Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society
Gary is interested in any information about the Railway Hotel, Merrington Lane. In the 1910s it was run by his ancestor Liddle Wallace.
His daughter Elizabeth Ann Wallace married John Gilmore, a shop assistant at an ironmongers and in 1911 they are living at 20 South Street, Spennymoor.
In the 1930s they were living in the County Hotel, King Street, Spennymoor. They had three children, Nora, John and Edward. Their son John attended King Street School leaving in 1929 aged 14. Later the family moved to Derby.
A photo of the Railway Hotel is available at Beamish People's Collection
Colin would be interested in any photos of Duncombe Street, Spennymoor.
Ann and Alf kindly sent us two photos.
Alderman Wraith School 1946
Knowles Boot and Shoe Factory, Dean Bank, Ferryhill.
Peter is researching his grandfather John George Smith, called George, born in 1891 at 17 Bishops Close Cottages, Spennymoor. He would like a photo of him and thinks he may be the harrier in the front row, second from the left, on this photo of Spennymoor harriers. He also played football for Spennymoor. In 1911 he was living with his parents at 93 Durham Road, Spennymoor and working as a miner. His aunt and uncle Joseph and Margaret Pratt also lived there, Joseph was a boot shop assistant. If anyone can identify George or has a photo of him please email us.
George worked at Whitworth and Thrislington pits and in Tyler's shoe shop and sold shoes with his uncle Joe on a market stall and from a horse drawn van. In 1939 he was living at 4 King Street, Spennymoor, which was a fish shop.
Oliver Smith, George's son, played for Spennymoor Wednesday and spent many years supporting and reporting on football in Spennymoor.
He owned the fish and chip shop at 4 King Street until 1980s.
David is researching his ancestor John Robson (b1853) who married Hannah Peel (b1858) and moved to the USA. In 1895 he returned to England, as a widower with his children, and lived at 49 Jackson Street in 1901 and 1911.
His grandson, Herbert (b1902), son of Thomas (b1878), lived at 16 Clyde Terrace in 1939 where he owned a fish and chip shop called Robsons.
(Spennymoor UDC Handbook 1947)
The shop was sold in 1957 to Oxenhams and was renamed Clems.
We have had a request for information relating to the business trading as Duralite Limited on Merrington Lane Industrial Estate, particularly relating to light fixtures supplied to railway companies.
1. A Durham University thesis which mentions Duralite is available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7454/ by Hammond, Shirley K. (1981) Multinational tactics in a traditional coal mining community, confl ict in Spennymoor, Durham theses, Durham University.
On page 37 the thesis mentions the factories on Merrington Lane Industrial Estate (previously the Royal Ordnance Factory),
Smart and Brown came to Spennymoor in 1945. The Company was given a choice of several locations but chose the site of the Royal Ordnance Factory in Spennymoor where ammunition had been made during the war. The site already had a large factory which was spacious enough for 5,000 workers a shift. At that time Smart and Brown had two buildings on the site. There were three other companies on the site: Siemens, a telephone equipment factory, and Summerson, a factory for making railway sidings, cross-over networks and points systems. Duralite, flourescent lamps also were made there. Some Directors of Smart and Brown were also Directors of Duralite and the other major holder was the Co-operative Society of Great Britain. Smart and Brown didn't own Duralite, however, it bought products (lamps) from them.
2. There is also a reference on the National Archives website which mentions Duralite. Duralite National Archives.
3. Ada Fishburn - Newspaper articles in 1949 give details of an exchange between a British girl, Ada Fishburn, a 24-year old daughter of a Durham miner who lived at Page Bank and worked at Duralite Limited, Spennymoor, and Mary Ugliantza, a 22-year old factory worker of Bayonne, New Jersey, who worked for the Duro Test Corporation. Duralite Limited was a British affiliate of the Duro Test Corporation, North Bergen, New Jersey, USA.
...
In February 1949 managing director of Duralite, E.J. Wyborn, offered a month's free trip to America to Ada Fishburn, one of 100 girls making fluorescent light tubes at Duralite, Spennymoor. She was uncertain but after asking her mother and boyfriend decided she would go, she was to earn three times more a week in the U.S.A. than in Spennymoor.
