Relatives born in Bedlington around 1876/78

[Walsham Wonderer]

My grandmother Julia Hunt and her brother Charles were both born in Bedlington around 1876/78 but our family had previously lived in Norfolk.  They returned to Norfolk when both still children.  I'm trying to ascertain why their parents  would have moved to Bedlington and think this could have been to work in the mines.  I would also like to know what form of travel they would have used both ways and what the conditions were like for families who worked in the mines.  Also I would like to find out why they came back to Norfolk.  I have established that workers were advertised for in Norfolk and my great grandfather was originally a farm worker/labourer.  Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

[Vic Patterson]

My wife's grandfather came from Walsingham Norfolk, he was born 1868 but I don't know when they moved to Bedlington, He lived in the "old Hall"

[Canny lass]

Hello Walsham wanderer and welcome to the forum!

One way to move forward in your research would be to obtain a birth certificate for either Julia or Charles. There you will find both the occupation of the father, John I believe, and more importantly the family's address at the time. 

It wasn't uncommon for farm workers at that time to be 'contracted' för X number of months with housing provided. Once the harvest was safely in the contract ended and the worker was free/forced to find another contract.

Once you have an address I may be able to help you further. BTW Is there any chance that Charles has been married twice?

Edited March 17, 2021 by Canny lass

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

8 hours ago, Walsham Wonderer said:

My grandmother Julia Hunt and her brother Charles were both born in Bedlington around 1876/78 but our family had previously lived in Norfolk.  They returned to Norfolk when both still children.  I'm trying to ascertain why their parents  would have moved to Bedlington and think this could have been to work in the mines.  I would also like to know what form of travel they would have used both ways and what the conditions were like for families who worked in the mines.  Also I would like to find out why they came back to Norfolk.  I have established that workers were advertised for in Norfolk and my great grandfather was originally a farm worker/labourer.  Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Walsham Wonder - I will see what I can put together to give you a picture of the area + coal mines where you grandparents were born.

I won't be able to give you any info on the 'whys or wherefores' of your great grandparents move.

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Canny lass]

11 hours ago, Canny lass said:

One way to move forward in your research would be to obtain a birth certificate for either Julia or Charles. There you will find both the occupation of the father, John I believe, and more importantly the family's address at the time. 

Sorry, Walsham Wonderer! I should have said "Charles, I believe" not John. I was looking at the wrong line of the census form.

[Canny lass]

Hello again WW!

I've had another look at your query and I'm afraid I'm no nearer finding an answer. However, I was able to ascertain that Julia's father - Charles - did not marry twice. Infact, I can't find any record of marriage for him at all. If, as Eggy suggests, Julia's mother is Mary (nee Rump) then it is Mary who has previously been married. 

At the age of 26, on March 7 1864, Mary married John Farrow at the church of St. Julian in Norwich. They had one child - George Farrow who was baptised 7 October 1866 at Swanton Abbott in Norfolk and therefore probably born the same year. Unfortunately, John Farrow appears to have died within a cuple of years of his son's birth as he was buried 14 January 1869 at Swanton Abbott at the early age of 35 years leaving Mary a widow and George fatherless.

A couple of years later, 1871,  Mary and George are residing in Swanton Abbott at Dairy House, Hill Farm. This appears to be the home of Mary's father - Thomas who is also an agricultural worker. However, as Thomas himself is an elderly widow Mary, John and George may have lived there as a family prior to John's death.

Charles, the son of Mary and Charles Hunt was born about 1876 and has the surname hunt so I assume that the couple married between 1871 and 1876.

