Ponteland - Sound

Transcription of an interview with Arthur Halliday recorded on the 5^th April 1978.

Mr. Halliday was born in Ponteland in 1907. His father was, from 1898 until his death in 1926, master of the Ponteland Workhouse. His mother was born at Longhorsley and was the Nurse of the workhouse. Mr. Halliday was therefore brought up in the workhouse and after his father's death continued in employment there. During this interview he talks about his parents and the conditions at the workhouse. He also recalls stories about various in-mates during the years 1912 to 1930.

During this extract Mr. Halliday recalls his parents employment at the workhouse as well as the kind of person the workhouse would help.

[Transcription]

Well of course they, well it was a good job in a way you know, Workhouse Master, he applied for the job, well the two applied it was a joint appointment by the way, they got it.

Thing was that they, what started then is previous to that the workhouses where, well a sort of a deterrent.

The people who eventually went to the workhouse were all looked upon as lazy people you know, idealers, loafers, which was not so, the point is that people were so damn poor outside, frequently a husband or a father would be out of work, couldn't get work, and he would just clear off and leave his wife and kids to the care of the parish. Well there was only thing they could do with them, they either had to give them what they called outdoor relief or indoor relief. It usually ended up in indoor relief and gave them an order for the Workhouse, and then they had to try and trace the father, to em, he had to pay of course if they found him, if they found him mind.

Then eventually he would be transshipped back by which ever parish he was in, back to this area because each parish had to accept responsibility for its own poor, so if anybody went poor in a distant parish they had to be moved back again, this was one of my fathers and mothers jobs, taking people back to where they belonged, of course there being very little work, people being so poor, there was quite an exodus of, not down and outs but people looking for work all over the country moving from one area to another.

 

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This tape recording comes from the large collection of oral history recordings held by the Northumberland Archive Service. Interviews were conducted by Record Office staff from the early 1970's right through until the mid 1980's. The purpose of the recordings was to capture the essence of life in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Many different subjects were covered, including coalmining, farming, fishing, domestic life, World Wars and entertainment. Over 350 recordings have been collected comprising approximately 700 hours of recollections.

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