Reports from 2021
January 2021
Wooler in World War II
Wooler in World War II
GLHS Report January 2021: ‘Wooler in World War II – a Defended Village’
Glendale Local History Society is grateful to Alan Sture for kick-starting the second half of the Society’s ‘lockdown’ season with its first webinar presentation via Zoom: ‘Wooler in World War II – a Defended Village’.
Few would believe that Wooler had held such a significantly important, defensive position during World War II ─ all was revealed with Alan’s well-researched and illustrated analysis and explanation. He started by posing three thought-provoking questions: (a) “Was Wooler a rural backwater or a key defence point for the entire region? (b) If it was key, then why was it so important? (c) Would the Germans really have invaded this part of the country?”, and continued by explaining why Wooler was a noteworthy place requiring substantial defences. Alan also explained that, contrary to popular belief, there was considerable anti-invasion planning before Dunkirk, and that the threat of invasion continued after the Nazi attack on Soviet Russia.
The inter-war years created the conditions for the preparations that took place. The armed forces had been considerably reduced to be virtually ineffective. From the time of the German withdrawal from the League of Nations in 1933 to the outbreak of war in 1939, plans were formulated, argued over and re-formulated. From 1938 onwards, the general public became involved, with the distribution of gas masks, digging of shelters and air raid precaution practice. Not until 1940 was the necessity and availability of manpower for home defence considered critical - most of British military manpower having been focussed on supporting the BEF in Norway, Belgium and France, with home defence reliant on British air and naval forces. In late 1939, thought was given to a possible invasion from North German ports to strategic areas, including the Tyne-Tees region. Military planners also considered a potential enemy assault, via ports or beaches, from the far north, aiming south to strategic targets of the North East, Midlands and London. “GHQ Lines” and “Stop Lines” were developed in 1940 when measures were taken to prevent enemy movement in priority inland areas. Alan also explained that the rapidly changing circumstances, along with three changes of Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces within a short time span, each with a different approach to the threat of invasion, led to the frenetic activity of the spring and summer of 1940.
Clear potential route-lines were illustrated on Alan’s maps with the diagrammatic anti-tank ‘Stop-lines’ ─ Wooler was at an intersection of two of these in this area. As a result of a mammoth effort from 1940 onwards,manufacturing over 18,000 pill boxes nationally, Wooler eventually boasted no fewer than 13 plus pill boxes which encircled the village, many of which still stand today, along with a variety of strategically-placed road-blocks ─ varying designs were described and superbly well illustrated. Pill boxes were initially manned by thinly spread Home Defence Forces but later by the Home Guard until this form of protection was abandoned.
Alan then detailed information concerning some of the people involved, from the regular military units to the volunteers of the Home Guard, Auxiliary Units, Women’s Land Army and other support services. This was followed by a slight digression to talk about RAF Milfield, a substantial self-contained base but whose personnel interacted with Wooler in many ways.
This gives only a flavour of his clear informative presentation. For the illustrated talk presentation and his conclusions please visit: www.glendalelocalhistory.org link: ‘Talk Reports - January 2021’.
February 2021:
Geology and Industrial Archaeology of the coast of North Northumberland from Berwick to Holy Island
For those uninitiated in the field of geology, Elizabeth Devon gave a clear explanation, illuminating its links with landscape, soils, vegetation, land use, settlements, industry and climate, to a virtual audience of members and guests of the Glendale Local History Society.
Elizabeth challenged her audience to look around their home and identify anything that did not come from the soil – everything does - e.g. wood from trees with their roots in the soil, wool from sheep which eat grass with roots in the soil, china, pottery and plastics from minerals and petro-chemicals from the earth, mined ore for metal, etc.
Our industrial heritage developed from geological resources exploited by humans for millennia. During the Bronze Age, copper & iron were mined; the Iron Age and Roman periods saw further use of minerals, and our more recent Industrial Revolution made use of coal, lime, iron ore and much more.
