Hidden Treasures and Inspiration - a Talk on Friday, 21st October

Last summer, as part of the Berwick 900 Our Families family history research project, we set up a small creative writing group to write fictional family stories about incidents and historical characters in Berwick’s, Tweedmouth’s and Spittal’s history, using research produced by the volunteers.

There's lots of scope for imagining what led up to incidents, what impact it had on people, what happened afterwards and creating a family story. One story, a poem written by Sandra Whitnell, is about a woman murdered at Middle Ord, Northumberland, in December 1876.

This year, Linda Bankier, the Berwick Archivist will give a talk at Berwick Literary Festival about the variety of records available in Berwick Record Office, and the audience will hear excerpts from three stories based on research into the Berwick Town Council account books, a newspaper cutting from November 1863 about a crinoline that caused an accident and a poster.

The talk is this Friday, 21st October at 12 noon at the Holy Trinity Parish Centre, Berwick; cost £5. 

Were Your Ancestors Fishermen in Berwick ?

Were your ancestors fishermen or their wives in Berwick ?
Were they involved with fishing, for example, selling fish, smoking fish, running a general store ?

Find out about families and their properties.

On Sunday, 17th April there’s a guided walk around the Greenses area of Berwick hearing stories of the fisher folk.

The walk will be led by Linda Bankier, Archivist, Berwick Record Office.

The walk is free and begins at 2.30pm.

This walk was over-subscribed last year and booking is essential –
ring Berwick Tourist Information Centre on 01670 622155 to book a place and find out the starting point.

Berwick 900 Family History Day - Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick-upon-Tweed - Updated Programme

Family History Day is almost upon us !

Building on the success of the Berwick 900 Family History Festival held on 3rd and 4th October last year, we’re holding a Family History Day from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick Town Hall, Marygate, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Map.

Like last year, it’s free and there will be exhibitors, talks, displays about the research carried out, talks, refreshments, one to one family history surgeries where you can find out how to start your family history or overcome a problem.

There’ll be activities for kids and their parents, and the opportunity to see the Burgon family tree – please bring along your research, birth and marriage certificates and see if you’re connected.

Exhibitors
Berwick Freemasons Lodge
Borders Family History Society
Lothians Family History Society
North East War Memorials
Northumberland Archives
Northumberland & Durham Family History Society
Scottish Borders Council Archives (Hawick Heritage Hub)
All the above exhibitors are keen to help you with your family history.

Jura Consultants and Spence & Dower - Proposals for Berwick Barracks

Talks Programme
10am Northumberland & Durham Family History Society – North Northumberland branch
11am Ralph Holmes – My Weird & Wonderful Family
12 noon Paul Jardine and Tina Gough – Berwick Barracks Re-awakened
1pm Linda Bankier – The Berwick 900 Our Families Project
2pm Bill Stewart - A Century of Boatbuilders in Berwick and Eyemouth
3pm David Pye – Berwick War Memorial – personal stories of soldiers

Family History Surgeries
20 minutes with a specific expert in a quiet room to discuss your family history problem or interest.

We now have a fully booked schedule of family history surgeries.
However, there might be a cancellation, so if you need help and none of the exhibitors can help you, please ask at the Welcome Desk.

Maltings Youth Theatre Dramas - A Step Back In Time (to 1911)
11am Part 1 - outside the Town Hall (weather permitting)
11.45am Part 2 inside the Town Hall (upstairs in the Court area)
12.30pm Part 3 - outside the Town Hall (weather permitting)

Posh ancestors in Berwick ?

Were your ancestors among the posh in Berwick ?

Find out about families and their properties.

On Friday, 15th April there’s a guided walk along Ravensdowne and Quay Walls in Berwick. Ravensdowne has lovely Georgian houses. 

The walk will be led by Linda Bankier, Archivist, Berwick Record Office.

The walk is free and begins at 2.30pm.

