Ushaw Moor Memories

I had another interesting telephone conversation today with Arthur Hodgson. Please bear in mind that I have hearing problems and that occasionally Arthur was [inevitably] using mining vocabulary that I found difficult to understand. The result is as follows:

After going into the Royal Navy a couple of days before Christmas in 1944 Arthur came out again when the war ended in the following year. He started work at Ushaw Moor pit in 1947, for the newly nationalized National Coal Board. He felt that nationalization made little difference – Pease and Partners to NCB meant much the same thing for the workers.

Arthur recalls the Durham Miner’s Gala of 1949. He had been selected from a union hat to be one of twelve workers at Ushaw Moor pit that would carry its banner during the Big Meeting; it was an honour and also carried a reward of ‘a few bob’. They met at the colliery canteen early in the morning and had an uncooked breakfast. It was a case of six particular men carrying the banner on the way to Durham, via the railway from Ushaw Moor, and the other six carrying it back via the railway from Durham. Two men held the banner poles, two held fancy ropes to prevent the banner falling backwards and two held fancy ropes to prevent it falling forwards. They paraded around various parts of Ushaw Moor but made a point of briefly stopping in front of the Aged Miners’ Homes. They then marched down to The Albion at the bottom of Station Road; the bars were open and they stayed there for about half an hour prior to getting on the train to Durham. At that stage there were about twenty six of them in The Albion: mostly bandsmen, banner carriers, and six union officials. Thousands of spectators greeted the many bands and banners that poured into Durham City. It was often slow going as they progressed through the city.

Several people of the late 40s were recalled by Arthur, one being Joseph Stowells the union secretary; Arthur guessed that Joe was about forty years old at the time, but he was not really sure about that. He also recalled Joe Johnson [there are several spellings of that surname so my apologies if the one used is wrong]. Arthur explained that Joe Johnson’s father got fourteen year old Joe a job at the mine and Arthur recalled that Joe had lovely handwriting [not copperplate]. One manager of the pit was named Gregg and he only liked one particular brand of whisky; nobody could fool him by offering him a different brand. Another manager, H O Matthews, was a local preacher and he had two young daughters that attended a school at Esh Winning.

Arthur recalled the joiners that worked at Ushaw Moor pit: Norman Hope [his brother in law], Jack Lister [who lived in Deerness View or Joicey Terrace - located a little to the west of the colliery, on the way to Esh Winning], Joe Johnson’s brother [Arthur could not remember his first name] and Jack Wright, who made the desk that was used by the manager, and also worked as a shaftsman.

Arthur remembered another pleasant man by the name of John. He could not remember his surname. He lived opposite the Ushaw Moor Working Men’s Club. This man had many children but only one daughter, called Lorna. All of his lads were employed at the pit. He regularly went to the manager to tell him that ‘I have another one for you’.

Workers were employed in various roles at differing wage levels but Arthur felt that there was no particular sense of snobbery, people just got on with working together and getting the job done.

 

Wilf Bell

This is a bit of a mixture, being a list of some of the Ushaw Moor traders in the year 1914 and a request for information about an Ushaw Moor cricketer.
I suppose lists can be a bit boring for the general reader but, if your family have lived in the area for generations and you are into family history, they are potentially useful.
Here is the 1914 list:

Albion House Club [Edward Hogg secretary]
Benjamin Beach - fruiterer
Mrs C Bell - farmer at Cockhouse
Broughs store
William Brown - general smith and horse shoer plus agricultural implements repaired
Arthur Busey insurance agent
Robert Bone Cawthorne - confectioner
Mrs Cicely Elish Chandler - milliner
George Chilton - fishmonger
Charles Christie - shopkeeper
Arthur Cooper bootmaker
George Craig - hairdresser
Crook Co-op - Ralph Pearson - manager
William Davidson - Station Hotel
Mrs Mary Ann Davis - grocer
Dimambro and Co - confectioners
Empire - W Hogg - manager
Empire Meat Company - Thomas Kirkup - proprietor
Thomas Gates - hairdresser
Thomas Gouden - hairdresser
Mrs Sarah Alice Hayes - draper
Henry Charles Herdman -Station Road - English and American dentistry - [what was the difference?]
Richard Hope -refreshment rooms - a retired miner - my great great grandfather
Gabriel Innes - joiner and undertaker - also at Bearpark
Mrs Sarah Ann Plant - confectioner
L R Rossi - confectioner
Robert C Russell grocer and Post Office
Albert Swithenbank - watch maker
There were others but I am not wanting to take up too much space.

