June 2010

‘Round the County Day’ and 'Pont'

From all points of the compass they came, from Prudhoe to Ponteland, from Wooler to North Shields, to attend what was truly a ‘Round the County Day’. Organised by the Society on behalf of the Association of Northumberland Local History Societies, June 19th was a day to remember, attended by over a hundred people who convened first at St Lawrence Church to hear a talk from Andy Webber. He recounted the story of the North Wall restoration: how a wall that leaned alarmingly was made safe, so that the church could continue to function and stand firm in the community, how opinions differed and finally agreed on the method to be used, how discoveries were made in the process that added to our knowledge – a talk that encompassed the technicalities as well as the background history and the considerable efforts that had gone into fund-raising..

Our second speaker, Alex Melville-Mason explained that she had relied largely upon her late mother’s research when compiling her talk about their relative, the Punch cartoonist known as Pont, whose family name was Laidler. Their home had been Warkworth House before it became an hotel. With clever use of illustration and some very interesting old photographs Alex gave us a graphic picture of Pont’s life, sadly shortened by ill-health. We were treated to an entertaining selection of his cartoons, published in Punch magazine in the earlier part of the twentieth century, and still able to move us to wry laughter with their universal themes.

Afterward groups of people joined guided tours, when there was an opportunity to view the new buttresses and hear a little about the history of the village as they made their way to the URC Church Hall, where lunch was served. There followed a presentation by our renowned Peter Thompson on his life and work as a master wheelwright and carpenter. He delighted everyone with the relaxed and humorous manner with which he explained the complicated procedure of making a wheel, relating anecdotes from his own experiences along the way.

 Our members were out in force to organise and host this important occasion - grateful thanks go to all who were involved and particularly to St Lawrence Church and the United Reformed Church who very kindly offered us their facilities.

MEETINGS BEGIN AGAIN on October 4th, when we hold our Court Leet Supper at the Sun Hotel. This will be followed by a talk entitled ‘The Ink is Frozen’, an account of Belford Presbyterian School with Val Glass.
Further information from Diana Webber Tel: 01665 713439

March 2010
‘A Poor Little House’
with Jane Bowen

This was an unusual subject, brought to life with great skill and enthusiasm.
The house in question was Belford’s workhouse, put up as a result of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and only demolished eight years ago. Jane presented the results of her meticulous research against the changing background of the early nineteenth century when people began to move to towns to work in factories. The old system of sending needy people back to their own parishes had become difficult to operate, leading to a division of the country into Unions, each with a responsibility to make provision for paupers and vagrants .The Belford area, though only small, had its own Union because, so it was said, their people would find it difficult get on with their neighbours if they were forced to join Glendale, Alnwick or Berwick Union!Land was leased from the Squire, and the first Board of Guardians was elected in 1836 from people of local standing. Plans for the building were drawn up by a Newcastle architect which included men’s and women’s accommodation, living space for the Master and his wife, a dining area,  two tiny sick rooms, a Board Room and a Stone -breaking Yard.  An Infirmary was added in 1870.Life in the Workhouse was meant to be tough – inmates were expected to work hard, breaking stone, chopping wood, picking oakum and other unpleasant chores. It was thought that people would otherwise find it an easy option. Indeed there is a record of someone who had a summer job, faking illness so as to be taken in for the winter. However, after the first ten years, Belford never had more than twenty people and the regime was less harsh than in the larger establishments. Food was quite adequate, although very stodgy, and as the century progressed we hear of crafts being taught and regular outings. Improvements were made in working methods and gradually the punitive element disappeared, to be replaced by the beginnings of state responsibility for the welfare of the sick and elderly, reflected in the modern care homes.

Next meeting Monday April 12th: The Last Train to Lindisfarne, with Alistair Sinton. Meetings take place at the Sun Hotel, Warkworth, 7.30 pm.

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Dec 2008

“A Captain in the Navy of Queen Anne”

The speaker at our December meeting was one of our members, Dr. John West, who has spent his professional life in education and is a noted historian with several books to his name. Speaking without notes John told us the true story of Edmund Lechmere who was born into an important and well-connected Worcestershire family in 1677.

