Canny lass

@Harry.T.S Do you know if your great great grandmother was still at Rutters Buildings after the birth? Would you like to share her name with me so that I can find her?

Hi @Harry.T.S, welcome to the forum. As I said I’m not too familiar with the area but Rutters Buildings starts to appear on maps at some point between 1866 and 1896. It was a long row of housing lining the main road at Scotland Gate (between Choppington and Guide Post). In the 19 11 census there were 15 families living in Rutters Buildings. 13 of them were living in just 2 rooms and the remaining 2 families had 3 rooms each. There were some big families so living conditions for most were cramped, to say the least. Rutters buildings was located between the methodist church at the north end and the Kings Arms public house which adjoined the terrace at its southern end. You can see it on this map from 1924 which is the earliest on which I find its name but there may be others.

I don't know the area so well but I've never heard of Putters Buildings in Scotland Gate. Could it be Rutters Buildings - which did exist in the area? Handwriting ob certificates can be misleading. If you've recently obtained the certificate i has been transcribed from old documents which can be difficult to read.

@Margaret I Johnson Hi again! Am I right in thinking that John Tait was Mary Jane's third husband?

@Margaret I JohnsonI have disappointing news! The John Tait recorded at Rawlings Yard (schedule 162 Market Place, Bedlington) in 1911 is married and his wife is with him. John was born at Holy Island and is 77 years old. His wife, Catherine, was born at Kelso and is now 73 years old. None of these details correspond to the information given on the census returns of 1891 for John Tait - husband of Mary Jane. However, the 3rd person in the household is John and Ann's grandson - John T Tait aged 21 years born about 1890 in Alnham, Northumberland. The John Tait being searched for by Margaret was born in Pasture Hill, Northumberland. That's about 20 miles as the crow flies from Alnham so they may well be related. I had a quick look in the 1911 census this morning and found a John Tait of the correct age (born 1855) with the same profession (mining) lodging in Hirst, Ashington. He, however, states that he is single which wouldn't be strange if he was separated. He gives his birthplace as Low Mill Northumberland which is less than 10 miles from Pasture Hill. Could it be the same person?

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)Make yourself a cuppa! This is going to be long! It’s quite easy to mistake schedule numbers with house numbers. Another common mistake is to think that every schedule number is a house. What the census documents record are the number of ‘households’ and it is these ‘households’ that are given a schedule number. Space was at a premium and living space could be rented out by the room so that several households often lived in the same house. This was very common practice in Bedlington. At the time of the 1911 census, the ‘Market Place’ had 33 households of which one was a common lodging house with 25 male residents and one private house which was unoccupied. If we look at the enumerator’s summary book these 33 households, with the exception of the Post Office, the Turk’s Head public House and the Howard Arms Hotel all had the same address – Market Place Bedlington. This, you could say, was the ‘formal’ address at which the household resided. This was the address written by the enumerator on the census form which he delivered to the household to be filled in by the head of that household. It was also the address he used when transcribing the completed form to his summary book. While this system worked well for the enumerator, who had a set route to follow, it wasn’t the ideal system for the people who lived there should they, for example, need to impart the whereabouts of their home to intended visitors or tradesmen. The residents of the Market Place (and many other places) found their own way of describing their location and this was usually by means of easily identifiable features in the vicinity of their home. One of the wonderful things about the 1911 census is that the forms filled in by each household were not destroyed once the enumerator had transcribed their content to his summary book. The householders, regardless of what the enumerator had written on his part of the census form, often wrote their address in the manner in which they would give it to would-be visitors. So is the case with MarknMargaret’s relative, Mr John T, which greatly eases the task of identifying where he lived. The schedule nr 26 refers to this address written by the enumerator: Mr John T, however, gives the following address as his place of residence: In other words, John’s household comprising himself, his wife and his grandson, lived in the yard of the Rawlings family home. There were a number of such yards all along Front Street, Vulcan Place and Glebe Row. The main family home, in this case the Rawlings, faced the main street and the yard faced away from the street at the rear of the house. Basically, anything in the yard that was deemed ‘habitable’ could be rented out. They could be small houses to accommodate employees but equally well they could just be small outhouses or lean-to buildings. Mr William Rawling lived in the Market Place in a building facing the main street and in this building was also his business - Merchant Tailor & Mens Wear. The location is easily identifiable from its location, next door and to the east of the Howard Arms hotel, as recorded in the summary book. As I said, the enumerator had a set route to follow: Here is the Rawling family home and business, arrowed red. I’ve also marked a doorway, adjoining the tailor’s shop, in blue. This opened into a passageway leading to the yard: If you look closely at the angle between the house which I’ve arrowed and the larger building to its right, you can just make out the roof and chimney of the yard buildings where Mr John T lived. I don’t know the date of this photo but the map below is from 1910 and you can clearly see that there are two small buildings in the yard. These had each two rooms, one of which served as kitchen/livingroom/diningroom (and at times even as bedroom). In the first of these two buildings (marked green), adjoining the tailor’s shop, lived Mr William Errington, the previous occupier of the tailor’s shop. It was in his day, however, a grocer’s shop. He occupied just one room. In the second of the two houses (marked red) lived MarknMargaret’s relative, Mr John T, who occupied two rooms – probably one up and one down. On the map I’ve also arrowed in blue the doorway to the passageway which I marked in blue on the above photo This is the same doorway shown on Alan’s photo (reproduced below): Hope this is of help. If MarknMargaret would like copies of the original documentation let me know. If they could pass on an e-mail address through yourself, Alan, that would be ideal.

