Sunderland Antiquarian Society

NEWSLETTER DEC 2012/JAN 2013

Looking up Newcastle Road towards the Mill c.1899

Barnes roundabout late 1940s

Wheatsheaf Corner late 1930s

Antiquarian News

As the society moves into its 113th year our membership stands at a record high, and finally we are able to open the archives of our city to everyone to browse, research and enjoy. We are now settled into 6 Douro Terrace and the archives are now open

EVERY SATURDAY 9.30am until noon Commencing in the New Year (from 3rd January) the archives will also be open an

ADDITIONAL MORNING every WEDNESDAY 10.00-12noon

Donations of items from the public continue to pour in and at long last we have enough room to set out and present the archives in a much more user-friendly manner with items being able to be found more easily for visitors. We also now have a number of free-standing photographic exhibitions on display in the premises covering different aspects of the city’s heritage e.g. shipbuilding, churches, shops, pubs, sport etc. Such exhibitions will be changed on a regular basis. The society’s monthly talks now take place ON THE THIRD TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH at St George’s United Reformed Church which is on the corner of Stockton Road/Belvedere Road. The time is also slightly earlier with the talks commencing at 7.30pm. Doors open at 7.10pm for refreshments. Our next illustrated talk will be on Tuesday 15th January at 7.30pm so please do come along and support the society. Non-members are most welcome. 15th January ‘ The History of Sunderland Borough Police’ by John Yearnshire 19th February ‘St Peters Church – The True Story’ by David Shields 19th March ‘History of Sunderland’s Harbour’ by Jack Curtis There is a free car park close by in Gorse Road just up from the church. (free from 6pm) and the Civic Centre car park is also close to both St George’s and Douro Terrace. Do come along and support your society. It is one of the oldest heritage societies in the country, being established in 1900. Our membership is growing rapidly and, at Douro Terrace, we are attempting to provide the city with a heritage and antiquarian centre of which the people of Sunderland can be proud. The Society’s membership continues to grow, locally, nationally and overseas. The research mornings are very well attended so do please come along – assistance and guidance is always at hand. The monthly evening talks are also being extremely well attended. The society’s website goes from strength to strength and can be accessed at:

www.sunderland-antiquarians.org The site has a ‘Members Only’ area which current members can log in to with their password. Non-members do not have access to this part of the site. Any members who have not yet received their password should simply send an email to the Secretary of the society, Philip Curtis, at P11cur@aol.com and a password will duly be issued. New articles, photos and features are being uploaded into this area on a weekly basis so do keep accessing this part of the website.

Happy Christmas – unless you are poor that is! Back in December 1881, the great and the good who formed Sunderland’s Board of

Guardians – those in charge of the town’s paupers – almost came to blows when one of

their members suggested that a small gift should be given to the poor folk who would

be spending yet another miserable Christmas in the Sunderland Workhouse. It was a

rift that nearly caused a riot.

On the afternoon of 16th December, the Board, after feasting at the Palatine Hotel,

agreed unanimously that the seasonal offer of roast goose, potatoes and plum pudding

should be extended to the residents of the Workhouse down at Church Walk. It was

even suggested that similar fayre should be provided on New Year’s Day.

But then, when Mathias Waddle stood up and suggested that a hogshead of beer

should be donated in order that the great unwashed may swill down the

aforementioned roast goose in style – well, a great gasp of incredulities swept across

the assembled businessmen - and swords were duly drawn for battle.

To loud tuts and cries of shame, Mr. Waddle, proprietor of the George and Dragon

(see photo) and a number of other long bars in town, told the good gentlemen that he

oft quaffed a pint or two with

his meal, and indeed he held a

fervent hope that he would do

so until the day he died.

Then up stood Mr. Crosby,

one of Sunderland’s wealthy

wine and spirit merchants.

“Motion seconded,” he

announced, concurring with

Mr. Waddle’s benevolent

gesture.

Spurred on by his allies in

the drinks business, Waddle

reinforced his offer with an

announcement that the

Christmas tipple would not cost the Guardians one brass farthing as he himself would

provide and distribute the drinks.

