Northumbrian (North Riding) Heavy Battery RGA

More snapshots from Major Stubbs' album:

Aldershot 1917

Major Stubbs was posted at Aldershot for some months in 1917 and 1918

RAMC Newcastle 1915

RGA 4,7 gun 1915

RGA in training 1915

Major Stubbs, Newcastle 1915

Major Stubbs i/c Siege School, Aldershot c1917

'The Silver King', Eastbourne 1915

Trumpeter Jones on Taffy

Northumbrian (North Riding) Heavy Battery RGA before the War

Snapshots from Major Stubbs' album.
Unfortunately they are not dated and only a few names are recorded, but they are thought to be from a pre-War Camp some time in 1913 or 1914.

George W.W. Barnley (Middlesbrough solicitor) is second from left.
Francis Dalrymple (adjutant) is seated on the gun

Major Stubbs' daughter has added (years later) a note to this photograph:

"The Hairy Heels" (Horselines) (eight of these to each gun)

War Horse

Major Stubbs' horse, Jess.

Jess joined the North Riding Heavy Battery August 1914 at Monkseaton as the Battery Commander's Charger at the outbreak of war.
She went overseas with the Battery in April 1915.
She was wounded by a splinter of shell in May 1918.
She died at the Veterinary Clearing Station in May [or June, according to the note on the reverse of the photo] 1918.
Photo was taken at St Omer, February 1917

Driver J.F.S. Wallace was her groom.  He took her down to the Clearing Station and stayed with her till the end.

Nunthorpe in the early 20th century

Photographs and a sketch map of old Nunthorpe (Station - not old Nunthorpe Village) can be found on the Nunthorpe History Group website.

The sketch map identifies the houses of Duncan Stubbs and Gerald Cochrane, while the surrounding area can be seen more clearly on the old maps page of the site.

War begins - Nunthorpe, 1914

Thomas Duncan Henlock (“Duncan”) Stubbs was a 42 year old Middlesbrough solicitor when war broke out.  He lived with his wife and family in the little rural hamlet that had grown up around Nunthorpe railway station.  As a Captain in the Territorial Army in the Northumbrian (Heavy) Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, he was called up immediately.  

He began to keep a diary.  It begins on Tuesday 4 August 1914 and it is written in ink and pencil on lined foolscap paper.  It appears to be a fair copy, with additions and alterations, presumably (given the detail involved) from notes made at the time.  He was a methodical man.

Extracts from the first ten days of the diary follow.  They give a vivid picture of public reaction at the beginning of the War, on Teesside and Tyneside.


It begins with a summary of events in Europe:

1914.
Tuesday 4th August

For a week past there has been talk of war.  Austria’s declaration of War against Servia has started the ball rolling […]

Britain calls upon [Germany] to declare that the neutrality of Belgium shall be preserved.  Germany declines stating that to do so would disclose an important part of her plan of campaign […] 

The British fleet is fully mobilized, the reserves, even the Dartmouth cadets, are called up and about 7pm on Tuesday 4th August 1914 the order goes forth for the general mobilization of the whole British Army.

and then Duncan Stubbs begins to document his own experiences:

This is a purely personal account of my own doings as Captain in the Northumbrian North Riding Heavy Battery, which Battery I have had the honour of commanding for about 12 months past.

Remembrance Day in Hutton Rudby 1927

From Miss Winifred Blair's green album:

12 Nov 1927:

By Lantern Light 

Moving Night Scene at Village Shrine

Snow was falling heavily when Hutton Rudby’s ex-Servicemen, proceeding in three sections through the village, converged on the war memorial at 8 o’clock last night.

They formed in a crescent in front of the memorial and behind them took their stands a number of inhabitants who had been attracted by the storm lanterns carried by the ex-Servicemen as they came through the village. 

The ceremony which followed was brief and simple.  Major Williams, the senior officer on parade, called the names.  Those present and then those of the 29 men whose names are inscribed on the war memorial. 

