Searching for ancestors is a very popular past time these days and there are well known sites that can greatly assist the searcher; an example is the Durham Light Infantry records. Now having said that why not do a free five minute search? By googling - Ushaw Moor Durham Light Infantry - up comes lots of material on the world wide web. We quickly find that WW2 corporal Fred Cann of the Royal Engineers, a son of Henry and Violet, is buried in Ushaw Moor cemetery; guardsman George Holliday, son of John and Margaret, is also mentioned, as well as private William Morgan, John Hardman and lots more.
I knew that Ushaw Moor had impressive success in the Durham County Cricket League during much of the period 1965 to 1973 but the extent of it surprised me. According to Wiki they were champions of that league in 1965, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 and 73! Great stuff. But it makes you think: was it the case that there was a clutch of local born talented players, several professionals or a mixture of both? Someone told me that a very long time ago the club had eleven professionals, but that is just gossip and therefore not reliable information.
What I do know is that there is nothing extra special about Manchester [maybe a very good orchestra] but there are two football clubs there that attract world class players; it is reasonable to assume that money brings them to Manchester, as well as trophy seeking, but is it reasonable to link paragraph two with this one? After all football is not cricket.
I sometimes sing in bed but I am told by a very reliable source that I do not know the words to any song, carol or hymn. I tried 'In the Bleak Midwinter' a couple of days ago [at about 6.40 am] and again went adrift in snowy fashion. For the record the first verse is:
In the bleak midwinter, frost made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Christina Rossetti.
Did I get it right this time?
Poet Dora Greenwell was a friend of Christina Rossetti and for a time lived at Greenwell Ford, Lanchester. Some of my family served the Greenwell family at that address.
Anyway we are told by several weather forecasters that we can expect a harsh winter - so get that poem off pat and stay in bed. With your wife or husband or partner. If you have one.
WB
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Guardsman George Holliday was my great uncle and Alf Rothwell's uncle. He is listed on Ushaw Moor War Memorial as Private George Holliday, something which upset his late sister, my great aunt Peggy (Tweddle nee Holliday). I tried to get it altered for her but after lots of queries, reached a dead end. Too troublesome and expensive, I suspect. Shame, because he did really well for the son of a man who worked in the coke ovens. The family was, and still is, very proud of him. My late grandmother, Eliza, his sister, related many tales to me of his life in London...very different to Ushaw Moor and quite exciting and glamorous.
ReplyDeleteI think the carol line may be 'frosty winds made moan'..I may be wrong but this is a memory from my school choir days (over forty years ago)!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments Denise. Having researched I find you are almost correct 'frosty wind made moan' is how it goes. A case of you having too many winds Denise!
ReplyDelete"In the Bleak Midwinter" is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti written before 1872 in response to a request from the magazine Scribner's Monthly for a Christmas poem.[1] It was published posthumously in Rossetti's Poetic Works in 1904 and became a Christmas carol after it appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906 with a setting by Holst. In 2008 Harold Darke's setting was named the best Christmas carol in a poll of some of the world's leading choirmasters and choral experts. Source Wikipaedia [I hope that is the spelling of it - it's a long word!]