Northumberland, farming, history, entertainment, Agricultural show, Bellingham By Clive Dalton Highlight of the farming yearThe highlight of our year up the North Tyne, without doubt, was Bellingham Show held in the last week of August for well over 100 years. We Bellingham folks dated everything in our lives by the Show. Arguments over dates could … Read more
By Clive Dalton Poems and songsBellingham Show was such an important annual event, not only up the North Tyne valley but and on both sides of the Border, and especially in industrial Tyneside where ‘toon folk’ could have a day out by train in the fresh air of rural Northumberland. It wasn’t surprising then that … Read more
By Archie Mason Reprinted from the Bellingham Heritage Centre Newsletter, Autumn 2009.See the contacts for the Heritage Centre on the blog for more information. We left the village by the road over the Tyne bridge then up to the cemetery at the Croft, where we turned right to go as far as Dunterley farm. There … Read more
Photographer: W.P. Collier By Dr Clive Dalton Walter Percy Collier was born in Newcastle in 1875, and moved to Liverpool after his father’s death in 1891 where he lived with the younger of his two sisters. He then went back to Newcastle to work for the industrial photographer, Harry Ord Thompson. After his wife died … Read more
Every month I create a newsletter of all the stories that have been added or updated with Northumberland in the keywords – lots of history, humour, photos, poetry and prose with contributions from a wide variety of canny lads from all over the world. Here’s your chance to download them to keep handy for a … Read more
An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com Photo: An old daft laddie (Clive Dalton) deftly demonstrating the ‘hack’ method 50 years on. The scythe generally struck terror into a … Read more
What’s a cracket? In Victorian times and into the 1950s, houses in the North East of England used to be littered with stools called crackets! Every house would have at least one, and many would have two (a large one for grownups and a small one for the bairns). During the second world war, furniture … Read more
By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg Generations of Bellingham folk must have looked at the old gun on its plinth, protected by iron railings near the Town Hall. It never meant much to us locals, and certainly we were never told about it in any history lessons we got at school, especially at the Reed’s school … Read more
Daft Laddies – Is’t fit? Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on.By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton & Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com … Read more
An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com The easiest way for a Daft Laddie on a North Tyne or Rede farm to get his “lugschowed” was to commit the … Read more
John Dolan (my uncle) was not an enthusiastic hewer of coal down Clara Vale pit on the banks of the River Tyne. Clara Vale just squeezed into County Durham by a matter of a couple of miles. The Dolan family lived in a pit house in West View, Clara Vale, and rented a small field … Read more
Joe McLean – research station farm manager Research on hill country farming neededIn 1952 Joe McLean went to work at the ‘Ruakura Hill Station’ where his father was a fencer. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had purchased the block to do sheep and beef research to help farmers increase production after WWII. The station … Read more
The Pentland Press Ltd (1977)ISBN 1-85821-479-3 Dennis’s tales of life on the farm, are a priceless historical record of all aspects of farming at that time – and especially of the people involved and their attitudes to employment and life in the Dales. He writes with the sincerity and wry humour of a true Dalesman. … Read more
Can you help? Request from Sandra Lees from Auckland, New Zealand for information about Hodgson Harold Telfer. See her blog http://invokinglibitina.blogspot.com/ Hodgson Harold Telfer was born in Bellingham, Northumberland, and at age 16 joined the family butchering business in Hexham. His father James Telfer was born in 1842 and baptised in Birdhope Craig Presbyterian church. James became … Read more
Geology of Northern England The geology of Northern England shows the ‘coal measures’ mainly north of the ‘Tyne gap’, which is the boundary separating Northumberland and the Cheviot hills to the north, from county Durham and the Pennines to the south. The river Tyne flows through the gap before it splits into the North and South … Read more
History Photo of ‘Old Hemp’ bred in Northumberland (UK) and now has his DNA in dog trial and working dogs around the world. Dog trials have been part of New Zealand life since the establishment of sheep farming. The late Neil Rennie’s research found that the first NZ trial was probably held at Wanaka in 1867 … Read more
A welcome sightIt was always a welcome sight during hay time when we saw helpers turning up from the village to lend us a hand with the haymaking. They came after finishing their full time day’s work on the railway, the roads or in the village businesses. Most village folk in the 1950s and 1960s … Read more
Note by Clive Dalton: In the North Tyne valley of Northumberland, there’s no such thing as a ‘stone’. They are all ‘staens’ (pronounced steens). And it’s similar on the Scottish side, so when ‘Borderers’ set off to meet at a noted landmark Staen, like the one near Kielder – they all arrived at the same place … Read more