Have you any old video footage of Ushaw Moor and the surrounding area, particularly of the railways.

For possible inclusion on the Ushaw Moor Historical Website or the Memories BLOG.

If you have and are willing to share with others please let me know :

Email :  historic@ushawmoor.org.uk

Vic Armorey died in the First World War. Thanks to a remarkable coincidence, his memory resonates ever closer to home.

RALPH Victor Armorey, still Uncle Vic to Agnes Hall though she could never have known him, was killed on the Somme in September 1916, aged only 22.

Four years later, in the Wesley Methodist chapel at Esh Road, Ushaw Moor, a fine pipe organ was dedicated to his memory and that of Charles Henry Walker, his best friend at school. A brass plaque acknowledged their sacrifice.

The chapel – “our little Bethel,”

READ MORE

via Pipe dream (From The Northern Echo).

My family moved from 29 Harvey Street, New Brancepeth to 38 Victoria Court in January, 1947, a couple of weeks before the massive snowstorms which started in late January, 1947, and I have it on good authority from Michael Malley who is an old friend of mine in Hebburn that the thaw started on March 17th, of that year.

We were in the first 16 familes to be moved on to the new estate. The first houses let were the last four numbered houses and the first eight numbered houses in Whitehouse Court and the last four numbered houses in Victoria Court ie 36 – 39 Victoria Court. I hope that makes sense.

The surrounding area was a building site for a long time and the foremans hut and the large store hut were situated on the ground on the opposite side of the road from Tom Dickinsons home at 12 Whitehouse Court. The site foreman was a man named Edgar Simpson who lived at New Brancepeth and the Clerk of the Works was Mr. Carse who with his family resided at 6 Victoria Court for a couple of years after the estate was opened. The estate was designed by Mr Fred Hedley who was the architect for Brandon and Byshottles Urban District Council. I think that Fred was responsible for the design of all council housing in the Brandon and Byshottles area. The watchmen on the site were a Mr Hutchinson, who I believe lost an arm in the First War and who lived at Pringle Place at New Brancepeth and also a man whose name I never knew who lived in the bottom house in Whitehouse Lane. When the the two gentlemen in question sent you on your way you moved as quickly as possible. There was no back chat or cheek or the local policeman was liable to visit your home with a telling off.

I cannot remember exactly in which order the houses were built but I think that Bracken Court was the last built before the road was pushed through the wood to begin building Oakridge Road. There was very little road traffic in those days so the road was our playing area, football, cricket, kick the tin on winter nights and there was even a little ungrassed area where we played allees or marbles as the game is better known. Chucks was also a popular game played on the pavement.

There were many different moves in the game of chucks. We walked a lot around the local area and many happy hours were spent down the beck, fishing and birdnesting in the spring. It is always sunny in those far off days when I look back but there must have been some bad weather around. Our sledging bank was the area in front of the first four numbered houses in Bracken Court and for a number of years we used the road in front of these four houses before it was opened for through traffic. It was never gritted so we spent many happy hours in that area in the snow of the winters past.

We never wanted anything as consumer goods at that time were unknown. We provided our own entertainment and we learned as young people to use our imagination. I might be wrong but in the world of today young people are deprived of using their own initiative and imagination in their mass produced entertainment.

One source of entertainment was our visits to the “pictures” at the Empire and the Club Hall. That meant that you had the choice of eight “big” and eight “little” films a week to watch if you were so inclined. There was always a cartoon and the newsreels every night also. It is quarter to six and I am due at the Iona Club at seven o clock, being on the Club committee takes up a lot of time. Our world was small and secure up to a point and the influences on our lives were Church or Chapel, school and your parents. No outside influences like young people are under today. Life I think was easier to understand when I was young.

Brian Mc Loughlin

Ushaw Colliery

Originally uploaded by Ushaw Dude

Early photo of Ushaw Moor Colliery, does this bring back any memories ?

Paul

My connection with ushaw moor is I am a cousin of Valerie Snaith, my maternal grandfather was John Bell of Cockhouse farm, my paternal grandfather was steward of “Cub House” in Ushaw Moor. I lived in New Brancepeth until 1955 when along with Mum & Dad & brother Duncan emigrated to Australia.

I have been back to England a couple of times and am again coming in June 2010. I certainly enjoy visiting ushaw moor cricket club where my fathers photo is still on the wall. would enjoy meeting you during my visit.

