General

History…..not that of kings and queens and battles and castles, but the every day history of every day Northumbrian folk seems to follow you round when you work in the Archives. I love it! You never feel lonely when you are treading in the shoes of those that have gone before. Last Saturday, Mr Josiah Wheatley of Bath Terrace, Blyth, born 1889 came for a walk with me around Newbiggin-by-the-Sea . We didn’t stop for coffee, all the cafés being closed of course, but we had a little mooch around the Church Point end and he showed me a thing or two.

I have been transcribing an audio recording of Mr Wheatley from 1971. He was born in Cambois, Northumberland and at the time of recording, was a grand old gentleman of 82 years of age. His father had worked the rope ferry at the mouth of the River Wansbeck, connecting Cambois to North Seaton in the days when the nearest bridge was 3 miles up river at Sheepwash. Mr Wheatley spent his entire life on or near the sea, first helping his dad on the rope ferry, then as crew and coxswain on the Cambois and Blyth lifeboats and finally as a ferryman guiding and tying up the ships that came in and out of a busy Blyth Harbour.

His tales of times long gone, of ship sails billowing in the wind, of coal keels leaving the Wansbeck and Blyth and of lifeboat crews rowing out into the fog are a truly delightful glimpse into our county’s relationship with the sea. Mr Wheatley had the sea in his veins and an unfathomable sea-dog accent to go with it. How best to get you close to his accent? Try imagining a good old pirate ‘ouh arrh Jim Lad’ with a heavy Northumbrian rolling brogue. Add in a generous sprinkling of mysterious nautical terms and you’ll start to see why I’ve been stuck transcribing this tape since well before Christmas.

One section that really perplexed me was Mr Wheatley’s timeline of three sailing ships wrecked in Newbiggin Bay around the year 1900. Mr Wheatley says, ‘there was a barque, The Haabet , a schooner, The Freeman’ and a brig, The F??????!!’. ‘Excuse me’ says I…’tricky one that Mr Wheatley’….so I listened again…and again….and again. First time I heard ‘The Ferric’, second time it sounded like ‘The Freak’. With nothing in the online records to helped me place this mysterious ship’s name, I called my son to listen. The ‘Faverham’ says he…’definitely The Faverham”. And then my husband. ‘The Berwick’, equally definite. And then my daughter Molly who confidentially declared the ship to be named ‘The Terry…or maybe The Fallon’. So despite knowing this ship had a German Captain with a big ginger beard, her mumbled name remained unsolved. I was ready to give it up and hope that better ears than mine would one day fill in the blank, but Mr Wheatley wasn’t quite finished with me yet.

Most weekends involve a family walk along the prom at Newbiggin and last weekend, we had to detour slightly around the Lifeboat House due to a cordoned off area on the beach. We wouldn’t normally walk up around that way, but I think Mr Wheatley was nudging me as there on the wall to the side of the old building, where they display the names of ships lost in the Bay, was my mystery!

Wrecked in 1900….’The Frederick’.

And I knew she was Mr Wheatley’s ship straight away. He’d been there at that call out. She was one of the three sailing ships that floundered in Newbiggin Bay in those stormy years at the turn of the last century, remembered by Mr Wheatley as the reason why Cambois got a new life-boat. From Bremenhaven, Germany she went ashore off North Blyth in a gale on the 22nd March 1900 and she was assisted by the Cambois Volunteer Watch.

I can add that story now. One of the men saved that wild and treacherous night had a big ginger beard!

Myself and colleagues during this Lockdown have been given the task of summarising oral histories that are held at Northumberland Archives, making them more accessible to the members of the public. Through this I was introduced to Mrs. Keaney and the lives of the domestic servants and staff employed at Linden House, now Linden Hall, near Longhorsley.

