TST: History information for County Durham and places above it in the hierarchy

The school was opened in 1912. Being built of corrugated iron it was scheduled to last twenty years. It still stands today at the head of the village, proud and defiant. It had two entrances one for boys and one for girls and infants. Inside each door was a cloakroom. Connecting them was a corridor which went the full length of the school.

There were three classrooms, one for infants, one for middle school and one for seniors. These led off the corridor and on the opposite side in the centre was the "Holy of Holies" - the Staff Room. On the wall of the end classroom, in large letters was the motto "TRY"; pointed out very often. In the senior classroom, also in large letters was the motto, "PLAY UP AND PLAY THE GAME". On the walls were large pictures, awarded to the school for good attendance. I remember two of them very well. One was the arrival of the Danes at Tynemouth, watched by a worried Briton. The other was the building of the Roman Wall, showing British slaves working under the Roman supervision.

I started Barlow School in 1924, together with Katie McGuire, Elsie Mordue and Ivy Atkinson. Katie and I were related and had been brought up almost as brother and sister in the Back Row. I gather we walked up hand-in-hand with our parents, Emma Johnson and Tottie McGuire. We were then handed over to Mrs Duddy who dressed in black with a ribbon round her neck and with pince-nez spectacles balanced on her nose, frightened me to death. She was however a dedicated teacher, a "battle-axe" and a strict disciplinarian. I had learnt my alphabet at Sunday School in Chapel so I missed her wrath, and her knuckle on my head. I enjoyed my schooling and I have vivid memories of Mrs Duddy winding up the school gramophone, turning the horn so that we could hear it better, and we children sitting spell-bound listening to records of A.A. Milne. "Buckingham Palace" and "I want a Rabbit" were my favourites. Many years later I taught with her niece Mrs F Robson of Winlaton, and at my request searched for those records but they had been destroyed after the death of Mrs Duddy.

Christmas Time at Barlow School was wonderful. The school was lit up with coloured lanterns (a rarity in those days). Large pictures of the Nativity covered the walls. A crib was there for all to see and wonder. The teachers seemed to be all artists for we made all kinds of Christmas cards and novelties to take home. These were greatly prized and adorned most of the houses in the village. Decorations were made and were put up about three weeks before school broke up and on the last day of term we took them home to be put up in our houses. Carols were sung with great feeling. Christmas was really Christmas in those days.

Miss Gilholme was my favourite teacher, tall and young, I worshipped her and cried when she left (at home of course!) She gave me her Bible when she left. Miss Gilholme took the middle class children of about eight to eleven years old. She left to marry a Mr Forster of Blaydon and they ran a Newsagent shop in the Square at Blaydon. Unfortunately she died a few years after leaving Barlow School. The top class was taken by the headmaster, Mr Holland.

Mr Holland was a fine example of a schoolmaster. Stern of visage - yet kind; formally dressed in a dark suit with a winged collar and bow tie, he ruled the school with firm discipline (and a stick).

Such was his standing the village that all men touched their forelocks to him as a mark of respect and, "Good morning Sir", was heard throughout the village as he walked up from Winlaton.

What a contrast to the respect shown today for members of the profession. Probably if teachers today dressed and acted in the same way, they too might be placed on the pinnacle on which those teachers of the pre-war days were undoubtedly raised.

The boys of the village however, if they saw him coming either hastened to school ahead of him or tactfully retreated, till he had passed the house. His standards were high and rules simple. If you broke a rule you were punished. I learnt this very early in life so I kept to the rules and avoided having to put out my hand for the painful swish of the cane. Some boys were punished regularly and used to tell us, that they had put a horse hair across the hand that this had minimised the pain. I accepted their word!!

Mr Holland was succeeded by Mr Cox, a gentleman from South Durham, a veritable foreigner. He too believed in discipline but was much more approachable than his predecessor. He made me work by putting me in X7 with the older boys and I can thank him for enabling me to pass the entrance examination for Blaydon Grammar School.

Barlow School was a happy school. We learnt our Hymns, many were written especially for children and we enjoyed singing them. Hymns such as "There's a Home for little children above the bright blue sky" - "Jesus Loves Me" and many more were sung with great fervour and totally believed. Unfortunately most of these old hymns have been discarded in the mistaken belief that they gave the children the wrong concept on Heaven. How wrong they are.

Songs were taken from the National Song Book and I still remember them today. Others too will remember "The Golden Vanity", "Sweet Polly Oliver", "Billy Boy", "Dashing away with the smoothing iron", "The Minstrel Boy", "Land of Hope and Glory". One song we sang throughout the school and I sang it always, so much so that when the war began I was one of the first to volunteer. The song was "What can I do for England, That does so much for me?" One of her faithful children I can and I will be". I was, I gave up seven years of my life to serve England.

The teachers were all Patriots and so were Royal Family minded, and we too loved the Royals, King George V, Queen Mary and her children.

I well remember the day, I think it was in l928, when we were told that the Prince of Wales would be passing the school. We went into the yard and lined the school railings, peering through the gaps. There was a buzz of expectancy then, after about an hour the Royal car came past with its retinue. I remember seeing the car and a blurred vision of a face. It mattered not; I had actually seen the Prince of Wales. I walked on air that day and burst home to tell my parents. My Father listened and remarked, "Aye, He's a canny chap!"

I remember too, the long portions of Scripture we had to learn. John XIV, Isiah LIII, Beatitudes and the 10 Commandments being just a few.

I can quote them even now. Many children suffered, because of their inability to memorise these passages.

Unilever Soaps held a "Clean Hands" competition in Schools. Hands had to be inspected morning and afternoon for a month and stars were given to the children who passed the inspection. When the card was full, a badge and certificate was given to the child. Boys love badges and desperately wanted to win these precious gifts but were seldom able to do so for it was marble season and no boy could resist playing marbles on his way to school; so, try as he may, he always presented his hands fairly clean (a spit and a wipe on his trousers) except for his first finger knuckle joint which was used to propel the marble and so was filthy. Alas, I was one of these boys.

Armistice Day, was a very serious day. We were all paraded in the school yard and when the pit-hooter went we stood silent for two minutes as a token of respect to those who had given their lives in the cause of freedom.

The whole country stood still for those two minutes. Cars, cart walkers and even people indoors showed the same respect.

Empire Day was exciting. We had lessons about the colonies then we dressed up to represent our colonial friends, and carrying flags we paraded around the school yard. We were proud to be British. It is a crying shame that so few of us still retain this feeling for our marvellous country. We were given the afternoon for a holiday; a tradition which has long since disappeared except in Australia where, strangely enough, Empire Day is still celebrated.

Pancake Tuesday was always popular. We all sang on the way to school and in the playground, "Pancake Tuesday's a very Happy Day; If you don't give us holiday we'll all run away." The teachers must have been amused for they knew, and we knew, that we would get the afternoon off. We would all race home to devour copious numbers of pancakes covered with sugar and vinegar or lemon or honey. If it were fine we were straight out with our tops and whips and skipping ropes. If it were a winter's day out came our sledges.

Maths was the most difficult subject for the majority of pupils and mental arithmetic in those days was really advanced. I doubt if many pupils today could master the sums of those days and I have the text books should any doubt my word.

I could not leave the subject of school without mentioning Transcription. This was the art of writing. We had to use school pens and ink. The pens would be regarded as monstrosities today. They were small rods with a nib holder at the end. The nib-holder sometimes was a little too large for the shaft and nipped your finger. You dipped the pen into the inkwell. It had to be just far enough into the well to cover the bottom half-inch of the nib. Most times however it went deeper so you either had blots on your paper or ink-stained fingers; either of which brought you "the stick". The pens had to be held firmly between the thumb and first two fingers, with the knuckle of the first finger flat on the pen. The pen had to be held at an angle of 45° pointing over the right shoulder. Every upward stroke had to be thin and every downward stroke thick, by a little more pressure. We had to copy from the blackboard, on which the teacher had written (in perfect writing of course) a Thought for Today. The teacher walked round with his stick or a ruler in his hand and if you knuckle was protruding skywards, a sharp rap by the rod soon brought it down. Some children learnt to write beautiful copperplate writing. I wonder why my knuckle is swollen. It was never a popular lesson!!!

One lesson I did enjoy was General Knowledge. This was held in the last half hour of lessons every Friday. If you answered questions correctly you were allowed out early. I loved it for my general knowledge was good so two or three of us would gleefully make our way homewards or into the field for a game of football.

Today children have trips world-wide and accept them without even getting excited. This is probably due to Air Travel and TV making the world a much smaller place. What a difference in my day. We had an annual School Trip to Whitley Bay. This was always greeted with great excitement and enthusiasm. Mothers and children clambered aboard the buses, carrying great bags of food and buckets and spades.

All schools in Blaydon District had the trip on the same day and the buses were programmed to dovetail into a long convoy, all numbered.

Arriving at Whitley Bay one could see about fifty buses disgorging happy, excited children. This trip was the highlight of the year.

The schoolyard was divided into two parts, one part for Infants and Girls, the other part for Boys. In this yard we played all types of games. The one I hated was when the big boys grabbed everyone and shoved them into the urinal, with a guard on the entrance. It became packed with every child pushing and shoving and small boys were nearly suffocated. The culprits of course had no idea of the distress caused.

Outside the school, on the North side, and beside the main road were small rock gardens, probably a dozen or so, each about six feet long and tended lovingly by volunteers. It helped to make the school look "cared-for" and added a splash of colour to an already colourful school. The Authority always kept it a nice primrose yellow.

It may be of interest to know that I have bought the village school, so soon it may ring with childish laughter as it did years ago. I intend to use it as a School Adventure Camp for the children of Linden School which I own.

THE CHAPEL

Barlow must have been a hot-bed of Methodism in John Wesley's day. He left behind a very sincere disciple in Christopher Hopper. Hopper taught the village people in a building we called the Mission House, occupied in my day by a branch of the Scott family. There was a date above the door, I think it was 1743.

A new Chapel was built in 1870 and as my Great Uncle Jack was a local preacher in it, my family were all baptised in it. He died before I was old enough to hear him preach but I well remember sitting on the hard wooden pews near the front, listening to Mr "Dodey" Gair and Mr Matty Scott preaching Hell and Damnation from the pulpit! This was really Primitive Methodism. Mr Scott ranted and raved enthusiastically and from the congregation would come thunderous choruses of "Amen", "Praise the Lord" from Mr Gair, Joe Hogg and other village elders. They used to "frighten me to death" and every Sunday I promised God I would behave - Hell was not for me!! I remember the Chapel well! On the back wall for everyone to see was GOD IS LOVE; somehow it didn't quite fit the image from the pulpit.

Sunday School was compulsory for most of us. It was a good habit to get into, indeed it was at the Sunday School that I learnt my alphabet. I remember sitting holding a large black card. It must have been about 2½ ft by 1½ ft and had the alphabet in white - capital letters on one side and small letters on the other side. It was dog-eared, worn with the constant handling of countless boys and girls of four years. I can't remember who my Sunday School teacher was, but God Bless her she certainly started me off on my academic career.

Anniversary Sunday was a big day. We were all given poems to learn and I was usually upset, for being a little ahead at school I was always given a very long and usually boring poem. It was useless complaining to Mother, she was too proud of me to accept anything shorter.

I remember Gwenda Hogg reciting, "I saw a mouse upon the wall; It caught its tail and that was all." She was about four so won great appaluse as she stood there in here frilly dress. Gwenda was never able to come out and play with us when she grew older. Her mother was very fastidious and so Gwenda had to play indoors to keep clean.

Harvest Festival was a lovely time in chapel. We all took fruit and vegetables and flowers to decorate the building. There were fresh sheaves of corn around the pulpit, and loaves of bread in the shape of sheaves on the walls. I used to collect wild flowers and they too were prominently displayed. I joined the singing of "We Plough the Fields" with great joy. I think that this service means more to country people than to townsfolk, and probably meant more then than now, for we lived then on our own village produce.

Sometime about 1930-1932 the Methodist Church ended a two hundred year stay in Barlow. The Salvation Army stepped in. Captain Stevens came up from Blaydon and found a host of eager recruits. He was ably assisted by "Lottie" an enthusiastic Salvationist. She was about 4 feet 10 ins tall with very bowed legs. Her popularity was immense.

Her cheerfulness won the hearts of all the women of Barlow and she could scrounge, cajole and winkle things from all the villagers.

I must confess I thoroughly enjoyed singing the Salvation Army Choruses, most of them were sung to modern tunes of that day.

Most of the old people of Blaydon will remember Lottie and her tambourine. I have no doubt but that she is in Heaven - she surely deserved a place.

I could not finish without mentioning the lady who for years ran the village chapel. Miss Hilda Phillipson gave up hours weekly to ensure that the chapel was kept clean and tidy, ran the Sunday School and was beloved by all.

The Methodist Church came back to Barlow sometime after the war but only lasted about twenty five years and was left to fall into ruin. It is now a lovely house so most of the building still stands.

WEEK-ENDS

Saturday was a wonderful day for me when I was very small. Up early to call for Harry Mcguire. The two of us would play football for hours, either in the back-field or on the street corner, using a small tennis ball. I would be Hughie Gallacher and he would be Albert McInroy in goal; then we would change roles and off we would go again. Sometimes however we would be called for by our parents and I would probably have to go over to High Spen on an errand for old Mrs Carter who would come past several houses to call out "Emma, would or Eleck gan to Spen for mi?"

Mother always assented and so off I went dribbling the tennis ball all the way. On my return I would hand in the shopping and refuse point-blank to accept any money. I would have been in touble if I had accepted payment. It had to be an errand of mercy.

On the Saturday afternoon I would collect my penny pocket money and with two or three others, including my young brother, go over to High Spen. Here I had to make a decision. With the penny I could buy my favour comic "Chips", buy some sweets for a halfpenny or pay to go to see Spen Black and Whites play football. I usually bought the comic, was given a sweet or two by someone who couldn't read and so bought sweets, and then we all went up to the Football Field. Here by crafty work we always managed to "sneak" into the field.

