đChristmas Opening Hours for 2024đ CLOSED between 4pm Friday 20th December 2024 and 10am Thusday January 2nd 2025 Ordinary opening hours apply before and after this period.
Without the philanthropist Roland Philipson, who died on the 19th September 1906, the Stannington Sanatorium and Farm Colony would have been drastically different, or may never have existed at all. Descended from Philip de Thirlwall of Thirlwall castle, the Philipson family were famous for coach and train carriage building, and as solicitors and Aldermen of Newcastle. However they were also famous for their philanthropy, establishing many institutions and hospitals, for which Men of Mark Twixt Tyne and Tweed by Richard Welford is recommended reading. Rolandâs grandfather, Ralph Park Philipson, was Town Clerk, Alderman, and solicitor to the North-Eastern Railway Company. It was after Ralphâs wife the âPhilipson Memorial Orphan Asylumâ on Newcastle Town Moor was dedicated, a cause supported by the family for many generations. Rolandâs father Hilton was a Justice of the Peace in Newcastle, and he and his wife Jane had five children. Born in Tynemouth in 1863, Roland was raised with his brothers Ralph and Hylton, and sisters Annie and Mary Seely Philipson, later Woosnam. He and his brothers attended Eton, where they can be found on the 1881 census.
Roland Philipson
He is described in later census as a mechanical engineer, and on the 2nd June 1905 became a director of the North-Eastern Railway Company. He was also involved in several coal companies, and was a director for the Wallsend Slipway Company, the Consett Iron Company, and North-Eastern Marine Engineering Company. As a Justice of the Peace he acted as chairman for the Wallsend Petty Sessions, and was a Juror at the Northumberland Assizes. The census and Kellyâs directories show he lived at 6 Priorâs Terrace, Tynemouth, but likely had other residences, possibly including one at Howick. He married Louisa Warden Parr in 1888 in Chorlton, Lancashire. She was born in North Shields. They had sons Hilton, Roland Thirlwall and Thirlwall, and a daughter, Vera. Roland was a philanthropist like the rest of his family, and gave the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade ÂŁ2000 for a searchlight to help rescuers.
Mr John H. Watson, a founder and later Secretary of the PCHA, established the Newcastle Poor Childrenâs Holiday Association and Rescue Agency in 1888, to tackle the impact of poverty on children and bring homeless children off the streets (EP 10/75). When on holiday he came up with the idea of taking children from the slum areas of
Sports day 1957 shown on a temperature chart from a patient’s file.
Sports Day was one of the biggest days in the Stannington patientâs calendar, and they didnât come much bigger than that on the 7th September 1957, the 50th Jubile e of the Sanatorium. Sports Day is one of the few occasions we are lucky to have photographs of from different decades at Stannington, and though the events on the day must have varied through the years, we can use our records to find out a little of how they went. Below is a programme from the 1949 Sports Day, fortunately saved for us as it was accidentally included in a patientâs file.
Programme from the 1949 Sports day, accidentally included in a patient’s file.
The day began with the fancy dress parade. The patients dressed up in a huge variety of costumes, and the event was immensely popular among the patients. It even proved a draw for those who had left. We have a letter included in a patient file asking if a former patient could return for the fancy dress ball and Sports Day. The parent said he âtalked of nothing else but the fancy dress ball which is being held at the hospital in Septemberâ asking if she could bring him âon the great dayâ. Sadly as at other times no children were allowed as visitors, Sports Day was a treat for the patients only.
Then the races began, which usually included the classic childrenâs Sports Day races like the egg and spoon race and sack race. Many of the children took the competition quite seriously. On the morning of the 1958 Sports Day a child was practicing running, and, unfortunate in choosing the veranda of Brough ward as a practice track, fell and cut their arm on the glass in the window.
The staff also competed in races, with a race for the nursing and domestic staff, and the programme shows there was a tug of war between the Hospital staff and the farm staff. Though the Farm Colony no longer existed by this time it is interesting to see a link was still kept with the farm. In the bottom of the 3 video clips below some of the staff can be seen participating in sack and running races, perhaps suggesting they took the competition as seriously as the children did.
