This Week in World War One, 29 December 1916

BERWICK ADVERTISER, 29 DECEMBER 1916

 

A CELEBRATED BERWICK CHRISTMAS PUDDING

 

Our Christmas pudding is a mere culinary parvenu that about two centuries ago supplanted the original plum porridge, but the Christmas pie, which must not be confused with the mince pie, is of immemorial antiquity. It was a “Christmas pie” that Pharisaic Little Jack Horner was eating when he “sat in a corner,” according to the historians. These pies were sometimes of colossal dimensions. Perhaps the largest on record was sent from Berwick to London at Christmas 1770 for Sir Henry Grey, an ancestor of Earl Grey.

Traditional Christmas pudding

 

It contained 2 bushels of flour, 20lb. of butter, 4 geese, 2 turkeys, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipe, 4 partridges, 2 ox tongues, 2 curlews, 7 blackbirds, and 6 pigeons. It was 9ft. in circumference, weighed 168 lb., and was fitted with four wheels for the convenience of Sir Henry’s guests.

 

CHRISTMAS

BERWICK

 

CHRISTMAS, which on three successive occasions has now witnessed the prosecution of the great war, was quietly observed in Berwick and district. The restrictions put upon railway travelling had the natural effect of keeping many people from visiting friends at a distance. The closing day of the week, however, witnessed the arrival of many of the gallant lads in khaki who are serving their country, and the welcome they received from parents and relatives was hearty and spontaneous. Throughout Saturday afternoon and evening the streets presented a very busy and animated appearance. Despite the severe times we are passing through most of people seemed desirous of purchasing some kind of seasonable article to recognise the great Festival of the year. To accommodate customers the shops remained open a little later than usual, and more especially in view of the fact that Monday and Tuesday were both to be closed days. The weather on the whole was pleasant though somewhat damp. On Sunday special services were held in all the Churches, and references was made to the advent of Christmas both in the sermon and the praise part of the worship. On Christmas day the streets presented a somewhat deserted appearance those soldiers on leave remaining indoors to spend a quiet time with their friends. The various church services were well attended. In the afternoon a musical service was held in St. Andrew’s Church by Col. Peterkin’s Male Voice Choir of the Royal Scots.

St Andrew’s Church of Scotland, Berwick-upon-Tweed. © Bill Henderson, Creative Commons Licence.

 

Infirmary Patients Entertained

The patients in our hospitals are always remembered as the great festival of the year comes round, and Berwick Infirmary maintains the good rule. Through the kindness of Dr C. G. Maclagan, Chairman of the House Committee, the patients were entertained to a Christmas dinner, while in the evening the children enjoyed gifts from a Christams tree. Among those present were Lady Dalyell and Miss Dalyell, His Worship and Mayor and the Mayoress, Dr and Mrs Maclagan, Mrs Fraser, Ravensdowne; and Mrs Mackay, and Mr D. H. W. Askew.

At the Workhouse

The inmates of the Workhouse enjoyed their usual Christmas treat, when the wants of the poor people were attended to by a number of ladies and gentlemen who take a keen interes in their welfare. Mr John A. Stewart, chairman of the House Committee was unable to be present owing to indisposition, but among others who assisted were Mrs J. G. Willits, Miss A. E. Henderson, Mr Thomas Thompson, ironmonger, Mr Alex. D. Watt. The inmates were entertained to dinner consisting of roast beef plum pudding, following by fruit the men also receiving supplies of tobacco. Mr Samuel Stirling, Tweedmouth, as on previous occasions, sent a liberal supply of beer, and this was much appreciated by the poor people. Mr T. Thompson presented each of the inmates with a threepenny piece at the close of the proceedings.

LOCAL NEWS

 

Berwick Councillor’s Silver Wedding. – The many friends of Mr Joseph McDonald, fruiterer, High Street, Berwick-on-Tweed will be interested to learn that he and his good lady celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage on Christmas Day, having been married in 1891 at the Mapel Street Primitive Methodist, Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, by the Rev. J. Hopkins. Mr McDonald has a family of two sons, both of whom are on active service, and one daughter. As is well known Mr McDonald is a prominent Methodist, and one of that body’s local preachers. He is also a member of the Town Council and Education Committee, and acts as secretary to the Shepherd’s Friendly Society. The happy couple have received numerous congratulations on attaining the 25th anniversary of their nuptials.