Now - the cricketer - elsewhere on site I paid tribute to Jack Joice who was very helpful to me with his knowledge of Ushaw Moor.Actually I have lost the plot regarding the spelling of Jack’s surname. Was it Joyce or Joice? I think it was the latter.I have a newspaper cutting of an Ushaw Moor Horner Cup match against Easington played in the middle of June 1947. An extract shows the following:
M Robinson bowled Jones 0 [Michael Robinson I think]
J Joyce bowled Copeland 0  [I know that newspapers frequently spell surnames incorrectly]
T Buxton bowled Jones 2
F Hume not out 0 [Fred]  My cousin’s father
So would that, probably irregular, first team player be Jack the historian, who certainly lived in Whitehouse Lane later in life? I would appreciate some help to resolve it.

Having had the privilege of writing many articles and procuring a few, for Paul Clough’s site I now declare that my little era is over.It has been an absolute pleasure to express my thoughts and memories on your community site but, as a so called retired person, my  committments are such that in future I can only occasionally dip into the site. If needs be I will respond to articles from time to time, but my article writing is now put to rest!

One last point - Paul works hard to keep the site fresh and informative - but what will happen if he moves away? In that situation, if the site is not transferred to someone else, will the paper records of the history of Ushaw Moor be offered to the Durham Records Office? If you are in a position to do so, please support Paul and submit an article - however brief.Neil Davies and the like, where are you?

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.

 

THREE STORIES
[1]I understand that there was once an argument between New Brancepeth colliery and Ushaw Moor colliery concerning their respective boundaries. Ushaw Moor went to seek coal from a certain area and found that New Brancepeth had already mined it. There was some unhappiness at Ushaw Moor about that!

[2]Esh Winning colliery had pit head baths but Ushaw Moor did not. Two lads, the Sinclair brothers from Cornsay, used to walk from Cornsay to Esh Winning to bath, change and then walk to, and work at, Ushaw Moor colliery. They had permission to do that.After their shift at Ushaw Moor they did the same thing in reverse!

[3]Mice were a small problem at Ushaw Moor pit. Occasionally they would be found in the food bags that were provided for the pit ponies and elsewhere. My father in law, Dick Hope, once dashed a rat against the wall, when down the pit, but otherwise I am not aware of a rat problem at Ushaw Moor. In contrast Waterhouses colliery had lots of rats down their pit.

During each summer there were wild roses outside the Ushaw Moor pit office. The building itself had a room for the sole use of the manager. The undermanager was also provided with a room; previously it had been used for storing junk. The overmen shared a room. The manager’s clerk had a room of his own. He was called Harry Hodgson [no relation to me]. He started off as a clerk at Esh Winning pit office and was promoted to manager’s clerk at Ushaw Moor. I recall that he was very efficient and had good shorthand skills.

I got on well with Jack Stoker, the Ushaw Moor manager.He was near to retirement at that time. He insisted that I be at the office when he arrived [by Coal Board van] at 9am. He wanted to know what was happening at the pit as soon as he arrived. He felt that I was in a position to tell him!
It has been said by a few people that he came from Bearpark colliery to manage Ushaw Moor pit into early closure. In fact by opening up Longwall faces he helped to prolong the pit’s life!

I remember Freddie Turner the assistant weighman. The main weighman was a diminutive and bouncy fellow but I forget his name.

George Graham, featured in a cricket article,was the son of Arthur Graham. George worked underground as a pipe fitter. Billy Quinn, the Ushaw Moor cricketer, was a teacher at an Esh Winning Catholic school - he might have been headmaster, I am not sure.

I recall the deaths of miners Baxendale, Seed and Holiday with great sadness. Life was tough and dangerous but you had to do your best and earn a living, which is what they were trying to do. It was all so long time ago. I apologise if I have recalled anything incorrectly.

 

Arthur Hodgson 

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.

