My Halloween Memories - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  to share their family history and memories through photographs.  This week's theme is Ghosts,  who we associate with Halloween, so I have chosen to look  back at my own memories of this holiday weekend.  

 

 

Ghostly figures here 

Image by LensPulse from Pixabay 

Halloween was almost a non-event in both my childhood and my daughter’s, as traditions took a long time to reach Britain from across the Atlantic.

 

I can remember, though, a popular children's game we played at Guides in autumn  -  "Apple Dookin"  where we had our hands tied behind our back with a scarf,  and had to kneel at a tub of water to try and grab an apple with our mouths without getting wet.  Another version (still with our hands tied)  was to hang apples on a piece of string and again try to get a bite out of them as they swung too and fro.   

 
Turnips were used to  to create lanterns,   as pumpkins were a rarity here. 

 

  Image courtesy of Pixabay

Witches were always a popular theme  at fancy dress parties throughout the year and my daughter  (and now granddaughter) enjoyed reading the "Worst Witch " books.   As for chants - it was  

Double, double toil and trouble;
     Fire burn and cauldron bubble.  

(As proclaimed by the witches  in  Shakespeare's play "Macbeth").

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Shops here eventually discovered the commercial opportunity from Halloween  and have been  full of orange and black wares, since September.   Where I live, houses with young children have luminous skeletons and witch decorations  in their windows and an occasional pumpkin appears at front doors.   The primary school marks the event with a school disco - in fancy dress of course!

"Trick and Treat" has never caught on much in my experience, with reservations about youngsters knocking on the doors of people they don't know.  In the years we have lived in our present home, only once have we had visitors - two very polite little groups (with mothers in the background), who regaled me  with jokes e.g.  What does the Chinese skeleton order in a restaurant?   Answer:  Spare ribs!! 

What I do love about this time of year are "Pumpkins"! My daughter even gave me a pumpkin candle for my birthday in September.  They are such  lovely,  cheery symbols and I could not stop photographing them when I was in the USA.

We just had to pull into this huge display, so I could take this photograph! 

 A pumpkin dominating this display at Boston market.

 

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Click HERE to find  ghostly tales  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

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Up in the Air - Sepia Saturday

An early aeroplane c.1910 features in this week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.     But how was this new form of transport regarded?  My local press in the Scottish Borders provided some answers.  

 Background - I live in Earlston a rural village, 34 miles south of Edinburgh, where the population according to the in 1921 census was   1,749 people. 

Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered flight on December 17th  1903. 

 

 

 

The aeroplane came of age in World War One.   But, despite there being hundreds of sites used by fixed-wing aircraft across the UK, most British people had never been close to an aircraft and it appears that a quite large proportion of the population still hadn't actually seen one. 

 

 On 24th July 1924, local newspaper  "The Southern Reporter" thought it noteworthy to write that:  

"Three aeroplanes  passed over the west end of Earlston about 8.30 a.m  but  were observed by comparatively few persons."

Following the First World War, experienced fighter pilots were eager to show off their new skills, flying into towns across the country, as well as taking paying passengers for rides. It was men like Alan Cobham who promoted air tours to raise awareness of the importance of aviation. To attract the crowds  he included displays of not just aerobatics, but stunt' flying too.  

 

This 1930s poster   is in the collection of my local heritage group Auld Earlston.  Printed in the nearby town of Galashiels, it appears to be a "shell" poster, with space to fill in the details of date and venue.  

The event promised: 

"Famous pilots, aerobatics, stunts, looping, rolling, upside down flying,  crazy flying and  walking the wings at 100m.p.h. by Daredevil Draycott - the man who rides the winds" - plus passenger flights from  5 shillings a time.

"The Berwickshire News" of 28th July 1931  gave a fuller account, with the revelation that the local firm of Messrs Wm Rodger & Sons owned the plane.  

"Earlston is very fortunate in being the first town in Berwickshire to witness an aeronautic display.  On Monday evening a large number of Earlstonians were entertained to a succession of thrills by the advent of an aeroplane, the property of Messrs W. Rodger  & Sons which gave several aerial exhibitions at a newly constructed aerodrome at Purveshaugh, Earlston.  The enterprising firm is lucky to have secured the services of an skilled aviator and pilot   in the person of Mr J. Hinklin of Hornchurch and late of the Royal Air Force.  They have also secured the services of a competent ground engineer  viz Mr. J. Hellon  of the Scarborough Aero Club.  The pilot gave a thrilling exhibition of  flying in the presence of a crowd of nearly 400 spectators, many of whom were desirous of "getting up".  Messrs Rodgers gave a couple of free flights which were greatly enjoyed and appreciated.  It is understood that operations are to commence immediately".  

The next week's paper of  4th August 1931 noted that

"A considerable number of spectators...visited the Purveshaugh Aerodrome, near Earlston...when about 100 persons of both sexes, mainly young people, booked flights  and were taken up in   Messers Rodgers aeroplane.  The plane had also been in commission the previous evening when 50 passengers went up. All seemed to enjoy the novel and enthralling sensation."