At the age of fifteen the young Edmund was “sent for a sailor” as a gentleman volunteer and, presumably because he wasn’t fully grown, “found his sword too long!” Edmund was a prolific letter writer, corresponding mainly with his grandfather, a judge, and his mother. His letters reveal a young man on the brink of adventure who found everything in his new life exciting and wondered, on receiving a parcel of books from his mother, “of what use are Latin books to me?”

Using Edmund’s story as his vehicle John skilfully steered us through a history of the British Navy in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. We learned of the privations of life at sea, of the perils of piracy and Yellow Fever. We heard of action against the French and fighting on the Spanish Main, of how excited Edmund was to experience hand to hand combat with cutlasses and muskets and of the four thousand mile journey to Jamaica in 1698 in pursuit of the infamous Captain Kidd.   
We followed the progress of Admirals Rooke and Benbow and learned how Edmund was made captain of his own ship the “Lyme” at the age of twenty.

Sadly Edmund’s glittering career was cut short when he was shot through the legs during a six-day battle against the French: notwithstanding he had a chair brought so that he could continue to direct the battle more closely but was mortally wounded and died several days later at the age of twenty-six.

To illustrate his talk John brought a small exhibition of documents and books and a beautifully crafted model which he himself had made of Captain Edmund Lechmere’s ship.

Dr West’s was enthusiastically received by an appreciative audience and he was warmly thanked by Dr Jim Teasdale.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 5th January when our speaker will be Rev. Ben Hopkinson who will speak on “Walking, and Panting, in Bhutan”.

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Feb 2009

"People of the Cheviots"

To a seasoned observer there is more than meets the eye initially when out for a walk in the Cheviots: this was the theme of the February meeting when John Thompson of the Alnwick Camera Club gave his slide presentation on ‘People of the Cheviots’.

Drawing on his long experience of walking the territory, John had used his camera to produce wonderfully evocative images in which he identified clues to former occupants of the land. Thus, breathtaking views of remote corners of the Cheviots, proved on closer examination to hold a secret: these wild and windswept uplands had once supported a community of farmsteads and enclosures, connected by ancient trackways like Clennell Street, which snaked across the landscape. Today only a handful of hill sheep farms remains tucked away against the fells, much changed in appearance through the centuries: forest clearance began in the Bronze Age and continued during the Iron Age, while sheep-grazing in the 19th century  has left a bare landscape punctuated by the occasional plantation.

Interesting markings and linear features were detectable within a time-span that dated from Bronze Age burials and settlements such as Yeavering Bell to the ruined farmsteads of Victorian times. In the Middle Ages large tracts of land had been owned by Newminster Abbey: monks would have come out from Morpeth to work the land in the summer months. Adjoining the settlements, intricate patterns of intensive rig and furrow stood out in afternoon light.

The Romans had left their mark in the shape of square marching camps and forts, associated with Dere Street. At Chew Green the outlines of five different forts were visible, with a Roman training area within a nearby Iron Age hill fort. At Brough Law a huge hill fort, dating from 310 BC, was surrounded by stone walls which would have been a resplendent shade of pink when new. The Votadini tribe built over two hundred forts in prominent positions on the hilltops, where outlines of buildings and enclosures showed up clearly within the ramparts. Every slide had a story to tell about the past history of the landscape. We were entranced by the artistry of the photographs and intrigued by the detective work which had yielded such a wealth of information.

 Keith McHugh expressed our appreciation to John Thompson for his most knowledgeable talk.

The next meeting will be held on Monday March 2nd, , at the Sun Hotel, when the speaker will be Justin Blake on the subject of ‘Recent Discoveries at Vindolanda’

April 2009
"Field Names and Places in Northumberland"

At the April meeting members welcomed the well-known writer and archaeologist, Stan Beckensall, who shared his extensive knowledge of ancient field names and places in Northumberland.
 
