POOR folk in various parts of the dales had a chance of an occasional cash handout in the old days, thanks to well-off people who remembered them in their wills. There were a series of these bequests in Stanhope. Ralph Barrick left £20 in 1689, with instructions for the interest to be paid every Whit Monday to the most destitute residents. It would mean a welcome shilling or two, or perhaps just a few coppers, for some of those in dire need.

Barbara Chapman, who died in May 1829, left enough to produce a yearly dividend of £20. From this £12 was to go towards the education of eight boys, four from Stanhope and four from Frosterley. The other £8 was to be given to the poorest folk every St Thomas Day, December 21.

But if that date was a Sunday the money was paid a day early.

Those chosen were given half a crown apiece (12.5p in today’s coins) to make their festive season just a little brighter. Church officials usually had the task of saying who received sums, and those left out often felt aggrieved. The first young pupils to benefit under her will were selected for schools in October 1829.

Dr Hartwell bequeathed a house and garth for use of the poor. The house became a ruin, so it was pulled down and a new one built by a later doctor. This was lived in by a curate, and the rent money went to help Hartwell’s School, which was established in 1725. Ten children at a time were given a free education there. A master was paid £9 a year and the rector handed out £2 for books and coal.

Richard Bainbridge of Westgate signed an indenture in 1681 saying some of the land he had farmed should be used after his death to raise money to pay for a master to teach the poor of the parish. After free eduction was brought in nationally, the money was handed out to the deserving poor in the village.

The original school was eventually used as a Sunday School.

In Wolsingham an area known as Poor’s Land was left by men called Markindale and Astley, along with others, to benefit the poor. The rent was given on St Stephen’s Day, December 26, to the most deserving impoverished folk.

In 1676 George Clarke gave just over three shillings a year to the Wolsingham poor. And John Ayre, in his will dated 1685, left £2 a year for hardup residents. The Reverend Robert Gordon, who died in 1780, left £200 to be invested to relieve poverty. Among other wills was one by William Newcombe in 1846. He left £300 to provide annual sums for the poor widows of Wolsingham.

MOST dale villages had a range of shops in the past, so residents could buy just about everything they needed without having to travel. Cotherstone was no exception. It had some first class retailers. It is now left with one, the well-stocked shop and post office run by Mr and Mrs Allen Christon, so it is better off that many other places, those that have none at all.

The Christons’ premises used to be known as the Teesdale Supply Store, run by William Kipling, and before that it was a carpenter’s shop in the late 1800s. It had a steam corn mill in the cobbled yard. A booklet called Cotherstone Revisited, produced some years ago by Sandra Moorhouse and friends, tells about this shop and others.

Belle Vue was known at one time as Heslop’s shop and post office.

Featherstone House was a busy grocery shop run by John Clarkson and his family. Hillfield was a boot and shoe shop run by the Aldersons, who also did footwear repairs. Bessie Jewitt’s shop at Romney Cottage was reputed to sell everything from snuff to dustbins.

Fruit and vegetables were sold from Lynton Cottage. Kidds’ butcher shop was busy for many years, run by different generations of the same family. The village earned a reputation as a holiday resort after the railways started in the 1860s so a summer influx of visitors, many from Sunderland, meant there was scope for a wide collection of businesses.

A directory for 1890 lists John Smith as running a general shop and John Mackew was another shoemaker. Edward Shotton was a carter, John Rutter a tailor, John Walker a blacksmith and James Tyreman a joiner. John Tinkler was landlord of the Fox & Hounds and Thomas Bayles ran the Red Lion.

These two hostelries, still as popular as ever, would do well from the holiday visitors. Postmaster Thomas Raine would also have a busier time in summer, with many visitors sending postcards to relatives and friends.

The village also had two mills, one beside the Tees and the other by the Balder. Henry Park, the stationmaster, dealt with passengers all through the year, but was particularly busy in the holiday season.

IT was just 10 minutes past closing time at a remote dale hostelry when two police officers walked in and caught 17 local farmers drinking in the kitchen.

They had glasses of beer or spirits in their hands, so it was clear they had been nabbed in the act. They were in the Hare & Hounds at Hury at 10.10pm on a Friday in February 1867, while some of their wives were at a whist drive in a hut at the back.

The landlord, John Cragg Thwaite, appeared from the cellar with a pint of beer in each hand as the officers started taking names. He admitted he was in the wrong, and was charged with serving drinks after permitted hours. His 17 customers were charged with drinking after closing time. They all appeared before Greta Bridge magistrates.

The farmers, all respectable men who had never been in trouble before, were between them the owners or tenants of a huge proportion of the agricultural land in the Baldersdale area. It seemed to everyone their guilt was just a formality.

But two defence lawyers, Roy Helmer and Thomas Dowling, surprised the court with a tactic that would have been worthy of Perry Mason, the TV lawyer famous a century or so later for using all sorts of legal wrangles to get his clients off the hook. They pointed out that police had not chekced to see if any of the 17 could be classed as bona fide travellers who were entitled to be served even after normal closing time. A glance at their addresses would show they all lived locally and could hardly be travellers. But the magistrates thought this was an interesting point, so they retired to discuss it. Then they said the evidence was not strong enough to convict the 17, so they were all found not guilty – and as they were innocent the landlord had to be cleared too. No doubt there would be a hearty celebration in the Hare & Hounds that night.

HOW would boys who played in school football teams around 60 years ago compare with those in dale sides today?

A lineup of a Cockfield eleven from 1951 will probably start that sort of discussion. They are pictured with their headmaster, Michael Hardcastle. They attended the C of E School, known locally at the Bottom School, which closed in 1963. Their great rivals were the lads of the Top School, further up the road, which is still going strong and is known as Cockfield Primary.

The ball in the photograph is the old leather variety which became really heavy in wet weather and the boots in the picture also look like the old leather ones, unlike the fancy coloured footwear which many players wear today.

The photograph, from John Hallimond’s large collection, will no doubt stir memories of village life in the Fifties as well as the skill of the team. It’s a fair bet that a lot of people will be able to pick out fathers, grandfathers and other relatives.

ALL dale workhouses had tight budgets, so they had to pay the lowest possible prices for prices for food and other supplies. Back in 1872 the sum they were paying for best forequarters of beef was 7 shillings and sixpence (37p) stone. Other prices, converted to decimal currency, were: mutton 3p a pound; Australian beef and mutton 2p a pound; milk 5p a gallon; oatmeal £1.90 per 20 stone sack; best coal 75p a ton; men’s shoes 35p a pair; women’s boots 22p and 27p; boys’ boots 26p; and girls’ boots 22p. Saddest item on the list was for coffins. Those for children aged under-5 were 25p, under 10, 27p, under 16, 35p, and for all those aged 16 and over, 55p.