Ushaw Moor Memories

1985

Kay Donnelly and Gail Walden of Deerness School came up with a plan to produce a school magazine – it came to fruition and did very well. It often mentioned school sporting achievements, academic progress and had a good joke section. The proceeds from one issue went towards the Ethiopian Relief Fund.   
Ushaw Moor Junior School won the Langley Park and District School Netball Competition – losing only one game in the process. The team included Sally Rawlings, Joanne Pipe, Julie Mayhew and of course several others! Sacriston also proved to have a useful team.

In a low scoring game Bearpark Cricket Club lost to Witton Le Wear by nine wickets. Bill Dennis top scored for Bearpark with 29.

Source Durham County Advertiser
 

1928

Ushaw Moor Football Team beat Durham St. Giles in the 5th round of the Durham County Amateur Cup after winning an excellent replay at Ushaw Moor by 4-1. The Moor’s next round tie was against West Hartlepool Perseverance in the 6th round. I love some of those old football names. The Ushaw Moor goalkeeper was called Ayre.

The competition was open to village sides in County Durham and winning it was considered a great prize [source Witton Park - an excellent book compiled by Ken Biggs, Keith Belton and Dale Daniel – published by Lintons Printers].

KEEPING THE MEMORIES SITE GOING

The Oral History Society think that schools and other organizations can help younger people explore memories of their own community and bring different generations together and I agree fully with them. Have the local Ushaw Moor schools got time to get involved? I know that the Ushaw Moor Junior School has done some excellent work – have any of the others got involved in any significant way? Maybe they have. Have they got time to do it, I wonder, with all those persistent Government directives that seem to change the way schools are run every ten minutes.

Whilst there are many pictures on Paul Clough’s wonderful site the overall impression that I get is that much more can be done by residents and ex residents to provide pictures. I would love to see more pictures on Paul’s site of people and places in the Ushaw Moor of the 1930s – 1950s – any chance of it?

In the past I have suggested that a few people could arrange to interview residents of various generations in some convenient place in Ushaw Moor and gather stories, information and borrow pictures for viewing on Paul’s site and or elsewhere, perhaps in the form of a book or an exhibition. I have not counted my articles but I estimate that I must have submitted about 50 so I am not feeling guilty that my time and effort is up now. I must move onto other activities and projects without delay. I will keep an eye on Paul’s site from time to time and sincerely hope that the memories page continues to be successful.  Good luck to everyone and thank you for reading some or all of my contributions during the last 28 months - as well as those articles by others keen on Ushaw Moor history that span an even longer period.  

Wilf Bell

The Durham County Advertiser in early 1928 informs us that the workmen of Ushaw Moor had received 14 days notice to terminate their jobs. With no work for over a year distress was all too common. Many popular families had left – often for Yorkshire. Former residents of Ushaw Moor often recognized each other during their travels in their new county. Obviously the Ushaw Moor trades people suffered because of this loss of custom and inevitably those customers that had stayed put in the village were spending less at the shops so it was a double blow.

The elderly were not forgotten during this economically bleak period. Organizations such as the British Legion made big efforts to provide for and to entertain them. In early 1928 145 elderly people were given a good tea which was followed by a concert in the evening. A large band of ladies helped to make it go under the supervision of Mesdames L Lowery [chairman], Pattison [treasurer], and L Pickard [secretary]. Many competitions were organized for the elderly with very good prizes provided by the British Legion.  Lots of artistes performed during the concert including: Misses G and F M Maughan, Eggleston, and Johnson plus Mesdames Browlee and Pickard, Messrs G Winn, W Fraser, J Bussey, B Grainger and W Vickers. Some young lads called R Fraser, Jolly and Wilkinson also made fine contributions. The British Legion Jazz Band performed and was well appreciated. Mr Aaron Genner fulfilled the role of chairman of proceedings.

Ushaw Moor’s football team competed in the Durham Central League at this time. It was one of eight teams in Division 1 and finished just behind champions Sunnybrow Olympic. The    Moor’s record was played 14 won 10 drawn 1 lost 3 with goals for 56 goals against 27 -  Points 21. Those were the days of two points for a win and one for a draw. New Brancepeth finished third, Waterhouses fourth and Bearpark fifth. Langley Park R. was out of their depth with one draw and thirteen defeats. Croxdale Athletic was almost as bad – finishing with four points. Finally Tudhoe United finished third off bottom with ten points. On a point of English maybe some of us would follow a team name with the word were but as most of you will know the correct word is was even though it does not sound right [to me at least] to say e..g. Croxdale Athletic was.

Meanwhile in the  Deerness Valley Schools League we find twelve teams – North Brancepeth, Bearpark, Cornsay, East Hedley Hope, Ushaw Moor, Brandon, Esh Winning, Langley Park, Waterhouses, Hamsteels, New Brancepeth and Hedley Hill. New Brancepeth School really struggled that year – gaining only one point from the first nine games but Hedley Hill produced a shambolic record – at one stage Played 15 Won 0 Drawn 0 Lost 15 goals for 2 goals against 130. North Brancepeth and Bearpark were highly placed. Ushaw Moor’s results from the first twelve games brought seven wins and five defeats.

There was an interesting lecture in the Memorial Hall by the Rev. John Hewison, Vicar of St. Johns Church, Hamsteels. His subject was India. In addition to the lecture the elder children of Ushaw Moor St. Luke’s Sunday School gave well received recitations. Councillor Aaron Genner, of Ushaw Moor, occupied the chair [busy man].

Meanwhile,  a long way away, the Westminster Coroner, at an inquest on a woman killed in a street accident  remarked that ‘It is a far better thing to wait a minute or two until the road is clear than to be dead forever.