“Bravo!” shouted Crosby. “Why indeed should the poor be denied Christmas Cheer?”

But then, red faced with rage, up stepped Boot and Shoe maker Peter Yule, one of

Sunderland’s principle temperance advocates.

“How can you forget that these people have brought themselves to poverty, disgrace

and dishonour by the use of such a commodity?” he asked.

“Giving them fire water would bring about a resurrection!” he added, implying that all

of Sunderland’s paupers were chronic alcoholics and a festive nip would do nothing

more than send them all scrambling back for the bottle.

And then things got really nasty.

While Mr Cameron, Chairman of the schools board tried to pour oil on troubled

waters, old Mr. Waddle was loading ammunition for a broadside at Peter Yule. With

much enthusiasm he reminded the Dundas Street shoemaker that his own son had

worked for the firm of William St John’s in Norfolk Street. And weren’t they purveyors

of the evil liquor? And didn’t the young Mr. Yule gladly draw his wages on a Saturday

night?

Leaping to his feet to parry this cruel broadside, Yule stammered that his son had

committed this sin without his knowledge and while the young lad had been

unemployed. Furthermore, he had insisted on being in an office where he could not see

the demon drink.

To much laughter Mr. Yule further proclaimed that he had prayed fervently, night

after night, that his son would be delivered from this den of lions. (The fact that young

master Yule was little more than an accounts clerk seemed not to matter to the drink-

free cordwainer.) With a final smile of satisfaction, Mr. Yule informed the board that

his son had indeed escaped the clutches of the evil ones at St John’s and had now

secured himself a position elsewhere in town.

With much theatre, Mr. Yule bemoaned the attack on his dear family and told the

gentlemen that he would rather have borne a personal physical onslaught than have

his nearest and dearest dragged through the mud.

Stopping just short of blows, order was once more restored, whereupon a vote was

taken and the killjoys won unanimously.

And so, as young Oliver prepared to ask for more, the threadbare poor sat silently on

long trestle rows and feasted on their seasonal roast. At twelve o’clock midday, as the

Overseer called for the annual toast of thanksgiving to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the

town’s paupers raised their glasses, proclaimed their thanks to a monarch who had

little idea of what the word poverty actually meant, and toasted her health - WITH

WATER.

Bah Humbug!

NK

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A Town full of Characters and Visitors In the days when the East End was known as ‘The Town End’ Sunderland was vastly

different from the city we know today. It was a town with character; a town that, even

with its grime and poverty, had a strange attraction all its own. A town also filled with

characters.

Can anyone recall Samson Besford or Fal-De-Ral (the boxing clown), Charlie Chuck,

Johnnie Bom-Bom, Joe the Bacon Man, Old Cutty Throat (who walked around like a

tramp but apparently owned most of the street he lived in), the rag and bone men

including Blue Gillette or the fishwives with their baskets balanced on their heads?

Samson Besford was the town’s strongman in the late 1920’s and 30s who regularly

demonstrated his prowess in Mowbray Park, the Garrison Field and down the East

End. He also used to stand in goal at one time in the Old Market – a penny a kick. One

of his tricks was to lie down with an anvil on his chest and get people to hit the anvil

with a 28lb hammer. Charlie Chuck was like the pied piper. He was a virtuoso on the

tin whistle and flute and played them around the streets of the town with the children

running after him. He had tin whistles of all shapes and sizes stowed away in pockets

all over the place and was undoubtedly an accomplished musician.

At one time there were so many rag and bone men in the town that you would think

Sunderland was filled with nothing but old lumber. The tatters usually went around

with a horse and cart; many of the horses were based in the Gill

Bridge Avenue stables and, according to which route they took, the

tatters usually weighed in at Ainslie’s in Johnson Street or Logan’s

which was behind the Transport Offices at the Wheatsheaf. The

tatters who didn’t use horses hired barrows from Jameson’s in the

town centre and usually called in at Walker’s in Thornton Place for a

half-stone or stone of monkey nuts to give out to customers. Many of

them carried a bugle and sounded it down the back lanes to let

residents know they were around. The bugle was usually followed

with shouts of “Any rags or lumber!” They collected almost anything

including rags, woollens (their favourite) old fenders, bikes etc. and in

exchange would give monkey or tiger nuts, candy rock, balloons or, if

you insisted, a copper or two.