Silence followed.  This was broken by the Vicar (the Rev. Arthur L Leeper), who, facing the memorial, recited the following lines from the Toc H ceremony. 

With proud thanksgiving let us remember our comrades.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn;
At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. 

To this the men on parade responded “We will remember them.” 

A brief prayer by the Vicar that Light perpetual might shine upon the fallen ones, and then the ex-Servicemen faded silently away. 

It was an impressive ceremony and some of those standing round the memorial were visibly affected.

Hutton Rudby & parish in 1872

Rudby parish as described in the Post Office Directory of 1872:

RUDBY-IN-CLEVELAND is a township, parish, and small village, 4 miles south-west from Stokesley, and 6 south-east from Yarm, in the west division of Langbaurgh liberty, Stokesley union and county court district, rural deanery of Cleveland, archdeaconry of Cleveland, and diocese of York, situated on the northern bank of the river Leven.

The church of All Saints is an old Gothic stone building in good repair, with a tower, nave, aisle, chancel, porch, and 3 bells; the interior contains a sarcophagus, with the date 1423, to the memory of Robert Wyclyft, rector of this parish; also a monument to the Layton family, dated 1594, and marble tablets to the memory of the Honorable George Cary, son of Lucius Henry Viscount Falkland, who died April 11, 1792, aged 81; also his wife, Isabella Cary, who died the 12th day of April, 1799, aged 81.  The register dates from the year 1584.

The living is a vicarage, with Middleton and East Rounton annexed, joint yearly value £270, with residence, in the gift of Viscount Falkland and held by the Rev. Robert Joseph Barlow, M.A of Trinity College, Dublin.  The vicarage is a neat modern building, situated on a commanding eminence about a mile from the village, erected by the present incumbent in 1843.

Adjoining to the churchyard, to the west, is a school-house, erected and endowed about the year 1740, at the expense of Charles Bathurst, esq., for the education of boys and girls.

The charities, bequeathed by Lady Amherst, are of £10 yearly value.  Viscount Falkland is lord of the manor and chief landowner.

The soil is loamy; subsoil, strong clay.  The chief crops are wheat, beans and oats.  The population in 1861 was 69, and in 1871, 61; the area is 880 acres; gross estimated rental, £1,341; rateable value, £1,222.

Parish Clerk, Spencer Holmes.

The nearest post office is at Hutton Rudby.-  Henry Willins, receiver.  Letters arrive from Yarm at 9.35 a.m; dispatched, 4.15 p.m.  Yarm is its money order office.

CARRIERS TO - 
MIDDLESBROUGH – James Sidgwick, Friday
STOCKTON – John Bainbridge, Wednesday and Saturday; William Richardson & James Sidgwick, Wednesday
STOKESLEY – William Richardson, Saturday

Walking from Swainby to Faceby - the video

An effortless way to visit the Faceby area:

This video, from Walking With The Taxi Driver, follows a walk in early spring from Swainby to Faceby and back, returning past Whorlton Castle - more photographs of which can be found on wikipedia.

The video walk takes a few minutes to download - it isn't on the Taxi Driver's youtube channel.

Later arrivals join the Faceby Mormons in Utah

Family and friends had been left behind when the Faceby villagers left for America in 1855.  Some of them were able to make the journey themselves much later.

James and Isabella Stanger travel to Utah 1869

The home of James Stanger and his wife Isabella had been the centre of Mormon missionary activity in Faceby, but in 1855 when their three youngest children left for Utah, they stayed behind with their sons James and John.

James Stanger junior(1815-98), a farm labourer, had married Ann Elliott of Hutton Rudby in 1839.  Their eighth child, Henry, was baptised in Faceby in May 1855 - his uncles and aunt had, by then, arrived at Mormon Grove in Kansas Territory.  James and Ann did not become Mormons.  By 1861, James was farming 45 acres at Faceby on his own account, and within a few years he moved his family to Kirby Sigston, where he farmed 75 acres at Sigston Lodge.  From there he went to be at the bedside of the Revd Robert Barlow of Hutton Rudby during his last illness, and registered the death recording his relationship to Mr Barlow as 'cousin'.  He and his wife Ann are buried at Faceby.

