Ushaw Moor Historical Website - New Brancepeth Colliery Yard

New Brancepeth Colliery Yard



This is a pic of the two steam engines in New Brancepeth Colliery yard during the removal of the coal stocks in 1964. Roy Lambeth pic. credit, the late Stephen Dent of 22 Whitehouse Lane, Ushaw Moor.

via Ushaw Moor Historical Website - New Brancepeth Colliery Yard.

St Lukes Church - Religious History

Church Of England

The first Church of England services were held in the homes of miners at Ushaw Moor Colliery and, as membership grew, a corrugated structure was erected over the hill at Ushaw Moor. This new St. Luke's was part of the Esh parish and in 1911 the Rev. Davies, vicar in charge at Esh, complained in his magazine about the carelessness at St. Lukes. It appears that during a Sunday evening service one of the oil lamps suspended from the ceiling had fallen over and started a fire. Owing to the confusion which followed the offering had been forgotten and he chastised the officials for this neglect. He was in fact a caring minister and urged the other churches to contribute towards a new building at Ushaw Moor. Mr.Hodgson-Fowler the Durham architect, was commissioned to draw the plans for a new church which was originally designed to accommodate 302 worshippers but later altered to seat 256. St. Luke's opened in May 1918 under the new vicar the Rev. W. Brown who was succeeded in 1923 by the Rev. J.H.P.Welby,M.A., a remarkable man whose kindness was often abused by those he helped. I understand that the letter 'P' in his initials stood for Pugin and he is reputed to have been related to the architect mentioned in the section about Ushaw College. During his thirty- five years as vicar of St. Luke's his kindly and sometimes eccentric behaviour endeared him to his parishioners. One story tells how, during a winter morning service, he left a trail of water down the aisle of the church, leaking from a hot water bottle secured beneath his cassock for warmth.

John Welby died in 1958 and in his honour a new church hall was opened on the 7th September, a fitting tribute to a great man.

From 1913 until 1947 Ushaw Moor remained quite a small parish. New Brancepeth was added in this year, but returned to Brandon again in 1962 when Broompark was added from Bearpark.

via Ushaw Moor Historical Website - Religious History.

Memories of Ushaw Moor: Roy Lambeth Nov 30th 2003

Memories of Ushaw Moor: Roy Lambeth Nov 30th 2003.

From Orginal Ushaw Moor Memories BLOG

Relly Mill,

As a frequent trainspotter at Durham Station, I got to know most of the staff quite well. I would often end up on the footplate of the steam banking engine - with complete approval of all but the Railway Police who just turned a blind eye. If I agreed to carry the daily water supply to the signal boxes, I was allowed to travel in the guards van. This is how it worked. After the last of the rush hour trains heading south each morning that all needed banking out of the station, the banker would go to the old engine shed site and pick up 2 blue spot fish vans and a goods guards van and shunt them into the parcel bay at the south end of the station. I would have to take the water churns (galvanised steel about 5 gallons capacity) and fill them in the Left Luggage Office with the help of the attendant Billy White. When the 5 churns were loaded we would head out over the viaduct, taking the Bishop Auckland line at Relly Mill Junction. At Deerness Valley Junction I would take one of the churns up the long steps to the signal box returning with the empty one, while the engine would go into Broompark sidings a drop off the fish vans and run round the guards van. Then it would be off to Baxter Wood Nos.1 & 2 Signal Boxes where I delivered the water and again collected the empties. Then it was under the bridge of the Bishop Auckland line to Bridge House Signal Box on the main line for another delivery, finally heading back to Relly Mill for the last water delivery. It was then hell-for-leather back to Durham to drop off the guards van and cross all the tracks at Durham North Signal Box in time to bank the 10.16am to Kings Cross. Sundays was slightly different because there was more time to do it and each box got a delivery of signal oil (paraffin) for the signal lamps and often one of the Baxter Wood boxes would be closed (switched out). It was on my first trip to do this in about 1957 that I found the added attraction of Relly Mill with all the traffic on the Consett line in addition to the main line. Miner's Gala day was always worth a visit. I usually went there after all the banners had gone in and before they started coming out again because every available siding in the Relly Mill area had passenger trains stabled awaiting return to Durham. Standing on the road bridge you could see at least 20 passenger trains and their engines all sitting quietly awaiting their next turn of duty.
Happy Days

School Life, BlackBerry Picking, The HOP. .. Wilf Bell | Ushaw Moor Memories

School Life, BlackBerry Picking, The HOP. .. Wilf Bell

via School Life, BlackBerry Picking, The HOP. .. Wilf Bell | Ushaw Moor Memories.

