BERWICK ADVERTISER, 11 JULY 1919

01/08/201912/07/2019 by Northumberland Archives

PEACE PROCLAIMED AT BERWICK

On Saturday morning, at the Town hall, at about 11.20, before the Mayor and Mayoress, the Sheriff, and a few other ladies and gentlemen, on the steps, and a large crowd at the foot, Mayor’s Sergeant Blakey read the King’s Proclamation of Peace, and after that the proclamation of Special peace services in the churches on Sunday. The reading of the proclamations was preceded by a Royal salute blown by two K.O.S.B. buglers in khaki (Corpl. Watson and Drummer Hart). After the Mayor had intimated that a united service would be held in the Playhouse, “God Save the King” was sung with great gusto, and then Sergeant Blakey accompanied by the Deputy Town Clerk (Mr A. Aird), and the two buglers, set out in a motor (Master Bellringer Payne riding in front) to proclaim peace at the following places. The peace services in church were only proclaimed at the Town Hall.

Dr. Maclagan’s Monument

Corner of Tweed Street and Castlegate

Castle Terrace and Castlegate

Foot of High Greens

Foot of Low Greens

Foot of Lower Ravensdowne

Sandgate (before Corn Exchange)

An early 20th century photograph of the Tweedmouth end of the old bridge where one of the peace proclamations was made. BRO 2103/4/2/21b

Tweedmouth Bridge End

Harrow Inn, Tweedmouth

Blenheim Hotel, Spittal

Spittal Forge

This must be the first time a motor car has been used in Berwick for a proclamation of peace. The announcement at so many points quite close together is a relic of days when the dissemination of news was not nearly so easy as it has been this last hundred years.

THE BOROUGH’S FREEDOM FOR WAR SERVICES

Councillor Anderson’s motion that the Freedom of the Borough should be conferred on the Mayor, the Sheriff, Lt,-Col. Scott Jackson, and Lt.-Col Liddell, and all who have served overseas, at sea, and in the air, will be welcomed throughout the Borough. It is no more than their due. Many have done their best or their country within the island, but none will grudge that this particular honour which is being conferred on Berwick’s soldiers and sailors is confined to those who have risked everything to defend their country overseas. We hope that as many of them as possible will join in the dinners at the end of next week, and if they fail to do justice to them, we are confident that it will not be for lack of good things.

LOCAL NEWS

RELICS OF WAR AT THE BARRACKS – On Wednesday a Trench Mortar captured from the Germans by the 1st Battalion, K.O.S.B., arrived in the town and was handed over to the “Stores” at Berwick Depot, where it will await until the battalion claims it. At present there is quite a “menagerie” at the Depot, including several kinds of Hun machine guns, six of which belong to the 1st Battalion, six to the 2nd Battalion, and two to the 6th Battalion. Up to the present there is no immediate danger of any of the Battalions applying for them.

NOTES FROM SPITTAL

CHURCH PARADE

On Sunday morning last the local branch of the Comrades of the Great War responded to the Rev. J. H. Cuthbertson’s invitation and held a Church parade to St. John’s, Spittal. The Parade was in charge of Commandant Pattison, who was assisted by the Secretary, Mr R. St. G. Tait. Scremerston Band, under Bandmaster Whitfield, also attended, and took part in the musical portion of the service.

The Scremerston Brass Band which took part in the musical portion of a special peace service in St John’s Church, Spittal. Berwick Record Office – BRO 1753-2a.

About 100 Comrades turned out and there were also on parade a section of the Northumberland Fusilier cadets. Capt. C. L. Fraser, O.C. 4th V.B.N.F., and Lieuts. McCreath and Tweedie were also present.

Special Peace Sermons and prayers being ordered in all Churches, Mr Cuthbertson devoted himself almost entirely to giving thanks to God for the great blessing of peace which they fervently hoped would be an enduring one. He also brought out in the course of his remarks the spirit of brotherhood which should be the symbol of the Comrades and said he hoped that organisations such as theirs would prove a strengthening force in the years which lay before them.

Suitable hymns were sung, in which the men heartily joined while at the conclusion of the service, the band led in the National Anthem.

The Parade was reformed outside the Church and headed by the band, marched to the Ferry Landing where the men were dismissed.

BERWICK AND FOULDEN DIVORCE CASE

In the Court of Sessions on Thursday, before Lord Anderson, Robert Hunter Lees, provision manager, 76, Meigle Street, Galashiels, and an employee of Messrs R. Dodds & Sons, grocers, Berwick, was granted a divorce against Grace M’Cormack or Lees, Foulden, Burnbank, Berwickshire, on the grounds of infidelity.