By the time the Mormon missionaries arrived in Faceby, John Stanger (1819-98) and his wife Anna Winter were living about ten miles away, at Landmoth-with-Catto near Leake.  They were farming 100 acres at 'Marrigold Hill' (later Marigold Hall, and now Marigold Farm) - this had been Anna's father's farm.

In 1852, their daughter Isabella was born, and in 1854, Anna gave birth to Mary Ann. But within weeks, Anna was dead and John was left with two small children.  It seems very likely that his parents moved to Landmoth to help John after their younger children left for Utah.  Within weeks of the departure of the Faceby Saints, John's baby daughter also died.

The Faceby Mormons settle in Utah

Most of the Faceby villagers settled in Weber County, which lies between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake.  It had been the home of the Ute and the Shoshone, and was well-watered, said to have rich soil, winters not too severe for the area, and plenty of game.  The main settlement was Ogden, where many of the Faceby pioneers are buried. 

They lived through eventful times. 

Faceby Saints in Captain Ballantyne's Company: July to September 1855

The 4th Company was under Captain Richard Ballantyne.  He was 37 years old and Scottish by birth.  He had lived in America for many years and was now returning home from mission in India.

The 4th Company was a train of 46 waggons and 414 people, three horses and a mule.  To each waggon there were ten or eleven people, a yoke of oxen, and a yoke of young steers or cows.  Nearly all the people were funded by the Perpetual Emigration Fund.  They were therefore travelling comparatively light compared with the self-funding 2nd Company, as they were obliged to obey the P.E.F's baggage restrictions.  These were necessary to reduce the burden on the Fund of the expense of transporting goods across the plains.

In this company travelled:

• George Stanger, aged 22 (already secretly married to Mary Etherington)

• Thomas Stanger, aged 25, his wife Jane Wilson, and their toddler

• Jane Wilson’s brother Thomas

• Charles Hogg, aged 24, and his now very pregnant wife Ann Stanger, aged 27, and their son James, aged 2

The Company’s cattle were wild – the “wildest cattle that I had ever seen”, wrote George Mayer, Captain of a Ten.  He had to break them in by having them drag logs round the camp before they set off – and, he remembered,

“the teamsters were as wild and ignorant of oxen and how to yoke cattle as the oxen were, and I found I had my hands full.”

The Etherington family cross the Plains: June to September 1855

John and Elizabeth Etherington, aged 61 and 56, were travelling with four of their children: their two youngest, Thomas (19) and Mary (20); Elizabeth (28) and her husband John Pugh, with their toddler and six month old baby; and Ann (25) with her small son and new baby. 

Ann's husband Thomas Heslop had remained behind in Liverpool and Mary was keeping secret her marriage to George Stanger.

They travelled in the 2nd Company led by Captain Jacob Secrist, a 36 year old who was returning from mission in Germany.  The Captain of the First Ten was Osmyn Merritt Deuel, with whom they had travelled on the Siddons.

There were 368 people in 54 waggons.  More than half of the travellers were Danish. These were self-funding people who had been able to buy up their own supplies for the journey and their new life.  Consequently their problem was not that they were short of provisions, but rather that they were overloaded.

They set out on Thursday 14 June, but they soon encountered difficulties.  There was cholera and measles in the camp and on the 11th day, at Elm Creek on the way to the Big Blue River, they met with disaster.

The Faceby Mormons make ready for the Plains: May & June 1855

Atchison in Kansas Territory was a new town, still under construction.  The people of Atchison were glad to welcome the Mormon emigrants because they provided a workforce while they waited to set off for the west, and because they bought supplies in the town for their journey.

