Showing posts with label Darlington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darlington. Show all posts

Saturday 25 June 2022

Heart Echoes in late Victorian Stockton-on-Tees

A few keepsakes from late Victorian Stockton-on-Tees.  They belonged to Miss Eleanor Bateson of 37 Skinner Street.  

Skinner Street, Stockton-on-Tees
(running vertically down centre of picture)
O.S. 1913 National Library of Scotland

 Eleanor was born on 21 November 1866 to John and Mary Bateson, the fourth child of a family of six.  

Her father was a cordwainer when she was born – not a cobbler who repaired shoes, but a man who made shoes from new leather – but when she was a little girl he became firstly a foreman in a local ironworks and then a school warden for Stockton, responsible for enforcing school attendance by calling on parents and visiting schools.  It was quite an onerous position.

These keepsakes and chance survivals of a long life date from Eleanor's twenties and early thirties.

To begin with the Christmas season – 


Eleanor kept two particularly attractive Christmas cards.  One of them shows a spray of ivy and the message "A Happy Christmas".  Folded, it measures 3 inches by 2 inches, and it opens out to reveal a quotation from Shakespeare's Sonnet 30 and a verse by Thackeray.  

 

We might not think the verses very Christmassy but they send wishes for "Good Health and Good Fortune" to an absent friend.

The second card is rather larger, measuring when folded 5 inches by 3 inches.  "With Louie's love to Nellie" is written on the reverse.  The picture shows strawberries and strawberry leaves together with a little scene of a house by the sea.  "Good Wishes" is the message on the front.




Inside is a verse by Helen Marion Burnside (1841-1923), an artist and  writer of lyrics and verses.  The verse inside this card begins 

Happy Christmas to you.
Best of earthly blessings
Fall on you to-day


A collection of small, brightly-coloured paper scraps shows that Eleanor kept a scrapbook.  

These are all that remain of the sheets of embossed relief images and die-cuts that she bought to fill her pages – but we don't have her scrapbook, so we can't see how she arranged them and what sort of artistic effects she achieved.


The next memento shows that Eleanor was a singer.  

The Programme for the Long Newton Cricket Club Annual Concert is simply dated Tuesday May 20th.  The year isn't given, but 20 May fell on a Tuesday in 1890 and in 1902.  I rather think the concert might have taken place in 1890.  Quite a few of the pieces date from the 1880s and listening to fairly new songs would have been part of the attraction.  

We don't know if Eleanor was in an ensemble that sang for the Long Newton Cricket Club's fundraiser or if she was involved in the Club itself.  And was the Mr Bateson on the programme her father or her brother?  We don't know.  Perhaps it was both of them, one of them giving a rendition of the music hall comic monologue 'The Penny Bus'  and the other singing the romantic ballad 'In Old Madrid'  (which you can listen to in a 1920 recording here).


Eleanor appears four times in the programme.  She opened the concert in a quartet singing 'O Who will o'er the Downs so free?'   and followed it up with 'Love's Old Sweet Song', which we might remember better as 'Just a Song at Twilight'.  She opened the second half with 'Needles and Pins', which I suspect must have been a comic song, and then she sang in a duet.  And both halves of the programme ended with a glee sung by all the company. 

Besides music, Eleanor also loved poetry.  In the late 1880s she bought a dark red, hardback exercise book measuring 7 inches by 9 inches – it was her Poetry Book.

The first poem she transcribed into her book was "Newly Wedded" by Lizzie Berry.  This probably came from a recently published book called Heart Echoes: Original Miscellaneous & Devotional Poems, which came out in 1886 and is available in a reprint today.  Lizzie Berry came, her publishers explained in their foreword, of a humble background and had suffered "great trials and difficulties".  Her verses were often printed in the newspapers and she came to have a devoted following.  


But Eleanor also liked older verse and classics such as Shelley, Cowper, Thomas Moore and Longfellow.  And she read novels – she had been reading A Romance of Two Worlds by Marie Corelli.  Newly published in 1886, it was Marie Corelli's first book and an immediate popular success – and the beginning of a highly colourful career.  Eleanor was clearly taken by it and she transcribed verses from the novel into her poetry book.  

She didn't confine herself to poetry.  When she saw something that amused her, she copied it out.  Some of us will remember Avoirdupois Weight – which usually went like this

16 oz (ounces) = 1 lb (pound)
14 lb = 1 stone
28 lb = 1 qtr (quarter)
4 qtrs = 1 cwt (hundredweight)

In 1895, when Eleanor was 29 years old, she was taken with a gently humorous, sentimental version:

Avoirdupois Weight
(New Code) 1895

16 Looks make 1 Smile
16 Smiles make 1 Nod
28 Nods make 1 Moonlight meeting
4 Moonlight meetings make 1 Kiss
20 Kisses make 1 Wedding

One of the quotations on the same page reads, "A true man is generous and unselfish and has a conscience."


The notebook is far from full – Eleanor only filled a dozen or so pages.  The last poem of all was part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'A Psalm of Life' (1838), which begins
Tell me not, in mournful numbers 
Life is but an empty dream!
Eleanor transcribed verses 6 and 9:
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
In 1901 Eleanor was living at 37 Skinner Street with her parents, her brother Malcolm and a young lodger, who was a grocer.  She was working as a clerk in a tea warehouse.  

The Square, Stockton-on-Tees
O.S. 1913 National Library of Scotland
I expect the tea warehouse stood at 29 The Square (where the library stands today) and belonged to William Thomas Trattles.  In the late summer of 1906, as she approached her 40th birthday, Eleanor married him.

A year after the marriage, Eleanor gave birth to her only child, Mary, born on 31 October 1907.  It was Mary who kept her mother's poetry book and the other little keepsakes, a small collection surviving by chance from a family's accumulated mementos.

Mary was only 14 when her father died, so she must only have had a child's remembrance of him.  He must have been a man of determination, energy and business acumen; he was certainly someone who knew personal tragedy.

William Thomas Trattles was 11 years older than Eleanor, a widower with 5 children – the youngest was 11 and the oldest was 21.

