General

Stories relating to those who appear to rise from the dead are somewhat universal. One such tale of ‘suspended animation’ from the seventeenth century is told in ‘The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend’, Volume 3.

The story centres around Mrs Erskine, wife of Reverend Henry Erskine. He was a minister in Cornhill-on-Tweed who was ‘ejected’ in 1662 due to being a nonconformist. He was later banished from Scotland as punishment for preaching and returned to England. He was caught, again, and imprisoned in Newcastle; upon securing his release he went to Moneylaws in Northumberland where he became the “pastoral charge of a dissenting place of worship”.

It was whilst living in Moneylaws that his wife died and was placed in the family vault. When she died she was wearing a valuable gold ring that could not be removed from her finger. The sexton became aware of this and decided that such a valuable item should not be left ‘among the mouldering remains’. He decided to open the grave to remove the ring; when the ring would not budge he got out his knife and cut the finger. It was at this point that “to his amazement and horror, the supposed corpse sat up in the coffin”. 

Needless to say, the sexton fled. Mrs Erskine walked home, knocked on the door which was answered by a rather startled husband. It is believed that Mrs Erskine lived for many more years after this and went on to have more children, including Rev. Ralph Erskine who later became minister for Dunfermline.

The incident was reported in ‘The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle’ in 1888. Mr. R.A. Hill, the then custodian of the gold ring, wrote later in the same year that the story “has been handed down from one generation to another in our family”.

This blog has been split into four parts.

As a member of staff working for Northumberland Archives, I am now working from home doing a variety of jobs including, typing lists of various records, writing Facebook posts, completing online courses and compulsory learning. Some of my colleagues have written blogs for social media and I thought I would give this a try too.

At the present time it is very important not only for physical health but also for our mental health to make sure we take time out to exercise; this is where I got my idea from to write this blog. Everyday my husband and I go for walks from our front door. We are very lucky as we have the beach right opposite the house, but many walks we do involve visiting the beautiful Ridley Park in Blyth.

Ridley Park was established in 1904 on land donated by Viscount Matthew White Ridley. It is now managed by Northumberland County Council, Blyth Town Council and also Friends of Ridley Park, a community group set up in 2012.

Pictured below is a bust of Viscount Matthew White Ridley which proudly stands at the entrance of Ridley Park. The original bust, created by local sculptor George Skee, was unveiled in the park in 1909 but unfortunately it was stolen in 2008. In 2019 this new bust was unveiled thanks to the Friends of Ridley Park who received a grant from the Ridley family charity and also a grant from Blyth Town Council.

Ridley Park holds many happy childhood memories for me. I grew up in a house right opposite the park. A small terraced house which was lovely except it had no garden. A small concrete backyard with a few flower pots, not an ideal place for children to play in, however we were lucky having the park on our door step. My sister and I spent many hours especially in the summer months playing in our gang at the park. We made dens in the woods and played fairies and witches, mixing brews and potions out of any old sticks, mud, berries and leaves we could find, then went home covered in mud only to be shouted at by my mother “ look at the colour of you get in the bath now! “. But I didn’t care we had had fun. On hot days we would pack a picnic and towel and play in the paddling pool. Anyone forgetting their bathing costume would have to paddle in their vest and knickers. ( I always made sure I had mine!).

In my teenage years we used to play tennis in the tennis courts. It cost 20p for an hour and we would reenact that year’s Wimbledon. I was never very good at tennis and often got the job as ball boy. As well as tennis we regularly played pitch and put. There was a wooden hut on the edge of the green where we paid to hire the clubs and balls. The clubs were ancient and were kept in a large metal dust bin and were all bent and out of shape which made the game harder to play!

Fred Tinsley, the General Manager of Morpeth Playhouse, placed an article in the Herald on 27 December 1918, probably to help to protect his financial interests: 

The Playhouse is quite safe. The house is thoroughly cleaned daily by special staff, disinfectants are used freely. The air is kept constantly moving by a system of powerful electrically driven fans. Every precaution is taken against the spread of the infection so you are quite safe in attending the cinema. 

Unlike today there was no blanket closure of cinemas and theatres during the 1918 pandemic. Local authorities could issue their own restrictions, but many cinemas (like Ashington Miners’ Theatre, shown below) could stay open. In practice, many were hard hit.

Dr Hudson, Medical Officer of Health for Bedlington Urban District Council reported in the Morpeth Herald on 20 December 1918: 

There was a high death rate due to influenza. There were 70 deaths in the district, 35 were from the flu and 9 from pneumonia. The most common age group for deaths was between 15 and 35 years of age due to them frequenting places of amusement. Infants and persons in adult life appeared to be less susceptible or suffered milder degrees of the flu. The closure of schools has accounted for the smaller death rate amongst children.

The opening up of the Nightingale Hospitals today recalls something similar in Hexham during the first bout of influenza. On 29 June 1918 the Morpeth Herald stated that Hexham had a few cases in the town, but the amount of victims was dramatically increased with the advent of the Durham Cadet Corps. So many of these youths were stricken that a temporary hospital had to be opened to cope with the numbers.