You may already have this information but if you do not have it and you would like the documentation I can send it to you as a personal message on this site.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

On 17/03/2021 at 12:04, Walsham Wonderer said:

My grandmother Julia Hunt and her brother Charles were both born in Bedlington around 1876/78 but our family had previously lived in Norfolk.  They returned to Norfolk when both still children.  I'm trying to ascertain why their parents  would have moved to Bedlington and think this could have been to work in the mines.  I would also like to know what form of travel they would have used both ways and what the conditions were like for families who worked in the mines.  Also I would like to find out why they came back to Norfolk.  I have established that workers were advertised for in Norfolk and my great grandfather was originally a farm worker/labourer.  Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

The images I posted above are from a site called Family_Search. They are a free site and handy for checking for old records. Using the info from that site I input the details for the two children, Julia and Charles into another free site = FreeBMD. The FreeBMD site is very basic but it uses volunteers to transcribe registration records, Births - Marriages & Deaths, onto their Database. So if you have any success searching on the FreeBMD site if gives you registration info  so you can apply to the Registrars Office to obtain B,M & D certificates. I'm guessing you already know most of this.. The main problem with the FreeBMD site is that you only get a name + registration reference and you have to hope you have the right person when you apply to the Registrars Office for a copy of a certificate. they used to be £9.50 per certificate but don't know what the cost is now.

The FreeBMD site is :- https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

I did a very basic Birth search for Julia & Charles Hunt -= First name - Surname - Date Range Mar 1985 to Dec 1880 and the following records were returned :-

The local registry office for Bedlington would be the Morpeth area so I would assume that the two records returned with the Morpeth entry could be the records that would give you the info, address etc, you are after.

I will add another comment after this one with some maps of the Bedlington area showing where the the two Bedlington collieries were sited and the colliery rows that existed.

[Canny lass]

21 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

when you apply to the Registrars Office for a copy of a certificate. they used to be £9.50 per certificate but don't know what the cost is now.

Much better to apply to the General Records Office for all certificates. You can now get Birth- and Death certificates direct to your computer as Pdf files at a cost of just seven pound (compared to 11 pounds for the paper copy). Pdf is also much quicker it usually arrives within 4 working days (Occasionally one week because of Covid retrictions in the work place). It's a great service!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 minute ago, Canny lass said:

Much better to apply to the General Records Office for all certificates. You can now get Birth- and Death certificates direct to your computer as Pdf files at a cost of just seven pound (compared to 11 pounds for the paper copy). Pdf is also much quicker it usually arrives within 4 working days (Occasionally one week because of Covid retrictions in the work place). It's a great service!

Champion - I didn't know that - it's a few years since I sent off for a certificate. 😊👌

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Walsham Wonderer - some info on the Bedlington area and as you find out more about your family when they were in Bedlington we should have some photos of the colliery rows that we could add to these comments :-

 

Bedlington had two mines – The Doctor Pit and Bedlington/Sleekburn ‘A’ Pit. When researching the Bedlington area, especially the coal mines, you will see that the town of Bedlington built its railway station next to the ‘A’ pit that opened in 1850 and the  ‘A’ pit was next to the town of Sleekburn - West & East Sleekburn can still be seen on current maps. I do not know when the area name changed from Sleekburn to Bedlington Station but you can see that the people of Bedlington had to travel from Bedlington to Sleekburn to get to Bedlington’s railway station.

So it’s more than likely that everyone said they were going to Bedlington station.

When you find out the address of where your family was living in Bedlington we should be able to give you a bit more detail on the housing etc. in that area.

So when I grew up in Bedlington in the mid 20^th century everyone referred to the two areas of Bedlington as The Top End & The Station.

This link to the ‘Disused Stations’ site has details good info + maps on the area of Sleekburn and the ‘A’ pit. I would be guessing that your relatives got to Bedlington via train – the Bedlington railway station was linked to the Newcastle Central Railway Station, to the South of Bedlington, and the Morpeth Railway Station to the North.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bedlington/index.shtml

This map is from the Disused stations site and it has the name Sleekburn but it doesn’t have a date.

This 1859 map (not very clear) shows the railway line – Wagonway -  between the two pits. There are no colliery houses marked  on the map for the Doctor Pit area. The ‘A’ pit area has colliery houses and they were – South Row (2 terraces) – North Row and Shop Row.

The pit rows for the Doctor pit are not on the 1866 map and first appear on the 1896 map. This is a compilation of the maps.

