When reading this memoir, please bear in
mind that the author was within a couple of weeks of his 81st
birthday, had suffered a stroke which affected his linguistic abilities with
the result that the content is composed of a mixture of childhood perceptions;
of the kind of talk a child would overhear around the kitchen table or when
visitors called; and of more direct personal adult observations and insights.
The author’s immediate family left Ingoe in
1935, the year in which he went to Barnard Castle School as a boarder. He
clearly kept in touch with the village, and may even have returned there for
school holidays. He remained quite well informed about it for the whole of his
life.
There are some references which remain
obscure and elliptical, which could have been cleared up in a few moments of
conversation. It may be that some readers can throw light where it’s needed,
and their input would be welcome.
The content seems to be structured more or
less to reflect a walk through the village, starting with the first house and
moving up to the school and chapel. It might help to read with a map to hand.
[1]George
Russell had owned some coal pits. He was a coal merchant in a way. l think it
was his cousin who lived at Waterloo and they had a little bus.
George
Russell married Chris and they had two sons, John Russell who went to Matfen, and
Bobby Russell. [2]He
had a Ford wagon, though no regular work was known of for it. Chris was an
awful loud lady who used to shout and holler.
When Chris
died, the coffin was taken to the funeral on Dad’s horse and cart. Robbs at
Hexham were just starting to do funeral work, and they had never met such snow
and could not get through. Willie Robson eventually went to live at West View
and he died with a heart attack in Doris’s far field. His wife was called
Hannah. When they were first married they lived at Waterloo in the third house along
from the main road.
The next
house up the road was [3]Aunty
Barbara’s at Hill Croft.
Next door to
Aunty Barbara’s was Aunty Sally’s. The children born there were Thomas and
Sarah, both of whom had an impediment in speech. When Thomas’s father and mother were both ill
together in hospital, Thomas and Sarah stayed at Aunty Barbara’s. When Ralph Atkinson retired from Lynup Hill
he came to live next to Aunty Barbara’s. He had a house keeper called Miss
Orde, a very big woman. Thomas Harrison and Aunty Sally went to live at Lynup
Hill then. When they had both died John Goodfellow took over the farm. He had
lived at the “Rink”, but gave it up and the daughter of Dad’s cousin then
bought the farm. When the house next to Aunty Barbara’s was next vacant, Aunty
Nellie from Sandywayheads lived in it.
There was a
passageway at the side of the house with a path across the field to North Hall.
Jack Richley
had built I think four houses, one for each of his daughters. The stone was
quarried down the top field at Shield Green. The first house on this block was
lived in by Hilda and Jim Marshall who left there to take up a job as chauffeur
and housekeeper to Professor ? at Hallington. He was a Professor of History at
Cambridge. After they left, some people
with a Chow dog came to live in the house. This was Hilda’s house left to her
by her father. Some time after that some people lived there called Lovegreen. They
had a wagon and put a petrol pump in the front garden. The Lovegreens eventually
went to Stamfordham and had two daughters and a son, Betty and Alec. Betty eventually went to Ryal.
The next
house was lived in by a farm worker, possibly at Muckleridge. They had two
young boys, they might have been called Close. Eventually Johnnie Goodfellow
lived in that house when his wife was expecting Betty, their first child. Mrs
Goodfellow (older) was very cross. Johnnie was nearly cut off.
The next
house up was lived in by Lisle Robson from Waterloo. He married a Cowan girl,
from North Hall. The two daughters of this marriage were Doreen, who later
became a nurse, and her sister who l think was June. Eventually the house was
sold by Doreen.
The next
house, the last of the four houses of Jack Richley’s block was lived in by
Norman and Daisy. Their daughter was Mona who later went to live at The
Freehold. Her husband had a wagon and they later went to somewhere near
Otterburn, sheep farming.
The next
house was Mrs. Richley’s. To get to the back door of that house you went down
some steps. Willie Richley, who was the postman, lived with his mother until he
married Ada. They were married at Cheeseburn Grange Catholic Chapel. Johnnie Goodfellow's
wife bought a pony for him to ride to deliver letters on. The elder Mrs. Richley
was caretaker at Ingoe School and also at the Chapel.
Next to Mrs
Richley’s House were two single storey cottages. One was lived in by somebody l
think known as Aunt Dorothy, an elderly lady. The door into this house was
opposite Doris’s house door. Next to this house was Wylie’s house: - Aunt
Ada’s. Their children were:
·
an elder daughter named Jean
·
a son called Tommy who had ginger hair and went
to Australia .
·
a younger daughter named Katie
·
another younger son born 1924 called Donald.
Donald met Alan Dobson when Alan worked at some Quarry. Donald eventually
became blind, possibly caused by an accident at the Quarry.
There was
another baby born much later.
The Robson
house was the next one up the village, where Matt Robson and his wife Margaret
(Meggie) lived. Their children were:
·
An elder daughter who did not live in Ingoe and
who l think was a nurse. I think her name was Margaret. She was a very big
woman.
·
The eldest son, Willie, married Hannah; and when
first married, they lived at Waterloo.