In the evening, if it was fine we played under the street light at the corner of Front Row. Here we played school games, Kick the Block and Reliev-o. If it was raining we played indoors.

I usually talked Robert Lynn, Lawrence Wills and Jackie Needham to come into my house where together with brother Robert, we played schools under my tuition or for a change we acted plays or played charades.

Sunday was a quiet day for all except our mothers. They toiled away to produce a huge Sunday lunch, taken in two stages, one for Mothers and Children at about 12.30 and one about 2.30 p.m. for fathers, who came in straight from the pub or club usually in a very amiable frame of mind.

There was chapel in the morning for most of us - the "heathens" played football and wasn't I envious! Sunday School was compulsory on the afternoon and then tea. In the evening families went for a walk. Our family often walked over the fields to the Fan Blast and then down Norman's Riding to Winlaton. Here we stopped awhile to listen to the band playing on the lawn, then continued our walk. We always lost father here; many years later I realised that it was Winlaton West End Club. On the way we would meet, or join up with, other Barlow families, all dressed up in their "Sunday Best" clothes, and we boys would wait impatiently while the mothers chattered away. This Sunday evening walk was a Social Event for the women of the village.

WINTER

Winter brings back memories - of snowmen, snowballing, sledging and that wonderful feeling one gets when one sees a complete landscape blanketed with snow and no trace of human footprints or even habitation, the view from our front window.

In front of the Back Row was some waste land and on this we built our snowmen and had our snowball fights. Sledging was marvellous. We could actually sledge from Barlow School to Phillipson's Farm without stopping but it was such a long walk back that we preferred a shorter run. The children from the top end of the village started at the Front Row and stopped at the Black Horse; whilst those who lived at the bottom of the village sledged down the bank to the end of the village. Another great and fast run was the footpath past Phillipson's Farm down to Barlow Burn. It was very steep and hair-raising; you had to aim for the gate in the hedge crossing the path half-way down the run.

The Lonnen was also well used, especially by the bottom-enders. The teenage boys used a huge farm sledge on this road. Stephen Waters, Robert Waters, Jim Johnson, Billy Atkinson, Turnbulls and many other boys piled on to this huge sledge. Runners had been tied to the bottom, I think they were blades from a farm "binder". Willing hands pushed and shoved till it finally started off and hurtled down the Lonnen at great speed, throwing aside ice and snow as it tore along. These boys were completely at the mercy of the sledge for it was far too big and heavy to steer. It was a great sight to see boys jumping off in haste, others being thrown helter-skelter into the snow as the vehicle crashed into a wall or hedge. I was a coward - I watched!

We often sledged in twos, sometimes sitting but more often "belly flappers" with a boy sitting astride the prone body. This encouraged racing side by side with efforts being made to push the opponent off the road.

All our sledges were home-made and some were better than others, depending upon the skill of the parent.

I enjoyed the snow when I was free to play but not so much when I had to walk to Grammar School. Sometimes the show had drifted several feet deep on Barlow Fell and it was no easy task for a boy of twelve to plough his way through these drifts to get to school. Occasionally the village was snowed in and I well remember Father saying that the snow drifts were up to the top of the telegraph poles on the road to High Spen. Father and the other miners seldom missed a shift - they just could not afford to lose money.

Mother always armed me on my journey with a small bottle of ginger wine (always Castle Brand of course). She said it would give me strength. Every house had gallons of ginger wine at Christmas Time.

In the winter evenings when we were tired of sledging we usually returned to my house to play games. The boys of Front Row and Back Row usually ended up at No.37. Here in the cosy light of the oil lamp we played happily. Mother, bless her, never objected to the boys for they were never noisy, which is a tribute to the self-discipline expected in those days.

DISCIPLINE

Discipline in the village was strict but it was more of a family discipline, thus we behaved through self-discipline. If a child misbehaved at home the Father seldom touched the child, it was the mother who administered the punishment and we hated the dreaded words "Wait till your father comes home!"

Fathers only had to growl and children fled. Family honour meant something in those days. If you were punished for a misdemeanour at school and your parents heard of it then you were in trouble at home for besmirching the family name. At school the Headmaster ruled with the cane. Mr Holland was reputed to shave the end of his cane in order to make it more flexible.

We had no village policeman. There was P.C. Dick Riddle at High Spen. He was well-liked by the men. I think he had a "Nelson's eye" for the betting slips and the Pitch & Toss School which went on every Sunday behind the Front Row up the corner field.

Children disappeared when he occasionally walked over on his beat, innocent as they were. Such was our respect for the law. The big boys talked about the birch and it was obvious that they held it in great fear. Tales were told of birchings of boys from other villages and of blood running down their backs. No doubt it was completely exaggerated but it was enough to make them behave. It was never needed in Barlow. I cannot remember a single act of vandalism or thuggery in my boyhood. Doors were left unlocked at all times. No one thought about robberies. Ladies walked from High Spen and Winlaton in the dark without lights and completely unafraid. Children played in the woods and away from the village and no parent worried about them.

Good manners were taught at home. To speak back to one's mother was asking for a slap across the ears by father. Mothers quite rightly, were on a pedestal. I remember being taught that when calling on my friends I had to knock on the door and wait. When I was invited in I had to remove my cap before crossing the threshold. I then had to stand till I was told to sit down. If any lady entered the room I had to stand. Mother's favourite saying was "Good manners cost nothing".

Our "Please" and "Thank You's" were checked. Good manners were a family responsibility in those days; alas, it no longer applies.

When invited out to tea, we were instructed to eat the sandwiches first and then have a piece of cake. A second piece of cake (we were told) showed greediness and so we had to decline with thanks.

If it was a large party, the adults ate first. The children were sent out to play. They had their teas later, eating what was left after the adults had fed. Woe betide any child who interrupted an adult conversation. No matter where he was, he was duly chastised. Children were expected to respect old people and to help them in any way possible, without reward.

HOSPITAL

One journey dreaded by women and children alike, was the journey by ambulance to Norman's Riding Hospital. Scarlet Fever was rife when I was a child and many village children, including my younger brother contacted the disease. It meant a six-weeks stay in hospital and then two weeks at home. This was a bitter blow to a boy especially in the Summer Time. Once inside the hospital you were allowed no visitors. Every week parents and families would walk down to the Hospital and peer through the iron railings in the hope of getting a wave from a window. A sign of recognition was enough to send a family away in a more cheerful frame of mind for it meant that the patient was "on the mend".

Food parcels were left at the lodge at the entrance of the hospital drive. The nurses were very popular, especially our own Barlow girl Katie McGuire a fresh-faced young girl from Back Row. Katie incidentally brought fame to the village when she was about eight years old. There was to be a Charleston Competition at the Picture Palace, High Spen (sadly burnt down recently). The dance was quite new and therefore was in vogue. Katie was entered and we all followed her to the cinema that night. Judging was by applause and Katie won comfortably. I still remember the tune; it was, "Let's all go to Mary's house, to Mary's house, and have a real good time!" Perhaps others will remember the tune if not the occasion.

When an occupant of a house contracted Scarlet Fever the house was fumigated. Doors and windows were sealed, a disinfectant cannister placed in the house, lit and the whole house was fumigated for twenty four hours. The smell was horrible and hung around for days. If the patient was a child at school, all his books were burnt by the teachers.

WINLATON HOPPINGS

Winlaton Hoppings was one of the highlights of the year. Everyone went to the Hoppings, with or without money. The atmosphere was marvellous. Long before you reached Winlaton the cacophony of sound assailed your ears and you quickened your pace.

We skipped our way down to Winlaton. The Hoppings were in Commercial Square, Hood Square and in the streets.

Being poor we had little money to spend. Mother however always saw that we had something to take to spend.

When we were exhausted, we staggered happily home, laughing and joking and reliving the exhilarating rides we had enjoyed. We made our way across the Windy Fields up to Nobby's Wood. Here we stopped our chatter, paused for breath and dashed madly through the wood. We were convinced that the wood was haunted by Selby's ghost, a suicide of 1660. This idea was encouraged by the older boys who, seeing us nearing the wood, hid and by making groaning noises had us breaking speed records up Barlow Letch.

Nobby's Wood is no longer there and a housing estate has now accepted the ghost of Mr Selby.

THE GENERAL STRIKE

One of my earliest and most vivid memories of my childhood was the General Strike of 1926. Coal supplies to households ceased, so the miners of Barlow dug a shaft in Mr Harry Waters house at the top of the village. This was actually a well in the house. The miners used the well as a shaft and broke out into the coal seam. The police investigated and finally gave permission to dig as long as the coal was given only to Barlow people.

This house was chosen as it was just above the coal seam. An improvised pulley was used to pull up the coal and this was tipped into prams and other containers brought by householders. I well remember helping my Mother to pull the loaded pram down to Back Row. My Father was working at the shaft; he was one of many who worked in shifts to bring up the coal.

I also remember being taken by brother Jim up to the Bark Wood. Here we selected suitable logs and dragged them all the way back home to supplement the coal ration for the hungry fire. I can still feel the glow of satisfaction as Mother thanked us profusely for our work. It was a family effort to survive.

I vaguely remember the Soup Kitchen. It was in the Chapel and was well used by some families, without it they would not have survived. My Grandmother refused to allow us to go. She said that it was for the poor children!! I wanted to go, so I have been told, because the soup smelt lovely and I obviously thought I was missing something.

Poverty was known and accepted in those days. There is no real poverty, as we knew it, today. In spite of this dire poverty, the women of the village kept their homes spotless and everything shone. Considering that they ate less than the men and the children, this was to ensure that the family had enough to eat. I think that these women worked very very hard. Fireplaces were black-leaded and polished and the brass fenders gleamed in the firelight. Window sills and doorsteps were "sandystoned" and chalked white every Saturday morning. Women's work in those days was never done. Daughters too helped in the cleaning, boys were brought up as potential wage-earners so took no part in the cleaning of the house.

Poor as they were, the miners were never short of hospitality. If anyone called at a house the kettle, already singing on the hob, was put on to boil. Tea was made, plate pies brought out and offered to the guest.

The characteristic still remains in the pitman. He is still a very generous being, sometimes to the point of silliness.

BARLOW 1925-1935

Recollections

by Alex Johnson

SHOPPING

The village had its own small shops. Bartons had a shop in Atkinson's Buildings till about 1925. Here you could buy ½d of sweets or some home-made ginger beer or herb beer for l½d. Later these buildings were pulled down and the Hodgson family, who had been school caretakers moved to Silver Hill and opened a shop there. Mrs Meggie "By-What" Johnson ran her own shop in her house in Atkinson's Buildings. She got this name because she preceded and ended every sentence with "By- what". This shop was dark and dingy so I only went there when it was absolutely necessary. Miss Cissie West ran a small lock-up draper's shop opposite the Black Horse and Mr Matthew (Hatty) Scott had a grocery shop in Clues old shop fifty yards up from the pub.

In spite of these shops the major items of food came from High Spen, a mile away.

Mother walked to Crawcrook every week to shop at Thompsons Red Stamp Stores in order to get stamps to earn extra articles for her beloved children and for the home. It was quite a walk, some four miles, carrying a basket of groceries, I can see why I loved her so much.

We had several tradesmen who visited the village plying their wares. There was Paddy the Fishman, a lame man who came every week for years with his horse and cart. His clarion cry of "Caller hearn" would echo around the village and he would clump his way around the cart having a chat with all and sundry. His club foot never bothered him.

Probably the most important hawker of all was the "oilman". He rang a handbell and his cry of "Lamp Oil" brought everyone to his cart, from every door men, women and children emerged complete with oilcan or a drum. This oil was vital, for all the houses in the village had oil lamps, right up till 1939. If a person missed the hawker it meant a long walk to High Spen or Winlaton to buy it there and no one relished carrying a large can of paraffin oil back to Barlow. On the cart was a large oil-tank with a tap at the corner and over the edge of the cart. There was a miscellany of articles which could he bought but to me they all smelt of "lamp-oil".

Fruit was brought round on a cart and also by Mr Hatty Scott. He was referred to as "Hatty the Hard-hat Hawker" because he always wore a bowler hat. His horse walked at a dreadfully slow pace and one day brother Jim was offered a lift in the "trap" but he politely refused, saying he was in a hurry. It made a good story when my brother told me.

A knife grinder also plied his trade regularly through the village. He pushed his barrow on one wheel. To do business he turned the barrow upside down and the wheel drove the grindstone.

A tinker came round the village. He collected any old scrap iron, sold tinware and repaired pots and pans.

Rag-and-bone men came regularly through the village. If you gave him rags or old bones he gave you a balloon. His cry of "Balloons for Rags" sent children scurrying home to plead for rags. A balloon gave much fun in the home. I remember playing headers and goalkeepers with brother Bob on the fireside mat. This remember, was in the days of no T.V. and even wireless was in its infancy.

It seems incredible but I remember the brewers drays hissing and puffing their way up Barlow to the Black Horse. Those steam waggons were indeed a sight to remember; the sparks shooting into the air with the dirty smoke billowing from the short chimney and the red ashes dropping into the ash box below the vehicle.

The village had many visitors, most of them old soldiers trying to eke out an existence. Every week we would have someone singing in the streets for coppers. Some were good and some were dreadful, but the village people were always sympathetic and they provided them with enough to live on. Some people invited them in for a meal. I remember a family coming around singing and after a few songs they sent a little woebegone waif of a girl around with a tin. It never failed, Mother only had to look at the child and she was off for a coin; so did others. The family probably made more money daily than the miners and they were well fed in the village.