Masonic Installation.- The festival of St. John was celebrated by St. David’s Lodge, No. 393, in the Lodge Room a Berwick, on Wednesday evening, when there was a large attendance of the brethren. The recommendation from the Finance and General Purpose Committee to subscribe five guineas to the Freemasons’ War Hospital and Nursing Home was approved of, as was also a motion by Bro. Alex. Darling, P.M., that the sum of ten guineas be voted for the relief of aged and deserving poor at Christmas, and that the distribution be entrusted to the same gentleman as last year.

Masonic Lodge, Berwick-upon-Tweed. © James Denholm, Creative Commons Licence.

 

Thereafter Brother James T. Robson, Past S. W., was duly installed as the Worshipful Master by W.M. Brother John Cockburn. The brethren afterwards sat down to an excellent supper in the Club Room purveyed by Bro. P. Cowe, at which several toasts were honoured, and a very pleasant hour was passed. It was mentioned that the following officers of the Lodge were on active service:- Brother W.H. Trainer, S.W.; Brother R. W. Seaton, J.W.; Brother W. E. E. Rutherford,  S.D. ; Brother H. R. Peters, J.D.; Brother G. M. How, I. G.; Brother J.T, Shiel S.S.; Brother John Blench. J. S.; Brother Robt. Gray, 1st Assistant S.; Brother S. E. Dixon, 2nd Assistant S. the following Brethren are meantime respectively discharging the duties of the above officers; Brothers O’Connell, Cowe, Howe, Shiel, Lyall, Dixon, Oakley, Black, and Hall.

Soldiers Entertained. – In the sailors and Soldiers’ Recreation Rooms, Hide Hill, Berwick, on Wednesday evening there was a free night, every service man in the Borough being entertained and welcomed. The Mayor and Mayoress graced the proceedings with their presence, and the Committee were in attendance to see to the comfort of the soldiers. In the refreshment room excellent music was provided, while a go as you please programme was carried out in the concert hall. Among those taking part in his were Petty Officer J. Martin, W. B. Dickinson, ex-Corporal Renwick, N.F., Private Howat, Private Donaldson, L. C. Smellie, Mr Wm. Foster (violin), Private Macdougall, Mr Hetherington, Private Adams, Second Air Mechanic Hughes, Second Air Mechanic Pont, Private Mason, Private Dick, Private Dunbar, and Pte. J. N. Bell. The latter two aced as accompanists very efficiently. The entertainment was one which said much for the public of Berwick and the soldiers were prolific in their admiration.

 

1916

 

Year of never ending sorrow,

Drawing now towards a close,

Casting shadows on the morrow,

Which a new year’s dawn disclose

Year of untolds desolation,

Passing o the hidden rest,

Scarce a hope or consolation,

Honouring its last bequest.

Year of Death, the ghastly token,

Of man’s avaricious soul:

Showing solemn pledges broken,

To possess some cherished goal.

Year whose memories shall darken,

Ages yet in Time’s dark womb,

When our children’s children hearken,

To those voices from the tomb.

Year to all a hideous spectre,

Of men’s failure to up hold,

All the glories of that sceptre,

With which nations are controlled.

Year of destinies deep written,

That some future day shall show,

When earth’s depots shall be smitten,

By Democracy’s fell blow.

Year whose tragedy is lasting,

Unforgotten, unforgiven,

Whilst the flames of Hell are blasting,

‘Gainst the sacred rights of Heaven.

Pass then, o’er the ridge eternal,

With your wretchedness and sin, –

From the unknown land supernal,

Let the new year enter in.

THOMAS GREY, Tweedmouth.

 

A peppercorn at Christmas and other presents

Christmas as we understand it today has formed within the last two centuries, and is quite alien to the localised traditions of the medieval and Tudor periods. Though the religious importance of the day was celebrated, everyday business often still carried on. Documents still had to be signed, assizes and courts held, and yes, unfortunately even rents had to be paid at Christmas. This marked one of the four financial quarters of the year. The financial New Year began on Lady Day (25th March), with Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September) and Christmas (25th December) forming the quarters. Rents, tithes, charity and other payments could be due quarterly, half-yearly or annually on these or other specified religious days. For example in 1296 the tenantry of West Chirton township annually paid 3s at Martinmas and Whitsuntide for fine of court, 1s 3d cornage at Michaelmas, one mark every seven years at Easter and Christmas, and 3s 4d on St Barnabas’s day.