He was born in 1855 in Staithes, the son of a master mariner.  For many years – for all of Mary's lifetime – a picture of the sailing ship Zephyr had pride of place above the fireplace.  The Zephyr was built in 1845, master John Trattles, owner Thomas Trattles, her destined voyage was Hamburg and she was rigged as a snow.  (And you can examine her survey on the Lloyd's Register Foundation Archive here).  When John Trattles retired from the sea, he was for some time a grocer in Staithes.  Perhaps this was perhaps the impetus for his sons Matthew and William to go into the tea trade.  

In 1880 they were in business together as Trattles Brothers, tea and coffee merchants of 29 The Square.  But the partnership only lasted 3 years and they split up in 1883.  They must have agreed that William could keep on the warehouse at 29 The Square because he carried on there as a tea wholesaler.

William built up the business, advertising heavily to tea dealers in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough – one of his selling points was that he was the "Sole packer of the celebrated Sultan Packet Tea".  He prospered, diversifying into Fancy Goods, Glass and China.  His December advertisement for 1891 proclaimed 
Christmas and New Year Presents – the largest and best assortment in the district at W T Trattles, 29 The Square, Stockton.  Dinner Sets, Chamber Sets, Toilet Sets, Tea Sets of endless variety to choose from, and all at wholesale prices
He tried branch shops for a while – the shop in Middlesbrough was on the "main thoroughfare" but it didn't work out and he put it up for sale in 1892 ("would suit a lady").  The shop in Darlington lasted longer.  He advertised it for sale in 1903 
To be disposed of, an old-established Present, Tea and Fancy Goods Business, in Darlington; satisfactory reasons for disposal; managed by a female.  
Meanwhile, he and his wife Agnes Jemima Wilson and their growing family progressed from 24 Balaclava Street, in the network of terraced streets near the railway station, to 13 Palmerston Street – where they had a live-in servant – to Park House on Richmond Road, next to Ropner Park.  It was a villa with "12 large, spacious rooms, with all conveniences, large garden and grass lawn; adjoining Park; very best position".

And it was there, on 29 May 1895, only three weeks after giving birth to her sixth child, that Agnes died at the age of 40.  William was left a widower with five children – their first baby, Agnes, had died within weeks of her birth.  Ida was the eldest at 13, and after Ida came Hugh Harold, William Horace (always called Horace), Agnes and the new baby Thomas. 

William picked up his life and carried on.  He had his business, he was a town councillor, and he employed a housekeeper.  The children were growing up and Hugh Harold started work as a Chartered Accountant's clerk.  Then disaster struck.

On 8 April 1902 a fire at the shop and warehouse in the The Square gutted the building and destroyed a great deal of the stock.  A few months later, on 26 July, his beloved daughter Ida died at Park House.  I'm not sure if his heart was in the business after this, or perhaps he no longer had the drive to rebuild the business.  At any rate, by the time of the next census in 1911 he was no longer an employer, but was working as a Commercial Traveller for China goods. 

When the First World War broke out, little Mary was nearly 7 years old.  Her eldest brother Hugh Harold was 29, living in Beckenham and working as a bank clerk.  He joined the 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers as a private.  Horace had been living at home in 1911 and working as a drapers' assistant.  When war broke out he joined the 14th Battalion London Regiment as a Private.  Thomas was a merchant seaman.  He joined the Yorkshire Regiment in December 1915 when he was 20.  Their sister Agnes was 23 years old.  I think it was probably during the War that she trained as a nurse, the career she followed for the rest of her life.

William Horace Trattles
(1890-1917)
Mary adored her brother Horace, he was her favourite brother.  In June 1915 he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Battalion Hampshire Regiment.  In the spring of 1916 he was attached to the 9th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and sent out to Mesopotomia.  He was killed in action on 25 January 1917 at the age of 26.  He is buried in the Amara War Cemetery in south-east Iraq.

Mary had prayed for him fervently every night; she never believed in God again.

By the time of Horace's death, Hugh had been wounded twice and was back in the trenches, and Thomas had been in hospital for 6 months.  

He had been sent out to France towards the end of April 1916 but was wounded within weeks.  The damage – I think he was left with epilepsy – that was caused by the gunshot wounds to his head on 12 July 1916 incapacitated him from work for life.

Hugh Harold Trattles died in 1920 at the Phillips Memorial Hospital in Bromley, Kent, aged 35.  His father William Thomas died the following year at the age of 66.

So only Mary, her mother and her brother Thomas were left in Stockton.  They lived at Rosebank, a house with 5 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms on Cranbourne Terrace, where the family had moved in 1915.  

Rosebank stood on a large plot and its garden stretched back to the railway line – which meant it was naturally called into use when the centenary of the Stockton to Darlington Railway was celebrated on of 2 July 1925. 

Cranbourne Terrace, Stockton-on-Tees
O.S. 1913 National Library of Scotland

A grandstand was built at the bottom of the garden for dignitaries and notables to watch the grand Railway Centenary Procession of locomotives going by.  

Locomotives of all types and ages, passengers and crew in period dress, the Darlington Band playing from one of the rear wagons, a tableaux train carrying a pageant illustrating the evolution of the wheel in transport, luxury trains – the Flying Scotsman carrying excited children – and in pride of place a replica of Locomotion No 1, led by a horseman flourishing a red flag to warn of its approach.  It was an enormous success and you can see newsreel footage of it on youtube today herehere and here.

Mary Trattles

Eleanor, Mary and Thomas lived at Rosebank for about 20 years.  Mary, it is said, was engaged to be married but she had her mother and brother to care for, and the engagement was ended.  

By the time the Second World War broke out they had moved to Stirling House, 98 Darlington Road, Hartburn.  Eleanor died there in 1952.  

Mary lived on there until her death in 1998, long outliving her brother Thomas and sister Agnes.  She was the last of the family.

Her most vivid memory to the end was her beloved brother Horace carrying her piggy-back as he raced round the garden, her mother calling anxiously all the while, "Be careful!  Be careful!  You'll drop her!"





