A glimpse of 19th century life, Teesdale Mercury

A glimpse of 19th century life

Nov 7, 2007

IN 1935, George Parkin collected together the memoirs of Thomas Todd, of Middleton in Teesdale, and published them in a book. Mr Todd was then aged 81 and for most of his life had been a blacksmith in Middleton - as was his father before him.

Thomas Todd's memoirs were first written in the form of letters to George Parkin and they give a vivid account of what life was like for someone growing up in Middleton during the 19th Century.

By his own account, Thomas Todd was born in a single-roomed house in the middle of a snowstorm on March 10, 1854.

At the age of five, he began his education at the Church Infant's School, at Middleton, and later moved up to the Boy's School. One of his earliest memories was standing with his father alongside ‘old Mr Harry Pease' as he cut the first sod of the Tees Valley Railway with a silver spade. Later on, he watched the first train, with the directors on board, steam into Middleton Station. That was on May 12, 1868, when Thomas Todd was 14 years of age and had left school long behind. In fact Thomas left school in 1863 when he was only nine.

Thomas was already earning money whilst still at school, picking potatoes in the ‘ploughing field'. Then, when he had left school, Thomas was employed driving a pony and cart to Woodland Colliery 10 miles away.

He described riding down the drift mine with a lad called Tom Bainbridge. Tom Bainbridge led a dun coloured horse hauling a train of eight tubs to and from the coalface. Thomas travelled to Woodland with a few other lads - Dry Parker, Tom Hind and Adam Thompson - as his companions.

On the way to Woodland, these young lads learned the ancient art of poaching.

In order to avoid capture, Thomas and his partners-in-crime sometimes started out for Woodland at dawn and sometimes at midnight. They always travelled equipped with snares and traps and if possible a few pence for a pint of ale at the Black Horse. 

He tells of playing cat and mouse with the police and the gamekeepers. He had scant regard and little respect for both. He believed that rabbits and birds were for those who could secure them and couldn't understand why the police, whilst being paid out of the county rates ‘should concern themselves so diligently protecting landowners' game'.

Thomas stopped carting coal when he was 14 in order to join his father at the smithy, so he must have started poaching at an early age! In the middle of the 19th century, poaching was a serious offence. Thomas remarked that some older dalesmen talked about the days when men were even transported to the colonies for poaching. Did his parents not realise what Thomas was doing, or did they turn a blind eye? I suspect the latter was the case, although Thomas described his father as a stern disciplinarian and said that his catches had to be sold or disposed of before reaching home

Most of Thomas's spare time was filled with exploring the woods and dales around Middleton. He had much more freedom than most children have today.

By the time he was six, and still in petticoats, Thomas roamed the countryside with his friends, collecting birds eggs and nuts and fruit. Once, when he was out with two of his friends collecting beech-nuts, he nearly drowned. They reached the Holme Beck, in spate at the time, and crossed it on the single plank bridge.

Thomas fell off and a boy called Jos Tarn pulled him out of the flood by his petticoat, saving him from ‘certain death'. Thomas observed that boys wore petticoats until after they began school. Clothes were often in short supply in those days and were handed down through a family. Clogs were his usual footwear.

Bird nesting was another of Thomas's pastimes. And at an early age Thomas became expert at collecting cushat's eggs from the highest trees. Cushat was the old name for a wood pigeon. Does anyone still use the name or is this yet another dialect word that we have lost? Thomas took the pigeon eggs home so they must have been regarded as there for the taking. The eggs were a valuable find - well worth fighting for, and Thomas remarked that fighting was all too common in his younger days, much more so than in 1935 when he wrote his letters.

Eggs must have provided a welcome change in the diet although Thomas's family were not particularly poor. In those days there was always plenty of work available for a blacksmith. Nevertheless, Thomas noted that meat was a luxury when he was a lad and eaten on Sundays. His mother eked out the meat by making a meat and potato pie. Evidently Middleton women were noted for these pies.

For breakfast, Thomas feasted on crowdy. This was made by half filling a basin with oatmeal and then adding boiling water. Black treacle was used for sweetening. Does anyone still eat crowdy for breakfast? I rather doubt it.

We live in a different world don't we? It's good though that we have Thomas Todd's memoirs to remind us of past times.

First published in the Mercury, October 31, 2007