The death occurred on Wednesday 18/01/1928 [aged 81] at Auton Style, Bearpark, of Thomas Flatley – better known as ‘Old Tom’. He was a village character by reason of his ready wit. He was never known to lack a telling answer.

The Ushaw Moor Bowls Team ploughed on and some of their players during 1928 included: J Bradley, G Pratt, E Lewis, J Miller, G R Surtees, M Lough [shoe repairer?},

A Forster, R B Cawthorne, R Wayper, R H Forster, J Brooks and J B Clough. In the first game of the season Ushaw Moor beat Belmont by 40 shots.

Wilf Bell

Jul 4

I was looking forward to an interesting week in Durham. Part of it would involve the finalizing of my family history project and the rest of it promised to be fun as well. I enjoyed the morning walk from Brandon to Ushaw Moor via New Brancepeth but of course I would not contemplate such a route during the dark. As I approached Broadgate I came across several old newspapers that were littering the path. One of the papers was the Sun with headlines something like: ‘Women who eat junk food have fat children’. Who would have believed that? It was another example of amazing Sun insight. More papers were to be seen littering the path just after Broadgate so the overall impression given to a visitor to Ushaw Moor was not flattering.

As part of my family history project I paid a visit to the cemetery and was again disappointed with the standard of upkeep. Although it is the responsibility of loved ones to upkeep headstones [many of them were fine] it is not their responsibility to maintain everything else. The grave surrounds had clearly not had a grass cut for a while and in some cases it was too difficult to read headstones without trampling on graves [which I did not do]. The seat in the cemetery was somewhat dirty and uninviting to a traveller. I would label the overall standard of the cemetery unacceptable.

To counter balance the above experiences I have to say that the people of Ushaw Moor that I met, or observed, were helpful relaxed and caring. Sir Bobby Robson describes the people of the North East as special and he is right. Even now they are people in ex mining villages [I am not sure how many] that do not lock their doors – that is amazing when I bear in mind that crime does exist in which ever part of the world that you are living.

I went to have a look at the Ushaw Moor Cricket Club pitch and square – without going onto it –and it seemed quite good from my viewpoint. I had a brief chat with a gentleman called Michael Gillon who confirmed that John Vasey was a good bloke – but I knew that already. He went on to say how much he had enjoyed playing football at Ushaw Moor in his youth; later John Vasey told me just how very good a footballer Mr Gillon had been. John also mentioned that he thought Norman Ferguson had played football for England Schoolboys – whether he has or not he certainly could have done - because he was a very good schoolboy player and had that sort of calibre.

Jul 5

This was potentially a big day. Would there be lines of people in Silver Street waiting for an audience with Wilf Bell? Before finding that out I was part of a large audience very much enjoying what I believe to be the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band in Market Square on a drizzly day - being part of the ‘Get Blown Away’ brass festival currently happening in Durham. Their music was good and their garb colourful.

It was never very likely that there would be throngs of people waiting in line to see me in the Shakespeare pub [see ‘the boy is coming to town article’] but in the event a couple of people turned up – namely Mr Michael Dickinson and Mr Frank Clarke. Both of them have contributed to the Ushaw Moor Community memory pages. They clearly love history and Ushaw Moor. They are concerned about not losing the memories and culture of this old mining community and desire that people that can record their own experiences do so.

I enjoyed a good evening at Ushaw Moor Catholic Club and found the act outrageous and cheap at half the price! The performer is never going to make the London Palladium but was nevertheless a good sport.

Jul 6

I had a great evening enjoying the Tees Valley Jazzmen at Bowburn Hall Hotel – having been kindly invited by Mr Keith Belton its leader. Keith is also heavily involved with the DAFT [Durham Amateur Football Trust] a highly laudable organization that is mentioned in one of my recent articles. The Jazz performance was superb as were the unannounced and unexpected couple that several times took to the floor – one of them from Italy and the other from Switzerland. Their team work and flair complemented the excellent jazz performance.

Jul 7

I spent the morning in the Durham Records Office and found what I was looking for. In the afternoon I did further successful research at Durham Library. The staff at both places could not have been more helpful.

Jul 8

I paid a very interesting visit to the DAFT office based in Shildon as well as the railway museum. If you are interested in amateur football why not find out more about Daft and consider being a member? In that event see my earlier article about DAFT for contact details.

The only sour note on the 8th was my unfortunate experience at Darlington Railway Station. May I say at the outset that I am impressed with the station – it looks good and is generally run on efficient lines. Sadly one act of thoughtlessness by someone marred my experience of that station. I was sitting in the waiting room along with about six other people when an alarm of very high decibels went off - not once but three times. It was an alarm practice but no one had bothered to tell the people sitting there. I have heard alarms many times in my life but that one was very loud and in my opinion it was damaging to the ears. I went to investigate and made my feeling known in a non abusive way. I did not get what I would describe as an apology – merely an explanation that they were fulfilling the requirements of the law by having the alarm. I told them that I had no objection to the alarm but strongly protested at the lack of warning.

Jul 9

I returned home [via Darlington!] As you will know the journey to Kings Cross takes hours so I offered to engage a fellow passenger in conversation. I imagine that she was about 46 years old - on my enquiry as to whether she had been listening to opera or Coldplay on her CD – I found that she had been listening to Westlife! Worse was to come – she then started to read a Mills and Boon book. Nothing in common there then – no conversation – Kings Cross hours away.

I will soon be concentrating on Ushaw Moor and District in two particular years – 1928 and 1985 – I hope that you join me. In the meantime why not submit an article?

Wilf Bell