St. Christopher's Mission Church, Walker, Northumberland

[Stirrick]

I have been doing some research into ancestors based in Allendale, Northumberland during the 18th and 19th Centuries.

I've noticed that several have burial entries for "St. Christopher's Mission Church, Walker". Walker is a considerable distance (for the period we're discussing) from Allendale. And so I wondered what the link was.

Does anybody have any idea ?
Or does anybody have any information on the Mission ?


Andy

[hanes teulu]

A very warm welcome to Rootschat.

What period are you referring to re. burials? There are several newspaper reports, Oct/Nov 1888, about the opening and dedication of the St Christopher Mission Chapel, Fisher Hill, Low Walker.

[Craclyn]

Was there any family connection for the burials you were seeing at St.Christopher’s Mission?

[Stirrick]

Thanks for the replies.

I found references to the Mission Chapel built 1888, Hanes, but the entries I'm interested in start a Century before that. I wondered if, perhaps, it was a roving ministry with sub-Chapels built outside of the Walker area. It would be a good day's travel to take a body from Allendale across to Walker and I wondered why anyone would make the effect. A local sub-Chapel near Allendale would make more sense, but that's pure speculation.

I'm not even sure what denomination the Mission Chapel was.

The families I'm interested in, Craclyn, are Sparks and McMillan. Both seem to have been small scale farming families in the Allendale area.


Andy

[davidft]

A local sub-Chapel near Allendale would make more sense, but that's pure speculation.

I have never found a local sub-Chapel near Allendale. Still I will be interested to see the replies you get as this is a topic that I have often wondered about (having lots of Allendale ancestors myself) but have never found the answer!

[Craclyn]

I think my earlier question must have been unclear. I was actually wondering whether the Allendale people buried in Walker were fairly random or had some family connection to each other.

[Stirrick]

They were linked through marriage, Craclyn.

The families I'm interested in - Spark, McMillan, Nevin, Forrest, Brown - seem to have inter-married multiple times through the generations. Which, I suppose, would be typical for a rural parish.

Maddening, isn't it, davidft ?
I thought I could just google-it and the answer would be there.
But there's absolutely nothing on-line about this Mission.


Andy

[SusiMac]

Reviving an old topic - I too have an ancestor (Phillipson) in Allendale recorded as being buried St Christopher's Mission Walker in 1784, but also listed as buried St Peter's Allenheads:

From Family Search: Thomasina Philipson bur. 12 Sep 1784 age 6 dau of Francis & Mary - St. Christopher's Mission Church, Walker, Northumberland, England
On FindmyPast - Thomasin Philipson bur.13 Sep 1784 Allendale dau. of Francis - Bishop's transcript cited as source
Also on Find my Past - Thomasin Philipson bur.13 Sep 1784 Allenheads St Peter dau. of Francis. Northumberland and Durham FHS cited as source

Too much of a coincidence to be 2 different children?

I have also looked for history of churches in Allendale to no avail - but if there was a roaming mission (St. Christopher would be a good name for it) maybe a funeral service on the 12th before Anglian burial on 13th?

[TonyWuk]

Reviving a very old topic ... I have similar findinds that may give a clue.

I've been working on the Crawhall family (Dorothy Featherstonhaugh & John Crawhall m. 9 Mar 1793), and noticed that the father and 3 of their 6 adult children all died in 1831 and 1832 per Hodgson, A History of Northumberland, in Three Parts - Volumes 2-3 - p69.

Ancestry's "England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991" lists the "death place" for two of the children at St. Christopher's Mission Church, Walker, Northumberland, England (Thomas & Albany, although Hodgson says Albany is buried at St Peter's Allendale.

These were all adults, in their 30s, so not infant deaths.

Digging around, it seems there there was a major UK cholera outbreak in 1831 - 1832:  "Cholera reached the UK in 1832 having travelled from Russia and across Europe. Known as 'King Cholera' it claimed over 50,000 lives," and the first death occured in Sunderland in Oct 1831.

So, I'm wondering if that might be an explanation for the deaths.

The US National Institute of health (NIH) has a paper online entitled "Cholera as a ‘sanitary test’ of British cities, 1831–1866" published in 2018, which specifically includes Allendale in their data analysis of cholera in mining towns. 

That paper says: "Mining towns were some of the worst affected by cholera. Mining towns grew up very rapidly in this period, and their vulnerability to cholera outbreaks suggests superficially a connection to rapid and unregulated growth of the kind posited more widely for industrialising towns. The mines themselves lacked toilet facilities, so miners were easily infected at work (Snow, 1855, p. 19,111), and water drained from the mines, and then sometimes supplied by the mining company to the local population, was also liable to contamination."

Which leads me to speculate that the family could have been victims of the cholera outbreak, and that St. Christopher's Mission Church, Walker may have been linked to the treatment of quarantine of cholera victims.

The flaw in this logic the first death in the 1831-32 pandemic was supposedly in Sunderland on 20 Oct 1831, but the first death in this family (Albany Crawhall) was at Walker on 26 Feb 1831 so that predates the recognised start of the pandemic by 7 months.  The other 3 deaths were in the peak of the pandemic.

Any thoughts of comments?