Tramps were quite common. Some passed through the village without stopping but most had their own port of call. These tramps knew the village well. We had a visitor, but once a year maybe, he would call at the house. He was an old soldier, still dressed in his old greatcoat with puttees around his ankles and on his feet a pair of old army boots from which his dirty toes could be seen, like a set of teeth in a gaping mouth. Mother would fill his can with hot tea, give him stotty cake and bacon and he would take it along the hedge and sit and eat it. He never made any attempt to enter the house and when he had finished he would touch his forelock, mumble his thanks and go off for another year. The local farmers were without showing it, very kind to these people for they allowed them to shelter in the sheds or hayricks without bothering them.

SNIPPETS

Several people in the village collected plants as herbs and nettle tea was infused by some of the older generation of that time. Nettles to the children were a nuisance, fortunately wherever there were nettles, docking could be found and when nettled we picked docking leaves, bruised them and rubbed the juice on to the nettle sting. It certainly eased the stringing but of course, still left the rash.

Plantains were used for weapons. We plucked long stemmed plants, bent the stem to form a loop over the head. By pulling the stalk through the loop it broke at the head and it shot away in the direction in which you pointed. You could hit a target up to nine feet away. Many men in the village caught wild birds for pets. The linnet was the most popular but finches too were caught. I remember following these men to the hedge below the reservoir. They planted a caged bird in the hedge and surrounded it with twigs covered in quick-lime. The men then hid and watched. The caged bird pleased to be in the fresh air, sang heartily. Soon the wild birds flew down to join it and quickly became entangled in the sticky twigs. They were then quickly captured, legs cleaned and caged. A sad ending to a life of freedom. To boys of eight it was all exciting, we were not old enough to realise the cruelty of it all.

Parliamentary Polling Day was a big day in the village. I remember seeing a gang of teenage boys walking up and down the village chanting:-

Oh! We'll vote, vote, vote for Mr Whiteley, Whiteley's sure to win the war, Oh! We'll buy a penny gun, And we'll make old Simpson run, And we'll vote, vote, vote For Mr Whiteley

Two boys carried a huge sheet, dyed green and fastened to two clothes props. Green was the colour of the Labour Party in those days! Tension mounted as the day drew to its close and there were many battles, not only verbal although the majority of the village were staunch Labour. Grandfather Waters was a die-hard Tory (he had once been a farmer) and used to have great fun heckling at Labour Party Meetings and wearing a red hat (Tory colours). Such was his fame as fighter that no one dare attempt to eject him.

Village entertainment was virtually non-existent but there was an occasional Barn Dance. This was held in Rochester's Barn and it was always crowded. The fiddlers played merrily and the young (and not so young) danced and sang till early morning. Many ladies must have groaned next day as they nursed their sore feet after dancing on the stone floor all evening.

I must mention our evenings at Chapel when we sat and watched Magic Lantern Shows. I was very young and I sat amazed at these truly magical performances. One in particular springs to mind - Livingstone in Africa. I can still see the huge lions leaping out.

On other evenings we entertained ourselves with Shadow acts. A large screen was erected and we mimed behind it, with the lights playing on the actors. The audience were entertained by watching the shadows.

I was a keen collector I collected wild flowers, cigarette cards and sporting pictures. The Saturday evening Football Paper was read avidly from cover to cover then I would cut out my favourite footballers and paste them into a scrap book. This book was made of brown paper the leaves stitched together by Mother and the paste was purely flour and water. I was very proud of my scrap books and they gave me hours of entertainment.

These were the simple pleasures of life.

Football as you have probably gathered was my favourite hobby and we played it inside on our big dining table. We played Blow-Football using oak-apples for balls and Hemlock stems for blow pipes and cotton reels for goals. Mother was quite happy to clear the table for us and she busied herself mat-making.

These mats were made of hessian and strips of old material. Mat hessian could be bought with a design already printed on it, but only the rich could afford to do that. Most women scrounged a pair of sacks from a farmer or fruiterer, unpicked the seams, stitched them together, then drew a pattern with crayon or a thick pencil on to the prepared hessian. The hessian was stiched to a frame and then it was ready for filling with long pieces of material which were pushed through and hooked back, or by short clippings about three inches long. Many long winter evenings were spent progging away. These mats were first kept on the bed for winter warmth till needed. Usually laid for holiday periods.

Having travelled extensively I can still recall vividly my fondest memory and it is not of America, North Africa, Europe, Russia or Australia it is of Barlow.

Walking from High Spen to Barlow approaching the village, little rabbits playing around the quarry to my left; my school garden (6ft by 3ft) with others, showing off its London Pride, and far above me, what better sound to hear, than the Skylark soaring higher and higher into the sky; far above and away from its nest in the Back Field. No other village could boast so many skylarks and no bird gives as much pleasure.

Tulip's cottage, as picturesque as ever, a dog idly scratching itself in Front Row and crossig from his garden to Back Row a miner carrying the vegetables for lunch (dinner). The smoke from the coal fires, burning even in Summer, rising in a long column, in the still Summer air and on the window sills stotty cakes cooling.

Even today I get a warm feeling when I motor over the Fell top for I can still, like many others, see the village as it was. Unforgettable!

We made our own stilts by using tin cans the bigger the better. We pierced the cans and threaded string through them so that we had a loop to hold. We then raced each other, tried various skills on them and generally had fun. Scraped knees were an accepted part of the game.

I have previously mentioned playing in Scott's Field. To get into the field you either jumped from a high wall, forced a way through a hedge or went in with Frankie or Norman Scott. They simply opened their back window and we climbed out. The Scotts kept goats and at milking time the goats came up to the window, someone opened it and the goats climbed through. They were then milked and they climbed out again. That was organization!!

Many readers will remember the boys song which they sang as they walked around; it went like this:-

We are some of the Barlow Boys We are some of the Boys We know all our manners We spend all our tanners We are respected wherever we go Alligators up the spoot Nancy Caters looking oot We are some of the Barlow Boys

The first street light to operate in Barlow was opposite the Black Horse. Here, all the children congregated and when the light came on they danced around chanting, "The Lights are on; the lights are on." Later others came on but the novelty never wore off.

Robert Lynn, I seem to remember was the only boy in Barlow with a bicycle. He had one because he delivered the village newspapers. That old bike was used by us all and on it we all learnt to ride. It was years afterwards when my parents finally managed to buy me my own cycle - a heavy model with a Villiers two speed gear on it.

BARLOW CELTIC A.F.C.

When I was about twelve years of age a football team was started in the village. There had been one many years before, so my Father told me; it was called Barlow Lily Whites.

There was great enthusiasm when the idea was first mooted and word spread swiftly around the area. Soon players from High Spen, Winlaton and Chopwell were offering their services. Many Barlow boys played. We had the Carter Brothers, Danny, Billy, Jimmy and Tommy. What they lacked in skill they made up in sheer enthusiasm. Bobby Ritson was a first class full back and master of the sliding tackle. There was Tommy (Snatchy) Alexander, a steady half-back and Stan Clark from the Fan Blast, who excelled at dribbling. He later married Jennie Wills, who died tragically at a very early age. Master of the field was Wilkie Temple. He left Barlow Celtic to play professional football for Aldershot. I worshipped him when I was younger for he was a real footballer and my family were friends of the Temples.

The Club Captain came from Chopwell. He was a sturdy, well-built young Chap who had interested Bolter Wanderers. His name was Joe Bird; a gentle giant, beloved by all for his tenacity on the field and gentleness off it. He had a wonderful sense of humour. I can still hear his whistle through his clenched teeth, and his jerk of the head as he passed you on the street. George (Pop) Waters and Harry McGuire also played their part for the team.

The club had several goalkeepers; Tommy Carter, Bobby Bilcliff (another local boy) and Jack Bradley who broke his leg in a match and limped badly till the day he died.

The club mascot was Billy (Chorpy) Johnson who dressed up in the club colours and led them on to the field.

These were happy Saturdays for the village boys. Father was on the club Committee so I met all the players (all heroes of course) and at every home game Father brought one or two players home for tea. This was a bit of one-up-manship for me. I could always brag about it to my friends. Every player was taken to a house for tea and romance inevitably reared its lovely head in some houses. Ralphy Smith of Chopwell, a very tricky winger, met and married Doris Iley. Tot Neasham married Doris Lynn and Joe Bird married Ada Lishman, a delightful girl who "mothered" me when we all went to High Spen Picture Palace Matinees or for walks, when we were young.

This custom shows once more how generous were the people of Barlow. Every door was open to a stranger.

EXTRACTS FROM BARLOW SCHOOL LOG BOOK

January 1912	School opened under Mr E Holland with 76 pupils, 32 boys and 44 girls.
February 1912	Classroom Temperatures were 36°, 40°, 41°.
May 1912	Playground asphalted. School closed for two days for Winlaton Hoppings.
1st November 1912	Alice Needham, whilst playing in playground fell and hurt her shoulder. Her collar bone was found to be broken.
June 1913	A competition for pressed flowers and leaves submitted to Blaydon Secondary School for judging. Results: l. Rachel Waters. 2. Mary Ashman. 3. Jennie Wishart.
November 1913	School closed for two weeke due to local epidemic sickness. School presented with a picture "Danes came up the Channel" for good attendance.
January 1914	Ida Miller, Jennie Hood and six others reported to have Scarlet Fever. Three have Diphtheria. School closed for two weeks.
25th March 1914	School Report (extract):- The children are punctual and regular in attendance and are easily kept in satisfactory order. Reading and written composition reach a fair standard but arithmetic is a backward subject.
December 1917	Conditions are desperately bad. Wind has forced all windows open. There was two feet of snow in the staff-room. All rooms leaking. Heating inadequate. Children commended for attending school on such a day. Parents arrived at 3.30 to take children home. Room temperatures were 31°, 33°, 33°.
January 1924	School roll now 99.
May 1924	Miss Gilholme absent four days, attending the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
July 1924	P.O. valued 4/- handed over to William Turnbull for winning the Health Week Essay.
10th February 1925	Laura Needham absent with Scarlet Fever. School presented with picture "Spur in the Dish" for Good Attendance.
7th July 1925	Smallpox in the house of Mr Bright. School disinfected.
10th July 1925	Fifty six children vaccinated. Twenty four not vaccinated so were sent home.
15th July 1925	Evelyn Waters, not vaccinated, contacted smallpox.
31st August 1925	William and Robert Roddam commenced school.
1st October 1925	Head Teacher received a message from Mr Roddam asking that two boys be sent to bring his sons to school Head Teacher refused, saying that it was a father's duty to see his children attended school.
27th November 1925	At 11.30 this morning the children assembled in Class Room I for the purpose of showing sympathy with our King and the Royal Family in the great loss sustained by them and the Nation in the death of the late Queen Mother (Queen Alexandria). Appropriate hymns were sung and an address given by the Head Teacher.
30th November 1925	Hephzibal Miller and Highmoor Miller, James and Douglas Miller are emigrating to Canada and have left the district.
3rd July 1929	School closed. 25 children and 2 Teachers are visiting the North East Coast Exhibition in Newcastle.
23rd April 1926	Miss McIntosh (Health Visitor) visited school this morning for the purpose of a Head Inspection. She found a boy Robert C.. and Wm., Edward, Jos, Thomas and Robert.. were in a verminous condition. She visited the houses of these people and will report it to the S.M.O.
19th May 1926	Feeding of poor school children began. Breakfast was served.
17th December 1926	Feeding of children discontinued. Extract from Report:- Credit must be given for the success attending the teachers' efforts to secure good and distinct speech from children who on entry, are very backward in this respect.
31st January 1928	Head Teacher, Mr Edward J Holland ceases duty as Head of this School.
October 1928	Extract from School Report:- Those children in higher class have been trained to speak distinctly and intelligently. Composition exercises submitted revealed no paucity of ideas.
23rd January 1929	Medical Officer visited school today for Examination. A list of those suffering from malnutrition was forwarded to Durham (I have left out the list).
30th January 1929	Feeding started today for those on the list proposed by M.0.
8th-15th May 1929	The following have been sent home with 'Pink Eye':- Doris Bilcliff, Hannah Dixon, Doris Iley, Ed. Walton, Blanche Bilcliff, Will Johnson, David Lynn, Jennie Lillie, Edith Hunter, William Teasdale, Lawrence Wills, Matthew Scott, Jos. Walton, Alice Forster Gladys Lillie, Esther Johnson, Jennie Bilcliff.
8th May 1930	The second part of the Admission Examination for Blaydon Sec. School was held today, Alex Johnson being the only candidate.
11th January 1930	Six children admitted to Hospital with Scarlet Fever.
28th November 1930	Eighteen cases of chicken pox notified.
30th January 1930	Parcel of clothing received from Shire Hall for distribution to needy Children. Many children ill with cold, having no boots to wear. The weather has been very stormy.
7th May 1930	School will be closed this afternoon for Shrove Tuesday.
23rd May 1930	Three children were sent home again by the Head Teacher. Wm. Atkinson and Catherine McGuire both suffering from Measles returned without medical attendant's permission. Lilian Atkinson, having been sent home for medical advice had not even seen a doctor. William Atkinson having said that the doctor had told him to go back to school, finally admitted that it was a lie. Acting on the Memorandum on Communicable Diseases the Head Teacher sent the children home. From School Report:- It is evident that further improvement is still needed in the work of this school.

The School Log Book made fascinating reading. I had no idea that the Barlow people had suffered so many epidemics of smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, influenza and "pink eye". It was good reading to find that the poorer children were cared for at school, to ensure that they received enough food. Many times the school temperature dropped to between 32° and 45° but the children stayed at school. Teachers would strike today if the temperatures dropped below 55°.

THE END

I think that this title is most appropriate. The village of Barlow has ended. It is now purely a collection of houses with no life, and every village should have a heart, pulsating with life. Walking down Barlow now, more often than not, one never sees a living thing, it is dead.