Saturday 14 November 2020

Cholera: glimpses of the pandemics of the 19th century

In the 19th century, the usual yearly epidemics of frequently fatal infectious diseases in Britain were eclipsed by successive waves of a frightening newcomer: Asiatic Cholera.

It first arrived in 1831.  You can read about it in 'The year of the Cholera', Chapter 11 of Remarkable, but still True: the story of the Revd R J Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera .

There I describe how, in York, Dr Thomas Simpson and the surgeon J P Needham not only treated patients but also investigated the spread of cases.  They both believed cholera was contagious and Needham wrote a monograph on the subject in 1833, after the pandemic had subsided.  Dr Simpson, who thought it was an air-borne disease, published his Observations on the Asiatic Cholera: and Facts regarding the mode of its diffusion after the next pandemic, which happened seventeen years later in 1848.

In 1848, as in 1831, cholera was firmly associated with "nuisances" – sewage and filth – and it was still thought that it was the "unwholesome exhalations" and poisonous vapours from nuisances and decaying vegetable matter that spread the disease.  The theory may have been erroneous but the practice was helpful, because cholera is spread through water contaminated by faeces; this was the beginning of improvements in better drainage and public health.  

Cholera isn't easy to catch but without the correct treatment it is fatal in half the cases.  Nowadays it is treated by rehydration – which has to be begun without delay – and sometimes with antibiotics.  In the 19th century, careful nursing might pull a patient through but unfortunately doctors very often used purges and emetics on their patients, which would only have dehydrated them further.  

Meanwhile, there were plenty of advertisements for patent medicines.

William Hardcastle advertised his "Cure for Asiatic Cholera" and "Grand Preventive of Cholera" extensively in the Northern press.  Born in Sunderland, he had learned his trade as a chemist in Stockton-on-Tees and now had his own shop in Finkle Street – and I'm glad to say the interior of Hardcastle's is preserved at Beamish Open Air Museum (photographs here).  He was a man in his late thirties and evidently very enterprising.

At this time anxiety was all the greater because diarrhoea was thought often to precede cholera – of course there was a good deal of diarrhoea around – and it was believed that stopping diarrhoea would stop cholera developing.  William Hardcastle's advertisements proudly proclaimed that 

having witnessed the great mortality by Cholera which took place in Stockton, 17 years ago, when about 130 persons died in a very short time, Mr H. directed his earnest attention to discover some more efficient Preventive and Cure than were at that time employed, and has succeeded in compounding the "Diarrhoea Powders" and "Cholera Drops", which has rescued many from premature graves.  Their great efficacy has caused them to be so much esteemed in Stockton and the Neighbourhood, that the Proprietor has now made arrangements for extending their sale to other places.

The Drops could be sent by Post to any part of the UK on forwarding 12 Postage Stamps, and they cost a shilling and a penny halfpenny or two shillings per bottle.  I expect the chief ingredient was laudanum.

More useful in preventing cholera were products such as Sir William Burnett's Patent Disinfecting Fluid, which was advertised as "a deodorizing and purifying agent" and was a chloride disinfectant.  

When nothing seemed to help, the only answer was prayer:

York Herald, 22 September 1849

Cholera – The authorities of Middlesbro' have issued a notice to the inhabitants to set apart Friday, the 21st inst., as a day of humiliation and prayer to God to remove that desolating pestilence, the cholera, which has lately been so fatal in that place.

Then a third wave of cholera reached Britain in 1853.  It was at this point that Dr John Snow of London  (1813-58) demonstrated that cholera was a water-borne disease by removing the handle of the Broad Street pump.  He published his findings in his work of 1855, which drew upon the careful observations of Dr Thomas Simpson.  But it took many years for public health authorities to act to ensure a clean water supply and Snow had been long dead when the Chief Medical Officer for Health acknowledged the significance of his work.

We can see that keeping the streets clear of nuisances and encouraging better cleanliness was well established as a priority for the authorities:

York Herald, 15 October 1853

Cholera – On the 24th of Sept last, this devastating disease broke out in one of the low parts of Stockton, and since that period to the present time, 13 deaths have occurred, but all in that particular locality, which is said to be in a very indifferent state of drainage, and where many of the inhabitants are not of the most cleanly description.

In Darlington, the local board of health and the board of guardians held a joint meeting.  They decided to carry out the recommendations of the medical superintending inspector of the General Board of Health to set up a system of house to house visiting as the only effectual safeguard against the spread of the epidemic.  (This might remind us of recent events described in this story on the BBC News website in which Professor John Wright, Head of Bradford Institute for Health Research describes the work of the local test and trace teams, sending testers door to door in neighbourhoods with high rates of infection).  They resolved to employ more scavengers to clear away the nuisances, to set up a more general distribution of disintectants such as chloride of lime, and to supply water for free to the poorer districts, "in order that greater facilities for cleanliness might be afforded".   

And, then as now, there were plenty of conspiracy theories.  In some countries, the swiftness with which the disease spread led the people to think their water supply had been poisoned:

Huddersfield Chronicle, 2 September 1854

News has arrived in Palermo of the appearance of cholera in that city.  The Sicilians, it seems, are under the impression that the cholera is a poison which has been communicated by human means.  The people have surrounded the Governor's palace, and shouted "We will not have the cholera here!"  The Lord Lieutenant immediately issued orders prohibiting the people to speak of poison.  The city is in a very excited state.

In 1865 the cholera returned yet again to Britain.  

It reached Yarm on 8 October 1866 and when doctors Robert and Christopher Young, the town's medical officers, made their report on 13 November, they hoped they had seen the back of it.  There had been 23 cases of cholera, 12 of which were fatal, and 5 cases "approaching cholera", of which 2 were fatal. In the same period they had seen 87 cases of diarrhoea.  

A few days before cholera came to Yarm, it had already reached Hutton Rudby and Potto – but luckily not with the virulence of the 1832 outbreak, when there were 45 cases and 23 deaths at the east end of the village green:

York Herald, 6 October 1866

The Cholera – We regret to state that a fatal case of Asiatic cholera has just occurred at the small rustic hamlet of Potto, in the parish of Whorlton, near Stokesley.  Elizabeth Mary Cawthorn, the wife of a brickmaker, was attacked on Saturday afternoon last, and was visited the same night by Mr A A Boyle, assistant to Mr J H Handyside, surgeon, Stokesley, and he at once perceived that she was prostrated by a malignant attack of cholera.  Mr Handyside attended on the following morning, and Mr Boyle was present when she died on Sunday night, medical skill being of no avail.