Camping at Mormon Grove

Charles Hogg remembered:

"We moved out on to camp ground May 14; about ten had to occupy one tent. The one we got was not finished. The first night came up a very heavy storm of wind, thunder, lightning, and rain. It blew many of the tents to the ground. The screams of women and children were painful to hear. We passed through three such nights in succession. We had never witnessed such awful storms as were so common in this country. We moved camp (after staying here a few days) to Mormon Grove, about eight miles west of Atchinson."

There was an old Mormon campground near the levée, and they had bought 150 acres on the high prairie some five miles off.  It was well watered and had a grove of hickory trees, and had been named Mormon Grove.  There were high hopes for Mormon Grove – but unfortunately it had to be abandoned after 1855 because of the cholera.

The emigrants, arriving there with ox-drawn waggons from the levee, were surprised by the appearance of this vast tent city, set out in orderly rows.  There they were to spend May and June 1855 planting crops and making preparations for the journey across the Plains.

The Faceby Mormons leave Philadelphia for Kansas Territory

More than half the Mormon emigrants on board the Siddons were stopping in the eastern states, to earn money to make the rest of the journey later – the Wake family from Faceby among them – but the rest of the Faceby Saints were going through to the Valley that season.

President Fullmer took the advice of the Elders in Philadelphia and arranged for the travellers to go by train on the Pennsylvania Central route to Pittsburgh, intending to take a packet ship from there.  They were able to negotiate a price for the travellers, of $4.50 per adult, with 80lb baggage free.

So on Monday 23 April, the emigrants got up at 5 am to get their baggage ready for the Customs inspectors and at last reached the railway station at 11 o'clock.

They would be travelling throughout Monday and Tuesday, arriving at Pittsburgh at 4.15 in the morning.

Henry Stocks wrote:

“I may say that we are nearly all the time traveling through woods, thousands & thousands of acres of timber… I viewed the engine … Not so neat as the English engines, they seem great & clumsy.  Carriages is about 18 yards long, same width as English … Inside there is a passage from one end of the train to the other & seats with backs two feet high.  A stove & potty (or necessary) & a water barrel …”

The Faceby Mormons cross the Atlantic: February to April 1855

1855: Faceby to Liverpool

In the bitter cold of early February 1855, the Faceby Saints made ready to leave.  Charles Hogg

"delivered up books with Branch record to Elder Smith, traveling elder in that part.  Left this part of the world Feb 14, 1855, with a conscience void of offence toward God and all men, free from debt to anyone.  I visited father, mother, and what family there were at home here at Deighton … I could not stay with my beloved father and mother but a few minutes, bid them goodbye, off to catch the train." 

Ann Stanger Hogg's descendants record that,

"it was extremely difficult for them to leave their home and bid their loved ones goodbye, never to see them again, and depart for a strange new land.  It was only their firm belief in the Gospel that gave them such strength."

At the Mission Office in Liverpool the Faceby Saints registered to travel on the Siddons, a sailing ship bound for Philadelphia.

Mormons in Faceby: 1852-55

With Mitt Romney in the final days of his campaign to be President of the USA, this seems the ideal time for the story of the villagers of Faceby who became Mormons and left Yorkshire for America in 1855.

I came across the Faceby Saints when researching my book on the 1832 cholera epidemic in Hutton Rudby and the vicar, Robert Barlow.  When I realised that the Revd Barlow was related to Mormons in Utah, I couldn’t resist finding out more.

View from near Mr Barlow's vicarage towards the hills & Faceby

Luckily the internet provided me with Charles Hogg's account of his own life and the biography of Ann Stanger Hogg written by her granddaughter Katheryn Hart Conger, which enabled me to begin to piece the story together.  I've just looked up those links again for this post, and was delighted to find they now include photographs of Charles and Ann.

More information came from descendants.  After I gave a talk on the subject to the Swainby History Society, I was put in touch with Mrs Dorothy Jewitt, a descendant of William Wilson, and posting an article about the Faceby Saints on my (now defunct) website www.jakesbarn.co.uk brought me contacts from descendants in the USA and the UK.  Each time I've given a talk on the subject it has prompted me to do a bit more research, so I have revised and expanded the original article for this blog.