There is a row marked as Old Colliery Row on an 1897 map but it was at the East End of the town and the Doctor pit was at the West End. James posted that this row, known as ‘The Aad Pit Raa’ was built in 1840.

 

[Canny lass]

 

 

45 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

when you apply to the Registrars Office for a copy of a certificate. they used to be £9.50 per certificate but don't know what the cost is now.

Sorry! I forgot to post the address:

General records Office (GRO), Southport (for  BMD certs): https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Canny lass

[Walsham Wonderer]

Wow, thank you everyone!  What a lot of information and I've only just remembered/had time to look back on  the site.  So lazy with being used to Facebook etc notifiications coming up automatically on my phone and I'm obviously not in the first flush of youth or major techno-savvy.  I shall read and inwardly digest all the information you have all provided.  I had heard that someone in the family had a step-brother with the surname Farrow so I know I'm on the right trail. Thank you again.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Walsham Wonderer said:

...............So lazy with being used to Facebook etc notifiications coming up automatically on my phone and I'm obviously not in the first flush of youth or major techno-savvy............

@Walsham Wonderer - whereas Facebook's default used to be for notifications to be automatic this groups default is the opposite so you have to set it up - @Andy Millne will put me right if I'm wrong😇 
 

If you select the bell shape - top right hand corner next to your user Id - you can set notifications to be sent when other members select the 'Quote' (next to the + sign when you want to reply to anyone's comment.

 

Once you have 'read and inwardly digested the info see if you can place which area of Bedlington your relatives may have worked and lived and hopefully we should be able to post photo(s) of the area, from the mid, or slightly earlier, but  20th century of the area they lived. 

[Canny lass]

1 hour ago, Walsham Wonderer said:

obviously not in the first flush of youth or major techno-savvy. 

Welcome to the club!

[Oldwulf]

My Ancestors also moved to Bedlington From Norfolk, One family (Slaughter) moved between 1860 and 1870 and the other one (Neave) moved after the head of house died, his wife (A daughter of the Slaughter family) brought her 8 children there, some of who went straight to work in the Mines. I heard that the Collieries were offering some sort of assisted passage (by Rail) to people in Norfolk (where agricultural workers were being replaced by machines) to the North east where more Miners were needed for the expanding coal industry. I would like to find some evidence of this, but haven't found any yet.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Oldwulf said:

My Ancestors also moved to Bedlington From Norfolk, One family (Slaughter) moved between 1860 and 1870 and the other one (Neave) moved after the head of house died, his wife (A daughter of the Slaughter family) brought her 8 children there, some of who went straight to work in the Mines. I heard that the Collieries were offering some sort of assisted passage (by Rail) to people in Norfolk (where agricultural workers were being replaced by machines) to the North east where more Miners were needed for the expanding coal industry. I would like to find some evidence of this, but haven't found any yet.

@Oldwulf - This topic raised by @Walsham Wonderer was the first I had heard of Norfolk famers moving North to work in the coal mines. Although there was some local info on the mines and the area put together for Walsham Wonderer I never attempted to search the www for info. Just for fun this evening I put the phrase - Norfolk farm labourers to Northumberland and Durham - into Google and it returned this link to an entry in rootschat site :-

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=649914.0

There are 5 pages of comments - nothing with specific documents etc. but some interesting reading that might help (if you haven't already seen this ) your search for info.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Oldwulf & @Walsham Wonderer the search I did also returned a link to the British Genealogy site :- 

https://www.british-genealogy.com/forum/threads/21391-Norfolk-Agriculture-Employment-Migration

 

 

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@Oldwulf - There is the Durham Mining Museum site that gives info on all the Northumberland and Durham Coal Mines. However the only reference to miners that worked in the mines is the In memoriam section :-

Link to the index page to select the mines is :-

 http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/b022.htm

[Oldwulf]

Thanks Alan, one of my Relatives is on the mining museum list, Robert Neave, Stoneman,  died in 1922 as a result of accident in 1915 according to Newspaper report at the time of his death. It may be the reason his son John,  moved away from Bedlington to Leeds before his death in Africa in WW2.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

13 hours ago, Oldwulf said:

Thanks Alan, one of my Relatives is on the mining museum list, Robert Neave, Stoneman,  died in 1922 as a result of accident in 1915 according to Newspaper report at the time of his death. It may be the reason his son John,  moved away from Bedlington to Leeds before his death in Africa in WW2.

