BERWICK ADVERTISER, 28 MARCH 1919

29/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY DEPOT

DEMOBILISATION TEA

The Berwick-on-Tweed War Hospital Supply Depot was closed on Friday, 21st March. It is exactly three years ago since Berwick decided to start a Surgical Branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, Central Depot of which was in London. The title of this Depot was later changed to The St. Marylebone War Hospital Supply Depot, when Queen Mary resigned and handed over the duties as President to H.R.H. Princess Beatrice.

The idea of a depot in Berwick was first launched at a Public Meeting held in the Council Chamber on March 24th, 1916, where it met with enthusiastic support. A subscription list was opened to gather the necessary funds for the purchase of materials, etc. Premises in Bridge Street, at the head of “Sally-port,” were secured, and eager, willing “probationers,” set to work to scrub.

An early photograph of the Sally Port, where the Berwick Branch of the ‘Surgical Branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild’ secured their premises in 1919. © Berwick Record Office.

They scrubbed floors, paint, everything scrubable, cleaned windows, and soon all was ready for the opening day on 14th April. Over 70 members joined, the subscription fee being 2s 6d per head. This money, together with a weekly subscription of 6d per member, was the depot’s only source of revenue until 1917, when the increase in the cost of material rendered it necessary to appeal to the public for money to carry on the work.

BERWICK LAD’S TRAGIC END

A tragic occurrence took place on the Berwickshire Branch of the North British Railway near Edrom on Monday, when Charles Morrison (19) a fireman employed by the N.B.R., and son of Mr Morrison, Weatherly Square, Berwick, met his end by his head coming in violent contact with a bridge over the line.

The train had left Edrom station and was proceeding on its way to Duns when the unfortunate lad for some reason or other mounted the tender of the engine. Evidently he had misjudged the distance to the bridge over the line near Crumstane for his head caught the crown of the arch as the engine passed through. Death was instantaneous.

The news of his death has caused profound gloom in railway circles, where the deceased lad was held in respect for his genial disposition. It is not long since he took up duty as a fireman. The deepest sympathy goes out to the family in their sorrow.

SUICIDE AT MILFIELD

Mr Hugh J. Percy, Deputy Coroner for North Northumberland, held an inquest at Milfied, Wooler, on the 20^th March, on the body of Richard Lee, aged 48 years, formerly a farm labourer at Milfield.

Jane Fairbairn, widow, of Milfield, and mother of the deceased, stated that her son had suffered some paralysis for the past two years, and has not been able to work, and had at times been depressed about it. Early on the morning of Saturday, the 15th, he went out of the house, having just got out of bed, and he did not return. His body was found the following day by John Coutts, a quarryman, who, when out for a walk by the side of the river Till, saw the body in the water.

P.C. Sanderson, of Ford, gave evidence, saying he received information from Coutts, and proceeded to the river, where he found the body entangled in some bushes. The water at the foot was about 6 feet deep. He got the body out, and it was identified as that of deceased.

After hearing the evidience, a verdict was returned of suicide whilst temporarily insane.

LOCAL NEWS

On Friday, March 21st, a draft of 150 men from the 1st K.O.S. Borderers Depot left Berwick for Dumfermline. The band from the barracks accompanied the men to the station, where a good crowd of people had assembled to give them a hearty send off.

The Army and Navy Recreation Rooms, Hide Hill, which have been open since March 1915, are to be closed on Saturday 5th April. The percentage of men stationed in the town is now very small compared with the past four years and it is felt that the need for this valuable institution no longer exists.

SALE OF WOOLER AND GLANTON PROPERTY

An important sale of property was held in Newcastle this week, when Mr Robert Donkin, auctioneer of Rothbury, disposed of property owned by Mr G. P. Hughes, Middleton Hall, Wooler, as under:-

Bidding commence at £800 for the Anchor Inn, a fully-licensed and free house at Maiden Knowe, Wooler, which was eventually sold for £1,300.

The small holding, Wand House, near Wooler, comprising a cottage, with stable and garden, and about four acres of grass land, let on an annual tenancy at a rental of £12, commenced at £300, and was sold for £430.

Three cottages, with garden ground, at Tenter Hill, producing a net annual rental of £28, commenced at £400, and was bought at £500 by Mr Nicholson of Monkseaton.

Mrs Frazer bought for £200 the garden ground situated at the rear of the Black Bull Hotel, Wooler. There are about 1,556 square yards, with stables and coach-house, let on a building lease for 29 years, from November 11th, 1910.