We do our best! I'm now sure that T is correct and I've located the place.

The Market Place 'dwellings' didn't have numbers in the 1911 census. Could Mark & Margaret be confusing the schedule number with a house number? Ask if her relative's surname started with the letter T? If so I can probably pin-point the right house for her.

I would never have believed that of your good self! Did Bedlingtonians really get up to such mischief!

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) @AvrilG St Andrews wouldn't have a graveyard as it wasn't a parish church. All burials would take place at St Peters (West Sleekburn). As for the Methodist churches in Britain, the majority didn't have graveyards either. Their members were also 'parishioners' of the churches parish and were buried in the churchyard of the parish church. The Methodist church was allowed to do christenings and marriages and at some point the Methodist ministers were even granted permission to conduct marriage services within the parish church. Multi-denominational chapels in graveyards and crematoriums, together with municipal burial grounds solved the problem.

@AvrilG Living in Ashington makes things a lot easier for you! Pop along to the Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn. I'm pretty certain that they will have taken care of the parish records from St Peters (West Sleekburn). You can find their opening hours at https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/. I don't think you need to book before visiting. They can do a search for Edward’s grave, verify which cemetery and give you the plot number of his grave. I forgot to mention that St Peters (West Sleekurn) got a new cemetery when the original was full. It is located next door to the Forresters Arms on Wansbeck Terrace in West Sleekburn, and just opposite the site of the old St Peters church and cemetery. Just when it was opened, I can't be sure but it is registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as having a few war graves from WW1 so it was there at the time of Edward's death. It might be worth having a wander round the gravestones to see if any names ring a bell.

So sorry about this mistake! It should of course say Edward's death and not Edwin. My sincere apologies.

I don't know if you know the area at all so I thought you might like these as well. The first, and larger, of the photos is St Andrew (Cambois) and the second, smaller, photo is St Peter (West Sleekburn. I'll get all of these off to your in-box now.

This report, from the Blyth News 18 March 1928 is quite long so it is in two separate files. Read them one after the other the coroner's comments are the second part.

The news of Edwin's death, or rather the coroner's inquiry into Edwins death, was quite widely reported in the North East. It must have been a trying time for the family. Here are some of the newspaper reports: More following.