INTRODUCTION

" With having a good memory I was asked to write about what took place years ago, compared to the
fast moving world we live in now.  I can assure you I have had no help from anyone.  I wrote it in my
89th year and all names mentioned are true.  No fake names have been used.

May I say if any person doubts anything I have written, Washington Council will have all the records?
Mr Forbes was the historian when I was a young lad.

I swear that what I have written about Usworth and Washington is 99% true. "

Albert Walmsley
June 15th 1998

CHAPTER 1

My Memoirs

I am writing my memoirs of my life as far back as 1916 during the First World War.
 
I was born on September 4th 1908 in Usworth, which was coupled together with another village called Washington Village.
 
Usworth was split into two by two owners: High Usworth and Little Usworth.  I was born in Little Usworth.
 
The owner of Little Usworth was strictly against alcohol and said, "No public houses would be built on his land."  To this day there are no public houses in Little Usworth, however he did allow a Working Men’s Club to be built, this was joined with the C.1.U. [ Club & Institute Union ]
 
My parents told me that the first lights ever to be lit in Usworth were lit at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of September 4th 1908.
 
To give you an idea of the size of Little Usworth: if a person was to walk from Usworth Station up to where the Usworth and Washington Club was, past the Washington P. M. [New Rows] Chapel to the bottom of Havannah Bank and turn right to High Usworth at the top, if you turned left you would go to the church and if you tuned right you would come to Coach Road, to the flat tops, along to the New Row where the bus station is now, along Richardson Terrace to Edith Avenue and Usworth Pit to Waterloo.
 
In 1916 when the first world war was on and as a small boy I used to stand in the queue at the Maypole or Meadow Dairy for five or six hours for either 1/2 1b margarine or 1 1b of black treacle.
 
Now if we go back to Usworth Station, on the left side over the rail lines was a very large field stretching from the station to Usworth Pit.  It was known as the Bull Field.  During the war, three regiments camped in the Bull Field - the Notts, the Derbys, and the Leicesters.  In addition, soldiers were stationed in the New Inn and in the Washington Miners' Hall.  The Salvation Army Hall was made into the cookhouse.
 
Coming back to Usworth Station, if you walked towards Hylton Castle you would pass a farm on your left hand side where Mr & Mrs Holmes and their three girls lived, Hilda, Florence and Baby Jean.  When the young men were out for a walk on a Sunday morning they used to call into the farm and get a glass of milk with a fresh egg in it for 1d (one penny in old money). Everyone knew about it.  A remedy for a hangover!
 
About 250 yards past the farm, a railway line crossed the road, this belong to Lord Durham. This line was laid to only run his coal wagons from his pits to the coal staithes at the water's edge for dispatch.
 
Just a little further on was a public house called the Three Horse Shoes, from the pub there was nothing but fields until you came to Hylton Castle, known as the "Cauld-Lad-of-Hylton." Coming back to the Three Horse Shoes, across the road was a large field, which became Usworth Aerodrome for the Royal Flying Corps.  This field was a public walkway and anyone could walk across it to what was called The Marble Arch and on to Washington Station, where there was a large chemical and cork works.  My sister worked there in the cork works making life belts.
 
I cannot tell you how many aeroplanes were at the aerodrome, but to make you smile a little, a man in the flying corps, an 'odd job' man called Twinner Greigs, was in the Workmen's Club one time and a woman asked him if he ever 'went up', he replied: "I only come down for my meals!".  When the war ended, the aerodrome closed and the buildings lay empty.  Then the men came home from the war.  When they got married they had nowhere to live, some of them went to squat in the buildings.  They made their 'houses' nice and clean, quite a lot of people lived there, on a fine day the men used to meet at a corner of one of the buildings to talk and sometimes play cards for either a 1/2 d (a ha'penny) or a Id (a penny) a hand.
 
The village policeman used to come and try to catch them playing cards, he knew them all.  One day when they were playing cards, he got off his cycle and shouted "I will bring you all a summons later."  One man shouted "if you bring me one, I will put two cartridges up tha' spout".  When the PC called at his house, he had his gun and he fired it.  I cannot tell if the PC was hit and I am sorry I cannot say any more.

CHAPTER 2

Transport in Washington

The transport was very bad.  If you wanted to go to Newcastle you either walked to the Church House that was at the end of the tramlines at Heworth or hired a horse and trap from Joe Ramshaw, Tommy Hand or Jimmy Cassidy, it held five and the driver.
 
Then a few men started to buy [Model] T Ford cars like the ones you see in Laurel and Hardy films.  It was fun watching at the New Inn when the car used to stop at the bottom of the New Rows.  The lads going to see Newcastle play used to run over the road and jump in as the other ones were getting out.
 