 

  

Photograph courtesy of Pixabay 

 "The Berwickshire News" of August  1932 reflected the interest in this new form of transport with reports:  

"Considerable interest  was evinced....by several Earlstonians of the younger generation, especially when one of Messrs Rodger's aeroplanes landed in a field adjacent to the local football pitch owned by Mr Alexander Brownlie, The machine which had just arrived from Blairgowrie after a successful series of flights, under the pilotage of Mr Wells, made  a convenient landing preparatory to being overhauled  for further service. " 

Not all sections of society were in agreement with this intensive event schedule.   in Berwick, the Lord's Day Observance Society  objected to Commercial Air Displays and Pageants being held on a Sunday - but the council decided to take no action. on the complaint. (Reported in "The Southern Reporter": 3rd December 1931. 

An optimistic  writer in "The  Berwickshire News" of 9th September 1930 expressed the hope that: 

"We must concern ourselves  with the laying out of aerodromes. I thoroughly believe that it will not be long before every town planning scheme will include provision for aeroplane traffic."  

1939 of course changed the face of air travel, as war became the focus.  

Never again was Earlston  to be at the forefront of the aeroplane age in the Scottish Borders.

 

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Onto more modern times:

 

 My brother Chris in the 1980s had a half  share in a small plane and gained his pilot’s licence.  Chris flew the plane from his home on the English south coast to the small airport at the seaside resort of Blackpool in north west England for a family gathering. 

 

  

Daughter sitting at the controls! 

 

 

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 And if you feel like being more adventurous,  - but definitely not my idea of fun   - a para glider - a photograph taken from our hotel balcony near Innsbruck Austria.

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.  

  

 

 

Clic HERE to see more posts from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

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Happiness is Stitching - Week 43 of 52 Ancestors

This week the prompt from "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks"  is "Handmade".   There was no   question how I would respond - with a profile of my talented mother who was apprenticed to a tailor at the age of fourteen.  I always thought that her motto could be  "Happiness is Stitching".

My mother, Kathleen Danson of Poulton le Fylde  Lancashire was born in 1908, the middle of three sisters.  Kathleen set up a dressmaking business from her home - the business card  below I only came across after her death.  She was still making her own clothes in her 80's - though on a much more sophisticated sewing machine than the old treadle she began on, for my grandfather's home did not get electricity until the mid 1950s. 

                                

 

Mum modelling one of her dresses  c. early 1930s

 

 

Another  1930s outfit

 

 Mum on he left with her sister Edith

 The two sisters out to enjoy themselves

 For Mum to go into a fabric shop was like going into a jeweller's.   If she sat down, she was rarely without a needle in her hand.  She was a creator in patchwork, crochet, collage, knitting, embroidery, smocking, dolls and dresses, with dabbles into  millinery, lampshade making and china painting.

She continued her home dressmaking  throughout her life.  In the 1950's this meant working in the spare bedroom which was icy cold in winter and hot and stuffy in summer.  I remember one time when my little brother - a typical boy into everything - got hold of her oiling can, filled it with water and proceeded to "oil" the sewing machine!.  He was not very popular!      

A formal photograph  of my brother and I.  We were both  wearing outfits made by my mother,  with Chris in a smocked baby top and myself in a blouse, with cross stitched  embroidery.

 I benefited from Mum's activities - I had the best dressed dolls on the street and enjoyed cutting up her old Butterick and Simplicity pattern books and creating characters and "schools" from the fashion figures.   I was also intrigued by her invoice book with carbon paper creating  copies - one for her customer and one to keep or her own records. 

Mum  was a typical homemaker of the 1950's and 60's -- and beyond.  She was always making something - cushions changed their covers regularly, new patchwork quilts appeared on the beds and new curtains at the windows, worn sheets were turned, old bath towels were cut, and trimmed into hand towels, tray cloths and table cloths were embroidered.

Many years later, my own daughter was 8 years and had a collection of Cindy dolls - the British version of Barbie, - with a lovely wardrobe of clothes. again made by  my mother.  Mum was in her mid 70's  and with fading eyesight, yet the small scale stitching on the clothes is so impressive.

Mum was also skilled in a variety of crafts - on show below

     

  An Alice in Wonderland collage, stitched by my mother  for my daughter, 1973.   

More of my mother's  creations:

                     

 

Animals were a favourite choice. 

 

 

 

 

And finally below - My mother modelling an outfit she made in a big  event  organized by the Scottish Women's Rural Institute (SWRI) - 1968

 

 

 

 

Mum died at the age of 91  and was still making hr own clothes in her 80's as well as a patchwork quilt for the bed.   These heirlooms here, may not be all that old,  but they are precious to me and a potent visible reminders of my very talented mother,  whose life indeed was "Happiness is Stitching".  

