All Our Yesterdays All Our Yesterdays GILBERT HIRD 1922—2013

C O N T E N T S

Things we used to eat 3 EARLY MEMORIES OF Gilbert goes a shopping 5 M E L S O N B Y The day we went to Redcar 7 The quarries 9 Threshing days 11 The Old Blacksmith Shop 13 Gilbert Hird grew up in Melsonby between the two Sticking 15 Pig killing day 17 Great Wars. In the late 1990s he recalled his The Horseman 19 From pool to pipe 21 early memories as a series of articles in the Stable lads 22 Entertainment 24 Melsonby Village News and these have now been Beggars 25 Wharton’s Farmyard 26 edited to form this booklet. Road repairs 28 Lime Burning 30 Football 32 Stan Dodds 1924—2004 34 School Days 35 Corn harvest 37 Ablutions 39 Spring 40 Harvest 42 Potato picking 44 More about tatie picking 47 Christmas between the wars 48 Our Robin 50 Bathing in the beck 51 Vendors who came to the village 53 Early days of Wireless 54 News 56 The Black Bull 57 Butcher's Boy 59 Harvest 62 Village Pump 64 Mothers 66 Gilbert's Christmas 68 The Village Institute 70 The Home Guard 71 Gypsies 73 Market day 74 The little house across the yard 76 Making the green 77 Gilbert’s 90th 80

Obituary 81

Page All Our Yesterdays

GILBERT HIRD

Gilbert Hird grew up in Melsonby between the two Great Wars. In the late 1990s he recalled his early memories as a series of articles in the Melsonby Village News and these have now been edited to form this booklet.. The dates after each article are when they appeared in the Melsonby Village News.

Gilbert cuts the Allotment and Produce Show’s special 50 th Anniversary Cake. He had exhibited produce at EVERY show for the past 50 years!

Gilbert has walked the footpaths and byeways of Melsonby since his childhood. He used to lead fascinating guided walks that were appreciated by incomers

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Things We used To Eat (November 1997)

Through the depression years, with our teeth. I’ve seen a whole during the twenties and thirties, we gang of us out for a walk munching were always hungry. There were no our turnips. bags of crisps in those days and if Mushrooms were another crop we there had been, we would not have used to look forward to. Everyone been able to afford them. I knew the good places to find them, so remember eating hawthorn leaves, you got up early to try and be the we called it bread and butter. We first there. If there was a glut of used to eat the skin of the hips and them we would take a basket full hawthorn berries. We knew every into Darlington and go round the wild gooseberry bush in the area. fruit stalls to sell them. We They never had time to get ripe sometimes got sixpence a pound. Bus before the bush was stripped, the fare was only sixpence return, so we hairy ones were always the sweetest. used to make a nice little profit. You would see kids walking around Another thing we used to look for eating sticks of rhubarb. If you were were eggs, peewits, pheasants, near home you might get a bit of partridge and moorhens, I’ve tried sugar on. them all. Half a dozen moorhen’s In summer time we used to dig for eggs used to make a lovely omelette. earth nuts. You found a small white You might say that this was one of flower that grew in the pastures and the reasons for the decline in the bird you dug down for its root, I’ve seen a populations. I don’t think so, it was few knife blades broken in the something that had always gone on process. Sometimes the root was as and in those days there were big as a walnut. We used to wash moorhens on every watercourse and them in the beck and eat them. They peewits in every field. All hens were were nice, I don’t know where you free range in those days, so you would find them now, maybe up the sometimes came across a nest of eggs Dales. Another thing we used to in the hedgerows. If we did we look forward to being ready were the would either suck them or build a field turnips (swedes). As soon as fire, find an old tin and boil them. they were as big as a tennis ball we Autumn was always a time of would be in for one, knock the root plenty. It started with the brambles. off on the gate and strip the skin off

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I think of all the wild fruits the dole sitting on the wall of the narrow bramble was the most important to bridge that used to be in the centre country folk. Nearly every family of the village opening the nuts with in the village had someone out with their pocket knives. The ground their cans or baskets. One of the best would be covered with nut shells. places was a wood of about 10 acres You would have a job to know where up near Low Merrybent called The to look for brambles and nuts now. Fox Cover. Brambles used to hang As soon as the corn harvest is like grapes over the gorse bushes. finished the hedgerows are flailed, You could fill a basket in no time. leaving nothing for man or beast or The wood has long since gone. It bird. used to be bramble pies, puddings, but most of all jam. Mother used to All the farms had orchards then and make stones of it, enough to last us we knew where the best fruit trees all winter. When you came in from were. Orchard House for the best school at dinner time it might be just early apples, Rectory Garden for the 2 slices of bread and jam and best plums, Kneeton Hall and Low another before you went to bed. Grange for pears. I remember a good Russet tree at Low Merrybent. Hazel nuts were another crop that A lot of our raids took place after was plentiful. We could hardly wait dark. It was always great fun. for them to get ripe. I remember some of the men who were on the

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Gilbert goes a shopping (March 1998)

I often wonder as I walk round the One of the first to come round with supermarkets and see all the laden provisions was a man called trolleys, our own included, full of all Shinfield. He had a little open the wonderful things you can get backed wagon with a sheet over. It now-a-days, how we used to manage had solid tyres. He used to deliver in years gone-by. My earliest an order to an old man called Bill recollections of shopping was going Walton, who lived in the Bungalow to the corner shop to get things for on High Row. One day old Bill, mother. knowing when he was coming, covered his throat with jam and laid The shop was run by Johnny and down on the kitchen floor with a Maggie Brunskill. They were among knife beside him!! Shinfield came in , the first in the village to own a car. saw Bill, dropped the groceries and It was kept in a garage on the gable ran down the village shouting there end of the shop. There was very had been a murder. little pre-packed stuff in those days everything came in bulk. Lard, In the early thirties the Co-Op butter, margarine and cheese came started coming round with a in large blocks and they would cut grocery van and a butcher’s van. off as much as you wanted. Flour, Mother started to buy from them – sugar, currants etc., were always in it was the dividend that won her sacks and had to be weighed out into over. You could get “THE DIVI” on paper bags. Biscuits came in large clothing as well, it was sometimes as square tins and if you wanted much as 2 shillings in the pound. mixed, he would take so many out of She used to always try to leave it each tin. Mother always baked her until Christmas. I can still own bread so we were often sent for remember our number 174.34. Its a stone of flour and three etched in my memory. pennyworth of yeast. I don’t think We always got our milk and eggs they had a bacon slicer in those days from Fletchers who lived at 22 East and when we had to go for a pound Road. They kept a few cows and of bacon she would always say “tell hens on the land that is now the him to cut it thin”. We always got Nurseries and Scots Dyke. You took the same answer, “tell her I can’t cut a “can” or “jug” and Mrs Fletcher it any thinner”!

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dipped a measure into the bucket Collection” in those days. You used that had come straight from the the ashes from the fire to keep the cow. If they had a cow calving she earth closet sweet. You burnt your would say bring another jug and papers and any tins you had you you got some of the first milking took up the Moor Road and threw free. They called it “Beastlings”. them over the wall into what is now Mother would make it into curd Lime Garth. It was then called the tarts, they were lovely. Quarry Hole. It was all bulldozed over when the bungalow was built. Eggs were more of a seasonable The old quarry hole used to be one of thing in those days. There was a our favourite playgrounds. glut in early summer, but not many in winter – I have seen them as low as 12 old pence a dozen. People used to buy them when they were cheap and store them in large stone jars covered in liquid called isinglass. They would keep all winter.

We ate very little tinned stuff in those days, maybe a tin of corned beef, a tin of pink salmon and 1 tin of fruit a week, which was just as well since there was no “Refuse

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THE DAY WE WENT TO REDCAR (May 1998)

This was one of the days most looked young ones it was tin buckets and forward to by both young and old, spades, plastic had not been was the Sunday School Trip to invented then. We played where Redcar. The Church School and the mother could keep an eye on us, for Wesleyan School ran separate trips it was so easy to get lost with so on different days. Often two buses, many people around. As we got one for the children and one for the older we were allowed to go up to grownups. The church used to hire the amusement park and boating the local buses but the chapel were a lake. bit posher and used Scots Greys Dinner was always on the sands. Coaches from Darlington. We Mother always took sandwiches. always went with the Church school We might get a bag of chips each. and thought of nothing else for You could get jugs of tea from stalls weeks before and when the great on the sands. You paid a deposit on morning came we could hardly wait the jug and the cups. Everyone had to get on the bus and usually left to have a dip in the sea. All the about 9 o'clock. mothers used to tuck their skirts up I used to love the journey with all and go down for a splodge. Mother the new and exciting places to see, was always frightened we would go especially the ride along the foot of too far out, since none of us could the Eston Hills. I still think that swim. The highlight of the day was Redcar was a long journey for when all the children met at Pybus people and was as far as most people Café for tea. Miss Healy was there had ever been. It was the furthest I to organise things. had journeyed when I joined the Wonderful Miss Healy (Bertie), she forces at 19 in 1941 so you can was always there for us. She was imagine what an adventure it was. Infant Teacher from the early A lot of old people in the village had twenties and I think she was still never seen the sea. there when the school closed in the Arriving in Redcar it was down to fifties. a crowded beach to find a place. I never remembered anyone moving Only the rich could afford foreign up from "Berties" class who could holidays in those days! For the not read and write and know most

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of their tables. She was also the door. It was our barometer for the Sunday School Teacher for the same next 12 months. Then about 6.30 pm, length of time. time to load up for home, for a lot of tired but happy kids piling in to the Back to Redcar - For tea it was bus. Mothers must have been worn always a big ham sandwich on your out, we sang songs all the way home, plate to start with. The working - ‘Show Me The Way To Go Home’ class never saw much ham in the was the favourite. I remember depression years and I was always sitting on the wall in East Road on glad when grace was said so we the day of the Wesleyan trip, could get started. After our waiting for the buses to come home, sandwich we had cakes and trifle, a to see what sort of a day they had feast indeed. After tea we usually had. had a walk round the shops. A stick of rock to get for those who had to stay at home. Two places you could go and watch the rock being made. It always fascinated me watching them roll it out into long lengths, I still don't know how they got the lettering in. Another thing we looked for to bring home was a piece of seaweed to hang behind the shed

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THE QUARRIES (September 1998)

Quarrying was the second biggest employed drilling the rock face by employer to farming between the hand ready for blasting. I think war years. The two most important Barton got its first pneumatic drill in this area were FORCETT and in 1941. Drilling by hand was very BARTON. I never worked at hard work. A quarry man would FORCETT, but I did have a short show you where to drill the hole spell at BARTON which I will which could be up to six feet deep. concentrate on. A six feet steel bar with a hardened tip was used to pound the rock. To Barton quarry was run by The Barton get the hole nice and round you had Limestone Co., and covered all the to keep turning the drill in your area that is now the Lorry Park and hand, which took great skill. As the the field opposite, the area that is now hole got deeper you changed the the Police Depot and maintenance drill, so by the time you reached 6 Council Yard together with the feet deep you would be using a drill wooded area. All the stone from the about 12 feet long. quarry was taken by rail to Teesside to be used in the Blast Furnaces in The only machine used in the quarry steel making. Barton was linked by was the loco, everything else was done branch line to the main line which ran by hand and was hard work. Wagons down what is now the A1M were shunted close to the rock face motorway. Wagons arrived at the ready for filling. The side of the track, very thriving little station and coal about the length of a wagon was called depot, then pulled by the companies a section. It was the "Rockmen" who own loco into the quarry. had to break the stone and load into the wagons. You had to start by The quarry company employed quite drilling holes into the larger pieces and a lot of men, gangs removing top shot firing using gelignite. Skill was face soil from the rock face and required in knowing how many sticks filling bogies which were then pulled of gelignite to use so that stone did not by ponies and tipped into a section fly all over the place, but actually which had been already worked out. stayed within the panel. Shot firing Other gangs called plate layers then usually took place at a given time added to the rail track as work each day. There was a cabin near the progressed. Other men were

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bottom of Melsonby Road, from which When I worked there I was on what a red warning flag was raised and a was called "Topping Out". I would whistle blown. Since there was no fill up any wagon which was battery firing in those days, each man considered short. lit his own fuses and allowed time to My mate called Ted Brownie, (he lived get under cover, he also had to know in a house near the top of the quarry, how many shots were to be fired. I since demolished), was at pension age remember a man at Forcett who lost and after a life time working on a his life because he went back too soon. farm, came to the quarry during the Men in the quarry were paid an war. He was one of the nicest men I hourly rate, except the rockmen, ever worked with, always a story to who were only paid for the amount tell and a twinkle in this eye and one of rock loaded into wagons - these of the best workers, I tend to think. A men worked out in all weathers. A bit of old Ted rubbed off on to me. I good rockman would fill a twelve remember one night walking out of ton wagon in a day, for which he the quarry and some one saying the would be paid 1s 9d per ton, from Germans had entered Paris, old Ted this he had to pay for his own shook his fist at the sky and shouted, ammunition and hammer shafts. "COME THE FOUR CORNERS OF Hammers were 16lbs in weight and THE WORLD IN ARMS had a square face for cutting the stone. Great skill was required to AND WE SHALL SHOCK THEM, break the stone, knowing where and NOUGHT SHALL MAKE US RUE, how to hit. Naturally after working IF BRITAIN TO HERSELF with a hammer all day you were REMAIN BUT TRUE". glad to go home. I felt a lot better after that. Working above the wagon was fairly easy - throwing the stone There was a big demand for stone down, but as you got nearer the when war started. Runways at the bottom the stone became heavier new airfield, extra roads. Bear in humping it over the wagon sides - mind, no road making machines eventually working below the existed, stone was transported and wheels, to enable the track to be levelled by hand tools, rolled and extended to the rock face - this was covered with tarmac or concrete called "Bottoming Out". and so there was a big demand for

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quarry men who came from Barton, Ducket Hill, Brackon House Weardale, Easington Colliery, most West Layton and did a summer at lodged in the Village. You could Downholme Village, 26 mile round more or less choose where you trip on the old bike. I loved working worked for most Companies offered there, but it was a bit of a sickener good wages. when you had Gilling Bank to walk up every night. In less than two years I worked at

THRESHING DAYS (November 1998)

A familiar sight on the country milking done and if a stack was to roads between the wars and right be threshed the thatch would have up to the end of the 1950's was The to be pulled off ready for an 8 Threshing Machine pulled by a o'clock start. The Thresher men, traction engine moving from one usually three, would be there early farm to another. Threshing days to get the fire stocked up for a good were the busiest days in the head of steam and the engine farming year. Some of the big would have to be lined up with the farms would have four or five days Thresher so that the belt ran while the smallholdings might only straight and smooth. Not always have half a day. They used to try an easy job with a heavy engine if and work two of these in on a there had been a lot of rain and the Saturday. The day before the ground was soft. Thresher was due one of the farm At 8 o'clock prompt things would men would go with a horse and be put in motion. The fly wheels cart to Barton Station for a load of would start turning and the belt coal to keep the engine fire going. would be humming. Everyone The Thresher usually came in the would be in their places. Two men night before, always after dark and forking from the stack onto the top was pulled to where they would be of the Thresher. Easy when you working in the morning. were above, but it got harder as Threshing Day morning was you worked down to the bottom. always busy for the farm men. All The sheaves were forked to two the stock had to be fed and the band cutters usually women who cut the string on the sheaves and