Then Alex Black and Tommy Lawton got two charbuses [charabancs], a motor with about six or seven seats after each other.  Four people sat in one seat.
 
One day a man called Sammy Milward came to Washington and parked his caravan behind the "Gents" across the road to the Washington P. M. [New Rows] Chapel, at the other side of the caravan were some small ponds and Washington pithead.  Sammy had one or two 30 seated buses and ran them between Washington and Swinburn Street in Gateshead.  Then Ged Longhorn started a bus route from Washington to Wrekenton tram terminus.
 
Abe Nicholson who was from Havannah, and ran the last independent bus service from Waterloo to Brady's Square.  Then the Northern and Sunderland District Bus Company bought them out.  Now the Northern Bus Company runs from Newcastle to Sunderland Via Washington and the Sunderland Bus Company runs from Newcastle to Houghton-le-Spring via Washington.

CHAPTER 3

Business That I Remember

The shops we had in Front Street Washington, Starting from the Usworth & Washington Working Men's Club where as follows:
 
Opposite the Club was:

Ward Bell selling men's clothes,
The Stile Inn,
Harry Pyle the Butcher
Middleton a Sweet Shop
Joe Ramshaw's a very small business
Lawthers' selling wallpaper etc.
The Fresh Fish Lady
Broughs' Food Store
The Doctors surgery Dr Arthur Jacques
Atkinson's Sweet Shop
The Post Office
Mrs Resson
Maypole Butter
Greenwall's Butchers
Mr Errington's China Shop
Jones' Shoe Shop where Louise Snary had a football pump
and we took our footballs there to be blown up hard.
Meadow Dairy
Bob Brown the Undertaker
The Chemist Shop
Mrs Curry had a long pole marking where her Off Licence beer shop stood.
Shipley's' Electric Shop
There was an opening in the street; at the front end was Hardy's Newspaper Shop,
which has been made into a bank.
At the rear end of the opening was Fred Fuller's Blacksmith's Shop.
 
May I say I bought my first gramophone record at Larry Harwood's shop, it was called 'City of Laughter, City of Tears' on the other side was 'Let the Great Big World a Turning'.
 
William Robson had the Foresters' Arms pub
Fred Windows had a Sweet Shop
Joe Brewis had a Butchers Shop
Walter Wilson's Food Shop was run by a family in Washington called Fawcett.
Ted Gatenby ran the BAD INN [Bird Inn?] and Harry Wilson ran The New Inn.
Across the road were all the Co-op shops.
In line with the New Inn was Arthur Shallis shop which sold everything in ladies wear,
he also owned the Vic Picture house.
There was also Val Smith’s Temperance Bar,
the bus stop for Newcastle, a boot and shoe shop and
the last shop at that time was Charlie Butt's Hardware shop.

CHAPTER 4

Social Life in Usworth & Washington in the 1920s

I would like to tell you of my recollections of the social life that I saw in the 1920s.
 
First, the meeting places for the lads were, at the New Inn and the bottom of New Row houses. Here they stood there with their backs against the  New Inn wall and the same to the garden railings of New Row houses.  They did this while waiting to meet their pals, this happened every day of the week.
 
There were pubs to go to and dance halls.  The dance halls were upstairs to the Co-op, at Usworth Miners Hall and at Washington Miners Hall.  I wonder if a large pole still stands in the middle of the hall; if the hall is still standing.
 
There were two billiard saloons, Jimmy Lennox and Forte's Ice Cream Saloon.  The picture halls were called, the Vic and 'the Gaff', the Alex [Alexandra] or (the theatre as it was called), going further down towards Edith Avenue was The Kings Picture Hall.
 
Down in Washington Village on the village green are the war memorial and the church [Holy Trinity].  On the left side of the war memorial is the Cross Keys pub and the Washington Arms. About 300 yards further on is the Roman Catholic Church [Our Lady’s] and a chapel called 'the Kid Glove and Lavender'.  I do not know why it was called that.
 
The Rev Cyril Lomax and Father Verlin were two of the finest persons in Washington, both in their late 30's.  The Rev Lomax was still single, lived with his mother and was a very good horse rider, when he was riding about Washington he would always raise his hand and say "Good day."  It was said many a time that when he was riding near the Marble Arch and had to be at Church for such and such a time, he would galloped to the Church, put on his robe and still had his spurs on.
 
