Joan Kidd

Longtown Memories

Some Memories of Longtown in the 1930s by Joan Kidd

Joan Kidd?s memories of Longtown, mostly from the 1930s.My granny lived in Netherby Street. All the houses had red doorsteps projecting on the cobbled pavements. Every morning at the crack of dawn all the women were out ?redding? the steps ? washing them and smoothing them with ?reddstones?. Woe betide any child who left a footprint on a clean step.The milk was delivered every morning by pony and trap, the trap held a milk churn with three measures hooked over the rim, half pint, pint and quart. You went out with your jug and they scooped it out for you and you paid for it then and there.Coal and peat were delivered three times a week; Hodgson's had the coal yard near the station, with three horses and carts. You could only buy one bag at a time as it had to be stored in the kitchen. I used to beg a crust and feed the horse.Before electricity we used box irons. The centre of the iron was hollow and there were three lumps of iron to fit in the box. They were dropped in the fire until red hot, then the long tongs were used to take one out and put it in the iron. You started on the linen and as the iron cooled down progressed down to the woollens. Then that piece of iron was tipped back into the fire and you began with another one.Ground floors were all stone covered with home made rag rugs. There were wooden frames about 8 foot by 4 foot which stretched the sacking. Then six to eight girls got together and cut all the rags into strips, then all sat round with the big frame over their knees so they could reach both sides of the sacking. You stabbed a hole with your awl and pushed a rag through with your right hand, then stabbed another hole and pushed the rag up with your left. It was a nice communal activity ? you sang and gossiped and broke off for supper ? and it wasn?t so fine that you couldn?t see to do it with oil lamps.Mother was very friendly with the four Johnston girls who lived in Bridge Street. Lizzie was my godmother, she was a magnificent cook. She had the town?s ultimate accolade ?Lizzie was one who could make a good meal out of the dish cloth?. Eva worked in Binns in Carlisle, Mary married Bobby Carruthers, and Annie married Murray Coulthard, one of Pop?s friends ? they joined the Inland Revenue in Carlisle on the same day. The Johnstons used to let out the front rooms to the Curate ? you had to be very quiet when you went in. The Mounseys lived on Graham Street, the youngest boy used to keep a pet fox in the garden.In the summer there were always burnets for sale in Carlisle market, picked when the corn was harvested. They made a very good dark wine very like port.Carling Sunday was the Sunday before Palm Sunday, when everyone ate carlings ? small black peas with treacle and vinegar.On fine Sundays everyone walked to Arthuret churchyard to tend the graves ? it wasn?t a solemn occasion, everyone gossiped and the children whooped around. My uncle Bernard (Kidd) was thrown out of the choir for setting off bangers during the service.My Granny (Hester Mason) used to remember all the children skating on the Fauld Mill Pond each winter. She was very good at dancing ? she won prizes for her waltzing ? and used to talk about going to dances at the Graham Arms, dressed in her best blue taffeta ? her father used to carry her over the road to make sure her dress and shoes didn?t get muddy.The BakeryThe Irvings lived at 23 Netherby Street, their shop was at no 25 and they shared a yard with no 27 where I was born. Katie and Mary were my ?Aunties.? The bakery was in the yard. Willie Irving was the baker. 6 o?clock every morning he went in to the stoke hole and lit the fire. Then he went into the bakery to his bench on the south side. His bench was 10 foot by 3 foot; each half was a bread ark ? flat top, v shaped container underneath. First he made the roll dough, and put it in the ark to rise, then he moved to the other bench to make the bread dough, and put it in the other ark to rise. Then he got the roll dough and kneaded it and put it in the tins to prove. The same with the bread dough. The rolls went in the oven first when it was hottest, in great big trays, then the bread. May Irving worked on the north side bench, she made fruit pies, sponge buns and big sponge cakes. As soon as the electricity was put in (about 1937?) she got a big mixer, I saw it switched on for the first time. Katy ran the shop, if it was empty when you went in you yelled ?Shop, Katy? and she would come.

Longtown SchoolThere were only two rooms in Longtown School at that time (early 1900s) divided by a folding partition with many small windows. It contained a big black closed stove supplied by the caretaker, who had to black-lead it every morning. My Granny (Nancy Ridyard Kidd) was in charge of the infants section. She was a certificated teacher and had previously taught in Salford and Nottingham. She was a married woman and was only allowed to teach because she was the breadwinner ? her husband Fred had left for the Boer war and didn?t come back until 1914! His brother Alfred Kidd, an education officer in Salford, got her the job ? normally married women were not allowed to teach. Mother (May Jeffrey) was a pupil at the school, before returning as a pupil teacher then as a fully certificated teacher. She had to give up her job when she married Pop (Charles Kidd, Nancy?s son) in 1926.Every Christmas the staff and scholars used to present the head teacher (Mr Taylor) and his deputy with a goose each. They were live and walked into the school. Mr Taylor was a Conservative so his goose had a blue ribbon while the deputy was a liberal, so the geese had a yellow ribbon.The ladies from Netherby used to come to present prizes and inspect the school; Mother remembered their velvet dresses picking up all the chalk dust from the floor. None of the children wore shoes; it was clogs on weekdays, boots for Sunday.Mother got a scholarship to Carlisle High School. She used to get the 7.30 train to Carlisle, if they were a bit late and the driver could see them running for the train he would wait. She returned on the 3 o?clock train, except on Wednesdays when she stayed behind to do art, and caught the 8 o?clock train. If she missed the train she came home standing on the back of Pop?s bicycle.The Rev Ivor Graham every year paid the fees for one boy (no girls) to go to the Grammar school in Carlisle. I don?t know how long this went on for, but it was my uncle Jack Kidd one year. The rector also ran the football team on the field beside the rectory.

Joan Kidd (right), born in Longtown in 1928