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passed to the feeder, who fed them o'clock when the allowance basket head first down what was called the came. Everyone was ready for a drum and into the "innards" of the cup of tea and something to eat. On Thresher where the straw and husks fine days you sat around on the were separated from the grain. The straw, but if it was wet, you went grain came down chutes from the into the buildings. You only had end of the Thresher nearest the about ten minutes, the farmer saw engine to be caught in sacks and to that. Time was money on a carried to the granary and tipped Threshing day. Dinner time was out on the floor by the corn carriers. always looked forward to. The farm Usually three of the youngest fittest men would go home and the rest men did this. It was a hard job for might be fed in the farmhouse, often you might have to walk up to 50yds roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. with ten or twelve stone on your Some farms were better than others. back and then up a flight of steps. Word used to get around which There was no time to hang about for were the best meat houses, as they by the time you got back there called them. You had another break would be another sack waiting for at 3 o'clock for a cup of tea and then you. The straw came out of the on to 5 o'clock. In the middle of other end of the Thresher to be put winter it was dark when you through a tyre made into large finished. One or two of the workers sheaves and carted to be stacked in might have been what they called another part of the stackyard. borrowed hands from other farms The dirtiest job of all was the and the farmer would return the chaffhold underneath the Thresher compliment by sending one of his where all the chaff and rubbish men when their turn came around. came out and this had to be kept The band cutters would be two raked, always the lad’s job. women from the village. The same Sometimes he would have a large two seemed to do it for years. hessian sheet which he kept filling Between the wars they would get and dragging into the "fold yards" to the bairns ready for school, then bed the cattle with. If you were in maybe walk up to two miles for an 8 the village, some of the people who o'clock start, then walk home after 5 kept hens and pigs would come with o'clock to get the dinner ready. sacks and help themselves. They were tough in those days. First break in the morning was 10 After the war my wife Marjorie and

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a friend did quite a lot of band had cycled home. After the war, cutting and were used to it after tractors took the place of the engine, spending the war years in the land making it a lot easier and cleaner. army. By 1960 combines had taken over. The old Threshing sets were silent. The thresher men would have a cup You might still see one working at a of tea before setting off to the next steam rally. Another slice of place. You would see them moving country life gone forever. It was off with their bikes tied on the hard and dirty but there was Thresher, maybe three or four miles something about the hustle and to go. Not a very pleasant journey bustle and banter that got to you, with a traction engine with poor and a sense of achievement when lights and the roads might be you walked up into the granary and covered with frost and snow. But saw the heap of grain covering the the weather had to be bad to stop floor. the Thresher men. Sometimes it would be 8 o'clock by the time they

The Old Blacksmith Shop (March 1999)

This was located on what is now the the mid twenties up to the last war West End of the Village Green was a man called George Shaw, (opposite the Telephone Box). The assisted by his son Stan. They lived in number 24 East Road. The old shop was a low building with an earth floor with just a few paving stones where he worked between the fire and the anvil and a few more into the shop where he shoed the horses. The anvil stood in the middle of the floor with a tub of water for cooling the hot iron and tempering the picks and drills, it was a gathering place for the old men and men who were out of work. I used to go in and listen to them Blacksmith I first remembered, from talk. Sometimes Mr Shaw would let me sit on a little swivel seat

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fastened to the wall near the fire and old grass-cutter. My cousin got his I used to pump the long handle up finger end cut off with the knife. and down to work the bellows that There was blood everywhere. kept the fire going. You hadn't to George's biggest bone of contention, pump too hard or you soon got to was seed harrows. He would say know about it. When you sat too farmers would put them away after close there was always a danger or sowing time and get them out the flying sparks when he was next year and find some of the teeth hammering a piece of hot iron on the missing. They were all to make and anvil. If you got one down the back thread to bolt back onto the frames. of the neck it used to make you jump No welding in those days. I've seen around a bit. There was always a as many as five or six sets of set of boxing gloves in the shop and harrows leaning up against the shop the men were not happy until they wall and the Blacksmith having to had got two of us lads having a box work back to get them finished in at each other. I once remember time. The horses he shoed were landing flat on my back in the coal mostly heavy farm horses. It must hole. A trick of old George's, if he have been hard work having these knew us lads were coming in, was to leaning on you all day. It was heat a penny up in the fire and drop regular to see three or 4 horses it on the floor where we could see it, waiting their turn. It was a slow job I've seen a few burnt fingers, mine as all the shoes had to be made by included, you just couldn't resist hand. I don't think there were any picking it up. ready made ones in those days. Although George's main job was I believe George Shaw retired just shoeing horses, he had to turn his hand after the war. Everything was to anything. Farm implements changing. Tractors were replacing changed very little between the wars. heavy horses which became Everyone had just the basic ploughs, redundant. Thousands of them must drills, harrows, grass cutters etc, all have been slaughtered. There was pulled by horses, and with a very bad more money in farming. recession in farming, everything had Implements that had not changed to last as long as possible. So there was much in a hundred years were not always something which stood outside wanted any more. They were not the shop waiting to be repaired. I once suitable for tractors. Alf Thirkell, remember a gang of us playing on an who was Blacksmith at Middleton

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Tyas took over the shop and worked so very sad. Another piece of Village many days a week at each place. I Life gone forever. I could still hear think it closed in the late fifties. A lot the clang of hammer on anvil., the of village Blacksmith’s shops closed sizzle of steam as hot iron was around that time. We pulled it down plunged into water, and smell the about 25 years ago when we made burning hoof as the hot shoe was the Village Green. I remember pressed against it. walking in to start demolition, I felt

S T I C K I N G (April 1999)

The first thirteen years of my life were I used to love it when it was spent in No.13 Church Row. In our moonlight – it was a great house, like every other household in adventure for a ten or eleven year the Village, the most important thing old. You would often see others on was the open fire. Every thing the same mission as ourselves. You revolved round it. Not only had got to know all the shortcuts over kindling to light the fire on 365 days a the fields, often hardly touching the year to be found, but also bigger pieces roads at all. for Mum to shove under the oven There was no street lighting in those when she was cooking. So it did not days, so if you had to walk down the matter where you were playing, you village, you were not easily seen. I were always on the lookout for wood. remember going to a meeting just In fact, you were often under orders to after the war, to discuss street get some, or else! And we knew what lighting. A few of the older men, that meant….. Dad included, saying what did we There were a lot more trees and want street lighting for? They had hedgerows in those days. If we had done without it all those years and had a gale force wind, you would see they could never remember anyone lots of people out gathering broken falling into the beck. I think they branches that had blown down. You were thinking more of being seen might see a nice piece that was too coming down the village with a log heavy to carry, so after Dad had got on their shoulder, or a couple of home from work and had his tea, we rabbits in their bag if they had been would take him and show him where poaching! it was and he would carry it home. Once you got the wood home, it had

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to be sawn into logs, not always with spitting on them, to see if they were the sharpest of saws. They always hot enough, She never wasted reckoned when you went sticking anything and used to stack the you got three warmings: once potato peelings on a ledge at the back carrying it home; the second sawing of the fire and when they were dry, it up and the third when you got it she would rake them onto the flames. on to the fire. In those days a lot of They used to burn for quite a long jobs started at 7 am. You realise how time. Anyone smelling them as they soon people had to get up, to get the walked past, must have thought we fire lit and the kettle boiled and how had roast potatoes every night. We important it was to have dry had a big side oven and usually two kindlings. Once the fire was lit, it baking days a week. Mother always had to stay on all day, even if we liked a few ‘oven sticks’ as she called were having a heat wave. The them, to push under, on top of the cooking had to be done in black iron coals. pans, that could be pushed into the In 1935, we moved to the Institute as flames. Often it was spotted dick, or caretakers and had electricity for a jam roly-poly wrapped in a cloth the first time. We got an electric boiling in the pan, with the spuds kettle and what a boon that was! It and turnip in the steamer on top. was quite a few years after the war My favourite was when she used to before Mother could afford an make fritters – slices of potato dipped electric cooker. Nowadays, even in batter and fried. Holding the with all the different means of frying pan over the fire, you dared central heating, there is nothing not set it down, or the fat would beats a good log fire! catch fire. With six or seven of us to fry for, you can guess how long it took her!

If you wanted a slice of toast, you had to wait until the flames died down and the fire became nice and red before you toasted with the long toasting fork. Mother had two flat irons for ironing the clothes, one warming in the fire while she used the other one. I remember her

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Pig Killing Day (May 1999)

In the years between the wars, most of "meal" for one pig, so if you kept farms killed one or two pigs a year two, you had to go round the farms for their own use, especially those and try to buy a bit more. When we who had hired hands living in, who lived in the top council houses, we I've often heard say they were sick used to keep a pig in a little building of the sight of fat bacon. It was their behind 63 Moor Road. Nothing was staple diet. I don't think they ever wasted. All the scraps were kept for got much ham. the pig. All the potato peelings and any surplus veg from the garden The butcher killed at the farms were boiled and mixed with the starting in November when the meal. He became more of a pet than weather got colder, as the bacon anything else. We used to talk to would not cure very well in the him when we took him his feed and warm weather. Most of the farm give his back a good scratching. He kitchens had large hooks screwed used to like that. into the ceiling joists with hams and side hanging. When I was a young Pigs were usually up to about 20 lad I was always fascinated to see stones before they were ready for them hanging in a little passage killing. We used to get a man from near the back door at Orchard the village called George Hutchinson House. Bacon as it was then would to do the butchering. He was a part have been no good to the modern time Postman. He used to walk to housewife. It would have had far the farms with the mail on a too much fat on it. The last 50 years morning. He was a little fellow, I have been spent breeding a pig with would think no more than 7 stone a longer leaner carcass. This gives wet through. Everyone called him us the bacon we get today. Little Geordie Beck. He was a good butcher and always in demand. When the war started and rationing Killing day arrived and everyone began to bite, more people started had mixed feelings, but it was a job keeping a pig or two. Every little that had to be done and the thought barn or shed was used. Pig clubs of slices of ham sizzling in the pan were formed and trips organised made it a lot easier. Everything had often to agricultural shows. to be just right for George. The fire Cottages were only allowed a ration had to be lit and the water boiling

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ready for scraping. The poor pig about three weeks. George would had a rope fastened round his top call two or three times to turn them jaw, was led out into the yard, a and rub more salt in. After that the punch was held to his head and it salt was washed off and they were was driven into his skull with a hung up ready for use. We had a hammer. It was all over in seconds. side of bacon and a ham hanging up After that he was laid on the path when we were married in 1951. I and boiling water poured over him went halves with the father-in-law. so that the hair would scrape off It was nice to lift a ham down to cut easier. After that he was hoisted up a few rashers off. Food was getting to a beam in one of the outhouses a bit more plentiful about this time and gutted. Then left to the and cottages pig keeping was following day to set before being cut gradually being phased out. It had up. They say the only thing you been a boon to a lot of people can't eat from a pig is the squeal. through the lean years. How true that is.

What a feast after living on rations. Mother was good at making black pudding, sausage, pork pies, etc. Some were given to friends and neighbours. The layers of fat were cut up and melted down to make lard. After the pig was cut up came the most important part, curing. If the hams and sides were not cured properly it would all have been a waste of time. Little George was pretty good at this. I never knew him have any thing go wrong. Salt was rubbed all over the hams and sides. Saltpetre was pushed down beside the ham and shoulder bones then they were laid out, in our case on a sheet under the back kitchen table and covered all over with salt, and they would lay like that for

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The Horseman (June1999)

In the days before tractors, the most Twenties, on a cold winter’s night, important worker on the farm was after dusk (for they worked in the the man who worked the heavy fields until 5 o’clock), I would hear horses – the hoss man, as he was the clip-clop of the horses as they called locally! He might have a came along the road. I would run to younger man or a lad, learning the the gate, to see them go past, the hoss trade, but he was in charge. It was man sitting sideways on one of them, usually the hoss man who built the huddled in his greatcoat to keep corn and hay stacks and did the warm. The horses were hurrying to thatching, but his main job was get to the trough for a drink – the working the horses. His day started first they would have had since at 7 o’clock, when he would feed the morning, then into the stable for a horses and muck out the stable, then well-earned feed. The hoss man go for his breakfast, and be out in would always see to his horses before the field, ready to start by 8 o’clock. he went for his tea. After about an Most of his time in winter would be hour, he would be back to the stable spent ploughing if the ground was to make them comfortable for the clear of frost. If he was a long way night. When I got to the age of 12-13 from the farm, he would take his and was allowed to stay out a bit dinner with him and a feed for his later, I used to love going with 2 or horses. If it was a cold wet day and 3 more of the lads, to sit in the stable, too wet to sit down, he would just where it was warm. The big stable stand against the plough to have it. at Wharton’s Farm was best. These tractor lads today, with Orchard House stable was a bit heated cabs and radios, don’t know draughty. The hoss man used to they are born!! A good day’s work light the stable lamp (no electric) for a man and a pair of horses, was and hang it on a wire that ran the an acre a day. As the old song says: length of the stable, to move it along from stall to stall. He gave the “ I have ploughed an acre, I swear horses a good grooming and bedded and I vow, them up for the night. Some of the For we’re all jolly fellows that other farm men might come in and follow the plough!” it was good to listen to the talk. One I remember when we lived in Church of the things I liked doing, was going Row, I was just a little lad, in the up the steps to the loft above and

Page 19 All Our Yesterdays

pushing the hay down into the racks always remember at Wharton’s in front of the horses. All the farms Farm, after a hard day’s leading in grew oats in those days as feed for the harvest, taking the horses down the horses. The farmer allowed the the yard in the moonlight and hoss man a certain quantity, but it letting them off through Parks Hill was never enough, so I’ve known gate, old Molly, to be reunited with him to get us lads to keep lookout, her foal, the others having a good while he went up to the granary to roll, to get the feeling of the harness get some more – it was like stealing off them, standing there and from the farmer to feed the farmer’s thinking, it’s Sunday tomorrow and horses! To me, the farms have never they’ll all get a well-earned rest! been the same without the horses. I

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FROM POOL TO PIPE (July 1999)

In the days before we got a piped the water to see who could get most water supply (in 1936), all farms bounces before they sank. were dependent on a pond or a Cattle were let out to drink twice a stream near the farm to water the day. It was best to do it before they stock. High Merrybent had a pond, were fed so that they were soon back Low Merrybent had a stream for something to eat. Horses were running through the farm. Orchard usually led to the water to prevent House would let the animals out into them galloping round the farmyard. the field which is now the Village Winters were a lot harder in those Green to drink at the beck. days than they are now, and the Wharton’s Farm used to pump Stocksman might have the ice to water from the beck into a tank in break twice a day. the loft above the stable, then it was A lot of the fields had the beck or a gravity fed into troughs around the stream running through them for farmyard. The water was pumped when the stock was turned out in by a thing called a ram, worked by summer. A lot of the streams were water pressure, you could often see piped in to make the fields bigger. If one of the farm hands going down the field had no water supply, water into a chamber near the beck to had to be carted in with a horse start her up, it is buried under the drawn water cart. These came in all Village Green. shapes and sizes. I should think the Low Grange also had a pond, but the bigger ones would hold about eighty best pond of all is at Bracken House. gallons. You could often see one It is a big pond, divided into four being filled at the village pump. It quarters by walls in the shape of a was a slow job pumping the water cross. It served three fields and the into a bucket and pouring it into the farmyard. When I was a lad, we used tank, then it was to cart to the field to often go up there to play, and I used and fill into a trough. In a hot to love watching the moor hens. If I summer, a trough full did not last remember right, there were holes left very long,. When you think that a in the walls so they could swim from thirsty cow will drink more than a one section to another. We used to bucketful each time, so it was a job play what we called, Ducks and that had to be done nearly every Drakes, skimming a flat stone across day.