Richmond & Ripon Chronicle, 13 October 1866

Thompson - On the 6th inst., at Hutton Rudby, Cleveland, of Asiatic cholera, aged 60 years, Mr George Thompson, brickmaker

Nearly twenty years and many cholera deaths later, people across the world were electrified to hear that the German scientist Dr Robert Koch and his team had discovered the "cholera germ".  

Dr Koch had carried out his researches in India.  This fact spurred Professor Edwin Ray Lankester (1847-1929) to write a trenchant criticism of the British government's approach to scientific research that appeared in, among other papers, the Pall Mall Gazette of 2 November 1883.  He was the son of Edwin Lankester (1814-74), surgeon, naturalist, the first public analyst in Britain, the first medically qualified coroner for Central Middlesex, a man who made a major contribution to the control of cholera in London.  So his son had, in a way, a family interest in the fight against the disease.  

He deplored the fact that
when a dire disease broke out in a country occupied by British troops, and, for the time being, controlled by the English Government, no steps were taken by that Government to initiate a thorough study of the disease in the light of modern science, but that, on the other hand, independent Commissions were sent to the plague-stricken country by the Governments of France and Germany for the express purpose of making the investigations which the English Government had omitted to set on foot.
The French and German scientists were from 
the State-supported laboratory of M Pasteur; they were his assistants and pupils.  The German Commissioners came from the Imperial Sanitary Institute of Berlin, the workers in which are drawn from the twenty-two State-supported laboratories of pathology which are scattered throughout the German Empire
Britain should be following the examples of France and Germany in training scientists and funding research bodies and laboratories like those in France and Germany.

By July 1884 the "discoverer of the cholera germ" Dr Robert Koch was known to everyone and admired by all.  The Pall Mall Gazette of 11 July 1884 noted that "in the last five years he has succeeded in identifying the germs of cattle disease, of consumption, and of cholera" – he was the benefactor of humanity.

Two years later, the Sanitary Congress – the annual meeting of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, founded in 1876 – was held in the Museum in York (now the Yorkshire Museum).  

The Leeds Mercury of 25 September 1886 carried a report of the proceedings.  The president, Mr William Whitaker, read a paper about water-supply in which he said two of the chief problems in sanitary matters were getting good water and getting rid of bad water.  Percy F Frankland, associate of the Royal School of Mines, spoke on the filtration of water.  They had known for many years that the real danger in sewage-contaminated water lay not in the organic matter to be found by analysis but in "the presence of minute living organisms, capable of producing zymotic disease".  Largely thanks to the genius of Robert Koch they now had "beautiful methods of bacteriological investigation" and this had enabled the great advance made in water purification.  Surgeon-Major Pringle described his system of collecting and storing rain and drinking water. Another debate clearly centred on the role of government.  Enforcement or education?  The West Riding County Surveyor, J Vickers Edwards, took what might now be called the libertarian approach to achieving "a healthy house", arguing that sanitary science would not progress through the actions of local authorities nor by legislation, but by educating people to act for themselves.  

Over the next fifty years the Sanitary Institute was to become the leading public health organisation in the UK, with a world-wide reputation.  It is now the Royal Society for Public Health.

Public health reform was truly on its way.

Sunday 11 November 2018

Local newspapers report the news of the Armistice in 1918

The North-Eastern Daily Gazette 12 November 1918
A DAY OF REJOICING 
The rejoicings which began in Middlesbrough yesterday morning over the news of the armistice continued without interruption till nearly midnight and the town has seldom passed through fourteen hours of such joy.  In the afternoon the streets were a seething mass of humanity, and Linthorpe-road has seldom been so congested.  All the works were stopped by mid-day, and as the day wore on the neighbouring communities poured their thousands into the town to swell the huge crowds who had already congregated in the main thoroughfares.  Owing to restrictions of all kinds which could not be entirely removed with a wave of the hand, the illuminated display was not on such a scale of grandeur as might have been possible on an occasion of rejoicing in the halcyon days of peace; but the people did their best with the lights at their disposal, and the brighter streets were a pleasant reminder of a time which seemed almost to go down into the distant past.  The sky was lit up at intervals by the pyrotechnic display, and the jubilant note which prevailed throughout seemed to be well controlled.  In the days to come when Middlesbrough spreads its wings it will probably be better able to accommodate such huge crowds on a day of national rejoicing, but it may never again have an occasion when the circumstances so thoroughly justified such an explosion of pent-up exuberant patriotic feelings. 
STOCKTON'S REJOICING
In the long history of Stockton there have been many enthusiastic gatherings in the High-street opposite the Town Hall, but never one so large and so lively - and yet well behaved - as assembled yesterday afternoon when the Mayor and a number of other public men delivered short speeches of congratulation upon the great event of the day.  The band of the Bowesfield Ironworks played, and the people, with all their hearts, and with all the powers their lungs could give, sang the National Anthem, and then sent up cheer after cheer for the King.  "It is a memorable occasion, an occasion which has never before occurred in the history of the country," said the Mayor (Alderman J Harrison) "and we rejoice in it.  After four years of terrible war we have broken the terrible German menace, and we are confident that we have broken it in such a way that Germany will never again be able to make war.  This is not yet a declaration of peace, but we thank God that the armistice has been signed, and that we can see the end of the war."  
PAST AND FUTURE
There followed loud cheers, and with cheers were also greeted the other speeches in the High-street, Stockton.  Alderman Bainbridge said we had fought a good fight, and won, and he hoped that everyone would feel the responsibility of doing his or her share in the work of reconstruction which lay before the country.  "Whilst," said Alderman Nattress, "we rejoice in victory, and whilst we think of those men who have won the final victory, let us not fail to remember those who have fallen on our behalf."  "It is a victory for the forces of democracy and freedom over autocracy and militarism," said Councillor Bollands.  Councillor W Reed said in the great fight we had proved that might is not right, but that right is right, and that the God of Righteousness had been on our side.  Councillor I Robson and the Vicar of Stockton also addressed the gathering, and the company broke up with the singing of the National Anthem.  Similar proceedings took place from the balcony of the Town Hall, Thornaby. 
A solemn Te Deum will be sung at All Saints' Parish Church, Middlesbrough, tonight at 3pm, in thanksgiving for the end of the war. 
THANKSGIVING SERVICE
During the afternoon yesterday, the No 1 South Bank Boys' Brigade paraded South Bank, calling the people to a United Thanksgiving service at the Wesleyan Church.  There a good and representative company, which was presided over by the Rev M P Evans, President of the Free Church Council, and addressed by the Revs H W Pates, J Rutherford, C Allwright, and Councillor Vaux.  National hymns were sung, and the thanksgiving of the assembly voiced by Councillor T Bosher, Mr T Peacock, and others.  It is intended to continue the rejoicing on Sunday evening next in the Baptist Tabernacle.