This walk was over-subscribed last year and booking is essential –
ring Berwick Tourist Information Centre on 01670 622155 to book a place and find out the starting point.

Berwick 900 Family History Day - Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick-upon-Tweed - Revised Programme

Building on the success of the Berwick 900 Family History Festival held on 3rd and 4th October last year, we’re holding a Family History Day from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick Town Hall, Marygate, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Map.

Like last year, it’s free and there will be exhibitors, talks, displays about the research carried out, talks, refreshments, one to one family history surgeries where you can find out how to start your family history or overcome a problem.

There’ll be activities for kids and their parents, and the opportunity to see the Burgon family tree – please bring along your research, birth and marriage certificates and see if you’re connected.

Exhibitors
Berwick Freemasons Lodge
Borders Family History Society
Lothians Family History Society
North East War Memorials
Northumberland Archives
Northumberland & Durham Family History Society
Scottish Borders Council Archives (Hawick Heritage Hub)
All the above exhibitors are keen to help you with your family history.

Jura Consultants and Spence & Dower - Proposals for Berwick Barracks


Talks Programme
10am Northumberland & Durham Family History Society – North Northumberland branch
11am Ralph Holmes – My Weird & Wonderful Family
12 noon Paul Jardine and Tina Gough – Berwick Barracks Re-awakened
1pm Linda Bankier – The Berwick 900 Our Families Project
2pm Bill Stewart - A Century of Boatbuilders
3pm David Pye – Berwick War Memorial – personal stories of soldiers

Family History Surgeries
20 minutes with a specific expert in a quiet room to discuss your family history problem or interest.

Surgeries are currently available starting at 10.30, 11.00, 12.00, 12.30, 13,00, 13.30, 14.30, 15.00.
Book your preferred starting time now by email to

Please state brief details of your problem or interest, whether it’s English or Scottish and preferred time slot and provide your landline phone number.

Maltings Youth Theatre Dramas - A Step Back In Time (to 1911)
11am Part 1 - outside the Town Hall (weather permitting)
11.45am Part 2 inside the Town Hall (upstairs in the Court area)
12.30pm Part 3 - outside the Town Hall (weather permitting)

Berwick 900 Family History Day - Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick-upon-Tweed

Please note that this has been superseded by Berwick 900 Family History Day - Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick-upon-Tweed - Revised Programme.

Building on the success of the Berwick 900 Family History Festival held on 3rd and 4th October last year, we’re holding a Family History Day from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 16th April 2016 at Berwick Guildhall, Marygate, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Map.

Like last year, it’s free and there will be exhibitors, talks, displays about the research carried out, talks, one to one family history surgeries where you can find out how to start your family history or overcome a problem.

There’ll be activities for kids and their parents, and the opportunity to see the Burgon family tree – bring along your research, birth and marriage certificates and see if you’re connected.

Exhibitors
Berwick Freemasons Lodge
Borders Family History Society
Lothians Family History Society
North East War Memorials
Northumberland Archives
Northumberland & Durham Family History Society
Scottish Borders Council Archives (Hawick Heritage Hub)
All the exhibitors are keen to help you with your family history.

Provisional Talks Programme
10am Northumberland & Durham Family History Society
11am Ralph Homes – My Weird & Wonderful Family
12 noon Linda Bankier – The Berwick 900 Our Families Project
1pm Fred Kennington – Cross-Border Marriages
2pm Bill Stewart - A Century of Boatbuilders
3pm Peter Munro – Scottish Borders Poor Law Records

Family History Surgeries
20 minutes with a specific expert in a quiet room to discuss your family history problem or interest.

Surgeries are currently available starting at 10.30, 11.00, 11.30, 12.00, 12.30, 13,00, 13.30, 14.00, 14.30, 15.00.
Book your preferred starting time now by email to

Please state brief details of your problem or interest, whether it’s English or Scottish and preferred time slot and provide your landline phone number.