With particular reference to Warkworth and neighbouring villages he illustrated his talk with aerial photographs, taken by himself from a micro-light aircraft. During extensive research into early documents, he had been fortunate enough to have access to Norton’s map of 1620 in the Northumberland Estate archive. This beautifully painted map lists all the old field names in the area, the meanings of which we were shown how to work out. For instance, anything with the word ‘havers’ meant that oats were grown there. ‘Leazes’ is the plural of ‘lea’ or ‘ley’, meaning a meadow. ‘Haugh’ is flat, alluvial land, while ‘heugh’ means a cliff. In Warkworth the land on which the cemetery now stands was known as the ‘tenterhaugh’, being the place where cloth- stretching frames were to be found. ‘The Butts’ were what was left over at the end of the field after ploughing and ‘baulks’ were the ridges between the furrows. Thus one can learn a lot about farming and land use in the Middle Ages simply from looking at the field names.

Place-names can be broken down into their constituent parts: Warkworth has two elements, the first meaning the name of a woman ‘Werca’ and the second, ‘worth’, meaning a settlement. Amble (Anna’s promontory) and Acklington (settlement of Aeccela) were also named after people. Many names derive from features of the landscape, such as Cambo (ridge), or from vegetation, such as Bockenfield (beech). Others are named after creatures: Bewick is a farm with bees and Coquet is thought to mean ‘woodland where game birds live’, although a very early spelling may mean ‘red river’.

Dr Beckensall pointed out that in spite of marauding Vikings and the later Norman conquest, most of our Northumbrian place-names are Old English.
The title of his latest book is ‘Northumberland’s Hidden History’ published by Amberley Press.

The next meeting of the History Society will be on Monday May 11th at the Sun Hotel, 7.30 pm when Alec Swailes will present ‘Music, Humour, Poetry and Songs of Northumberland’. This will be followed by the Annual General Meeting.

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The weather was glorious, it was a good evening for gardening, there was a cricket match in the village and an event at the village school, in addition to all this Newcastle was playing Middlesbrough in a “do or die” match shown on television and we’d decided to invite two well-known entertainers to sugar the pill for our Annual General Meeting; would anyone turn up?

We needn’t have worried, there was a good turn out. The AGM was conducted in record time and the evening proper went with a swing.Our entertainers were Alex Swailes MBE, well-known Northumbrian raconteur and singer and Colin Bradford, accordionist and composer, equally well-known for his involvement with Alnwick International Music Festival. They transported us around Northumberland from Tyne to Tweed with stories, poems, songs and melodies reflecting the variety of life-style from the coalmining area of the southeast to the rural pastures of the west and north.We heard poetry written by miners and shepherds, stories and anecdotes of lives lived long ago expressing a philosophy no different from our own. Throughout there was the vein of humour that characterises Alec Swailes’ presentation and in counterpoint the lilting music of Northumberland.Alec and Colin’s passion for all things Northumbrian was enthusiastically transmitted to their audience and whether Northumbrian by birth or by adoption we all joined in singing the Blaydon Races. Alec and Colin were thanked by Alan Hellawell for a most enjoyable evening.

The new season of the society begins on Monday 5 October when we look forward to meeting old friends and welcoming new members and visitors.

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In November we welcomed Liz O’Donnell, who presented a selection of recorded voices from the Oral History Collection in the Northumberland Record Office at Woodhorn Museum. Nowadays historians recognise that oral history is an important primary source of information and provides a fascinating link with our recent past. It tells the story of ordinary people, whose lives would otherwise pass unnoticed.

The first recordings dated from the 1970’s: we heard the voice of a suffragette, a contemporary of Emily Davidson, talking about her acquaintance with the Pankhurst family; this was followed by a man who enlisted in the Tyneside Scottish Regiment at Blyth, describing his experiences in the First World War, when he chose to work down the German mines rather than go to a POW camp. Then came the voice of Major Browne, of Callaly Castle, reminiscing about the installation of electricity and telephones there, at the end of the 19th century.