Posted on behalf of:

Kind regards
AdrianRoss

I was wondering if you could give me some help regarding a resident of Ushaw Moor in 1917. Private Alfred Bates Turner was the Son of James and Eliza Turner, of 2 Broadgate Cottages, Flass Hall, Ushaw Moor, Broadgate, Co. Durham, he was serving with the Sherwood Foresters when he was killed at Houthulst Forest, nr. Elverdinghe, Belgium.

I was in Ypres last weekend attending a dedication of a Memorial Stone to The Foresters at Tyne Cot Cemetary, I was talking to a fellow W.F.A. (Western Front Association) Member from Belgium who told me they had the original headstone naming Private Turner and it would be nice if we could find any information out about Pte. Turner or if there were any living relations who we could make contact with, with regards to the headstone as we near the 100th anniversary of World War 1.

Could you tell me if Ushaw Moor has a W.W.1 memorial and is Pte Turner named, also any information that may lead to finding a relation would be gratefully received.

Yours

Lloyd Cartwright

W.F.A. Member

The memories page is a wonderful facility and I have thanked Paul several times for creating it. Having said that - are memories just an exercise in both rampant nostalgia and remembered pain, or something much more? I think there is much more to memories: they are a tool that enable ’stock taking’ and they provide information to enable each and everyone of us to move on. I have experienced  joy, but much of it was chaotic and badly planned – if planned at all. It is time to achieve some coherence together with positive action. What about you?

So how am I going to achieve this all action coherence? Well I am old enough and wise enough to know what I want to do, given my present circumstances and likely budget. I do not need old time religion. I do however need a fair amount of luck. The rest is down to me. One thing I have not got is the foresight to know how much time I have remaining - annoying that one.   So many of my past friends are no longer on the planet; David my best man at my wedding; Brian the lovely lad, together with his pint of beer, last seen hitching a ride through the galaxy on a 42 bus; Dennis my old left winger and neighbour, long gone. Those lads are a warning – to get on with it. So how many years to build into the plans? I will make a bold guess : how about eleven?

If I have something like eleven years it is time to list the aspirations and cut my cloth - with inbuilt flexibility of course. Mind you I need to build in four years of decreptitude so that leave me with a vigorous seven years.

Seven years? Not long is it? Well as you  know it is not how long you live - it is what you do with it. I’m off for a pint.

WB

They were the inspired, and in turn inspirational, painters from Ashington of bygone years. Like any other group, or social stratum, miners had their fair share of sensitive, spiritual and talented people. You can google them – pitmen painters Ashington – UK of the web is best rather than the whole world -  and find a lot of interesting information. 

Again it is not about Ushaw Moor people - but it is about a group of the very same type – hardworking underpaid miners that enabled and fed our advanced economy, especially during wartime.

WB

The memories site appears busy and varied but that is misleading. There are too few contibutors - and if they were to cease their twittering, tapping and often thoughful contributions - what would be left to keep memories alive, entertaining and fresh?

If you have found time to delve into the local pathways of history provided by this site - pass it on to a friend! Show enthusiasm that is a bit more than a passing interest. Keep village history alive and fresh. Better still interview a senior citizen or a 40 odd year old, or whatever, and with their approval get their story on to the site.   

Pass it on. You might also consider yesterday’s article entitled ’Are you an ex miner’and respond to it - if at all possible.

WB

Instructions

Rationing did not end until almost the middle 1950s. The 1947 Christmas Cake was therefore not quite the version one could enjoy a few years later!

Ingredients:

85 grams sugar – soft brown - then – let me think – let’s have a few bullet points!

• 2  eggs
• 3 tablespoons Golden Syrup
• 225 grams plain flour
• 2 1/2 grams Bicarbonate of Soda
• 5 grams cinnamon ground
• 5 grams mixed spice
• 450 grams dried fruit mixture
• 3 tablespoons tea cold and well strained
• 1 pinch salt and finally
• 115 grams of margarine

[1] Line a 7″ (18 cm) cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Preheat the oven to 150C 

[2] Cream the margarine and sugar and gradually add beaten eggs, then the syrup.

[3] Sift all dry ingredients together – add to the creamed mixture along with the fruit and  tea.

[4] Then spoon into the cake tin  – then make a hollow in the centre so the cake will stay flat on top.

[5] Bake for 2 hours until firm to the touch and the sides have shrunk away a little from the sides.

[6] Cool in the tin. When cold remove from the tin & store in an airtight container

This receipe is at your own risk: the writer cannot be held responsible for wrecking your Christmas or dampening your spirits.

WB