Hutton Rudby - parish life in the 1890s

An early photograph of All Saints'

A collection of old bound volumes of parish magazines gives us a very full picture of Church and village life in Hutton Rudby in the 1890s.

I will begin with Church affairs - just skip those sections to go straight to other village activities.

These include: the Blanket Club; village cricket; hedge-cutting; and children's prizes & sports.  There are lists of those taking part, which might be useful to family historians. 

According to the account of the Sports Day in 1896,

"The race with the needle and thread created great excitement, as did also the old ladies' race for tea"

But unfortunately, there's no more information on how they were run - or the qualifying age for the old ladies.

Sunday School Outings & Choir Holidays in the 1890s

Anglican children in the village in the 1890s

Hutton Rudby churchgoers in the 1890s could subscribe to a magazine called The Church Monthly.  It was 'An Illustrated Magazine for Home Reading', with serialised stories, articles, poems, practical advice, quizzes and recipes, and  was published in London.

Inserted into each month's copy was All Saints' own parish magazine, sometimes only two or three pages long, priced initially at One Penny (1d), rising in 1894 to 'Three Halfpence' (1½d).  Several bound volumes of the magazine have survived.

Children's activities are covered in the magazines - confirmations, and outings by rail from Potto Station.  The names listed may be of interest to family historians. 

George Young Blair & Drumrauch Hall

Drumrauch Hall stands on Belborough Lane, the road that leads from Hutton Rudby to the A19.

It is a small hamlet these days - the Hall is divided into flats and the stables have been converted to houses.

Before the Second World War it was a large country house, with a specially built music room, huge greenhouses and a walled garden.  The cottages beside the road were built for the staff.

It was built by the Scottish-born engineer George Young Blair as a country residence for his family.

Miss Winifred Blair's scrap book

This scrap book in the possession of the Hutton Rudby History Society contains a miscellany of items, from postage stamps and theatrical programmes to newspaper cuttings. 

The following list gives the main details of the contents of the book.

Items of interest: a good deal about amateur dramatics in the village; a programme in Olde Englishe for the celebrations of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; advertisements for Sidgwick's and Scupham's dairies; and the planning and opening of the Village Hall. 

Miss Winifred Blair's green album

Miss Blair's green album, held by the Hutton Rudby History Society, contains newspaper cuttings largely from the period January 1918 to May 1931.

Most concern family and village events, but there are also items relating to local families and others of general interest.  A number of cuttings reflect Winifred Blair's love of the stage, both amateur and professional.

The following notes give an indication of the contents.  Not to be missed: accounts of the opening of the Village Hall, and the description on 12 Nov 1927 of Armistice Day commemorated by veterans in darkness, with snow falling.

(The photograph of Mr Mease is from the Hutton Rudby History Society's collection.  The letter from the Comrades of the Great War, added 23 June 2020, can be seen on the Society's Facebook page)

At Whitby Museum until 4 November

Another exhibition that finishes on 4 November - this one is at the Whitby Museum in Pannett Park

True Tales of Whitby Folk

"an exhibition about moments from Whitby history from the time when King Henry VIII shut down Whitby Abbey, to the Victorian age. 
The story includes the man from Mulgrave Castle who was hung, drawn and quartered by King Henry, the sea captain from Bagdale Hall who was beheaded on Tower Hill by Cromwell in the Civil War, and a narrow-minded Puritan whose descendants are allegedly still being paid damages by the family of those who made fun of him. Then there's a local man who fell foul of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the team of quarrymen from Whitby who were taken to Tangier in Morocco to build sea defences, and sections about the eighteenth and nineteenth century Whitby ship-builders, a Whitby bank crash, whaling, a theatre fire, the origins of the Steam Railway and the jet industry."

Miss Winifred Blair's red album

The red album entitled "Newspaper Gleanings" covers the period 1894 to 1936.

Most of the cuttings relate to the early and mid-1930s and they give a vivid picture of life in Hutton Rudby in the years before the Second World War, when "Herr Hitler" was still a figure of fun and not an imminent menace. 

The notes that follow will convey some idea of the contents of the album.  The story of the thunderbolt that struck Doctors Lane in 1928 is particulary worth reading!

I have added photographs from the Hutton Rudby History Society collection, by way of illustration.