Johnson Patterson's Family Story and Other Stories from the Berwick 900 Family History Festival

A major part of Berwick 900 has been the many family stories discovered during the festival.

An unusual start to the video about the Berwick 900 Family History Festival weekend has two volunteers, Trevor Bird and his son, Andrew Bird, talking about Northern Spirit, Berwick, a peer support group for people suffering from health problems like depression and anxiety issues.

Hear Gordon Elliot, born in Spittal, Peter Guthrie, Carol White and Terry White, glimpses of the exhibition in Berwick Town Hall and a couple of speakers (Fred Kennington about researching family history across the England/Scotland border and I about harnessing search engines for family history research), Derek Sharman talking about the legacy of the Berwick 900 Festival, Linda Bankier talking in detail about family history research and using Berwick Archives.

You'll see Linda Bankier in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church talking about the gravestone of Charles Younghusband Patterson, son of Johnson Patterson, born 1763 and Isabella Patterson; about checking the burial registers and the parish registers. Using church records, Linda discovered that Johnson and Isabella had 7 sons and 2 daughters, but that Johnson had an earlier wife, Ann Dumble. The 1841 census showed a son from that marriage. The Freemen of Berwick Guild records showed that Johnson was a Freeman and several of his sons became Freemen, too. Linda established that Johnson had 15 children in total.

You can also see a small boy helping artist, Carl von Weiler, making part of the Great Performing Rope.

Berwick Literary Festival, 16 to 18 October

There's more than 25 interesting talks and workshops to engage you during Berwick Literary Festival which runs from 16 to 18 October.

For example,
Friday, 16 October at 10am  
Archives for Creative Writing
A talk by Linda Bankier at Holy Trinity Parish Centre (tickets £2).

Friday, 16 October at 12 noon  
History in Historical Fiction: Icing on the Cake or Main Ingredient?
A talk by Margaret Skea about her latest book; A House Divided. Set in Scotland in the 16th Century, Munro, one of the Earl of Glencairn's followers, is trapped in a longstanding feud between the Montgomeries and the Cunninghames.

Sunday, 18 October at 2pm  
Archives for Creative Writing
A workshop led by Linda Bankier at Holy Trinity Parish Centre (tickets £5).

Full list of Berwick Literary Festival events.

Bookings for a talk or workshop.

Are you an author or want to be one ?
Are you interested being part of a creative writing group, based in Berwick, uses your own historical research, newspaper clippings or research produced by the Berwick 900 Our Families Project to write fictional family stories about incidents (before World War I) and historical characters in Berwick’s, Tweedmouth’s and Spittal’s history ?

There's lots of scope for imagining what led up to incidents, what impact it had on people, what happened afterwards and creating a family story.

If you're interested, please send me an email

Free Theatre Tickets - Friday 14 August - Maltings Theatre, Berwick-upon-Tweed

From Linda Bankier:

I have been working with Wendy Payn and Ross Graham at the Maltings Theatre, Eastern Lane, Berwick-upon-Tweed, TD15 1AJ, with a group of children, aged 8 to 12, who are creating a play in a week for Maltings Youth Theatre.

The play is still evolving but it will be based on research and information that the children have found out about the Greenses area of Berwick and fishing.

 Their short play will be performed at 6pm in the Henry Travers Studio at the Maltings on Friday 14 August.

Here's the trailer:


It’s free to attend and will last a maximum of half an hour.

If you are in Berwick, please do come along and support the children who have worked very hard all week on this project.

Map.

Berwick Record Office Needs You !

The Northumberland Archives, including the Berwick  Record Office has been awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to find out and make more accessible the archives and information it holds relating to the First World War.

To help them do that, Berwick Record Office is looking for volunteers who want to delve into the archives and find out information about the North Northumberland area and its inhabitants during the World War I.

If you are interested in finding out more about the project and becoming involved, there will be an open meeting in the Berwick Record Office in Wallace Green  on Tuesday 30 September at 2pm.
At the meeting, Linda Bankier will talk about the project and what they hope to achieve.

For further information or if you would like to be involved but can’t attend, please contact Linda Bankier on berwickarchives@woodhorn.org.uk or telephone (01289) 301865.

Another Member of John Hamilton Hall's Family Joins the Berwick Guild

My earlier articles about John Hamilton Hall, born in Coldstream on 22nd October 1799 were John Hamilton Hall - Dangerously Assumed to be Unique and John Hamilton Hall's Application to Join the East India Company.

I gave a talk about him in Berwick-upon-Tweed about 6 weeks ago and was asked lots of questions.
By a strange but happy coincidence, Linda Bankier, the archivist at Berwick Record Office informed me a few weeks later that one of John’s great great granddaughters was going to be admitted as a Freeman of Berwick Guild and she suggested that I go along to watch. It turns out that the Admission Ceremony is open for anyone to attend and it’s normal for the applicants’ family and friends to do so.

When I arrived at the Guildhall, I was greeted by the Halberdier dressed in a serge morning-suit; the applicants were having a walk-through of the ceremony so on his instruction I waited in the ante-chamber where the Chairman of the Guild was being enrobed.
The Ceremony is formal but friendly.
We stood. The Sergeant at Mace entered, bearing the Mace and was followed by the female Mayor wearing a suit of the same colour as the Halberdier and an ornate gold chain around her neck. She was accompanied by the Sheriff and the Town Clerk.
There was a speech by the Mayor, each of the 3 applicants stated their claim, the Town Clerk confirmed that the claim had been verified and the applicants' sponsor confirmed the identity of the applicant.
Each of the applicants, in turn claimant, took the Freemen's Oath, to uphold the law, the traditions of the Guild and take care of fellow Freemen's belongings.
The Mayor told the Town Clerk to enter the applicants' names in the Freemen's Roll and the applicants signed the book.
The Mayor and the Sheriff each addressed the meeting and the Chairman of the Guild welcomed the new Freemen, clothing them with the purple robes of a Berwick Freeman.
After the ceremony, there was lots of photography.
If you get the opportunity, it’s worth watching; the next ceremony is on 30th September.

More information on the Berwick Guild and the ceremony.

The McKay Family of Berwick-Upon-Tweed

From Linda Bankier:

Recently a member of the public brought into Berwick Record Office a series of photographs relating to a family. She has given us permission to digitise them but she has asked if the originals could be passed on to a descendant of the family. They were discovered when clearing out a friend’s house.

 

Easter 1902 (Picture ref: BRO 2089/01a)

Left to right at back : Nellie (25); Winnie (12); Eva (19). 

Left to right at front : Willie (23 ½); Emma (Mother) (50); Connie (6); Owen (Father) (52); Maud (17)

The photograph was originally framed. This information is taken from a piece of paper which was part of the back of the frame. We have the original and also a transcript.

In addition, I was told that the surname was McKay and that they lived in the Bell Tower area in the north end of the town.

On investigating the census and other records at the Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office, it was possible to establish the following:

The father in the photograph is OWEN MCKAY who was born in Ireland and died in Berwick-upon-Tweed in July 1905, aged 55 years. He was buried in the Civic Cemetery, Berwick, on 22 July 1905 in a family plot. Owen was a member of the Royal Artillery – noted as a Battery Sergeant Major -  and appears to have undertaken service in Berwick at some stage, probably in the late 1880s. In 1891 and 1901, he is not listed with the rest of his family in Berwick. However, a note on the 1891 census states that his wife, was supported by her husband who was resident at Woolwich. 

The mother in the photograph is EMMA S MCKAY née WRIGHT, who was born in Woolwich in Kent in the early 1850s. She obviously met her husband whilst he was serving at the Royal Artillery in Woolwich and they married in the March quarter of 1876 in Woolwich. After living in Ireland, Emma appears to have moved to Berwick in the mid-1880s and then remained here with their children whilst her husband served in the Royal Artillery. She died in Berwick in the March Quarter of 1936 and was buried on 7^th March 1936, aged 83 years. 