Page 21 All Our Yesterdays

After we got the piped supply, it in the byres, for everything was made a big difference, especially in there for them. All they had to do winter. Drinking bowls were fitted all winter, was stand up or lie down. in the buildings, these had a valve They did not get that daily exercise that when pushed with the cows when they were let out to drink at nose, filled with water. It was hard the pond. luck for the cows that were tied up

STABLE LAD (October 1999)

The first job I got when I left school grass?" Another item of clothing I in 1936 was Poultry Lad at had to get was a cap, for you had to Wharton’s Farm. I hadn't been touch your cap to Sir and Madam there long when one day Father when you met them in the yard. It came in and said, you can give your was a thing I never liked doing but notice in at the weekend, I've got if you didn't there was no job. You you another job, Stable Lad in could get a cap at Mr Atkinson's for Hunting Stables at Langdale. No a shilling (5 pence in those days). asking if I wanted to go. Money was Starting time was 7.00 am till 5.00 the over riding factor and I had pm but on hunting days it could be 7 jumped from 12/6 (62½ pence) to a or 8 o'clock before you finished, no pound. overtime. You hadn't to be late on a I remember mother taking me to Mr morning even when the snow was Atkinson’s, who had a drapers shop too deep to ride the bike and I had to where the toilets are now, under the walk down through the woods. I had market at Darlington, to get to be in the saddle room at 7.00 measured for some whipcord o'clock. breeches and box cloth legging. For I had ridden plenty of horses and if I was going to be a stable lad I ponies, but never on a saddle, would have to look the part. I was always bare back like the Indians. I small and thin in those days and never got any riding lessons, just when Mr Atkinson ran his hand twice round the field on the pony down my legs to see what size and they said I would do. There legging I wanted, he said "Where's were four other grooms in the his calves, are they still out at stables. We used to take two horses

Page 22 All Our Yesterdays

out each morning riding one and hoped they would not be late back so leading the other. They put me in you could get home early. It might the middle where I was safe, but I be as late as 5 o'clock when they soon got used to it. came in and you had a dirty horse to start and clean, not a pleasant job Exercising was all done on the roads, if his legs and belly were covered in the only time we went in the fields dried halanby clay. You were was when the roads were blocked nearly choked with dust as you with snow. We used to do six or brushed it off. seven miles each morning. I used to love it, there was very little traffic Your horse had to be spotless when on the roads. My favourite ride was you finished, tail washed, plaited down through Aldbrough to the and bandaged, legs bandaged, hoofs Piercebridge road along to the oiled, and rugged up ready for Barton-Melsonby road end, up the inspection by Sir or Madam. Village and down to Langdale. All the tack had to be cleaned before I always remember the noise we we went home. Saddles and bridles made, ten horses going full trot up washed and soaped, girths had to be Hang Bank. None of us wore hard washed and whitened, the bits and hats in those days. stirrups washed in white sand and cold water. Not a pleasant job on a I had two horses and the son’s pony cold winter’s night, and if Old Jack (Tich) to look after. Sometimes in the Stud Groom found any traces of summer I had to take the pony for rust in the corners, you had to do the son to ride at the Pony Club them over again. I used to pray for Meets that were held at different a hard frost on a Saturday so I could places, wait till they were finished, finish early and catch the bus to then ride him back at night. It was Darlington to go to the pictures. In great riding along roads I had never summer when the horses were been on before. There were hardly turned out I worked on the farm any horseboxes and trailers around and in the gardens. then. When War broke out hunting If the weather was fine they used to stopped for a while. A lot of good hunt three days with the Zetland horses were taken to the kennels and and one or two with the Bedale slaughtered and fed to the hounds. Hunt. If you had a horse out you Sir had been in the Cavalry in the

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First War and had seen what in the Bull Parks. If the War hadn’t happened to the horses and he did come I might have stayed with not want them to go to the Army. It horses. The hours were long and the was very sad, a few of the favourites pay was not very good, but there we took to Park House and hid them was a lot I used to enjoy.

ENTERTAINMENT (August 1999)

In the days before we had electricity out after the show, you got a packet and radio, Mother had a job to keep of biscuits, or a small jar of jam. us all amused in the long winter The Concerts I liked best were the nights, before we were sent to bed. ones put on by our own Wesleyan We never got homework in those Guild. It was great to see all the days. We played a lot of ludo, people you knew singing the songs snakes and ladders and card games. and doing the sketches. I can still If you wanted to read, it was best to remember some of the songs they sit with your book resting on the used to sing. They used to rehearse table, where the light was the best in the School room and on dark and you could feel the warm glow nights, we lads used to climb on the from the oil lamp, stood in the wall and look through the windows centre. to watch them – ‘till someone inside You can imagine how excited we heard us and then there was a chase were, when we knew there was down the village! going to be a concert in the village! I think the Guild died out in the The concerts were always held in the thirties. Everyone was getting the Wesleyan School. The little room wireless and concerts became a was always the dressing room, with thing of the past, which was very steps up through the door, onto the sad. stage in the big room. There was A night we looked forward to in always a full house! The concert summer was when the Darlington parties usually came from Railway Carnival King and Queen Darlington, often having paid us a visit. We would know connections with the Chapel. which night they were coming and The Co-op used to put on a concert people would be waiting near the old every year and as you were going

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Church School. We were all excited think the children got sweets. The when we saw them coming along jesters would be hitting us with East Road in an open-topped whatever it is that jesters hit you charabanc, the King and Queen with. It was all very exciting! I sitting in front, with all their used to think they were the real entourage behind. There was thing. They must have stopped always a big cheer when they pulled coming in the twenties, as there are up. They used to get out and walk only a few of us older ones who can around, talking to the folks and I remember it.

B e g g a r s (February 2001)

In the recession years between the to like it best when a Scotsman came wars, the twenties and early in full highland dress, playing the thirties, we used to get a lot of bagpipes - we would follow him beggars coming to the village. Most around the village. I don't know if of them were veterans who had they got the bus from town and did fought in the Great War, who had so many villages, or if they walked been told they would be coming all the way. Looking back, I don't home to a 'land fit for heroes to live think they could have made much in', instead of which they were money, as most of the villagers reduced to begging in the streets. In would be nearly as badly off as they the summer time, it could be nearly were. There weren't many pennies every day; sometimes it could be two to spare. Then there were the real or three together. It could be down and outs - roadsters we used to someone leading a blind man, or call them, often in raggy clothes and another time it could be someone unshaven. They lived rough in who had lost limbs, being pushed in barns or haystacks, or maybe just a wheelchair. Often you would get under the hedgerows. Often they someone playing a musical used to carry a little can and came instrument - the cornet and the to your house to see if you would accordion being the most popular. make them a brew of tea and give We kids would run to listen to the them something to eat. We kids used music for, come to think of it, all we to sometimes shout at them from a heard at that time was the piano at safe distance, being too young to school, or the church organ. We used realise what horrors they might

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have seen and what they had to were so bad, I can never remember endure in the war. there being any trouble with any of them, nor any reports of anything We had our own policeman at that being stolen. time, Bobby Benson. For all things

Wharton’s Farmyard (September 1999)

With what we knew as the sheep dipping pens and a large farmyard rapidly disappearing kitchen garden for the farm house. under the building programme, it’s Near the top of the hill was the interesting to look back and try and orchard with plums, apples and remember it as it used to be. pears. A lot of varieties of apples you never see nowadays. Us lads Between the wars it was a good used to know which were the best mixed farm; sheep and cattle in the ones. fields and a few pigs in the buildings. All the work done by About the centre of the site was a heavy horses. huge sycamore tree, one of the biggest I've seen. They used to clip Just below the west end of the the sheep in its shade. I remember cemetery wall was a little cottage the job they had winching its roots known as the Irish-Men’s Cot, where out to make way for more piggeries. the Irish men used to live when they came to help with the hay time and In about 1935 a new modern piggery harvest. Just a single room with a was built near the stable, it was all kitchen range, a table and chairs, no timber, a grand building. I was one washing facilities or sanitation. I of two poultry lads working on the think they slept on the floor; I can farm and we had to muck the new just remember them. After they piggery out every day on top of our stopped coming we used to go and own work. play in it. When war broke out and the Home There were two large free range hen Guard was formed, a hut was put on houses in the yard and a shed with the top of the hill, where you had a about one hundred ducks who used good view over the countryside, and to go waddling down the field to the we had to take turns watch keeping pond. Further up the site were the on a night. I remember three of us

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being on duty when the first bombs everyday by tankers bringing whey were dropped on Teesside. You from the cheese factory, then it was could see the flashes and feel the gravity fed to the pigs through their vibrations. It gave me a queer drinking bowls. The smell was feeling in the stomach and made you awful, and the flies. You would see realise how close the war really was. people on the buses holding a hankie We had not been issued with guns at to their noses till they got past. No that time, but we had an old chap cars went through with their with us, a veteran of the First War, windows open and when the wind who'd lived for a long time in was in the north, the Village got it Canada. He had his own all. Winchester. He was crouched down We got a bit of a reprieve when with his gun poked through the swine fever broke out, all the pigs railings. He said "I'll shoot the first had to be slaughtered and burned. I German on British soil." If a sheep think there were over 2,000 at the had come over the brow of the hill, it time. A huge funeral pyre was built would have been in mortal danger. on top of the hill with layers of pigs After the war, everything was and old railway sleepers. The fire turned to pig keeping. The stables burned for days and could be seen and cow byre were all modified to for miles around, and if you went keep pigs. Two big new piggeries near, there was the smell of roasting were built and all the way up the pork. I think it was about six orchard were rows of pens where the months before restrictions were pigs slept in shelter but were fed lifted. Everywhere had to be outside. A big tank was built cleaned and fumigated, but they further up the hill which was filled were soon back in full production.

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ROAD REPAIRS (November 1999)

In the twenties and early thirties, a can of tea. We always had a go at the roads did not seem to be kept in stone-breaking – every little helped! as good repair as they are now. When they were going to be filling There always seemed to be holes that pot-holes, wooden barrels of tar wanted filling – ‘pot-holes’ – they would be placed at intervals along used to call them. Whether they the roadside. The men would come were caused by the iron-shod hooves with a tar boiler they pulled by of the heavy horses and iron rimmed hand. It had a chain hoist for wheels of the carts, I don’t know. To lifting a barrel on top of the boiler, get the small stone to fill the holes, where the bung was taken out and the Council employed a man who did the boiler filled. The fire was then nothing else but break stone down lit under the boiler and they had to from about 9 inches to 2 inches. The wait until the tar was hot enough to last man I remember stone-breaking, use. A can was then filled from a was a man called Jim Tyler. He tap at the bottom. This was poured lived in Church Row. I think he had into the holes, which were then filled been gassed in the Great War. The with the small stone that had been stone was tipped down Barton Road, brought to the job on Jimmy on the wide verge where the style is Johnson’s horse and cart. that leads into the Cow Pasture. If they were going to put a new You would see Jim there in all surface on the road, heaps of weathers. Sometimes kneeling on a whinstone chippings would be tipped thick sack, to save too much bending at intervals along the roadside. This and all the time you would hear the was often drawn by the Council’s tapping of the hammer on stone – steam wagon, that had one man ‘knapping’ , they used to call it. He driving and another man steering. I had two or three different sizes of think my dad used to be steersman hammer for the stone in different sometimes. I don’t think it had a sizes. The last one was a small tipper, so the chippings had to be blunt-ended hammer, with a long shovelled off. When I was young, I whippy shaft, often made from a bit remember what a bustle there was of hazel from the hedgerow. I often when they came through the village! used to go with his son Jimmy, after A lot of people used to turn out to the school came out, to take his dad

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watch, for any sort of diversion was his hands under the spout. I welcome in those days. I remember remember the hissing of the steam the smell of the tar, as the tar from Jack Dix’s roller and the sprayer spread it over the road and crushing of the chippings, as he ran the dust, as a gang of men walked backwards and forwards over them from heap to heap, shovelling the – not many ‘loose chippings’ in those chippings evenly over the tar. It days! You can imagine how excited was hard work and required quite a a young lad would be seeing all these bit of skill. If it was a hot day, the things going on, but it seemed that sweat would be running down their in no time at all, they had passed faces. I can see them now, slaking through and the village returned to their thirst at the village pump – one her old, sleepy self again. man pumping and another cupping

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Lime Burning Dec1999 /JAN2000

Burning limestone to break down get. Once they were filled, so much into small particles to spread on the would be drawn out each day and land as fertiliser must have gone on the kiln would be topped up again. for hundreds of years. I don't think As long as there were orders, the fire it had a great feed value as such, it would be kept going. To fill the kiln was usually spread on grassland and you had to go down into the quarry they say it makes the grass taste and hand-fill a load of stone, mostly sweeter. small stone, bring it up to the top and tip it near the top of the kiln. Burning must have been pretty You would not tip it directly in as widespread as you can tell by the the fire had to be built up with a number of old kilns in the area. Two layer of stone then a layer of coke so of the largest and best examples can that it burnt evenly. It all had to be be seen at Thorndale Farm. I never shovelled in by hand. You could remember them being used but I only fill from the east side and if the have played in them many a time. stone and the coke were wet and the The ones I knew best are two that wind was blowing from the west the are now buried in what was once fumes were awful. You could only Bracken House Quarry. These two I work for a short time then walk got to know very well because it was away to get some fresh air. I one of my jobs to fill and empty remember old Tom the foreman who them when I worked there in 1940. had a bad chest at the best of times The kilns were about ten feet in due to his liking for Woodbines, diameter and around fourteen feet draped over the railing coughing his deep, tapered in at the bottom to heart up. make them easier to clean out. The To draw the lime out you would kilns had to be built tight up to the have a man either side shovelling rock face or into a hill side so that out of a gap called the eye of the you had a road up to the top to fill kiln. We always worked with them and were able to get a wagon handkerchief covering our mouth along the bottom when you emptied and nose, even then your nose would them. often bleed with the dust from the To light them we used old railway quick lime. Sometimes it would sleepers or any other wood we could hang up on the sides of the kiln, then

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come down with a rush and you and wet, we would make for the would run out choking and covered kilns on the way home and stand in dust, no masks in those days. You near them for a while and you were could not shovel direct from the eye soon warm and dry. I've always to the wagon so you just shovelled said if any one had had a body to behind you then turned round and dispose of it would have vanished filled the wagon. So that meant without trace. I've heard them talk from filling the stone in the quarry, of a dead horse being tipped in. I filling the kiln, emptying the kiln, think the most we got was the odd filling the wagon after it had been sheep. tipped in the field where it had to Lime was also used in the building go, shovelled into a chart then trade to mix with the mortar. I spread on the land where the rain remember when R Dodds and sons would wash it in. In all handled six used to have their builders yard times. behind Church Row. They had large You might take five tons out of each holes dug out and shuttered round kiln every day, it didn't matter called lime pits. Into these quick what the weather was doing, rain or lime was tipped and the right snow the kilns had to be filled. I've amount of water added called seen our wet clothes steaming with slecking. Us lads used to sit on the the heat from the fire. wall and watch the water bubbling and steaming. Once the water was During the war they tried covering absorbed it was allowed to set for a the kilns over at night. They few days then you could cut it out in thought the bombers would be able blocks, pure white like blocks of lard. to get a bearing from the glow and home in on Teesside. They tried laying railway metals over them and covering with tin sheets, but they had to give it up as a bad job as the heat was so intense that it twisted the lines all shapes and the tin sheets were like tissue paper through being white hot.

