AS this is the Christmas edition of Memories, and so far we’ve only offered you a seasonal story about being gassed in the First World War trenches, here is news of a Saltburn Victorian Christmas sports day that was due to be run on Boxing Day 1876.

A poster advertising the event has recently been rediscovered in an attic and as Darlington’s Pease family had only founded the seaside resort 15 years earlier, it is believed be one of the earliest surviving printed items connected to the town.

The poster promotes an extensive programme of sporting events, including a 150 yard £10 handicap foot race, a pigeon-shooting match, a quoit match and a 120 yard handicap foot race where the star prize was a silver watch.

There was also to be a sack race over 60 yards and “a Manx or three-legged race” over 60 yards.

An advert in The Northern Echo in the fortnight before Christmas 1876 shows that entrants for the silver watch handicap had to be “bona fide Saltburn amateurs”, who did not live beyond a six mile radius of the town.

It said that all-comers were welcome for the slightly longer £10 handicap, but it warned: “DISQUALIFICATIONS: Any man having entered the handicap except in his proper name, or having changed his residence, must have stated his late and present abode at the time of entry, or having won a handicap at any time and not stating it, or in any way to lead the handicapper astray. For any of these offences he will be disqualified, and his entrance and acceptance money will be forfeited.”

It was almost as if the organisers were expecting to be conned.

And then, out of the blue, on December 19, 1876, there was an enigmatic paragraph in the Echo calling the whole thing off.

“The sports which were to have taken place at Saltburn on Boxing Day have been suddenly nipped in the bud and are consequently not coming off,” said the Echo. “Various reports are current as to the why and wherefore.”

And that was it. No other explanation was forthcoming. One can only imagine the skulduggery and chicanery that lay behind the sudden cancellation.

This makes the poster even more intriguing. It appears to be a draft, as it has notes and revisions marked on it – perhaps the event was nipped in the bud before it could be printed.

Framed reproductions of the poster are being sold for £60 by the Saltburn Framing Company, in Station Buildings.

ON December 20, 1915, The Northern Echo reported on its front page that there had been a gas attack near Ypres on the soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry – including, of course, the Vitty brothers from Fir Tree, near Crook.

Inside that paper was a Christmas Cookery column, which began: “Despite the great shadow that envelopes us, the season of Peace and Goodwill is again making its beautiful mission felt.”

The housewife, though, faced a terrible problem, of rising prices and falling income. “She must master the art of substitution,” said the Echo. “Inexpensive dishes must take the place of their more costly prototype, and must be served in such a manner as to render them equally acceptable.”

Here are a couple of cheap Christmas recipes from 100 years ago:

Giblet pie

Carefully wash the giblets of a goose and place them in a stewpan along with about ½lb steak cut into small pieces. Cover with cold water, and add onions, cut into thin slices, and herbs, and stew gently for two hours. Then take out the herbs and let the giblets go cold. Line the sides of a pie-dish with suet paste, lay in the giblets and pieces of steak, season with pepper and salt and make dish three-quarters full of gravy, in which the giblets have been stewed. Cover with crust and bake one hour.

Turkey Soup

Necessary ingredients: Two quarts of ordinary bone stock, the remains of a roast turkey, a tablespoonful of walnut ketchup, two ounces of ground rice, salt and pepper to taste.

First see that the stock is perfectly free from fat. Then chop the pieces of turkey small and place in a saucepan with the stock; simmer all together for three or four hours. Take the meat from the bones, press through a coarse sieve and return to the stock. Mix the ground rice into a batter with cold stock, add it with the sauce to the soup, boil up, cook for a few minutes while stirring well, and serve. A gill of cream added just before the soup is served will be found a valuable addition.

The article concluded: “Times may be bad, sorrow may be stalking the land, and the outlook may be none too cheery, but happily for all the glow of Christmas insists upon making itself felt and it is not the English housewife who will rob it of its traditional joy, even though that joy must be somewhat subdued in its expressions.”