Faceby, North Yorkshire

In February 1855 a large party of people left the small Yorkshire village of Faceby.  It was the beginning of a long journey to America.  They were Mormons – the members of the Faceby Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and most of them belonged to two extended families, the Etheringtons and the Stangers.

The War Memorial to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division

Not far from Ypres and near the cemetery on the Oxford Road, stands a memorial dedicated ‘to the enduring memory of all ranks of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division who fell in the Great War’.  An inscription below commemorates ‘their comrades of the same Division who gave their lives in the War of 1939-1945 for the liberation of France, Belgium and Holland’.

This was a first line Division of the Territorial Force, drawn from Northumberland, Durham and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire.  It was sent to the Western Front in April 1915 and soon saw action in the Second Battle of Ypres.

The memorial is a plain white pillar in a green enclosure, standing beside a farm on a windswept hillside.

How had the design been chosen?  Amongst the papers of the Middlesbrough solicitor Major T.D.H. (“Duncan”) Stubbs are documents that provide some answers.

Hallowe'en

Time for tales of the supernatural and the ghostly.

Dragons, to begin with.  There was a dragon at Sexhow - and a dragon at Whorl Hill near Swainby.

View of Whorl Hill

(Or possibly, the same dragon, with two lairs).

These frightful Worms were a menace and a dread to the people.  They suffered terribly from the depredations of the beasts, hoping always to be rescued by some gallant knight in shining armour.

When at last the Worm of Sexhow was slain, the happy villagers carried its pelt to the parish church in Hutton Rudby, and hung it in triumph against the wall, where it remained for many long years ...

And now the tale of Awd Nan of Sexhow - a suitably frightful story for Hallowe'en.

Awd Nan had been the village witch.  One night, her ghost appeared to a Sexhow farmer to tell him the whereabouts of some buried treasure.  The silver he was to keep for himself, but the gold must be given to Awd Nan's niece, who lived in Stokesley.  At the end of a year, the ghost warned him, she would be back to see what he had done.  But the foolish man kept both the gold and the silver.  At last Awd Nan reappeared to him and jumped up behind him on his horse at Stokesley.  Seizing him by the throat, she gripped him tighter and tighter until he fell dead at his own door.

And then there's the White Lady of Skutterskelfe (though she might be just the mist over the beck) and some speak of the Grey Lady of Drumrauch, though little is known about her.  I sometimes wonder if they were just ways of terrifying the young from straying far from the village. 

Branwell Brontë’s ‘honest and kindly friend’: Dr John Crosby of Great Ouseburn

An article of particular interest to Brontë enthusiasts:

The experiences of Anne and Branwell Brontë in the household of the Reverend Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green near York had significant and dramatic consequences for them both.

Branwell never worked again after his sudden dismissal as tutor to young Edmund Robinson in June 1845; it precipitated the self-destructive decline that ended in his death in September 1848.  Anne’s novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall derive much material from her five years as governess to the Robinsons’ daughters and from the painful three years at Haworth Parsonage during which Branwell descended into drunkenness, irreligion and despair.

The cause of Branwell’s dismissal has long been a subject of debate, while in recent years there has been increasing interest in Anne and appreciation of her work. The lack of information about their time at Thorp Green has therefore been most unfortunate; the following account of Branwell’s ‘honest and kindly friend’ [1]  Dr John Crosby and his friends and neighbours, whose social life Branwell probably shared, may therefore be appreciated.

Industrial Hutton Rudby

Rudby corn mill, Hutton linen mill & the church

More photographs from the History Society's collection:-


The Rudby corn mill is in the foreground of this picture, and beyond lie the buildings of the Hutton sailcloth mill.

Hutton sailcloth mill

The sailcloth mill seen from across the river Leven.

The mill with the church beyond

The Bathurst Charity School can be seen to the left of the church.

Bleach works 1877

The bleach works were on the Hutton side of the river - behind them, on the Rudby side, can be seen Spout Bank, which was said to provide a supply of good water that did not run dry in summer.