I remember when we'd been out poaching at night and we were cold

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F O O T B A L L (March 2000)

My first recollection of a Melsonby home, having dinner loading a bag Football Team was in the late of sawdust onto the bike crossbar, twenties and early thirties. They going up marking the field out, played up west road in a field coming back down to get changed belonging to Bracken House. I don't ready to play. There was no place to remember which league they played change so if it was a wet afternoon in. We used to call them the Clarets you walked all the way home in which was the colour of their shirts. your studs and wet strip, but we I remember one of our players thought nothing of it. getting his leg broken. They took We used to get quite a few spectators some pieces of rail out of the hedge and always had a full bus for away to splint it, then loaded him on to a games. I'll always remember our pony and flat cart that happened to first league game. We played a team be passing to bring him down to the from Northallerton at home the first Village to wait for the ambulance. week and they held us to a 2 - 2 His leg never set properly and he draw. We played them away the walked with a limp for the rest of his following week and beat them 8 - nil. life. We finished runners up to Richmond They moved from that field to one the first season. We had to win the on Jagger Road. I remember last game of the season away to Richmond playing Hutton Magna in Richmond to win the league, but the final of a medal competition. they beat us one nil. I think we were There was quite a crowd there, all runners up the following season as exciting stuff for us lads. well. After the first two seasons we moved to a field just this side of After the war the Swaledale league Jagger Lane Farm which made was formed. Melsonby was one of things a lot easier. the founder members. The only field we could get was one belonging to Having no dance hall we used to John Hall, only one field at the top hold dances in other villages to raise of Jagger Lane. Hardly anyone had funds. We held two or three in a cars in those days so you either Granary on a farm at West Layton. walked up or went on the bike. I think they'd started using it for Everyone worked Saturday dances in war-time. The only snag mornings then. I remember coming was you had to take your own piano.

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We used to get the one from the I managed a hat-trick but hadn't church school, load it on a trailer impressed the selectors much for I was and ride with it to West Layton. I back at Full Back at Whashton the once remember someone playing it as following week. Another game I we went up the road. The biggest job remember was a game away at Brough, was getting it up in to the Granary. when we came away with a win. With not much room to manoeuvre, I Richmond was always our bogey don't know how it worked out but I team. We could never beat them, always seemed to end up underneath then one Saturday it happened, we it. We had to have it back in time beat them. I think the score was 4 - for lessons on Monday morning. 2. I was lucky enough to be playing. We played in two cup finals, one You'd have thought we'd won the against Gilling on Richmond's F.A. Cup. ground and lost by the odd goal, and When the Swaledale League folded, another against Catterick on the we joined the Church and Friendly camp. We lost that as well. We League and managed to run a good never won a trophy. There was team until some time in the sixties. nothing for coming second in those About that time more people were days. The game I like to remember getting televisions and things, and most was a cup tie at Bedale. Our interest seemed to go and the club Centre Forward didn't turn up so I disbanded. got promoted. We got beat 5 - 4.

MELSONBY FOOTBALL TEAM CIRCA 1948 PLAYING GILLING I N THE CUP FINAL

JACK LING: BENNY MCCARTHY : BOB PLAYER : ARTHUR BA NKS :

GILBERT HIRD

ALAN WALLER : RAYMOND CRADDOCK : CHARLIE PARRY : ST A N DODDS : MARSH :JOHNNY THOMPSON

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Stan Dodds 1924—2004

A few lines from Gilbert Hird in business. His father died young, but memory of STAN DODDSDODDS, one of the sons went on to develop the firm. the old village stalwarts and life- It grew from repairs to house long friend who passed away building, civil engineering, putting recently. in water sewage pipes and building reservoirs. They became one of the Stan was born 80 years ago, the biggest employers in the area. All second youngest of nine children—8 roads led to Dodds’s Yard on a boys and 1 girl. His father was a morning. I enjoyed two spells there jobbing builder who would go round myself and it was good to walk down the farms doing repairs and would to the yard to catch one of the transport his materials on a flat vehicles which would take you to one cart, pulled by a pony called Peggy. of the various sites. Childhood was spent playing in the fields or around the farms. We had When the Swaledale Football League few toys in those days, so we had to was formed just after the war, Stan make our own amusement. Jumping was one of the founder members of becks and hedges, playing ‘fox-off ‘, the Melsonby Club. He had but mostly football. We had no developed into an excellent outside playing field then, so it was a case of left and I always said he could have putting coats down for goal posts in been even better in a bigger team a farmer’s field, until we were than ours. We had a lot of chased off, then moving on to wonderful times with the football another one. Stan was always a team. Among a few that stand out keen footballer. At that time in the were an 8-0 win at Northallerton 1930s, Darlington had a centre where I think Besty scored a few; forward called Jerry Best and when coming away from Brough with a 1-0 we were playing, Stan had to be win; playing in two Cup Finals and Besty and that was how he was being runners-up in the League. The known for the rest of his life. Like one that we liked most though, was many of us, Stan left school at 14 and beating Richmond 4-1, the only time was found a job at Orchard House we ever did it. Again Besty was on Farm. But he didn’t like it that the score sheet that day. much and it was only a week or two Another thing we enjoyed was before he was back home to start his swimming. We would go to apprenticeship in the family Darlington every Sunday morning

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in Dodds’ open topped ex-army was very good at studying the form. truck, then finish up at the Station More than often he would hold his Café for coffee. own with the bookies.

After he retired, Stan had more time You wouldn’t have enjoyed the game for his favourite past-time of horse today Besty—too many red cards racing. He would visit most of the they’re allus falling ower! courses in the North of England and School Days (July 2000)

I started my school days in 1927, at stove in each room. It was alright if the Church School along Church you were near them, but if you were Row. The infant teacher was Miss at the back of the room, you were Healy (Bertie). I think she spent all frozen. Sometimes if the wind was her working life there and was still in the wrong direction, they would there when the school closed in the down draught and you had the early sixties. She was very strict fumes to contend with. There was and if you misbehaved, or didn’t pay no canteen in those days, so the attention, you got a tap with the children from outside the village had ruler. I never knew anyone who to sit round the stoves to eat their could not read and write and know sandwiches, with maybe a cup of tea their tables. Miss Padley was head- or cocoa made from the kettle teacher and she taught everyone boiling on the stove. We only lived from 7-14 years. There was a time two doors from the school, so we when there were so many children hadn’t far to go home for dinner. that the big room had to be divided Mother always had something in two with a curtain screen, and an ready, when four or five of us extra teacher brought in. The trouped in. Often it was just jam children from Layton were brought and bread, but sometimes she would in by Reg Nellis’ bus, but the bake a big shortcake cut into squares children from the farms, and there and spread with butter, while it was were quite a few at each farm in still warm – I used to love it! those days, had to walk in – it could The school playground used to be be a hard job in the winters we used part of what is now the Village to get, sometimes having to travel Green. We used to play there if the for weeks in up to two feet of snow. grass was dry, otherwise we could The only heating was a coke-burning play out in the village. We always

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felt we were one up on the Wesleyan on a bogie and I think they supplied School, for they were confined to the the Top School as well. school yard. We would often spend The 11+ was the big day in your playtime at the Blacksmith’s shop, school life. Miss Padley gave me watching the horses being shod and extra lessons on a night, before it maybe getting a chance to pump the was my turn in 1933. You sat the bellows, near the fire where it was first exam in the Village School, then warm. Miss Padley was very strict another one at Richmond Central. and the cane was often in use. It After that I had to go for an was usually one on each hand and interview with the Headmaster at we used to walk around afterwards the Grammar School, which was with our hands tucked under our quite an ordeal for a little eleven armpits, to try and keep them from year old, who had not often been out smarting too much. I don’t of the village. He only asked me two remember the girls being caned questions – what books did I read often. I don’t think it did us any and what work did my father do? harm. When I told him he was a Council One of the jobs I used to like being roadman, it might have sealed my asked to do, was taking all the fate. Mother would have had a job inkwells to wash in the beck on a to find the money to buy my Friday afternoon. There used to be uniform – no family allowance in little waterfall and a big white stone those days! – but knowing her, she that stretched halfway over the would have managed somehow. beck, behind the garage. It was When you reached school leaving lovely sitting there on a fine day. It age at fourteen, there was no talk of was all pushed out when we made going to university in those days. the Village Green. Lads usually went into farm work, We thought it was wonderful when often living in and girls into service we started getting free milk in the in a big house, or as a maid in a early thirties. We got a little bottle farmhouse. In country villages each, a third of a pint. We had to there was not much other choice. drink it through a straw. The milk was untreated, straight from the cow on Mr W. Hall’s farm, Orchard House. They used to bring it down

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CORN HARVEST (November 2000)

The seasons seem to be changing and sheaves in a stook, built north to this corn harvest has been the south, so that the sun could shine wettest I can ever remember. If it down both sides to dry them out. had not been for the huge combines One of the things us lads liked most, and the dryers, there would not was catching the rabbits as they have been much corn got in at all. came out of the corn. They would stay in until the last few cuts, then It is interesting to look back on the make a bolt for it and we were after harvests of my youth, between the them with our sticks. They were Wars. Most of the Village was confused with all the sheaves laid involved. Men who had other jobs, about and the shouts of their would go and help in the fields on a pursuers, so they were pretty easy night and at weekends, some going game. If you missed one in one field, to farms they had helped at for you would find out who else was years and maybe their fathers cutting and run over there. You before them. My memories are would see all the lads walking down mostly of balmy autumn days, when the village, with their rabbits and men with scythes, mowing a swathe knew there would be a lot of rabbit wide enough for three horses abreast pie on the menu tomorrow! to walk, pulling the binder, so that they did not trample the corn. The All the corn had to be carted home women were gathering it into and most farms used three carts— bundles called sheaves, tying them one being unloaded in the stackyard, up with lengths of straw and one being loaded in the field and the standing them against the hedgerow. other somewhere between. When Sweating horses pulling the binder you were about thirteen, you could round and round the field as it cut get a job driving carts. There was the corn, tying it up into sheaves hardly any traffic on the roads and and throwing them out in neat rows, we had been brought up with horses, to be picked up by hand and made so it was no problem. The only thing into stooks. The sheaves were stood was, you had to watch the gateposts, heads uppermost, with the bottoms when you were going through with a spread and pushed firmly into the full load. I never remember getting ground so that they did not blow much pay for it, but it was nice to over. There were usually ten dig into the allowance basket, when

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it came into the field, if you were The Harvest Festivals were always one of the workers! Getting a ride a big occasion in the village back to the field in the empty cart calendar. The Church and Chapel was a thing the kids used to love. were always full. As you walked along to Church, you could see the Orchard House was the best —they fruits of man’s labour in Orchard used to cart with what they called House stackyard—the Dutch barn hay bogies — just a flat platform on full to overflowing, the rest of the bogie wheels. They were only 18 yard full of neatly thatched stacks, inches off the ground, so you could protected against the weather to run after them and jump on. If too await the visit of the thresher. many got on, or we were too noisy, the driver could pull a lever at the The supper after the services was front and tip us all off! You had to the thing us lads always looked watch you did not get your legs forward to. You sat down at trestle trapped underneath. On moonlight tables in those days. We had to wait nights, they would often cart until until last, but there was always about nine o’clock. I can still see the plenty left. We always thought the older lads and lassies singing on the Chapel was best—they always had bogies as we went over the cow the best ham sandwiches! pastures. Red sails in the sunset and Isle of Capri are two of the songs that come to mind.

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A b l u t i o n s (April 2001)

With people in these days able to Mother always started with the have a bath or shower every day, it youngest and worked her way up. is hard to realise how primitive Pans and the kettle would be things were in my childhood. When warming on the open fire, to keep we lived on Church Row, nine of us topping the bath water up. By the in a two bedroomed house, the only time the last one was through, the way to get a wash was in a bowl on water was starting to look a bit the back kitchen table. You carried murky and the towels were getting the water with a ladling can from a rather damp! As you got older, you side boiler, that took up one side of had to manage the best way you the fireplace and held about four could. Water was always a problem. gallons. Those of us who were too No rain water was wasted - we had small to reach the table, got a good three water tubs as we called them - scrubbing off mother, once before one under the downcomer and school on a morning and again another two to fill with a bucket, as before we went to bed at night. the other one got full. In a long hot After washing, the water had to be summer, all the water had to be carried and poured down a grate carried from the pump. The only near the backdoor. There was no water you had in the house was a sewer in those days, so where the two gallon bucket and you went and drains came out, I don't know. dipped a cup in if you wanted a Every house was the same. You would drink. The only way to clean our have thought that with the village teeth was to get a cup of cold water, being built round the beck, most of the dip your finger in and rub it round drains would run into it, but the beck your teeth. I don't think I had a always seemed to be clean - if they just toothbrush till I started work. The ran into soak-aways they must have only means of heating water was the been very efficient. open fire, so the fire had to be kept on all day, even in the hottest weather. Friday was always bath night. We Most jobs in the countryside started only had a little tin bath about three at 7 o'clock in those days, so you had feet long. As you got older, the bath no time for heating water for a seemed to get smaller, until you wash and it was just a cold swill. were sitting with your knees up You were lucky if you had time to under your chin. There might be wait for a brew of tea. five or six of us to go through.