The Yorkshire Post carried reports of rejoicing across the region, including

The Yorkshire Post, 12 November 1918
Cheering soldiers were in great evidence at Richmond, and at the Market Cross there was a great crowd, where, on the motion of the Mayor, it was decided to send a message of congratulation to Marshal Foch, Sir Douglas Haig, and the Prime Minister.  At Catterick Camp a general holiday was proclaimed 
At Whitby the band of the Hunts, Cyclist Battalion paraded the town, and the gaily decorated streets were thronged with happy people.  
There were scenes of intense enthusiasm at Darlington, but happily unmarked by any touch of rowdyism.  

Saturday 14 October 2017

What's On in Darlington, 22 April 1893

As we look forward to the opening of the newly-restored Darlington Hippodrome, the following newspaper clipping seems quite apt.

It doesn't actually feature that particular theatre, which dates from 1907.  It began its life as the Hippodrome, became the Civic Theatre, and is now resuming its original name.  Full details of its history can be found here.

This newspaper clipping features the Theatre Royal, which was in Northgate.  It closed in 1937 and the building was later the Regal Cinema; it is now the Odeon.

It is a report from the celebrated theatrical newspaper, The Era, and it comes from a section called Provincial Theatricals: From Our Own Correspondents:

The Era, 22 April 1893
Darlington 
THEATRE ROYAL.– Lessees, Messrs A and P Milton; Manager, Mr W E Potts.– Messrs Vaughan and Carlton's well-selected company occupy the boards with Fenton Mackay's new realistic drama entitled Spellbound, and are attracting large audiences.  Mr Harrington Reynolds makes an admirable George Westland, and Mr W J Vaughan does well as Count Santos.  Miss Helen McCulloch wins the sympathies of the audience as Helen Westland.  Mr Arthur Kingsley is capital as Mr Harry Melton, and the comedy element is safe in the hands of Mr George Sennett and Miss Mary Rivington.
LORD GEORGE SANGER pitched his enormous tent in Darlington on Wednesday, and gave two excellent performances.  The afternoon programme attracted a large audience and in the evening there were about 5,000 present to witness the doings of the various artists, all very clever.  
Though Spellbound is billed as "realistic", it nevertheless includes that reliable and not very realistic stock figure of the drama, the Adventuress.  This one, together with her brother Count Santos, wields a mysterious power over the unfortunate George Westland.

I don't know where the famous Lord George Sanger pitched his enormous circus tent, I'm afraid – but perhaps it was the Show Field in South Park.

George Sennett

Following up on George Sennett – in whose hands the comedy element of Spellbound had been safe – I found a sad but interesting story of the vicissitudes of stage life.

George had been in the news for rather less flattering reasons nearly 20 years earlier, when he was about 27 years old.

In November 1874, newspapers across the country carried the lively story of his argument with a fellow actor, J H Clynds.  They were performing together at the Grecian Theatre in City Road, London and were now appearing together in the magistrates' court.  Sennett was the complainant, alleging that Clynds had attacked him.

Clynds was the star, playing the juvenile leads, while Sennett specialised in the heavies and the villains.  Every night in their current piece, Sennett had to die and Clynds had told him that he should be doing it lower down the stage.

Sennett retorted that he had received his orders from the authors and he wouldn't be taught what to do by Clynds.  The argument in their dressing room grew very heated, Clynds telling Sennett that he used idiotic language and Sennett retorting that Clynds was a liar.

On cross-examination, Sennett said that he hadn't used a vulgar adjective as well as the word liar and that he wasn't in the habit of bullying and blustering in the theatre.  Witnesses who had heard the racket were divided, I think according to whose side they were taking – the manager and author of the piece, for example, said that he thought Sennett was a blackguard.

At the close of the performance, Clynds waited for Sennett outside the theatre and demanded an apology – when none was forthcoming, he hit Sennett on the head with a thin walking cane.  Sennett told the court that he couldn't explain how his own, heavier, stick came to be broken as well and that he didn't know if he had hit Clynds back.  He said he hadn't pushed Clynds and told him to go to a very warm place.

The magistrate said that Sennett ought to have accepted the apology that Clynds had written after receiving the court summons, and bound Clynds over to keep the peace.

By 1893, when Sennett was performing in Darlington, his career must already have been on the slide.  He had worked for a good many years at the Grecian Theatre in London, but now he was touring.  Seven years later, in 1900, things had got much worse.

Sennett was now 53 years old and the work had dried up.  He and his wife Ada, who had been on the stage herself as an actor and dancer, moved to Manchester.  They found employment for a time, George as an extra at the Theatre Royal and Ada in the wardrobe department of the Queen's Theatre, but by May they were both out of work and had become very depressed.  One Sunday afternoon, their landlady at 58 Cumberland Street found them both unconscious on the bed, with three empty laudanum bottles on the table.

George died, but Ada was taken to the Royal Infirmary and eventually recovered.  Unfortunately, her situation was still hopeless and six months later The Era reported that she was close to starvation and it was thought that "those who know her and knew her husband will not forget her in her time of need".

