Requests for Information - 2024

Feb 2024

John Walker Gibson - Death of an Innkeeper at the Weardale Hotel 1872 and a fire 1899.

John Walker Gibson (b1823 Sedgefield) married Margaret Moylan (b1832 Ireland) in 1853 in Australia. In 1871 they had returned to England and were living at 12 Wood Street, Bishop Auckland with their children, Emma, 17, Isabella, 15, Margaret, 12, William, 6, Eleanor, 3 and Walker (1870-1872). The children were all born in Australia. They had returned to England on the death of John’s father, a large cab proprietor in London. In 1871 they moved to The Weardale Hotel in Tudhoe Grange where John was manager.

John was known for drinking heavily and suffered from delirium tremens a severe form of alcohol withdrawal, his wife was often annoyed and disgusted with his conduct and restrained him, as was the practice with some patients. On Tuesday 13th August 1872 he was found dead and there were rumours of foul play. The inquest was held on Wednesday 14th August by Mr Dean, deputy coroner, at the house of Mr J H Crawford of the Commercial Inn.

Witnesses

• Margaret Orton, wife of James Orton a pensioner from the 69th regiment. She said John Gibson was a habitual drunkard, she had washed him and laid him out, she had never seen him mistreated but he often had severe falls when drunk. When she turned him over to wash his back he was bleeding from his mouth and nose and he had a wound on his arm.
• Robert Adams, a railway guard, was in The Weardale on the Monday night at 9pm and he saw Mrs Gibson and Miss Gibson using him very badly. The daughter was kicking him on the head while he laid on the floor and his wife was beating him on the face with her fist. He stopped her and said the deceased was intoxicated and calling his wife names. He had a bleeding nose and a black left eye.
• John O’Hanlon, surgeon, had attended the deceased for a week or more and saw him on the Monday at 7pm when he wasn’t sober and was laid on the floor. He advised him to go to bed, he fell over but wasn’t hurt. The surgeon called at 7am the next day and he had been dead for 4-5 hours. O’Hanlon completed a post mortem on Wednesday 14th, assisted by Dr. Hugh Clarke of Ferryhill. He reported an effusion of fluid to the ventricular and also in upper parts of the spinal cord which would put pressure on the respiratory nerves causing death. The cause of death was certified as effusion of fluid on the brain, He said the deceased always used bad language to his wife, the most fearful language that ever came out of a man’s mouth.
• Police sergeant Joseph Scott saw Gibson at 5pm on Monday 5th at the hotel, lying on a bed tied by his wrists with thin rope round the iron bedstead, the cord was sunk to the bone, arms swollen & black and a large wound on his right haunch. His legs were swollen and black to his ankles where the cords were fastened round and secured to the bottom of bed, There was some nightsoil and other offensive matter underneath him in the bed. The witness cut the rope and asked Gibson who had laid him on the bed. He said my wife assisted, she said this was on Dr O’Hanlon’s orders. Gibson was sober and hoarse with shouting.
• John Lindsay, a fireman, saw him at 9.30pm on Wednesday 7th, Gibson was calling his wife ugly names, she knocked him down with her fist and his daughter kicked him. Someone took him out and he was bleeding at the nose.
• William Christon, police sergeant, on Tuesday 13th between 9-10am he heard that Gibson had died. His neck, arms and shoulders were discoloured nearly black, his mouth was swollen, eyes blackened and a blueish black mark on his forehead. Mrs Gibson had found him dead in bed at 6am. He asked for the bedding but Mrs Gibson said it was all there. There was blood on the sheets and pillows but Christon found more bedding with blood stains downstairs.
• Mrs Gibson said she would answer any questions but didn’t have anything to say.
• Phoebe Fenwick, a domestic at the hotel said she hadn’t heard anything the night her employer died and she had never seen Mrs Gibson strike her master in the three weeks she had worked there.
• Mr O’Hanlon was recalled, he said strangulation could cause the effusion on the brain. There was a good deal of purple about his face, and there was a line around his neck which might have been caused by the buttoning of a shirt. He couldn’t say if the article which caused the whitish mark round the neck would be sufficient to strangle the deceased.

The verdict was the deceased died from an effusion of fluid on the respiratory organs, the cause of which there is not sufficient evidence to prove. That Mrs & Miss Gibson be called into the room before the jury, and, from the evidence severely censured by the Coroner for their ill treatment of the deceased. Large crowds were present to hear the verdict.

By 1881 Emma Gibson had married George Knaggs and they were living at Barnfield Blocks, Spennymoor with their children, Mary E, Sarah, Eleanor and George and Emma’s brother Willian Gibson.

Isabella Gibson had married Anthony Greaves and they were living at 38 William Street, Dubmire, Newbottle with their children, Edward and Liddle who were born in Spennymoor, and Isabella’s sister Eleanor Gibson. (Northern_Echo 16th August 1872, Newcastle_Chronicle 17th August 1872)

On 1st November 1899 a fire started in the upstairs rooms at the Weardale Hotel. Spennymoor Urban Council Fire Brigade and Weardale Companies fire engine attended. There was a good force of water which was unusual and they attempted to save the adjoining properties, Mr Maddison, a grocer, and Messrs Ramsdens musical instruments.

The property was insured but the tenant landlord John Newton hadn’t insured the stock and furniture which were all destroyed. The building, one of the largest in Spennymoor, was gutted but the neighbours properties were saved. Sadly John Newton collapsed and died at his home on the night of Wednesday 8th November, the newspaper said it is supposed the disastrous fire must have caused a shock to his system. The Weardale was rebuilt and is still a public house today. (Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough 2nd & 9th Nov 1899)

Jan 2024

Langsdale/Cummings family

Colin is researching his wife's family tree and he has sent us some lovely photos, hopefully someone may be able to identify the people on some of them. The Langsdale family were linked to The North Eastern Hotel, Spennymoor and the Nicky Nack Hotel at Croxdale.