Modernists decry the terrace houses as a mode of living but they did produce good neighbours and thus friendships. Children grew up together, close bonds were formed, team games were played. This form of life developed character and rid the children of selfishness. It is very difficult for a child brought up in a detached house separated from other houses by acres of land to develop close-knit friendships and to learn to share with other children the joys of playing together, the give-and-take of life.

The village pub, once the hub of the village is now largely patronised by "outsiders", in spite of giving more service than ever before.

I am pleased that I was born in an era when life was uncomplicated, happy and satisfying for children.

I have no doubt that many people will be disappointed with this book, but if I have made some people happy with my recollections then I am well pleased.

To me Barlow was a child's paradise and it is because of that that I decided to pen this little booklet, so that the present generation will realise that although we were desperately poor, everyone was happy.

HIGH SPEN - A HUNDRED YEARS

HIGH SPEN -A HUNDRED YEARS

by Alex Johnson

Gateshead Family History Resources

HIGH SPEN -A HUNDRED YEARS

Some Remnants of Victorian Gateshead

The Life and Times of Coffee Johnny - Died April 5th , 1900, aged 72

The Towneley Arms, Rowlands Gill

The Village of Rowlands Gill, Co. Durham

by Mrs. K.A. Low and Rowlands Gill Women's Institute 1961

Reproduced by permission of the Women's Institute, Rowlands Gill.

This is a shortened version of the entry which gained "Highly Commended" in the Women's Institute Village History Competition held in Durham County 1960. The purpose of the competition was primarily to collect facts on village life since 1900 from the memories of older people, seeing that so many written records were destroyed in the paper salvage in 2 world wars.

(Italicized notes by Brian Pears with the assistance of Dr Alan Rounding, Terry Middleton and others too numerous to mention.)

ROWLANDS GILL DOCTOR'S MURDER - GIBSIDE - THE ROWS

When asked about the History of Rowlands Gill the older inhabitants so often reply: "You'll have heard about Doctor's Murder?" "Then there is Gibside!" "You should ask someone along in the Rows".

DOCTOR'S MURDER: a hundred yards of country lane within a stone's throw of the centre of Rowlands Gill, where in 1885 the local Doctor Stirling [No, the murder was 30 years earlier on 1st November, 1855 and he was based at Burnopfield] was inadvertently murdered by person unknown [this is speculation - we don't know who did it, let alone why?], is the only very small "battlefield" which Rowlands Gill can claim as "local history". The tragedy is still alive in the minds of the oldest inhabitants of the village as it happened within the lifetime of their parents, - and has been a focal point of historic interest in this recently built village.

GIBSIDE: the now derelict and dilapidated estate once belonging to the Earls of Strathmore, situated across the river from Rowlands Gill, still dominates the landscape, but had its heyday long before the village was built. It is the only visible showpiece of historical consequence near Rowlands Gill.

THE ROWS: are two very plain looking streets of mining cottages built at the end of last century, which have pride of place in being the first homes in the village. The proximity of a handful of mining families fostered a friendship and communal spirit which is still very much alive among those same folk - now getting on in years, and they are rightly proud to remember and recall the "beginnings of Rowlands Gill". Rowlands Gill has been put on the map since 1900. It has never had a rich and turbulent history, nor any legacy of traditions; it is not the centre of any important agricultural community nor an industrial area, but has grown up as an unusual mixture of a small coalmining village and a residential dormitory feeding labour to Tyneside.

WHERE ROWLANDS GILL WAS BUILT

Rowlands Gill is in the Parish of Winlaton in N.W. Durham. Winlaton Village was built about 350 years ago by Ambrose Crowley. One of the foremost industrialists of all times, he carried out some amazing experiments in the employment of his large labour force of Iron Workers and the example of their enlightened social conditions extorted the admiration of labouring populations in all surrounding areas. A demand for fair working conditions from employers is still the essence of the Stronghold of Socialism in this Parliamentary Division of Blaydon, N.W. Durham. Winlaton is near the junction of the River Tyne with its tributary the River Derwent and upstream in the Derwent Valley were "woodlands venerable in their growth and magnificence". Here were the estates of landowning gentry, notably the Hollinside family at Swalwell, and the Bowes family at Gibside Hall. Fitting like jigsaw pieces in the district where Rowlands Gill is built was property of the Towneley Estate, the Clavering Estate, Ravensworth holdings, the Marquis of Bute's estate, the land of Joseph Cowen of Blaydon and Smailes Estate.

In the Eighteenth Century coal-mining developed at Pontop near Burnopfield, on the eastern side of the Derwent Valley. Mining conditions were very hazardous and ill-paid, and seeds of discontent were sown in this area where Crowley's Crew lived in such contrasting conditions. However, the mining at Hobson Pit, Pontop, opened up the Derwent Valley, because a "wagon way" was built to haul the coals down the hill past Gibside Estate, over the river Derwent at Cowford Bridge now Derwent Bridge, and along the valley by the riverside to the staithes at Derwenthaugh on the Tyne, a distance of eight and a half miles. The rails were made of local beech wood and the cauldron shaped trucks were pulled by horses. The journey distance worked by a man and a horse per day in leading heavy wagons down the line and the empties back up again was known as a "gate" - a word found in many local place names such as Hookergate, Leadgate and Catchgate. [The word "gate" had no specific connection with waggonways and does not imply any particular distance; it is from the Old Norse "gata" and simply denotes a route, road, direction or way.] However, by the middle of last century a branch railway line was built to take Burnopfield coal direct by steam engine to Gateshead, and the famous Hobson wagon way was needed no more. [The waggonway was never the "Hobson wagon way". It was initially called the "Bucksnook Way", and is usually referred to today as the "Western Way" or "Western III". It principally served collieries at Bucksnook, Collierley, Pontop and Tantobie - never the Hobson Pit which is of later date. The waggonway opened in 1728 and was definitely out of use by 1800, long before the Bowes Railway reached Burnopfield.] But in 1881 an outcrop of coal was discovered bursting through the roadside at Busty Bank, Burnopfield, more was unearthed in Gibside Estate, and with prospecting ripe in the Valley, Rowlands Gill was about to be born.

BUILDING OF THE VILLAGE

In December 1867 a railway was built from Scotswood (Newcastle) to Leadgate and Consett passing up the Derwent Valley in front of the Gibside Estate. Here where the railway crossed a small ravine situated on land once owned by Robert Rowland [No - see Who was Rowland?], a railway station was erected and named "Rowlands Gill". A road [the Rowlands Gill Turnpike of 1835] also ran up the valley and near to this Station another road led off to Burnopfield along the track of the old wagon way. This road junction was controlled by a Toll House, with gates, until 1888 when the Toll was taken off and the house used as a residence only. The Toll had been a halfpenny for a donkey, a penny per horse and threepence for a horse with vehicle. Near to this Toll house and the station was the Towneley Arms, a Road house used by itinerant cattle dealers. The stables at this Inn housed four horses belonging to the wealthy-coal owner Priestman of Shotley Bridge, who liked to change horses on both outward journeys to Newcastle and home again. It was also the local pub for farmers and workmen in the district and at such times as Col. Cowen's 5th Durhams camped in Gibside grounds, the beer flowed very freely indeed. Also when Irish workmen were visiting the area to build the railway it is recorded that a Special Constable was appointed to help the local priest to whip up his flock on pay-Friday nights and get them back from the Towneley to their billets.

[The railway closed for passengers in 1953 and for goods in 1962. The track was lifted in 1966 and in 1972 the trackbed became the Derwent Walk.]

In a shed at the Toll House was kept a store of disinfectants for earth closets - for by 1890 those "Rows" mentioned at the start of this story; were being built [the time-line here and the details below seem to be incorrect - a Winlaton Poor Rate book of 1878 (which appears not to have survived the 1974 Local Government upheaval) showed that Cowen was already paying rates on "14 Houses (Drift)" at that early date. These would appear to be the northernmost 14 houses on Cowen Terrace. Examination of Cowen Terrace itself shows three distinct blocks with differing construction - probably reflecting 3 phases of construction (a) the northernmost 4, (b) the next 10 houses (c) the remainder. (a) and (b) together fit in well with rate book reference. The minutes of the Blaydon Local Board for 3rd June 1880 record the granting of planning permission to Jospeh Cowen & Co for the "remainder of 65 houses" - ie all of the present Cowen Terace and Lilley Terrace plus the officials houses north of the Institute.] Joseph Cowen of Blaydon had prospected for coal in this area and decided it was worth his while to sink the "Lilley Drift" into the hillside about a quarter of a mile north of Rowlands Gill Station, So houses had to be built for miners - seven of them at first were the beginning of "Cowen Terrace". In 1881 was the first "cavil" a cavil being the periodic drawing of lots for allocating the sites of work on the coal face. As the colliery got bigger more houses were added to Cowen Terrace, then Lilley Terrace was built behind it. Hard-working Primitive Methodist families collected money to build themselves a Chapel, and this was built with the whitish bricks to match the houses -bought from Cowen's brick yards at Blaydon, and erected on land given by Joseph Cowen [this chapel opened in April 1883 and closed in 1955 - it is now the Scout and Guide Centre.]. The coal was led under the main road to the colliery yard to be screened, and the miners' free coal was led by horse and cart past Low Thornley farm to the Rows. When it was discovered that the coal had good coking properties, coke ovens were built in the colliery yard. But soon vast quantities of clay were being brought from underground so it became more prudent to convert the coke ovens into a brick yard the necessary extension to the chimney being still quite visible. This brickyard is still a going concern, but now the clay has to be brought in from Blaydon. [The brickworks closed in 1977.]

As the colliery made more profit the management bought a strip of marsh land near the river where children had gathered nuts and skated on small ponds, and there were built five rows of houses and flats officially called Mafeking [the name was "Ladysmith" and it was built to house miners working at South Garesfield Colliery near Low Friarside which opened in August 1887], but always known locally as "The Bottoms". Then came the building boom. South of the Railway a part of Smailes Estate was for sale. A group of 44 business men from many places in Northumberland and Durham Counties did band together to buy and develop this land as a residential area for the better class. Under the guidance of Clayton Gibson solicitors of Newcastle, they drew up an "Indenture of Mutual Covenants" regulating the apportioning of the land into building sites, and the general layout of the estate. They stipulated that there should be:-

1. A building line for the houses
2. No ale house nor Inn -to be built
3. No part or the estate to be used for any offensive business such as chemical works or slaughter house.
4. And not more than two pigs be kept in any garden

The last plot of land to be built up before 1930 was the centre site between the railway and the Covenanter's land. In 1919 a Picture Hall and a few shops were put up, then Bowers, Williamsons and Stoddarts built bungalows, flats and small houses all with gardens. In 1904 [1903] a branch of Burnopfield Co-op had been built in the village, and about the same time the Wesleyan Methodists began to erect a fine stone chapel on a commanding site in Strathmore Road [opened 31 May 1902], where they had previously worshipped in a temporary wooden hut [opened 31st December 1899], and the Anglican community purchased a very central site and put up a pleasing temporary church of wood [dedicated 11th June 1904] which was replaced in 1957 by a new brick church [dedicated 13 June 1956]. So by 1930 Rowlands Gill was an established village of two communities - the miners living in the Rows, and the business people and professionals living "over the railway line". Social activities got under way, and gradually people met and mixed together in a type of "industrial - village" life.

[Two other churches must be included in any history of our village - St Joseph's and the Gospel Hall.

St Joseph's Church, though located at Highfield, serves the Catholic community of Rowlands Gill. The church was built in 1914 and it became a parish church in 1929. The early parish covered a large area including Barlow, Winlaton Mill, Lintzford, Victoria Garesfield, High Spen, Highfield and Rowlands Gill, but part of the area was transferred to St Anne's Church at Winlaton when it opened in 1962.

The Gospel Hall opened on 13th November 1937 in what is now the premises of Abel Building and Roofing Services Ltd on Station Road. This hall had been built around 1928 and had been used as an Auction Room by Oswell Carter. In the 1960s the hall was taken over by the Elim Pentecostal Church, but it closed in the 1970s.]

VILLAGE LIFE AND TRADE

At the beginning of the Century foodstuffs such as milk, eggs, and potatoes could be supplied in Rowlands Gill from the local farms such as Gibside Farm, Smailes Farm, Robinson's Farm, Hollinhill Farm, Lintzford Farm and Davison's Farm near Hamsterley Hall. But groceries had to be brought in from other places, Broughs of Newcastle and the Newcastle Tea Co. both sent representatives by train to seek orders and deliver goods fortnightly. In 1889 Burnopfield Co-op was built, and a covered cart brought goods to Cowen Terrace, to the delight of young boys who had previously walked to Winlaton or Blaydon on messages for 1d. Tweddle the family butcher from Blaydon, Tommy Best the dealer from Swalwell, and Irish packman "Whistling Jack" Pagan arriving by trap on fine days and in the train if wet, with bundles of fine linen cloths. Davison of Consett with paraffin, a woman with clothes pegs, crackets and baskets from the Hagg Farm, a dentist from Winlaton, a chemist from Leadgate, Polly Donkin and daughter Mary Gay with fresh fish from Cullercoats Dr. Andrew Smith from Ryton, - all these people served the village with their trades and wares, in the days when peace did prevail and small boys lay down on the road to listen for the sound of the horses' hooves heralding an expected tradesman still half a mile away. At the Toll House Mill Robina Robinson took orders for sewing, as well as being postwoman for 30 years, collecting every week the "doctor's money" so long before National Health contributions. But major articles of clothing had to be bought in Newcastle. Our only local song "Wor Nannies a Maiser" tells how

"Wor Nannie and me made up wor minds
To gan and catch the train,
To take us to toon to buy some claes
For wor little Mary and Jane"

[The Towneley Arms was rebuilt in 1961 and it closed in 2000.]