Father Verlin sold small tickets for 3d each; these were in the shape of a brick.  My parents bought four every week.  When the school was built [St Joseph’s in the 1870s], they had dances there and Father Verlin was always there to welcome everyone.  I doubt if they will ever find another person like Father Verlin let alone get one.
 
On a Sunday the boys used to meet beside 'The Olde Blacksmith' and the sweet shop nearby which was run by Mr Chambers, they waited there until the two churches came out, some were waiting for their girlfriends, some hoping to meet a girl that they may become friends with. They used to walk up past the Barnardo’s Home and pass the Glebe pit on their right, further round they came to The Westwood Club, run by Mr & Mrs Rumney where on Sunday evenings brass bands used to play in the grounds.
 
Then you came to the Central School [Glebe School], which later became the John F Kennedy School, strange to say, my brother's son, Arnold Walmsley, became Headmaster when it became John F Kennedy School.
 
Then you continued along West Glebe Houses then you came to Foster's Turn then past the old cemetery then back to the Olde Blacksmith Shop, sometimes the boys walked that walk twice.

CHAPTER 5

Washington Old Hall

Now let it be known that the Old Hall where George Washington [ancestors] lived is very near the Church and the Olde Blacksmith's Shop and strange to say it is situated between the church and the cemetery.
 
In the 1920s when I knew the Old Hall, it was an old building, the slates on the roof were dislodged, windows broken, in fact three families were living in it (squatting) they were Frankie Hill & family, Wilf Bone & family and Jimmy Witherspoon & family.
 
It was between 1928 and 1929 a man called General Daws, came all the way from the U. S. A. to Washington Village England.  This man wanted to buy the Old Hall, dismantle it, and ship it back to the U. S. A.  I am glad to say the Council at that time said "NO, it stays in England."  In 1930 they began to restore it to its original state, they also opened the Old Blacksmiths Shop as a tea room and sold bric-a-brac.  Strange to say, my niece Audrey Cole and Colin Clemance had their wedding in the 'new' Old Hall.
 
When President Jimmy Carter came to Washington to see the Old Hall I saw him being presented with a "miner's lamp".  I was on holiday 'back home' at the time.

CHAPTER 6

The Police Force of the Day

Comparing the Police Force for Usworth and Washington around the mid 1920s and today it was nothing like compared with the police nowadays.
 
The first policeman I saw was PC Laybourne, he wore a round cap the kind a French General would wear.  After him came PC Ginger Foster, who looked after Usworth Pit and Usworth.
 
PC Carlin, for Washington Pit and Washington.  PC O'Brian was Washington Village's Police Constable, then came PC Roll for Washington and PC McCartney for Usworth.
 
Then Washington got an extra constable who was called PC Pagan.  Their Sergeant was called Howard, and if you go to Washington Village there may still be a house between the Cross keys and the Washington Arms, which has nine steps up to the door, this was the police station, in the 1920's.  The new police station was built in Washington, near the Higher Grade School and Washington New Miners Hall.

CHAPTER 7

Places of Interest and Note

Washington 'F' Pit was owned by Washington Coal Co. and in the 1920s, a gentleman called Mark Ford was the manager, he lived in a large house at the top of Havannah Bank on the side. Mr Tom Kirtley was secretary for the miners and he lived at the end of Heworth Crescent in a house standing by itself.  'Leverson' Wallsend [Collieries] owned Usworth Pit and the manager was Mr Abe Welsh, he lived in a big house at the top end of Coxon’s Row where now stands the new Usworth and Washington club.  After Mr Welsh's retirement, Mr Bob Williams took over as the manager.  The miner's secretary was Mr John E Walmsley, my father's brother, who lived beside the old Usworth and Washington Working Men’s Club.
 
The explosion at Usworth Colliery was on March 2nd 1885; the dead are buried in a large burial ground at High Usworth Church.
 
Washington P. M. Chapel had a very good cricket team; the Hepplewhite brothers did quite a lot for the club.  Usworth P. M. Chapel also had a cricket team.  If you walk around Usworth Pit towards Waterloo, on the left side was a narrow road leaving the fields.  A large house was built down there.  The gentleman who lived in it was Mr George Raw.  It was called 'Raws Hall'.  The cricket pitch was beside his house and strangely enough an Usworth - born lad used to play cricket during the closed football season.  His name was Billy Cook.  He played for Sheffield United and he won two F. A. Cup medals.  In 1915 the last game to be played during the war was Sheffield United V Chelsea, the score was 3-1 and the goal scorers were Simmons, Fazackerley and Kitchen; the referee was H. H. Taylor.  In 1925 Sheffield United played Cardiff City, the result was 1-0 the scorer was, Tunstall, the referee was G. N. Watson, and the attendance was 91,000.