However the jubilee year of the Sanatorium and Hospital in 1957 aimed to eclipse previous sports days. Though we have no programme of the day, fortunately for us it was recorded for posterity on a cine camera by Tom Temple, and deposited with us (V434). Tom was a market gardener by profession, inheriting the family business with his brother and producing vegetables like cabbages, sprouts, cauliflower, leeks, turnips, beetroot, and potatoes, as well as herbs, grain, rhubarb and gooseberries. He also acted as a Special Constable until the age of 70, and was awarded the Queenâs Medal for his service. However Tomâs hobby was cine film photography, and he took his camera everywhere, with sons Clive and Geoff in tow to carry his equipment. He filmed subjects such as the River Wansbeck from source to mouth, and would give shows of his films and talks at events and for groups such as the Rotary Club. Tom preferred to choose colourful subjects, and this is definitely the case with the Stannington Childrenâs Hospital Jubilee film. You can learn more about Tomâs family in his son Cliveâs oral history (ref: T/722), and a number of his other films are deposited with Northumberland Archives. We have taken three sections of the 13 minute film to show some of the highlights of the 1957 Sports Day.
As in 1949 the day began with the fancy dress parade, and even bed-bound patients could dress up. Beds were brought out onto verandas, and we see other children lying on small beds on the grass. Judging must have been difficult, as the costumes were very inventive. There was often a topical nature to them, such as a little girl on the film who came dressed as Stanningtonâs 50th birthday cake.
Here we see all of the usual content of a Sports Day, as mentioned above, with childrenâs races, staff races, and pillow fights, with the inclusion of a bean bag race. The House Committee minutes for the 17th June 1957 show they planned to hire a band (the Morpeth Pipe Band are shown in the full footage) to provide incidental music, and tea parties would be given on the wards for patients and their parents, with others in the dining room for the committee and visitors. They also planned to include the usual fancy dress parade, races, and a parentsâ race. Slideshows were given (perhaps these were also by Tom Temple?) and the patients were provided with ice cream and lemonade. The League of Friends decided to make a gift of a five shilling piece to each child in honour of the jubilee. The House Committee also planned to commemorate the jubilee year with a staff dance at the end of October.
The House Committee minutes for the 16th September decided that the Jubilee Sports Day had been:
âmost successful and [the committee] resolved that thanks be recorded to members of the staff and all that had contributed to its success. It was further agreed that the secretary convey to the various organisations â League of Friends, Toc H, Round Table, Ladies circle, W.V.S., and Morpeth Pipe Band â grateful thanks for their generous co-operation and to Mr. T. Temple for his kindness in filming the proceedings.â HOSP/STAN/1/2/8
You can watch the whole 13 ½  minutes of Tom Templeâs footage of the Jubilee Sports Day on our online exhibition.
Before the NHS supported children at Stannington Sanatorium there were a few sources of finance for patients who could not fund their own places. We have already covered a little of the practice of donations for memorial cots in our online exhibition. From 1929 the Northumberland County Councilâs Public Assistance Committee supported places for children from the county, with other councils doing likewise. However what about the children who went to Stannington before 1929?
Before the Committee was created those on low incomes were supported by the Poor Law Boards. They ran the workhouses, provided out-relief to those on low incomes, housed the orphans of the parish, and financially supported the âlunaticsâ of the parish in the County Asylum (see our recent post). There were ten Poor law unions in Northumberland; Alnwick, Belford, Bellingham, Berwick, Castle Ward (for the Ponteland area), Glendale (for the Wooler area), Haltwhistle, Hexham, Morpeth and Rothbury. We decided to look through our poor law records for children who were supported at Stannington by the Board of Guardians, who dealt with the welfare of individuals, for Hexham Union.
Though Stannington Sanatorium had been open since 1907 the first mention we find in the records isnât until 1910, when in the minute books we have an explanation of how the system worked:
As the Board of Guardians were not charged for the Stannington patients we do not know how many of the children were sent, but we have a few cases where their return is mentioned.