And when were best clothes needed? Mostly for church and chapel functions such as the Easter Monday picnic up at Thornley Village a mile away, or an occasional Open Air Evangelical Campaign there, or maybe a Field Day for a Sunday School along at Lockhaugh, or even an outing in summer to the coast. Other activities which sprang up included a most enthusiastic Glee Club under the leadership of Foster Slee, which gave concerts in many villages around. An energetic Cricket Club was formed in Sherburn Park in 1890 under Captain Hetherington, and Mr. Jack Oliver still recalls how as a very young aspiring cricketer he travelled for a match to Newcastle, and how when the bowler had taken three consecutive wickets for no runs, the game was stopped, a public collection taken on the spot, and after the match someone was sent immediately to Lennard's hat shop to buy a new "bowlers" hat for the hero. Unfortunately that custom soon died out. Football did not make much headway, but many local supporters of Newcastle United Team would travel by train every Saturday to see their match, and these jovial fellows returning by the last train armed with pease pudding (before the days of fish and chips) are said to have enforced their arguments with this fare, and left the very sticky "Pease pud train". Pigeon fancying always did and still does well in Rowlands Gill area. Billiards was very popular and the local team were League Champions.

Gardening, the outdoor relaxation for underground workers did well enough to support a local flower show. One interesting activity running in the district but not actively supported by Rowlands Gill village was "The Vale of Derwent Naturalists Field Club" at Burnopfield. Regular expeditions were made throughout the valley, to study unusual flora, fauna, and geology; very eminent scientists and entomologists came to lecture; and a most elaborate magazine was published with such articles as "Discovery of a Royal Fern at Lintzford", "Blasting of clay with gunpowder to make a railway cutting at Lockhaugh", and "The catching of a lamprey eel at Derwenthaugh". At Strathmore Road end of the village, tennis and gardening filled the lighter nights. In 1930 a Welfare Hall was built in Strathmore Road by the Lilley Drift Colliery, and this more than anything else brought together all sections of the community [it was built in 1928 and extended in 1930 - now known as the Community Centre.]. It housed Whist Drives, dancing, bazaars, the Child Welfare Clinic, and the Women's Institute.

And what about schooling for the children? In 1896 after a delegation of parents had consulted Blaydon School. Board, to try to better conditions for children who either had to walk to Winlaton Parish School, or to Burnopfield up a steep lonely road, or even go to Whickham by donkey, - permission was given for building a new school between Cowen Terrace and the Lilley Drift Pit, and this building had new extensions added as needed. [Rowlands Gill ratepayers first asked for a school in 1890, the delegation and agreement referred to was in 1894, and the school opened on 21st September 1896.] As Rowlands Gill Village grew big, many children from Strathmore Road area attended Highfield School. [Highfield School began in 1883 as Victoria Garesfield British School and in 1905 it was taken over by Durham County Council. On 17th August 1908 the staff and pupils moved to the present Highfield School premises and the old school at Victoria Garesfield became houses - they still exist.] For further education at the beginning of the century a few pupils travelled by train to Consett Tech., but after 1912 a new Grammar School was opened at Blaydon, catering for a wide area. By 1933 demand called for still more Grammar School accommodation, and Hookergate Grammar School was built on a very open country site about a mile and a half west of the village, and children by that time were conveyed up there by bus. Many children from this area have always travelled to Newcastle secondary schools by train and later by bus.

[1933 also saw the opening of St Joseph's Roman Catholic School at Highfield. In 1965 Rowlands Secondary Modern School was built on land west of Lilley Terrace to replace High Spen Secondary Modern School, and two years later a new Infants School opened nearby at Sherburn Green. In the early 1970s Rowlands Gill Secondary Modern and Hookergate Grammar Schools merged to form Hookergate Comprehensive School. Both schools were used until the former Grammar School premises were extended sufficiently to accommodate all of the pupils. Then, in 1982, the former Secondary Modern premises were taken over by Rowlands Gill Junior School and the old familiar red-brick school was demolished.]

TRAVEL IN THE AREA

Prior to 1910 travelling from Rowlands Gill was on foot, by train, or by horse and trap. Then Mrs. Bessford of High Spen village nearby began to meet the trains at Rowlands Gill Station to collect passengers, papers and parcels in her "tub". Trade did well and she later got a "dickie-trap" with rug and coachman to meet special visitors, followed by a back-to-back brake holding 8 passengers, and later still some 'brakes' to hire out for community outings, About the time of the General Transport Strike in 1920 Mrs. Bessford purchased a motor van locally known as the Grey Ghost, and in this took passengers to Scotswood Bridge where they alighted and crossed by foot to join the tramcar service into Newcastle. For a while Clydesdale and Parker from Chopwell village ran brakes to Rowlands Gill station duplicating part of the way with Mrs. Bessford.

Then along from Shotley Bridge came a bus service run by Harper and Lockey. These factions amalgamated eventually to form the Venture Bus Company which took its name from the private Venture coach of Priestman of Shotley Bridge. This private coach complete with coachman, and horn, was regularly seen around the district right until the 1939 war and the last coachman was called to service in London for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

ROWLANDS GILL SINCE THE 1939 WAR

Rowlands Gill was not materially affected by the war - neither by bombing nor evacuation. [Wrong on both counts. Bombs fell on the village in the early hours of May 1st 1942 - see When Bombs Fell on Rowlands Gill - and many evacuees came from the London area to Rowlands Gill in 1944 because of V1 and V2 attacks.] But since then much has changed. The first move by Blaydon Council was to bring loads of prefabricated bungalows to the empty land between Rowlands Gill and Highfield Village to the west. In the last fifteen years a huge new estate of several hundred houses of many patterns has spread right down to Rowlands Gill from this site. The old houses in "The Bottoms" have been pulled down, and re-housing goes on continually, for the village is being developed essentially as a residential dormitory for Tyneside. N.W.Durham has become a depressed area since the war, and the Lilley Drift Colliery has had to close - as has South Garesfield pit at Low Friarside which during the war flew a flag for record output, and which also gave employment to local miners. The local railway station has been closed for many years for passenger traffic and now seems to have lost all industrial trade in competition with road services. The other local industry not mentioned yet, and also redundant in the last three years, was the Coke Oven at Whinfield works between Rowlands Gill and Highfield Village. Here for 98 years was manufactured some of the best Beehive Coke in the country, supplying iron foundries such as Wards of Sheffield, Armstrong Whitworths, and Staffords of Darlington. Wards alone are reputed to have sent their own trucks to take 40,000 tons of coke per year, from a weekly production of 1300 tons.

Alongside these Coke Ovens was a small factory locally known as "The Alloy" where for a time during the 1914-18 war was manufactured very hard steel for the sides of battleships, made by a secret process, and the smelting was done by electricity. [Not quite - since 1907 "The Alloy" had been producing ferrochrome, an alloy essential to the production of armour-plating, using electric furnaces. In WW1 overseas sources of ferrochrome were inaccessible, so production at "The Alloy" was massively increased - new plant was installed, a new power-station was built and a supplementary electricity supply was provided through a new underground cable from Dunston. The workforce went up from a few dozen to over 1000 and production rose from 40 to 650 tons per week. It was the country's only source of ferrochrome throughout WW1, but at the end of the war demand for the material ceased, placing the company in an impossible position. "The Alloy" turned its furnaces over to steel-making, but this venture failed, and in 1922 the company - The Newcastle Alloy Company, a subsidiary of Priestman Collieries - went out of business. "The Oxide", described next, was not affected.] The third part of this industrial plant was the "Oxide" - where protective paint for ship's bottoms was prepared, viz. copper oxide.

[The Whinfield Industrial Estate now occupies the sites of the cokeworks, the "Alloy" and the "Oxide".]

It has been a great heartbreak to employees that all this industry has been closed and dismantled by the N.C.B; when N.W. Durham is declared a distressed area and is in need of industry. Social life in the village has altered very little since the war. Extra activities at the Welfare Hall include "Housey", and the "Over Sixties" Club. Other societies such as Gibside Music Club; Friends of the Hospitals; a branch of the N.S.P.C.C. and a W.V.S. contingent have all got supporters. The Wesleyan Church has added a very fine hall to its premises, and the Anglicans have built a new combined Church and Hall. County Evening Classes have gradually fallen off with the advent of T.V. Many young folk who work in Newcastle by day, return again in the evening for social entertainment.

GREATER ROWLANDS GILL

About a mile north of Rowlands Gill where since the 'twenties' has been a row of bungalows by the roadside known as 'Lockhaugh', speculation building has attracted a community of young married people from many parts of the country, mostly working in Newcastle. And a quarter of a mile along the Shotley Bridge road near a collection of houses known as "Whisky Jacks", a similar building project is attracting young people. Altogether these newcomers are quite likely to give a boost to social life in the district. Perhaps Hamsterley Mill Estate on the property of Lord Gort and situated about two miles from Rowlands Gill, in the Consett Urban District, should also be included as a suburb of Rowlands Gill. The dwellings there are of a considerably more expensive type than those in the village. Many people from this estate come to shop, attend social functions, and worship along at Rowlands Gill.

And as for the future of the village as being planned by the local Council, it is hoped to improve the general layout with recreational facilities. A large field near where Whinfield Works once stood, has been prepared and levelled for development as a park for tennis, bowls and the like. By the riverside where the "Bottoms" once stood, next to the old Football field, schemes envisage a Riverside Park with maybe a swimming pool. A new secondary modern school is soon to be built, as well as many more council houses, on the land behind Cowen terrace. The Lilley Drift Welfare Hall, under new management, is being reconditioned and modernized. And the first building in our village the "Towneley Arms" is being replaced by a fine new up-to-date hotel complete with Car Park, but still on the old site by the Station.

And so there is a future for Rowlands Gill as a large housing site, - and the beautiful Derwent Valley which has been a rendezvous for cyclists and picnickers in the past may still attract visitors who will gaze at the ruins of Gibside over the water, see the Rows still bright with new paint, and wonder if they heard right that there had been a Doctor's Murder.

PAST HERITAGES GIBSIDE ESTATE The first recorded owners of this stretch of forest were the Marley family who held it in 1200, and on until 1540 when the estate passed to Roger Blakiston of Coxhoe. Gibside was the home of his descendants till 1713 when Sir Francis Blakiston, second baronet, was succeeded by his only daughter who had married Sir William Bowes of Streatlam Castle and went to live there. In 1721 Sir William's son George Bowes, member for the county, came to live at Gibside in the Jacobean House, to develop and add to it, and to lay out the grounds and perfect the landscape around. From 1750 - 57 he had built a monument 140 feet high of British Liberty, costing £2,000. The carving of the figure was done in position at the top of the column, and 66 books of gold leaf costing £5.15s.6d and also £8.14s.0d worth of copper were used to decorate it.

A long grass terrace (known as the racecourse) led from in front of the column to a Chapel and mausoleum begun in 1760 but not consecrated till 1812. This beautiful building is in the form of a Greek Cross, has a 3 decker pulpit with sounding board above, and is still open for worship once a month. Bodies of the Bowes family resting below the Chapel in the Mausoleum were take to Barnard Castle during the last War. A Banqueting Hall in ornate Gothic Style with ornamental ceiling, spire over the front door, mirrored walls, and staircase to the roof overlooked a slope to an octagonal lake flanked with fir trees. Stables, an orangery and walled gardens were also built, and winding roads edged with unusual trees.

George Bowes died in 1760, and he was succeeded by Mary Eleanor, the millionairess, who married the 9th Earl of Strathmore in 1767. Nine years later when a widow she had the misfortune to accept the hand of Andrew Robinson Stoney, (Stoney Bowes) an Irish opportunist who ruined her life, used up her fortune, and the tragedy of their existence is told in the book "The Unhappy Countess", by R.C.M. Arnold. After that, very little was done for Gibside, it was lived in rarely, and finally became united to the Earl of Strathmore's other estates.

[In 1965 Gibside Chapel was given to the National Trust and in 1993 the Trust puchased 347 acres of the estate.]

WHISKY JACK who gave his name to a brook near the village, was a smuggler from Norfolk who roamed Scotland and the Border Country and fell in with illicit distilleries. He came to the Coquet and Tees areas, acquired a still of his own, and marketed in mines and factories. In 1885 [1855] he lived in the woods near Rowlands Gill and was tried for, and acquitted of, the murder of local Dr. Stirling. Joseph Cowen then employed him for 13 years as gardener, and he proved sober, honest, reliable, and most industrious and knowlegeable, but he eventually emigrated it is believed, to Australia, though it is reported he was seen in Kentucky. [Whisky Jack was John Kane - born 1797 - and his cottage was situated where Woodside Cottage, Lintzford Road now stands. Coincidentally, one of Jack's direct descendants, who understandably wishes to remain anonymous, was very recently living within 300 yards of this location - and may well still be living there!]

FRIARSIDE is the remains of an old hospice lying across the river from Rowlands Gill. Earliest name was Frere Johanside. In the 11th century a recluse named John obtained a licence to erect a habitation for solitude as a hermit. In 1183 a rent book for the See of Durham recognises two shillings rent from hermits of Derwent. In 1540 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Friarside became the property of the Gibside estate. Rumours of hidden treasure there were groundless.

LINTZFORD. This hamlet lies about 2 miles south of Rowlands Gill, where the river is spanned by a very old single arch bridge, probably dating from the middle of the 17th century when a Corn Mill functioned there. The Richardson Printing Ink Co. holds parchment deeds complete with wax seals, some written in Latin, for the Corn Mill and land, dated 1695.

Ninety years later the Annandales took over the Corn Mill and ran it as a paper mill until 1912. They built Lintzford House in 1790, but recent alterations have uncovered an example of dragon-wing roofing, which may be of an earlier period. This house including recent extensions by the river is listed as an ancient monument. From 1912 - 1922 Charles Marsden ran the paper mill then in 1923 the present owners converted it into a printing ink factory with world wide trade, agencies in many countries, and also three factories in India.