However rents were often paid in supplies, or items that were more like presents. In the compilation of our Manor Authority files we often come across these payments in kind, so here are some of the more seasonal gifts we have spotted. If you have come across any others we would love to know.

Some of the rents we have come across – a peppercorn, chickens, cinnamon and a feast.

Peppercorns

These payments in kind were often made in edible commodities, such as the 11d., and a pound of pepper paid yearly by Robert Freman for land in Hadston. The services of tenants in Bywell were also worth £14 13s 3d and 4lbs of pepper.

Though pepper was an important commodity, we more commonly find payments of a single peppercorn. If you wished to give your son a house on one of your manors you needed some form of payment to be given to ensure you both had rights as landlord and tenant. Even a tiny sum ensured this, which gave birth to the ‘peppercorn rent’, where a property would be given in exchange for a single peppercorn annually. It was often used to provide family members with entitlement to property. John Salkeld, in his will in 1623, gave his new house at Rock to his son Thomas, who was required to pay ‘a peppercorn yearlie’ to his older brother John, the new owner of Rock. Thomas Forster rented a number of tithes and properties in Carham and Wark to his son for a peppercorn in 1711.

A peppercorn was paid by Elizabeth de Felton for part of ‘Thresterton’ (Thirston), and by Walter de Edlingham for an area of Edlingham. The request of a peppercorn was sometimes followed by ‘if demanded’, showing this was a symbolic gesture.

Hens

Unfree tenants often paid part of their rents through the year in crops, and this includes chickens. In Fenwick the eight bondmen paid sixteen hens to the lord of the manor, with the five cottars required to pay five hens. They also gave eggs at Easter. In Acklington a fowl (or a penny) was paid every Christmas by the bond tenants in addition to the rest of their rent, while the inhabitants of Thirston gave the Acklington park keeper a ‘wod henne’, to allow them to gather wood there through the year. In the sixteenth century Chatton’s bailiff also received a wood hen, allowing locals to take firewood from the lord’s wood, including an oak tree as a yule log. Free tenants in Thirston also paid a rent of hens and nuts at Christmas in the fourteenth century. In 1717 a description of Edward Riddell’s estate described the East Farm in Great Swinburne as let to four tenants for £95, a goose and a hen each year. Unfortunately the estate register does not say what time of year this was paid, but perhaps this was Edward’s Christmas goose.

Spices

Though spices have become closely connected to our traditional Christmas cooking, they have been an important commodity for longer than you think. In around 1280 Gilbert de Withill purchased land at Dunstan and was required to pay the overlord a pound of ‘cummin’ annually at Alnwick fair. Isoud and Aviz the widow held 12 acres in Felton for a pound of cumin, and this continued to the rent for this land later, likely in fealty to Mitford Castle. A pound of Cinnamon was paid, fittingly, by ‘William the cook’ for the two bovates of land he held in Belford. Heaton manor was held at different times for a payment of a sparrowhawk, or a rose, but  after the land and the manor were divided into separate moieties Robert of Ryal paid Margery of Trewick a pound of cumin for land there and a root of ginger for the manor.

A festive feast

In return for his land Liulf of Middleton Hall was required to give four ‘waitinges’ yearly in 1154 to his lord Patrick I earl of Dunbar. Waitinges were where a leaseholder provided the lord and his household with hospitality, usually on feast days.

Robes

Though not quite a Christmas jumper, Titlington was granted for one robe at Christmas with 100 shillings and four quarters of corn and barley. Robes were also received at Christmas by the foresters of Rothbury Forest in addition to their wages.

We hope to put up more of these unusual rent payments that we have found soon, let us know if you have come across any. All of the above were sourced from the Northumberland County Histories series and Hodgson’s History of Northumberland, which are invaluable sources to our manorial research.