“I do not love you now,” wrote Mrs Lees to her husband, while he was in France with his regiment. Parties were married in July, 1917, and in August he left for France. Mrs Lees had given birth to an illegitimate child in January 1919.

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 11 APRIL 1919

12/04/2019 by Northumberland Archives

BERWICK PETTY SESSIONS

Before the Mayor (Ald. Plenderleith), A. L. Miller, and A. J. Dodds, Esqs

CHILDRENS’ COURT

A Berwick message boy and three school children, one of whom was a girl, appeared on a charge of having discharged missiles on the New Road, Berwick, to the danger of passengers, on the 3rd April, 1919. They pleaded not guilty.

The Chief Constable said this was one of the cases they were obliged to bring before the Bench, in consequence of the enormous amount of complaints which had been coming in. People using the road near the Old Castle were frequently annoyed by boys throwing stones and bottles down on to the road. He wishes it to be known that if this case was found proven that in future he would ask for a heavy penalty. He was sorry to have to bring these cases forward, but it was necessary for the safety of the public.

Complaints had also been received of damage done to the Old Castle, and no less than 25 boys had to be cautioned last week. The four children charged were on the night in question on the embankment near the Railway Bridge, where they had been in the habit on gathering pieces of coal thrown over by the railwaymen. They were raking amongst the stones for the coal, and dropping stones, which rolled down the bank on to the New Road. The fact was they had no business to be there at all, for it was a case of trespass, and they had no business to dislodge the coal or stone.

P.C. Spiers said he saw the four children kicking at the rubble in their search for coal and stones were falling down the embankment and bouncing on the footpath. If anyone had been passing they would certainly have been hit. As he was taking the names of the children a lady and gentleman came up and said it was a disgrace that such thing were going on.

Mr Miller – Is this the first case brought here?

The Chief Constable – Yes. I don’t think the children went deliberately to throw stones, but they had no right to be there at all.

P.C. Cruikshanks generally corroborated the previous witness.

All the children adhered to a statement that another boy had been there sliding down the bank on a carpet, and dislodging the stones, but he had bolted when the police came.

The mayor said the ends of justice would be made by the payment of half costs – 2s 6d in each case- but if the defendants should come back again they would not get off so easily.

SPITTAL NOTES

Whippet racing appears to be coming to the front in the village, as we hear it rumoured that another handicap is shortly to take place in the Side Cutting. On this occasion it is expected that dogs will be forward from the mining villages of South Northumberland. Some good straight-out racing may therefore be expected.

TWEEDMOUTH JOTTINGS

Welcome home to Church Road, Tweedmouth, Trooper Tom Brown, son of the late Mr Alex. Brown, passenger guard, who was killed accidentally at Berwick Station a few years ago. Trooper Brown, who joined the army in 1910, has almost nine years’ service to his credit, seven years of which he has spent in India. Tom took part in some very strenuous fighting in Mesopotamia, and was present at the capture of Bagdad. He was also in the heavy fighting around the neighbourhood of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. He returns to his regiment, (14th King’s Hussars) on the expiration of his furlough, and as he is on the Reserve for another four years, we trust that he may enjoy the best of good luck, in whatever part of the world he is destined to travel.

LOCAL NEWS

Having once decided to re-open the course the committee of the Magdalene Fields Golf Club are not losing any time in getting started. As will be seen from an advertisement in our columns, play will commence on Good Friday, April 18th, with a stroke competition for gentlemen in the morning, followed by a Mixed Foursome in the afternoon, when tea will be served in the clubhouse. With the exception of the first hole, the course to be played over is practically the same as the “old nine” before its extension to 18 holes in 1915. Meanwhile, of an evening, a good many of the old enthusiasts are to be seen on the course trying to recover their former skill. It is wonderful how easily it all comes back, though judging from the amount of turf removed already the shots have not all been “clean hits.” The Course which was originally opened in June 1903 when the Mayor, Mr A. J. Dodds drove the first ball, was successfully carried on until 1917 when owing to wartime conditions it was thought advisable to close down.

LOWICK

The Parish Council at its meeting on Friday last agreed to reply to a communication from Glendale Rural District Council, that in their opinion more houses for the working classes were required in the village.

We are pleased to see home discharged Cpl. J. Ord, Isley Hill Cottages, Beal, and Pte. J. Black, Berryburn Mill, Ancroft.

The weather has been good of late and garden work is now in full swing.

The “flue” [sic] seems to be abating in our village, and we hope there will be no more cases.

One of the largest aeroplanes which has been seen in the neighbourhood came down at the New Haggerston Aerodrome, owing to some engine trouble. This being repaired, the machine continued her journey southward on Thursday, April 3rd. Her weight, it is said, was something like 13 tons. Rumour has it that this was one of the aeroplanes to be used in the forthcoming attempt to cross the Atlantic.

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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