I had noticed the name Robert Neave in the In Memoriam section. At least from that record it tells you that he worked at the pit at what is now Bedlington Station. You can see from the map above that the area used to be known as Sleekburn (East & West Sleekburn still exist). When Bedlington had a train station built it was at Sleekburn and the people of Bedlington (known locally as The Top End) used to go by horse drawn carriages (from The Market Place) to Bedlington's Station and  It is rumoured thatthe area started to be called Bedlington Station.

During your delve into the past you may have come across a few names for the pit at Bedlington Station and they would be - Sleekburn 'A' pit - Bedlington 'A' pit and the colloquial term - The Auld (Old) Pit.  

Although I have done basic research, via FreeBMD, into my family tree I have never been one to delve deeply into their lives but your query that made me look/Google Norfolk to Northumberland and turn up the info in the rootschat link I did find interesting.👍

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=649914.0

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[Oldwulf]

Thanks Alan, I hadn't paid attention to which Bedlington Pit he was at but that's interesting information which I will look at again. I have found relatives born at Sleekburn,  and family members at Bedlington Station, so it's interesting to see the distinction between Bedlington and Bedlington Station. A few seemed to have moved to Choppington as well so they were scatted about the area, My own great Grandma, while living in Bedlington met and married a man from Seaton Sluice, who worked at New Hartley Pit, and they lived in both of those places. I often wonder how they met.  I have attached the inquest article re Robert, which may be of interest.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

On 14/05/2021 at 13:12, Oldwulf said:

Thanks Alan, I hadn't paid attention to which Bedlington Pit he was at but that's interesting information which I will look at again. I have found relatives born at Sleekburn,  and family members at Bedlington Station, so it's interesting to see the distinction between Bedlington and Bedlington Station. A few seemed to have moved to Choppington as well so they were scatted about the area, My own great Grandma, while living in Bedlington met and married a man from Seaton Sluice, who worked at New Hartley Pit, and they lived in both of those places. I often wonder how they met.  I have attached the inquest article re Robert, which may be of interest.

Oldwulf - Rothesay Terrace house numbers are 1 to 117. The top section are houses, 117 to 108, and I think the first three also houses. Those in between were upstairs and downstairs flats with the upstairs flats having the letter A after the number eg. 107 & 107A etc. The only old photo, where the house numbers could be worked, I have seen is an old postcard. There are a few photos of the Bedlington A pit available if you wanted to see them. Rothesay Terrace on the left as you look at this postcard :- 

[Canny lass]

2 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Those in between were upstairs and downstairs flats with the upstairs flats having the letter A after the number eg. 107 & 107A etc.

On many census returns these are registered as halves- 17, 17½, 18, 18½ etc.. It can be confusing at times.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Canny lass

[Jammy]

Oldwulf.  I've lived in Bedlington all my life and only came across one Neave family. This is what I know which may or may not be of any use to you. 

 I was an apprentice plumber from 1964 to 1970. One of the qualified tradesman was a Bill(William?) Neave about 24yrs old in 1964 who lived at Stakeford from being young until he moved to Blyth and became one half of Scott and Neave. He was an only child. His parents lived in Stakeford Lane, Stakeford within 100yds of the Half Moon pub. I'm sure his father was from my area. 

 As I said this may not be of any use to your research because it is many years from the dates you mentioned. As you gradually move forward with your research it may prove useful. I remember Bills father was old, to me, so could have been in his 60's or even retired. I don't know his Christian name.

[Oldwulf]

Thanks, I've made a note of him, and will see if I can find any info on him. I know that apart from my direct relatives there was a second family of Neave living nearby, so he might be one of mine or of this second family.