General

On 3 January 1826 a 76 year old man named Joseph Hedley was brutally murdered in his cottage in the parish of Warden. Joseph’s throat and face were slashed and multiple stab wounds were inflicted upon his body. He was commonly known as Joe the Quilter due to his skill with needlework. He was a quilter by trade and travelled around the country seeking employment. Joe’s skills in quilting were celebrated, and his handiwork was known in various parts of England, Ireland, Scotland and America.

On the evening of the murder, Joe obtained a pitcher of milk, a pound of sugar, a sheep’s head and pluck (offal) from farmer’s wife Mrs Colbeck of Warwick Grange. At approximately 6pm William Herdman, a labourer living in Wall called in on Joe on his way home from work at the local paper mill and sat with him for a short time. Joe had a good fire going and was busy preparing some potatoes for his supper.  Around 7pm Mrs Biggs, a female pedlar from Stamfordham knocked at the cottage to ask directions to Fourstones having missed the turning due to the excessive darkness of the night. Joe came to the door and gave her the necessary directions. Apart from the murderer(s), Mrs Biggs is said to be the last person to have seen him alive.

 

 

At approximately 8pm a Mr Smith of Haughton Castle rode past the cottage on his way home from Warden and all at the cottage was silent and dark. It is suspected that the deed took place between 7-8pm. Concern for Joe’s safety grew after his neighbours didn’t see the elderly man for a few days. It was reported that there appeared to be marks of blood in the snow outside the cottage and marks to indicate that a struggle had taken place. His neighbours found the cottage door locked and after knocking several times with no reply proceeded to break into the property. They were faced with a chilling sight as parts of the walls of the cottage were stained with blood and a quilt spread on a frame bore a distinct mark of a bloody handprint. The pitcher of milk, sheep’s head and pound of sugar which he had recently purchased were found lying on a table. A search of the house was conducted and nothing was found. An old outhouse which stored wood and coals was then searched and Joe’s body was discovered. Both cheeks were cut widely open with deep wounds. A garden hoe was found laid across his chest. A coal rake was also found with its shank bent. As two weapons were discovered it then raised a suspicion that there were 2 murderers. Joe was found with knife wounds on his hands so had obviously fought with the attacker(s).

The small cottage had been ransacked and bore evidence of a struggle. All of his boxes and drawers had been disturbed and it was believed that two silver tablespoons, four teaspoons and two old fashioned salt cellars of silver net-work had been stolen.The bed tester had been violently torn down and the face of the clock broken. Prints of 3 bloody fingers were distinctly visible on the chimney jamb . The plates on the dresser were also streaked with blood. Outside in the lane some clogs were found and a small piece of coat was discovered on a hedge.It was supposed that Joe had fought hard with the murderer(s) and had managed to escape about 100 yards from the cottage before he was caught. Judging by the marks in the snow it appeared that a struggle had taken place and then Joe had been overcome and dragged back and murdered. After this had taken place the cottage door had been locked on the outside and the key taken away.

 

 

A one hundred guineas reward was offered to catch the perpetrator(s) of the atrocious murder . The reward was offered from the Overseers of the Poor of the parish of Warden on 17 January 1826. Home secretary Robert Peel offered his majesty’s full pardon to any accomplices who came forward with information (as long as they were not the actual murderer). A jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.  Although several people were arrested and questioned nobody was ever charged and sadly the murder of Joe the Quilter was never solved. Joe was buried in Warden churchyard on 10 January 1826. On his burial entry the word murdered can clearly be read underneath his name.

 

 

On Wednesday 29 March 1826, an auction was held to sell the household furniture belonging to the ‘late unfortunate Joseph Hedley, commonly called Joe The Quilter’.

 

 

 

The image above is one of the earliest examples of a Sword Dancing ‘calling -on‘song. Sword Dancing in Northumberland and Durham is very peculiar, for unlike the sword dances found elsewhere in the country, the sword in the Northern area is two handled.