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In 1937, when I was fifteen, we were kitchen sink - pull the plug and the lucky enough to get one of the new water was gone - flush the toilet and Council houses - all mod cons for the best of all, a bathroom - what first time in her life - Mother had a luxury! S P R I N G (April 2002)

In my youth, Spring Cleaning walls were to strip. Some folk papered seemed a lot more important than it over the old. I’ve seen layers three or is now. After the dark days of four thick. All the paper had to be winter, with coal fires and oil lamps, trimmed—that is a half inch border things were ready for a good turn. had to be cut off down one side. You No washing machines or spin-dryers needed a steady hand to keep a in those days, so you had to wait for straight line or it wouldn’t fit the better weather to get the bedding properly. We children would gather and curtains washed and dried. You up the ‘border’. We called it streamers never saw fitted carpets, not even in and would run down the road with it the big houses, only big carpet squares blowing behind us. In later years they which had to be carried outside and would take the border off in the shop beaten with either a walking stick or for you and today of course, there’s a special carpet beater shaped like a none of it at all. tennis racquet. Not surprisingly If mother had been mat-making there would be clouds of dust! during winter, then these would be Most housewives did their own put down after the spring cleaning. decorating. You could not afford to Anything would be used to make the have it done. Mother did all ours. ‘clippy’ mats—pieces from old Ceilings were done with whitewash overcoats, trousers, etc. But she could (just lime and water mixed) and you take weeks getting all the pieces had to get it just right or it splashed together. Imagine having to cut strips all over! Back kitchens and pantries from an overcoat two and a half were done with distemper—green, inches by one inch, sometimes with blue or white. We hadn’t heard of scissors that weren’t very sharp. emulsion paint at that time. Once the cloth or ‘harding’ was sewn Anyway, it freshened the place up…. onto the frame and tightened up, then us older children had to do our share Mother also did all the papering, but of ‘prodding’ the clips through it. everyone had to muck in when the When this was finished all the clips

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had to be trimmed down to the same moors where they were driven by level and another piece of harding modern agricultural methods. sewn over the back. The new clippy Another bird that was common in mat always got pride of place in front those days that you hardly ever see of the fire while the old one would be nesting in our area is the Lapwing or banished to the back kitchen. You Green Plover. You would see them would often get the neighbours diving and calling over every arable popping in to have a look at the new field in their spring display flight. creation Their nest was just a hollow in the ground and often the farm men Spring was one of the busiest times would move the eggs till they got by on the farms. The only corn sown at with the Harrows then return them back end was wheat, and barley and to the nest. The eggs were lovely to oats were sown in spring. All the eat - I've had quite a few. I know it farms grew oats to feed the horses sounds awful robbing a bird’s nest, and the straw was good fodder for but it was something country folk the cattle. All the work was done by had always done and there were horses, we didn't see any tractors in plenty of Lapwings. our area till the late thirties. Just think how peaceful it was. It was The dawn chorus is nothing now to hard work - no wonderful machines what it used to be - Thrushes were as like rotivators to break the soil up. common as blackbirds in those days. You might have to go over a field You hardly see any now. Skylarks three or four times with the harrows were singing their hearts out over to get the soil fit for sowing. No one every meadow, sometimes four or ever worked on Sunday. Men and five together. We used to see who horses were both ready for a day’s could see them first, sometimes just a rest after walking over the clods all speck in the sky. the week. There was a lot more Mistle Thrushes always built nests in wildlife around. One of the sounds we the Chestnut trees in the churchyard. looked forward to most was the They were very protective of their bubbling call of the Curlew. We nest and we used to climb the trees always had three or four pairs nest just to get them to attack us. They near the Village - nothing nicer than would nearly fly into your face. Owls hearing their lovely haunting call on were plentiful, both barn and tawny a summer’s night. Now the only and would be calling all round the place you hear them is up near the village after dusk.

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We had quite a few ponds and there eleven playing together on a new was always plenty of frogspawn and sown field. I lifted my Lurcher, Old we all had our jars full to watch Jack, the first dog I ever had of my them hatch into tadpoles then grow own. (he was Greyhound and Bull into little frogs. Terrier crossed) onto the wall to have a look. He was among them The Brown Hare is very scarce now. before they realised he wasn't one of In those days you would see them them. There were that many, he every time you went for a walk, didn’t know which to go after , but it sometimes five or six in one field didn’t matter. He wasn’t quite fast chasing and boxing "The Mad enough for a full grown hare. March". I remember looking over a wall on High Grange and seeing H A R V E S T (October 2002)

The corn harvest is nearly over. The be to try and catch a rabbit as they only thing most of us villagers see of came out of the corn. The noise of it is the trailer loads of grain the binder would drive the rabbits passing through the village and into the centre of the field, so it was seeing and hearing the combines as best to be there when the field was they move around the fields. How nearly finished and they had to different it is from my childhood come out. Once they broke cover we growing up between the wars. To us were after them with our sticks. lads, harvest was one of the most They were confused and they kept exciting times of the year. It started bumping into the sheaves, so they off with the horse-drawn binder were pretty easy to catch. It sounds going round the field, cutting the cruel, but it was something that had corn and tying it up into neat always happened. We grew up with bundles and throwing them out into it and the end product was a good neat rows across the field, ready to dinner! Some farmers never be picked up and made into stooks;. bothered about the rabbits, so you There were eight or ten sheaves to a took two or three home. Others just stook, placed north to south, so that let you have one, so you might hide the sun shone down both sides of another in the hedge, to pick up on them and dried them out quicker if the way home. You were as proud the weather was wet. One of the as punch walking down the village reasons us lads would be there would with a couple of rabbits and you

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knew there was going to be rabbit the harvest moon was shining, they pie on the menu. Mother soon had might work till nine o’clock. I’ll them skinned and into a big dish, never forget us older lads and lassies with a crust on top—lovely. riding over the cow pasture on the Another thing we used to love was bogeys, singing the popular songs of riding on the empty carts as they the day like Red sails in the sunset went back to the fields to be loaded and Isle of Capri and we had just as for all the corn had to be brought to much fun walking back— those days the stackyard at the farm to be will never come again. No wireless made into stacks ready to be or televisions to keep us at home. threshed in the winter. Orchard Another thing us lads always looked House was the best place to get a forward to were the harvest suppers ride on the carts. They used to that always followed. The Church bring in the corn in on what were and the Chapel Harvest Festivals called bogies—they were only about were always full houses in those two feet off the ground, so even days. I think it was the one time in small children could run after them the year that the Church and Chapel and jump on. If there were too folk mixed. The suppers were many on, or things got too rowdy, always great. They used to make us the driver would wait till he got into wait until the grownups had finished the cow pasture, then pull a lever at then sat us down all together—we the front and the bogey would tip didn’t mind—there was always everyone off—you would have to plenty left! Chapel always had the watch your legs didn’t get trapped best ham sandwiches. Suppers were under the bogey. They wouldn’t always held in the schoolrooms. have dared to let you ride on the bogies these days—too many safety regulations now, but I never remember anyone being hurt.

Harvest was later in those days, as most of the corn was sown in spring. So when the weather was fine and

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Potato picking December 1998 AND November 2002

This is one of the worst potato had to pull the soil off to get at them. harvests I can remember and it is Sometimes you had to kick them out not over yet. Interesting to reflect which played havoc with your boots on potato picking as I remember and by the end of the week, you between the wars. The half term nearly wanted a new pair. Some of holiday as we know it, was always the farms had what was called a "tattie picking" week - always looked potato scratcher pulled by two forward to by us lads as the chance horses. It had a large wheel at the for us to make a few bob. Most of the back with spikes on the outside. The children in the village took part. wheel revolved just above the row, When you were young, you went the spikes went through the row and with your mother who went to get scattered the potatoes over about a extra money for Christmas. When two yard area. This made picking a you were 11 you were allowed on lot easier to fill your bucket, then your own, so you went off to the empty into skeps, that were loaded field with your bucket. The farmer by a man with a horse and cart. The would measure the length of the idea was to pick as fast as you could, field, count how many pickers he then turn your bucket upside down had and with a bundle of sticks until the scatter came round again. under his arm, he would measure When we worked away from the into lengths and that was the part village we took our dinners and the you would have to pick for the day. farmer often provided a cup of tea As you moved over the field, some of at ten o'clock and three o'clock. It the crafty ones would shorten their was hard work and I was always lengths by a yard or two, which glad when it got to five o'clock made quite a difference over a day's finishing time. We might have a picking. This often led to disputes mile to walk home in the dusk. One and the farmer would have to come of the perks was a bucket of spuds and measure up again. The first and it didn't matter how far, we time I went picking, the potatoes would carry them! were ploughed out. This meant Mother would always shout: running the blade of the plough " Have you brought your taties?" under the row and tipping it over. It If there were two or three of us was hard work, for a lot of the picking, it built the stock up for the potatoes were still buried and you

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winter. The farms did not grow the week of damned hard work All the huge acreage they grow today, but farms grew taties. Maybe a field of would have about ten acres. You ten or twelve acres. Nothing like the might pick at two or three farms in hundreds of acres they grow now. the week. The pay at that time was There was no transport to bring half a crown a day(12½p), so if you pickers from the towns in those days got six days in, you would have 15 so all the labour had o be found shillings - 75p. which at today's locally A lot of mothers went out prices would have bought you half a taking their younger ones along to pint of beer; at that time it would look after them, so you learnt young buy 30 pints. Not that any of it was helping mother to pick her length. I spent on beer - just a comparison. think I was only nine or ten when I The money was always handed over set out with my bucket. to Mother to buy boots and clothing. You usually knew where you were I remember after picking was going, before the holiday started the finished, for a treat she took us to see farmers would have been round to Chipperfield's Circus at Darlington. book you. You might get to two or It was wonderful and we talked three farms in the week and then get about it for weeks. Now the picking three or four Saturdays in after that is done by huge harvesters which The younger ones usually picked are having a job to travel after all round the village but as you got the rain we have had. Maybe in a older you would go a bit further a year like this they would have got field down to Park House or up to on a lot faster with the old scatter High Merrybent. It was always and a good gang of pickers. Modern walking, no tractor and trailers to methods are not always best...... ride on You worked till five o'clock TATIE PICKING HOLIDAY it was in those days and I always remember always called. Now its half term and walking home from Park House in the only taties the children hove the moonlight carrying our buckets anything to do with now are the of spuds. It was a long way to carry ones they get on their plates. them, but mother always told us to Looking back you realise how take some home for if there was two important that holiday was for the or three picking out of the same farming community in my childhood household it was amazing how in the twenties and thirties. They many you could store for winter. called it holiday, but really it was a When you got to the field, the

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farmer would count his pickers, then the scratter to come round again. go striding off down the field Some farmers didn't have a scratter, sticking a stick in the ground at they just ran the plough, up the side intervals, making sure every one of the row and turned it over. They had the same length to pick. You had were still all joined together. You to keep moving the sticks as you had to kick them apart; these were moved across the field. If you did not the worst places to go to. If we were watch out you would have someone further away we would take our who would cheat by moving the dinners and the farmers wife might stick, shortening his length and make us a can of tea sometimes. It adding two or three yards to yours - was a cold wet job and all for the there were always arguments. The princely sum of 2 shillings (10p) or taties were spun out of the ground half a crown (12½p) a day It was by a horse drawn implement with a hard work and it would be frowned large wheel at the back with flails upon today, but it never did us any hanging down which as the wheel harm and mother could always do turned went through the rows and with the money. If we were lucky, scattered the taties ready for picking we got treated to a trip to the The faster you got your length pictures. picked the longer you had sitting on your upturned bucket waiting for

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MORE ABOUT TATIE PICKING (December 2002)

I wrote in my last letter about how longer ones would be 40 or 50 yards. important the tatie picking holiday When all the taties were gathered was to the farmers. It was even they were covered with straw to more important when war broke out form a thatch about six inches thick. and a bigger acreage had to be put Batten wheat straw was best. There into potato growing. After the weren't any bales in those days, but holiday was over the farmer could I don't think they would have been ask for some of the pupils to have much good. The pie was then more time off to help him get covered with soil to a depth of six finished. I'd moved on to other inches by men with spades. things by this time, but I bet the Sometimes the farmer would plough older lads thought it was great. two or three times round the pie to There was no building to spare to make digging easier. Once it was store potatoes in those days, so they covered it would be well stamped had to be stored in the fields in what down to shoot the rain off and it was we called tatie pies and in other ready to withstand any weather. areas might be called clamps. There Tatie pies were always part of the was quite a lot of skill in making a winter landscape and I think they tatie pie for it had to stand all added to it. They would be left like weather and keep out the frost and that till they got an order from a snow in winters that were a lot potato merchant or they wanted more severe than they are now. The some for their own use or to sell pies were usually made near the locally. Most of the farm workers got road, so it was easier for the potato them free in those days. merchants wagons to get to them. When I was picking, the potatoes were led from the field by horse and cart and tipped where the pie was going to be made. There would be a man there all the time forming the pie. It would be about eight feet wide at the bottom and tapered up to a point. It could be as long as you like—I would think some of the

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CHRISTMAS BETWEEN THE WARS (December 2001)

One of the things I remember was 4 Everyone had an open fire and or 5 of the older lads coming into the might collect wood from up to a mile houses to do a little play. I think away. Dry thorn was the best for they called themselves 'Mummers'. heat. You would get three ‘warmings’ - carrying, sawing the logs up and One or two of them had blacked then on the fire. their faces. They stayed in the kitchen and came through one at a Holly was another thing no one time to say their piece. One was would be without. Few households Doctor Brown - The best doctor in had Christmas Trees, it was only town'. Another was Johnny Funny - after the war that they started to The man that collects the money' - become popular. Mother would have who came on last of all. These days some wooden hoops fastened it would hardly get a second glance, together and covered with coloured but then when even radios were paper. Then she hung them from the rare, it was a diversion from the ceiling with all sorts of baubles on everyday routine and was talked including mistletoe. There was about for days afterwards. always great excitement on Christmas Eve. When we lived on There was lots of Carol singing by Church Row there would be as many various groups of children. What I as 6 of us children in one room. We liked best was when 3 or 4 of us all hung our stockings on the bed went round the farms on a nice end. At first light when we emptied moonlit night. There were many them, there was always an apple an more farms in those days and we orange, some nuts and a sugar would do 2 or 3 each night, mouse or pig. 'Big toys' in those sometimes going as far as Middleton days would be a box of paints and Tyas. You might get sixpence or if painting book or games like snakes there had been a lot of visitors you and ladders or ludo. Christmas might be chased by the farm dog. dinner was usually a bit of belly Another thing you don't see now is pork from Harry Trotter, butcher of someone walking down the village High Row. Mother called it 'the bit with a Yule Log on their shoulder. with the buttons on'. Better still if 'Sticking' was a way of life then. you had a rabbit to roast along side it. I remember the farmer my

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brother Ray worked for telling him Looking back I wonder how she he could have a couple for his managed. The Christmas pud would

Christmas box - but he had to go and have been boiled in the cloth weeks catch them first! Dad once won the before, and would be just to warm goose in the Christmas dominoes at up in the steamer. In those days you the Black Bull. I remember us kids could see Christmas pudding hung looking at it in wonder. What a feast on hooks on farmhouse kitchen we had that year. Mother had an ceilings before the big day. open fire and a side oven to cook on.

