Ushaw Moor Memories

My family was one of the first sixteen families to move onto the new council housing in Ushaw Moor in January 1947. To move from 29 Harvey Street in New Brancepeth into 38 Victoria Court, Ushaw Moor, was a cultural shock even at eight years old. An indoor flush toilet, hot and cold running water and a bath was truly out of this world. It was like winning the Lottery. The first sixteen families were housed in the last four and the first eight numbered houses in Whitehouse Court. We were housed in the last numbered four houses in Victoria Court. I could write a book about those early years in Ushaw Moor but people would not be interested. I find it odd that people do not write their memories for future generations. The first winter there was horrific. I remember waking up to find the snow drifted up to the bedroom windows. The country was at a halt for a number of weeks but the enjoyment from the snow was great for an eight year old. I watched fields being eaten up by housing as the whole of the estate was built up over the next ten years, Oakridge Road up to Ash Avenue, was the second phase, people were housed in decent housing from the colliery rows. Progress was made in strides then, everything was new and exciting after the austerity of the war years. The end of rationing, St. Josephs school and Church, the Store on Durham Road, the freedom to roam down the beck, and the companionship of boyhood friends made life happy. My Dad died in September, 1947, in the County Hospital at the top of North Road in Durham. This was a huge blow but my Mam, God Bless her, took over the responsibility of raising her five children and made a fantastic job of it. Many happy memories. I hope someone reads this and adds their own memories.

BRIAN MC LOUGHLIN

Location: Hebburn, Tyne & Wear

North East History : Echo Memories: "Industrial unrest brings hard times and even harder bosses

By David Simpson

Ushaw Moor's original colliery village overlooked the colliery threequarters of a mile west of the present village and was the scene of a troublesome strike in the 1880s. The colliery owner, Henry Chaytor, of Witton Castle, was an uncompromising master.

Sanitary conditions in his terraces were appalling and wooden huts housing additional miners were described as 'the most wretched dwellings it was possible to conceive'.

Conditions in Chaytor's mine were no better, and men complained of working in 18in of water. Chaytor hated unions and appointed Thomas Robinson, a ruthless colliery manager who assigned the best seams to his favourite employees and reduced the wages of others. Robinson was especially hard on miners with union connections. Before 1881, two union representatives were removed from the colliery."

more......

Broughs store at the bottom

of Station Road operated a delivery service which covered a large

area of the Deerness Valley. They created employment for at least

22 people in 1914.

mike kipling

Location: ushaw moor

Ushaw Moor Memories:

some one was talking about a policeman called JOCK, that was jock allen he did ride a green motorcycle and he was killed in an axxident while riding it. i was raised in ushaw moor, i was born 26/2/1946 and lived my early years at the top end of ushaw terrace. we then moved to bracken court number 4 we were one of the first to move into the new houses. i remember climing on the partly built houses as they built the rest of bracken court and oak ridge road. does anyone rember the little store at the bottom of bracken court. i rember two of the storemen that used to run it. first there was chris kitchener, who lived just through the cut. then there was hugh gradey who lived along oak ridge road. i still remember the che mist shop ar the bottom of station road on the righthand side. the general store in the same area run by defty,s then the proctors. chip shops we had a boat loads, betty,s,hoppers, lukes, babs, jacksons. i,ll close for now and come back on again at a later date with more blasts from the past hoppers

Durham Miner Project - Ushaw Moor 1800 to Present - Timeline: "1900April  one fatal accident on the surface.

1903December  one man run over by tub.

190916th February  Stanley Pit Disaster. The explosion caused the loss of 175 men and boys.

1932November  2 lives lost due to explosion of firedamp."

Tonight I would like to concentrate on the building where Mc Cormicks shop is now situated in Durham Road. This building was constructed in the years leading up to the First World War by the New Brancepth Cooperative Society. If we start from the first department of the store from the Broompark end then this was the Greengrocery department. There was a female employee worked in this department but I cannot remember her name. Next was the Butchery Department. The butcher was Norman Ridley and he lived in a flat behind the Butchers shop. The butchers shop was huge and in the war years when I was a child there was a lack of fresh meat. The shop was spotless and you could literally eat your food off the floor. (My Dad was serving his time as a bricklayer in 1915 on this site when as an eighteen year old boy he volunteered for the Army and enlisted with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.) The thing that fascinated me as a young child was the size of the walk in fridge in the butchers shop. There were no domestic fridges in those days; it was the first fridge I can remember.

Next to the Butchers traveling towards the Flass was a loading area which was used among other things to take goods up to the Hardware Department upstairs in the store by means of a pulley system. The main door to the store led into the Grocery and Hardware Departments. The stairs leading to the Hardware Department rose directly from the main door. It was a very limited magic world of shoes, bedding, lino, furniture, cloth, buttons, cottons, and high ceilings. The man in charge was Eddie Manford whose family originated from Pringle Place at New Brancepeth. If you turned to the right inside the main door you entered the magic world of the Grocery Department. Butter and cheese came in barrels in those days, the wooden barrels were stripped from their contents and the butter or cheese was cut into portions with thin steel wires. Everything was measured out and placed into strong paper bags and it was magic to watch sugar, flour, raisins, currants, biscuits, and other commodities expertly weighed and bagged very quickly. The men behind the counters were known personally, Kit Kitchen Billy Calvert amongst them and they were on first name terms with all customers. The bill was made out by the server but you took the bill to the office. The "office" was a small area enclosed by a wooden partition which looked out onto Durham Road. There was a small hatch where the transaction took place. The lady, again I cannot remember her name took the bill and asked for your check number. She then gave you a small paper check which registered the money you had spent The smell in the different departments were magic, numerous unwrapped commodities side by side, they blended to create individual smells for each Department. Last but not least was the Cobblers, this situated on the gable end of the store where the road led down to High View. The smell of leather and chemicals in the polishes was magic, plus the sound of the high speed lathes, or a knife cutting leather and the nails being hammered into the leather repairs. Danny Henderson from Mew Brancepeth worked there and I knew the cobbler as "Cody" who I think came from Esh Winning. Our check number was 27. An article on the "Dividend" is in the pipeline. I hope readers enjoy this and add their own memories to this excellent website. Please add to this article.

Durham City Villages: "The history of the Deerness valley goes back a long way as a Roman road called DERE STREET passed through this area. It crossed the River Deerness somewhere between Ushaw moor and Esh on its way towards the Roman fort at Lanchester.
Read more about the history of the Durham City villages in the archives of
The Northern Echo's Durham Memories by David Simpson
Memories by David Simpson

Soldier Story.com - Links from I was There , an autobiography by Frank Proctor:

"The Soldier at sea before D-Day:

I never experienced any cringing with those aboard. I suppose they were all trained soldiers ready to do what soldiers are expected to do. So whatever was at hand we would get on with it, whether it was enjoying the canned fruit, battling the very rough sea, taking cover from hostile aircraft, or discussing the chances of survival. As one lad lightly commented when we were strafed at random by a German aircraft, 'I thought one of those bullets had my name on it.' It had grazed his cheek. This was a survival game. "

A Passage from A Soldiers Story by Frank Proctor, former resident of Ushaw Moor,.

I have a vivid memory of time I spent in this village, as a child I remember hardly ever being in the house, I was either up the woods, near ushaw college, or down the beck, "catchin minners". Life seemed so much better then. Well those were the days, by the way,, great site....:)