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Bellingham - Sound
Oral History Recording of Mr. J B Spearman (9th August 1978)
Transcription of an interview with Mr. J B Spearman recorded on the 9th August 1978.
Mr. Spearman was born at Eachwick in 1892. His father was a country joiner and builder. In 1905 he started work at Callerton colliery, however he left after only working there for eight weeks to become a mason's labourer. In 1909 he commenced work as a boy hand at Eachwick House Farm. In 1916 he took over the tenancy of a farm in the Wark on Tyne district. Finally in 1924 he took over Heddon Steads Farm. During the full interview Mr. Spearman recalls his varied employment as well as stock and dairy farming in general.
During this extract Mr. Spearman talks about his time at the Bellingham hirings, and the resultant events of a train ride along the Newcastle to Carlisle railway.
[Transcription]
Did you ever go to Bellingham hirings?
I went that once, just that once.
When was that, what year would that have been?
I fancied it must have been 1907 or 8, I cannot tell you, it was the May. And it was snowing that day.
Tell me about it.
And there was a chap there with one arm used to play the fiddle, and we got him into the, what they called the nappers, the public house at the end, the three of us and a whole lot of more lads went and had a right dance and carry on you know, and finally we got the train back at quarter to eight at Bellingham station, the British, the North British they called it. Well you had to tell the man at Wall, that where you wanted to be off after Hexham, you see, well we didn't know that us three lads, we wanted them to stop off at Wylam, so we got right to Blaydon, then we had to walk from Blaydon that night so it was morning when we got home.
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 19th and early 20th 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.