·
Next son Stanley who married Mary and went to
live in Whittington. He had a remarkable facility for drawing horses. Like the
rest of the family, he was a mason.
·
Norman who never left Ingoe to live elsewhere
·
Harold married and went to live in Matfen. He
was captain of Matfen Cricket and Football clubs.
The next son
was Lawrence who served his time as an engineer, at Wark. He became chief engineer
at a brick yard somewhere between Colwell and Ryal.
Lawrence and
Harold used to meet on the road coming home at night and they used to have a
little race on their motorbikes to home. One night Harold got home first and
said I have just run over our Lawrence. After this, with the insurance money,
Lawrence bought a new motorbike - a 350 BSA Blue Star, which was the motorbike then and even had electric
lights.
There was
another boy called David — a cousin I think — whose father was a policeman at Leamington.
He lived with them until he joined the air force during the war
·
The girls in the family were:
·Bella who
married somebody with a motorbike from Wark. She married and went to live
there.
·
Violet married a bus conductor on one of Bell’s
buses which came to the village. She went to live at Otterburn. She died in
2004.
·
The next girl was Peggy. She was a most clever
girl. Physically adept, among other things she could sit on the handlebars and
ride a bike backwards. Uncle Jack Harrison had a very special horse called
Tinker which he had bought at Carlisle horse sales. He had Peggy kitted out in hunting
clothes and encouraged her to go out on any local hunts. All the Robson girls
had worked at Ingoe Hall at one time or another (Uncle Jack lived at Ingoe
Hall)
·
The youngest child was Doris who now has suffered
a broken hip and is living at Throomy Hill, Throckley.
Matt Robson
got specially dressed up every Saturday night and bicycled down to Matfen. He
always wore a fine buttonhole. He had a horse called Mitty which was yoked to a
flat cart to take all his sons out to work when they had biggish contracts on.
They specialised in altering big estate houses (Lambton Castle, Sandhoe Castle)
He had a relation called Robert(y) who lived at Pasture House who worked with
him. I can remember Roberty making the headstone for Mr. Wallace of the
Burneys. It is in the south west comer of Stamfordham churchyard. I think he
left Pasture House in about 1927. They had a sale when they left and I am
certain a piano was bought for the young daughter at Kearsley.
This little
girl, called Fairy Dinnin, died with Meningitis in 1927.
The next
house in Ingoe was the Bike Shop where Thomas Robson and his nephew George
lived. They built push bikes and the occasional motorbike from scratch. They
were very good long lasting bicycles. The last motorbike he built was called
the Chevy Chase, a blue and maroon bike. Sold to Willie Wallace. George and
Thomas made a free wheel to fit into a bicycle. This was sent away as scrap
during the war.
The bike shop
was reputed to have been used as a Public House at some time. There was one
room known as the Cellar which was all above ground and had l think a domed
roof. The back part of the bike shop had been built by themselves but the front
part of the Bike Shop was owned by the Duke.
There was
another workshop across the road adjoining the Wylie’s garden. The lady at the
bike Shop was called Barbara; she was George’s mother.
·
Adjoining the bottom of the Bike Shop garden was
Percy Cottages, two houses built together. The western side one had been lived
in by Thomas Dodds who died in 1917. He had five children. four boys and one girl.
The boys were:
·
·
Joseph Ellison Dodds, Ellison being mother’s
maiden name, known as Ellison. Until the end of the war he farmed in
conjunction with his father at Shield Green at Ryal Red House. After the war he
took on the Tenancy of Whittington White House, Ryal Red house and Grindstone Law.
He had two daughters Joyce and Jean born 1923. Joyce died a few years ago.
·
The next son was Robert who Went to Australia and
then to New Zealand where he died around 1929 / 1930. His wife, Ada, and
daughter, Betty, then came home to England. Betty became a nursing sister and
midwife at Hexham. She married Bobby Weymes, a butcher from Hexham who had been
badly burnt in a petrol tanker during the War. They had 3 children one of whom now
lives in Adelaide, Australia. She has died fairly recently.
·
The next son was Jack, who was a policeman. He
died in York mid l95O’s. He had a son, Leslie Gibson Dodds, who was shot down
and died on the English Channel during the war. He also had a daughter, Jean
Gibson Dodds, who I believe is somewhere in Lancashire. B. I926.
·
The next son was Henry Ellison Dodds who lived
in Ingoe. He farmed some land at Shield Green and ran a bus service to Hexham
and Newcastle. He had two sons, Thomas Edwin b.1924 and Robert Henry b. 1931.
Thomas Edwin had three children: Harry, Leslie and Elizabeth. Robert had one
son, David
·
The only daughter was Jean who married Joseph
Harrison and lived at Moralees. The daughter of Joseph and Jean, Peggy, has
died recently ~ 2005
In the
adjoining cottage lived George Dixon and family of two daughters a and son. Ada
and Lizzie.
The son’s
name was Tom. He was the district Roadman, and a very fine shot.
Along the
road to the north was the village school. Mrs Renwick was the schoolteacher in
1905. She was followed by Mrs Walton who had a daughter, Jean. Jean married a doctor,
Jim Stonehouse. They had a daughter Joan who was born about 1926.
