Once upon a Swansong

Introduction

This month as well as the WDYTYA Live event in Glasgow, I am preparing to welcome a guest from Minnesota for an ancestral tour of Northumberland.  In order to be able to paint a picture of what life would have been like for her family in the early to mid-19th century, I thought it may be an idea to revisit elements of my own farming ancestors during this period.

When researching family history it never ceases to amaze me the number of twists and turns it can take.  What sometimes appears to be mere coincidence or fate may actually turn out to be have been meticulously planned and executed by our ancestors.  The resulting image is full of colour and depth.  The problem is it becomes so complex and complete it can be difficult to know where to start!  In my case I thought I would start with my early memories of what had been the family farm and home for over 120 years.

My Early Memories

Tenants of the Duke of Northumberland, we lived at Peppermoor, a small farm that had been annexed to the main farm of Longhoughton Hall, or "Hall Farm" as it is referred to in the 1861 census, the home of my grandparents, when my own parents married.  As my mother worked full time I was often left in the care of my grandmother, whom I loved dearly.  Indeed in all the years I knew her I believe we only fell out once, I can’t remember what I had done, but it was harvest time and I was sitting on a bale of straw in the grain shed where we made friends again over a cup of tea and a coffee iced biscuit!  Granny was a true country woman who walked for miles every day, pointing out wild flowers and telling stories.  A true inspiration to fire the imagination of any young person and I was no exception.  

Front of the House from the South

The house was a great lump of a thing that had evolved over the centuries from a “bastle” or “strong house” (see listing link below) and aggrandised in the early nineteenth century.  A maze of passages and steps with not a fitted carpet or radiator in sight! It was perishing.  “Jack Frost” was a frequent visitor during the winter months, his intricate patterns of ice so thick I believe they acted as insulation. The décor and paintwork lacked imagination somewhat too, bright red around the kitchen quarters believed to date from as early as the 16th century, and canary yellow to the later, more formal rooms.

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From SE which gives a better idea of the scale

It was stuck fast in a time warp, bedrooms crammed full of “stuff” with cupboards full of top hats, starched collars, fur coats, old fashioned bathing suits and evening dresses from the 1920’s.  I had a fabulous dressing up box!  When one room was fit to bursting I am sure they just closed the door and moved on to the next.  The same was to be said for outside too.  When the last horse had left the house stables the tack room door was just shut and left, the tack still hanging on its pegs, gathering dust and cobwebs.  

The servant’s bells, long redundant had been removed and spent the rest of their days propping up a wall in an outhouse.  Echoes of the past were around every corner, just waiting to tell their story.

Details of the House listing can be found here.
http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/2717.html

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"More Food for More People"
 and how we came to be here....

John Smith 1st (for the purposes of this article) was born at Loanend in Norham in November 1813.  He was the second and youngest son of George Smith and Christian Trotter.  He was the first of the family to make the break with Tweedside where his family had farmed for many generations.  In approximately 1858 he took the tenancy of the Farm of West Chevington from the increasingly beleaguered Howick Estate, having married Jane Montgomery Marshall of Greenlaw in the July quarter of the same year, and fifteen years his junior.

Why had he left it so long?, as a younger man he had farmed with his father and brother at Loanend until it was sold to the Mathers.  Was it perhaps due to the turbulent times being experienced in British Agriculture?

The definition of farm boundaries and legal titles to land resulting from the “Inclosure Acts” saw many who had lost the right to graze their animals on common or waste ground move to the mills and factories in search of work.  It was during this period that farming became a business and not a subsistent existence.  New techniques and practices resulted in a sharp increase of domestic arable production.

The 1840’s brought the failure of potato crops and resulting famines that led to mass immigration from Ireland, stretching the domestic resources of Britain to the limit.  Whilst the Corn Laws passed in 1815 which prevented the import of grain from other Countries into Britain and Ireland was lining the pockets of the land owning classes by keeping the price of home produce artifically high, it was having a crippling and catastrophic effect on British Industry and the rapidly growing urban workforce.  With the price of bread, the staple food of the nation so high, manufacturers saw their profit margins slashed as their wage bill increased and a lack of disposable income in general  brought with it a slowing or lack of demand for their products.   

Meeting of Anti Corn Law League in 1846

Finally, the Corn Laws were abolished by the “Importation Act” of 1846 which saw a swing from the political and financial power associated with land ownership to a significant growth in free trade.  Thus it can be seen that whilst initially the Agricultural Revolution fed the Industrial Revolution, it could not keep pace with the exponential population growth that was occurring during this period.  In 1750 the population stood at 5.7 million by 1850 this had reached 16.6 million people.

With domestic corn prices falling and the increased mechanisation creeping ever more rapidly into the agricultural industry, and import taxed on grain abolished many farmers and agricultural workers decided to try their luck in another Country and mass emigration from Britain occurred in the post 1850’s era.

Maybe, just maybe, these were some of the contributory factors affecting John decisions.

Meanwhile in the North

In the meantime John’s older brother George had married in 1838, the widow of his close friend David Young, of New Ladykirk, to whose will he was executor in 1838.  He had taken over the tenancy of the deceased and there he farmed until circa 1852, when he himself took a tenancy of another Howick Estate farm at Ancroft.  By 1861 he is farming 1180 acres there, employing forty men, twenty seven women, two girls, five boys a total of seventy four, as well as an extensive domestic retinue.  See  census extract below:-

John on the other hand was not experiencing quite the same good fortune.   In the 1861 census he is visiting his father and unmarried siblings in Norham, a widower, his wife Jane having died the previous December.  In 1863 John takes another wife, this time twenty four years his junior!  Her name was Hannah Aynsley, eldest daughter of John Aynsley, another farming family of some repute in Coquetdale and currently a tenant at the neighbouring farm of Chevington Woodside.