The earliest written description of sword dancing in Northumberland is part of the seasonal festivities written by John Wallis, Curate of Simonburn in his book “The Natural History and Antiquary of Northumberland” published in 1769, he relates the dances still performed at Christmas time he states:

“Young men march from village to village, and from house to house with music before them, dressed in antic attire, and before the vestibulum or entrance of every house entertain the family with the Motus incompositus, the antic dance, or Chorus armatus, with swords or spears in their hands, erect and shining. This they call, the Sword-Dance. For their pains they are presented with a small gratuity in money, more or less, according to every householders ability, their gratitude is expressed by firing a gun. One of the company is distinguished from the rest by a more antic dress; a fox’s skin generally serving him for a covering and ornament to his head, the tail hanging down his back. This droll figure is their chief or leader he does not mingle in the dance”.

On the 7^th January 1843 the Newcastle Journal published an article formerly printed in The Times of a custom called “Sword dancing”

“The sword-dancers are men entirely or chiefly composed of miners or pitmen, and of persons engaged in the various other vocations of a colliery, who during the week intervening between Christmas and New Year’s Day, perambulate the country in parties, consisting of from twelve to twenty, partly in search of money, but much more I believe, of adventure and excitement”  “on these occasions they are habited in a peculiarly gaudy dress, which, with their dancing principally attracts attention. Instead of their ordinary jackets they wear others, composed of a kind of variegated patchwork which, with their hats, are profusely decorated with ribands of the gayest hues, prepared and wrought by their sisters or sweethearts, the sword dances being usually young and unmarried men. This, with slight individual variations is the description of dress worn by all the members of a sword-dancing party, with the exception of two conspicuous characters invariably attached to the company and denominated amongst themselves respectively the “Tommy” and the “Bessy”  These two personages were the most frighteningly grotesque dresses imaginable; the former being usually clad in the skin of some wild animal, and the latter in petticoats and the costume of an old woman; it is the office of those two individuals, to go round amongst the company which collects to see them dance, and levy contributions in money; each of them being furnished for this purpose with a huge tin or iron box which they rattle in the faces of the bystanders, and perform other antics and grimaces to procure subscriptions. A fiddler also is an indispensable attaché to a company of sword dancers”….”The sword dancers are each furnished with long steel wands, which they call swords, and which they employ with a very peculiar and beautiful effect during the dance”.

In Northumberland the villages which continued the tradition into the 20^th century were Amble, Bedlington, Earsdon, Monkseaton, Newbiggin by the Sea, Prudhoe and Mickley, Walbottle and Westerhope.

 

 

 

In 1910 Cecil Sharp, keen folksong and folkdance collector was invited north, by William Parker Brewis of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, and between 1910 and 1922 he collected five sword dances, and published them in the book “The Sword Dances in Northern England”, and within the first few months of publication was using the dances in the English Folk Dance Society as part of their “Advanced Certificate” course of folk dance, what the sword dancers themselves made of this we shall never know.

The term “Rapper” for the name of this kind of dancing comes from an interpretation of the poor written word which Cecil Sharp wrote in his notes as to the name of the implements the Earsdon men were holding in their hands, no earlier account of this word in combination with Sword Dancing has been found.

In Northumberland and Durham today, very few of the traditional Sword Dancing sides still perform. High Spen Blue Diamonds in County Durham, being one of the very last, passed down through the generations of the Forster family. Even though there are little traditional sides left, the dance still goes on with the likes of the Demon Barbers, from Newcastle upon Tyne bringing back the excitement of the fast dance, or the Monkseaton Morris Men who still perform every New Year’s Day at 12 noon outside the Ship Inn, Monkseaton. As traditions change and die out and everywhere becomes less magical and more mundane, it is good to support and remember the little things that make the North East a little bit different from anywhere else.

 

 

Season’s Greetings!

 

On the evening of Wednesday 1^st December 1943, tragedy struck the communities of Togston and Amble.  An RAF aircraft – a Short Stirling Mk. III – crashed into the top floor of Cliff House Farm, just outside Amble.

