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googled A Question and ended up laughing so hard I choked
Here’s an oddity I discovered in the 1927 Berwick-upon-Tweed Visitor’s Guide. If anyone has any ideas about the word in the bottom left, please let me know. It seems to be SKAT[IM?]. Skat is a card game from Germany (where there is a big freemasonry following, and there are masonic sets of skat cards. Skat is of early 19th century German origin and is derived from the 15th century game of Tarock (Tarot). Tarock cards were originally nothing to do with the occult but merely used for gaming.
I’m not entirely convinced though. Why would you refer to Skat on a carving? And anyway, to my non-specialist eyes, I’d say the writing and coat the man is wearing looks earlier;18th century?
However, “skat” means to cast aside (there are only 32 cards in the game) and so the inscription may be something to do with casting one’s former life aside for the obligations of Freemasonry.
The attitude of the man is odd. He looks like he is leaning casually on the pillar. However, the pillar is no doubt a reference to the three pillars of masonic belief—wisdom, strength and beauty. Thus the image might be interpreted as man’s dependance on these tenets of the faith. I’m sure people with far more knowledge will correct me. Interesting stuff though.
Sadly, I don’t know what became of it!
Private Frank Crow, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, from Tweedmouth in Berwickshire.
Image © Johnston Press plc. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
When Housing Was A Prior-ity
In 1924, much of what is now Prior Park was merely land belonging (probably) to the Bonarstead Farm (latterly a pub until the building of Farmfoods). According to the 1847 tithe map, it was occupied by James Bonner, hence Bonner’s Stead[ing]. Shielfield Terrace is late 19th century and there was a smattering of buildings, some 18th century, around the Grove pub. Dominating the area was the Allan Brothers sawmill and woodyard (I remember that!) which stood on the Homebase retail park site.
Allan Brothers sawmill and woodyard looking south. Note the absence of the Spittal Hall estate south of the Billendean. (Courtesy Historic England)
Allan Brothers sawmill and woodyard looking north. Bonarsteads Farm is in front of the woodyard. This area is now occupied by Tweedmouth retail park. (Courtesy Historic England)
There were a number of quarries in the area. The King’s quarry and Queen’s quarry by the cemetery had been major sources of building material for Berwick but by the 20th century were disused. Another was at the junction of the Etal Road and the road to East Ord. Just off the south end of Dean Drive up the hill, is a small row of obviously older buildings which made up Brickfield Lodge. The name gives a clue: local clay here (and Scremerston) was used to manufacture bricks and pantiles.
Prior Park area (from the 1924 Ordnance Survey map)
In the 1930s, much of the housing in Berwick along Walkergate and behind Marygate was squalid and a programme of new house building was instigated.
Weatherley Square, part of the rabbit warren of alleyways between Marygate and Chapel Street that were deemed unfit for habitation in the 1930s.
The council house estate in the West End of Tweedmouth had been completed by 1932 and in Berwick, Highfields was built by the end of the decade. WWII halted the building work which was resumed after the war. In January 1946, Berwick Council outlined its plans for capital expenditure in the forthcoming financial year. Of the nearly £1 million pounds on new roads and footpaths, street lighting, and sewers, nearly £78,000 was to be spent on the construction of 80 new houses at Shielfield Terrace. They were of two types. The “No Fines” house, was designed by the Ministry of Works and produced by George Wimpey. They were built with a ten-inch (254mm) concrete shell cast in situ. The concrete for the entire outer structure was cast in one operation using reusable formwork. ”No-fines" refers to the type of concrete used - concrete with no fine aggregates).
A typical “No Fines” house in Braeside.
The “Airey” house was designed by Sir Edwin Airey for the Ministry of Works. They were pre-fabricated and consisted of concrete columns reinforced with steel tubes recycled from surplus military vehicles! A series of shiplapped concrete panels were then tied to the posts.
A typical “Airey” house in Dean Drive. Many have had pebbledash render added, but the example still shows the original shiplap concrete slabs.