CHAPTER 8

After The 1918 War

After the war in 1918, people living in Washington started to buy furniture etc in Gateshead and Newcastle.  A gentleman called Johnny Saint, who lived down by Spout Lane used to travel into town almost every day with two large flat horse forbys driven by two shire horses to pick up the furniture etc and deliver it.
 
From 1920, the Police Station in Washington was in the village.  If you stand in front of the Cross Keys pub and walk towards the Washington Arms, there was a reading room and one house with three steps to the door, that was the Police Station and Sergeant Howard lived there, next to it was the opening to the Stile Inn fields.
 
In the early 1920s when there was no radio etc, only the wind-up gramophone on a Sunday afternoon, the lads from Flat Tops and the Waterloo lads used to play football in front of the Flat Tops.  The field at that time stretched right up Coach Road.  The lads played in their pit boots and for strips, one team played with their shirts tucked in and the other team played with their shirts pulled up outside their trousers.  I was told that in 1912 at the other end of the Flat Tops was a shop called Dingle's; it was next to the Roman Catholic Infant School [St Bedes].  Mr Dingle formed a football team and this was called Dingle Rovers, this was a very good team until the war started.
 
When the war was over Usworth formed a football team called it the G. M. Ys.  They wore a dark blue strip with a V back and front, their ground was behind Usworth Infants School and Usworth Miners' hall, they played in the Tyneside League.  Washington then formed a football team, their ground was opposite Mr & Mrs Kirtley's home which was at the end of Heworth Crescent, their strips were black and amber, a man called Tommy Neavins, an ex-Blackpool player, played full back for them.

CHAPTER 9

Picture Halls

There were three picture halls in Usworth and Washington, the Kings, the Victoria and the [Alexandra]Theatre.  Three separate families owned them. Mr & Mrs Egan owned the Kings. Mr Egan was the only one who played Gramophone records as you entered the hall before the picture started and during the interval, as well as selling nuts, oranges, and bars of chocolate.  I heard later that he was opening a box of oranges and cut of his finger on a rusty nail in the orange box, he died later through that nail.
 
Arthur Shallis, who also owned the shop next door to Val Smith's Temperance Bar, owned the Vic.  Mr Turnbull who used to show mainly serials such as 'Lion Man, The Broken Chain, The Purple Iris, Exploits of Elaine, Hooded Terror and Tom Mix, the cowboy', ran the Vic.
 
Then there was the Theatre or the Alex, which was better known as 'The Gaff'.  It was owned by Mr & Mrs Bird, on Saturday mornings, there was a matinee from 10.00 till 11.45 am, price 1d in old money, and each child often got an orange.  It used to get full every show.  When the big picture started, Mrs Bird would walk up and down the centre aisle telling them what was happening in the picture for those who couldn't read.  It was so quiet you could hear a mouse run over the floor.

CHAPTER 10

Holidays

Every Easter, Whit, and August Bank Holiday Monday's crowds used to go to the waterside to have a picnic.  It was called Barmston Heaths. It was a great day out.  The girls used to make cakes and sandwiches and the boys would buy the pop lemonade etc if anyone had a carry gramophone we sang and danced to the tunes.  Some people would take skipping ropes, tennis rackets, or footballs.  The ground at the waterside was flat along the side of the river and rose slightly, making it comfortable for those who just wanted to sit and watch the children enjoying themselves.
 
Penshaw Monument was at the other side of the river; lots of people took their children up there to roll their paste eggs.
 
There was only one thing; the chemical work's water ran down the footpath's gutter and it smelled awful, as if it was acid.
 
If you walked to the other end of Shafto Terrace, opposite Washington Miners Hall, Jacky Milburn had two long narrow fields.  He had five cows and his daughter Sarah used to sell milk to the people in Washington.
 
Jacky worked at Usworth Pit, his fields were of clay texture, which were very good for playing quoits on, the pitch was about twenty yards long with an iron spike knocked in at each end, leaving three or four inches showing above the ground.  The men had two quoits each.  They would stand beside one spike and walk two steps, and while walking swing the quoit between their legs and throw it towards the other spike to try and ring the spike, they measured with their fingers to see which quoit was the nearest to the spike.  The rival teams used to make bets against each other.  For men in those days, the only sports were handball, quoits or going to a football match on a bike or by train.

MY FAMILY

My Parents
ROBERT WALMSEY & SARAH WALMSLEY

My Father's Parents
ROBERT WALMSLEY married to ELLEN

My Mother's Parents
JOHN CARR   (Wife's Name not known)

CHAPTERS

INDEX