.
Frances died on 26th December 1941 at The Royal Hotel, Cambridge. The National Probate Calendar shows that she left her effects of £4,400 to Ethel and Mabel. The following year Ethel left Low Bridges; the Newcastle Journal reporting in August 1942 that she was moving “for what probably will be the duration of the war, though her plans for the future are as yet indefinite”. The uncertainty of the article is at odds with the direction and motivation that Ethel displayed in former years. Perhaps it was grief that drove her away, but she returned to Newcastle, volunteering to help with air raid casualties. The Electoral Registers for 1945 show Ethel and Mabel residing at 125 Osborne Road, Jesmond ward.
In 1945 Low Bridges was advertised to let in the Newcastle Journal, for ‘summer months’, possibly signaling a return. Ethel did return, her death in 1948 is recorded as being ‘at home’ in Stocksfield. In her will she left an estate of £31,659 Mabel was a beneficiary.
Mabel stayed in the area, living in Stocksfield before she passed away in 1984 at Riding Mill. Her estate of £128,893 was given mostly to charitable causes that undoubtedly both Ethel and Frances would have approved off. Two scholarship funds were set up, both in memory Ethel. The M.A. Burnip scholarship was established with funds from Mabel’s will for the general purposes of Newcastle University in memory of Dr. Ethel Williams. The Ethel Williams scholarship was created for graduates, male or female, of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London, to provide additional experience or research at home or abroad. Funds were also left for the upkeep of Ethel’s grave in Stocksfield. All of which points to an incredibly strong bond and relationship based on admiration and respect between Ethel and Mabel following Frances’ death.
In many of the articles Ethel and Frances are described as ‘lifelong companions’. Female homosexuality was not legislated against (attempts to introduce legislation in 1921 were abandoned due to the fear that drawing attention to it may encourage women to explore homosexuality), but undoubtedly would have been considered highly unusual at best. It would, however, be wrong to assume the sexuality of either woman or presume to know the exact nature of the relationship they shared; it is clear that their lifestyle would not have been considered the ‘norm’ for women of the time: it was a “long-term and obviously close relationship these two intelligent women had; both lived unconventional lives for the time, being similarly politically aligned and active, not getting married and having children, choosing to lead financially independent lives”.
REFERENCES:
Dr Ethel Williams (1863-1948)’, in Angels of the North Notable Women of the North East by Joyce Quinn & Moira Kilkenny, 2018
British Medical Journal, February 1921, 1948, p.369, accessedvia https://www.bmj.com/archive/
https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/(“National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. North Eastern Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies”, annual reports 1912 and 1915.