Ada left Southampton on 2nd March on the Queen Elizabeth and arrived in New York on 8th March. Newspapers reported she stole the limelight from Ann Sheridan when the Queen Elizabeth docked, sixteen girls from the factory were at the quayside to meet her with reporters and she was presented with a bouquet. When she arrived she ate a six week ration of eggs. Her schedule was hectic with working at the factory and having tours of nightclubs, Broadway, Radio City, broadcasting studios and meeting Mayor William O'Dwyer. She also had a beauty transformation in a New York beauty salon. Ada stayed with Mrs Ellen Pfeiffer, an employee at the factory, appeared on TV before two million viewers and was a guest at the Democratic Club wearing an organdi evening gown given to her by her fellow workers at Spennymoor who pooled their ration coupons to buy it.
The Evening News on Monday 21st March 1949 reported:
ADA HAS A NIGHT OUT AT THE STORK CLUB
Ada Fishburn, factory worker, whose home is near Spennymoor, had a night out on Saturday at new York's fashionable Stork Club, resort of world celebrities. The guest of Mr Walter H. Simpson, she wore a dress of brocaded satin, and her hair was in the new, shorter style, bestowed by the fashionable firm of Helena Rubinstein. Her poise and grace was favourably commented upon, but her excitement was betrayed by the fact that she could not eat much of the dinner and her confession that she had lost two pounds since going to America. The menu, which she treated gingerly, consisted of celery, olives, radishes, crab meat salad, breast of guinea hen, French peas with chopped onion, asparagus polonaise, strawberry Melba, petit fours, demitasse. Pommery champagne. Ada did not drink the champagne. "A lady should drink only one glass in the evening" she said.
Ada and Mary were able to speak to each other about their experiences, Ada was in a New York radio studio and Mary was in a BBC radio studio in Newcastle. Ada went to a debate on TV about the social security programme in U.S.A and explained that Mary had been given free dental work on the new NHS in England. She said the machines at the factory were faster than the ones in Spennymoor. Walter H. Simpson, President of the Duro Test Corporation, said Ada was a fine ambassador and she received gifts of clothes, shoes and £25. She returned on the Queen Mary at the same time as Winston Churchill but they arrived a day late due to gales. Her boyfriend Ronnie Lancaster met her and they joined Mary at a hotel in London. Ada brought presents for her family, a dress for her mother and a fountain pen and two ties for her father.
Mary Ugliantza started to work at the Spennymoor factory on 27th February and was guest of honour at a dance on 1st March.
Her comments were
• She was earning £3 15s for a five-day 44-hour week previously earning 42 dollars for a five-day 40-hour week at the Duro Test Lamp Factory.
• At Spennymoor the canteen meals cost 1s/3d for a lunch with meat and two vegetables, sweet, and a cup of tea. At Durotest a similar meal cost about 2s/9d, but portions were bigger and there was a variety of dishes to choose from.
• She enjoyed English cigarettes, although they were expensive at 20 for 3/6 and she liked tea made the English way.
• Comparing conditions and methods of work, the plant and machinery were much the same, but in Bergen the machines were set out with more uniformity to continue the progress of the completed lamp, which was more efficient. The Spennymoor workshop is more airy, with windows in the roof, whereas the Bergen factory was in a basement lit all day by electric light. Here the work is not so intensive. Back home the watchword is production, production, more production.
• British social services were more extensive, USA had State unemployment pay, and a sick benefit fund run by the firm but it didn't include medical treatment or many other advantages.
• Most people in Spennymoor lived in small individual family houses with low rents, her father, two sisters, and her lived in an apartment house and had four rooms.
• She had to travel an hour a day each way to work by bus which had shocked the Spennymoor workers.
• There were more opportunities for recreation and entertainment there. At the main movie house, where films were shown during the week, the hall had vaudeville on Saturday nights and Sundays, and during the summer touring companies played dramas. Spennymoor had four cinemas and a dance hall but the nearest revue and variety theatre was at Bishop Auckland, nearest ice-skating rink at Durham, nearest real theatre at Newcastle.