Hutton Rudby in old photographs

East Side 1879

This photograph of East Side was taken the year after the trees were planted on the Green - they were protected from livestock with iron guards.

To the right of the picture can be seen Hutton House - the tower had not yet been built.  The tree guard nearest to the photographer masks the point where Barkers Row ends - the houses in the centre of the picture are set back from the Row.  The pump has not yet been installed.

East Side in the early 1900s

This photograph shows the entrance to the Wheatsheaf Inn was via the archway, which led through to stabling and a cottage.

Hutton House

Hutton House now has its tower, and there are railings at the front of Barkers Row.

The pump on the Green c1905

Geese gathering round the pump and children playing on the Green ...

A photograph of Enterpen in quieter times, looking in the direction of the Green.

On the left can be seen a blacksmith's shop and the Station Hotel.  The smithy stood at the junction with Doctors Lane.

Hutton Rudby ornament

The church, the plough, the loom.
(Height: 4.5 cms)

Allan Bowes Wilson of Hutton Rudby & the artist Ralph Hedley

There is an interesting and close link between the Wilson family, who owned the Hutton Rudby sailcloth mill,

Hutton Mill, seen from the Rudby side of the river

and the Newcastle painter and artist, Ralph Hedley (1848-1913), many of whose paintings can be seen in the Laing Gallery.     

For years Hedley was out of fashion and his paintings were destroyed or thrown away – but more recently they have come back into favour as a record of ordinary life in the North East in the late 19th century.

George Wilson, founder of the family linen business at Hutton Rudby, had four sons and one daughter.

The eldest, James Alder Wilson, became Rector of Crathorne.  The youngest, John George Wilson, after excelling as an athlete at school and at Oxford, became a solicitor in Durham.  He inherited Staindrop Hall, on the condition that the family surname was changed to Luxmoore.  Allan Bowes Wilson and Thomas Bowes Wilson, the second and third sons, took over the sailcloth manufactury on their father’s death.

Allan Bowes Wilson, c1903

Thomas married and lived at Enterpen Hall.

Allan – though gossip has it that he kept a mistress in the village – never married and lived with his unmarried sister Annie in Hutton House, on the Green.

John George Wilson (1849-c1930) was Ralph Hedley’s solicitor, friend and patron.  He was a keen buyer of Hedley’s paintings and carved furniture and recommended the artist to friends.

Ralph Hedley lived in Newcastle from the age of two, but he had been born at Gilling West near Richmond and he returned to the North Riding as often as he could – Runswick Bay was a favourite destination.  He specialised in scenes of ordinary working life, using his sketchbook and making notes in preparing his paintings, and also even taking photographs.

Allan Bowes Wilson (c1839-1932) also collected Hedley’s work.

He commissioned Hedley to paint the Bilsdale Hunt, arranging with him by letter to meet several of the huntsmen at Spout House, Bilsdale. I don’t know how the picture came to be used as an advertisement for Bovril, but I believe the artist wasn’t very happy.

'Counting the Bag'

The nearby Sun Inn was also the setting for Hedley’s 'Counting the Bag' which was painted in 1902 and bought by Allan Bowes Wilson.

Another of Hedley’s works, ‘The Brickmakers’, was painted somewhere near Hutton Rudby:

Sketch for 'The Brickmakers'

John Millard’s book ‘Ralph Hedley: Tyneside Painter’ is only available second hand at the moment, so I hope he'll forgive me including the sketch for ‘The Brickmakers’ which features as an illustration in his book.

It has been suggested that the scene depicted is somewhere near Faceby Manor, but perhaps one of you will have a better idea?


Many thanks to Clodagh Brown, great-granddaughter of Ralph Hedley, who contacted me to tell me of this fascinating link and for all her information.

For more on the Wilson family, see this blogpost on James Wilson, the founder of their fortunes.

The Roman Catholic population of Hutton Rudby, c1780 to 1830

After the Reformation, the mediaeval frescoes in Hutton Rudby parish church were whitewashed over and a wealthy parishioner left money in his Will for a pulpit to be installed, in accordance with the new Protestant emphasis on preaching.

