Archive
Alfred Bates Turner

From Here To Eternity
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
Pass It On
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
Early Planning – Christmas Cake 1947 Style
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
Instructions
[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
Off The Top Of My Head
I suppose that many of us are already aware of the circumstances surrounding the Ushaw Moor miners’ strike – but even so Paul was right to give it another airing. It must be enthralling when read for the first time. I am absolutely sure that an inspired writer could make something of the dispute and create a popular BBC drama. In the right hands it would be far more interesting that King Arthur and Merlin – I quite like that programme but it is fantasy, unlike the fascinating Ushaw Moor dispute. The colliery manager was appalling and the mine owner was not much better.
It was all about deference then; all that bowing and scraping [and being ripped off by the aggravating wealthy class] understandably created an aggrieved work force. In Victorian times the powers that be actually thought that if workers became unemployed it must be their own fault. There was little understanding of how to operate an advanced economy and a large number of the poor suffered as a consequence.
There is much more to it than that but I must close for lunch – suitably wound up!
WB
Proud West Stanley FC
The full FA Cup record of Ushaw Moor FC is elsewhere on this site but tonight let us have a brief look at some of West Stanley football team’s FA Cup exploits. I believe that West Stanley played in the South Moor area – if anyone can give any useful information regarding that I would be thankful.
Back in the 1905/6 season they drew at home to Northampton 1-1 before losing the replay 3-0 away. A few years later they lost against Watford by 4-1.
Perhaps its best season was in 1919/20:
Leadgate Park [Home] 2-0, Rotherham County [H] 1-0, Gillingham [H] 3-1 and then Tottenham H [A] 1-4 defeat. Yes West Stanley played against the Spurs! During that season Tottenham finished up champions of the Second Division [now called The Championship]. The Gaumont Cinema showed clips of the match a few days after the event. In the FA Cup that season Spurs also beat Bristol Rovers 4-1 West Ham 3-0 but finally lost to Aston Villa 1-0. In the following year Spurs actually won the FA Cup, beating Wolves 1-0 in the final.
Acknowledgements to the FCHD for much of this information.
WB
14 and 15 George Street 1901
Jimmy and Eliza Turner lived at number 14 with their offspring Margaret, James, Robert and Alfred. Mr Turner was born in Lancashire and his wife was born in Willington, County Durham. All four children were born at Brandon Colliery.
Tommy Rodgerson [coal hewer] and his wife Mary were at number 15. Tommy was born in Northumberland and might be related to me [I will look into that]. Their offspring at this time was: Edward [coal hewer], Elizabeth, Mary and Thomas.
So Alf and Tommy just missed each other- but by how many years? Whatever Alf might say the number of years was small compared to eternity! In other words Tommy got on the bus of life just before the one Alf caught – as it were. Just humour me!
WB
7 And 8 George Street Ushaw Moor 1901
Richard [a coal hewer] and Jane Brunskill occupied number 7 together with their offspring: Hilda, Hannah, Richard and infant Dora. They had lived in Ushaw Moor for several years.
Edward and Rebecca Heron lived next door at number 8 with their children – Louisa, Thomas, George and John. Like neighbour Richard -Edward was a coal hewer.
Does any of that jog a memory of family living in Ushaw Moor years ago?
WB