Woodhorn Museum currently has an exhibition entitled ‘Northumberland at War’: Liz explained how her two-year project enabled them to collect recordings from more than a hundred different people, many  of whom were able to lend photographs and documents to be copied and put in the collection. She and her assistant recorded  members of the Home Guard, the ATS, former Japanese prisoners of war and many different trades and professions. We heard the voices of one of the Bevin Boys, a former Land Army girl, an evacuee and a German prisoner of war with a great sense of humour. Their voices brought the past to life, enriching our knowledge in a very special way. All these recordings are available to hear at the Museum and can be sampled online through the County Council or the museum web-sites.

At our next meeting on December 7th at 7.30 pm in the Sun Hotel, please join us for ‘Songs and Stories of Northumberland’ with Geoff Hughes, accompanied by seasonal refreshments.

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Warkworth History Society

In the year 2000 Warkworth History Society invited local people to donate, or lend for copying, documentary material and photographs for a proposed Millennium Exhibition which was to depict life in and around the village during the Twentieth Century.

Their generous response, which included artefacts, costumes and uniforms as well as oral history, formed the basis of a fascinating exhibition staged in Saint Lawrence’s Church during August 2000. The first ten days of the Exhibition saw two thousand visitors, young and old, from near and far, signing the visitors’ book.
Although we didn’t realise it at the time, this was the beginning of the Warkworth History Society Archive.

Over the ensuing years more and more documents, letters and photographs were donated and more research carried out until, towards the end of 2007, one of our members, Dr. John West a noted historian and archivist, agreed to catalogue our collection.

The resulting Archive Catalogue runs to over two hundred pages and references one hundred documents and fourteen hundred photographs held on compact disc: it is not merely a list but a synopsis of the material held by the Society. In the foreword to the catalogue, Dr. West comments “Very few villages of Warkworth’s size, possess such a far-reaching collection of significant records. Some have a castle, a burgage structure or a manor court. Most places can prompt the oral history of the oldest inhabitants; many retain the minutes of an active Parish Council and a lively Victorian school; only a few keep the records of a Court Leet or the local Militia; Tithe and Enclosure records and plans, like Census returns are commonplace; Warkworth houses all of these and adds a feast of Pageants, Flower Shows and a village in award-winning bloom. Nor does Warkworth stand alone; three lively folders of documents add friendly contact with Warkworths in Canada, New Zealand and Australia."

N.B. The Society also has contact with Warkworth in Northamptonshire although, to date, this information has not been catalogued.

Our intention has always been to donate copies of the catalogue to local museums, libraries and schools and through the generosity of Warkworth Parish Council, who made a donation of £100.00, we are now able to do this.

Such interest has been shown in the Archive Catalogue, that the Society has decided to offer it for sale at £10.00 per copy.

The original material described in the catalogue can be accessed, though not removed, by contacting Joan Hellawell (tel. No. 01665  711 292) who will also take orders for the catalogue.

The following gives a taster of some of the material held:
An excerpt from the will of William Younger dated 1812.
Extract from Peter Forsyth’s story and a photo of hay-making with horses.
A poem from a Court Leet dinner.

WARKWORTH
Heritage Walks

Warkworth History Society

The society’s December meeting, “Christmas Songs and Stories” led by Geoff Hughes, was combined with the launch of our guide book, “Warkworth Heritage Walks”. We were delighted to welcome members of Amble Photographic Group, Warkworth Walkers and others who had helped us in the production of the book and enjoyed a convivial evening together.

The book was sponsored by Awards for All, a joint Lottery grants scheme which supports a range of community activities, with a supplementary grant of £250.00 from Warkworth Parish Council, the remainder of the cost being met by the History Society. It comprises a brief history of Warkworth and includes seven walks in and around the village. Each walk is accompanied by an easy to read map, information on the history and natural history en route and stunning photographs.

Work on the book took nine months to complete and involved not only History Society members but also the aforementioned Amble Photographic Group, Warkworth Walkers and many individual members of the community. The book was designed by Metromedia and Design Ltd. The History Society would like to thank them all; this was truly a community effort and the resulting publication is a tribute to their work.

Copies of the guide book are now on sale in Warkworth Village Store, The Bookworm, (Post Office)  Amble and The Flower Centre, Amble and local tourist centres at a price of £5.00 each.
The books can be ordered by phone from 01665 713 439 or 01665 710 180.

Happy walking!