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O u r R o b i n (November 2001)

Our robin is back. He came back one of the last to leave at night. So if some time in September I went out you put a few crumbs or seed before one morning and there he was on first light and some more after dark, his favourite perch looking as if he it will help to see him through the had never been away. He might not winter. You will be rewarded by be the same one as they all look hearing his sweet little song - robins alike, but we like to think that we sing all year round. This perky looked after him so well last winter little bird has looked down on us that he's paying us another visit. from millions of Christmas cards The robin will be with us until next and lots of verse has been written March when he finds himself a wife about it. A poem I learnt while very and moves off to rear one or two young was: families. Most gardens that have a When the north wind doth blow tree or two will have a winter And we shall have snow resident robin. Sometimes its What will the robin do then - poor territory will spread over two or thing! three gardens. They are very He'll sit in a barn aggressive and will even chase and keep himselfwarm larger birds from the bird table. One And hide his head under his bird it always chases is the dunnock. wing, poor thing. maybe because they are so like a young robin before it gets its adult The lines I like best are from ‘Ode to plumage. If another robin should Autumn’ by John Keats invade its territory then the ..and full grown lambs bleat from feathers start to fly! They have been hilly born, known to fight to the death, but Hedge crickets sing, usually one is driven away, The And now with treble soft, skirmishes are so quick that you The redbreast whistles from the have a job to see who's who. Once garden croft peace is restored, you wonder if And gathering swallows twitter 'your' robin is the victor or the in the sky.... vanquished. When the weather is severe, then the robin is usually the first to the table on a morning and

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BATHING IN THE BECK (September 2001)

Warm days and school holidays trunks, often it was a pair of old always brings back happy memories football shorts and often nothing at of the fun we used to have down the all. Towels were often in short cow-pasture damming the beck up to supply, so we had a track we used to make a bathing pool. All the villages run round to get dry, we called it used to do it - in the days of my 'Round-The World'. You had to childhood over 70 years ago there watch where you were putting your was no hope of getting into town to bare feet and dodge the thistles. The the swimming baths. It was always buses used to go to town via Barton built in the same place down where in those days and I remember the the sewage beds are now. I've heard people on the bus waving at a gang dad say they did the same when of gollies as we ran along the cow they were lads. The dam was put pasture. Mr Hall, (old Will we used across where the water was shallow to call him) owned Orchard House with a deeper pool upstream. When Farm in those days and he would you were little you would watch the sometimes let the dam off. He older lads making the dam and you always rode his black mare called had to keep out of their way. They Dolly round the farm on a night, would put a line of big stones across and when he was mounting up, his then pack them on the upstream side two dogs old Toss and his son Watch, with sods pulled from the bank. who went everywhere with him, would start to bark and we had time When you got older it was your to gather up our clothes and run up turn. I think about 2 feet 6 inches onto Barton Road till he had passed. was the best depth we would get - Looking back I don't think he was all not much good for swimming but that bad, he could have made things grand to splash about in, we all a lot harder for us. He just liked to became pretty good at the dog let us see who was boss. Often in the paddle. Sometimes the dam would holidays and weekends, we would burst with the sheer weight of the cut across the fields to swim in Clow bodies, often up to a dozen in there, Beck near Bretanby Manor It was a and we would work like beavers lot deeper there, the only fault was doing repairs and trying to keep as after you'd walked back on a hot much of the water in as we could. day you were ready for another one. Not every one had swimming

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Despite what people say I'm sure now, it would be hardly worth summers were a lot better than they damming the beck up for. We were are now. Warm days seemed to go never bored in those days. on for weeks. The summers we get

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Vendors Who Used To Come To The Village(july2001)

One I remember was Bill Sticker as were sandstone and if you got a we used to call him. He used to come piece of the same sort of stone to and stick the notices on a large bill scour them with they would come up board that used to be in the field at like new. That's where the Scouring the southern end of what is now Bill Stone man came in. You would often Nixon’s Garage, looking on to Moor see him round with his piebald pony road. I can see him now, a little fella and flat cart carrying the pieces of who always wore a trilby hat. He stone. Mother would give one of us a used to come on his bike with his penny and send us to get a piece of paste bucket hung on the handlebars scouring stone. Bigger bits cost two and his long paste brush fastened pence and once a week if the along the crossbar. He would put weather was fine, the step would get bills up about things that were going a good scouring. Another regular to happen in town - often a big visitor was a man called McGregor. brightly coloured one advertising a He used to come round with a large circus with lions and horses on. I clothes basket full of pots and pans used to look at them and wish I could etc., most of the time balanced on his go to see one. I remember when I was head and steadied with one hand. about 10 or 11, dad taking brother We used to throw snowballs at him Ray and me to see Chipperfield’s in and he used to shout but we knew he the South Park at Darlington - it couldn't chase us for he would have was great. We had earned our trip to leave his basket. Saddlers used to for we'd just finished a full week's come to the farms to mend the horse potato picking at two bob a day (10 harnesses. I remember watching one pence). Other bills he used to stick up at Orchard House stuffing the horse were often advertising farm sales. I collars (or brafing as we used to call used to always read those as they them) with new straw and stitching often told about the horses that were soft fabric over it to prevent the for sale. Another man who used to horse getting sore shoulders, for to come round in those days was the see a horse with the skin broken and Scouring Stone Man as he was the collar rubbing against it was not called. Not many housewives went a pretty sight and must have been out to work in those days and for very painful, but it used to happen. some of them their pride and joy was Mr Bell from Richmond used to the front door step, most of which come round once a week with his

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white horse pulling the wet fish baskets of herrings going from door cart. He seemed to come round in to door. Usually they were about a all weathers - it must have been a penny each. Mother always cooked cold job with no shelter of any kind. a big dish of rolled herrings after When the herring season was on they'd been - lovely. you would have women with

Antique petrol pump at the Crossroads

Early days of Wireless (May 2001)

In the twenties and early thirties would do anything to be able to get very few working class people could in to hear it. One of the places we afford a wireless, so if there was used to go was to Mr & Mrs Layton’s something special on you would hope at 18 East Road. We must have gone someone who had one would ask you there for 3 or 4 years. We would sit in to listen to it. With us lads the big on the Wall alongside what is now occasion was the Cup Final and we the Village Green and when it got

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near kick off time, Mr Layton (Cecil) dishing out the prize money and would come to the top of the yard Violet Carson at the piano. I forget and shout "Howay Lads". It was what the prize money was but it exciting. We talked about it for days would be nothing in comparison to afterwards. Boxing matches were the amounts they pay out today, but another highlight and dad and two £25 was a lot of money in those days. or three of us older ones would listen It was always the main topic of to them at Auntie Ruby's who lived conversation in the Village the in Chapel Row. Another place we following day. used to go to was Mrs Richardson’s The wireless ran off two batteries, a at 50 West Road. She was a friend of large dry one that lasted about 3 Mother’s and would sometimes let months and a wet battery or two or three of us go to listen to accumulator as it was called that Childrens' Hour between 4 and 5 only lasted about a fortnight, then o'clock. She was a lovely woman. had to be taken to somewhere where I was fifteen when we got our first there was a generator to be wireless, it was a Vulcan, the only recharged. It was best to have 2 one of that name I ever saw. Mother accumulators so you could be using saw it advertised in one of the one while the other was away. A Sunday papers and sent away for it. wet battery was made of glass about It was a great little set and gave us 9 inches high by 4 inches by 4 inches many hours of enjoyment as we sat with plates inside covered in acid. round the fire on winter nights. It After the battery had been was all the Big Band Sounds in those recharged the acid was bubbling. days, Geraldo, Billy Cotton, Harry They fitted into a frame that had a Roy, Henry Hall and Mantovani, handle for carrying. Rodbers used to just to name a few. They all had come from Richmond to pick up their own singers ad we all had our your battery and bring you the re- favourites and looked forward to charged one. They all had to be hearing them. Tommy Handley’s labelled so that everyone got the I.T.M.A. (It’s That Man Again) was right one. I can remember them on always a must and a Yorkshireman a winter's night with a van full of called Wilfred Pickles ran what batteries looking at the labels with a must have been the forerunner of all flash light. I was lucky. I was quiz shows called "Have a go Joe" working at Langdale at the time and with his wife Mable at the table

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they had their own generator and would be without a wireless. It all the workers got them charged saved a lot of bother when they free. Mother would often remind me started to make a wireless that ran on a morning to take the off the mains. accumulator to be charged or we

N E W S (March 2001)

In the twenties and early thirties, We used to get the Echo at the shop before many people had wireless, the on a morning. It was a penny in only way to keep up with the news those days. The evening papers came was through the newspaper. The on the 7 o'clock bus. The paper lad Echo was always eagerly awaited at had to be there to pick them up - our house and read from cover to usually one of the Dodds lads. They cover - not easy on a winter’s night were all ordered and had to be with only the light from the oil lamp delivered round the village - alright and candles, especially for someone on a summer’s night but not so nice who's eyesight was fading, glasses in the Winter when the snowflakes were not so easy to come by in those were falling. I had the job a few days and you would often get times. The most popular paper was younger members of the family the Sporting Pink on a Saturday reading to the elderly. night. All the men were waiting for it to get the football results and the Us kids, like most of the other kids in cricket scores in the summer. the Village, were members of the Sometimes if there was a big story Nig-Nog club run by the Northern (Murder trials were a nine days Echo and we could not wait to read wonder in those days, we even made what Uncle Mack and Uncle Ernest up songs about them) or at election were writing about and see who had times they would bring paper lads won the competitions. A little song from town to sell them round the we used to sing: Village. I remember hearing them I'm always kind to animals, and shouting after dark when us kids never ever cadge, were in bed. I've got a baby sister and we're going to call her Madge, And we'll make her a nig-nog in the morning.

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THE BLACK BULL (December 2000)

With the report that lots of village beer, they called it mulled ale. The pubs are closing down it is only toilets were under the stairs in interesting to look back on the role the back yard and like most of the pub between the wars. It was country pubs, nothing at all for one of the hubs of the village but ladies. The piece on the west end only for the men and the Black Bull was not part of the pub at that time. was no exception. You hardly heard I had an uncle who came out of the of women going in at all. It was the navy after 22 years service and 2nd World War that started to started up a fruit business. He used change things. Men home on leave to store his fruit and veg in there started to take their wives and and take it round the villages with a girlfriends in and it took off from pony and cart. Another landlord there. who came in had it made into two hunter boxes and hired the horses One of my first recollections of the out to people who wanted to go Black Bull was someone sending me hunting. I first started going in, in with a can for a pint of beer. It was 1939, I was only 17 but they turned sixpence a pint, 2 ½p in new money. a blind eye in those days. The Quite a few people used to go with landlord and lady were Ted and Ma jugs or cans in those days. I knew Thirkell (she always got Ma). They one old lady who lived near the pub moved to Melsonby when the pub used to go in every day. The pub they kept at Scotch Corner, (when it has been altered a lot since then. was only a cross-roads), had to be There used to be a passage that ran demolished to make way for a from the room on the left that was roundabout, before the hotel was the darts and dominoes room and built. It has been altered again since the big room on the right was the then. Their son Alt came with them singing room, only open on and took over the Blacksmith’s shop weekends if they could get someone from George Shaw who was retiring. to play the piano. A few of the old The beer in those days was George men used to sit round the fire in the Youngers (long since gone). It was kitchen and woe-betide anyone who nine pence a pint, about 4p in new sat in their seats. I remember some money. They had a good pint bottle of them used to get the poker red hot of mild at eleven pence. It was very in the fire then put it into their

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popular. You never saw lager in Most of the village pubs had a those days. There was nearly a singing room in those days and we tragedy one morning just after the used to have some great nights. Ma war. Ma was lighting the fire and had a daughter and son-in-law, thought she had picked up a can of Rachael and Bill Clifford. They lived paraffin, but it was a can of petrol. in Shrewsbury and always came up When she put it on the fire it just for their holidays. Bill was a bit of a exploded. They say flames were comedian and a good singer. I think coming out the front and back doors. he used to entertain in the clubs As luck happened, Gregory's Quarry down there, and Rachael played the men who worked at Low Grange piano. There was always a full house Quarry were waiting at the garage when they were there. It's a pity the for a wagon to take them to work. old sing songs have gone. The Black They ran up and managed to put Bull has always been a friendly pub out the fire. Ma got away with with a great set of lads—I could minor burns, but Ted had to write a book about all the scramble out of the bedroom window characters that have passed on the gable end and drop down through. I remember how great it onto the yard. He injured himself was in war time coming home on and I don't think he ever really got leave and going down for a pint over it. It was a bit of a mess for a with the lads. week or two, but I don't think it had to be closed.

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Butcher's Boy (February 1999)

Most villages between the Wars had and the first thing one of us had to their own butcher - Melsonby had do after school was run down to two! George Wharton lived in 4 Wharton's for 3d of liver, before it High Row and his shop is what is was all sold - always liver and now the garage and part of number onions and mash for dinner on a 2. Harry Trotter lived in 6 High Wednesday. Row and his shop was in the yard of Both butchers also had small farms number 10. They each killed a heifer and kept cattle and sheep. A lot of or bullock each week as well as sheep the animals killed were their own. and pigs. The poor beast was put Neither butcher made sausages or into what was called the hunger pies, but I think Wharton's made house. The next day it was haltered: brawn. A few of the lads took a the rope was passed through a ring turn at being butcher lad for Harry concreted into the floor) then passed Trotter. He had to walk to the farms through a hole in the door, so that with the meat after school on a anyone who was available could Friday and do the Village on a help to pull the animal to its knees, Saturday morning. He carried the where it was felled with an axe. No meat in what was called a butter humane killer gun in those days, basket, that was nearly a load in often the lads out of school would itself. You carried it with your arm give a pull on the rope. When inserted through the handle, with outside, you could hear the thuds the basket resting on your hip. I but were spared the gory details. remember going to Low Grange in a Children in those days thought gale force wind, the cloth blew off nothing about killing. You were the basket and I never saw it again! brought up amongst rats and mice On the way back, a big tree had on threshing days; there was never blown down, completely blocking the a close season on rabbits - you were road between the entrances to Low always on the lookout for one for Grange and Breckon House. My dinner! I have watched pig-killing Dad and 2 or 3 more Council men on the farm and helped to pull cock- were trying to get the road open; no chicken's necks for the Christmas chain saws in those days, no tractors market - nothing shocked you. to pull it out of the way! it all had to Wednesday was always killing day be cut with handsaws and axes.

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They worked late into the night to there's ower much fat on it". clear it. I remember taking them a He just grabbed the basket and the can of tea after dark. meat and everything went flying Another time, I remember taking under the bench. Harry would take the meat to High Langdale. It was a any surplus meat to sell in lovely walk in those days, all grass Richmond Market. You would see fields with a stream running him getting on the bus with two alongside the footpath and large baskets. No freezers in those meadowsweet growing on each side, days. George Wharton used to go (the stream has since been piped in.) round in a. horse- drawn butcher's The field alongside the wood was the cart with high wheels, a seat up the men's cricket ground. It was a hot front and the meat covered up in day and the basket heavy, so I was the back. I think they both stopped glad when I reached the farm. The trading in the late thirties with farmer came to the door. I only saw more competition from the Co-op him occasionally, since he was butcher's van. which came round, usually working in the fields. He and William Peats from Barnard lifted the cloth off the basket, had a Castle. Mr Wharton was forced to look at the meat and said: close, but Will Martin (Gwen's brother) took over Trotter's shop. "Thou can tak that back! There's ower much fat on it." I would go in sometimes at night, to watch him make the sausage and So I had to carry it all the way back. the best potted meat I ever tasted. It was a tired and a little bit scared After the War, he moved to butcher's lad who walked back into Aldbrough to take over the butcher's the shop, knowing how easily Old shop there, but he still came round Harry could fly off the handle! the Village with his van. "Mr Ayre's sent the meat back -

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Village Cricket where Everard’s Nurseries are now located

The Johnson boys

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H a r v e s t (October 1997)

Harvest time has always been one of stick to ride the middle horse to keep the most important times in the them going. I only did it once, farmer's calendar. Today vast areas because once you got up there, you are cleared by combines and balers never knew when they would let that get bigger every year, with you off and your legs got covered in very little manual labour involved. sweat when the horses rubbed Through the twenties and thirties to together. The sheaves had to be the war, everything was horse made up into stooks, that meant drawn with manpower, fields were picking a sheaf up under each arm smaller, crops were more rotated and placing them with the corn than they are today. The only corn heads upwards and the bottoms sown in autumn was wheat - oats spread out to form a tunnel and barley were sown in spring, so underneath to let the air through. A harvest was a bit later - mostly in stook usually was made up of ten September and October. All the sheaves that were built north to farms grew oats which were feed for south, so that the sun could get down the horses. Once a field was ripe, the both sides to dry them out. One of first job that had to be done was the things us lads used to like about opening out - this meant men with harvest was chasing and catching scythes cutting an area right round the rabbits as they came out of the the field, wide enough for three corn. The first thing we did when we horses pulling the binder to walk in. came out of school was to find out Otherwise the corn would be who was cutting and where, and trampled in and spoilt. The mown who was nearest to finishing. For corn had to be gathered into bundles the best time to go was when there called sheaves, tied with a band of was only a few times round in the straw and placed up against the middle of the field. The rabbits hedgerow out of the way of the would stay in as long as they could, binder. Once the binder was but they had to come out sometime. working, it went round and round As soon as they broke cover, we the field, throwing the tied up were after them with our sticks. sheaves into neat rows along the They were confused with all the stubble. It was hard work for the sheaves laid around and there horses and if they weren't going fast wasn't many got away. If we knew enough, they would get a lad with a the farmer would only let us keep