How many of us knew that 500 million years ago parts of what now comprises the British Isles once lay south of the Equator only to drift north-east? Indeed it is still doing so! Since then this landscape has been periodically frozen under thick glacial ice – alternating with warmer epochs. Over time, shifting plate tectonics and huge earth movements have caused collision of rocks which became ‘folded’, and ‘faulted’, generally dipping to the south-east in this north-eastern coastal area.
Ice Ages are cyclical, with four having been recorded, the last one being some 12,000 years ago. During these periods of climatic change, sea levels rose and fell. When they fell, resulting deposits of sand and silt were carried by rivers, via deltas, to coastal areas, becoming compressed into sandstone and mudstone. High sea levels caused forests and swamps to become drowned, later compressed to form peat and eventually coal. Evidence of fossilised trees and tree roots systems can be found in local rocks (for example at the southern end of Spital beach), whilst ancient corals, sea-animals and shells, having fallen to the sea floor, became compressed, creating limestone exposed during times of low sea levels. This historical building of layers of geological matter - predominately limestone, sandstone and mudstone, together with some coal - was all deposited horizontally and compressed into sedimentary rock - as a direct result of cyclical sea-level changes associated with climatic cycles of Glacial and Interglacial periods (ice-age to green-house!). A graphic timeline conveyed the context in terms of mankind’s relatively short existence , with the following discussion focussing on the Carboniferous era, about 320 million years ago, to which the rocks in this area can be dated.
Early examples of local geological influence include building historic Berwick Castle of limestone, and the Berwick Fortification Ramparts made from limestone and sandstone. C19th coastal industry, south from Berwick’s Cocklawburn, reveals evidence of extensive quarrying all the way down the coast. Limestone was not only quarried for building stone but also for making quick-lime, by fuelling lime kilns with layers of coal and limestone. Quarrying sandstone, limestone, aggregates together with coal-mining, extraction of clay and salt-panning, created thousands of jobs for men from a wide area, including from Ireland as a result of the potato famine. The work was hard and dangerous, using sledge-hammers and picks to hack out large pieces of rock by brute force, together with the exposure hazards involved with quick-lime. After centuries of use, these industries declined but remains can be observed as spoil heaps, scars, current settlements, place names, old lime kilns, and pits now made into nature reserves ponds.
Local industrial activities were totally influenced by the local geology, and our speaker gave a well-illustrated, enthusiastic, informative interpretation of this all-encompassing subject which, far from being static, evolves and gives life to all over the millennia.
March 2021: (GLHS Talk via Zoom)
Royal Mail Coach Routes through Northumberland and the Borders 1790-1840
Speaker: Ian Rawles
The Society was treated to a fine, well-illustrated talk, which generated a long discussion among members. The focus of the talk was on arguments about changing the Royal Mail coach route between Newcastle and Edinburgh, but through this lens, our speaker, Ian Rawles opened out many other issues about the society and politics of the time. The established route, from London to Edinburgh, through Newcastle, followed the old A1, but the stretch from Morpeth onwards was longer than other possible routes and landowners and businesses interests lobbied vigorously for change to shorter routes. As background to the arguments, Ian Rawles introduced us to the mail coaches, of a standardised design, pulled by four horses. The coaches changed horses every ten to fifteen miles to maintain speed with fresh horses, with changeovers taken just a minute or so. Each coach had a uniformed guard who sat at the back, equipped with pistols and a horn. The drivers were skilled horsemen and there was space for three passengers. The routes fanned out from London to the rest of the country and were an important way to draw the whole of the United Kingdom together. Our speaker said it was a great sight at the time to see the coaches ready to depart from central London, and must have impressed people with power of the State as the coaches flew by at ten to fifteen miles an hour through rural Northumberland.
Sir Francis Freeling was in charge of the Royal Mail service from 1790 to 1836, and was keen to reform the service, and especially to speed it up. There were many interests lobbying for improvements, including government needing better communication, lawyers who needed a secure way to deliver papers and businesses who needed quick answers to queries. People in Scotland lobbied hard for better communication north of Edinburgh, while many people thought a royal mail route would lead to road improvements. Engineers, such as the great Thomas Telford, were also pushing for major highway schemes using new engineering innovations. Finally, many landowners could see the benefits of a Royal Mail route through their land.