Whatever happened to the tatie engine in Bedford Street that

dispensed lovely, golden potatoes? – hot potatoes that burned your

fingers as you burst their skins to pour in the salt, scorched your lips

and the inside of your mouth and made you gasp in surprise and

delight at their luscious taste.

Can anyone recall the penny dip from the pork shop or the bacon and egg pies your

mother or grandmother regularly baked?

And what of the cries of the streets?

“Callaheren!” “Blueberries!” and the

“Roundy coal, tuppence a stone!”

The cries of the street traders are all

long gone, along with the clip-clop of

their horses’ hooves.

Most of the sounds of the town are

also long gone. The whine of the

trams, the hustle and bustle of the

East End, the Old Market on a

Saturday morning (where Jack Casey

often shared the goalkeeping with

Samson Besford and defied you to get

a ball past him) and the real Roker Roar.

The streets of the town always had their ‘ visitors’ with the first and last caller in

most streets all those years ago being the lamplighter who carried a long pole with a

loop on the end. Each night he would set off to visit all of the lamps in his district and

reaching up with his long pole he would hook the switch on the lights and next morning

he would go again to switch them off.

He was followed in the morning by the postman who would often open your front door

and shout the name on the mail up the passage (please don’t call it the hall).

Next was the milkman who had to hang about until people were out of bed as his

milk was sold from a milk float. This was usually a three-sided cart with two large

steel-rimmed wheels and brightly painted sides – often pulled by a horse. The milk was

carried in highly polished metal churns and was ladled out into your jug. Sometimes he

used a barrow and he generally used a handbell to attract attention.

The coalman also used a horse and cart. His large

scoop scales were on the back of the cart and he would

shovel the coal in the large scoop and empty it into your

bucket. Tuppence would change hands if you bought a

stone.

The fishmonger either had a horse and two-wheeled

flat cart or a large flat barrow to carry his wares.

Fishwives would tour the streets carrying fish in a

basket which was balanced on their heads. The price

was about the same from both vendors – herring was

about ten a penny and kippers were a penny or tuppence

a pair.

Another visitor to the streets of Sunderland was the

knife and scissor sharpener who would arrive pushing

his barrow which had a huge grinding wheel in the

centre connected by leather straps. He would stop, set up

and sharpen anything that had a cutting edge. The wheel was turned by foot power and

most children were fascinated by the steady shower of sparks which cascaded from the

wheel.

At weekly intervals the muckman arrived to empty dustbins full of ashes into the

horsedrawn carts, seemingly oblivious to the dust which swirled in clouds and caused

havoc on washing days.

Other weekly visitors were the rent, insurance men and collectors for “never-never”

payments.

In the more affluent areas, errand boys from the butchers, bakers and grocers would

call to deliver goods from Monday to Saturday.

Other street visitors were the vendors who sold heather, clothes pegs, fruit, flowers

and vegetables from allotments. Door-knockers would offer silks from suitcases,

brushes, buttons and threads and needles from trays. In the early thirties you could

still see the lamp-oil man selling his paraffin, home-made ginger beer, cinder toffee,

toffee cakes – all of these would be brought to your door at some time or other.

In some districts there was a character in the town who was known as ‘the Catsmeat

Man.’ He toured around the backlanes looking for stray cats to which he would feed

scraps of meat which he produced from an old shopping bag which he carried on an old

bicycle.

All these were a long time ago in a Sunderland that was so very different from today. ………………………………………………………………………………….