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one, we would hide another one in had coming from it. If things got a the hedgerow and pick it up as we little bit out of hand, the driver went home. You could see the lads would jump off, pull a lever at the come from all directions with front and the bogie would tip up and rabbits. A lot of rabbit pies were leave a heap of writhing bodies on eaten in Melsonby at harvest time! the ground. I have happy memories of lads and lasses and even mums, After the stooks had stood in the riding on the bogies in the field for about a fortnight, they were moonlight, singing—’Red sails in the moved to the stackyard by horse Sunset’ and ‘Isle of Capri’ are two and cart. One man in the stackyard songs that come to mind. The corn unloading, one in the field loading that was led home was put into and one travelling between. A lot of sheds or built into stacks outside. skill was needed for loading sheaves There was a lot of skill in making a onto the carts. To travel a long way good stack, which was thatched to over the rough ground, in the early keep out the weather and then thirties, Johnson Bros started to fit trimmed all round. A good new carts with pneumatic tyres. stackyard was a sight worth seeing. They were lovely carts after the old When all was safely gathered in, it wooden wheels with iron rims - it would be time for the Harvest was like riding in a Rolls Royce! It Festivals. The Church and Chapel must have been wonderful for the were always full. On these occasions horses, too. When you were twelve after the mid-week service, it was or thirteen, you could get a job the coffee suppers that all the lads driving carts after school or on were looking forward to. We had to Saturdays. No one worked on sit down last, although there was Sundays - it was a day of rest for always plenty left. We used to like man and horse and they were ready the Chapel best, they always had the for it. most ham sandwiches. Orchard House carried the corn on hay bogies, a flat platform on small iron wheels, about two feet off the ground. Even a small child could run after them for a ride. I've seen the poor old horse with nearly as big a load going back to the field as he

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Village Pump (May 1997)

People often ask we what was the to let the surplus water out. If you most important thing in the village could block the hole and pump the In my youth and I always tell them trough full, then you could send a the same thing - the village pump. If real flood of water down to the beck you didn't like church you could go when the plug was pulled out, But to chapel. If you didn't want to send just across the road was George your children to the top school you Shaw’s Blacksmiths shop, he always could choose the bottom and you had had a steel rule handy If he caught a choice of; grocers, butchers anyone tampering with the pump, blacksmiths, joiners and even he would have been in all sorts of undertakers. But there was only one trouble today, but water was too pump and It was the lifeblood of the precious to waste and in those days village, every household had to use it if you did wrong you were punished at least once a day for drinking for it. It was all part of growing up, water and in a dry time, no water In 1936 the village had the mains put for washing etc., just think of having in, the water coming from Mr to carry two buckets of water from Richardson’s land. It was our own where the imitation pump is now, to supply and I never knew it fail, I the rectory or to the top of East think the little reservoir is still Road, But there was no alternative. there, All the digging had to be done In those days no water was wasted. by hand, no J.C.B.'s in those days), Nearly everyone had water barrels Halfway down East Road they ran to catch water from the roofs and in into solid rock and it had to be hand a long dry summer you were always drilled and blasted right away down hoping for a thunder storm to fill past the Rectory. The holes were your barrels up. It saved a lot of covered with sandbags to try and walking. the pump was a great prevent stones flying, but there was meeting place and in fine weather still a few windows put out Not you could often see three or four everyone could afford to be people talking there. It was a great connected straight away, so six taps place for gossip, It was also a great were spaced out around the village. place for us kids to play if we got These made it a lot easier for those the chance. There was a metal who still had to carry their water. trough at the front, with bars across These taps were there for a long to stand your buckets on and a hole time, as some houses were still being

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connected right up until the late having to borrow a horse and cart 1950's. In 1938 they built the top from a farmer, dig out the earth block of council houses and my closet, then spread it onto the land family was lucky enough to get one. and we had a real bath, in about six For the first time in her life, mother inches of water with my knees had a kitchen sink with hot and cold tucked up under my chin, water coming out of taps, instead of It was wonderful , just having a dish on the kitchen table. We also had a W.C. - no more

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M O T H E R S (April 1998)

Looking back to the years between dinner for everyone at night. the Wars, I am always amazed at Mother could turn her hand to the amount of work our mothers did anything: she did all the decorating and how they managed to get and painting, and with a growing through it. There were lots of big family, clothing was one of her families and ours was no exception. biggest problems. She was always Mother brought eight of us up on a darning socks or patching trousers. very low income. No family We had Sunday best clothes, school allowance and everything had to be clothes and old clothes you played in paid for out of the wage Dad on a night. A lot of clothing was brought, which was never more bought at jumble sales; she would than £2.00. We were some of the even go to another village if she lucky ones, because I never knew there was a sale on. I remember him being out of work. remember the year I sat my 11 +. You sat an exam at your own school Monday was always washday - and if you passed, you had to sit imagine starting to do a big wash- another at The Central School. with no running water and no Richmond. I had to go to Richmond, electricity! Dry sticks had to be so Mother sent me off to Darlington found to light a fire under the wash with half-a-crown (12.5p) and boiler. Water had to be carried (in sixpence for my bus fare and a note dry weather from the village pump). for Mr Bird. who had a pawn shop Clothes had to be possed in the (about where the Police Station is posstub, with a big heavy poss stick, now) to get a suit to go in. I got a then turned through a big wooden grey suit with short trousers, (all the roller-mangle. The tighter you kept lads wore short trousers then). You the mangle, the harder it was to did not get long ones until you turn, but you got the water out of started work. I did not get to the the clothes and they took less time to Grammar School –I went for an dry. This between doing all the interview with the Headmaster. He housework, getting children ready only asked me two questions : What for school, looking after the little books did I read? and What did my ones, having something ready for father do? I said Dad was a the kids at dinner time (no canteen roadsweeper - that may have swept in those days) and cooking a big

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my academic career away. It was a an illegal bookie at 23 Church Row, pretty daunting experience for an called Jack Carvey. He would have eleven year old. been in all sorts of trouble if he had been found out, but I think our Another thing Mother was good at policeman, Bobby Benson, must have was mat-making. She would sit for turned a blind eye, or maybe he hours cutting up old clothes into liked a bet himself! If Mother had clips. Different colours were put into sixpence to spare, she would write separate bags, so that she could her bet out 3d each way and send make a design. A piece of hessian one of us up with it. I don't think she was stretched on to the matting studied form too much, it was often frames and the design chalked on. just a name she fancied! So they Winter nights when all the chores were often pretty long shots and if were done, the matting frames were one came in, there was a few brought out and rested on the top of shillings to come back. When you two chair backs and the clips went up for your winnings, Jack prodded in. As we got older, we all would get a glass dish out of the had to do our share, using prodders cupboard with all the betting slips made out of half a sharpened clothes and pay you out. Mother must have peg. It was always nice to see a new been pretty lucky, for I can clippy mat for a hearth rug. remember seeing the glass dish quite One of Mother's little pleasures was a few times! having a bet on the horses. We had

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Gilbert's Christmas (December 1997)

I remember a saying that when you might get the farm dog after us, but became a man, time ran. They most times we were lucky: it was should have added that when you often sixpence each at the farm become old time flies. It is hard to Once I remember singing at believe that Christmas is little more Middleton Lodge the home of Sir than a month away. It just feels that James Bard. We were lucky - a it's just a couple of months since the party was on this night, so they sent last one. us round to the front lawn and The Christmases I remember from opened the French windows to hear the mid-twenties onwards seem us singing We got two shillings each, totally different from today. There a glass of wine and something to eat was a great excitement in the last - it was a great night! We never had week or two, writing to Santa, notes a Christmas tree, but Mother used to up the chimney! Even though we make what was called a mistletow, never got many of the things we made from two wooden hoops, asked for, Mother would be busy wrapped with coloured paper and making the Christmas cake; the hung from the ceiling. It looked nice pudding she used to boil in the cloth with all the baubles hanging down. and hang up, so that all that was There was always great excitement needed was just to warm it up on hanging stockings up on Christmas the day. She used to make her own Eve and we could hardly wait for mincemeat for the mince pies. the morning. There was usually five or six of us with stockings to fill. It Another important thing was was always the same: - apple orange making the ginger wine. She usually sweets, nuts and maybe a sixpence, made about a dozen large bottles. It if we were lucky. Big presents might warmed you up on a frosty be a book each for the lads and dolls morning. As we got older, about a for the girls - a far cry from today's fortnight before the big day, we computers and mountain bikes - and would start Carol singing to make a we were some of the lucky ones. We bit of pocket money. We would pick looked forward to Christmas dinner - a fine night and three or four of us a piece of pork with plenty of lads would go round the farmhouses. crackling and vegetables. Most If they'd had a lot of visitors, we

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farmers kept a few chickens on the Christmas cakes. If you visited stubble after harvest to fatten up for anyone's house over Christmas, there the Christmas market, but they were was always a slice of cake, a piece of out of our price range. It seems hard cheese and a glass of wine. Mother to appreciate in this day and age, used to order a cheese from Mrs that I had never tasted chicken 'til I Nicholson, when they had Jagger was in the Navy, in wartime. I once Road Farm. I remember going for remember Dad winning a goose in one; it must have been about 5lbs the Christmas dominoes at the Black (about 2.3kg) in weight and cost 8 Bull. How excited we all were and shillings (40p). They were lovely what a feast we had! cheeses.

Each Sunday School had its You never hear the children singing Christmas party. At the Church on New Year’s morning now. We School we got a tree from Langdale were always out about seven o’clock Wood. Mrs Bigge (from Langdale), to try and visit as many houses as was Patron of the School and she we could. You could hear singing all bought the presents which were around the village the song was. stacked around the tree. After a Happy New Year! Happy New lovely tea and a night playing Year! games, your name was called out Please will you give me my new and you had to go up for your year’s gift? present. It was nearly always a nice Hole in my stocking book. Once I remember getting the Hole in my shoe same book at the party as I got at A hole in my hat that my hair home: Swiss Family Robinson. The sticks through Vicar, Canon Bullard, exchanged this If you haven’t got a penny, a at the Vicarage for two Geographical halfpenny will do Magazines, which I treasured for If you haven’t got a halfpenny, years. God bless you! e attended church over the Christmas period. When we got older, we joined the choir and had services twice on Sunday, with choir practice on Friday nights. Another tradition that is dying out, is tasting people's

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The Village Institute (July 1998)

The institute was the whole of the Sunday afternoons dad would brush buildings of number 8 and 10 West and iron the table and we could then Road. Downstairs was home of the have a game of billiards, no one caretaker and upstairs divided into played snooker. two large rooms - one the "Billiard" We would also put new tips on any room and the other the "Reading" cues that needed it. I remember Miss room. We moved from Church Row Martin bringing a vacuum cleaner in 1934 to become caretakers. We to clean the table. It was the first only had 2 bedrooms and a sitting one I ever saw. room that was mother’s pride and joy. The Reading room had a large The Institute stayed open until 10.00 bookcase down one wall full of books. pm and did not open on Sundays, no There was a dartboard and small alcohol was allowed in the Billiard tables for playing cards. One of my Room which was always busy. Men jobs on winters nights when I came used to call in on their way home home from school, was to light the from work to put their names in the fire in the reading room. I used to book for a game; it was three old practice on the dartboard while pence for ½ an hour. Someone had to waiting for the fire to burn through. be there to ensure they finished on The men were often playing pranks time and to collect the threepences. on us, I remember we used to get a There was a Billiard League and knocking on the back door, you Aldbrough, Barton, Manfield and would answer it and there was no Forcett were in it. The games were one there. This went on for a few mostly played during winter, for nights and one night dad stood most of the players worked on the outside in the dark of the backyard farms and they could not always be and watched. The bottom sash on the available in summer. Everyone window directly above the back door travelled on bikes to games. No cars was pushed up and a man leaned out to run around then Those who had with the poker on a string, we'd their own cues carried them fastened never thought of looking upwards, it to the crossbars. Long before we went did not happen again. to the Institute I remember dad The door into number 8 led into a filling and lighting his paraffin oil passage where the stairs were. Just bike light before setting off. On some

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enough room for a table and 2 chairs coal had to be paid for and so with where some of the old men used to no funds coming in, the place was sit during the daytime and read the sold in 1938. A sad day, I think—the papers. The passage was often used whole block only made less than by people going through onto High £100.00. I don’t know much about Row. One of the residents when he the history of the place, but at one had been to the Black Bull would go time it must have been 4 houses for to the wrong door and come into our there were stone steps at each end of part of the house, and someone had the yard leading up to a blocked up to guide him out through the back doorway. It was one of the first door. buildings in the village to have electric light, run from a generator The membership fee for the year in Central Garage. Before that it was 10 shillings (50p) though in the was lit by gas produced by water last few years of the Institute’s life a dripping on to carbine making a gas lot of men would not pay the fees, that was piped around the building. but would go to the Black Bull till I don't remember it working, but their money ran out, and then remember seeing all the fittings in expect to come and sit round the fire the outhouse out the back. for nothing. But the lighting and

The Home Guard (May 2000)

After the evacuation of the British countryside, as we did then - we Army from Dunkirk in 1940, were often out after dark poaching - everyone was living in fear of we would have had an advantage – invasion, so when a new Defence but looking back, after seeing the Force was set up by War Minister, fire power they would have had, it Anthony Eden, everyone rushed to would not have been a contest! It is join. It was called the Local Defence a good job they never came. We had Volunteers (LDV). The age group three or four veterans from the was from 17-65 years. As an 18 year- Great War and they taught us a lot old, I could not wait to get my name about shooting. There were no rifles down and get my LDV arm-band. at first, so it was shotguns and It made you feel you were doing anything you could get hold of. We something. I always had the got shotgun cartridges that had just thought that knowing the one bullet in them instead of the