The four routes in discussion were: The existing A1 route; the Wooler line, more or less along the modern A697; the Carter line, more or less along the A696 and the Jedburgh line, via Hexham. The discussion about each route went on from the late 1780s until a final decision was made in 1830. Ian Rawles explored how the decision was made, and the relative influence of scientific and engineering analyses versus political influence. The Royal Mail had their own surveyors and assessed the alternative routes in terms of distance, topography, weather and financial return. The Jedburgh route was quickly dismissed because of topography and weather. In good weather, the Wooler and Carter lines won out when carefully assessed against the A1 route. On the Wooler route, there were some problems of topography. Passengers sometimes had to get out of coaches on steep parts of the route to lighten the load the horses had to pull. Thomas Telford advised about changing the route across Rimside Moor north of Long Framlington to avoid a particularly steep slope. As regards finance, the postal service needed to make money from people who paid to deliver packets and letters, perhaps another reason why the Jedburgh line dropped out of consideration.
But these technical arguments were only one side of the story. At that time, landowners wielded considerable power at all levels of government. During the course of his research, Ian Rawles found petitions and letters from landowners and others influential people strongly advocating the Wooler line, including one from Ann Roddam of Roddam Hall. The Blacketts of Wallington Hall advocated the Carter line, while Viscount Morpeth, later Earl of Carlisle, a significant Whig politician, promoted the Wooler line. However, the Duke of Northumberland argued to maintain the Berwick line, which of course ran through his seat at Alnwick. So ‘old money’ linked to the Duke confronted the modernisers associated with the Whig party. In the end, a clever behind-the-scenes compromise allowed both routes to proceed. The Royal Mail Coach continued to follow the A1. A new additional service was introduced for the Wooler line using a light curricle pulled by two horses. This was both faster and cheaper to run than the Royal Mail Service. This service was a great success until 1837, when a quite different technology – the railway – overtook it. The last Royal Mail coach left Newcastle for Edinburgh in 1847.
We all found Ian’s talk a fascinating insight into our area at an important moment in its history, with the industrial and agricultural revolutions getting underway.
Royal Mail Coach Routes through Northumberland and the Borders 1790-1840
Speaker: Ian Rawles
The Society was treated to a fine, well-illustrated talk, which generated a long discussion among members. The focus of the talk was on arguments about changing the Royal Mail coach route between Newcastle and Edinburgh, but through this lens, our speaker, Ian Rawles opened out many other issues about the society and politics of the time. The established route, from London to Edinburgh, through Newcastle, followed the old A1, but the stretch from Morpeth onwards was longer than other possible routes and landowners and businesses interests lobbied vigorously for change to shorter routes. As background to the arguments, Ian Rawles introduced us to the mail coaches, of a standardised design, pulled by four horses. The coaches changed horses every ten to fifteen miles to maintain speed with fresh horses, with changeovers taken just a minute or so. Each coach had a uniformed guard who sat at the back, equipped with pistols and a horn. The drivers were skilled horsemen and there was space for three passengers. The routes fanned out from London to the rest of the country and were an important way to draw the whole of the United Kingdom together. Our speaker said it was a great sight at the time to see the coaches ready to depart from central London, and must have impressed people with power of the State as the coaches flew by at ten to fifteen miles an hour through rural Northumberland.
Sir Francis Freeling was in charge of the Royal Mail service from 1790 to 1836, and was keen to reform the service, and especially to speed it up. There were many interests lobbying for improvements, including government needing better communication, lawyers who needed a secure way to deliver papers and businesses who needed quick answers to queries. People in Scotland lobbied hard for better communication north of Edinburgh, while many people thought a royal mail route would lead to road improvements. Engineers, such as the great Thomas Telford, were also pushing for major highway schemes using new engineering innovations. Finally, many landowners could see the benefits of a Royal Mail route through their land.
