"My heart lies in Ramshaw"

Cecil at The Terrace
Cecil at Number 2, Boltsburn Terrace, where Gran came to live in 1865.

Although Cecil Davison hasn't lived in Hunstanworth since he was a child, he has family ties with the community that go back generations - and he still owns the house his grandmother grew up in nearly 150 years ago.

Cecil was born at his Grandmother's home, Townfield House on December 9, 1923, the only child of Muriel and Ernest Davison. Ernest was a Blackhill lad, and had worked with Consett Iron Company, then the town water board as a plumber, then came to Presser water pumping station to work, lodging with Mrs Curry at Ramshaw.

Boltsburn Terrace, Ramshaw
Boltsburn Terrace, Ramshaw from across the valley.

Cecil's grandparents, Elizabeth (nee Shield) and Joseph Wilkinson, had moved to Townfield House in 1885 to farm 40 acres of land and run the shop beside the school.

Joseph Wilkinson had been the eldest of 12 children at Hard Struggle (the house is no longer there but it was on the opposite side of the valley to Boltsburn Terrace). The mines closed in 1892 and the Wilkinsons moved to Castleside to work at the Consett Iron Company, but Joseph stayed on at Ramshaw.

Joseph seems to have been a bit of an entrepreneur; when the Wilkinsons moved to Ebchester, Joseph would have vegetables sent up by train from Hexham and fish from North Shields. Then he'd go to Ebchester, stay over with the family, and hawk the fish and veg all the way home. Cecil's Gran said her husband could make more money that way than a miner could in a week.

Elizabeth and Joseph Wilkinson had nine children, but only two lived - Cecil's mother Muriel was the youngest and Aunt Lizzie was the elder.

Going even further back, Elizabeth's father John Shield came from Catton near Allendale. He was a joiner and had worked on the construction of the roof of Newcastle's Central Station. When that work finished he heard about Derwent Mines and walked all the way from Allendale to Allenshields Farm, where the Price family lived. Being a bit cheeky, says Cecil, he knocked at the door and asked Mary Ann Price for... "a drink of water from a milky jug" - meaning a drink of milk - and the pair fell in love.

They were married and went to live at Belmount Farm - Cecil says his grandmother was born in the room where the Belmount Murder was committed.

The Shield family came to live at No 2 Boltsburn Terrace in 1865 when Elizabeth was five years old. She was the only child, and went to the church school at Hunstanworth. John Shield paid 6d a week to the church for his daughter's education and she was a good scholar.

Elizabeth and Annie
Elizabeth Wilkinson, left and Annie Jameson, "Florence Nightingales" in their community.

The good scholar grew into a wonderful neighbour in Hunstanworth. Elizabeth and her friend Annie Jameson of West High House were the "Florence Nightingales" of the parish, said Cecil; they would help anyone who was ill, giving birth or dying - at any time of day or night. Cecil remembers his Gran would go out with her hurricane lamp through the woods to remote farmhouses like Whitelees when people needed her help.

Always at the heart of the community, Elizabeth Wilkinson served behind the counter at the Townfield shop, which was next to the school. Cecil said: "The miners got paid twice a year, once on Michaelmas Day and again on another day later in the year. Gran kept a book of what they bought and they paid her when their wages came through."

But as the lead mining families moved away, the shop had fewer customers, until by the time Cecil was living with his Gran in the late '20s and early '30s, Elizabeth was simply selling sweets to the schoolchildren.

Said Cecil: "My mother tried to keep the shop going by buying bulk sweets in Consett to sell at Townfield, but by 1934 Gran - and I - left to live with my parents at Consett."

Elizabeth Wilkinson had lived 50 years at Townfield House, but that wasn't the end of the story for Cecil; he returned in 1957 to buy Numbers 1 and 2 Boltsburn Terrace because, as he says: "My heart lay there" and, on his days off from work as a public health inspector, he re-roofed the cottages and the chapel with his father.

He has owned The Terrace and Chapel for more than 50 years, renting out the cottages to holidaymakers, and many people have happy memories of times they've spent at Boltsburn Terrace.