But this tactful little piece was not echoed by the report at the same time in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser.   On 5 December 1900 it gave details of Ada's appearance in the magistrates' court under the headline

One of Life's Wrecks
Ada Sennett "an old woman, of unkempt and emaciated appearance, and miserably clad, was charged with being drunk and incapable in Quay-street, on Monday afternoon ... she has been assisted at various times by prominent people in Manchester theatrical circles, but is still in a very poverty-stricken condition."  
She was discharged and advised to give up alcohol or she would find herself in gaol.  She objected strongly to the suggestion that she should go to the Workhouse.

Just before Christmas she was up in court again and, as she wouldn't promise to reform her ways, she was sent to gaol for 14 days.  The newspaper report stated that she was 70 years old, but she was actually only 57 when she died in the spring of 1901.







Saturday 30 September 2017

The murder of James Lyall in Venezuela, 1900

A sad and mysterious story:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough 31 March 1900

The Assassination of a Darlington Man in Venezuela
Mr E W Lyall, of Darlington, has received some further details concerning the death of his son, Mr James Lyall, who for some time, prior to his death at the hands of an assassin, was attached to the British Consulate, Cuidad Bolivar, Venezuela.   
It will be remembered that the circumstances of the murder were reported in the "Gazette" a few weeks ago.  Mr Lyall was leaving the Consulate, when he was followed by three men, one of whom stabbed him the side near the heart, and he fell to the ground.  Whilst Mr Lyall was lying there the man again stabbed him.   
The man is now in custody, and is a native of Colombia.  He is believed to be one of five conspirators, and has since confessed to the crime, and says he is but the tool of others.   
Mr Lyall left England in October 1893, and frequently acted as Consul during the absence of Mr C H de Lemos.  Deceased was 23 years of age, and had a most promising career before him.   
Mr E W Lyall has received a letter from another son who is an engineer at Demerara, and states what steps were being taken with regard to the death of his brother.  Mr C H de Lemos has also written to Mr Lyall, returning all the letters addressed to the deceased.  A temporary cross had been erected at the head of the grave of Mr Lyall, and Mr de Lemos and his wife had paid several visits to the grave, which had been planted with everlasting flowers.

Birmingham Daily Post, 3 April 1900

The Murder of the British Deputy Consul at Bolivar
A British Guiana correspondent states in reference to the assassination of Mr James Lyall, British Deputy Consul at Bolivar, Venezuela, on February 28, that Mr Lyall had just left his office when he was attacked by an assassin, who is stated to be a Colombian, and fatally stabbed.  Mr C H de Lemos, British Consul, was preparing to go on leave, and Mr Lyall was to have acted for him during his absence. 
Mr Lyall came out from England in 1898, and during his connection with the consulate he has been most energetic in attending to British interests in the district.  It is believed that the murder was committed at the instigation of a party of conspirators.  Writing to a brother of his in Georgetown, on February 13, Mr Lyall said a state of political anarchy prevailed in Bolivar, and that the inhabitants daily expected the town to be attacked by the rebels.
The father of the poor young man was Edward Whyte Lyall.  Born in Edinburgh, he was a civil engineer and surveyor.  He and his wife Ann came to Darlington from Scotland in the late 1860s.

They lived for a time at 13 Woodlands Terrace before moving to 4 Vane Terrace, which was their home for the rest of their lives.  Edward died there in 1922 at the age of 81.  The notice of his death in the Yorkshire Post records that he
had been in declining health lately, though he was out for a walk on Wednesday. Yesterday morning he was found dead in bed, having passed away in his sleep in the night. 
Mr Lyall was well known in his profession, being responsible, among other works, for a number of water supplies around Darlington.  He was for a long period hon. secretary of the Darlington Charity Organisation Society.
His wife Ann died in 1930.

The British consul named in the newspaper reports was Charles Hermann de Lemos (c1855-1928).  Born in Hamburg, he took British nationality at the age of 27 while living in Newcastle.  He was appointed H.M. Consul for "the States of Bolivar, Sucre, and Barcelona, to reside at Ciudad Bolivar" on 10 Mar 1899.  His wife, with whom he paid the visits to young Mr Lyall's grave, was Guillermina Dalton (1855-1943).


Sunday 11 June 2017

Financial disaster comes to Michael Hughes of Yarm, June 1743

This is a glimpse of the life of Michael Hughes of Yarm.  He had extensive premises in Yarm and had bought land, farms and houses from Bedale to Hurworth.  Did he expand too quickly?  Was it a mistake to build the malt-kiln and the granaries and the warehouses?  Was his mercery business over-stocked with expensive luxuries?  It all came to disaster in the end, but it gives us so much interesting information on the way.

In 1743 he had property in Hutton Rudby, Thornton in Cleveland, Maltby in Cleveland, Appleton Wiske, Great Smeaton, Hurworth, Catterick, Richmond, Bedale, Brompton, Osmotherley, as well as his properties in Yarm itself, including the newly-built Malt Kiln with land going to the Tees where he had a wharf for shipping his goods.  Everything was to be sold to satisfy his creditors in auctions that took place in Hutton Rudby, Yarm, Darlington, Richmond and Northallerton. 

It must have created a sensation at the time.