The four routes in discussion were: The existing A1 route; the Wooler line, more or less along the modern A697; the Carter line, more or less along the A696 and the Jedburgh line, via Hexham. The discussion about each route went on from the late 1780s until a final decision was made in 1830. Ian Rawles explored how the decision was made, and the relative influence of scientific and engineering analyses versus political influence. The Royal Mail had their own surveyors and assessed the alternative routes in terms of distance, topography, weather and financial return. The Jedburgh route was quickly dismissed because of topography and weather. In good weather, the Wooler and Carter lines won out when carefully assessed against the A1 route. On the Wooler route, there were some problems of topography. Passengers sometimes had to get out of coaches on steep parts of the route to lighten the load the horses had to pull. Thomas Telford advised about changing the route across Rimside Moor north of Long Framlington to avoid a particularly steep slope. As regards finance, the postal service needed to make money from people who paid to deliver packets and letters, perhaps another reason why the Jedburgh line dropped out of consideration.
But these technical arguments were only one side of the story. At that time, landowners wielded considerable power at all levels of government. During the course of his research, Ian Rawles found petitions and letters from landowners and others influential people strongly advocating the Wooler line, including one from Ann Roddam of Roddam Hall. The Blacketts of Wallington Hall advocated the Carter line, while Viscount Morpeth, later Earl of Carlisle, a significant Whig politician, promoted the Wooler line. However, the Duke of Northumberland argued to maintain the Berwick line, which of course ran through his seat at Alnwick. So ‘old money’ linked to the Duke confronted the modernisers associated with the Whig party. In the end, a clever behind-the-scenes compromise allowed both routes to proceed. The Royal Mail Coach continued to follow the A1. A new additional service was introduced for the Wooler line using a light curricle pulled by two horses. This was both faster and cheaper to run than the Royal Mail Service. This service was a great success until 1837, when a quite different technology – the railway – overtook it. The last Royal Mail coach left Newcastle for Edinburgh in 1847.
We all found Ian’s talk a fascinating insight into our area at an important moment in its history, with the industrial and agricultural revolutions getting underway.
April 2021: (GLHS Talk via Zoom)
‘Holidays in the Cheviots: 1910-1915’ - the story behind the story
Speaker: Pam Ratcliffe
Petersfield, just above Wooler Common car park, is a familiar land mark to most of us today, but at the beginning of the last century, it was the holiday home of a Scottish doctor and his family, who recorded their visits there between 1910 and 1915 in a journal.
Pam gave a tantalising glimpse of the day-to-day events and the people involved in this remarkable snapshot in time, which has now been transcribed and published in a book, a review of which appears below.
Sometime in the early 1900s, the Ford Robertsons from Edinburgh bought a house called Petersfield, up in the hills beyond Wooler. From 1910 to 1915, on regular visits throughout the year, they turned it into multi-faceted holiday home. During the term-time months, they sometimes popped down for the weekend, but over Easter and the summer, the whole household – Dr and Mrs Ford Robertson, their three sons, twins of 11 in 1910 and a younger brother, spent several weeks enjoying Wooler and the Cheviot Hills. For longer holidays, they would arrive by train at Wooler station, to be met initially by the Black Bull’s horse-drawn ‘wagonette’, later replaced by a motor vehicle. With one or two servants, a good deal of baggage, and even a piano, they were already quite a large group. Over the years, they were joined by many other visitors. Relatives and friends came to stay and there was always a flow of day visitors – some of them other families holidaying in the area, and local friends. These included the Archbold sisters, who then lived in a pair of houses, Craigrossie, in Ryecroft Way in Wooler.
