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Your great grandfather, James Scott, also worked as an agricultural labourer. In 1901 when Ralph gives his occupation as Farmer/butcher, James is working with his brothers on the farm as a labourer. In 1903 he is still in the area, presumably working at Westfield, when he marries. His children are born: Ralph at Springhill, just a stone's throw away from North Sunderland, Mary Jane is, in fact, born at Westfield and Henry at Elford - also a stone's throw away from North Sunderland. It's not clear if James was living at Westfield or elsewhere. The children may have been born at the homes of Mary Jane's relatives which was quite a common occurance. Mary Jane, your great grandmother, was from Norham, which is also on the map just south west of Berwick so she was a local lass. By 1911 James and his family have made the move from North Sunderland to Holborn about 11 miles south of Berwick on Tweed. It is here he becomes a farmer, working for himself at West Holborn. Lowick Beal. Address: Farm House, Holborn West. (See https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1156167 for map and better photo or ‘drive’ past on Google maps as I did). The farm is now a grade 2 listed building. If you’d like any of the documentation from which I’ve taken this info leave your e- post address in my mail box (move your marker over my ‘hat’ and choose ‘message’. It’s not wise to leave it here on site.

@Susan J-D Hi again! This may be long! I don’t know how well you know the area so I’ll start with a map which covers most of the places I’ll mention: Berwick, Seahouses, Bamburgh, Wooler, Lowick, Belford and Chathill. North Sunderland isn’t shown but it’s almost part of Seahouses. It’s not a huge area as you see. Your great grandfather James and his father, Ralph, didn’t jointly have a farm. They had 2 quite separate places and I can’t say if they owned or rented them. Ralph, who would be your 2x great grandfather, was an agricultural labourer at the age of 19 living with his widowed mother in New Bewick near Wooler. 10 years later, in 1871, he is married and living in the small village of North Sunderland, adjacent to Seahouses on the north east coast and is a butcher. He seems to live here for many years with the same neighbours and his children are all born here. In 1891 he gives his occupation as “Butcher & farmer” and he is now self-employed, so he has presumably taken over a farm – rented or bought. He employs his sons: George as his butcher’s assistant and Ralph jr – 13 years old - as a shepherd. Just where the farm is located isn’t clear from the documentation available other than that it is in North Sunderland, In 1911 the farm address is given as “Westfield, Chathill”, which is about 9 miles north of Alnwick and 3 miles inland from the North Sea coast between Seahouses and Bamburgh. I think it’s fair to presume that it is still the same farm. He now gives his occupation as “Farmer”only so he seems to have given up butchering – possibly to his son George. His sons, Ralph jr, & John, and daughter Annie work for him. As Annie is a dairy maid it may be a dairy farm. Ralph dies in 1913 and I can see that his son, Ralph jr. seems to take over the farm. In 1921 he is still single and running the farm together with his unmarried sister, Annie, as housekeeper. Today, Westfield is a B & B guest house.

Just to add my Great Grandfather died in Ashington in 1952 and my Great Grandmother Mary Jane Scott died in Ashington in 1964 they may have stayed at the farm until then but I am not sure

Hi, Thank you so much for this - it had gone into my spam I really appreciate this- do you have any information about the Farm in Lowick that you say he and his father owned this is fascinating. I will tell my cousin his mother and my mother played at "Home Farm" and I have pictures of our Grandfather John Derry Patterson there with my mother and aunt. John Derry Patterson came from Berwick and married my Grandmother Mary Jane Scott in Ashington and then they moved to Berwick. I have managed to download one picture out of several on the Northumberland Archives site and I will ring them on Wednesday to speak to them Thank you again for all your help. When I speak to Northumberland Archives I will pay for some photos when I can actually see some of them. Susan