 

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Memories of Fires - Sepia Saturday

"Fire" is the theme of this week's Sepia a Saturday's prompt photograph  - I am struggling with this prompt g as a large  fire disaster very fortunately did not feature in the lives of my ancestors, beyond the obvious  necessity of keeping the fire in the hearth burning for heat and  cooking.  

 So I feature here a brief report of a tragic accident that befell my grandmother's  sister;  I   turned to my local history  and the story of a fire that impacted opn the Wallace family in Earlston in the Scottish Border, and finally  my childhood memories of the hearth  fire in my grandfather's house in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.    

 

 Image by Eneida_Mattou from Pixabay

The Southern Reporter of 17th September 1874 reported the news of a devastating fire in Earlston at the joiner's  workshop of John Wallace.

 

"The inhabitants of Earlston were at nine o' clock on Thursday last,  alarmed by the unusual and ominous cry of "Fire".    A cry which turned out to be all too true; the workshop, a wooden erection of Mr. John Wallace, joiner being discovered to be in flames. 

Plenty of willing workers, men, women and even children rushed to the scene, but all saw at a glance that  the shop and  its contents were doomed.......Hardly had some of the men withdrawn when part of the shop fell with a crash thereby endangering the dwelling house of Mr Wallace which forms one of the range of two storey houses known as New Street.   So imminent the danger that at this time most of the dwellers  had removed their household goods and chattels. And that with such a hurry and confusion to cause no  little damage.

During  the dire struggle  to save the house, the fire spread in another direction. and caught hold of a stable in the adjoining property belonging to Mr David Jameson, grocer. All that could be done was done to save it, but the flames gained their mastery, but not before, however, the livestock were got out.  

The damage sustained by Mr, Wallace  is estimated as fully £500,  and is not covered by insurance.  The workmen in his employment have also lost all their tools.......

Great sympathy is expressed by the public to Mr. Wallace. and his men.....and a public meeting was held in the Corn Exchange  on Thursday night ......  A subscription was at once opened ....on Monday the sum  amounted to upwards of £140.  

It is but fair to Mr. Wallace  to say that he had  insured the property up to two years ago, but not only the office with which he had been insured,  but another to which he applied, refused to undertake the risk on any terms.   

The stable and property belonging to Mr Jamieson was insured.  

[Note:   £500 in 1874 is equivalent to £41,500 today - website Measuring Worth]

Seven  years on in the 1881 census, John Wallace was back in business, described as master joiner employing 5 men.  

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The Wallace family remained very grateful for the generosity of the Earlston people.  John Wallace's daughter Isabella was 20 years old at the time of the fire.  She never married keeping house for her brother George, also a joiner. She  died in 1920 and  In her will, after bequests to her nephews and nieces and to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,  left the sum of £3,240 to Earlston Parish Council "For the purpose of improving the amenities of the Town of Earlston including footpaths, paving and lighting and similar objects."

Council records held at the Heritage Hub, Hawick confirm that the Isabella Wallace Fund was used for the provision of lighting, the upgrading of the Square, with railings around the War Memoria, .the removal of the air raid shelter and a gateway and railings at the riverside park of Mill Meadow, where she is still remembered today.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Scottish history is full of men and women who  stepped into the unknown by leaving their homeland behind and emigrating to far flung places.  Many of them might not be familiar names, yet they made their mark abroad, but never forgot where they had come from. 

One such man was Isaac Wallace of Earlston (1841-1921), brother of John and Isabella.    He emigrated to Victoria, Australia,   where  he named his new home "Earlston", set up a butter factory, and involved himself in community affairs, both in Australia, but also on a return visit to Earlston towards the end of his life. 

                              

A group photograph of the Wallace family  taken on Isaac's return to Earlston.  He is thought to be the tall figure on the left of the back row,with his brothers, John,  Robert & George and sister Isabella. 

 

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A sad tale  involving a fire -  my great grandmother's sister  Fanny Elizabeth Matthews  died aged 33 in 1909, following a tragic  accident when a lighted candle set fire to her apron and she died of the burns - with the inquest reported in the local paper "The Wolverhampton Express & Sta" :  22 September 1909.  

 

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And  finally, my childhood memories of the fire at my grandfather's house in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.  

 

 

 

 There was one surprising feature about the house, though - it did not have electricity until the late 1950's, because my grandfather refused to have it installed. I remember my Aunt Edith  standing on a chair to light the ceiling gas lights, and ironing with a  flat iron, heated in the open  fire in the living room, whilst the flames from the gas cooker in the kitchen frightened me as a child. So of course the only form of heating the 3 bedroomed house  was from the  coal fire.

 

 I liked to be around when the coal lorry called.   For  half way up the side wall  of the house  was a small hatch door which revealed the coal shute where the coal men emptied  their heavy sacks down into a small cellar under the stairs.  

 

 A copper kettle stood in the hearth which I was told belonged  belonged ot my great grandmother Maria Dnson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919). 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs. 

 

 

 Click HERE to  see more fire  stories  from other Sepia Saturday  blogger.

 

 

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