MEMORIES OF A HENDON GIRL I was born in August 1903 and left school when I was fourteen. My first job was delivering milk for 4/- a week. For this I worked from 8am until 2pm, six days a week. Out of the 4/- I got 4d a week pocket money. I didn’t work there for long and got a job in a sawmill clearing away wood shavings. I got 12/- a week but for this I had to work six days a week from 7.30am until 5pm. I was married in 1926, the year of the General Strike. It was a very hard time for everyone. My husband was out of work and received 18/- a week dole money with half of this being paid as a grocery voucher. We lived in one room in Railway Terrace, Hendon and the rent was 2/- a week. We didn’t always have the money to decorate so we

either had to ask the National Assistance for help or wait for the gas man to empty the meter and use the rebate. In 1927 I had a baby boy and we received 2/- a week. Two years later I had a daughter. At that time I got an extra room and the rent was 3/- a week. Coal then was 1/6d a hundredweight but during the strike no-one had any money for coal and lots of people walked from the East End to Hendon Road to get half a pound of bacon and six eggs for 6d. On Saturday nights we went to the old market in the East End (see photo). At one of the stalls was Joe the Bacon Man who would sell you a shank and bacon bones for 4d. All the East Enders waited until Saturday night to do their shopping when everything was cheap. At Christmas the children were delighted if they got an apple, an orange, a penny and a few sweets and nuts in the stocking. We didn’t get the amount of toys that children receive today. The children were usually allowed one or two pairs of boots a year but once they had worn them out then they had to go barefoot. At the time the pawn shop featured highly in everyone’s life. Things such as a man’s best suit were pawned on a Monday morning and taken back on Friday when the men were paid. We had no water inside and it had to be carried in for washing clothes. If anyone didn’t have a wringer then they paid a woman in the next street a penny to wring out the clothes for them. Some of the women went to the big wash house which was a communal wash house with boilers and mangles. This was near Smyrna House in Hendon Road. The highlight of the year was when the children were in the St Patrick’s Day Concert at the Victoria Hall. All the mothers made an effort for this. They started preparing just after Christmas and the children were taken from home to the hall in a taxi, which was a real treat. This cost 6d but everyone made sure that the money was provided. St. Patrick’s Day was a real celebration and at that time no true Irishman worked on that day. The East End carnival was a popular event and took place in the summer on the Town Moor. A man called Samson Besford used to entertain by letting a lorry go over his chest. The pictures were a very popular pastime. We used to go sometimes three times a week but we never paid for the children as we always sneaked them in. In the summer we had days out to Roker Beach or Hylton Woods. All the neighbours and their children went. We would get the tram for part of the way and just walk the rest. On New Year’s Eve we all gathered at Sunderland Parish Church waiting for the clock to strike 12 o’clock. It was a treat for the children to be there and when they got home they were usually given coffee and rice cake. MARY

Remember the society’s archives are packed with documents, maps and photographs that may be of assistance to members in their family or subject research. Where we are able, we will provide help for research. Contact our map archivist, Norman Kirtlan, email: oldsunderland@yahoo.co.uk Tel: 07765635128 or our Chairman, Douglas Smith, email: douglassmith2007@aol.com The Society is keen to add to its growing collection of copies of Wearside family trees and would be delighted to accept any details for our files. These may be handed in on any research Saturday or emailed to our President, Douglas Smith, at the above email address. Donations of anything relevant to the heritage of Sunderland are very welcome. They will be made

available to the people of Sunderland. Just contact Douglas Smith at the above email address or tel:

01915220517 or Norman Kirtlan at the above email address.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Membership subs are paid annually - £15 for an adult and £25 for husband and wife. If your subs are due then please do forward the same to the Treasurer, Mr R. Hope, 25 St Gabriel’s Avenue, Sunderland, SR4 7TF. This entitles you to regular newsletters, free admission to our talks and access to the Members Only area of the website through an exclusive password issued to all members.

Go to www.sunderland-antiquarians.org

NEW MEMBERS ARE MOST WELCOME and should send subs to the Treasurer

(address above) who will arrange for a welcome pack to be sent. Alternatively you can join through

the website (PayPal)

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CAGE HILL

Circus at bottom of Roker Avenue making its way to the sea front c.1900

The staff of Sunderland Herald on Summer’s day out in early 1900s

Bridge Street in late 1940s showing the old Echo Office. Sadly the

Sunderland Echo is no longer printed in its own city!

Queen Alexandra Bridge under construction in 1908