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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: BIGhurst on Friday 20 October 06 14:30 BST (UK)
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I have found out, to my surprise, that I had family living in Boat House Terrace, Cambois in 1901. I believe it is still there, does anyone who lives or knows the area give me some idea as to the type of area it was then and any other info you may have I would be very grateful. The family were Meredith and they were from Wales.
Many thanks
CAROLE :)
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Hi Carole
I saw your message about Boat House Terrace in Cambois. I am sorry to say the street does not exist any more, the houses were pulled down when I was still quite young. I might be mistaken but it was about the late 60s. Cambois was a small mining village which is what drew a lot of people from different areas to live there, that is how my family ended up living there. My father grew up in a street next to there called boca chica. When I was small we lived in sinkers row just down the road but that was demolished so we moved further down the village. It is right on the coast so as children we played on the beach. Once the coal mine closed the miners had to travel to other colliery's to work but as we know they all closed eventually.
Susan.
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Thank you Susan. Seems I was given the wong info by somemone on another genes site. It looks like my family went from pit to pit lookimg for work dragging their family with them, they ended up in Tyldesley which is in Lancashire.
But it does enlighten me as I had never heard of Cambois!
Many thanks, CAROLE
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My grandfather was born at 44 Boathouse Tce Cambois. Sorry to hear that it's gone. He had lots of brothers and sisters plus mum and dad so it must have been a squash as I imagine miner's cottages were not up to much. The rest of the family were born in Bedlington and my dad went to school there. The name is LAMBETH but got changed back and forth to LAMBERT and was sometimes spelled LAMBERTH Anyway he and my grandmother emigrated to New Zealand in 1926 and my dad was a coalminer most of his working life but he always loved the beach and would drive us children there every weekend that he could. Most miners from Huntly New Zealand where we lived aspired to retire to the beach when they retired. Very understandable in my view. Unfortunately he was killed in a road accident before he made it. Anyone have class photos from Bedlington school circa 1920 ?
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A photo showing the rows at Cambois. It will give you some idea of the place they lived. It was grubby at the best of times, a place of heavy industry, and it was bitterly cold in the winter especially with the east wind blowing in off the sea. No central heating in those rows, just one fire in the main room, and the sash windows needed to be shut tight and the gaps plugged with old rags or newspaper to keep the awful drafts out in winter. Outside toilets too. Not an easy or overly comfortable life back then.
P
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The rows of houses are now lost to what has become Battleship Wharfe. The site is currently earmarked for some changes.
If you make an online search with the words 'battlership wharfe blyth' you will get to see various images of the site as it is now and what might become of it.
I will also add an unmarked photo of the one I sent you above, so you can save it for your own use.
Enjoy
P
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I often wondered how Cambois got its name? Also Boca Chica but I think this has already been explained somewhere.
It sounds a bit french - un bois is a wood (trees), or boue is mud.
I've looked it up and cambouis means sludge. The kind you get in motor engines. But why the french?
And Boca Chica - someone in the past had a sense of humour :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boca_Chica
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Here you go Tricia. How Boca Chica got its name.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,601558.10.html
P
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1745! A good story, thanks PH. Phil.
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Cambois place name, speculated in Hodgson’s History of Northumberland:
“It is often written Cambhouse; and might have its name from having at it, in old times, a Cambium, or house of trade, barter or exchange. There are seaports of the same name in Scotland and France.”
The more fanciful side of my brain would like to think that a group of French soldiers on their way to Scotland to help fight the English might have stopped off here and set up home. It would make the village quite a cosmopolitan place, French, Scottish and South American influences about the place…but that’s just conjecture (seeing as Cambois has been a place since at least the 1200’s).
SOURCE: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OOE9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA360&dq=Cambois+Northumberland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMj4Wo_OzeAhWKOsAKHdbwArsQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=Cambois%20Northumberland&f=false (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OOE9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA360&dq=Cambois+Northumberland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMj4Wo_OzeAhWKOsAKHdbwArsQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=Cambois%20Northumberland&f=false)
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Hello,
My Thompson great-grandparents lived at 41 Boathouse Terrace Cambois. They sailed to America in 1888. I would like a description of the houses, did they have gardens, was the necessary shared, etc. Was the key returned to the manager of the properties, or could the house have been turned over to a relative? Where did they shop; where is the railway station. I'm writing a story and your help would be much appreciated.
Northumberland Daughter
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Hello,
I am new to this site, and not sure yet how to navigate it all, let alone send you a photo. But, I have three books on Bedlington that are mainly photographs. The first is called, "Images of England - Bedlingtonshire" compiled by Evan Martin ISBN 0-7524-0784-8, and it has several images of Bedlington Council School in 1908, 1914, 1937. There's the Village Infant School, and Church Infant's School, Whitley Memorial School. It's really more of a collection of photos and the text leaves one wanting more (as we all do). The other two books by Evan Martin are "The People's History Bedlingtonshire Remembered" ISBN 1 902527 52 6, and "The People's History Memories of Bedlingtonshire and Beyond" ISBN 1-902527-77-1. I'm yearning for images, too. Northumberland Daughter
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Welcome to rootschat, Northumberland daughter. We are usually a friendly bunch and don't ignore newcomers but we seem to have missed this one.