In the garden adjoining the factory are relics such as grindstones from the corn mill, an Elizabethan stone urn, and a boundary stone, marked with an Elizabethan E. Over the river from the dam is a row of cottages due for demolition, - and they must have been converted from an old inn which once stood by the roadside near to the old ford. It is thought there must have been a Pilgrim Way from Jarrow to Blanchland Abbey via Friarside Hospice, and Lintzford, as a very old blacksmith's forge has been discovered in a remote part of the ink works.

Excepting Lintzford Farm owned by the Lawrence family, all the property and houses belong to the Richardson Printing Ink Co.

[The inkworks was taken over by Dufay Paints in 1966 and it finally closed in 1987. The premises have since been converted into flats.]

Some collections of photographs taken in and around the village are available online:

Coronation Celebrations in 1937

Highfield Carnival 1973 and Jazz Bands 1973, 1976 and 1977

Queen's Jubilee Celebrations 1977

W.I. 1961, Brian Pears 2000

Gateshead Family History Resources

THE WINLATON STORY

by R. Anderson

© Copyright 1971, R. Anderson

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) Nos 16-23, 1969-1973.

The Winlaton Story

Next Part

Part 1. Winlaton in the Beginning

At the beginning of history as we know it, there is not enough direct evidence to suggest the existence of a village community starting from the period of the stone age, but there is quite a lot of indirect evidence to show that Winlaton's commencement as a village began in the days when our ancestors were performing their daily chores wearing animal skins as clothing.

Flint scrapers have been dug up from time to time in various parts of the village, mostly in the area of Parkgate Lane and California. In the same area there has been found traces of what could have been a flint worker's workshop with flint chippings in great abundance lying as though they had just been dropped during the manufacture of whatever implement was being constructed.

If there was no settlement in Winlaton in the Stone Age, there have been plenty of archaeological finds in the surrounding district, indicating that man was already making his presence felt, and that the area was not unknown to him. A fine specimen of a stone age axe has been found at Whickham, with burials on Summer Hill at Blaydon, and various dug-out canoes and other sundry but interesting objects have been taken from the River Tyne from time to time. There is also to be seen today, on the north side of Ryton Church, a tumulus, or burial mound, which has never been explored. This tumulus and most of the objects taken from the Tyne probably date from the Bronze Age. If one feels energetic, a stroll through Winlaton Mill to Clockburn Lonnen will show a road which is pre-Roman. This road as seen now cannot have changed much since those days, leading as it does from the hill at Fellside down to the ford at Winlaton Mill, then up to Winlaton and across to the ford at Newburn. All ancient British roads conformed to this pattern, always going directly from hill-top to hill-top, allowing travellers to see if there was any pursuit after a raid or whether an ambush was prepared in the distance.

After man had entered into the Bronze Age, he found that with better tools he could cultivate more land with a bronze plough blade than he could with a stick which merely scratched the ground. As most of the country was covered with forest, this naturally had to be cleared, and the best and fastest way of doing this was to burn it. As the years rolled by and perhaps some migration occurred, re-forestation would naturally begin to take place. Now birch was the tree which grew again most quickly after forest clearance, and we have an abundance of birch woods around Winlaton, even the name is perpetuated in Birch Gate, on the road leading from Winlaton to Winlaton Mill. Is it possible that this covering of birch trees points to a settlement of Bronze Age farmers in the area? It is very probable that it does.

About 1934, a cup and ring marked rock was found embedded in a wall near to the road to Greenside, on what is locally known as Sandy Banks. These rocks are very common in Northumberland, but are practically unknown in County Durham. They are usually found on the site of prehistoric fields. The carvings inscribed on these rocks were no doubt, to increase the fertility of the soil and for the gods to grant good fortune and good weather. All is not known about other connections to the gods these rocks had, but it is possible something more sinister was involved including human sacrifice to ensure success to crops.

One local historian has upheld the theory that a branch of the Watling Street, ran from Coalburns through Winlaton, to connect up with the Wrekendyke at Gateshead. This theory, though very plausible, has never been proven. In the last few years we have had housing and opencast coal activities proceeding all around the villages concerned, but no traces of any Roman roads have been uncovered, which surely must have been the case if the roads had been there to discover. The Romans would not have been unfamiliar with the district however, being as it was then, near the frontier area. Indeed, anyone standing on the north side of Winlaton, would for hundreds of years, see the campfires of the garrison twinkling nightly on Hadrian's Wall. Probably patrols, or hunting parties from the wall's garrison made periodic forays through the countryside, especially in times of unrest. Possibly they would come from the cavalry station at Benwell, across the ford at Newburn, to patrol the Derwent Valley up to the station at Ebchester.

After the Romans' departure from these shores, from over the North Sea came, not an invasion, but a wholesale immigration, the Saxons. Finding that the soil of their own country could not support a growing population, these large limbed blonde men, who for many years had given Roman coastguards a lean time, packed up their household goods, and with their families arrived to form the basis of the English nation of today.

Although they came to settle, the Saxons did not, as is commonly thought, kill off all the local Celtic inhabitants. Some they would dispose of, if they wanted the land which was already occupied. Others would be kept as slaves, and others would probably intermingle with the invaders so that after a few generations they would all be classed as one race.

Settlements usually grew up on a low bridging point of a river. or on a cross-road, and likeliest place for a Saxon settlement in the Parish of Winlaton would be at Winlaton Mill. The Derwent was navigable as far as Swalwell Bridge, then a short expedition along the banks of the river would bring the immigrants to exactly what they were looking for, a sheltered, well-wooded valley, with a flat floor about a quarter of a mile wide, and most important, fertile agricultural soil which is still noted today for its qualities, also an abundance of fish and game with a plentiful supply of water. Usually the Saxons settled one family in one place, systematically spreading out into the surrounding countryside when the family grew up and increased in number.

The name of the River Derwent is Celtic in its origin, and finding it easy on the tongue and pleasant to the ear the new arrivals left it unaltered. Derwent, means in Celtic, abounding in oaks. In fact, Derwent is the only Celtic name left in our area, all of the other place-names being of Saxon or Norse origin. About the year 750-800 the men with the winged hats arrived (the Danes or Norse Men) first to loot, but when they saw how prosperous the Saxons were, many stayed. They brought with them more names which have remained with us to the present day. One of the names descending from them is Axwell, meaning sheds made from oaks, and all around Winlaton we have these Norse names, Norman's Riding, Barlow and Swalwell, and many others.

One of the most intriguing names of our territory is one that has caused many arguments. On the south side of Winlaton is a wood which is wrongly called by many local inhabitants Lamb's Wood. Its correct title according to the Ordnance Survey is Lands Wood. This itself is a corruption of the old Norse name of Launds Wood. Laund being translated into today's meaning gives the information that the wood was a sacred grove or copse where religious rites were carried out. Now this gives us another puzzle, was this a reference to something that happened in Celtic times, such as a meeting place of the Druids and had been handed down in folk-lore of the district, or was it referring to the Norsemen themselves - a place where they had their village Moot? Of course we will never know whether the Druids held religious rites here or whether the English dispensed their justice in this romantic little spot, for the first documentary evidence we have is in 1086 when reference is first made to the Manor of Winlaton, which we will look into in another edition.

Next Part

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 16, October 1969.

The Winlaton Story

Part 3. Early Coal Mining

The most common use of coal in early days was mainly industrial, usually for lime burning or for boiling salt pans. No one held large stocks of coal, so that when a large building, such as a cathedral, a castle or a monastery was being constructed large amounts of coal were needed and these orders would he a windfall at the time to the miners. Consequently, when some large structural alterations were being carried out at Windsor Castle in 1357, 6OO tons of coal were purchased from the Manor of Winlaton to burn off the lime.

The Sheriff of Northumberland, Henry de Strother, purchased the coals on behalf of the king at a cost of £47-19s.-8d. The coals would then be transported by pack horse to Blaydon or Stella, and were then shipped in 33 keels to Newcastle, and there loaded on board colliers to be conveyed to London. There were 170 men involved in this keeling operation, their wages being sixpence each, while one shilling each was charged for the hire of the keels. John Taverner superintended the loading at Newcastle, this taking 54 days and John received 54 shillings for his work. Hugh Hankyn was sent to London to supervise the delivery of the coals to Adam de Hertyngdone, clerk of works at Windsor, for which, Hugh received £5-11s.-Od., while the cost of shipping the coal was £103. Not all of the coals despatched reached London for mention is made of a large amount that was thrown overboard on account of a heavy storm encountered at sea.

Mention is made in the following century of two mines situated in Winlaton called the Fullay pit and the Marley pit, both of which were working in 1425, and production was increasing with a colliery of four shafts producing 20,000 tons of coal per annum by the year 1581.

In 1587, a legal action concerning this colliery brings some interesting facts to light. We find that women were employed underground owing to a shortage of male labour. The colliery consisted of four shafts, one at least being in Lands Wood, with another, or maybe more, in what is now known as the Windy Fields, but was then known as the West Field, or Whinney Close Common. The whole enterprise was owned and worked by a partnership. The daily workings of the colliery was in many cases remarkably like today. There was an engineer, or as he was called a "viewer", whose job was "to see the ground upholden and truly wroughte underground". There was a system of tallies for the delivery of coal, and an "overman" whose job was to see that the correct number of loads came up at every pit, well filled for the profit of the owners, and to arrange for the carriage of the same to the river.

Their ways of keeping industrial peace would cause some comment today, for one, Richard Shotton, who had worked in the pit for fifteen years stated, that labourers had been laid in the stocks for negligence at work, while others were discharged for neglect and other misdemeanours.

Although coal-mining had been in progress for more than three hundred years the first record we have of a fatal accident appears in 1610, in the Ryton Burial

Register, when Thomas Carnaby a "cole workeman of Winlinton" was buried in Ryton churchyard. Then through the years we can follow the tragic toll paid in tribute to the winning of coal from the same source. Taking a few names at random, there was William Foster of Winlaton (1627) "kild in a Cole Pytte"; Thomas Proctor (1628) of "Bladon slaine in a Kolepyt at Bladon syd, and John, son of Thomas Jobson of Winlinton, Slaine in the same kole pyt"; Raiphe Cutter of Winlaton, slaine in a cole pyte" (1632); "two sons of William Thompson of Winlinton, slaine in a Coale pitte" (1633); "a boy in Winlington killed in a Coale-pit" (1673); Thomas Burton of Winlaton, slain in a pit, and so the list goes on.

After the early pits that were situated near to the river banks had been worked out the collieries began to move inland, transport therefore, became a problem, and horse drawn waggons on rails began to be used in the early 17th century. One of these waggonways was laid down in the Derwent Valley from Derwenthaugh to Pontop Pike, and was called The Main Way. Its date of construction is unknown, but a tentative guess would put it about 1680. The section from Winlaton Mill to Derwenthaugh is still in use today, making it the oldest used railway line in the world. It had many offshoots. One of these byways, as they were called, ran from Garesfield Colliery on Barlow Fell and connected on to the Main Way at Lockhaugh cross-roads. Another branch which can still be traced today ran through Lands Wood past Hagg Hill Farm, down the side of the park wall joining the line at the entrance to the farm, and was known as the Hagg Hill Byway. A man named George Potts of Bates Houses was killed by a waggon on this line in 1710, and these accidents continued into living memory while the waggon ways were still in use.

There were many other cases of people meeting an untimely end through falling into disused pit shafts. The early miners did not bother to mark, or to fill the old shafts in. They were left to the ravages of time and the elements to obliterate them, and anyone walking through Lands Wood will see by their remains how long this process endures. There is one case of John Wild of Low Spen, who was killed with his horse through falling down a shaft in 1728.

A very important part of coal mining was to know where to begin the shaft, and this was where the borer came in. A family of borers of the name of Wake long practised that art on Tyneside. One Thomas Wake executed various boreholes in the neighbourhood of Ryton, and of Stella Grand Lease Colliery in 1692-96. Another borer named Andrew Wake made various borings at Winlaton and Blaydon in 1779-89, while still another Wake was found boring at Blaydon in 1840.

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 18, October 1970.

The Winlaton Story

Part 4. Batey's Murder

A small red cross which has just been repainted on the wall facing the cricket ground on Blaydon Bank has given vent to some startling theories among the younger generation and even some of the newcomers to the area. The origin of the cross, which also had a date-stone inscribed 1860 beside it, makes a fascinating story, which was linked with the unsolved murder of Dr. Stirling at Rowlands Gill five years before.

On the evening of Monday, 5th November 1860, a slater living at Cuthbert Street, Blaydon, by the name of John Batey, a man of 38 years of age, married with three children, left home to attend a shooting match at the New Inn, Blaydon Burn.* He was dressed in a suit of clothes almost new, and during the match was seen with a large amount of money. It was believed that he had some two or three pounds in gold in his hand. Leaving Blaydon Burn, Batey, with other members of the company including Henry Hurst, a blacksmith, proceeded to Winlaton. He spent the night drinking at Mrs. Jane Parker's (Crown and Cannon) with William Winship, Douglas Swan and Richard Bagnall. They left there at 12-15 a.m., after Mrs. Parker had refused to serve them with a gallon of ale, as the company was becoming very rowdy. Batey was seen leaving the Crown and Cannon by Zachariah Scott, who combined his duties of lamplighter with that of a shoemaker. In his testimony at the inquest he said, "I was standing about forty yards from Jane Parker's door. Eight or ten came out, two men came up to me and asked what I was doing and I said 'Putting out the lamps'. I put the lamps out and went on to put the Oldwell Lamp out. I never saw them any more. They went in the direction of Clogger Parker's". ‡

Two young men, William Wardle, a chainmaker, and William Whitfield, were returning home from a dance at Scotswood, and were coming up Blaydon Bank, when, at the spot where the cross is now, they saw what they supposed was a drunken man lying under the hedge on the opposite side of the road to that used by pedestrians as a footpath. Whitfield pointed out the body, which they could easily see by means of the moonlight reflecting on its underclothes. He was lying on his face. They shouted "Hello" to him, and then went away. The reason they left him was that Whitfield had got into a scrape from meddling with a drunken man some before this. Later on at 4 a.m., George Nixon, a blacksmith, going to work, found the body, and ascertaining that he was dead, returned to the village and informed P.C. James Kelly who had the body removed to the Commercial Hotel where the inquest was held.

