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.

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.