The Housing Committee had hoped the first 40 houses would be ready by August 1946 with the remaining 40 to be finished in October. However, constant (and understandable) shortages of building materials meant long delays. In June the following year, the Berwick Advertiser reported that 22 houses had been occupied with the remaining 58 well under way. Notwithstanding, 100 more “No Fines” houses had been ordered and the foundations cut. Eventually, the work rate picked up; a Council minute records the building of one house a day. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Etal Road, there was much excitement as the Mayor, Mr Fred Stott (the artist’s father) opened the first temporary prefabricated bungalows at Valley View. One new tenant was James Frizzell with his wife and 10 year old son. He described their previous home,
“…an antiquated building lacking modern conveniences and overtaxing the occupants. Fourteen people shared a lavatory. Water had to be carried from outside—typical of many houses in town.” The paper enthused, “The fittings were novelties to the Frizzels—the bath…hot and cold water…and the all-electric kitchenette.” “The ‘pre-fab’, equipped with furniture, seems quite spacious. There are two bedrooms, a living-room, and kitchenette. The lavatory is in a separate compartment to the bathroom. Ample cupboard accommodation is available. “It is estimated that rent and rates will cost the tenants approximately 15s[hillings] (75p!) a week. Whether the all-electric kitchenette will prove to be within the means of the average wage-earner is considered debatable.”
David and Robin Hill proudly show off their new bicycles in front of their prefab at Valley View. These “temporary houses, like elsewhere, proved popular and were eventually demolished in the early 1970s. (Courtesy David Hill)
The interior of a prefab house in Gloucester, probably similar to those in Valley View, retaining its original kitchenette. Compared with the photo of Weatherly Square above, it is easy to see how miraculous these new homes must have seemed. (Courtesy Historic England)
A perennial question asked is, why is it called Prior Park? It is oft said there was a priory on the site. Prior Park was originally called the Shielfield Estate. The new estate name and the street names were announced in the Berwick Advertiser following the Council’s Housing Committee meetings to discuss this thorny issue.
382. With reference to the proceedings on 14th January 1947, the Committee considered suggestions for naming the permanent housing estate at Tweedmouth, and the streets therein.
RESOLVED: That consideration of the matter be deferred pending enquiries as to names of the fields upon which the estate is erected. 22nd January, 1947
448. With reference to the proceedings of the Committee on 22nd January, 1947, the Town Clerk reported the land purchased from Lady Francis Osborne was known on the title as “Etal Way”. Moved and seconded: “That the estate be known as ‘Prior Park’.”.. Amendment proposed and seconded: “That the estate be named ‘Etal Way’.” On a division, there voted for “Prior Park”, 4, and for “Etal Way”, 3. 11th February, 1947
So it’s named after (presumably) Prior or Priory Field. A reminder of this comes from the names of two properties on the Etal Road either side of Springhill Lane; Priory Hill Farm and Priory Hill Cottage. There is no record of any priory having been on the site. The name will derive from Lindisfarne Priory which owned much of the land on the south side of the river—hence the district, Norham and Islandshire, part of the County Palatine of Durham. This ownership, arguably, goes back to the 7th century. The estate was extended south forming Springdale, Hawthorn Crescent, Braeside and Hillside, in July, 1949.
As an aside, Lord and Lady Osborne are remembered in Osborne Road and Crescent. Blanche Ruth Brooke Tatton Grieve was married to Commander Lord Francis Granville Godolphin Osborne a younger son of George Godolphin Osborne, who from 1872 to his death in 1895 was 9th Duke of Leeds.
Commander Lord Francis Granville Godolphin Osborne, 1864–1924.
Blanche Ruth Brooke Tatton Grieve of Ord House (1869–1956).
Blakewell Street and West End
I was asked what was on the site of 1 Blakewell Street before the present house and anything else in the area. Here’s a quick overview.
Blakewell Street (or Road) takes it name from the Black Well which was simply a nearby stream running into the Tweed.
