BERWICK BOROUGH ARCHIVES CATALOGUE SECTIONS – PART ONE

14/05/2021 by Northumberland Archives

The Berwick Borough Archives is a wonderful and informative collection of records covering over 500 years of the town’s history . It is housed at the Berwick Record Office which operates as part of Northumberland Archives. An online catalogue for the collection has now gone live on the Northumberland Archives website – https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/catalogue/ .

To make the most of this online catalogue, the various sections it contains are listed below as a guide for use. If you are not sure what you are looking for, go to ADVANCED SEARCH in the catalogue and simply enter BA* in the Ref No field and put a word or phrase in the “Any text” field at the bottom to see what results appear. Otherwise, you can refine your search by limiting it to a specific section as listed below . As there are so many sections, this blog will be in two parts.

CATALOGUE SECTIONS

The catalogue has been divided into the following sections :

BA/A CHARTERS – the town still bases some of its privileges today (electing a Mayor, holding markets) on the royal charters granted by the Crown. The earliest surviving charter in the collection is 1415 and the most recent 1604, granted by King James I of England.

Charter granted to the Borough by Queen Mary, 1554. Reference: BA/A/2/3/6

BA/B BERWICK AND TWEEDMOUTH BURIAL BOARDS – As both Berwick and Tweedmouth Parish churchyards were becoming full , new civic cemeteries were open in 1856 and 1858 respectively. This section contains burial registers for both cemeteries, plot purchase registers and also registers of graves. Both cemeteries are divided into consecrated and unconsecrated sections. The consecrated ground was for the Church of England and the unconsecrated for other religions including Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic.

Berwick Civic Cemetery Burial Register, Unconsecrated, 1905. Reference: BA/B/1/2/24

Plan of Berwick Civic Cemetery with plot numbers, c. 1856. Reference: BA/B/1/7/1

BA/C BERWICK-UPON-TWEED TOWN COUNCIL – From 1835 to 1974 Berwick, Tweedmouth and Spittal were governed by an elected Council. Their records cover many different facets of life and administration of the town including :

BA/C/BT – Borough Treasurer records including annual accounts of how the Town Council spent their money.

BA/C/CC – Council and Committees, including minutes of full Council and committees. The Town Council had various committees including Watch (Police ); Works (buildings); finance; schools and education.

Berwick Town Council minute book entry, 1836. Reference : BA/C/CC/1/1 p 12 and Berwick Town Council minutes, 1948. Reference : BA/C/CC/2/4/42

BA/C/ED – Education – Berwick ran its own Education Authority until 1920 After that it was amalgamated with Northumberland County Council’s Education Authority. This section includes information on individual schools in Berwick, Tweedmouth and Spittal, teachers employed, construction of new schools (Spittal, Tweedmouth West and Bell Tower ) and minutes of the Education Authority.

Berwick Education Committee Standing Orders 1908. Reference: BA/C/ED/1/4

Corporation Academy Prize Day Timetable, 1914. Reference: BA/C/ED/10/3/8

BA/C/GA – Gaol – After 1835, the Borough was told that the Gaol in the Town Hall was no longer suitable and that they would need to build a new one. This was finally built in Wallace Green and opened at the end of November 1849. This new Gaol only operated between 1849 and 1878 and subsequently became the Council Offices. This section Includes plans of the building and dietaries for prisoners.

Elevation of proposed Gaol in Berwick, 1844. Reference: BA/C/GA/1/11

BA/C/PL – Planning – The Council was responsible for approving the erection and alteration of buildings. Building applications from the early 1900s to 1974 are found in this section and include individual houses and public buildings.

Building plan of proposed Police Station in Church Street, 1899. Reference: BA/C/PL/2/94

BA/C/ PO – Police – Berwick had its own Police Force until 1921, separate from Northumberland. This section includes police pay sheets, notebooks of individual policemen, wanted/reward posters sent to the Police force and also registers of events reported at the Police Station.

Wanted Poster for Alexander Smith Fleming, 1897. Reference: BA/C/PO/15/1/46

Berwick Borough Police Paysheet,1895. Reference: BA/C/PO/12/23

BA/C/SA – Urban Sanitary Authority – From 1850, following a report from the Local Board of Health, Berwick Urban Sanitary Authority was established with responsibility for all issues relating to public health and housing. Their duties became subsumed into the Town Council in the 1920s. Their records include minute books; licences and information on water and sewage schemes and licences for cowkeepers.

Plan of Properties in Wallace Green in Local Board of Health Report, 1850. Reference: BA/C/SA/3/1/7

BA/C/TC – Town Clerk – The Town Clerk’s department was the administrative hub of the Council. Their records include the Borough Secretary files which cover many facets of life in the town from the 1920s to 1974. These include the construction of Berwick War Memorial; Berwick and the Second World War; conservation of buildings and construction of social housing.