Have a look through the Northumberland pages - there have been many references to local photographs over the years.
Christine
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Dear Christine,
Thank you for your gracious welcome. I will take your suggestion.
Northumberland Daughter
ps I see you have some Northumberland daughters of your own - lovely.
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They are my great grandchildren and the baby has been at school for a year now - maybe it's time I changed the photo!
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Dear Christine,
You are so very lucky.
Northumberland Daughter
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Here is a link to a 1898 map of the area, Boat House Terrace is near the bottom on the right.
https://maps.nls.uk/view/101027298
Gen in NBL UK
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Boathouse Terrace. First photograph of the series.
https://in.pinterest.com/pin/81064862018260661/
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Thank you for the photo of Boat House Terrace. Ah, to open the door and go inside!
The old map of Cambois was a special pleasure; and led me to a site called sixtownships.org.uk - if you haven't see it, so much to look at about Bedlingtonshire.
Northumberland Daughter
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Dear Friends of Bedlington and Cambois and...
My great grand-uncle, Aaron Thompson, died at 19 years of age of phthisis (TB) in September 1881. It was in March of that year that he signed an arithmetic book - the only thing we have of his - treasured. He is also listed as a "coal putter" - what was that occupation? Do any of you have knowledge or personal history of TB at that time? Aaron was buried at St Cuthbert's in Cambois; I've been there - no stone of course. I believe it was his death which compelled the family to give me an American accent (ha)! Your insights are important to me. Aaron's younger brother, John was my grandfather - who also died an early death at 46 in America - of course, affecting my father's life. These deaths set the tone for our family perspective on life - "we don't go in order". It's a precious heritage. yours truly, Northumberland Daughter
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Throughout all the 1800s, TB was pretty common. "In the 1800s up to 25% of deaths in Europe were attributed to TB". (https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/tb-rises-in-uk-and-london/)
From 5th October 1872 to 25th April 1874 The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle published a series of articles entitled Our Colliery Villages. Here is the link to the Cambois article. As it was written only a few years before Aaron Thompson died of TB, it will give you an idea of the miners living conditions.
http://www.sixtownships.org.uk/our-colliery-villages-cambois-1873.html
Miners were probably more liable to catch TB than farm workers or the more affluent as they breathed coal dust every day of their working lives.
I have a whole family in my tree, who had moved from a farm in Bellingham to be miners at Cramlington which is not far from Cambois. Between 1878-1907, they all died of TB. the mother died first then the father. All four children were taken in by a neighbouring miners family (no relation) and they lasted into their early adulthood. Only the daughter married but the sons all died unmarried.
Gen in NBL UK
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Dear Gen List Lass,
Thank you for responding so quickly, and sharing that part of your family story. I appreciate your information and links. It's not that our family dwelt or dwells on the sad stories, but they need to be shared. If it's as true with yours as it is with ours, those family stories are told again and again - oral history. I'm working on setting the stories in our family down for coming generations. Some people, I find, want to know more, others don't at all. Northumberland Daughter
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NBL daughter
You're welcome.
You always know the ones who aren't interested, they are the ones whose eyes glaze over!
Gen in NBL UK
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Hello, Boat House Terrace, Cambois or Bedlington descendants,
Have any of you been able to access medical records from the 1880's? Or is that too much to hope? Do you know what would have been the access to medical care while working for the colliery (or is that too, a pipe dream of mine?) Was there a community doctor? Social services, etc? I'd appreciate a push in this direction.
best wishes to all,
Northumberland Daughter
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Look under "Putter":
http://www.dmm.org.uk/educate/mineocc.htm#putter
There will be no medical records - death certificates giving cause of death are about all you will find.
No social services.
Some collieries provided housing to workers - I wonder if they may have also provided medical care - others will probably know for sure.
Some workhouses contained infirmaries eg:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/NewcastleUponTyne/
(not implying your ancestors would have attended one of these but just given as an example of such places)
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Thank you for your quick response. I appreciate any information. I'm reading "The White Death" by Thomas Dormancy about TB. I want to know what the family went through. ND
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Dear Folks of Boat House Terrace interest,
I'm writing a story about my family who lived on Boat House Terrace for about a decade; they emigrated to America in 1888. Thanks to all of you who posted photos or had comments and memories of the area and street. I would like to know if there was a clinic for miners' families; if there was a school; if there was indoor plumbing (I presume not); if there was a cooker or stove in the house - or if water and cooking was handled in a community building/site. (I know at the time in London, cooking was handled at a "baker".) Some of the other miners' residential areas had garden plots. Any detail is of interest to me, and I would be so appreciative of your information. Hoping you and your families are all well and safe during this pandemic. Northumberland Daughter
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I came across an old photograph of Cambois. The long row of houses on the sea front was Sinkers Row which is not there now but you might be able to find through the maps where Boat House Terrace was.
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Hello, and thank you for the lovely old photo. That's Boathouse Terrace closer to the sea, but if you say it's Sinkers Row, you may know better than I. Very helpful of you. I'm looking for any information large or small which would help me see the world the way my family did then - they left in 1888. Was there a colliery clinic, school, market? Indoor plumbing or in house kitchens? Some other colliery residential areas had gardens - and so, it's nice to know. Write again if you like. Northumberland Daughter