Newcastle Courant, 11 June 1743

To be Sold respectively to the Highest Bidder,
At the following Times and Places,
By the Assignees of a Commission of Bankrupt lately awarded against MICHAEL HUGHES, of Yarm, Merchant,
The several LANDS and TENEMENTS herein after mention'd, late the Estate of the said Bankrupt, viz. 
On the 28th of June inst. between the Hours of Two and Five in the Afternoon, at the Dwelling House of George Whorlton in Hutton near Rudby, three new built Dwelling Houses, with the Garths and Appurtenances thereunto belonging, situate in Hutton aforesaid, now tenanted by William Peacock and others, at the yearly Rent of 5 l. or thereabouts. 
On the 29th, between the Hours of Ten and Twelve, at the House of Widow Barley, Innholder, in Yarm, several Dwelling Houses, with a Blacksmith's Shop, Stable, Garth or Orchard, and near an Acre of Meadow Ground thereto belonging, situate in Thornton, in Cleveland, now lett to George Tunstal and others, at the yearly Rent in the whole of 8 l. 13s.  And between the Hours of One and Four of the same Day, and at the same Place, an improveable Freehold Estate, with a good Farm House, and all other convenient Housing thereon, situate at Maltby, in Cleveland, of the yearly Rent of 36 l
On the 30th, between the Hours of Ten and Twelve, at the said Widow Barley's, a Farm in the Township of Appleton upon Wiske, of the yearly Value of 13 l. held by Lease for a Term of 2000 Years under the reserved annual Rent of 3s.  And between the Hours of One and Four of the same Day, and at the same Place, An improveable Freehold Farm, lying at Entercommon, near Great Smeaton, of the yearly Value of 20 l. and upwards; on which two last mention'd Farms are also good Farm Houses, and all other Conveniences for Tenants, in Good Repair. 
On the 4th of July next, between the Hours of One and Four, at the House of Mr John Yorke, Innholder, in Darlington, An improveable Freehold Farm, lying in the Township of Hurworth, with a good Farm House, and other Conveniences thereon for a Tenant, in good Repair, of the yearly Value of 24 l. and upwards. 
On the 5th, between the Hours of Ten and Twelve, at the House of Mr Ralph Hawxwell in Catterick near Richmond, The said Bankrupt's Life Estate in some Lands lying in Richmond Town Fields, of the yearly Value of 6 l. 10s. or thereabouts.  Also at the last mention'd Day and Place, between the Hours of One and Four, A well built Freehold Dwelling House, with the Appurtenances, situate in Catterick aforesaid, in the Possession of Mr James Mewburn, or his Assigns under the clear annual Rent of 10 l
On the 6th, between the Hours of Ten and Twelve, at the House of Mr Careless, in Northallerton, A Freehold Close in Bedale, of the yearly Value of 3 l. 10s. or thereabouts; the same Day and Place, between the Hours of One and Four, Some Copyhold Houses, with the Appurtenances, in Brompton near Northallerton, of the yearly Value of 5 l. or thereabouts; and on the same Day, and at the same Place, between the Hours of Four and Five, A Copyhold House, with the Garth and Appurtenances thereunto belonging, situate in Osmotherley, in the Possession of Robert Fryar, at the yearly Rent Forty and Two Shillings, or thereabouts.  And 
On the 7th, between the Hours of Ten and Twelve, at the said Widow Barley's House in Yarm, A Freehold Close in the Parish of Yarm aforesaid, of the yearly Value of 5 l. or thereabouts; between the Hours of One and Four, the same Day and Place, The Freehold Dwelling House, Shop, Ale-houses, and Granaries, on the East Row or Side of the Town of Yarm aforesaid, late in the said Bankrupt's own Occupation; and between the Hours of Four and Seven of the same Day, and at the same Place, Another Freehold Dwelling House, with the Shop and Appurtenances thereto belonging, and also several Stables, Granaries, Ware-houses, and a Malt Kiln, all new built, on the Backside of the last mention'd Dwelling House, and extending to the River Tease [Tees], with a convenient Key [Quay] or Wharf for the shipping or unlading of Goods.  The said last mention'd Dwelling Houses adjoin upon each other, fronting the Market-place; and the same, with the Granaries, &c. are every way commodiously situate for Trade.  For further Particulars enquire of Mr David Burton, Attorney, in Yarm aforesaid. 
Likewise to be sold, at the said Bankrupt's Shop and Ware-houses in Yarm, all his Stock in Trade, consisting of Grocery, Mercery, Haberdashery, Distillery, Linen and Woollen Drapery Wares, with a large Quantity of Men and Womens Hats, Black Velvet Caps, and several other Goods and Merchandises.  The Sale will begin on Tuesday the 14th inst. and Attendance will be given there every Thursday and Tuesday following, till the whole be sold.  Such Tradesmen as are inclined to buy any of the Goods by Wholesale, are desired to attend the four first Days of Sale
Evidently there were too few customers for all the Hats and Caps and so forth, because soon this advertisement appeared:
Newcastle Courant, 18 June 1743
Whereas it hath been formerly advertised, that all the Stock in Trade, late of Michael Hughes, a Bankrupt, was to be sold at his Shop and Ware-houses in Yarm, and that such Tradesmen as were inclined to buy any of the said Goods by Wholesale, were desired to attend the first four Days of Sale, which said four Days being now past, and a considerable Quantity of the said Goods, particularly Broad Cloths, Dyers Goods, Leaf and Cut Tobacco, Distilled Liquors of all Sorts, Apothecarys Drugs, and Linen Cloth, are remaining yet undisposed of.  Notice is hereby given, that such Persons as are inclined to buy all or any of the said Goods now remaining in the Wholesale Way, may attend at the said Bankrupts Shop in Yarm aforesaid, the 28th and 30th Inst. and on the 5th and 7th of July next, when the said Goods will be sold by Wholesale, at reasonable Rates.
And finally Michael Hughes' Commissioners in Bankruptcy were ready to make payments to his creditors:
Newcastle Courant, 3 March 1744
The Commissioners in a Commission of Bankrupt, awarded and issued against Michael Hughes, late of Yarm, in the County of York, Merchant, intend to meet on the Twenty-eight Day of March instant, at Eleven in the Forenoon, at the House of Mrs Margaret Ellis, Innholder, at the Sign of the Anchor and Crown, in Yarm aforesaid, in order to make a Dividend of the said Bankrupt's Estate, when and where the Creditors, who have not already proved their Debts, are to come prepared to do the same, or they will be excluded the Benefit of the said Dividend

The Teesside Archives catalogue shows that it holds deeds from the 1720s relating to purchases of property by Michael and his wife Mary.