• She liked the English countryside, the green fields and trees, the freshness of the air, and English castles.
(https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18108693, FindMyPast newspapers 1949)
After Mary's trip to Spennymoor, where the monotonous diet caused her to gain weight, she stayed with her sister-in-law's mother at High Ongar and returned to USA in May 1949. Her sister-in-law, Evelyn, had been a GI bride and married in 1945. In June 1949 Mary eloped to Maryland with her boyfriend and later in the year Ada married Ronnie. (FindMyPast newspapers).
There is a short video of Ada on YouTube at Ada in USA
Kevin kindly sent us some information about his ancestors who lived at 1 Carlton Hill, Spennymoor and had tailor's shops in Spennymoor. He was hoping to find pictures of the tailor's shops, if anyone has any information please let us know.
George William Taylor (b. 1870) was the son of John George Taylor, a tailor in Coundon at 14 Howlish Terrace and 2 Wharton Street from before 1881 to 1914.
George William Taylor married Frances Ellen Hull (b. 1872, d. 1898) in 1893, they lived next door to each other in Wharton Street, Coundon in 1891. They had a daughter Bertha (b.1895).
George had a tailor's shop and work rooms at 2 Thomas Street, Spennymoor from 1893 to mid 1900’s, in 1901 a tailor journeyman Andrew Ferguson and his family from Scotland were living at the shop. George later moved to a shop and workrooms in Cheapside.
After Frances died George married Mary Eliza Hobson in 1901 and they were living in 1 Belle Vue Terrace, Spennymoor. Her father was Moses Hobson (b. 1852), mining engineer and manager for Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. Ltd. In 1891 he lived in Shildon and 1901 in Coundon and he was manager at collieries in the area including Leasingthorne, Woodifield, Auckland Park and Shildon Lodge. (Durham Mining Museum)
They had four children Sydney Charles Taylor (b. 1902), Cyril Hobson Taylor (b. 1904), Grace Lillian Taylor (b.1906) and Eva Mary (Emma Mary) Taylor (b.1909). They moved to 1 Carlton Hill when it was built and Grace and Eva were born there. 1 & 2 Carlton Hill, now 61 & 62 Clyde Terrace, were designed by E.C. Kenmir in 1906, the Kenmir family lived at No. 2. Designated a Grade 2 listed building in 1988. Historic England, 61 & 62 Clyde Terrace.
Here’s an interesting extract from Bertha Taylor’s Memoires (Bertha was the daughter of George William Taylor and his first wife Frances Ellen Hull):
On leaving school I went to the shop, learned window dressing. [That would be around 1911]. We sold all men’s wear, ties, socks, shirts, etc. shown in one window and lengths of cloth for suits in the other. We’d spend from 8.30am to 7.00pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with 1 hour break midday, Thursday till 8.00pm, Friday 11.00pm, Saturday 12.00pm. We had an agency for Garan collars, which sold for 1/-, one for 6 1/2 d. They were good sellers. Men’s socks were from 4 1/2 d to 2/11, top quality shirts from 1/- 11d. A good suit made to measure was £3/10/- and we made a speciality of cord breeches for jockeys, also black aprons, very heavy quality, deep hem, 3 nicks, a Swiss band, two pockets, cut down centre. These were for show girls, 12/6 each and there were some clasp waists in those days. Orders used to come from all over the country and sometimes very hard to read as they were poorly educated people and letters written very badly. I used to be paid 2/6 per week, 1/- to go in the bank, 3d for a girl’s own and I could spend the rest.
Taylor's advertisement and trade notice from Spennymoor Official Guide 1927.
In 1939 George William, Mary Eliza and Grace Lillian were living at Ashmount , North Close.
Grace was an assistant school teacher.
George and Eliza were buried at Spennymoor Rock Road Cemetery.
Adrian from Sint Oedenrode, Netherlands is researching the five men who were killed in a 425 RCAF Halifax bomber which crashed over the town on the night of 22/23rd April 1944. On board were 6 Canadians and one British flight engineer, Ian Welch aged 19.