John Langsdale (b1873) was the son of John Langsdale (b1849 Nottinghamshire, a miner, d1897) and Jane Young (b1841 Philadelphia, d1917).

They had two children John and Richard (b1877), born in Albion Place, Willington, Crook.

In 1881 they were living at 46 Jackson Street, Spennymoor and in 1891 36 New Row, Oakenshaw, Willington, Crook.

John (1873-1922) married Georgina Turner (b1878 Stanley, d1962) in 1894, they were living at 49 Mary Street, Stanley in 1901.

They had four children William (b1895-1976), John (1898-1898), Annie (1900-1905) and Mona (b1906-1963).

In 1911 John is hotel manager at the Commercial Hotel, Stanley, in 1915 hotel manager at the North Eastern Hotel, Spennymoor.

In 1921 he is hotel manager at the Nicky Nack Bridge Inn, Tudhoe Colliery, with his wife Georgina, son William (b1895), a fitter, and daughter Mona (b1906-1963).

John died in 1922 and was buried at Tudhoe Cemetery. Mona married John Thomas Hall in 1927, she died at Pear Tree House, Hamsterley.

William (b1895) was living with his maternal grandparents in 1901 and attended North Eastern County School for Boys, Newgate, Barnard Castle (now Barnard Castle School) in 1911, aged 15.

In 1924 he married Hilda Cummings (b1898). She was the daughter of George Dobson Cummings, a blast furnace foreman at Tudhoe Ironworks in 1911 who lived at 93 Weardale Street, Spennymoor with his wife Eliza and six children.

In 1911 Hilda received a school scholarship from Upper Church Street Council and in 1921 she was a school teacher at Tudhoe C. E. School. She eventually became headmistress of a village school in Ettington, Warwickshire.

Alexander Bertram Cowan and Helena Mary Cowan (Nee Dodd) - Richard is researching the Cowan family, Alexander Bertram Cowan (4-Nov-1853 – 21-Feb-1902), and Helena Mary Cowan (Nee Dodd) (1857 – 1917). He is particularly looking for photos of Alexander and Helena and their children.

In 1861 George Cowan (b1815) and Frances his wife (b1813) were living in Elswick with their three children, George Marshall (b1845), Charles Edward (b1847) and Alexander Bertram (b1853). George was a wholesale provision merchant, by 1871 George jnr is also a provision merchant and Alexander is an analytical chemist at Messrs Pattinson & Son of Newcastle. Aged twenty Alexander moved to work in Jarrow and in 1877 he was appointed head chemist at the laboratory in Tudhoe Iron Works. He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1878. About 1884 when they were building Siemens Martin steel furnaces he was appointed manager of the steelworks and remained there until 1897.

In 1878 Alexander married Helena Mary Dodd. In 1881 they were living at Half Moon Lane (North side), Mount Pleasant, Spennymoor with their son George Percy (b1879), Helena’s sister Mary Elizabeth Dodd (b1861), a servant and a nurse. In 1891 they have moved to Green Lane and Alexander is the steelworks manager, Emily Dodd and two servants also live there.

They had five children George Percy (b1879), Florence Norah (b1882), Mabel (b1885), Geoffrey (b1888) and Douglas (b1893). Alexander was very involved in the local community, at different times he was manager of Tudhoe and Sunderland Bridge Gas Co., Mount Pleasant, he was a guardian for the Durham Union and stood for the Tudhoe School Board. He was a Lieutenant in 2nd Volunteer Battalion DLI, secretary of Spennymoor Musical Society and President of Tudhoe Football Club.

After leaving the company in 1897, on the 5th March 1898 at the Grand Hotel, Tudhoe Grange, Mr Cowan was presented with a gold watch and Mrs Cowan a bracelet and gold watch from the workers at the steel works. The watch awarded to Helena is inscribed "Presented to MRS A.B. COWAN by the workmen of TUDHOE STEEL WORKS and friends as a mark of esteem March 5th 1898".

In April 1899 Alexander became manager for Parkgate Ironworks & Steel Co. near Rotherham. In 1901 the family lived at “Ross Lynn” Rawmarsh-hill, Rawmarsh, Rotherham, Yorkshire. On 21st February 1902 Alexander died, aged only 48, he was buried at Parkgate. In 1911 Helena is living at 8 Lindum Terrace, Rotherham, Yorks with her children, Mabel, a doctor’s dispenser, Geoffrey, a national telephone engineer and Douglas, a clerk at law.

There is a video on youtube of the workers at Parkgate Ironworks & Steel Co 1901

Dodd in his History of Spennymoor, 1897, says In spite of the growing popularity of steel the Weardale company continued to send large quantities of iron to the market, so that in 1880, whilst there were 2,000 tons of steel produced at the Tudhoe works, there were still 17,000 tons of iron. This was all changed by the Siemens-Martin process, and now the quantity of steel turned out at the Ironworks cannot fall far short of 50,000 tons a year, and the output is about to be immensely increased.

The Siemens-Martin furnaces are fed by gas and hot air, and the valves are reversed every half hour. In order to obtain regularity in this respect a large bell is sounded at the proper time by electric connection with the clock in the office of the Steelworks’ manager. There are forty puddling furnaces at the Works, but Siemens’ steel has to a great extent done away with the puddler’s art, and many of the puddlers are today earning a subsistence by labouring.

If anyone has any photos of the family please email tslhs@btinternet.com.