Even so, in the late 16th century, Rudby was still known as one of the local centres of Catholicism and we know of two prominent Catholics in the parish: Sir John Ingilby and the Venerable Mary Ward.

Sir John Ingilby of Lawkland owned the manor of Rudby.  He was prosecuted for recusancy in 1604.  A labourer from Crathorne destroyed a seat in a close in Rudby which belonged to Sir John “on which the said John, an old man and lame, was wont to rest himself”. 

Mary Ward (1585-1645) lived in quietly in Rudby parish near the end of her life, after her many hard years of journeying in Europe and her struggle to found the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In 1642, during the Civil Wars, she came back to her native Yorkshire and took refuge at Hutton Rudby with her Ingilby relatives.  During her time there, Mary prayed at the shrine of Our Lady at Mount Grace.

I think we can assume that she stayed in the old manor house of Rudby, which stood beside the river Leven.  (There is nothing of it to be seen today - only a field, across the road from the church).  In this obscure corner of the Ingilby estates it seems very unlikely that the family maintained another house that could be suitable for sheltering an elderly and infirm woman and her companions.

Hutton Rudby was, in those days, a very remote place and in early 1643 Mary decided that she must move to Heworth near York, in order to be in communication with friends and supporters.  She died there on 30 January 1645.  She was the foundress of the Bar Convent, York.

Apart from Sir John and Mary Ward, we know very little of Catholics living in the village - until the baptismal registers for St Mary's in Crathorne provide us with names for the period c1780 to 1830.

The Baptismal Register of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Crathorne 1777 to 1839

I obtained a copy of St Mary's baptismal register while researching my book on Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera.  My transcription follows below - please check against the original before relying on it.

The baptismal register book for St Mary’s, Crathorne is held at the National Archive (Public Record Office) at Kew and covers the period 1777 to 1839. 

During this time Parliament restored civil rights to Catholics in a series of Relief Acts beginning in 1778 and culminating in 1829 with the Catholic Emancipation Act. 

The register begins with an introduction by Thomas Ferby:  

“A Baptismal Book belonging Crathorne [sic] in which an account is kept of the children that have been baptized by me Thos Ferby Eng.h Miss. since Novr 1st 1777”

Crathorne in 1840

Crathorne, as described in White's Directory 1840:

Crathorne, a village and parish on the Thirsk road, and on the western side of the vale of the river Leven, 4 miles S by E of Yarm, contains 304 souls, and 2,460 acres of land, mostly the property of Mrs Mary Tasburgh, of Burghwallis, the lady of the manor and patroness of the Church, (All Saints) which is a small ancient edifice, and has in its chancel the recumbent effigy of a crusader, supposed to represent Sir Wm Crathorne, Kt, who lived in 1322, and whose family was long seated here.  The rectory, valued in K.B. at £10 11s 10 ½d and now at £205, is enjoyed by the Rev Ralph Grenside, B A.
Here is a Catholic Chapel, which was rebuilt about sixteen years ago, and was founded by the Crathorne family.  The interest of £74  4s 8 ½d, left by Thomas Baxter, in 1769, is paid to a schoolmaster for the education of poor children.

Crathorne in 1823

Crathorne, as described in Baines' Directory 1823:

Crathorne in the wap and liberty of Langbargh; 4 miles SSE of Yarm.
The church, which is dedicated to All Saints, is an ancient plain structure;  in the chancel is an effigy of a knight cumbent in armour cross-legged, with the arms of Crathorne on his shield.  This, it is conjectured, is the monument of Sir William Crathorne, Knight, who lived A.D 1322, near which is a mural monument, to the memory of Ralph Crathorne, Lord of Crathorne.  The living is a rectory, in the patronage of Lord Viscount Cullen.
Here is likewise a Catholic chapel, and a place of worship for the Primitive Methodists.
A mineral spring has been discovered about half a mile from this place.  The village consists of about sixty-six houses pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Leven.  Pop 330.

