Ushaw Moor Memories

I am very grateful to my aunt and uncle for supplying information about South Street and other matters. In 1944 South Street consisted of five houses that were adjacent to Ushaw Moor Colliery and beside the road that led to Esh Winning. Perhaps it would have taken an average walker about thirteen minutes to reach South Street from the Empire cinema in the centre of Ushaw Moor.

The first house in South Street on the way from the Empire was numbered one; it was inhabited by Billy Whitfield and his wife, together with their son Albert [who at one time was a notable batsman for Ushaw Moor Cricket Club] and, I believe, a daughter called Irene. Billy worked at the pit as a horse keeper and son Albert worked down the pit.

The second house was occupied by Dick and Ethel Hope, together with their family. Dick had moved from New Brancepeth to 2 South Street in 1944. He was under the impression that he had been born on the day of Edward the Seventh’s coronation but that was not so; he was born on the original day set for the coronation but Edward was crowned later, after  recovering from an illness.  Although he got that wrong Dick Hope was far from ignorant and like many people he filled some of the gaps in his knowledge [after  elementary schooldays] by means of self education . I loved my grandfather Dick Hope; he came from a respected family and was a firm but fair man. He was not always popular as an overman but he was certainly respected by the men. The Victorian Samuel Smiles would have approved of his efforts to improve himself after leaving school. I have digressed a little but enjoyed doing so.

Let me start with a few of the residents of New Brancepeth [Sleetburn!] in 1901, in the hope that it might help one or two of those people that have either began their family history research, or are contemplating whether to start it:

16 Unthank Terrace – Mary Ann Smith [widow] aged 42, John Robert Smith [23] Coal Hewer, Ralph Smith [22] Coal Labourer, James Smith [20] – Putter at colliery, William Smith [14] Driver – [below ground], Jane Ann Smith [17], Margaret Smith [15], Mary Smith [11],Winifred Smith [9] and May Bower [niece] aged 2.
Very sadly William was accidentally killed on 15/08/1901 at New Brancepeth Colliery.

24 Church Street – James Hughes [32] Hewer, Ann Hughes [27] his wife, James Hughes [7], Thomas [5], Martha [2] and Edith [3 months old].

Pit House – Michael Tindale, [31] Annie Tindale [30], Ada Tindale [5], Nora Tindale [2], and Eveline Tindale [10 months old].

There was quite a lengthy article in the Durham County Advertiser during the 1930s which considered the various dangers within the home; such accidents were quite frequent then [and probably still are]. In that decade a relation of mine, who was four at the time, was slowly walking backwards, reading a comic, and then ended up stumbling into boiling water – it was only the speedy and effective intervention of her father that helped to reduce  long term damage. Of course the mines were even more dangerous and there were many deaths, each one an emotional, and sometimes financial, disaster for their loved ones. A fall of stone was a very common cause of death at collieries. I have also noticed that at several pits workers had died cleaning out Benzole tanks; such workers would be overcome by fumes and suffocate and that is very sadly what happened to two New Brancepeth Colliery employees: James Archer Greenwell [aged 36] and Fred Underwood [21] in 1923. How futile was that? Where was the effective safety co-ordination between collieries?  My great uncle, John Thomas Hope, was a Deputy at Ushaw Moor Colliery and a nail pierced him in September 1934, when he was working underground.  A few days later he died of septicemia –he did not have the benefit of those antibiotics that we now take for granted.