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usual small shot. They didn't half take the Headquarters, which were in rattle down the barrels! We used to one of the big houses facing on to the go down to Thorndale Farm to Green - all Rob Roy stuff, for a young practise shooting in an old quarry lad! We started to get a few more and sometimes we would go to the rifles and felt a bit more secure, when rifle range in the barracks in we were out on night patrol. We were Richmond. The Regular Army issued with five rounds of would sometimes ‘attack' the village ammunition and we were not and we would have to try and repel supposed to load up, but us young 'uns them. always did - it's a wonder no one was shot! I remember one night they were going to attack, some of us were in a One night we were called out to the slit trench in the field in front of the sound of the whistle blowing and I Rectory, to cover the Barton Road remember lacing my boots up on the and I was machine gunner. backdoor step. We were told the parachutists were landing, but we I had a five gallon drum with some found it was a barrage balloon that stones in, that I had to rattle when the had broken free from its moorings - enemy came in sight. A messenger probably from Teesside - and came on his bike to say the attack someone had heard its cable was taking place at the West end of dragging over the Moor Road. the village and the machine gun was They still had not got their uniforms wanted there. I had to run the full when I was called up in 1941, but length of the village with my tin of they did get them eventually. They stones! I got a few cheers on the looked quite smart - and I think they way, but I was too late - the battle would have been a force to be was over - we had been over-run. reckoned with later in the War. I Another time we attacked Aldbrough have had some laughs over the years with some of the Regular Army. We watching Dad's Army. Some of the went in trucks down the Piercebridge things we did, looking back, seem Road and down the Doctor’ s Road. quite amusing but it was all serious A bi-plane came in low and dropped a stuff at the time. You had to feel you smoke bomb near the cricket pavilion, were doing something and there and we went in through the smoke. were a lot of dedicated men out We were led by a young Army there.. captain as we charged up the Green to

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G y p s i e s (September 2000)

Gypsies were always part of the for firewood. They always had a country scene. My first recollection fire burning, with an iron rod of them was seeing them pass driven into the ground and bent through the village over 70 years over, with a hook in the end for ago in their horse-drawn caravans. holding the kettle or pan — there They had three or four more horses were no gas bottles in those days. tied behind each and often two or They used to come down to the three more ponies pulling flat carts. village each day with their water There was not much traffic to cans on a flat cart, to fill them up at worry about in those days, so they the pump. The women came round could be spread around all over the with their baskets, selling combs, road. They used to move in and bobbins of cotton, clothes pegs, etc. I camp in Jagger Lane and Dickie have watched the men making Dobbin Lane, in the summer. I don't clothes pegs. They used to get ash or know where they spent the winter— hazel branches out of the hedgerow, maybe nearer the towns. They cut them into peg-size, cut old tin usually had big families, so some of cans into thin strips, wrap the strips them had to sleep in tents, or under round one end and so far down the one of the carts, with a tarpaulin peg and fastened them on with small thrown over it. I don't think the tacks. Then they split and shaped children went to school—1 never the other end – they would last for remember any of them going to the years! I think they made their village schools. They always had a money out of horse dealing and lurcher or two. There were always going round farms buying scrap or plenty of rabbits and hares about, muck anything they could turn into so they were never short of one for money. These were the real gypsies the pot! You used to hear tales of — it was not until after the war them cooking hedgehogs. They used that you began to see the scrap lads to wrap them in clay and put them and their wagons and big caravans. in the fire to cook. When they were If the farmers started to complain, cooked, all the spines came off in the our policeman, Bobby Benson would clay. I' ve heard them say it was tell them to move on, but it would like eating chicken! The farmers not be long before there were others were not keen to have them around, to take their place. There used to be as they damaged hedgerows looking a lot of superstition attached to the

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gypsies. When I was little, I was others would line up and go in. one always nervous when I had to walk at a time to skip, singing: past where they were camping. 'My mother said. I never should . Later on I got to know some of them, play with the gypsies in the wood. especially those that camped near If I did, she would say, two old copper mine workings at naughty girl to disobey, disobey, Kneeton Hall. Two or three of us disobey, lads used to often walk over to them naughty girl to disobey' . and sit around the fire and listen to their tales. The village girls used to Then the girl would run out the have a song about the gypsies, that other side to let the next one in. If they sang when they were skipping. you stopped the rope, you had to Two girls would stand, one at each take a spell at turning the rope. end of a long skipping rope. The

MARKET DAY (February 2000)

When I was very young in the shilling(5p) and sometimes a pork twenties, you always knew when it pie and they would have to make was Darlington Market Day, with their own way back. If they were all the extra activity in the village. lucky, they might get some to drive Cattle and sheep being driven back, so they were paid both ways! through on the way to market - no If there were only two or three cattle wagons in those days. You sheep or pigs to go, they could be daren't leave your gates open, or loaded into a cart and a net put you might end up with a garden full over them. If there were more, rails of bullocks. It was a long walk to would be put round a long, four- Darlington and two or three herds wheeled wagon called a 'lorry’. might get mixed up and you would Every farm had one - it was the have to sort them out at the mart. I horse-drawn artic! The shafts and was never old enough to take part , front wheels worked on a swivel, so but dad used to tell me when he was a good driver could reverse into a lad, they did it in the school really awkward places. Hens, ducks holiday. When they got to the mart, and geese were put into baskets and the farmer would give them a loaded on to the cart. There were

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only about three cars in the village was a shilling return (5p) for grown- at that time - fancy not seeing a ups and sixpence for children. car, nor hearing a tractor – Market days and Saturdays were wonderful. You would see the his busiest days. Cattle wagons farmers and their wives going started to appear in the twenties. A through in their pony-drawn traps. chap from the village, called Will I think there was a bit of pride in Gregory, got one in the early who had the best turned out. The thirties. Farmers soon found it was wife would have baskets of butter a lot easier and a lot better for the and eggs sheep and cattle, to travel by wagon than to drive them for seven or Orchard House had one of the first eight miles. By the time they cars - an open-topped Ford. We reached the mart, some of them used to go into the yard, climb upon could be quite stressed, with all the the running board, press a spring running around. Soon the barking down and the horn would make a of the dogs and the shouting of the wonderful sound and then someone drovers was a thing of the past and would come out and chase us! Before something that must have been a we got the buses, folk used to go to part of village life for hundreds of town in a horse-drawn covered years, was no more..... wagon called a brake. I think I can just remember it. It was a slow ride. I've heard dad say you could jump off before you got to Stapleton, hurry along to the pub, have a pint and catch it up again, before it got to the top of the bank. The first buses we had, were kept in the big shed at Central Garage. They were owned by a man called Reg Nellis. He lived at the Black Bull. The make of the buses were Guys. They had a Red Indian chief's head motif for a radiator cap. They always used to fascinate me. I'd have loved one to play with. The fare to Darlington

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THE LITTLE HOUSE ACROSS THE YARD (august 2000)

If I was asked to give up all but one One of the first jobs on a snowy of the things that have made life morning was to dig a road to the easier and better in my life time I closet and it might have to be would settle for the flush toilet. repeated two or three times if the Having lived the first fifteen years weather was bad. In dark nights of my life without one I know what the younger ones might be afraid to a boom they really are. When we go on their own and you had to go lived in Church Row the closet, as it with them and wait in the cold. No was most often called, was about 20 toilet rolls in those days. The posher yards from the back door. It was folk would cut newspapers in also called the privy or one or two squares, thread them onto a string other names I daren't mention here. and hang them on a nail. We always It was a long brick building with took the full newspaper or magazine ours at one end and next doors at and you just tore off what you the other and a section in the wanted. middle called the ash pit. The seat I did a lot of reading in there. It was was just a board with a hole in that the only bit of privacy you got, once you sat on. Some of the farms had you got used to the flies and the two or three seaters. I know there smell. Mother used to keep it was a three seater at Orchard spotless and it often used to get a House. All the ashes from the fire lime whitewash. This all sounds were put down the hole to keep the very primitive but that's the way it smell down. When the closet was full was. Everyone was the same. You it was shovelled into the ash pit. can realise how wonderful it was When that was full dad would when we got the sewage system put borrow a horse and cart from one of in, in 1936, although everyone could the farmers and spread it on one of not afford to be connected up his arable fields. He never had any straight away. I know of two houses trouble borrowing a horse and cart in the village who still had the earth for it was a good fertiliser. He used closets twenty years later. to get half a crown for clearing next door’s out at the same time. Windows were always kept closed when that job was taking place.

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Making the green (august 1997)

This is a copy of the Parish Council Chairmanship of the Parish Minutes, dated 24/11/71, sent to Council. Melsonby Village News by Miss Gwyne 2. Introduction of Councillors, Rural Martin District and Parish, with special MELSONBY PARISH MEETING reference to Councillor H Tarn, who is in hospital A Public Parish Meeting held in the Methodist School, Melsonby, on 3. All Councillors are always ready to Wednesday 24th November 1971, at meet members of the Parish, 7.30pm. receive their ideas and/or comments for the welfare of the Present: Parish Councillors, T. Reynolds, Parish, which will be brought up Chairman, G. Hird, G. Simpson, A. and discussed in committee by the Rennison, T.W. Todd and the Clerk Parish Council and which if they Messrs RC Easby, J. Coates, F Hall, S merit further action will be Hogan, N J Ling, W Nixon, M. Zillesen referred to the Rural District Mesdames G .Martin and U Reynolds. Council. However I must emphasise that any proposed Apology from District Councillor H development is in keeping with the Tarn, in hospital Village.

The Business of the meeting was to 4. The great need for voluntary work receive and consider the proposals of in tidying up the village generally the Melsonby Parish Council for the and also the establishment of a construction and completion of the Tidy Flower Garden competition'. Public Open Space incorporating the Old Church School Playground 5. The Open Space is the property of including the piping in, wholly or in the village and bounded by the part of the stream running through the eastern Boundary wall which has Site and the financing of the Project. been recently built by voluntary labour. Chairman's address The Parish Council prepared a scheme Ladies and Gentlemen. to pipe in the whole length of the As you will know from the Notices the stream through the site, grade and level main reason for this meeting is to the tipped soil, cultivate and seed down consider the proposals for the open to grass and repair the boundary walls. space. The cost was estimated at £955. This However first of all I wish to make a few scheme received the approval of the general remarks. Richmond Rural District Council and a 1. Tribute to the late John Hall from grant of £280, subject to the Parish whom I took over the Council agreeing to pay the product of

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one new penny rate for five years to d) Take down and remove part of defray the remainder of the cost. North Wall 140ft run. (This is another project and after we have This scheme was turned down mainly removed the wall it will be further on the question of cost and the raising developed by the RRDC and NRCC of the money by putting it on the rates. to widen Church Row and provide An alternative scheme suggested was: - a car park £50. not to pipe in any of the stream, but to Total thus equals £750 form a straight clear 6 feet wide channel for it and contain it with a On completion and when more money stout retaining wall at both sides and is available, it is proposed to erect grade the soil to it, cultivate and seed garden seats and perhaps a down. although much cheaper this was summerhouse for use by the senior also turned down. citizens and others.

Eventually the Combined scheme was We have some money - not much evolved and agreed to by the Parish (actually some £200) Council namely piping in part of the The RDC will put up some too, but this stream, the lower part from the will not cover everything. It is therefore footbridge to the eastern Boundary and proposed that one new penny shall go re-grading and breast walling the on the rates for three years - maybe remainder of the stream, grading and less if some of our estimates can be seeding. reduced. Anyhow a one penny rate is I wish now to propose from the Chair only a couple of packets of Players a with the support of my Council and I year for most people. hope with your approval too : The Open Space is for the use of a) to re-form the channel of the everyone in the village and therefore western part of the stream and we should pay and play our part. In breast wall , both sides down as order to keep our costs down, we must far as the footbridge, 115ft. run ask you to give up some weekend or £100 other spare time to help with the job. In conclusion, this is a very worthwhile b) Pipe in stream from footbridge to project, the best that the Parish Council East Boundary 135ft. run £350 considered. Let us have it completed preparing bed and laying pipes, by next summer 1972 and go on to win headwalls and aprons, etc. £100 the Tidy Village Competition once c) grading, levelling cultivating and more. seeding [2,000yds)£100 (Mr Mr M .Zilleson seconded the motion. Everard has generously offered to plant some shrubs} There was a fair amount of discussion from the few people there. No one

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actually condemned the project as a whole. Several speakers objected to the penny rate, they were outnumbered by those who maintained that it was the only fair way to spread the load and get something out of those people who never give voluntarily to anything in the village.

When put to the vote the motion was carried unanimously.

Any other Business

Mr W Nixon reported erratic collection of refuse put out alongside the bin at his daughter's hair-dressing Salon.

Mr Jack Ling reported that he was still having trouble with the sewage from his bungalow.

Mr Frank Hall (Senr) drew attention to the parking of vehicles on the new West Road footpath, especially near the public house where damage has been done by a heavy vehicle.

Counc. A. Nixon drew attention to the bad state of the breast wall alongside the beck on the West Road.

Counc. Simpson again drew attention to the dangerous traffic situation at the crossings and he suggested white lines and a Halt sign at the mouth of Moor Road.

Major T Reynolds Chairman.

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Gilbert’s 90th Birthday 2012

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Gilbert Hird 1922—2013 in Melsonby over the years. Brian has requested that the book of Gilbert Hird was born in Melsonby articles be uploaded to the Melsonby in a house facing the land that Community website. He related events of his childhood, harvest gathering and suppers, nature through the seasons, rivalry between the two village schools and his disappointment at getting an interview, but not a place at the grammar school and reflected on the changes in transport from horses to tractors and cars. He was a young member of the local Dad’s

would later become the village green that, as a Parish Councillor, he helped to establish. He was a Parish Councillor for many years and helped to re-establish and run the Cockin Trust that provides grants for educational support for young people in Melsonby. For many years he wrote articles for

Army until he joined the Navy in 1941, when took part in the Arctic Convoys between America and Russia. He was very proud to be given recently, and very belatedly, his Arctic Star medal , He was a keen walker and observer of nature and for a few years used to lead Sunday walks around the footpaths of Melsonby, regaling everyone with historical details and the Melsonby News and later The information on plants and birds. Parish on different aspects of his life

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c o n t e n t s

Pig Killing day (May 1999) ...... 17 Ablutions (April 2001) ...... 39

Bathing in the beck( September2001) ... 51 Potato picking (December1998 and November 2002) .... 44 Beggars (February 2001) ...... 25 Road repairs (November 1999) ...... 28 Butcher's Boy (February 1999 ) ...... 59 School Days (July 2000) ...... 35 Christmas between the wars (December 2001) ...... 48 Spring (April 2002 ...... 40

Corn harvest (November 2000 ...... 37 Stable lad (October 1999) ...... 22

Early days of Wireless (May 2001) ...... 54 Stan Dodds 1924—2004 ...... 34

Entertainment (August 1999) ...... 24 Sticking (April 1999) ...... 15

Football (March 2000) ...... 32 The Black Bull (December 2000) ...... 57

From pool to pipe (July 1999) ...... 21 The day we went to Redcar (May 1998) ... 7

Gilbert's Christmas (December 1997) .. 68 The Home Guard (May 2000) ...... 71

Gilbert goes a shopping (March 1998) ... 5 The Horseman (June1999) ...... 19

Gilbert’s 90th birthday ...... 80 The little house across the yard (August 2000 ...... 76 Gypsies (September 2000) ...... 73 The Old Blacksmith Shop Harvest (October 1997) ...... 62 (March 1999) ...... 13

HARVEST (October 2002) ...... 42 The quarries (September 1998) ...... 9

Lime Burning (Dec1999 /Jan 2000 ) ...... 30 The Village Institute (JULY 1998) ...... 70

Making the green (August 1997) ...... 77 Things We used To Eat (November 1997) ...... 3 Market day (February 2000) ...... 74 Threshing days (November 1998) ...... 11 More about tatie picking (December 2002) ...... 47 Vendors Who Used To Come To The Village (July 2001) ...... 53 Mothers (April1998) ...... 66 Village Pump (May 1997) ...... 64 News (March 2001) ...... 56 Wharton’s Farmyard Obituary ...... 81 (September 1999) ...... 26 Our Robin (November 2001) ...... 50

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