Hutton Rudby parish council, April 1947

This account of the Annual Meeting of Hutton Rudby Parish Council was published in the Darlington & Stockton Times on 5 April 1947. 

A fascinating glimpse of the past.

They debated the cobbled footpaths, the proposal for public toilets, the village school, the burial ground and the acute post-War housing shortage:

Edwardian Hutton Rudby

Some photographs from the Hutton Rudby History Society collection.  Most are from the early 20th century, showing North End and North Side in Edwardian times:

Hutton village pond

The pond was opposite the end of Doctors Lane.  The photograph shows the view looking east towards the Green and the back of the houses on North End.

Elwick House is on the left and the back of Elwick Terrace can be seen - it was built in 1905.

North End

This row of cottages on the right hand side of North End is much changed today but still recognisable.
The view beyond is quite different now!







The top of North End with the junction with North Side and the Post Office.

North End - North Side

Now a little further along, turning around to look back along North Side, westward towards the Post Office:

North Side

The mounting block and the King's Head can be seen in the distance.

The Green, and the view from the Green, were changed substantially by the planting of the avenues of trees in 1878.  Here is an early view of North Side before the trees had grown:

North Side c1885

Stringer's Row and The Elms are visible at the right of the picture.

The eastern end of North Side after the trees had begun to mature - Stringer's Row is to the right.

North Side

A thank you

Many thanks to all of you who turned out in such filthy weather last night and gave me such a warm welcome for my talk about the 1832 Cholera in Hutton Rudby - it was lovely to see so many familiar faces!

The People behind the Plaques: memorials in All Saints', Hutton Rudby

All Saints', Rudby-in-Cleveland

5 February 2022:  a revised version of this, slightly shorter with more illustrations is to be found here – I hope it's written in a more accessible, less formal style – and I hope it will be useful for families and visitors to the church!

On the walls of the church of All Saints there are plaques and tablets which require no explanation – the 1914-18 War Memorial, for example – but others commemorate people once well-known locally, often as generous benefactors to the church and village, who are now almost forgotten. 

The following was written as a booklet to cast some light on the shadowy people behind the plaques.

Most of them knew a church very different from the one we see today, which is the result of the major restoration that took place in 1923.  Photographs of the building work, which took eight months to complete, are displayed on the north wall of the nave.  The recreation of the Lady Chapel and the exposed stonework of the nave and south aisle both date from this restoration, and most of the stained glass windows were put in after this date. 

In the years between 1860 and 1923 the inside of the church was plastered throughout and many of the pews, in the chancel as well as the nave, were of the “box” or square “family” type.  John Walker Ord in his History of Cleveland of 1846 described them as

“chiefly of oaken wood, in the old style, with pins fastened above for the convenience of hats.”  

The pews in the south aisle faced across the nave and there was a gallery across the west end of the church, erected in the 18th century and used by the small orchestra of church musicians; their instruments included a bassoon, oboe and strings.  A harmonium was acquired at the end of the 1860s and replaced by an organ in 1895, which was housed in what is now the choir vestry.

Major alterations were made in 1860.  For nearly a century there had been a flat plaster ceiling above the nave, and for most of that time the ancient church windows were replaced by sash windows, like those used for houses.  The ceiling was removed in 1860 and in the course of the alterations they found, under the layers of limewash covering the walls and pillars, the last remains of the mediaeval wall paintings, and rediscovered the fine marquetry of the Elizabethan pulpit under several layers of paint. 

In the 16th century the church interior was radically altered by the religious turmoil of the years following Henry VIII’s split with Rome: “papist trappings” were replaced by bare walls, pulpit and pews.  The mediaeval church’s candle-lit rood loft across the chancel arch, the painted angels between the arches, the battle-scene depicted around the South door, the images of the Virgin and the Saints, the altar of St Christopher and the chapel of St Cuthbert (referred to in Wills of 1483 and 1505), the chantry chapel: all were removed.

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.