At the time the property was owned by the Adamson family; Lieutenant-Colonel John George Adamson (referred to as the Colonel in the interview) had inherited the property from his father in 1911. He moved from Ireland to the House with his wife Lina, (Mrs. Adamson) and their two adult daughters (referred to as the Misses in the recording); Muriel Anne Pearl and Catherine Evelyn, known as Eve.

Mrs. Keaney was employed as Head Housemaid from about 1918. Her wage was £28, which was considered quite high especially compared to the others working in the House; she joined with experience, having previously worked in the homes of a gentleman farmer in Wooler and an ‘old man’ near Rothbury. She was Head Housemaid for two years, however, her connection with the House was much longer, her father had been a gardener and her husband was in charge of the home-farm.

Listening to Mrs. Keaney talk about the daily duties and routines, the uniforms, the ample food, sneaking back in after the doors were locked at 9pm, days that didn’t seem to end and competition with munitions factories for ‘girls’ transported me back to an earlier time. It was somewhat surprising, therefore, to learn that the house continued to be ran in much the same manner into the early 1960’s.

Employment at the House ended when she got married at the age of 24. When asked if she could have stayed longer, her response was that she had never really thought about it; she got married and left, it was just the way things were then.

Once married, Mrs. Keaney would help her husband on the farm, particularly in the dairy. She talks at length, and with some pride about her butter making skills. Mrs. Keaney stayed at Linden, in their cottage on the farm, raising six children, until her husband’s health deteriorated. Mr. Keaney had worked there for 43 years, and only ever took one holiday!

Linden House was sold to Mr. Liddell in 1963 after the death of the elder of the Adamson daughters, Muriel. The younger daughter, Eve, chose to remain in her London residence. The contents of the house sold of an auction; the oral history ends with Mrs. Keaney talking about the inventory for the furniture sale. After the sale of the property, the remaining household staff left.

Lately, as part of my working from home timetable, I have been summarising oral histories to be entered onto our Northumberland Archive systems.

I listened as Mrs. Amy Firman very kindly answered questions and talked about her time as a member of the Womens Institute, Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland. This was part of a ‘Woman’s Work’ project with students of Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Amy told of living all her life in Newbiggin by the Sea, attending the infant school and then the colliery school and progressing further to Bedlington Grammar School. She also spoke of how much she enjoyed her office work for the Electricity Board in Newcastle.

Amy had joined the Newbiggin branch of Womens Institute after she was married and continued being a member there for over 52 years. She remembered that in the Institute’s early days women had to be voted in by the committee as members. According to Amy, the Women’s Institute in Newbiggin was established in 1922 and members might have met in someone’s house in the early days before finally moving to the hall. She said that a mortgage was applied for 1936 for to have a hall built.

The Women’s Institute often played a significant role in Mrs. Firman’s life as well as being an active community service in Newbiggin. She and her friends assisted in schools with lessons such as road safety. They knitted animals and made puppets to tell stories with. They once dressed up as fisher folk and towed a boat through Newbiggin celebrating the town’s heritage.

Amy told of how her group encouraged her to take part in such events as drama groups, keep fit classes. She gave blood when the Blood Donor sessions were set up in the hall and she eventually got her Gold badge after donating 57 pints of blood throughout her time there. She was certainly a very active member of her group. Her busy home life was balanced with her Women’s Institute group. She would often leave housework to attend, catching up on it at a later time. Mrs. Firman told of how she and other members provided and joined in a varied programme of events. Running and organising drama groups, tea and biscuit afternoons, crafting, knit and natter classes, fund raising events, panto and shows, raffles, dancing afternoons and many talks attended by guest speakers.

When asked about her favorite part of the Newbiggin by the Sea, Women’s Institute she replied that it was the company and friendships that she made and the support given to her when her husband died. Mrs. Firman proved herself to be a hard-working lady who was a credit to her family and friends as well as being dedicated to helping the residents of her home town of Newbiggin by the Sea.

Taken from an oral history, NRO T-958 (NRO 101888), Womens Institute, Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland.