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Wooler
Wooler maps
Historic maps of Wooler and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Wooler maps
Wooler area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about Wooler and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Wooler
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Northumberland memories
Milfield Roots
This is a brief, if somewhat patchy, history of my family's connection with Milfied. My maternal family came from Milfield. My Grandma, Isabella Elizabeth Chave (known as "Tibby"), was born in Milfield in August, 1900. She married Robert Hay but he died of TB after serving in the army in WW1, and Grandma had to raise my mum, Joan Johnstone Hay (known as "Bunty") and her little brother, Robert Ian Hay (Ian) alone in the 1920s and 1930s. Grandma worked as a cook while her mother looked after my mum and Uncle Ian. I believe they lived in a stable house or a house near a stable, at the time. My mum and Uncle Ian attended the village school and mum won a scholarship to attend Berwick High School. Mum told me she had to cycle fifteen miles per day and catch a train, to travel to and from Berwick High School each day! I remember being told a story about Uncle Ian, as a small boy, trying to help... Read more
Calder Farm, Roddam
Last year I visited the place in search for memories of my old folks. I came from Argentina, my country, and stayed at Cheviot View B & B run by Dean & Kay Wilkinson, lovely people, located in close by Powburn village. The story has that some almost two hundred years ago my gt gt gd father, Mr James G. Davison who had been born at the above mentioned farm came to South America and never went back to UK (about 1822). Some ten years later his younger brother Robert Gibson Davison (George Davison and Sarah Gibson were their parents) joined him and together travelled north Argentina up to Corrientes province where the set their business. For that reason I visited the Farm during July 2010 but apparently it was closed as no one answered. Since a Mr James Gibson, married abt 1798 to Eleanor Rutherford, lived at that time in the Farm, I presume the place belonged to the Gibson family but I could not trace that... Read more
The Clazeys - John And Isabella Oswald
John Clazey or Clazie was a miller. His wife was Isabella Oswald. Two of their sons were born in Etal: James Oswald Clazey and John Oswald Clazey (1819 and 1823). An older brother George, was born in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1815 or 1816.
GEorge left for the US in 1841...his son, James Oswald Clazey returned to become a schoolmaster...his son left in 1910 for the US....and here I am! Living in Florida. George was my great-great-great grandfather.
Brownieside Cottages
My brother David and me - Jacqueline, were born in the row of cottages in Brownieside to our mum Jessie nee Bell and our Dad Harold Rose in 1942 and 1945. Dad was in the RAF and Mum was a nurse. I think we lived in the second cottage from the right. We later moved to North Charlton and then to Leeds.
I have been back since and was happy to see things hadnt changed very much from how I remembered - happy days.
Holidays
Summer holidays riding bicycles, and horses, playing football on the Village Green or by Blindburn Hall, fishing under the bridge or wading through the water onto the stone island. Helping the village farmer walk the cows down for milking in the evenings and then walking them up to pasture in the morning, collecting eggs from the hen houses and stacking the bales of hay after the harvester had gone through. You would never believe this was a city lad's greatest joy. I must say this has taught me how to appreciate the simple things in life and that the folks from the North especially in and around the village of Wark are truly the greatest persons in the world, friendly, kind, warm hearted and generous. They are truly a great value to the history of the North especially this village where my Mum spent her childhood and I my summer holidays which I have never forgotten.
Grace Darling's Tomb
Visiting the Grace Darling Musuem, then her grave in the churchyard opposite, was an annual event while on holiday on the Northumberland coast. Peering through the bars around the tomb I was often reminded of how my grandmother had pulled herself up, slipped and put a metal spike through the base of her chin. As I could never spot a scar between the wrinkles I doubted the veracity of this tale. It was however confirmed, with admonitions, by her older sister and my other great aunties. Whenever I visit today (about once a decade sadly) I still wonder on which spike it was that my granny had hooked herself. I visualise an elderly Gran spatchcocked on the iron railings even though I have since been told that she was 12 years old at the time of this mishap.
First Home After The War
When dad got out of Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War he took a job as a coastguard and was stationed at Bamburgh. The coastguard lookout was on the east side of the castle and a great deal of his duties in those days was to keep us kids away from washed up mines and great globs of crude oil that used to wash up on the beach. We were one of the few families that had a phone because of his job. It was a monster of a box with a grate handle generator built in. I attended Bamburgh village school under a teacher called Miss Ford who taught one of the 2 classes there. I had a very interesting young life, climbing the ivy-walled castle and the rocks by the golf course. A big day out was a trip to Seahouses and care had to be taken not to miss the return bus as they only ran twice a day. I spent many an... Read more