Though we do not know what became of Janet, the Guardianâs minute book (GHE/20) shows by 1930 Catherine was at the Convent of Notre Dame, Southwark, London. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur ran, and continue to run, numerous schools and pupil teacher centres like Southwark across Britain. It is possible that Catherine was training as a pupil teacher, a five year apprenticeship in which girls received lessons as well as teaching younger girls (if you would like to learn more the Sisters have a very informative website). The Guardians sent Catherine ÂŁ14 11s 9d in National Savings Certificates they had held for her, which were to be kept by her Sister Superior until she turned 21.
Photograph of the Philipson Farm Colony boys and their manager from the Stannington Sanatorium brochure HOSP/STAN/9/1/1
However patients at the Sanatorium were not the only children that the Board financed at Stannington. The Philipson Farm Colony was used as a training facility to prepare boys to go into agricultural jobs. The first we see to be sent from Hexham is an orphaned boy, 14 years 5 months old, called William Young.
We first hear of Williamâs story in a letter in February 1911 to the PCHA, in which the guardians ask for a place at the Philipson Farm Colony for William. Further letters show this was granted, the Guardians agreed to pay six shillings in maintenance for him, and he was to be sent on the 11th March or the 1st of April. The 1911 census, taken on the 2nd April, shows he was a farm labourer, one of many boys in their late teens and early twenties present at the colony, and was born in Brampton, Cumberland. Sadly we have been unable to discover which of the many William Youngs born in the area he might have been.
The Farm Manager at this time was John Atkin, who had leased the farm since 1900 and was in charge of the boys at the colony from its opening in 1905. An article written by John in the Rotary Wheel magazine of August 1918 describes his endeavour to produce the most from the land in as diverse a way as possible, advocating a mixture of crops, livestock and poultry. William would therefore have learned many different aspects of farming at the Philipson Farm Colony.
In March 1913 the Guardians began to debate his next step, likely at the request of the PCHA or Farm Colony, and on the 4th April they had agreed for William to go to Canada. At the time emigration to the British colonies was encouraged, and it was a common thing that boys from the colony would make a new life there using their farming skills. The Guardians requested reassurance of Williamâs willingness to go and the suitability of the place he would be sent to. It seems this place fell through, and another letter on the 20th of September announced that the Board agreed to his being sent to Australia. However by the 18th of October the plan had again changed to South Africa. He was sent money for clothing, and we know from later correspondence he departed the next day. It seems however William did not enjoy his time there â he wrote to his sister in Hexham, and the letters were passed on to the Guardians and the Farm Colony for them to look at. A letter dated the 29th May 1914 writes to the PCHA that the Boarding Out Committee had decided:
John Nicholas Hall was another boy sent to the Philipson Farm Colony by the Hexham Board of Guardians. A letter on the 26th June 1912 shows they had considered John emigrating to Canada with William, however he went to the Farm Colony instead, again at the same rate of 6/- weekly. All we know from his time there is a brief mention in the minute books. On the 29th April 1913 we find:
These examples give us a little insight into the arrivals at Stannington Sanatorium and the Philipson Farm Colony in their early years, but also into the end of the Poor Law Unions. Though perhaps not the most caring of organisations (such as their reference to Catherine as âitâ!) the Poor Law Boards sought to find a home and training for a future career for all the children that came to them. They also made sure that children who were unwell were cared for, including within their own institutions. However Williamâs case also makes us wonder about the stories of the children associated with Stannington and the Farm Colony. We know many other boys from the Farm Colony also emigrated and it is possible this was under the âHome Childrenâ scheme. The scheme started in the 19th century and led to the emigration of many thousands of children from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.  Until relatively recently it has been difficult to find information about these children, but now records have become more accessible via national initiatives. The websites of The National Archives of the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand provide useful advice about researching child migration. Sadly there is nothing for South Africa yet, but hopefully we will be able to learn what became of William with further research.