The police were soon on the case, and they arrested a keelman named Edward Armstrong for an assault on the police; the assault having been committed by him when in company with the stranger who had accompanied the unfortunate Batey from the Public House on the night of the murder. The stranger it seemed, went by the name of Thomas (Lankie) Smith. For some time the police had held a warrant against Armstrong for poaching upon the ground belonging to Joseph Cowen of Blaydon Burn House. On the same night as Batey was murdered they attempted to take him while drinking at Blaydon. With the assistance of Smith, Armstrong resisted, and injured the sergeant of police very seriously by using a heavy life-preserver. Armstrong had been

skulking about Blaydon Burn and Winlaton all day on the Tuesday and when arrested that night the police were fairly certain that he knew where Smith was. Armstrong eventually made a statement that on the morning following the murder, Smith was at the house of Thomas Bilclough in Winlaton. When Armstrong called there, Smith consulted him as to the best means of avoiding arrest and Armstrong remarked on Smith's wearing a fresh suit of clothes. They went for a walk through the Windy Fields, and Smith told him everything that had occurred, stating that he had knocked Batey down with a Morgan Rattler (club) with the intention of robbing him, and had no idea he had left him for dead until he had heard of it afterwards. He had changed clothes with Batey, hiding his own clothes not far from the body in a hedge, where they were later recovered by the police. When they reached the Knobbies, Smith hid the club, which was also recovered later by the police acting on Armstrong's information. Armstrong, fearing to be seen with his companion after the confession, gave him a shilling and last saw him heading south with his dog. Smith had lodged with Ellen Atkinson of Blaydon, but he never returned there after the fatal deed.

It was remarked at the time that Smith was one of the men, under an assumed name, who had left the district without receiving his wages at the time of Dr. Stirling's murder. Smith was a notorious poacher and Dr. Stirling was shot and dragged into a wood frequented by sportsmen of that order.

A week after the murder, Smith was arrested whilst working in an iron mine at Whitby. He was recognised by a fellow workman from a newspaper description of Batey's clothes which he was still wearing.

Smith was very contrite after his arrest, and he expressed great sorrow at the deed. He seemed to have no relations, as the only people who came to see him in the death cell were the people with whom he had lodged. The lawyer who defended Smith played upon the point that Batey maybe had attacked Smith first as Batey was a hefty well-made man. Nevertheless Smith was sentenced to death, and, notwithstanding a recommendation for mercy, was executed on December 28th, 1860, in public, at Durham Jail.

* 1. The New Inn stood at the foot of Sandy Banks on the left hand side going towards Greenside. It was the meeting plate for many shooting matches and all the crackshots of the district shot here at one time.

‡ 2. William (Clogger) Parker kept the Black Boy Public house in Winlaton. It stood at the east end of Front Street on the site of the telephone box, exactly opposite the Congregational Chapel.

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 19, April 1971.

The Winlaton Story

Part 5. The Murder of Dr. Stirling

It happened late in 1855 when the Crimean War was in progress. Dr. Watson of The Hall, Burnopfield, engaged, on a temporary basis, a young assistant named Stirling. The young doctor was awaiting his call-up for service in the army. During the short time he was in Dr. Watson's employment his undoubted ability and cheerful personality won him many friends in the area. On Thursday, 1st November, 1855, after he had been at Burnopfield a little more than a week, he somewhat surprised Dr. Watson by not putting in his usual daily appearance at the surgery, after visiting patients at High Spen. As he did not appear on the Friday, Dr. Watson assumed that he had received his call-up papers for the army and had returned to Scotland.

During the weekend, however, his assistant's parents arrived from Scotland, and demanded an instant search for their son, as the mother had had a vivid dream in which her son had been murdered in the woods by two men

A search was made for the doctor and on the following Tuesday his body was discovered in the wood, where the road bends sharply at the end of Smailes Lane, which part has been renamed Stirling Lane, in memory of the young doctor. He had been shot by some person(s) lurking at the corner of the lane; his throat cut and his head and face battered by the butt end of a gun. While busy at this work, the murderers kept clapping their hands and shouting, imitating the setting of dogs onto game to drown his cries for help. This was affirmed by people working in the fields near the spot, at midday on the fatal day. His watch, ring and lancets had been taken from him, and his body deposited in a deep declivity where it was discovered, some say by his father. One eye-witness at the scene described how his hands were tightly clasped together and filled with grass, as if he had undergone a terrible struggle for life.

A large reward was offered for the apprehension of the killers. At first there appeared to have been no motive, but later it was thought to have been a case of mistaken identity. It was conjectured that Mr. John Errington, a farmer and innkeeper, who kept the Bute Arms at High Spen, was expected to pass down Smailes Lane about noon this day to pay his rent to Mr. John Bowes at Gibside. He was much in general appearance like the doctor, and the men, with their vision partly obscured by the bushes, were certain he was their man. They fired, and so the doctor received the bullet meant for the innkeeper.

This was a great shock to Mr. Errington, when he heard of his narrow escape, and it was many months before he would venture out of doors, especially at night. It was said that not being a very robust man, he never recovered from the shock, and died at a comparatively early age.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of the murder. One was named John Cain, better known as "Whisky Jack", who kept an illicit still by the banks of the Derwent, and the other, Richard Ryan, a blacksmith of Winlaton, and they were remanded to the Summer Assizes of July, 1856.

After a protracted trial of circumstantial evidence, a verdict of not guilty was returned. It was said that eleven jurymen were for a verdict of guilty, and one, reputedly a Quaker, against. It has also been said that this juryman was bribed, but others have it that it was well known who killed the doctor. Be that as it may no one was ever convicted of the murder.

The remains of Dr. Stirling were laid to rest in the churchyard at Tanfield, and his resting place is marked by a memorial stone erected by his bereaved parents on the right of the main entrance to the churchyard. At the time of the murder Rowlands Gill was a thinly populated area. Only the old farm-house at the Smailes was very prominent, with cottages dotted here and there and the Towneley Arms standing on the turnpike down the road. It was ten years after the murder when the Derwent Valley railway opened up the area. The name derived from Robert Rowland who owned lands here in 1621, and Gill, being the old north country name for river.

According to the News of the World in the last century, the spinney where the doctor's body was found was said to be haunted for a few nights every year by two ghosts which were always seen together. People passing by at nightfall heard frantic cries for help, succeeded by ghastly groans, and saw peering through the bushes at them two white faced figures with gleaming eyes. The spinney got such a bad name that as soon as it was dark, people gave it as wide a berth as possible. Whether the figures were any of Whisky Jack's colleagues endeavouring to keep their stills a secret, we do not know, but the theory was once put forward that two brothers who spent much time in the woods collecting species of moths may have been mistaken for the haunting as they went in search of insects at night.

Whisky Jack was a well known character throughout the north east and it is well worth it here to give a few notes on his rather hectic and extraordinary life.

John Kane, or "Cain", was born in Norfolk, the son of a gardener in 1797. It was here that Jack learned his first lesson on how to deceive His Majesty's Revenue, as his father had quite a sideline as a smuggler. On having some trouble with the authorities he left the district and for some years followed his gardening career, travelling throughout the country. On the Borders he fell in with some illegal whisky distillers and after a while he became the owner of a still. He made his way to the banks of the Derwent in the 1840s. Many stills found in the neighbourhood of Shotley Bridge and Berry Edge were attributed to him.

In the year 1846, he had a narrow escape from the law when Police Sergeant Waters and an excise officer waylaid him near Ebchester, with two barrels of whisky on the back of an ass. When the two officers grabbed the ass, the two barrels fell into the road, and in the confusion Jack made his escape. The police, knowing that Jack's still would not be far away, made a diligent search for it but before they could find it, Jack had retrieved the worm and had begun operations in the Guards Wood. Later he received twelve months imprisonment for operating a still at Greenside.

Jack and his companion were acquitted for the murder of Dr. Stirling, but this was not the end of the matter as there was an attempt to drive him from the neighbourhood. Mr. Joseph Cowen, (who evidently believed in his innocence) took him into his employment as a gardener, and for thirteen years he faithfully discharged the trust placed in him, being very highly thought of by the people of Blaydon and Stella. The effects of his roving life began to tell upon him, and in 1868 he was disabled by rheumatism, and believing a sea voyage to a warmer climate would be beneficial, he sailed to Australia. He remained there for a few years before returning to Blaydon. On September 10th, 1879, Jack died in Hexham workhouse at the advanced age of 82 years and his remains were interred in Hexham cemetery.

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 20, October 1971.

The Winlaton Story

Part 6. Public Houses

Winlaton seems to have had a surfeit of public-houses and beer houses compared with other villages of comparable size. No doubt owing to the occupations of the villagers the thirsts which had to be quenched were greater than normal. Although we still have a fair number of public houses left in Winlaton there has been a gradual reduction in the past years. At Blaydon Burn stood the "New Inn", which, in its day, was the meeting place for the shooting fraternity of the district. "The Rose and Crown" in North Street is reputed to be the oldest tavern in the area, a stone dated l621 being found during alterations carried out there a few years ago. Almost next door to the Rose and Crown stood a beer-house. Near the Sandhill is "The Turf", which in the days of Crowley was known as the "White Swan", while across the way stood the "New Inn" which stood derelict for many years. Its last purpose was an army billet during the war. Then we have the "Crown and Cannon" which was rebuilt in 1904.

In Back Street stood a very old pub "The Royal Oak", being better known as Carson's, after its tenant of many years standing or sometimes jokingly as the "Cricketers Arms", through the members of Blaydon Cricket Club meeting here after their matches. In the year 1828, the Wesleyan Methodists held their services in the long room of this establishment for a period of ten years, which was instrumental in the present day chapel being built in Litchfield Lane. It was here also, that the Chartists held their meetings in the period of near civil war in 1839. Two very old public houses dating from the time of the Crowleys stand in Front Street "The Queens Head" and "The Highlander". Next to "The Highlander" stood the "Old House Inn" and opposite, on the site of the telephone box the "Black Boy", where Thomas Batey spent his last hours before being murdered on Blaydon Bank in 1860. Both were demolished many years ago. Readers who are familiar with Winlaton will realise that there are two other inns remaining.

"The Commercial", which was known as the Corner House and the "Vulcan", not surprisingly named after the patron saint of smiths. Both of these taverns seem to have been used for public functions such as inquests, public meetings, sports and flower shows, indeed the Commercial was noted for its quoits team.

In 1767 there stood another public house in Winlaton named the Duke William, the site of which is unknown, but was probably built after 1746 and named after the victor of Culloden, William, Duke of Cumberland. The most famous public house in the Crowley era was a pub named the "Blacksmith's Arms", which stood on the south side of the Sandhill, upon the site of the new extension to Mr. Naylor's shop. It also had a nickname, being known as the "Clock" in later years and was burnt down to the ground in 1928. It was described in 1760 as consisting of, "seven good fire-rooms, with a brew-house and brewing vessels, malting stable and cockpit thereto belonging". Between 1745 and 1759 it was tenanted by one Joseph Errington, who, besides running the pub, was also a barber, bookmaker and a part time auctioneer. Behind the pub during Errington's occupation was the village cockpit. At an auction sale here at the Smith's Arms in the year 186O, a woman living at Dockendale Hall, bought an old bureau for 4/6d. After the sale, she with difficulty prevailed upon a nailer, a neighbour to assist her in removing it, he, in forcing it open by the middle, discovered some papers and loose gold. together they made it fast again; collected more help and took the bureau away whole. In getting it out, one of the papers fell and the gold jingling was noticed by one of the assistants, but the nailer saying it was only a bag with a few nails he had put out of his pocket, was believed. After getting it home and dismissing the assistant, the purchaser and her friend went to work and took it to pieces and were paid for their trouble with several purses and papers of gold to a considerable amount. She gave the nailer five papers untold, which enabled him to pay his debts and purchase a house and shop to work in, which "amounted to upwards of £200" and was told by her to apply again if he wanted more, hut he was satisfied and looked upon it as a particular case of providence, being "deep in debt and out of work, with a sick wife and a small family". It was remarkable that this piece of furniture had passed through several sales during the preceding forty years; that none of the gold was of a later coinage than James III; and was in possession of an opulent family in the neighbourhood of Newcastle in the year 1715.

These old publicans seem to have had many sidelines but of course they were not restricted by licensing laws as they are today. Every year until his death in 1754, Young Ambrose Crowley's birthday (August 14th) was celebrated by horse-racing on Snook Hill, foot racing in the Hall Garth and cock-fighting at the "Blacksmith's Arms". The publicans were the only ones allowed to sell refreshments at these functions.

This is a deep contrast to the darts matches and leek shows of today which seem far less colourful but probably safer.

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 21, April 1972.

The Winlaton Story

Part 7. St Anne's Chapel

This year, possibly about November, will be the four hundredth and third anniversary of the destruction of St. Anne's Chapel in Winlaton, and so could the following notes be used to possibly piece the story of its existence together.

Up until this time no documentary evidence is forthcoming to support the existence of a catholic chapel dedicated to St. Anne which tradition states, stood in Winlaton in the 16th century. Tradition, which sometimes speaks truthfully says, that the small catholic chapel of St. Anne was burnt down during the rebellion of the earls in 1569. How, when and why this chapel stood in the village is unknown, but the problem leaves large scope for conjecture.

William Hutchinson, the old reliable County Durham historian, writing in 1787 quotes, "that whenever the ground near to the site of the old chapel is broken to any depth, large quantities of human bones are frequently dug up".

