Alcohol Free Football Team 1906-07

My my – you wait ages for a bus and two turn up at once er… I meant football teams. It is interesting to note that two of the players are wearing ties and one is sporting a cap – all of that would be curious to see in modern teams. One of the supporters is smoking so … a ban on drink but not on fags! Does anyone recognise a long lost relative? Do you reckon the picture was taken at Broadgate?

I wish to thank that splendid chap Keith Belton, of the Durham Amateur Football Trust, for this photograph – it formed page three of the Christmas card he sent me. And what an interesting page 3!
If there are any other appropriate acknowledgements to make in respect of the photograph I will gladly arrange it: please contact me if that applies.
WB

Durham Boys v Crook - Ferrens Park circa 1959

Here we have a photograph of the Durham Boys football team with their captain Norman Ferguson of Ushaw Moor, his best friend the late Les Gleghorn to his right ( both Johnstonians ) and then Vic Meredith of Pittington School.

On the top row we have identified Brian Crampton, Ian Pattison ( South Hetton ) and Robert Hancock. Can W.B. identify himself please and anyone else he is able to.

Posted on Behalf of Peter Clarke

Sleetburn And Ushaw Moor Virtually Uncut

First of all I wish you all a happy New Year.

 So from three months old until almost 16 years old and all spent in the Valley.  How did it happen and what was it about? My mother's  family were originally farmers but eventually pressing economic considerations almost inevitably led the later male line  into the coal mining industry. Just about all of them were in supervisory roles and they  made a good 'fist' of that responsibility.

My mother did not think too much about my natural father and as far as I can gather the main problem was his untidiness.

I spent my youth with a mother and step- father and was more or less none the worse for it. Several kids wondered why my surname was not the same as my half sister's surname and that was wounding for a while.

I attended New Brancepeth Infants and its junior school. I do not have good memories of the junior school at all - apart from memories of marbles at break and impressive steam trains rushing along the line through Ushaw Moor. It all seems a bit sinister - foreboding at the time - clearly that school did not make me feel happy. Mind you a word of caution will not go amiss: the memory is very selective and unreliable at times. Afterall Wallace Hayton taught there and he was far from sinister - a gentleman infact. Mr Hill? Some liked him but I thought he was far too oppressive.

I have previously mentioned winter sledging down the Sleetburn bank [towards Ushaw Moor] and several other things so I am trying not to be too repetitive. I have another twenty minutes to spare - not much because I could probably write for hours.   

Ushaw Moor! If I brainstorm some words - ie just let them out - what would I come up with? Well let us see! Starting now:

 Harry Barlow, vicar Welby, 11 plus nerves - a mockery of a system but I recovered, Waterhouses Modern we beat them more than once, Watson's, The Empire, the Modern school - Edith Smith , Pauline Newman - grand girls - Gillian Cruddace -the Pinkneys' to the left and right of us at Whitehouse Court - Titchy Thompson - jelly and ice cream - bluebird toffee nearly choking my half brother - Peggy living in Whitehouse Court two doors up ie towards the main road -Mr Tonks good teacher eventually headmaster elsewhere - Newcastle 3 Manchester City 1 Crook 2 Derby County 2 - very clean living room at my grandmother's house with polish and consequently a nice smell -potato picking in the field opposite Whitehouse Court - John Vasey delicate on the ball - number 7  shirt not a bad winger - smell of beer fumes at the bottom of Station Road - plush new seats at the Empire - sort of gold coloured they were c1957 - pit hooter - singing accents - Soccer Gleghorn let us all bow to him - etc etc. 

Did my childhood help me? Yes but only much much later. Five minutes left must press on.

Socrates - the moral philosopher - said that the unconsidered life is not worth living. Well I survived Sleetburn and Ushaw Moor and am in a fit state to consider it all - back -present and future. As I see it we must not be overly impressed by certain institutions - we must not bow and scrape at the alter of life or the alter at some church or other - rather we should observe the world as it is, consult the wise and think for ourselves - if we do not we are living the agenda of others and that would be so sad, so unnecessary and rather futile.

Time up - must dash.

WB

The Golden Age Of Soccer

A Durham Amateur Football Trust [DAFT]  publication tells us/reminds us, word for word, of the following:

Bishop Auckland were victorious in the FA Amateur Cup Final on ten occasions, twice as many as the next team - nearby Crook Town - who won it five times!

In 71 seasons of the FA Amateur Cup, Northern League teams appeared in 39 finals and won on 24 occasions.

Crook Town appeared in five Amatur Cup Finals and won each one, enabling Jimmy McMillan [ the DAFT President] to capture four winner's medals - an unbeatable record.

In 1928 the two street village of Cockfield in County Durham - with every player unemployed - reached the Amateur Cup Final at Middlesborough before losing 3-2 to Leyton.

Bob Hardisty, to many the greatest amateur soccer player of all time, played for the British team at the Olympic Games, and won 15 international Caps for England.

In the 1954 FA  Amateur Cup Final between Crook Town and Bishop Auckland required three games before Crook Town won 1-0 and was watched by crowds totalling almost 200,000.

I might add that Johnny Weirs  was educated at Waterhouses Secondary Modern and went on to winner an FA Amatur Cup winners medal with Crook Town in 1964. The Ushaw Moor County school team had the pleasure of playing against him and that is dealt with in some detail elsewhere on site. 

Why not apply for membership of the Durham Amateur Football Trust? It has some fun and interest and can be contacted at:

4 Soho Cottages, Shildon, Co. Durham DL4  1PQ.  Address your letter to the Membership Secretary - you will not regret it.

WB

Ushaw Moor's Mining Community And Noisy London

I agree with Mr Clarke's very last remark: bring it on Brian. In the meantime I would like to dwell on the noise of Ushaw Moor in Victorian times [and beyond] and also the noise  of Victorian London.

Starting with Ushaw Moor - and Sleetburn for that matter - we had the clink and clank of coal wagons - the noise of steam trains on the main line - not forgetting the local colliery tankies - scores of tired and hungry men walking home from the pit  -  vicar Welby last seen walking down the hill,  with Rock Terrace on the right in 1954 - pit hooters  and deep 1947 snow - which was a great talking point in the Co-op stores of both villages. I could go on with that  but will leave it all to your imagination. See also the associated article published on 18.07.07.

Victorian London was noisy - my goodness it was noisy and the following all contributed towards it:

traffic - a lack of pneumatic tyres did not help - industries small and large - street musicians - cries of street sellers -costermongers -organ grinders - brass bands - English bands - German bands -violinists -hurdy gurdy players -harpists -clarinet players -Glee singers -Black serenaders -noisy cab drivers -railways - bagpipers -scavengers shouting to each other - paper boys yelling out - drunks singing their heads off -watercress sellers  -dustmen - church bells -chestnut sellers - etc etc.

Not forgetting  loads and loads of silent horse muck.

WB

Pipe dream (From The Northern Echo)

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

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

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

The chapel – “our little Bethel,”

READ MORE

via Pipe dream (From The Northern Echo).

Victoria Court

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brian Mc Loughlin