Thursday 26 January 2017

Extracts from the York Herald, 26 January 1850

Middle class emigration and climbing boys:-
Emigration of the Middle Classes – We are glad to learn, from an announcement which appears in our advertising columns, that the reputable firm of Sir John Pirie and Co., have chartered several vessels for the purpose of carrying out emigrants of the middle class to Australia.  The numerous complaints of want of punctuality, as to the time of sailing, of the badness and deficiency of provisions, of the absence of proper accommodation, and of gross disorder during the voyage, have had a considerable effect in deterring intending emigrants of decent character and habits from proceeding.  In all these respects, Sir John Pirie and Co. promise better things, and the high character of the worthy Baronet at the head of the firm, is a guarantee for the punctual and complete fulfilment of their engagements.
Darlington Police, Jan. 21 – Before R H Allen, G J Scurfield, and Robert Colling, Esqrs., Hannah Leybourne was charged with stealing from the person of Thomas Horner, butcher, two £5 notes and about £3 10s in gold and silver.  After a partial hearing, the case was dismissed, in consequence of the prosecutor having previously offered to compromise the robbery, if part of the money should be returned. – Peter Barney alias Corney, a sweep, was charged with allowing a young boy to ascend a chimney for the purpose of removing the soot.  The defendant was liberated upon payment of the costs, and judgment was deferred.

(In 1850, we were half way through the battle to protect the "climbing boys" from exploitation – for the relevant Acts of Parliament, see here)

Friday 7 August 2015

John Cresswell Brigham of Darlington

I often wondered what happened to the Brigham family of Rudby.  Now, thanks to an email from their descendant Jonathan Taylor at last I know!

The son of George Brigham (1790-1841) was also called George.  He was a clerk for Backhouse's Bank in Darlington, rising to chief accountant.  His son was the noted antiquarian bookseller, historian & collector, John Cresswell Brigham.  This is from the online catalogue for Durham County Record Office:

Brigham Collection (Ref: D/XD 16/1-18a)
This collection, including many books which are now part of the Local History Collection, was bought by Darlington Library on the death of the antiquarian bookseller, John Cresswell Brigham, in 1936.  It was then described as three collections, one relating to Darlington, one to Durham and one to Yorkshire. Those archive items which have been identified as part of the Brigham Collection are listed here, but it is likely that many of the items without provenance which are listed as the Darlington Library Collection (D/DL), came from the Brigham Collection originally. 
John Cresswell Brigham owned a book shop at 26 Coniscliffe Road and also set up a private museum in Northumberland Street. He was a Quaker and married Eleanor Lingford of Bishop Auckland. He was a well known figure in the town and his son has donated some notes about his life to the library. 
J. C. Brigham's father was George Brigham, who was chief accountant for Backhouse's Bank till his death in 1892. The family came from Rudby where George Brigham was a land agent and valuer, coroner for Cleveland and chief constable for the west division of Langbaurgh.
He was quite a collector.  A 1935 newspaper article relates that eleven railway wagons were needed to transport the items bought from J C Brigham's executors by a purchaser in the Lake District.  They included books, manuscripts, pictures and curios.  There were 500,000 books!  These treasures included:-

  • an early edition of the Douai Bible (first published in 1582)
  • a Rembrandt etching dated 1641
  • signed copies of Dickens' works
  • first editions of works by Voltaire, Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott
  • a number of Saxton's C16 maps
  • the little satchel carried by Wordsworth on his mountain tramps in the Lake District.
And I notice from a quick search that it was John Cresswell Brigham who photographed the interior of St Cuthbert's Church, Darlington, just before the galleries that had been erected in 1730 were taken down in the major structural works of 1862.  Unsurprisingly for the time, it's not a very clear photo, but you can see it here.


Monday 22 September 2014

Local solicitors and World War One

The Record of Service of Solicitors & Articled Clerks with His Majesty's Forces, 1914-9 contains a list of lawyers who served during the First World War.

It isn't complete.  This can be seen from the fact that it does not include George William Wynne Barnley of the Royal Garrison Artillery.  He was one of the local solicitors to win the Military Cross (four more are listed below).
George William Wynne Barnley was the son of George Edward Barnley, solicitor, and his wife Emily.  The elder Mr George Barnley was born in Teignmouth, Devon; the younger was born in Middlesbrough in 1883.  The 1911 Census finds the family living in Danby. 

Edinburgh Gazette, 26 September 1918
Capt. (A./Maj.) George William Wynne Barnley, M.C., R.G.A.
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in command of his battery.  By his untiring energy and skilful arrangements the battery occupied many positions during the retreat, and was brought out of very difficult situations without the loss of guns, stores or transport.  It never failed to answer all calls made for maintenance of fire in support of infantry.
(M.C. gazetted 3rd June, 1918) 
Northumbrian Heavy Battery RGA - GWW Barnley is 2nd from left

This story was told with great affection by those who knew him: 
George Barnley suffered from a slight stammer.  On one occasion he led his men forward with the cry, "F-f-follow m-me, men!" and disappeared into a water-filled crater, from where he could be heard to shout, "D-don't b-bloody well f-follow me here!"

Friday 30 November 2012

Rev Malcolm Buchannan (1880-1954)

Malcolm Buchannan was one of Whitby's characters. 

An energetic High Church Anglican priest, his obituary from 9 July 1954 gives a full story of his remarkable life.  I am not sure where, in his far-flung ministry, this photograph was taken – possibly the Transvaal.

Rev Malcolm Buchannan
FAITHFUL PARISH PRIEST
Rev M Buchannan's Notable Life

By the death of the Rev Malcolm Buchannan, which occurred on Sunday night at his home, St Hilda's Terrace, Whitby, the town lost a man who defied ill-health to continue his vocation almost to the end. 

A native of Whitby, Father Buchannan was educated at Hallgate's School at Whitby, and subsequently attended Durham School and Durham University, where he gained prominence as an oarsman, rowing in representative events for the Varsity. 

He was a son of Mr Charles Buchannan, and a grandson of Mr George Weatherill, the famous artist, and he felt the call to the work of the Church, and as a priest of the Church of England did an outstanding service to his fellow men, not only in England, but in Canada, South Africa and Trinidad.

A man of great personal charm, Father Buchannan's chief characteristic was his sincerity.  He was ordained curate in 1903 at Durham and his first appointment was as a curate at St Mark's, South Shields, where he remained for three years, being priested in 1904.