Ushaw Moor Memories

Hi, the Memories page is growing, thats great, many thanks. At the moment we are using the FREE service from blog.com, to enable us to have multiple authors and more storage space we need to UPGRADE.

Upgrading to the BASIC package costs around 22 EUROS per year.

Please consider donating, any amount will be helpful.

When I was 7, I used to go to a small mining village in Durham, called Ushaw Moor to stay with my Grandma for the summer holidays.  Sometimes it was just my mother that took me because my dad was in the army as it was war time.

Grandma lived in a tiny cottage that was a bungalow really. You always went in at the back door from the yard and through the scullery.  In there was a red stone sink with just a cold water tap and a small walk in pantry. In the pantry was a big stone slab on which she stood the jug of milk that had a net cover to keep the flies off.  There was no fridge; she had a meat safe with perforated zinc sides. It was on a stand and this stood outside in the yard.

She had no hot water and no cooker; the kettle was always on the fire in the kitchen and all the cooking was done either on the fire or the oven beside it.  The kitchen was the only living room that she had. This was quite a large room, and in the centre was a circular mahogany table with chairs placed round it.  I didn’t like the chairs. The seats were black leatherette and the prickly filling poked through and scratched my legs. The table was covered with a green chenille cloth with a fringe or tassels.

 There were two rocking chairs on either side of the fire, and a small one that I used.  The floor was made of stone flags some of which was covered by hooky mats that my grandma and aunt had made during the winter months.

There was a single bed set into a recess in the wall; this was where my grandma slept when we were all staying there.  I used to sleep in what she called “the press”.  This looked like a big cupboard but when the doors were opened a bed dropped down with a feather mattress to snuggle into. There was also a piano in the room for all the family were musical. My grandma had a big family; 6 sons and 3 daughters and all had been taught to play the piano.

This article mentions about 90 people and has about  1,500 words - hopefully that should increase the chances of a response!

The very early 1900s

Many families were attracted to County Durham from elsewhere because the breadwinners could take advantage of employment in its mines. It has been said that County Durham was one big coalmine.

In the very early 1900s the population of Ushaw Moor was about 900 [if you strip away Hill Top and Ushaw College].It was a village of mostly young people. Over a quarter of the residents were under ten years old! Some of the youngsters still learning to toddle with confidence were: William Chilton, John Braithwaite, Ada Simpson, Elizabeth Vasey, Sarah McGurk, Annie Jones, John H Brown, James Clark, Flora Hayward, Olive Longstaff, Dora Brunskill, Joseph Hind, George Lambton, Isabel Ellis, George Lowery, Thomas W Jackson, George Trotter, Joseph Surtees and William Wilson.

Very few residents had reached the age of 70. Margaret Steel, Ruth Reed, Thomas Harrison and Rosina Collins were some that had reached that milestone.

Overall there were just a few more males than females in the village and perhaps the balance might have been partly tipped by male colliery workers who boarded at homes in the village.

Local colliery officials in the early 1900s included: Francis Hunter, Christopher Smith, Morgan Crawford, Thomas Conroy, Benjamin Mills and James Hudson. John Nightingale was an Under Manager.

If you were looking for a foreman mason Thomas Seed was your man but if you wanted a blacksmith you might have turned to Tommy Russell or Henry Forster. If on the other hand you fancied a railway engine trip James Stoddart was one of the drivers you might have turned to.

Elizabeth Stephenson and Esther Griffiths were school caretakers and no doubt showed much respect to John Spears an assistant school master.

All of the above is very well but what if you wanted yeast? The answer was to go to Richard Thompson. Young children would have no interest in yeast and would rather look out for William Lamb the travelling confectioner, not that there was much money about for that. Groceries were far more important and perhaps you would have relied on Mary Ann Davis or Robert Russell for such provisions.

John Vasey very kindly gifted this photograph to me at a school reunion in early 2002 and he is happy for it to be published on the memories site.It had quite a bit of damage but I have had it largely restored.  Annoyingly I cannot remember the names of all the players in the photograph but I can give the following details:
Left to right:
Back row Alan Burns[ right half], David Maddox [centre half and captain, holding the cup], x - might be Billy Greenwell, David Gerrard [goalkeeper].
Front row Tommy Wilkinson [right back], Peter Finlay [left half], Phil Stoddart [centre forward], x, Dennis Pinkney [outside left] and finally Wilf Bell [left back].

John Vasey is in the photograph but hidden behind x who is to the left of Dennis Pinkney.
Young Finlay really was a bonny footballer - a great asset to what was a really good side. I hope his forename is Peter but I am only 60% sure of it.

An account of the cup final is on site for those that are interested. I know that David Maddox would be very interested to see the photograph and I am sure that he would like to have a copy printed off the site. Can someone alert him to the possibility please?

I estimate that the photograph was taken at 12.20 pm. The day was 11/04/1959.

Best regards Wilf Bell.

My grandmother was heavily involved in the methodist chapel and I came across this article from 1984, which was taken in 1947. It shows the people from the chapel at that time.

 
Does anyone recognise anybody?

Thanks Michael

This photograph was taken from my grandmothers house in Whitehouse court in the late 1960's. It shows the salvation army band playing next to the green which is a memory I will always have of that time. Another sign of the times was kids palying in the street and hardly a car in sight.

thanks Michael

Here are two photographs taken of my aunt Betty taken during the winter of 1963, which in most peoples memories is the last bad winter, that we had. The photos were taken from my grandmothers doorway in Whitehouse Court. Has anyone else got any memories of that winter?

Thanks michael