One of my aunts [she has no objection to the article but I respect her wish not to have her name splashed all over the laptop] moved from New Brancepeth to Ushaw Moor in the 1930s and by 1940 she was almost nine years old. Her parents did not think it was necessary for her and her brother to transfer to an Ushaw Moor School. They cycled and sometimes walked to and from New Brancepeth School. That was a very healthy thing to do. These days most parents would consider that to be a risky arrangement: for one thing there is far more traffic on the roads now.My aunt loved school and recalled that each school day started at 9.00am and finished at 4pm. The lunch break was taken from midday to 1.30pm.Her form teacher was a Mr Trotter and she felt he was a good teacher. He taught most of the subjects himself e.g. arithmetic, geography, history and art, but gardening and cookery were taught by other teachers. There was no streaming of classes and no external examinations. Of course there were reports at the end of each term and invariably my aunt had an above average placing. The headmaster was Mr Aitcheson and my aunt recalls that he was middle aged at the time and more of an administrator than a teacher. She could not recall any incidents of bullying by anyone at school. School lunches were not provided at the school so it was a case of cycling home for a meal and then back to school. There was a hilly element to those journeys so she had to be quite fit.

My aunt struggled to recall just how long the school holidays were during the summer but had a strong feeling that they were less than six weeks! During each summer her family holidays were often based in boarding houses in places such as South Shields and Redcar. The fresh smell of the sea and teeth threatening sticks of rock are evocative memories.

Other activities in the early 1940s included: blackberry picking, potato picking at Hankey’s farm New Brancepeth, dancing at “The Hop’’ which was situated near Ushaw Moor Cricket Club and going for walks [sometimes past Ushaw College and on other occasions to and from Brandon].

It cost four old pence to get into “The Hop’’. Music for it was provided in the form of a drum, piano accordion and a trumpet played by Ebenezer Shuker. As an aside “Eb’’ become mayor of Durham in 1984 and had a period as Overman at Ushaw Moor Colliery. Apart from customers from Ushaw Moor some were also attracted from such places as Brandon, Bearpark, Langley Park, Esh Winning and New Brancepeth. This dance venue had its competitors, for example, The Memorial Hall at Ushaw Moor, Bearpark Institute and St. Margarets in Durham City.

It was only when she started her first job that my aunt felt that she could afford to go to the Empire cinema at Ushaw Moor.

As a complete and probably unnecessary aside, a high explosive [but thankfully unexploded] bomb dropped into an Ushaw Moor churchyard at 11.pm on Monday 22/03/43.Can anyone remember that?

Which churchyard?

Wilf Bell.

An alumnus of Ushaw Moor Mixed Infants

An alumnus of Ushaw Moor Mixed Infants, I well remember Mr Trotter and the two Misses Bates; the reputedly haunted house with a stuffed gorilla in its hall; the doctor’s surgery in Arthur Street which had a huge model tractor to beguile childish attention; the cinema in ?Station Road, where my mother took me to see ’Pinnochio’; climbing the ’magic steps’ up the hillside, on a Sunday’s walk. I never forgave Lord Robens, for sending us to Nottinghamshire!

Percival Turnbull - 2006-06-19 14:58:17

via Ushaw Moor Community Guestbook.

Ushaw Moor Historical Website - Pit Stories - Jonty and The Jallup

When Aa went on ter hewin Aa got mair money, but mind it wes bloody haird work, an yer use ta get dry as a bone. Aa use ta drink two pit bottles full o watter in a shift - ye knaa them tin bottles full o watter an with a cork in: use ta keep the watter nice an cool.

Anyway, there wes this lad, Jonty Brown the' caalled him, an he wes a little toerag. He wes aalways thorsty, an yer couldn't leave a watter bottle neewhere nigh hand or Jonty'd swipe it. So we aall got sick on't an decided ter dee summing about it. So Jimmy Bell an me went ter the hosskeeper for some jallup.

