Cheryl's part in Darlington's war

Others were following the story of her mysterious great-grandfather, Joseph Ridley, a West Stanley Co-operative grocer. When his wife died in 1930, Joseph brought in a young housekeeper to look after his nine children and ended up having twins with her and, scandalously, never marrying her (one of the twins was Cheryl’s grandmother).

Part of Joseph Ridley’s story was his five years with the 11th Durham Light Infantry during the First World War in northern France.

11DLI was a pioneer battalion – as 95 per cent of its volunteers were County Durham pitmen used to physical labour, they were put to work digging trenches and laying railways, as well as fighting on the Western Front.

Although 11DLI avoided the full scale slaughter of the other infantry-only battalions of the DLI – Memories has reported on several of them, like the Battle of the Butte de Warlencourt, this year – it regularly found itself in the frontline.

One of its most deadly episodes was during the German Spring Offensive of March 1918 when 11DLI was caught up in a week-long battle from which few emerged intact.

A memorial at Pozieres bears the names of 14,657 Allied soldiers who fell during the Spring Offensive and whose bodies were never recovered. The DLI accounts for 618 of those names.

Although Cheryl’s great-grandfather survived the war, on last week’s TV programme, Cheryl was seen gracefully gliding through a sea of white headstones to place a red wreath on the Pozieres Memorial, and the camera panned down a couple of DLI names that she was looking .

Darlington’s First World War historian, Stephen Nicholson, spotted that the name that was centre screen for a few seconds of prime time TV – Sgt Thomas Bashforth – was, of course, a Darlingtonian.

Thomas was illegitimate when he was born in Workington in 1888 to Ellen Bashforth. She moved to Darlington, where she married a plasterer, John McGlasson, and lived in Robinson’s Yard, off Tubwell Row. Thomas followed in his stepfather’s line of business and became a plasterer.

In 1912, he married Florence and had a daughter, Ethel. They lived in Bridge Terrace, at the foot of Tubwell Row.

Thomas, who was 5ft 4¾ins tall, joined the DLI on August 29, 1914, three weeks after war broke out, and went off to train, leaving Florence pregnant for a second time. He landed in France in August 1915, sustained a minor injury in September 1917, and was caught up in the Spring Offensive of March 1918.

11DLI was defending the village of Arvillers when Thomas was wounded on March 27. A colleague called Towers tried to carry him to safety, but both men were hit again, killing Thomas and leaving a bullet embedded in Towers’ back.

The cemetery at Bouchoir is closest to where Thomas died. It is the last resting place of 763 men, 231 of whom are unidentified – Thomas could be one of those, hence his name appears on the missing memorial at Pozieres. He was 29-years-old.

Back home in Bridge Terrace, his widow Florence had to bring up Ethel, now six, Thomas, just turned three, and Ray, not yet five months old.

Although his name was only fleetingly glimpsed on Cheryl’s TV programme, Sgt Bashforth’s story and sacrifice deserve a wider audience.

His details are on Stephen Nicholson’s brilliant, searchable Darlington database of First World War soldiers, which is to be found at northeastatwar.co.uk.

Even more remarkable, Thomas’ grandson, Martin, who lives in Norwich, has compiled an incredibly detailed website about all the men of 11DLI, from which much of today’s personal information has come. It can be found at eleventhdli.wordpress.com

BACK in 2011, we celebrated Saltburn’s 150th anniversary with an article about its famous 18th Century smuggling trade. “The King of the Smugglers” was John Andrew, the landlord of The Ship Inn at the foot of Huntcliff from 1780 until his arrest in 1827.

There are as many tales of Andrew outwitting the Revenue men as there are of Robin Hood outwitting the Sheriff of Nottingham.

A secret code helped him pass on information. "Andrew's cow has calved" was the phrase indicating that a ship packed to the gunwales with illicit goods had anchored in the bay; "Jennie's coming" was the code as far away as Osmotherley to say the goods were on their way.