Before the New Bridge was built (1926–28), the West End was very different to what we know today. Buildings first appear on maps as early as 1725. The triangular area in which The Thatch is located was until recently, the more important road leading to Kelso. Blakewell was a later side development. Originally, the south end (where modern houses are today) was open, giving the area the characteristic triangular shape as traffic funnelled into the area.
Detail from military map of 1725. The red outline is the same area from the far more accurate 1852 OS map. The early map will show this as an approximation as it is on the periphery of the drawing. Even so, there is a correlation between the overall shapes.
This shape is first seen on a military map of 1725, though the area to the north of the Old Bridge appears to be built up and the Kelso road established, on an earlier map of 1682. Sadly, the West End is off this map. This, and a similar map dated 1745, show both sides of West End (the road) being built up in typical fashion: narrow building frontages leading back on long plots of land or other buildings. Two tracks lead from the back to converge to a path leading along the river to what was possibly a ford. John Woods map of 1822 suggests that Blakewell Road has now been formed with buildings on both sides (at least at the south end but annoyingly, then runs out of space. The first map showing the area in any detail is the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1852. This highly detailed map shows many places of interest. The 1841 census lists a large number of people living in West End Back Street. This is presumably Blakewell Street.
Detail from Wood’s map of 1822. West End is shown as “Road from Kelso”.
Detail from OS map of 1852. 1 Blakewell Street is circled.
Parliamentary Close is a remnant of Parliament Street which was allegedly the site of a meeting beteen Scottish nobility and Edward I to sort out various disputes. Another version of the “parliament” held here was that it was between the Scots and Edward III to discuss terms of battle during the siege of Berwick prior to the Battle of Halidon Hill, in 1333.
No. 1 Blakewell Street would appear to be new build. On the OS 1924 map, there are a couple of ranges of small outhouses (probably) to the west of the boundary line but that is all. The area where the scrapyard is was likewise previously unoccupied.
Detail from OS map of 1924. 1 Blakewell Street is circled.
Aerial photograph 1948. The south end of Blakewell Street can just be seen to the left.
Detail from OS map of 1960. 1 Blakewell Street is circled.
The area between Riverside Road and Riverdene was occupied by the Tweed Iron Works. The Tower Foundery was established in about 1800 by John Robertson & Co. along Dock Road. In partnership with Robert Guthrie, the Tweed Iron Works was established. This appears to have closed in the 1920s; the houses there now have a suggestion of 1930s art deco architure about them.
The West End was served by two churches. At the north end of West End was a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, founded in 1783. It closed in 1972 and the congregation joined St Andrew’s Church of Scotland on Greenside Avenue behind the Elizabethan walls. The Watchtower Art Gallery was originally the (English) Presbyterian Free Church built in 1848.
Two views of Tweedmouth Presbyterian Church, 1971.
The Rope Works of Berwick
This piece is from the talk I gave recently as part of the Great Performing Rope art project, the last event of Berwick 900.
The use of ropes for hunting, pulling, fastening, attaching, carrying, lifting, and climbing dates back to prehistoric times. It is likely that the earliest "ropes" were naturally occurring lengths of plant fibre, such as vines, followed soon by the first attempts at twisting and braiding these strands together to form the first proper ropes in the modern sense of the word.
Impressions of cordage found on fired clay provide evidence of string and rope-making technology in Europe dating back 28,000 years. Fossilised fragments of two-ply laid rope were found in one of the caves at Lascaux, dating to approximately 15,000 BC.
The ancient Egyptians were probably the first civilisation to develop special tools to make rope. Egyptian rope dates back to 4000 to 3500 B.C. and was generally made of water reed fibres.
Rope has hundreds of uses in fields as diverse as construction, seafaring, sports, theatre and the arts.
The uses of rope are many and varied.
Types of material
Hemp
Hemp plants grow up to 15 feet tall and rope is made from fibres in the tall, upright stems of the plants. It is very strong but it has to be dipped in tar to make the ropes waterproof and needed subsequent re-coating. Hemp plants do not need a hot climate. Rope makers used hemp from Lincolnshire, Russia and Italy.