Waste Paper notice in Salvage file, 1942. Reference: BA/C/TC/4/3/19

BA/F BERWICK GUILD OF FREEMEN AND TRUSTEES – POST 1835 – After this date, the Guild of Freemen no longer governed the town and created their own series of records separate to the Town Council. This section includes papers concerning admission to the Freedom (by birthright and honorary) as well as papers relating to the Guild and the Freemen Trustees who were set up after 1926 to administer the Freemen’s Estate.

Application form for Honorary Freedom after First World War submitted by George Bell, 1920s. Reference : BA/F/2/4/4/16

Honorary Freedom Admission book – entry for Thomas Houliston Lawson, 1901. Reference: BA/F/2/4/3

To see the entries for any of these sections enter the section number and * in the electronic catalogue, e.g. BA/C/SA*

Berwick Borough Archives Catalogue Sections Part Two to follow.

A TALE OF TWO EMIGRANTS

15/04/2021 by Northumberland Archives

During the late 19^th century Berwick Police Force received posters from all over the country looking for criminals, missing persons and stolen goods. These two posters in bundle 2 (BA/C/PO/15/2) show that behind each poster there is a story not necessarily about the incident but about the individuals.

This poster is very striking, a young boy, aged 12 who was missing from his home in Newport on Tay near Dundee. Who was John Doctor, what do we know about him before his disappearance in 1895 and what happened to him ? The poster includes a lovely line drawing of John and a detailed description – his appearance and clothing . From this he appears to be from an affluent family and well educated.

On checking the 1891 census, John Doctor, born c 1884 was the son of William F Doctor, a jute merchant and his wife, Jane. They lived at Ashleigh in Forgan parish near Dundee with John’s younger sister, Jane, aged 3 and two servants – a definite sign that the family were well off. His parents had married in 1882.

The poster indicates that there was no apparent reason for John’s disappearance on 20^th May and the family and police must have been concerned to send this out to various police forces on 22^nd May. The Berwick Police Force acted upon it as it is annotated “Enquiries Made RT [Robert Tough]” – one of Berwick’s Policemen. Despite searching through the online newspapers, I have been unable to find any reference to John’s disappearance. He must have returned home at some stage because he appears on the 1901 census, now aged 17 as a Mercantile Clerk living his father, sister and a servant at Tayview Terrace in Forgan. His mother isn’t listed which may indicate that she had died.

By the next year 1902, John Doctor had married Jane Irvine in Glasgow. I struggled to find the couple in the 1911 Scottish census. The trail had gone cold but quite by chance I found electoral register entries for John in Dundee and also an entry in 1922 indicating a connection with Moor Law in Canada. I thought John must have emigrated around then but a search of the 1911 census in Canada picked him up living in Moose Jaw City in Saskatchewan. He was there with his wife, Christina, daughter Janet, born in Scotland in 1905 and two further children – James (1907) and Caroline (1909), both born in Canada which suggests they arrived in Canada between 1905 and 1907. I can’t find much more on the family – John and his three children sailed from Canada to Glasgow in 1919 – did they come home to visit relatives ? – but after that the trail goes cold. So what happened to him – did the family go back to Canada, had his wife died ? Always more questions than answers.

The second item isn’t a poster but a letter, dated 7 September 1885 from John W Logan of Tweedside Works to the Superintendent of Berwick Police requesting his assistance. It reads

Dear Sir,

I have again to complain of damages being done to Windows in my Works. 12 Panes of glass having been broken between Saturday night & Monday morning. I shall be glad if you can arrange to keep a look out & stop such in future

John Walker Logan was born in Berwick in 1850, the first son of David and Isabella Logan. His father was a corn merchant and the family lived in Hide Hill. John had an interest in machinery and must have served an apprenticeship. In 1871 he is described in the census as a former engine builder and in 1890 he became a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. In the 1870s he went into partnership with William Elder and ran the business, Logan and Elder in Berwick. However by February 1880, this partnership was dissolved and both started their own businesses as agricultural implement makers in Berwick. John Logan operated the Tweedside Works, based in Tweedmouth which made various implements. He carried on this business until 1888 when he emigrated to South Africa to work as an engineer. There is an advert in the local newspaper in October 1887 giving notice of a sale of the equipment in the Tweedside Works. He appears to have initially worked in Johannesburg but by the start of the Boer War, he had moved to Cape Town where he sadly died on 17^th March 1901. An entry in the Berwickshire News on 26 March 1901 read “ At Cape Town, March 17, of typhoid fever, John Walker Logan, engineer, formerly of Berwick. “. Another entry in the paper gave some additional information – The death is announced in South Africa of Mr John W Logan, eldest son of Mr David Logan, JP, the Avenue, Berwick, formerly of Brow of the Hill Farm. This is the second son of Mr Logan’s who dies buried in the Colony.