Hi again @Susan J-D. It’s been a cold, wet weekend here which gave me time to have another look at your question. I still think that Coney Garth may be the home farm for Bothal Castle – which was originally the manor house before being granted the rights to call itself a castle. As a manor house under the feudal system, it would certainly have a home farm. As I said before, the home farm was usually close to the manor house and that would certainly make Coney Garth a respectable contender. However, I have to admit that I have been assuming that Coney Garth (marked red on the map) and Coneygarth Moor Farm (marked blue on the map) were the same thing. A more thorough rummage through the old maps has shown me that this was not the case. Coney Garth has been named on maps since at least 1805 and, while the small cluster of buildings to its east have appeared an equally long time, it is not until 1921 that the name Coneygarth Moor appears. Your great grandfather, James Scott, seems (according to the births of his sons James and Thomas John) to have moved the 40 or so miles from Lowick to Ashington at some point roughly between 1914 and 1921. Just where he moved to is difficult to say but certainly in 1921 he was living and working at Coneygarth Moor Farm in the Bothal Demesne and he was still there in 1939. He did not own the farm though, as you say, he was a farm owner prior to his move to Ashington – as was his father before him. James was, in 1921, a farm steward - a very respectable position - employed by the Ashington Coal Company who owned the farm – as well as the remaining seven largest farms in the area. All 8 farms were run by one farm manager; George Preston Graham, and he lived in one of the large houses on Woodbine Terrace (marked yellow on the map) just a stone’s throw from your great grandfather. At that time Ashington Coal Company was owned by the Portland family who lived at Bothal Castle (which is still owned and occupied by their descendants), so indirectly James was employed by the lord of the manor – the Duke of Portland. He, and his Ashington Coal Company, seem to have been good employers. They built many houses for workers in both the mines and on the farms and one purpose of the farms was, in fact, to supply food for the workers. They had a milk ration of 2 quarts a day and even the farm cats had a ration of 1 pint a day! If you have seen your great grandfather’s address given as “Home Farm” on any document then Home Farm would seem to be Coneygarth Moor Farm rather than Coney Garth. I find it surprising that Coneygarth Moor farm should be the home farm as it is considerably less in size than Coney Garth – which, having had a good look around the maps, seems to be by far the largest in the area as well as being located nearest to the manor house. Let us know how you get on at the Northumberland Archives!

I am trying to trace a relative who was a shop owner in Bedlington circa 1920s. His neice was Henrietta Sweeney. When her father died in 1st world war she was taken in by her step grandfather John Robinson. The shop owner disowned her as he didn't like her choice of spouse. Trying to compile family tree.

Hi Ian...don't know why I am wasting my time addressing you,since the last time I came to your office a few years ago..desperately seeking help and explaining how my Wife's family and myself were going through a very traumatic time ..my Wife's Mother was terminally ill in hospital..[and later died]..and when I came to you for help on a separate issue,you didn't even look at me but kept talking to your union cronies..and virtually ignored me..I remember walking out of your office in disgust saying I would never ask for your help ever again.Well well well! When this Building was in the process of surveying the land,I started taking photo's and videos,and I continued to do that every few days..right through from drilling for the reinforced concrete underpinning,laying the foundations,every step of building the carcass..till the day came when the arrival of the multi-million pound CYCLOTRON was announced on national television and all the tabloids covered it.SO!..away I went with my trusty old video camera and stills camera..and as the CYCLOTRON was hoisted high in the air on a crane rope,and lowered into the building through the roof..the television cameras were there...and so were you,along with a dozen "dignitaries"..chains of office glittering in the sunlight...and SO WAS I!!..NOW!!...from that day on there was not ONE word mentioned about the progress of the installation and commissioning of the CYCLOTRON....NOT ONE WORD THAT I EVER SAW OR HEARD!!..as time went by,many months...still nothing..except we had power cuts sometimes three and four times a week..unexplained...when I contacted the electricity company they said there was nothing wrong with their systems and that I could have a faulty meter..I told them it was a recent new digital meter,and that I suspected the outages were from the new Proton Beam unit attempting to power up and drawing too much current for the grid to handle.I was laughed at...then an employee of the energy company told me they couldn't get it up and running because it needed too much current to operate it,and that a new set of pylons carrying dedicated overhead power lines from the Switch house at Cambois,would have to be laid...but there were disputes between the landowners and the owners of the Rutherford Centre about the cost of all this....The pylons never got erected..no power lines...then the hospital closed down.Since it closed down in 2022,WE HAVE NEVER HAD ONE POWER CUT!!..Now,Mr Lavery,would you tell me honestly[massive request..not impossible..but highly improbable!!]....HAS ANYONE EVER HAD TREATMENT FROM THAT PROTON BEAM THERAPY UNIT..NOT CHEMO OR NORMAL RADIO..BUT PROTON BEAM,AS IT WAS HEAVILY APPLAUDED AS BEING A MIRACLE TREATMENT!!!...I AM SURE AFTER ALL THE HULLABALLOO WHEN IT WAS INSTALLED...THAT THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MASSIVE NATIONAL TELEVISION COVERAGE OF THE SUCCESS OF THIS TREATMENT..SEEING AS IT TOOK A COUPLE BEING PROSECUTED FOR TAKING THEIR CHILD OUT OF HOSPITAL HERE,TO ANOTHER COUNTRY FOR TREATMENT..TO SPUR OUR GOVERNMENT TO HAVE OUR OWN HOSPITALS...AND NOW IT STANDS MOTHBALLED...ABOUT £50 MILLION POUNDS IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY....[BUT I STAND TO BE CORRECTED ON THAT ONE!!] SO!!...Mr Lavery,WHY has this hospital been standing mothballed for three years?....where have you been...has it took poor Harry to wake you up to try and get some answers? I told the Architect outside my house that he was an idiot..he just laughed and we chatted,but he asked why I thought he was an idiot........I said well only an idiot would choose to build a new Hospital using NUCLEAR facilities on land where I personally was involved in extracting coal beneath the very spot where the hospital was being built,[in the 1960's],and that there are six scrapyards [burning tyres and complete cars through the night!]...two household waste recycling plants,and a coal merchants..just a few hundred yards away over the fields..I also asked why they didn't build this hospital next to the Cramlington new hospital..he waffled like a politician,and said this was the best,most favourable site we could find!![the field is heavily subsided due to coalming over the past hundred years!!!]...well I told him my opinion..and that was "Damage Limitation"...and I leave it there for you to ponder over!! p.s.If anything dangerous ever happened on that site ...I have a lovely portfolio of hundreds of photo's and video's..I have been laughed at before..but every dog has it's day!!