We know all this, and much more, because of the daily log they kept of their activities. Dr Ford Robertson, sometimes referred to as ‘the patriarch’, must have created this log-keeping practice, meticulously maintained during his absence by one of the boys, an uncle or a visitor. These absences were quite frequent as Dr Ford Robertson was the Pathologist to the Scottish Asylums, and was becoming a distinguished expert in the mental health field. Several of the family’s visitors were also fellow medics. He commuted back to Edinburgh weekly in extended holiday periods, catching the 9.33am train from Wooler. Dr Ford Robertson is also known to those interested in the history of walking in the Wooler area as the author of a very detailed book of Walks from Wooler, published in 1926. The log book shows just how well he knew the routes described in this book. Hardly a day went by without a long walk over the hills, although the family allowed themselves more rest on a Sunday. They clearly enjoyed ranging over the hills in all weathers, while occasionally organising a more social event, such as a picnic, or going on fishing expeditions to favourite spots. There is a wonderful account in the log book of the experience of using a ‘motor vehicle’ to reach the Langlee Valley. This early car struggled with steep slopes and eventually drifted into a stream. The family had a few car trips after this, but when ranging further afield they mostly went by train.
They did much more than walking, however. There was a daily schedule of work to be done, fixing the house and creating a garden. The boys mucked in and their contributions were recorded in the daily log (and occasionally expanded on when one of the boys wrote an entry). Each summer the house seems to have got bigger, with more rooms added and facilities improved. The garden was large – sloping down from the house to a marshy area and stream. They created a vegetable garden, planted soft fruit bushes, laid out rockeries and flower gardens, and levelled the ground to make a tennis court. After much effort, the boys managed to dam the stream to create a place where they could swim. In addition to all this, the house party played sports – tennis when the court was finally ready, but also cricket. The boys used bows and arrows and took lessons in the use of rifles. To begin with their biggest success was in shooting rabbits, but by 2014, with the twins coming up to 15 and the First World War breaking out, shooting practice must have felt more serious.
We know about this log book because it was found by chance a few years ago, and has been meticulously transcribed and turned into book form. Holidays in the Cheviots 1910–15 is the result. Curated by Pam Ratcliffe, who also provides a very informative introduction, and produced by Glendale Local History Society, it is an enjoyable read in itself, as you follow family life on a day-to-day basis. It is also full of other insights into the life and times of a middle-class professional Edwardian family. It provides a window into Wooler life at the start of the 20th century, and some Wooler families of today may find mention of their ancestors – Shorts, Redpaths, Richardsons and Murrays, for example. The book is also a useful resource for those interested in the transport. Motor vehicles were just beginning to challenge the horse and train. From 2014, WW1 events are recorded from time to time, as the family regularly went into Wooler for a newspaper. And there is a snippet of history of the Scouting movement, as the boys were involved in a scout group in 2010, just two years after the movement was founded. But above all, the log book records the life of a busy and active family, who enjoyed being outdoors and filled their days with energetic activity and projects of many kinds. Perhaps Dr Ford Robertson wanted to show by example the mental health benefits of such a life.
Holidays in the Cheviots can be obtained from Glendale Local History Society, c/o Cheviot Centre, Padgepool Place, Wooler, NE71 671 6BL, or via email to: glhsoc@gmail.com, or direct from the Cheviot Centre or Brands in Wooler. The book costs £7.50 (£2.50 postage in addition).
‘Holidays in the Cheviots: 1910-1915’ - the story behind the story
Speaker: Pam Ratcliffe
Petersfield, just above Wooler Common car park, is a familiar land mark to most of us today, but at the beginning of the last century, it was the holiday home of a Scottish doctor and his family, who recorded their visits there between 1910 and 1915 in a journal.
Pam gave a tantalising glimpse of the day-to-day events and the people involved in this remarkable snapshot in time, which has now been transcribed and published in a book, a review of which appears below.