All the other children can be found on various censuses in Berwick. In 1891, the family were living in 8 Albert Place and the entry contains the following information:

Census 1891

EMMA S MCKAY, wife, aged 39. Supported by husband at Woolwich. Born at Woolwich.

ELLEN M MCKAY, daughter, aged 13, Scholar. Born in Ireland

WILLIAM O MCKAY, son, aged 12, Scholar. Born in Ireland

JOCELYN E MCKAY, DAUGHTER, aged 7, Scholar. Born in Berwick

EMMA M MCKAY, daughter, aged 5. Born in Berwick

WINIFRED C MCKAY, daughter, aged 5 months. Born in Berwick.

Census 1901

Still living at 8 Albert Place.

OWEN MCKAY, Head,aged 50, Sergeant Major, Royal Garrison Artillery,. Born Ireland

EMMA SARAH MCKAY, wife, aged  49. Born Woolwich, Kent

ELLEN MARY MCKAY, daughter, aged 23, Draper’s Assistant. Born Ireland

EMMA MAUD MCKAY, daughter, aged 15, Pupil Teacher. Born Berwick

WINIFRED CHARLOTTE MCKAY, daughter, aged 10. Born Berwick

At the time of the 1901 census, their youngest daughter, CONSTANCE ROSE  MCKAY, aged 4, was in Berwick Infirmary as a patient. It was said that there was something wrong with her foot.  

Census 1911

Living at 15 Bell Tower Park in 3 rooms.

EMMA SARAH MCKAY, aged 59, widow, Army Pension, Born Woolwich, Kent

WINIFRED CHARLOTTE MCKAY, aged 20,School teacher at Convent School. Born Berwick

CONSTANCE ROSE MCKAY, aged 14. At school. Born Berwick.

Are you related to any of these McKays ? 

We have a lovely set of photographs relating to them here in the Berwick Record Office which should be returned to the family. 

If you can help us in any way to help track down descendants, do get in touch on 01289 301865 or leave a comment below. 

More on Philip Whiteside MacLagan

Following my blog, Thomas Fraser's Neighbour, Dr Philip Whiteside MacLagan, Linda Bankier of Berwick Record Office sent me some research she did on his memorial statue a few years ago.

Dr Philip Whiteside MacLagan,a popular and well respected doctor in Berwick died on 25 May 1892, aged 73. He was a native of Edinburgh but had lived in Berwick since 1853.

After his death, the town's people decided to erect a memorial to Dr MacLagan.
A public subscription was started and on 14 June 1893, a statue, designed by DW Stevenson of Edinburgh and costing £150 was unveiled in Marygate, Berwick.
There is an account of the opening ceremony in the Berwick Journal, dated 15 June 1893. In the article, there is a verbatim account of the Mayor's speech at the opening ceremony which indicates that the statue was handed over to the Urban Sanitary Authority, part of the Council.

Councillor Young, ladies and gentlemen, subscribers to the MacLagan Memorial Fund.
On behalf of the Corporation and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I accept this monument - a monument erected to perpetuate the memory of Dr Philip MacLagan, of this town.
Again ladies and gentlemen, permit me most heartily to thank you all in the name of the Urban Sanitary Authority of Berwick for this handsome monument you have erected to the memory of the beloved Dr MacLagan.

The memorial remained there, beside the bus station until 1922, when the Town Clerk wrote to Berwick Infirmary saying that they wished to move it to a more suitable site.
The Infirmary committee agreed to this proposal and after June 1922, it was moved to the open space in front of the Infirmary buildings. At the meeting dated 16 June 1922, it was agreed to place the monument in front of the laburnum tree in front of the building and that the tree would not be removed. The memorial remained there until 1993 when alterations at the Infirmary caused it to be moved to its present site.