Opposite the
school was a house known as The Freehold. Some time before I930 it had been
lived in by a Mr Walton who I think had been the postman. He eventually left
and went to I think Allendale. Some time in the early l930’s Mr and Mrs Fleck
came from Matfen. They had two big dogs; I think Newfoundlands, a black one and
a white one, and a small cross breed. They had no children, but adopted a girl
who went to Ingoe school.
The North
Hall consisted of four cottages. In the first one lived Matt Cowan, a man from
Cumberland. He had three sons I think:
·
Jimmy, who went to live in Matfen;
·
Charlton who was in the Royal Marine Engineers
during the war. He was a wagon driver and lived somewhere not far off Newcastle
aerodrome.
·
The youngest son was called Jack, a boy with
light hair, who when little loved playing in the mud puddles on the road. He
was captured by the Japanese during the war. I think he had 4 daughters. One
married to Lisle Robson in the village, another one called Olive who went to be
a nurse, and a young daughter called Nancy who eventually lived in one of the
Percy Cottages.
Next to the
Cowan’s lived Mr and Mrs Jack Pegg who came from Ashington. They had two sons.
The elder one was called Leslie Maine, and was a blacksmith. He had served his
time at Belsay and eventually joined the Army. The younger one was called
Jackie. I think Jack Pegg (father) developed a haberdashery business delivering
goods by motorbike and sidecar.
These two
houses had an upper storey. Next to them were two single storey houses. The
first of these was lived in by Mr Bill Dobson who had two daughters and two
sons, one of whom was called Alan who still lives in the village and an older
son called Charlie, who married into a baking family and lived I think in South
Shields.
The fourth
house at North Hall was lived in by George Moore who was a quarryman. He had a
son called Joe who I think worked at the Lime Kiln up Ryal Road. He was a boy
who had some aptitude in doing maths. He also had a daughter who was crippled
and used a crutch. She had two children, Kenneth and Basil.
The house at
the end of the School Road was called Pasture House. Up to the l930s it was
lived in Robert Robson and family. He was a mason and worked with his uncle
Matt. When he left Pasture House he went to work at Whittledene Waterworks and
lived in the Frenchman’s Row at Throckley.
The only
other house, just outside the village, was called Crag House and was lived in
by the two brothers Davison, one of whom was called Tom and the other Harry.
They had a housekeeper called Phoebe who I think lived in Acomb.
The only
other house in the village was Ingoe Hall, lived in by Joseph Harrison and his
wife who I think came from Berwick. She had some connection with the makers of
the sweet called Berwick Cockles. Joseph Harrison had three sons; Joe who lived
at Moralees; Peter who lived at Sandywayheads; and Jack who lived at and farmed
The Hall. Jack had a reputation for being a very good sheep man. He had a fine
horse called Tinker who was very fast, sometimes when he should not have been. Peggy
Robson sometimes went hunting with this horse. In her later stages Peggy Robson
had to live in a wooden house on her own because she was so ill with TB.
Peter had a
son called Charlie. Jack had no children. After his mother died Jack married
and went to farm near Morpeth.
Water Supplies to Ingoe
The Pant
[4]A
Welsh word, as is the naming of “George the Bike Shop” and “Billie the Postie”.
The Welsh connection, was I believe formed by a contingent of Welshmen who came
to live up the north Tyne in the 13th Century.
Water supply
to The Pant was from the Holly Well on Kearsley. It was left by Will to the village
by a lady owner of Kearsley. In its time it was in at least three positions on
the corner of the road. Eventually some of the supply was taken to Moralees.
This supply to the village was superseded by a properly piped supply from Moot
Law (I think) in the l950s.
The only
other supply in the village for general use was a pump in Charbeggars near
North Hall. This supply was preferred by those ladies who of the village who
made butter because it was always very cold water.
There was
also a pump at the Hall.
Pasture House
carried their water up the Crag from a supply at the bottom.
Special Points of Interest
Louisa’s
Lonnen which led from the top of the village to the south Crag. It had a huge
stone at the side of the road to mark the start of the Lonnen. Another huge
stone was in the Warrior’s Close at Sandywayheads near to which was a source of
water which supplied Crag House and Sandywayheads. There was a tradition of a
battle having been fought on Ingoe Fell.
Children came
to lngoe School from: Kirkheaton, the South Fens, Moot Law and Wallridge. A Hogarth
boy came from Ryal but he had a pony which spent school time stabled at Shield
Green. There were no transport facilities at all; even children of five years
old had to walk, nor was there
any provision
for making dinners at school.
e & o.e.
T.E. Dodds
07 May 2005
[1] I
assume that the Russells lived in the house at the bottom of Hill Croft’s
garden, on the corner of the junction, later occupied by Hannah Robson.
[2]
Who owned the Ford wagon - George, John or Bobby?
[3]
Aunty Barbara was Barbara Akenhead, married to George, and was sister to the
author’s mother, Maria. They were Robsons, from Newcastle. Their connection
with the Ingoe Robsons, if any, is not clear.
[4]
‘Crag’ might be another Welsh word, and is common in local place names.
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