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
By Clive Dalton Oh if he’d only had lessons! Ladies and Gentlemen – Let’s have a few waltzes and reels Some time in the 1950s through old family friends, Jack and Eva Wanlass from Wark, I met Walter Hymers of West Woodburn. Jack and Eva must have told Walter that I was interested in fiddles … 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
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
By Clive Dalton When we were young ‘daft laddies’ on farms in the North Tyne and Rede valley, the ‘old codgers’ who kept a close eye on us (so we did ‘nowt daft’) would often tell stories about ‘the hirings’, or the ritual of farmers hiring staff in their days around the13th of May (called … Read more