(Is the above a photo taken at the front door of the house?, and is this Hannah and her two boys taken in the 1870's? I really cant tell, but the child on the left with the pony has definite Smith "look" about him.  If Anyone has any ideas please let me know.  It is so frustrating to have albums full of photos, but no names!)

Three children were born to this union at West Chevington, the eldest of which was John Smith 2nd in October 1864, George in 1866 and a girl Isabella in 1869, the infamous Auntie “Bea” close friend of May McWatt.

The Move and a Ploughing Match

The tenancy securing the farm of Longhoughton Hall for five generations, was heralded in with a ploughing Match of no small consequence in February 1870.  The Alnwick Mercury covered the event as follows:-

“Mr Smith of Chevington, who is about to enter on the splendid farm of Longhoughton Hall, belonging to His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, had his ploughing day on Friday, when his friends and neighbours sent about 70 ploughs to inaugurate his entry on the practical business of the farm.  The draughts were splendid specimens of their class, and the young fellows in charge would have gratified Mr Henley, the Government Commissioner, who has paid such a noble testimony to the character of the Northumberland hinds.  The arrangements, which were under the management of Mr James Grey of Low Steads, and Mr John Aynsley of Hartford Bridge (his brother in law), were skilfully carried out.  The refreshments were abundant.  One of the chief attractions of the day was the working of the steam plough – Fowler & Co’s.  The engines which cost £620 each, are named “Acklington“ and “Warkworth” being the district to which their work is confined.  They are the property of the Duke of Northumberland by ….they are hired out to the tenants at the moderate sum of 10s per acre – a benefit which may be appreciated when we state that a northern firm charges 17s on hire for the same depth, namely 12 inches.  It is a four breasted digger or plough and turns up the soil loose, like trenching with a spade; keeps the soil open to the action of frost, and enables the drains to work better…”

These huge machines the precursor to the diesel combustion engine powered tractor, were still in production in the 1920’s, still in use during World War II and exported throughout the world.  The age of steam in land cultivation had truly arrived.  More about John Fowler & Co and his engines can be found here:-
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Fowler_and_Co

Unrest

All was not plain sailing however, with increasing unrest developing within the agricultural labour market.  The hinds were seeking improvements to their working hours and conditions, but most of all the abolition of the age old system of agricultural “bondage”.   In November 1873, four of John’s men made a stand against feeding cattle on a Sunday, stating it was not part of the conditions of their employment.  The matter went to court, John was reprimanded for not employing a byreman, and although the four men were prosecuted, it is clear that a shift of power was a foot.

Mayhem on Market Day

Another unfortunate incident involving one of John’s workers was to grace the newspaper headlines in 1875. At the March “Hiring Fair” in Alnwick one Thomas Waite an employee on the farm and his brother John, also of Longhoughton, became embroiled in a drunken brawl at “The Angel Inn” which resulted in the death of a policeman.  It was reported that due to persistent rain the masses had retired somewhat earlier than usual to the alehouses of the Town and combined with the general unrest of the time there was sure to be trouble.  The police had been called to remove John Waite from the inn as he was refusing leave and had become violent.

Vigorously resisting arrest the police finally got him out into the street with the intention of removing him to the police station.  It was here that Thomas grabbed his brother and was joined by others in an attempted rescue.  The town being so busy a large crowd was soon gathered to watch the spectacle (it was reported to have stretched from St Michaels Pant to the fish market and numbered in the region of 2,000 people). With both Thomas and John Waite eventually taken into custody and the mele had dispersed, Sgt Hately was found lying dead in the Shambles.  


The subsequent inquest into his death reported he had died of a heart attack brought on by excitement.  Nothing more is known as to the fate of the Waite brothers.

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The Next Generation

John Smith 1st died at Longhoughton on the 5th August 1881, in the census of that same year the farm staff consisted of six men, five women and one boy, a far cry from fourteen men, ten women and two boys employed just ten years prior in 1871.  His wife Hannah survived him by 41 years, passing away in 1922 aged 85.  

The farm passed to the eldest son John Smith 2nd aged just 16 at the time, a farm manager may have been appointed in the early days, as John spent time at the National Bank at Berwick and also in the Army, retiring in 1902 with the honorary rank of Major, to which title he was often referred.  He also married later in life at 43 to Mabel Herd, again 15 years his junior in 1907. Their eldest child and only son John 3rd (known as Aynsley) was the first Smith child to be born at Longhoughton on 22nd August 1908. 

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Swansong

John 3rd Aynsley Smith inherited the tenancy on the death of his father John 2nd  in 1937.  His son (my father) John 4th Michael Aynsley Smith was born on the 3rd September 1939 in “The Bungalow” on the Boulmer Road, Longhoughton, which adjoined the main farm by means of a path through the vegetable garden.  My grandfather died in April 1981 and my father continued to farm until 1988 when the tenancy of “Hall Farm” was surrendered to the Northumberland Estate but that of the smaller farm of “Peppermoor” being retained until his death in December 2012.

In terms of the Smith family involvement with the history of the farm at Longhoughton, it was very much in its swansong.  On surrender of the tenancy the land was divided amongst neighbouring farmers, the old steading, totally impractical for modern farming methods, converted into houses, and the paddocks around the house used for new build development.

The history of the farm itself is a fascinating one, steeped in history as far back as the border raids of the 15th and 16th centuries.  Many familiar farming names have been associated with it, including Forster, Carr and Sample for short durations in the 19th Century, next to the Smiths, the longest incumbents and appropriately in keeping with the ‘spooky’ nature of the house, was the Adams family, whose earliest association can be traced back as far as 1497.  A fascinating family by all accounts whose association with the farm finally came to an end in 1822.