The Black Bull Hotel, Wooler at the turn of the twentieth century can be seen on the left of this photograph painted white with a cart outside on the road. In 1919 Mrs Frazer bought the rear garden area at auction for £200. © Berwick Record Office, BRO 426-1228.

The Queen’s Head Hotel, Glanton, comprising dining room, smoke room, bar, five bedrooms, long room, kitchen, two stables, coach-house, byre, etc., and vegetable garden, and 2¼ acres of land let at an annual rental of £70, was started at £1,000, and was sold at £1,700 to Mr Hare, for the Alnwick Brewery Company.

The accommodation holding, “The Dovecote Fields,” Glanton, comprising 500 acres of old grass pasture, let on a ten years’ lease (expiring 1922), at a rental of £120, started at £2,500, and was sold for £3,100, to Mrs Mary Joicey, of Linhope.

MAGDALENE FIELDS GOLF CLUB

Devotees of the Royal and Ancient Game will be glad to know that Berwick’s Town Club is to be re-opened after having been closed since the Spring of 1917. Preparations are being put underway, and it is hoped to have the course ready for play by the Easter holidays.

The plan of the course has not yet been decided upon, but it is the general opinion that a nine-hole course to begin with would be a wise thing. This does not, however, necessarily mean the old nine holes that constituted the course before it was extended in 1915. In planning out the course, the question of grazing, which is such a valuable financial asset, will have to be studied. The question of funds will also be a big item. In addition to the high rental, a further tax, which it is expected will amount to nearly £70 per annum, will have to be met, as the ground is being used for sports and not agricultural purposes.

Volunteers and Research – Berwick Record Office

03/04/201918/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

Volunteers at the Berwick Record Office are encouraged to research people or events mentioned in the records they index. This enhances the lists and is an opportunity to bring together information from a number of sources that the Archivist may not have the time to collate.

Following a thread

Helen is a volunteer at the Berwick Records Office and has been involved in a number of projects – particularly those with schoolchildren. Recently, she has been looking through the Borough Surveyor’s notebook (featured in an earlier post) for references to Berwick men who served in World War I and decided to find out more about one of them – Sidney Hill.

Sidney Hill

Sidney Hill was born in Berwick in 1900. He was drafted towards the end of the war and from 1918-1919 served on HMS Kildonan – a patrol gunboat that monitored the British coast.

In 1936 he was appointed the first Housing Officer of the Berwick-Upon-Tweed Town Council. However, in 1937 he and his wife emigrated to Salisbury in, what was then known as, Rhodesia to take up a post on the Bulawayo Railway. This followed “malicious rumours” that he was involved in financial irregularities at the Council. However, The Mayor appealed for this gossip to stop, in the Berwick Advertiser on the 29 June 1937, saying neither he nor the Surveyors Department was under investigation.

Local newspapers are a useful source of information for this kind of research and the Archives has a collection of them dating back to the early 19th century. The Berwick Advertiser and Berwickshire News regularly carried reports about Berwick people who lived in other parts of the world. Helen also looked at national sources – such as the census of 1901 – to find out about Sidney’s family background.

Armenia Tabor

My own curiosity was piqued last week by reading the petition of Armenia Tabor, the widow of Thomas Tabor, a Freeman of Berwick-upon-Tweed (Draft Guild Minute Book 1738-1755 B 2/4). She asked the Guild if they would pay for her to return home to Holland because, she said, she had become “burthensome ” to the Incorporation. They agreed as letting the meadows and stints to which she was entitled as a Freeman’s widow would defray the expense of sending her home.

It is interesting that, as a Freeman’s widow, Armenia was able to bargain with the Guild to improve her lot. The Borough Archives are a rich source of information about women’s lives – though not all of them as lucky as Armenia. Guild petitions and court records, for example, illustrate what life in a Garrison town was like for ordinary women through incidental and direct references to them.

Possible baptism of Thomas Tabor, Transcripts of Berwick Holy Trinity Church Baptisms

And, it is likely there is much more to be discovered about Armenia and Thomas should someone want to look. Were they brought together by war (the War of the Spanish Succession took place around the time they might have met), did trade with the Netherlands play a part or was it something else entirely? What happened to her when she left Berwick?

Would you like to join us?

If you are interested in researching stories like this we are looking for volunteers to help us.