I haven’t been able to find anything about John’s time in South Africa. Did he marry over there, why did he go and was his brother killed in the Boer War ?

These are the stories behind just two of the items in this bundle of police posters. If you can tell us more about any of the incidents mentioned in BA/C/PO/15/2, please do get in touch. To find the entries for all the posters in this bundle in our electronic catalogue, enter BA/C/PO/15/2* in the search field – https://calmview.northumberland.gov.uk/ . Happy browsing !

Twixt Thistle & Rose

12/06/2020 by Northumberland Archives

A MISSING SINCE SATURDAY-MAGGIE PARK

Whilst checking the catalogue entries of our Police posters which were completed by the Twixt Thistle and Rose volunteers, I came across this one which caught my attention, particularly as it was a local one relating to Berwick. It was very striking and made me want to find out who Maggie Park was and what happened to her.

Firstly I looked to see if her disappearance had been reported and there was this short snippet in the Local News section of the Berwick Advertiser on 16 September 1887 :

GIRL MISSING – On Saturday forenoon about half past nine o’clock, a girl named Maggie Park, 12 years of age, living with her brother, James Park, shoemaker, 14 Church Street, Berwick, was sent a message to Mr Rankin’s shop in High Street. Since that time the girl has not been heard of or seen anywhere. She wore a brown felt hat, grey ulster and cape, green dress and lacing boots at the time of her disappearance.

This gave me some additional information as I originally assumed that James was her father, not her brother. Searching the 1891 census revealed that James was a shoemaker, aged about 25 in 1887, originally from Scotland and married to Catherine.

I was intrigued to find out if Maggie was ever found and this was where it got very interesting. The Berwick Advertiser contained the following article on 23 September :

A YOUNG GIRL’S ENTERPRISE – Last week we stated that Maggie Park, a girl twelve years of age, living with her brother, James Park, shoemaker, Church Street, had not been seen since the forenoon of Saturday 10^th September. It has now been ascertained that she set out from Berwick to walk to the house of her father, near Glasgow, a distance of fully 100 miles. She had got as far as Edinburgh before she was discovered.

I was relieved to hear that she had been found but was amazed that she had tried to walk that distance, not something many people, never mind a child would contemplate. I wondered what happened to her in the interim and quite by chance. In the same bundle of posters, I came across a handwritten letter, dated 13 September 1887 about Maggie which had been sent by Inspector M Fraser of Dunbar Police Station to John Garden, Superintendent of Berwick Police.

In the letter Inspector Fraser indicated that she had arrived there by train from Haddington at 3.30 pm, stayed until 7pm and then travelled back to North Berwick. If the police were contacted at North Berwick, they could detain her. Obviously that didn’t happen as she wasn’t found until much later in Edinburgh. What happened to her in between is a mystery.

Where was she going and who was her father ? The 1911 census indicated that James Park was born in Linlithgow about 1862. I checked the 1871 census and found a James Park, aged 9 living with his mother and father, Peter and Margaret in High Street, Linlithgow. Peter was also a shoemaker. By the next census, 1881, Peter was a widower and neither James nor Maggie were with him on the census night. However, I found Maggie, aged 7 in Cambuslang in the household of her married sister, Helen, now called Ellen. James at this stage was working London and was a boarder in a house in the Cavendish Square area . His occupation was listed as shoemaker. Peter, the father is missing from the 1891 census but he appears again in 1901 – listed as a patient, aged 76 in Linlithgow. Presumably in a hospital or institution. He died in 1908, aged 84.

What happened to Maggie ? So far, I have not been able to find out anything further about her. She doesn’t appear on later censuses and so she is a mystery.

However, I have been able to find some additional information on her brother. James who remained in Berwick through local newspapers. He married Catherine Elizabeth Redfearn, daughter of a local innkeeper on 30 June 1883 at St John’s Church in London and must then have moved to Berwick. In the 1901 census, James and his wife, Catherine were living at 1, Marygate. By 1911, they were living at 3 Summerhill Terrace in the north end of the town. They had no children. The couple continued to live there for the rest of their lives – Catherine died on 23 January 1933 (not long before their golden wedding anniversary), aged 71 whilst James died on 6 February 1951, aged 89.

It was only when I looked at James’ obituary that I realised who he was.

The obituary which appeared in the Berwick Advertiser on 8 February 1951 stated that he was one of the last surviving makers of hand made boots who had come to Berwick 67 years previously ( around 1884) . His business was originally in Church Street and then he moved to his premises at the corner of Marygate and Hide Hill. To many a person with connections to Berwick , this was Park’s corner, the home of “The Bootman” , a business which closed its door for the last time on 31 May 2003

Undertaking family history research can take you in so many different directions and along the way, you never know what you will find. When looking at the poster, I wanted to find out about the young girl but in the end, I found out more about her family and her brother, whose business was very much a part of Berwick in the past. One thing leads to another !

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