The site of the chapel was on Front Street, where the road forks, with the Congregational Chapel covering the exact spot today. In 1890, Mr. T. C. Nicholson an architect of Blaydon, who is mainly remembered for having designed the schools at the bottom of Shibdon Bank and Winlaton Board Schools, excavated the site, but unfortunately nothing of note was found. This fact is hardly surprising considering the large amount of activity that has taken place upon the grounds of the chapel after its supposed destruction.

When Sir Ambrose Crowley came to Winlaton in 1691, he decided that his workmen needed spiritual comfort in the village instead of having to travel the long rocky road to Ryton Parish Church, so in 1703 he licensed Winlaton Hall as a place of worship. On April 17th, 1705, a subscription was commenced for building a chapel upon the ruins of the old chapel, which was finished and regularly pewed the following January. It had a gallery at the west end, with a turret and a clock, and it afforded accommodation for three hundred persons. This chapel was also dedicated to St. Anne, proving the tradition of the chapel was still strong in the beginning of Crowley's regime. Daily service was performed in the chapel by the Crowley firm's own chaplains who also combined these duties with those of a schoolmaster. The burial, baptism and marriage ceremonies were still carried out at Ryton.

In 1815 Winlaton was abandoned by the Crowleys, the chapel fell into decay and was demolished; then in 1816, a large school-room was erected upon the same site, by subscription aided by gifts from the National and the Diocesan School Societies, and from Lord Crewe's trustees. This school remained until about 1898 when the ground was prepared for yet another chapel, the Congregational, whose date of erection is quite plain to any passer-by. These activities have successfully obliterated all traces of the first chapel to St. Anne.

A little to the east of the chapel stood Winlaton Hall, which was owned by a noted catholic family, the Hodgsons of Hebburn, in whose possession it remained until 1698 when it passed into the hands of Lord Widdrington, who let it to Sir Ambrose Crowley. Sir Ambrose converted it into offices and warehouses, but also used it as living quarters. The Hall was described as "well situated, fit for a gentleman's family, with a large tract of meadow and pasture ground around the same, with several houses and smith's shops", the Crowleys vacated it in 1753. When this hall was built is uncertain, but Mr. Matthew Kirsop, who owned the hall (which was sometimes known as Crowley's Castle) said at its demolition (about 1935) that it was probably built about the 13th century. If this is true could St. Anne's Chapel have been connected with the hall, possibly as a chantry? On the estate map of 1632, there are no buildings marked on the site, but the stout old catholic knight, Sir Robert Hodgson, is known to have lived here, and he died in 1624, so no doubt the map is inaccurate.

There are some quite mysterious facts connected with the area of both chapel and hall which created quite a lot of local interest in 1936. During road repair work, the heavy roller the council men were using, broke into a subterranean passage between Winlaton and Blaydon Burn. The press were soon investigating the discovery and the headlines of the now defunct Evening World ran :-

SECRET PASSAGE AT WINLATON
MONKS ANCIENT HIDING PLACE
UNDERGROUND FIND BY WORKMEN

The story given was thus: "The mysterious tunnel which runs parallel with the south side of the highway, is about five feet deep, over two feet in width, and covered with stone slabs eight inches thick. It is two feet below the surface.

At each side of the cavity is solid rock, and where the workmen have holed in there is sufficient room to allow anyone to make a journey underground".

The reporter took the news of the find to the local member of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, Mr. M. Kirsop.

"We know", said Mr. Kirsop, "that there is a subterranean passage from what used to be the old castle at Winlaton, afterwards known as Belts' Buildings. This passage leads across to Hallgarth Farm (now the council depot). Fifty years ago one of the old stalwarts of Winlaton, whom I knew well, entered this passage way, which breaks off at right angles below Back Street and then runs to the Sandhill. He told me that he had walked underground as far as the Sandhill. Just below the Sandhill he came across a large stone table. The passage then leads to the Low Town End, and no doubt the tunnel which has been discovered is a continuation and may lead to Stella Hall - its termination".

It has never been verified how far the tunnel extends, although it is still in existence, nor has it ever been fully explored. The entrance is now securely sealed off but can still be traced today near to the grounds of the old hall and chapel.

The story was, that it was a means of communication for the monks of the early days, who inhabited the district, between Stella Hall and Winlaton, when the Scots were raiding far into County Durham. It is on record that Ryton and Whickham were often ravaged, the Scots at least once taking the church plate at Whickham, so Winlaton probably suffered too. Somehow this theory does not ring true and we can only conjecture, what was this passage and did it have any connection with St. Anne's Chapel?

One of the leaders of the Rebellion of the Earls, Charles, Earl of Westmorland, in July 1569, conveyed his manor of East and West Winlaton - which included Blaydon, Bates Houses, Thornley, Spen, Smailes, Sherburn, Lintz Ford and Barlow, and a free fishery in the Tyne to Robert Hodgson and William Selby for £2,000. The money obtained from this transaction was probably used to finance his ill-fated rising to restore in England the "old faith".

After the rebellion (which really had no chance of success), had failed, the north country suffered under Queen Elizabeth's unsparing vengeance. Sir George Bowes who was instrumental in the defeat of the rebellion, took on the task of retribution, and he boasted that for 60 miles in length and 20 miles in breadth, between Newcastle and Wetherby, there was hardly a town or a village where he had not executed one of the inhabitants. Two of the rebels were executed in Whickham on the village green. It is very likely this spiteful hand fell on Winlaton, once owned by his arch-enemy and now owned by another noted catholic, Sir Robert Hodgson. What could not be better than to burn down a catholic chapel, where possibly one of the ringleaders of the rebellion had worshipped? If this so happened what is the explanation of the bones, were they from this period or earlier, what of the subterranean passage from the grounds? One of these days evidence may be forthcoming to explain these riddles of the past, but until then, people must abide by their own theories.

First published in The Bellman (the Blaydon Urban District Council newsletter) No 22, November 1972.

The Winlaton Story

Part 8. Sir Ambrose Crowley

Anyone who has had any connections with Winlaton, must, at some time or other have heard the name of Crowley mentioned and wondered who this famous character was, as his name appears on many pages of Winlaton's history and indeed upon the history of our overseas empire. He was not a local man, being born at Stourbridge, in Worcester, in February, 1658, and his origins were not quite so humble as many historians have suggested, his father being a successful ironmonger, and a pioneer in the Black Country of the steelmaking industry, being also a prominent member of the Society of Friends.

In 1674 Ambrose Crowley was apprenticed to Clement Plumpstead, an ironmonger in the City of London, where he served his apprenticeship (so he tells us) with great diligence. In 1681, after finishing his apprenticeship, he set up in business on his own account for the manufacturing of frying-pans, nails, brads and other small miscellaneous items of ironware, in Carey Lane, London. His business must have flourished fairly well from the beginning, for twelve months later we find him marrying Mary Owen of Condover, in Shropshire, a daughter of a wealthy landowner, and he would hardly have married if his business prospects had not been bright.

It was in this same year (1682) that Crowley quarrelled with the midland merchants who had been supplying him with raw materials. After carefully weighing up the economic factors concerned he confidently transferred his factory to Sunderland in 1683. This move seemed madness to his associates, as for one hundred years the nail industry had been settled in the Midlands but it was not such a hair brained scheme as it appeared at the time. London then, was the central outlet for the bulk of trading carried on in the country, and all goods coming to the City from the Midlands had either to be carried on horseback or hauled in waggons across country. When we consider the state of the roads in those days, transport was slow and expenses were high compared to the amount of goods carried. What struck Crowley was that the Tyne colliers sailed to London in about four days and came back in ballast, so if they carried raw material for his works it would be at a nominal charge. From the continent it was only 12½p per ton, and if he had his rod iron slit there for nails the price was cheaper still, this being much cheaper than that which his Midland rivals could supply. Likewise there was plenty of shipping at Sunderland to take his finished goods southwards to his distribution warehouses in London. Here was another advantage for one cargo ship would carry roughly the equivalent of what one goods train would carry today. Crowley stated himself that food was one third cheaper than in the Midlands, so was coal, besides being of a better quality, plus there was plenty of accommodation for workmen when needed, for the skilled workers had to be imported as well as raw materials. So Crowley settled his first large scale manufactory at Sunderland.

The premises where he settled were in Low Street, Sunderland, and were only demolished in 1918. It seems to have been a substantial stone building standing on the river side, beneath a very high cliff, on top of which formerly stood St. Paul's Chapel believed to have been built in the time of Bede, and some of the old chapel stones were used by Crowley in his building operations, a stone above the door bore the date 1682.

By 1688, Crowley had about one hundred workers in his employment, some of them were Belgian Catholics from Liege, in Belgium, which was noted at that time for the proficiency of its slitting mills and the quality of its nails. For some reason, possibly because they were Catholics, these workmen were badly treated by the people of Sunderland, and Crowley had to petition the King for their protection. The petition was favourably received by King James II who was himself a catholic, and he instructed the Bishop of Durham to see to the protection of the petitioner's workmen. Whether the Bishop could not, or did not enforce these instructions, or whether the men of Sunderland took little heed of them, we do not know, but the persecutions continued. Crowley then decided to move from the area to more hospitable country in the Derwent Valley.

Although the persecution of his workmen was one of the reasons why he left Sunderland, there were others. One was the fact that there was not much room for expansion which Crowley was contemplating. In any extension of his manufacturing side steel would be needed, indeed Crowley had gained a good working knowledge of steel making from his father, the snag was that in the manufacture of steel, charcoal was needed, but unfortunately there was a ban on the cutting down of trees within three miles of the coast in those days, without wood there was no charcoal and this would hinder any expansion in steel making. The most powerful reason for moving would be the matter of capital for extra machinery and building operations. We do not know who Crowley's financier was, it could not have been his father, as his wealth for what it was, could. not have covered a fraction of the resources needed for the contemplated expansion of the works. Crowley's mysterious backer was probably Sir William Bowes of Gibside Hall, for in a letter to Sir William from Winlaton in 1702, Crowley states "the greatest of my grief is that I am not in London to show how sensible I am of the great favour I have had from you even to the enabling of me to establish the iron manufactory in this country which will be to your immortal glory". This letter shows that Sir William played quite a large part in the removal of Crowley's works from Sunderland and would partially explain why such an out of the way spot was picked, and so in 1690 Crowley arrived at Winlaton.

The first thing that had to be done was to establish the main offices for the firm to take care of the administration and to get the nailors working so that as far as possible trade would not be interrupted. First of all he used the existing buildings, of which there were not many, but later the firm was to build extensively at Winlaton, Winlaton Mill and Swalwell. After a few months settling down the great expansion began. In April 1691, Crowley leased the water corn-mill and fulling mill with four acres of ground at Winlaton Mill for 99 years, with liberty to build engines and houses for the manufacturing of iron, and also to dig in the adjoining grounds and quarries for stone and clay to be used for building purposes.

Winlaton Mill in 1691, was a sparsely inhabited and secluded spot consisting of about half a dozen buildings including the corn-mill with about fifteen to twenty inhabitants, mainly farmers. The main thing the site possessed was water power from the Derwent which is very fast flowing, this being lacking at Sunderland. By 1695, building was well advanced and the plan of the works was taking shape while Crowley was recruiting more workmen in London, for what premises would suit a nailor was quite suitable for a chainmaker, or for making locks, frying pans and almost any small item of smith work, so the works continued to expand, by 1700 the steel furnace was finished and plans for the slitting mill were going ahead. The intriguing part of the slitting mill was that most of it was made in London and then shipped by sea to Winlaton Mill, an early example of prefabrication. From 1702 to 1703, instructions poured from Crowley in London to the staff at Winlaton and Winlaton Mill, and we are fortunate in their survival although the plans which accompanied the letters have been lost, they still give a wealth of information.

In 1701, Crowley built a warehouse at Blaydon, being the nearest point on the south bank of the Tyne to Winlaton and was equally convenient to Winlaton Mill. Here the bar iron which was the raw material for the factory was landed, and the finished goods were packed mainly in barrels and sacks, then were loaded into keels for carriage down the river to Newcastle, where they were then transhipped to London.

The first opposition Crowley had to encounter was in 1702, when a partnership consisting of Edward Harrison, William Bayliss and John Arrowsmith, acquired property at Swalwell with a view to setting up an iron-works there (Harrison had been an old employee of Crowley). On the 25th March, 1702, they took a lease of a corn mill at Swalwell known as the Bishop's Mill, together with the mill dam and race. Three months later they acquired another corn mill in Swalwell called the Holm Mill, with the closes called the Holm Close and High Stammers Close. In 1703, they leased more land for the slitting and manufacture of iron, with way-leave from Swalwell, behind the Garden Close. Evidently these works were assuming a considerable scale for in 1704 Crowley received information that many of his men had left his employment to work for Harrison at Swalwell.

How much of a threat these works posed to Crowley it is not known, but by 1707 Crowley managed to buy them out, and this acquisition marks the high tide of his expansion. Some smaller additions to the firm's assets were made later, but when the necessary alterations were effected at Swalwell by 1709, the main structure of the Crowley works as it remained for over a century was completed. In fact by 1712, Crowley was prepared to complete any sort of ironware, you only had to send your request to Winlaton and any sort, shape or size would be executed. Amazingly, all of this time, Crowley had continued to live in London, although he came north fairly often. It is not known where he resided until in 1711 he leased Old Axwell Hall in the Parish of Whickham (not to be confused with the present Axwell Hall) and various members of the family resided here until 1743, when they came to Winlaton Hall.

Though the foundations of this enterprise had been laid at Sunderland, the first real step was made in 1691 at Winlaton, so in sixteen years one man had created the greatest industrial expansion of his age. Fittingly in his crowning year Crowley received his knighthood in 1707. He became a director of the South Sea Company, and in 1713 he was elected MP for Andover, but before he could take his seat he died suddenly on 7th October, 1713, and was buried at the Parish Church in Mitcham, Surrey, his wife later being buried beside him.