Now Graeme Chappell emails from Tadcaster with an interesting observation.

“I am looking at the wells and springs around north Yorkshire,” he writes, “and I noticed Jenny Brewster's Spring on the moors near Osmotherley. I made some enquiries locally and was told that the local tradition is that the name was connected with smugglers bringing goods across the moors from the coast.”

So can anyone explain the connection between a spring to the south-east of Osmotherley and the smugglers of Saltburn?

NOW some updates from last week. We showed a photograph of an early 20th Century schooldesk made by the North of England School Furnishing Company of Darlington which is now in Australia. “In the town museum of Naniamo, British Columbia, Canada, there is a School Furnishing desk with the name cast in the iron framework,” reports Keith Chapman.

Looking at last week’s spread of old Stockton photos, Mark Cooper in Darlington shows there is some use to all this car-spotting we have been encouraging. “You said the picture of Stewarts shop was taken in 1972, but it must be later as there's a Mk 2 Escort on a V-reg outside which puts it at 1980,” he says.

Barry Chapman in Norton spotted the “for sale” sign on Stewarts. “The estate agents are an interesting Leeds firm, Hepper and Watson, now called Watsons Property Management,” he says. “They go back more than 200 years and there is a “Hepper & Sons Horse & Carriage Repository” sign on a 19th Century building.”

The building is in York Place in Leeds, the sign is a mosaic of Victorian tiles, and a “horse and carriage repository” seems to have been a place you could leave your horse and cart while you do your shopping – today, we’d call it a car park.

Moving on, Bill Bartle in Barnard Castle was taken by the On This Day picture of the Wright brothers’ first flight on December 17, 1903.

“Apparently the passer-by who took this photo had first to be shown how to use a camera, never having used one before,” he says. “It shows Orville Wright lying prone on the wing, and Wilbur watching – they always took it in turn to try to fly.

“The brothers then sent a telegram to their sister in Dayton, Ohio. It read: “Success, four flights Thursday morning. Started from level with engine power alone. Inform press, home for Christmas.”

“As requested, she took the telegram and showed it to the editor of the Dayton Gazette. The headline in the paper next day read: “Wright brothers will be home for Christmas”.

And finally, the milk bottle from JT Yeoman’s Simpasture Farm at Aycliffe. Simpasture, at the north of the new town, was one of the ancient farms of the area – the Stockton & Darlington Railway ran through it in 1825. The farmhouse was where the Oak Leaf sports centre is today.

“I worked at Jackie Yeoman’s farm when I first left school – Mallow Hall, where the Aycliffe Tesco is today,” says Harry Thompson who now farms at Whiley Hill. “He went into bottling on the farm, and I was the first to bottle it up. That was in 1961 to 1963.”

A FINAL seasonal note: Memories was delighted to receive this Christmas card showing a famous little Scotts Greys coach battling manfully through the snows in its famous French grey and Royal blue livery.

Scotts Greys was an iconic Darlington name, founded in the horsedrawn age after the First World War by Fred Scott – he insisted that all of his horses would be greys, hence the company name. With its slogan “Glorious runs and safe returns”, Scotts Greys carried countless people on coach trips and bus holidays until it was run into the ground in 1992.

The coach on the card is a 14-seater Austin/Plaxton Venturer which was exhibited at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1952, the year it was built.

The coach is now owned by Keith Kitching, of Scarborough, who sent the Christmas card. The image is a photoshop fraud, as the village is in the Cotswolds and the bus is actually on the seafront at Scarborough. However, it makes a delightful picture, and acts as advance notice that Keith hopes to publish his book on Scotts Greys in the spring.

There will be a truncated Memories next week – New Year’s Eve – but we aim to be back to full glory for Saturday, January 7. Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch in 2016 – this supplement thrives on your communications and is pleased to receive every one of them. We’ve got loads of stuff to squeeze in next year – stinkpipes, bottles and loads of pneumatic cash dispensing