Part 9

A Memory of Middle Rainton.

Most of the family would help to do this, it took several weeks to complete. Some looked very good according to the people’s skill.

The Children
All played together, boys and girls, all age groups and all stayed out until called in, generally about 9.30pm summer or winter. In daylight hours we played football, cricket and rounders. After dark we played “Kick the Tin”, “Jack Shine the Magi” and other games.
For Kick the Tin two teams were picked, one to hide and the other to catch them. As the kids were caught (this entailed holding and hitting them on the head 3 times) they were put in a marked out square under a lamp post, with a tin in the square. If someone from the team being caught could get into the square and kick the tin out, then all the caught kids were freed to run away to be caught again.
Jack Shine the Magi was similar but not as violent. Again there were two teams, one hiding, and one finding. The team hiding had a light of some sort and when the finder shouted “Jack shine the Magi” they had to shine the light to show where they were. This again entailed catching the team, and then the other team had a go.

Church and School:
Margaret Wilson, my great grandmother with whom I was brought up, came from Irish Catholic stock, (as did many other families in the mining villages). All her children were baptised and raised as Catholics; most were baptised, and attended mass at St Michael’s RC church in Houghton Le Spring, and many are also interred in the old graveyard there as well. We would all walk to church every Sunday, (about 3 miles each way) no matter what the weather. The old priest, Fr Tuohey, would sometimes come to the house for tea.
Many of the family attended the same school, St Michaels RC in Houghton. My granddad, Mathew, went to this school, my mother Ann, and myself. We even had many of the same teachers.
The church was built in approx 1837, and was designed by Mr Ignatius Bonomi who was also the Architect for Durham prisons and the court houses. He also did work at Lambton Hall and Castle. The church exterior remains much as it was built. But the interior is much altered, mainly, as at the time of building, there was no Catholic school, so the church building was used for both church and school. It was designed with an upper and lower floor; the lower floor was divided up into classrooms, and used as the school.

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