Hi, Thank you for this suggestion - my Great Grandfather James Scott was born on 1 Dec 1879 and in the 1939 England and Wales Register for Ashington was listed against Coney Moor Farm as Dairy Manager In 1911 Census he was down as a Farmer at age 31 I know there was an Ashington Farm but I am not sure that is the same as Home Farm I have found some information in Northumberland Archives and it mentions several glass plate negatives showing "Home Farm one of the Ashington Coal Company Farms" I will ring them on Wednesday when they are open. Many Thanks for everyone's help any other information would be gratefully received Susan

@Susan J-D Have you considered that Home Farm and Coney Garth may be one and the same thing? The name “Home Farm” is traditionally used to refer to any farm that is part of the manor house’s demesne – often the farm lying closest to the manor house. These were often farmed by a farm manager, hired by the lord of the manor, to cater for the needs of his household while other land was rented out to tenant farmers. Looking at this map from 1859 you can see that Coney Garth (centre), located between Ashington and Pegswood, is a considerable size and just a stone’s throw from Bothal Castle (bottom left) and also part of the Bothal Demesne. Of course, your relative may not have worked for the lord of the manor. Much depends upon when your relatives lived there. The name Home Farm can live on for centuries after being used as such.

Sorry 8 QX

NE63 HQX on Right move shows Home Farm Estate

@Susan J-D - I also had a look thrrough the 1866 to 1920 ordenance Survey maps but coulldn't find a 'Home Farm' in the Netherton - Bedlington or Ashington areas. What's the postcode, cos I can't see a current local Home Farm Estate, that you checked?

Hi, thank you so much for this. My husband and I have looked at some old maps but we were not sure exactly where it was. We looked at the postcode for the current Home Farm estate. I will try what you suggest. Many thanks for your help. My Great Grandparents Mr and Mrs James Scott lived there. I think they owned it but not sure. Also I am not sure when it was sold. They are both registered as dying in Ashington. Thank you again for your help Susan

Should say ............... mention before within this group but NO indepth research

@Susan J-D Home farm has had a mentio before within this group but indepth research. If you use the 'Search' facility (magnifying glass) and input - "Home Farm" (quotation marks a must) you will be returned two old topics where the phrase was used but the only mention of it's whereabouts is one comment saying it was on Netherton Lane. I will have a look on the old maps and see if I can find anything and I will let you know one way or the other🤞. Have you looked at any old maps?

Hi I have just joined and was searching for Coney Garth Farm and Home Farm. I noticed this stream and the info on Coney Garth Farm my Great Grandfsther was apparently a dairy manager there. He lived at Home Farm and was down as Farm.Manager . I have pictures of my Granfather , my mother and Aunt as young girls . I just wondered if anyone had information about Home Farm and where it is I think it is a housing estate. Many thanks Susan

Hey Ian! There's a mind-numbingly simple solution to your constituent's problem. So simple that even a Labour MP couldn't miss it if they really wanted to facilitate "change" (you know, that nebulous thing that Two-tier is always going on about!) Here's what you do: you go shopping for a rubber boat, the flimsier and cheaper the better! Then you drive your poor constituent down to the channel coast, inflate it and put this poor guy in it. You only need to push him a few hundred feet out to sea, and simply abandon him. Maybe hand him a letter to hand to the first human rights lawyer he comes across pointing out how his right to unlimited UK resources for his medical condition are being violated - a mere detail, but you get the idea? Before you completely abandon him, make sure he knows to pretend he can't understand the local lingo - hardly a challenge for a Geordie in Kent - and keep repeating "I asylum seek", until he's put up in the mandatory five-star accommodation! Starmer's legal buddies will take care of all the rest for you. Just go for it! The resulting publicity could improve your dire re-election prospects like nothing else could! All those worries about having to get a real job soon could be at an end!