TAKING THE ICY PLUNGE
READING Mrs Michael's letter (Issue 79) reminded me of my experiences in the Berwick bathing pools. I started at Berwick Grammar School, aged 11, in 1932 and, living in Cornhill, I was a country lad and had not yet learned to swim.
Swimming started at the beginning of the summer term, and if Easter was at its earliest this could mean the beginning of April. I recall undressing among the rocks, blue with cold and being dragged in a kind of harness through the freezing cold water. Getting dressed among the same rocks afterwards, numb with cold, must have been an ordeal, but at least the dreaded swimming was over.
My family maintain that I have always suffered from a horror of cold water.
- Douglas Cunningham, Sturdee Gardens, Jesmond, Newcastle.
Uncommonly common
SINCE coming to live in Northumberland I have been a regular birdwatcher, but was surprised to see in the list of the region's top 10 winter species (Issue 77) that the commonest gull recorded was the unfortunately-named 'common' gull. It was more frequently seen than the black-headed, and the herring gull was not listed in the article.
I would have thought that either of these would be seen more frequently than the common. I've not been aware of seeing even one, and have always thought of it as being somewhat rare, especially inland.
Is this a local description of one of the other gulls?
- C.R. Peers, New Ridley Road, Stocksfield.
Village forge fell silent
THIS delightful small building, which I photographed last year, lies on its own in a lane about six miles from Wooler, near the village of Kirknewton. On my behalf the tourist information office in Wooler kindly spoke to some local folk, who assured us it was a forge.
In the days when land was worked by man and horse there would have been a number of these small centres of industry. If there are other silent forges in the area, one wonders when the last horse was shod and whether the other abandoned buildings are as attractive as this one, with its colourful stone and encroaching greenery.
- Major Douglas Mart, Dellwood Avenue, Felixstowe, Suffolk.
VINTAGE RHUBARB WINE
I READ with interest Veronica Heath's article (Issue 79) on the origin and uses of rhubarb. However, she is very much mistaken when she says that rhubarb wine has no history in Britain.
My father had an allotment on which he grew two kinds of rhubarb. One, which he simply called “early”, was long and thin and a delicate pink, was quite sweet and made delicious tarts. The other, which ripened later, was very tart, and when I accompanied him to the allotment I used to take a little tin full of sugar in which to dip the end of the rhubarb stick before biting it off.
It was this second variety which was used to make rhubarb wine. We used to keep it for about six months before drinking it, by which time it was quite potent. All sorts of vegetables and fruit were used to make home-made wines, but I think that rhubarb, along with beetroot, was the strongest.
My wife, who was brought up on a farm in Devon, tells me that they used rhubarb wine as a cureall, much in the way the Chinese did.
- J. W. Perry, High Street, Gosforth, Newcastle.
The Proctors of Dunstan
I AM researching the history of Dunstan Hall, which was featured in The Northumbrian (Issue 68). I am particularly interested in the Proctors, who lived here from about 1700 to 1778. When Edward Bateson was researching the history of Dunstan for his History of Northumberland (1895), he spoke to a Thomas Cook of Alnwick, a descendant of the Proctors, who apparently had very interesting documents relating to the family, but I have no idea where these documents are now.
I would very much like to talk to anybody who has information about this branch of the Proctor family.
- Julia Carnwath, Dunstan Hall, Dunstan, Alnwick.
PEEKING AT THE CASTLE
JOHN GRUNDY's article about Chillingham castle (Issue 79) was read with great interest. Recollections of my visits to the estate go back to the mid-1970s, when we visited family friends who lived in the old gatehouse which lay to the north of the castle. It had walls three to four feet thick and the building was six- or eight-sided. Because of the exterior shape all the interior walls went inwards at different angles, which made decorating and placing of furniture a headache.
The “elder former resident” mentioned would undoubtedly have been Lady Violet Tankerville, (second wife of the eighth Earl), who apparently died only last year, aged 95.
At that time she lived in a small house which was part of a row of estate cottages. Her strict orders were that no-one should go near the castle except by invitation - but I couldn't resist a peek, and with my first son we crept through the overgrown path and over the small bridge leading to the castle.
Gazing through the trees, we saw a grass bank running up to the castle walls, and on the top of the slope in full sunlight was a magnificent red deer stag, standing in a 'Monarch of the Glen' pose, with about a dozen hinds to one side. Oh, for a camera!
- Peter Atkinson, Larchwood Avenue, Walkerville, Newcastle.
Evetts at Shieldfield
I READ with great interest the account of stained glass windows designed and made by Leonard Evetts (Issue 78). I enclose a photograph of the beautiful large window he designed for the Martin Luther Church in Shieldfield, Newcastle, in 1965.
The church, built in 1965, is the home of the Germanspeaking Lutheran congregation and is also used by Danish Lutherans for their services.
As the big window designed by Mr Evetts faces south, the Christian symbols of the cross, the fish and the Alpha and Omega are lit up beautifully when the sun shines.
I was treasurer when we built the church and had the privilege of meeting Mr Evetts on several occasions.
- Esther Procter, Linden Way, Ponteland.
Brunton as an airship base
I WAS most interested in your article on Brunton aerodrome (Issue 78). I have a clear memory of being in a car returning an airman to Brunton late at night about 1944, and I explored the aerodrome as a teenager after the war.
I also remember being told of a First World War airship station just north of Brunton. This appears to have been part of a network of airship stations on the east coast of England and Scotland, sending patrols out over the North Sea to guard against submarines. The airships were almost certainly either the Sea Scout Pusher or the Zero model. The Zero had a threeman crew, a 75 BHP Rolls-Royce Hawk engine and carried one 250lb and two 110 lb bombs.
The old lady who told me about this seems, in her youth, to have been quite friendly with the officers who flew the airships. I wonder if anyone else has any memories of Chathill airship station or indeed any similar.
- Jim Manners, Janlyn Road, Vista, South Australia.
Spittal chimney
I CAN give an approximate answer to Steve Newman's question about the tall chimney at Spittal (Issue 78). About 80 years ago I was walking around with my father when we looked into the adjoining buildings.
We found a chemical factory making sulphuric acid from iron pyrites (a sulphur-iron compound) and the chimney was part of the factory.
Also beside the promenade was a large Forte's ice cream shop - one of several throughout the border towns run by a nephew of Charles Forte.
- George L. Batty, Chester Road, Northwich, Cheshire.
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