At 2 pm on Saturday 23rd and on Tuesday 26th March we will be holding introductory sessions for potential volunteers at the Berwick Record Office in Walkergate. Please come along if you are thinking about getting involved. We want to hear what interests you.

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 14 MARCH 1919

15/03/2019 by Northumberland Archives

GARDENS AND ALLOTMENTS

HOW TO GROW POTATOES AND ONIONS

At the annual meeting of the Berwick and District Gardens and Allotments Association held last month, Mr Carmichael, hon. treasurers, suggested it would be a good plan to have lectures on the cultivation of vegetables. The committee took up the suggestion in a practical manner, and the first of these lectures was delivered on Tuesday evening in the Long Room, Corn Exchange, by Mr J. Jackson, gardener to Lord Joicey, at Ford castle. The subject of Mr Jackson’s paper was “Potatoes and Onions and their cultivation”. There was a splendid turnout of members and those interested in gardening. The Mayor (Ald. J. Plenderleith) President of the Association was in the chair, and was supported by Councillor Elder and Mr R. Bradford, chairman and joint hon. secretary of the Association respectively.

CHATTON

Reference was made under the Lowick news of our South West Edition last week of the flight over the district of the airship N, S. 7. Since then a fatality has occurred in connection with the airship. When rising from Newcastle Town Moor on Tuesday, 4th March, Sergeant Johnstone having seized the rope the airship unexpectedly rose through a burst of sunshine having caused extra buoyancy.

The thrill of the spectators can be imagined when the saw the unfortunate man clinging to the rope till some sixty feet from the ground his strength failed and he crashed to his death, which took place a few minutes from his fall. The Air Service is full of perils, and it is to be hoped that these will be diminished by science before that much talked of aerial posts are established.

A large body of the Canadian troops has left the camp, which is now very small in its proportions. They have not only left their mark upon the landscape, but also upon the roads. It is to be hoped that the road authorities will be alive to the interests of the ratepayers, and get the Government to recoup a fair share of the enormous expenditure which will be required to restore the highways to their normal condition.

HOLY ISLAND

The engagement was announced on Wednesday of Mr Edward Hudson, of Queen Anne’s-gate and Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland, and Mme. Guilmina Suggia, the famous cellist, who is of Portuguese nationality.

Mr Hudson, who is the chairman and managing director of “Country Life,” is well-known in the north as the owner of the Castle at Holy Island, which dates back as far as 1500. Mr Hudson has furnished the Castle in a most tasteful manner, which is quite in keeping with its romantic history.

LOCAL NEWS

A Glasgow Herald correspondent, in an article on the Old Border Bridge at Berwick mentions, that Cromwell and his army crossed the Tweed by the bridge when in 1650 they marched to Scotland in order to persuade or compel the nation to the rule of the Commonwealth.

The Restoration of the Monarchy brought benefit to Berwick, for Charles II allowed the corporation an annuity of £100 from the Customs of their town or from those of Newcastle for upkeep of the Old Bridge. In 1700 William III ordered the sum to be paid from the Exchequer, and this arrangement is still maintained for the repair of the now ancient structure.

SPITTAL NOTES

Private Andrew Wood, K.O.S.B., is one of Spittal’s war veterans who has been recently demobilised. This gallant Tommy joined up at a period of life when he was far beyond military age, but the irresistible spirit was there, and forced him to action. Since joining up he has passed through the hottest of the fighting on the Western front; and without hesitation we can affirm that the fault would not be his if many a “Jerry” did not pay the full penalty of his misdeeds at the muzzle end of Andrew’s rifle. He has all the pluck and keenness of the true British fighter. We regret that since his home-coming he has been confined to bed, and sincerely trust that his recovery will only be a matter of days, and that renewed health and strength will be his, and a bright and lengthy future in which to enjoy life.

Sergeant George Brigham, Dental Section, R.A.M.C., is now demobilised after having been with the forces since hostilities commenced. On joining up he took up duties as a dispatch rider, admittedly a dangerous occupation, yet George stuck it, placing many hair-breadth escapes to his credit, until finally the strain so told upon an otherwise robust constitution that his removal from the work became a necessity, and he was placed at his own profession in the dental section of the R.A.M.C., where he held the rank of senior sergeant, and had charge of one of the departments. Prior to enlistment he was an assistant with Mr R.R. Riddell, Surgeon Dentist, Quay Walls. We wish him good health and luck in the future.

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