The bomber had taken off from RAF Mepal, Cambridgeshire, on 1^st December.  Its mission, along with other aircraft, was to drop sea mines off Denmark.  On the return flight, the aircraft were diverted to RAF Acklington due to fog.  The survivor reported that the plane had experienced trouble but that the Pilot, Warrant Officer Kerr, had managed to keep the plane in the air until he was safely over Amble, but could not maintain control and crashed into the farmhouse at 10.40pm

Mr and Mrs William Robson were entertaining their friends, Mr and Mrs Rowell, at the farm that Wednesday.  Mr Rowell, a butcher in Amble, had visited the Robson’s to roll some bacon, and Mrs Rowell had been invited along for supper.  They had just finished their meal when the plane crashed into the house.  Mr Rowell described the incident in the Newcastle Journal and North Mail (in an article published on Friday 3^rd December 1943),

there was a deafening roar and the house came down about our ears… Our first thoughts, naturally, were for the children.  We pulled at the wreckage in an effort to find them.  Then fire broke out and we had to throw water to keep down the flames.

The four adults were injured and in shock.  Neighbours and rescue squads arrived at the scene quickly.  The five Robson children, who were sleeping upstairs at the time of the crash, were killed on impact:

Sylvia, aged 9 years

Ethel, aged 7 years

Marjorie, aged 5 years

William, aged 3 years

Sheila, aged 19 months

 

The bodies of the children were found on Saturday 2nd December.  The image below is from a register, a ‘Record of Civilian Death Due to War Operations’.  All five children’s deaths are recorded within the register.  Sheila’s body is noted as being found at 1.30am.

 

 

The Stirling bomber had a crew of seven men, but only one survived the crash.  He was spotted by Mrs Rowell, running around the field on fire.  She called to her husband who ran across to the airman, rolled him on the ground, and extinguished the flames.  Mr. Rowell than rushed to the plane to help the aircrew, but could find no one else.

 

The aircrew were all members of 75 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve:

Warrant Officer (Pilot) George John Stewart Kerr, aged 22 years. Son of John and Georgina Kerr of High Ongar, Essex.  Buried in Chevington Cemetery, Northumberland.

Sergeant (Air Gunner) George William Thomas Lucas, aged 22 years. Son of George and Ellen Lucas of Shepherd’s Bush, London.  Buried in East Finchley Cemetery and St. Marylebone Crematorium.

Sergeant (Air Bomber) Ronald Smith, aged 20 years. Son of Basil and Sarah Ann Smith of Leeds; husband of Joan Smith of Halton, Leeds.  Buried in Leeds (Whitkirk) Cemetery.

Sergeant (Navigator) Donald Frank Wort. Son of Mr. and Mrs Frank Wort of Parkstone.  Buried in Poole (Parkstone) Cemetery.

Flight Sergeant (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Derek Arthur Holt. Son of Mr. and Mrs A. Holt of Shrewsbury, Shropshire.  Buried in St. Helen’s Cemetery.

Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Leonard George Copsey, aged 20 years. Son of George and Jessie Copsey of Hornchurch.  Buried in Hornchurch Cemetery.

 

 

 

The survivor of the crash was Sergeant (Mid Upper Gunner) Kenneth Gordon Hook of Hambledon, Surrey, who was 20 years old at the time.  Even though he sustained serious injuries, he was flying again by February 1944.  On 13 March 1944, he was in another Stirling bomber, again taking off from RAF Mepal, for a minelaying operation near Brest, when the aeroplane malfunctioned and the plane crashed, with three of its five mines exploding after impact.  Sergeant Hook survived, and by the end of the Second World War had flown 75 operational missions.  He retired from the RAF in 1977 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.  He died in 1989 in Devon.

 

 

The crash at Cliff House Farm was reported the next day in the Log Book of Amble Church of England School, which Sylvia and Ethel both attended.  It notes that a wreath was purchased, and we know (from a newspaper article which reported on the funeral) that this was laid on the grave of the children by staff and pupils, when the funeral took place on Saturday 4^th December.  The service was held at Amble St. Cuthbert and the interment took place at Amble West Cemetery, where the children were all laid to rest in one grave.

 

 

Today, the children and the tragedy that befell them are still remembered.  A memorial table stands at the west end of Amble St. Cuthbert’s, and there is a housing estate named after the children, near the site of Cliff House Farm.  The estate is named Robson Way, with each of the closes named after a child.  The airmen who died are remembered on a plaque inside Acklington St. John the Divine, which was the official church for RAF Acklington.

Mr. and Mrs Robson moved to a farm at Shotley Bridge, before moving to Stannington and later, Fenrother.  They are buried in Amble West Cemetery, in the same grave as Sylvia, Ethel, Marjorie, William and Sheila.