 

It is safe to say that the trading conditions for most of the traders in Ushaw Moor was far from good!
Without further ado:

67 Station Road   Charles Christie - Shopkeeper
23                     Nancy Gleghorn -Confectioner [Soccer's mother?]
3                      R Dixon - Hardware Dealer
The Empire        Joseph Hateley
8                      Thomas Gates - Hairdresser
15                     Mark Lough - Bootmaker
7                      J J and W Lowery - Confectioners
Station Hotel      James McLaverty
5                      William Hosea Metcalfe - Baker and Confectioner
10                    Frederick Parkinson  - General Butcher
9                      Thomas Pattinson - Draper
45                    Charles Peniston - Fruiter
71                    Joseph Robson - Haulage Contractor
6                      Misses Ross - Drapers
66                    J E Sturdy - Hairdresser
4                      George Surtees - Greengrocer
19                    Barbara Thompson - Fried Fish Dealer
73                    Fred Thompson - Hardware Dealer
24                    Elsie Turnbull - Hairdresser
68                    Thomas Tyerman - Confectioner
49                    Harry Watson -Stationer
21                    William Winn - Greengrocer
69                    W Winter MPS - Chemist and Druggist

Best wishes - Wilf Bell

The 19th century saw a great expansion of coal mining in the UK. The technology used by the industry also improved significantly – although it still left much to be desired.

Towards the end of the century the main colliery growth in Durham County was in large mines situated on the coast. By the time of the First World War mining was at its peak.

So, given that background, who were the people living in Ushaw Moor in 1881? Here are some of the names and details of the families; they indicate just how heavily people of the village relied on Henry Chaytor’s colliery – a pit that was soon to be thrown into conflict and turmoil by a very bitter strike:

Robert Wood [coal miner] his wife Mary and daughters Elizabeth and Jane.
Thomas Robinson [mining engineer] his wife Dorothy, daughter Louisa, son Robert and nieces Mary and Elizabeth Evans.
John Small [coal miner] his wife Bridget and children James, Mary, William, Catherine and Bridget.
John Todd and wife Mary with children John, William, Oliver, Mary and Hilda.
Andrew Finnegan [coal labourer], wife Elizabeth and child May.
Hugh Fitzpatrick [certified teacher] wife Jessie daughter Mary [pupil teacher] Grace, John, Hugh, Donald, Jessie, and Philip.
Thomas Jobling [coal miner] wife Elizabeth children Charles, Thomas, Elizabeth, Robert, Arthur, John, Oliver and Frederick.
William Charlton [coke manager] wife Elizabeth children George and Janet.
James Nichol [colliery clerk] wife Annie and children William, Edith and Emily.
William Oyston [colliery blacksmith] wife Margaret and children Thomas, Mary, Barbara and Sarah.
Robert Curry [mining engineer] wife Jane and children Robert [coal miner] James [coal miner] Thomas, Susanna and Edith.
Elias Mould [coal miner] wife Jane and children Sarah, John, Elias and Mary.
James Robinson [overman] wife Jane and children William, James, Charles, Margaret and Elizabeth.
Jackson Hudson [weighman] wife Martha son Harold [coal labourer] and James.
James Maddox, wife Elizabeth children George [coalminer] John [coalminer] Robert [coalminer] Sarah [dressmaker] Mary, James, Jane and Margaret.
John Hogg [overman] wife Margaret, son Charles [pupil teacher] son Thomas [coal miner – died in a colliery accident on 23/04/1883 aged 16] Sarah, Frederick, Elizabeth and Edwin.
Robert Turnbull [engineman] wife Mary and son William [engineman].
John Jackson [coal miner] wife Elizabeth and children Sarah and Robert.
Finally Elizabeth Maddox and children Mary, Ellen, Elizabeth, John and James.

In 1881 one of Ushaw Moor cricket team’s matches was against Brandon, will the following result:

Brandon 60 all out
Ushaw Moor
T Robinson bowled Thompson ——————–0
J Maddicks [spelling?] bowled Thompson——–0
J Westoe run out————————————-0
T Taylor bowled Thompson————————-8
W Oyston bowled Thompson———————-1
W Chaytor bowled Ramshaw———————-1
T Stephenson bowled Ramshaw—————–3
W Harrison not out———————————-3
R Curry bowled Thompson————————-8
R Maddicks [spelling?] caught Huntley———–7
H Brown bowled Thompson————————6
Extra —————————————————1
Total —————————————————38

Best wishes
Wilf Bell

Use this section to tell us about your working life in the village from years gone by. The hard and often dangerous work of the miner which dominated so much of this area. The busy shop assistants always there to help.

 

Let us know your thoughts

 

Paul :)