Sometime in the early 1900s, the Ford Robertsons from Edinburgh bought a house called Petersfield, up in the hills beyond Wooler. From 1910 to 1915, on regular visits throughout the year, they turned it into multi-faceted holiday home. During the term-time months, they sometimes popped down for the weekend, but over Easter and the summer, the whole household – Dr and Mrs Ford Robertson, their three sons, twins of 11 in 1910 and a younger brother, spent several weeks enjoying Wooler and the Cheviot Hills. For longer holidays, they would arrive by train at Wooler station, to be met initially by the Black Bull’s horse-drawn ‘wagonette’, later replaced by a motor vehicle. With one or two servants, a good deal of baggage, and even a piano, they were already quite a large group. Over the years, they were joined by many other visitors. Relatives and friends came to stay and there was always a flow of day visitors – some of them other families holidaying in the area, and local friends. These included the Archbold sisters, who then lived in a pair of houses, Craigrossie, in Ryecroft Way in Wooler.
We know all this, and much more, because of the daily log they kept of their activities. Dr Ford Robertson, sometimes referred to as ‘the patriarch’, must have created this log-keeping practice, meticulously maintained during his absence by one of the boys, an uncle or a visitor. These absences were quite frequent as Dr Ford Robertson was the Pathologist to the Scottish Asylums, and was becoming a distinguished expert in the mental health field. Several of the family’s visitors were also fellow medics. He commuted back to Edinburgh weekly in extended holiday periods, catching the 9.33am train from Wooler. Dr Ford Robertson is also known to those interested in the history of walking in the Wooler area as the author of a very detailed book of Walks from Wooler, published in 1926. The log book shows just how well he knew the routes described in this book. Hardly a day went by without a long walk over the hills, although the family allowed themselves more rest on a Sunday. They clearly enjoyed ranging over the hills in all weathers, while occasionally organising a more social event, such as a picnic, or going on fishing expeditions to favourite spots. There is a wonderful account in the log book of the experience of using a ‘motor vehicle’ to reach the Langlee Valley. This early car struggled with steep slopes and eventually drifted into a stream. The family had a few car trips after this, but when ranging further afield they mostly went by train.
They did much more than walking, however. There was a daily schedule of work to be done, fixing the house and creating a garden. The boys mucked in and their contributions were recorded in the daily log (and occasionally expanded on when one of the boys wrote an entry). Each summer the house seems to have got bigger, with more rooms added and facilities improved. The garden was large – sloping down from the house to a marshy area and stream. They created a vegetable garden, planted soft fruit bushes, laid out rockeries and flower gardens, and levelled the ground to make a tennis court. After much effort, the boys managed to dam the stream to create a place where they could swim. In addition to all this, the house party played sports – tennis when the court was finally ready, but also cricket. The boys used bows and arrows and took lessons in the use of rifles. To begin with their biggest success was in shooting rabbits, but by 2014, with the twins coming up to 15 and the First World War breaking out, shooting practice must have felt more serious.
We know about this log book because it was found by chance a few years ago, and has been meticulously transcribed and turned into book form. Holidays in the Cheviots 1910–15 is the result. Curated by Pam Ratcliffe, who also provides a very informative introduction, and produced by Glendale Local History Society, it is an enjoyable read in itself, as you follow family life on a day-to-day basis. It is also full of other insights into the life and times of a middle-class professional Edwardian family. It provides a window into Wooler life at the start of the 20th century, and some Wooler families of today may find mention of their ancestors – Shorts, Redpaths, Richardsons and Murrays, for example. The book is also a useful resource for those interested in the transport. Motor vehicles were just beginning to challenge the horse and train. From 2014, WW1 events are recorded from time to time, as the family regularly went into Wooler for a newspaper. And there is a snippet of history of the Scouting movement, as the boys were involved in a scout group in 2010, just two years after the movement was founded. But above all, the log book records the life of a busy and active family, who enjoyed being outdoors and filled their days with energetic activity and projects of many kinds. Perhaps Dr Ford Robertson wanted to show by example the mental health benefits of such a life.
Holidays in the Cheviots can be obtained from Glendale Local History Society, c/o Cheviot Centre, Padgepool Place, Wooler, NE71 671 6BL, or via email to: glhsoc@gmail.com, or direct from the Cheviot Centre or Brands in Wooler. The book costs £7.50 (£2.50 postage in addition).