Noo jallup wes the stuff the' use ta give the gallowas ivvery weekend ter mak them shite. Gi them a good clean out so the' could work hairder - like oppenin medicine yer see. Like me fatha use ta say: "Get yersel a good clean out an yer can loup a five-bair gate." So we got this jallup, Jimmy an me, an we filled a spare bottle we had an left it lyin. Sure enyeuf, alang comes Jonty an sees it, an he drinks it as if he'd nivver had a drink in he's life afore.

Why, it tyeuk about ten minutes an Jonty wes doubled up an rowlin about on the ground howldin he's belly an shoutin: "Aw, me guts! Me guts!" an me an Jimmy an the lads is aall watchin him, an we were that creased up we nearly tyeuk fits wi laughin. Anyway, Jonty had ter rive he's hoggers down an hev a shite. But mind, it wes owwer bad. He couldn't stop; just like the dysentery it was, an Aa saw plenty o that in the Waar. He wes craalin alang on he's belly an shitin the whole time. The bloody pit reeked on't.

Anyway, alang comes our Joe an big Geordie Maven, an they gets ahaad o poor Jonty an drags him alang ter the onsetter's. The onsetter tyeuk the tubs outa the cage an put Jonty in. He still had he's hoggers wrapped round he's ankles an he wes shitin aall the time. The' rapped the cage ter bank an when it got up there, the banksman tyeuk Jonty out. The' had ter wash the cage out wirra hosepipe, an poor Jonty had ter gan ter the doctor.

By, we got wrang! Our Joe says: "Young un, yer should be hosswhipped. Yer coulda killed the poor lad. Yer desorve the sack." But aall the lads were in stitches an thowt it sorved Jonty right. Next mornin Jimmy an me got caalled in front o Mr Hairvey. By, he wes stottin. Just like a skyeul boss when a lad's been cheeky. So me an Jimmy tyeuk our caps off an went in, an there he was standin with he's hands behint he's back.

"Thee, James Hay, and thee, James Bell, might have killed one of thy brothers yesterday. Poor Jonathan Brown is too ill to come to work today, thanks to thee putting horse jallup in a water bottle and giving it to him. Now I know the Bible says 'Thou shalt not steal', and brother Jonathan did steal water from his workmates. But two wrongs have never made a right. If thee does anything like this again to any of thy fellows thou shalt both be given a minute's notice. Now get thee back to work and think on these things!"

By, we were glad ter gerrout o there. But mind, Jonty nivver swiped nee mair watter.

Ray Clark asserts his moral right to be recognised as the author of this text
© Ray Clark 2000 / 2005

Stories from Paperless Writers. a new venture for amateur, unpublished writers, site by Jim Hollingsworth.

Ushaw Moor Historical Website - Pit Stories - Jonty and The Jallup.

Ushaw Moor Football Club To Be Revived

I understand that talks with the Council are at an advanced stage and a team could be up and running in the Wearside League by season 2011/12. There is much talk that Norman Ferguson will be invited to coach the side: he has much experience of football and seems the ideal man for the job. A more contentious proposal is that Norman Gleghorn will act as the club's unpaid football consultant: Albert Rothwell has remarked that Norman will not like the 'unpaid' tag.

Keith Wardman has been asked to run the line if the appointed personnel do not turn up. I understand that he has reached broad agreement concerning that. He is involved with Esh Winning Football club at the moment but might be able to fit both clubs in most of the time.

The mention of of Esh Winning FC still bridles with some Moor folk. Norman Tett from Temperance Terrace feels that the strawberries or Pineapples, or whatever Esh Winning are called these days, have had it made for too long. He can recall many a good game between the Moor and Esh Winning and is game for the reopening of rivalry once again. I pointed out to him that the Winning are in the Northern League and he replied that the Moor are ambitious.

Certainly Ushaw Moor could have a decent fan base in the years to come. Many people smirked when they first heard that the colliery would reopen but now that it is to do so, in 2012 - albeit in a modified smaller form,  a fan base will be there for the football team. They could even deduct money from miners' pay packets as a subscription.

Clearly exciting times are ahead for those that love their village sport. I will try and keep you informed of developments.

WB