Manila
Abaca, also called Manila hemp comes from the leaves of the abaca plant, a type of wild banana, grown in countries with a tropical climate, particularly the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. It is waterproof so the yarns did not need tarring but not as strong as hemp. Manila was the premier material for marine ropes where its strength, lightness and water-resistance were appreciated.
Coir
Coir fibre comes from the shells of coconuts. Palm trees grow in countries with tropical climates like India. The rope is good for making fishing nets as it doesn’t rot in salt water but is the weakest of the natural fibres.
Sisal
Sisal comes from the fibrous leaves of an agave plant. The plant is grown in areas with a tropical climate. It is grown in Mexico, Florida, the Carribean and Eastern Africa.. It is not as strong as hemp or manila but it stretches slightly making it good for mooring ropes.
Rope manufacture
There are essentially 3 stages to rope making, though in truth it can be very complex.
Hatchelling
The first stage is rather like that in traditional spinning. Hatchelling is the straightening or combing out of the raw fibres on a hatchet.
Spinning
These fibres are then taken by the Spinner who would wrap a bundle round his or her waist, twist some onto a rotating hook and then feeding them in walking backwards, would spin up to 1000 feet of yarn in 12 minutes. Almost the full length of the ropewalk. This yarn would then be wound onto bobbins and taken over to the ropewalk.
Closing
The final stage of rope making is the closing of the rope. This is carried out by using the closing machines, one at each end of the ropewalk. One, with three or four rotating hooks, is the standing machine and the other, with one rotating hook, is the traveller. This is so named as it has to be able to move, because, as the lines are closed into rope, the rope shortens on itself.
The line of yarn is tied on to the traveller hook, wound around the first of the standing machine hooks, back to the traveller and so forth. The standing machine is then started, winding each of the double lines of yarn into three thicker, single lines.
These are kept separate by a piece of wood called a top, traditionally, a conical shaped piece of wood with three grooves, one for each strand The traveller handle is then turned and the closing of the rope behind the top, pushes the top all the way to the end of the ropewalk.
Finally, the ends are cut and bound and the rope sealed with tar if need be. This would have to be repeated in time, which may be why sailors are known as Jack Tars.
The rope making process can be seen in this short film from the BBC programme, The Edwardian Farm.
Rope making in Berwick
Much of the information about Berwick rope making comes from a paper written in 1990 for the Berwickshire Naturalists Club by the late Jack Bainbridge.
Salmon fishing and shipping have been at the heart of Berwick trade since the beginning of the town’s origins.
Detail of Berwick town centre, c1570.
The layout of many medieval towns worked well for family rope or twine walks because of their long, narrow alleys, which stretch back from the main streets. A man would make twine and small ropes in the alleys off the main street, with the help of, perhaps, his son turning the hooks.
In common with most trades in Berwick, many of the rope makers were Freemen or apprenticed to Freemen and in turn became Freemen themselves. Apprentices started when 14 or 15 years old. By the mid-19th century, there seemed to have been a wide age range of workers, the younger men coming up through the ranks. Rope makers could be quite old—George Bogue was working the Low Ropery till he was 81, Robert Davidson of Castlegate was 67 and Matthew Middlemiss, 62 when they retired. For instance, James How, born in 1832, was apprenticed to the Bogues at the Low Ropery. In 1917 he had become the senior (oldest) Freeman and retired from the rope making business ten years later at the age of 75. He died, aged 91, in 1923. His son, Robert, followed him into the trade becoming Freemen also.
Detail from print showing ships in Berwick port, 1746.
By the middle of the 18th century, after the Act of Union and wars in Europe, Berwick was beginning to get its second burst of economic prosperity. This engraving by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck published in 1746 shows a bustling port with large ships. With large ships comes a lot of rigging and that means a lot of rope. A first rate ship of war needed 78.5 tons which equates to 43 miles!
