Ushaw Moor Memories

I had been teaching at New Brancepeth since 1951 when the big change came about.I transferred to Ushaw Moor with Mrs E Barlow, Mrs E Wilson and Mr G Hill [who became Deputy Headmaster] on 7th of April 1959,together with senior pupils from the school. Among those pupils were Edith Smith, Gillian Cruddace, Hazel Dickinson, Ann Mountain, Ann Dowson, Audrey Thompson, Pauline Newman, Jean Metcalfe, Malcolm Gibb and Thomas Patterson. Another I recall was Peter Barella who became a senior police officer in Northumberland. I quite frequently bump into Ann Mountain and Ann Dowson and always enjoy having a little chat with them.

At first I think that all pupils and staff of the new school were wary as to how we'd all settle but we need not have worried because everything seemed to go well with no great problems, despite the upheaval. I didn't notice any signs of rivalry between pupils from the three contributory schools.

Harry lived at Neville's Cross and taught maths and physical education at Ushaw Moor County School and then, from April 1959, at Ushaw Moor Modern School [since renamed]. If he spotted a pupil talking in class he often propelled a piece of chalk at great speed towards the pupils ear. I recall Harry's excellent teaching of maths and I know that a formal inspection report of the school described his teaching as distinguished.

Not every pupil liked him but of course he was not there to be liked; he was there to inspire. He gave me a sense of worth and no doubt influenced, very positively, the future progress of many pupils.

Harry also ran the school football team and gave much encouragement to the players, without getting as excited as some modern over the top managers! He did not actually coach - none of that post Hungarian 1953 stuff. It was one goalkeeper, two fullbacks, a centre half, two half backs and five forwards. 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 etc were a vague notion then. Having said that we once played the Durham Johnson School in a cuptie and although we opened the scoring after about five minutes, thanks to Tommy Wilkinson our right back, the opposition hardly broke sweat in beating us 3-1. I believe that they were, on average, a year older than us. Perhaps Harry should have asked us to switch to 4-2-4! In another game we were leading Sherburn County School 11-0 when Harry blew for time 15 minutes early. That was compassion at our expense.

I left my job at Brough's shop, situated at the bottom of Station Road, in the summer of 1947. My new job was at Ushaw Moor colliery and it meant a pay increase, from three pounds to five pounds per week.I was thinking about marriage to my girlfriend Ethel and the extra money was very important.

My first job at the pit involved 'pulling out' at the pit shaft bottom; that meant moving coal tubs and coupling them up for sending into the pit. After a few months I became what was called a linesman.It also involved dust sampling and air measurement. The air measurement was a test for carbon monoxide.

In about 1954 I became a coal hewer [the coal getter]and my equipment was a 'windy pick', which used compressed air. It was smaller and lighter than the old fashioned hand pick;  it was about 8 lbs lighter and easier to use, especially when there was a need to lie down on the coal face.

I left Ushaw Moor at one point to become a trainer of face workers at Esh Winning colliery. I also did some work at Brancepeth colliery. By 1967 I was a shotfirer/deputy at Bearpark. Although coal face workers on piece work could earn more than me, I had the benefit of a regular staff wage; the pension arrangements were also a consideration.

- Let there be light! Electric light came to Ushaw Moor

-I could not trace any fatalities at Ushaw Moor Colliery but sadly there were at least three at New Brancepeth, including 14 year old William Smith. I wonder if he was related to my old school chum Edith Smith

-King Edward succeeded Queen Victoria but I cannot imagine that would have in anyway improved the lot of Ushaw Moor residents.

-Although tinned food was becoming common in England from about 1875, it would have been a luxury in Ushaw Moor in 1901. How many people in Ushaw Moor would have possessed a tin opener at that time?

1279
According to current Durham University students there was a rumour that the village of Ushaw Moor was attacked by the cult of Saudan, god of tourture [their spelling] on 06/02/1279. The reference for that is the university's Treasure Trap Society - a fantasy mediaevil world. If we have any young readers please do not quote any of that in your GCSE history script. Thank you.

SOME OF THE PEOPLE LIVING IN USHAW MOOR IN 1901

Happy New Year.

There is a lot of name dropping in this article and I hope it stimulates your memories of old family links and/or helpful trades people.

I never set out to monopolise Paul's 'memories' facility but unless more people, in the age group 40 to 100 or so, contribute to it, it is going to look a bit like monopoly [with a few notable writers being the exceptions].
Continuing with the above theme I have had a look at the Waterhouses Community Site and one of its projects is to compile a collection of memories by taking oral evidence. Perhaps someone, or some people, would be willing to do that on behalf of Ushaw Moor and then feed some of the contributions to Paul to consider placing them on his terrific Ushaw Moor site.

SOME OF THE BUSINESS PEOPLE IN STATION ROAD IN THE 1930s [ SOME OF THEM TRADED  BEFORE AND AFTER THAT DECADE]

First of all let us remind ourselves of the situation that was developing at the start of the 30s.The collapse of the American Stock Exchange in 1929 did not help the cause of Ushaw Moor; in fact it sent economic shock waves and economic depression around many parts of the globe. Things were already grim without that and in 1928 Deptford, in the east end of London, chose to adopt Ushaw Moor and give assistance to the hundreds of village families that were considered in need.There were several schemes like that one, run by various towns, in order to help areas that were defined as being distressed.