Ushaw Moor Memories

Use this section to tell us about your working life in the village from years gone by. The hard and often dangerous work of the miner which dominated so much of this area. The busy shop assistants always there to help.

 

Let us know your thoughts

 

Paul :) 

 

 

 

Memories of New Brancepeth and Ushaw Moor

I offer this piece, having been inspired by the heart warming articles written by Mr McLoughlin and others. Why do we indulge in going back? From my point of view it is partly to enable me to understand why I am what I am today. It is a case of looking at my roots and tracing subsequent developments. It is also a pleasure to look back and there is nothing wrong with doing that, as long as one lives in the present and has hopes and plans for the future.

My mother, Lilian, was one of three daughters born to Richard "Dickie'' Hope and Ethel Hope. The others were Ethel and Doreen. She also had a brother, Norman. Ethel [the daughter] died in 1982. My mother died in 1984. Norman currently lives in Brandon with his sister Doreen. I mention such detail because I am conscious that some of their generation might well remember them.

I attended the New Brancepeth infants and junior school before moving to Ushaw Moor in 1954.I remember my first day at Ushaw Moor County School; my first teacher was Mr Spence, who went on to marry a fellow teacher, Miss Marr. I failed the 11 plus examination and went to Ushaw Moor Modern School. I am aware that the examination was based on a false premise: that intelligence could be measured without certain factors, including cultural advantages, coming into play. The creator of the tests that inspired the 11 plus, Cyril Burt, has been largely discredited. Fortunately quite a few of the 75 or so per cent who were "rejected'' at the age of 11 went on to prove how unfair the system was.

Many worthy pupils from New Brancepeth joined pupils from Ushaw Moor County School and Bearpark School to form Ushaw Moor Modern School in early April 1959: Malcolm Gibb, Edith Smith and Pauline Newman come to mind but I could list several more. Edith and Pauline became members of the school netball team and Malcolm, the gentle giant, should in my view have been picked to play for the school football team. The Ushaw Moor County football team had done very well in 1958/59, having won the league cup and achieved runners up spot in the top [division A] league. Phillip Stoddard was a prolific scorer for us and skipper David Maddocks was a tower of strength at centre half. The Modern School team, despite appearing fairly good on paper, finished about third off bottom in division A in 1959/60.We lost too many games by the odd goal. I was that team's captain but looking back I was not a very expressive leader, partly I suppose, because of my youth.

There are some incidents from my childhood that have stuck in my memory and one other that was relayed to me by my stepfather, Don Albone. In about 1950, according to my late stepfather, a worker at New Brancepeth Colliery, I do not know his name, lost a limb as a result of working alongside one of the pit locomotives. My stepfather, who was one of the locomotive drivers, told me that he was incensed by the colliery management's subsequent treatment of that man and he nearly convinced the colliery workers to come out on strike. At roughly the same period of time a child was rushed to hospital in Durham but very sadly died [I think of appendicitis]. My family lived at the same address on the bottom floor, the child and her family lived on the top floor.

Finally I remember when that brilliant footballer, Len Shackleton, came to Ushaw Moor in the late 1950s to formerly reopen a men's hairdressing shop, which was located a little above the Ushaw Moor Working Men's Club.

W Bell