In the “modern” era, ship building started in Berwick in 1751 by Arthur Byram in Berwick. This soon led to a ropery being established. George Loch, a rope maker from Newcastle acquired a lease in 1752 on the stretch of land behind the old medieval walls “…from the old Scotch Gate along by the Bell Tower, towards the Gate in the Back Greens that leads to the Maudlin Fields”. The Berwick Ropery Company was swiftly formed with many prominent Freemen being founder members.
Detail of John Wood’s map of the town from 1822, showing Loch’s ropery below the medieval walls near the Bell Tower.
By the end of the 18th century, three other roperies had been established though their locations are uncertain. One is thought to be the Low Ropery outside the present day infirmary, also shown on the 1822 map.
The Low Ropery, 1822.
This was also the last operational ropery on the north side of the Tweed. In 1929, the ropery was being managed by Mrs Jane Wilson who gave it up in favour of running a china shop in Castlegate.
The rope manufactured was not always for shipping like Loch’s had been. Berry, Gillie and Co. were engaged in making “cord and small ropes” for the fisheries. This may have been on the Avenue which is known later as the Old Twine Walk.
In Tweedmouth, the Messrs Dryden worked making ropes and sheep nets (for fencing sheep within turnip fields to graze). This was to the north of what is now the Asda car park. By the mid-19th century, this area was a hive of industry with a salmon fishery shiel, an iron foundry and boilermakers factory nearby.
Detail from 1852 OS map. The ropery is to the south of Church Road. Note Lee’s boatyard top right.
An interesting ropery is situated on the Lions House allotments. The site is interesting for many reasons; we can see a bowling green for one. The 1822 map shows the Berwick Ropeworks, in common with many of the others, as having an extensive long shed.
Inside a rope works.
The inside of a rope works must have been extremely dusty and also dangerous. The Castlegate Ropery, run by the Davidsons, illustrates this. It was situated behind no 5 Castlegate. What with all the dry fibre and tar within the premises, they were dangerous places and fire broke out at Castlegate in 1879. Once the alarm was raised plenty of assistance was available, the hose was put into operation and speedily subdued the fire, but not until £150 worth of damage was done. The cause of the accident was a spark, from the pipe of one of the workmen, landing on some hemp.
The boundary wall to the north of the 5 Castlegate site. The vertical lines of brick set into the stonework occur at regular intervals for the length of the wall suggesting partitions of some sort possibly.
Remains of a brick outbuilding at the west end of the Castlegate site that may (or may not) be related to the rope works.
Sixteen years earlier, fire also broke out at a Tweedmouth ropery by the railway embankment. There were in fact two rope walks by the embankment. The north end of one was to the south of the Ord Road, and the other, to its south.
The north and south Embankment Roperies can just be made out in this photo.
The North Ropery was still being operated in the 20th century by Edwin Caisley and his father. They were often to be seen in the Corn Exchange on Sandgate plying their trade in twine, rope and sheep nets to the farming community. Changes in agricultural practice and the death of Mr Caisley Snr led to Edwin giving up the business in 1956 at the age of 44. He became a cinema commissionaire and petrol pump attendant. He, and with him, the Berwick tradition of rope making died in 1978.
100 days: Day 7
100 days: Day 7
http://youtu.be/WVcNOYcGotg
Missing Miss Daisy – it’s a week today that, with great sorrow and heart-searching, that I left my oldest dog, Daisy, behind at Tweedmouth where she is now living with my son and daughter-in-law (and Daisy’s son, Bobby)
She has such a tremendous time there – and a boring existence here (especially since my wife, Helen, died – and she was very much Helen’s dog) –…
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The Curious History of Jimmy Strength
All towns have characters that are larger than life, and of no-one could that be said to be more true of James Stuart, known locally as "Jimmy Strength". He was only 5 feet 2 inches tall but he was remarkably strong and could allegedly lift weights of a half ton or more. The legend was created when Jimmy came to Berwick Bridge riding a pony and was advised the toll was a halfpenny for pedestrians and one penny for mounted riders. What would you do? He paid the ha’penny and carried the pony over the bridge! He had a reputation as a teller of tall tales and therefore many “facts” have to be taken with a bag of salt!