Ian was the son of Joseph Welch and Jane Graham. In 1939 he was living at 5 Bryan Street, Spennymoor with his grandmother Margaret A Pickering (nee Clay) and brothers Robert and Joseph. Adrian would like to contact any living relatives.
Can anyone identify this house? - We have had a request to try to identify this house, the photo is from a collection of photos from the Edgar family from Bishop Auckland. William Edgar, born 1808, was an architect/builder, William died in 1881 and his wife Jane and son Charles Smith Edgar built Edgar Memorial Hall in 1883 in his memory. It contained class rooms, and was used for lectures, meetings and services connected with the town, it has since been demolished.
William's daughter Fannie married Frederick Badcock, a solicitor with offices at Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor and Clerk to Spennymoor Urban District Council.
Sarah Cassidy (White) - In September 2020 Norman asked for information about Frederick White who was married to Sarah, born 1862. After Frederick died Sarah married Michael Cassidy and they lived at 4 Jackson Street. Norman has now found a newspaper cutting about Sarah's death in 1904 and wondered if anyone had a photo of her.
Sarah's nephew Robert John Allen, aged 20, was tried in Durham for the murder of Councillor Charles Lowes, aged 43, on 9th July 1904. Robert was an apprentice mason at the firm of Lowes and Sons, marble masons and monumental sculptors in Gilesgate. He was found guilty of manslaughter on 13th July 1904 and sentenced to 20 years penal servitude. Sarah had been to the trial and was taken ill in Tenter Terrace on her way to the station to return to Spennymoor. She was taken to the hospital but died shortly afterwards. It was thought that the shock of the trial had caused her death. Robert was released from Maidstone prison on 14th October 1918.
Shaw Bros. - We received a request for information about Shaw Brothers Bus Company which was based in Byers Green. I was unable to find much information about the company except that they provided transport from Byers Green to Spennymoor. If anyone has more information please email us.
The 1939 Register shows several members of the Shaw family involved with Motor Buses at Byers Green.
On the 1911 census the Shaw family live at 3 Mary Terrace, Coronation, South Church. Father Robert was born at East Howle and his wife Jane Ann (nee Solomon), born 1874, at Oakenshaw, their first child, Mary Ann, was born at Byers Green, then two children, Eliza and Robert, in Salford, then John in Consett and William Alexander in South Church.
In 1901 Robert and Jane Ann with their two daughters are living in Salford where Robert Shaw's occupation is labourer/professional footballer. The football referred to here is rugby and he is playing for Salford. There is a film on YouTube from 1901 showing Robert running out onto the pitch in a cup game against Batley (part of the Mitchell and Kenyon collection) Salford v Batley (2nd November 1901) video.
Robert had previously played for Tudhoe RFC which ran from 1884-1904 at the Brewery Field, later the club changed to soccer to become founders of Spennymoor AFC who still play there today.
On 18th March 1904 The Daily Mail provided a list of Salford players.
"Robert Shaw is another old Tudhoe player. He secured his cap for Durham under R.U. Rules. Has been connected with Salford for the last four or five years."
They also describe another ex-Tudhoe player "Patrick Tunney is not an Irishman, as his name would seem to imply. He hails from Tudhoe, and is therefore an old acquaintance of Guy Sinclair and Co. He is 14st in weight and a 'six-footer', so that trouble may be anticipated when he gets moving. Along with Rhapps he was chosen for England against Other Nationalities."
On 6th August 1934 Robert Shaw, who was living in West End Farm, Byers Green was lighting the kitchen fire and set fire to his clothes. As he ran out of the house he came in contact with the curtains and they set on fire. Mr Shaw was slightly burned, the house was destroyed and his dog died, even though his son Norman tried to rescue it. The fire brigade concentrated on saving an adjoining cottage and stables. The property was owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Mrs R Adamson who lived in an adjoining property and was ill had to be taken from her bed to a neighbour's house. (Northern Daily Mail 7th August 1934)