 

Northumberland and Durham Sword Dancing

‘Calling on’- song

 

The image above is one of the earliest examples of a Sword Dancing ‘calling -on‘song. Sword Dancing in Northumberland and Durham is very peculiar, for unlike the sword dances found elsewhere in the country, the sword in the Northern area is two handled.

The earliest written description of sword dancing in Northumberland is part of the seasonal festivities written by John Wallis, Curate of Simonburn in his book “The Natural History and Antiquary of Northumberland” published in 1769, he relates the dances still performed at Christmas time he states:

“Young men march from village to village, and from house to house with music before them, dressed in antic attire, and before the vestibulum or entrance of every house entertain the family with the Motus incompositus, the antic dance, or Chorus armatus, with swords or spears in their hands, erect and shining. This they call, the Sword-Dance. For their pains they are presented with a small gratuity in money, more or less, according to every householders ability, their gratitude is expressed by firing a gun. One of the company is distinguished from the rest by a more antic dress; a fox’s skin generally serving him for a covering and ornament to his head, the tail hanging down his back. This droll figure is their chief or leader he does not mingle in the dance”.

On the 7th January 1843 the Newcastle Journal published an article formerly printed in The Times of a custom called “Sword dancing”

“The sword-dancers are men entirely or chiefly composed of miners or pitmen, and of persons engaged in the various other vocations of a colliery, who during the week intervening between Christmas and New Year’s Day, perambulate the country in parties, consisting of from twelve to twenty, partly in search of money, but much more I believe, of adventure and excitement”  “on these occasions they are habited in a peculiarly gaudy dress, which, with their dancing principally attracts attention. Instead of their ordinary jackets they wear others, composed of a kind of variegated patchwork which, with their hats, are profusely decorated with ribands of the gayest hues, prepared and wrought by their sisters or sweethearts, the sword dances being usually young and unmarried men. This, with slight individual variations is the description of dress worn by all the members of a sword-dancing party, with the exception of two conspicuous characters invariably attached to the company and denominated amongst themselves respectively the “Tommy” and the “Bessy”  These two personages were the most frighteningly grotesque dresses imaginable; the former being usually clad in the skin of some wild animal, and the latter in petticoats and the costume of an old woman; it is the office of those two individuals, to go round amongst the company which collects to see them dance, and levy contributions in money; each of them being furnished for this purpose with a huge tin or iron box which they rattle in the faces of the bystanders, and perform other antics and grimaces to procure subscriptions. A fiddler also is an indispensable attaché to a company of sword dancers”….”The sword dancers are each furnished with long steel wands, which they call swords, and which they employ with a very peculiar and beautiful effect during the dance”.

In Northumberland the villages which continued the tradition into the 20th century were Amble, Bedlington, Earsdon, Monkseaton, Newbiggin by the Sea, Prudhoe and Mickley, Walbottle and Westerhope.

 

Sword Dancing Team

 

 

In 1910 Cecil Sharp, keen folksong and folkdance collector was invited north, by William Parker Brewis of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, and between 1910 and 1922 he collected five sword dances, and published them in the book “The Sword Dances in Northern England”, and within the first few months of publication was using the dances in the English Folk Dance Society as part of their “Advanced Certificate” course of folk dance, what the sword dancers themselves made of this we shall never know.

The term “Rapper” for the name of this kind of dancing comes from an interpretation of the poor written word which Cecil Sharp wrote in his notes as to the name of the implements the Earsdon men were holding in their hands, no earlier account of this word in combination with Sword Dancing has been found.

In Northumberland and Durham today, very few of the traditional Sword Dancing sides still perform. High Spen Blue Diamonds in County Durham, being one of the very last, passed down through the generations of the Forster family. Even though there are little traditional sides left, the dance still goes on with the likes of the Demon Barbers, from Newcastle upon Tyne bringing back the excitement of the fast dance, or the Monkseaton Morris Men who still perform every New Year’s Day at 12 noon outside the Ship Inn, Monkseaton. As traditions change and die out and everywhere becomes less magical and more mundane, it is good to support and remember the little things that make the North East a little bit different from anywhere else.

 

Some information kindly supplied by Phil Heaton, author of “Rapper – The Miners’ Sword Dance of North East England”.

 

Season’s Greetings!