Jimmy Strength by Thomas Hogarth. The painting is in Berwick Museum and Art Gallery (BERMG 1382)
As far as is known, he was born in Charlestown, South Carolina on Christmas Day 1728. During his life, he had six wives and twenty seven children. He is said (probably by himself!) to have been present at the battles of Prestonpans (1745) and Culloden (1746), then fighting with Wolfe at Quebec (1759) and at the battle of Bunker Hill (1775). He later enlisted in the Navy and served under Admiral Rodney in the West Indies where he was wounded three times.
When he arrived in Berwick is something of a mystery. Robert Weddell, a local solicitor, claimed to have known him since 1816, but in 1840 he informed WilIiam Howitt that he believed the old man had first settled in the town "upwards of fifty years ago". It would appear that he came to Berwick, after a spell in the merchant navy, in about 1790s.
He amazed everyone by picking up tables with his teeth, lifting two men with one hand and carrying a loaded hay-cart (this may be a variation of the “pony across the bridge story”!) And to top it all he claimed royal ancestry being descended from Charles Edward Stuart. However, these “details” of Jimmy's life only surfaced later in local newspaper reports at the time of his death in April 1844 at the age of 115, the result of a fall in Tweedmouth.
Only in his later years was Jimmy at all infirm and when he lived as a registered pauper in Tweedmouth. Before this he travelled throughout Southern Scotland and the Northern Counties of England “entertaining” people with tunes on his fiddle which he played very badly; he was a member of the Berwick town waits - civic musicians - until they were disbanded. He was said to be a “model” beggar, who would never get drunk and could recite long passages rom the Bible.
In 1849, the actor and writer Frederick Sheldon wrote in his History of Berwick:
Jemmy's countenance once seen was never forgotten It had a cast of elongation, by which the uncropt chin protruded be down the broad square chest, while the large furrowed haffets of hoary eld, gigantic cheek bones, prominently attenuated, and the fitful glimmerings of eyes, hazy with age, were overshadowed with shaggy eyebrows. The head contained the notion of a giant fallen into decrepitude, and it was so closely poised between a pair of Atalantean shoulders, that it was obvious some stroke of bodily deformity had modified the frame of its owner; the downward continuation of his figure consisted of two immense bony arms; a short, squat trunk, and two short legs, with an ungainly bend, which in vulgar parlance is termed "bow houghed".
Jimmy Strength has been immortalised in art. He was painted by Thomas Hogarth (above) and by Thomas Sword Good.
Black and white reproduction of Portrait of James Stewart by Thomas Sword Good c.1820. Not the onlooker in the window!
Edwin Bowes in his book about Thomas Sword Good, In A Strong Light, dates this painting to 1820s based on the painting style but muses that Sword Good may have met him earlier, when still a child in the 1790s and been somewhat afraid of the man, and that this might explain the rather sinister appearance of the beggar. Is the eye at the window that of young TSG?
In about 1841, the lighthouse keeper, James Wilson who had been a pupil of Thomas Sword Good, carved a life sized statue of Stuart. From the Berwick Advertiser, February 19th 1897:
JEMMY STRENGTH – The stone figure of Jas. Stewart, the old dragoon known as Jemmy Strength, which formerly stood in the garden at Bay View, and was afterwards removed to the grounds at the Tweed Brewery, has now been placed on the Green at the Subscription Reading Rooms in the Palace. The figure is the work of the late Mr. Wilson, Berwick.
The statue was vandalised in the 1950s. The remains are stored at Berwick Barracks.
The first Community Theatre production at The Maltings Theatre was a strange affair entitled The Curious History of Jimmy Strength. He was celebrated also in a piece commissioned by the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival in 2011 in an animation entitled Penumbra.
Jimmy Strength is buried in Tweedmouth Parish Churchyard. Thousands filed past his open coffin and attended his funeral.
