Steady, sober, honest… a good Citizen: FRED GREEN
Fred Green was born at Derwent Cottages, Medomsley in 1887.
Like most young lads born into local mining communities, Fred started work aged 14 as a screener at Medomsley colliery where his father, George, worked as a hewer.
Fred’s fate, however, was not to take him underground, as from sorting the coal at the screens he then went on to work as a gardener, this probably the result of a deliberate decision on the part of Fred’s father to keep him from going ‘down the pit’.
Around 1914 when Fred’s family moved from Medomsley to Victoria Garesfield, making their home in the bottom duckets at 26 Victoria Terrace, Fred found work with Preistman Collieries, taking up the position of colliery mechanic and assistant fitter.
Like most young lads born into local mining communities, Fred started work aged 14 as a screener at Medomsley colliery where his father, George, worked as a hewer.
Fred’s fate, however, was not to take him underground, as from sorting the coal at the screens he then went on to work as a gardener, this probably the result of a deliberate decision on the part of Fred’s father to keep him from going ‘down the pit’.
Around 1914 when Fred’s family moved from Medomsley to Victoria Garesfield, making their home in the bottom duckets at 26 Victoria Terrace, Fred found work with Preistman Collieries, taking up the position of colliery mechanic and assistant fitter.
Fred the family breadwinner.
With the onset of the First World War, Fred remained in the Army Reserve as he held exemptions on two accounts; one in respect of the essential nature of his work at the colliery, the other in view of the fact that his father, George, had become blind and Fred was his sole source of financial support. |
TEXT OF DOCUMENT LEFT: Fred Green - colliery mechanic & asst. fitter Fred Green - Holds exemptions (2) - one from Social Tribunal, being the only support of blind father, and one from the Colliery Tribunal - being necessary to helping keep in repairs: locomotives (4) and other machinery in use for - coal, coke, bricks etc., which is important for munitions. Colliery exemption certificate No. 22559 Yours respectfully, William Archer |
Fred’s father suffered from an eye disease which may have resulted from an injury sustained working at the coal face; from either having received a chip of coal in the eye or indeed having received a blow from a large piece of coal. With his sight already diminished at the age of 36, by 1901, aged just 43, his condition required regular attendance at the Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye in Newcastle.
Given his father’s disability, as the main wage earner Fred remained with his parents into his thirties in order to help support them and it was not until 1918, when George’s application for benefit from the Miners’ Permanent Relief Fund was approved, that Fred could turn his attentions to making a life for himself. The benefit George was awarded by the Aged and Infirm Miners Department was akin to a claim on a personal insurance cover, George having paid into the fund all his working life. |
Fred takes a bride.
And so in 1919, Fred married Jane Nicholson, a Tanfield-born girl. Jane’s mother was from Pennsylvania, her parents having met in America and married in 1888 when her father, Ralph Teasdale Nicholson, originally from Tantobie, had emigrated in search of better work prospects. Indeed, towards the end of the 19th century when a general depression set in over local coalfields, many miners had been forced to emigrate and the large coalfields of New England and Pennsylvania in Amercia had attracted a great many men. Many miners' unions, including the Durham Miners' Association, had financially supported emigration schemes as a surplus labour force constituted cause for concern in that it gave employers the opportunity to lower wages. Jane had been the first of the Nicholson’s children born upon the family’s return to England, by 1901 the Nicholson's living in East Street at nearby High Spen. |
The ‘Call House’.
As a married man, Fred became entitled to his own colliery house. Fred and Jane thus set up home at No. 1 Stable Row.
As residents of No. 1, known locally as the ‘Call House’, Fred and his wife would take messages for the doctor ahead of his rounds, the system being if anyone needed to see him they would leave a message. The doctor, in Fred’s time Dr. Robson then Dr. Cassells, would call at the village a couple of times a week, stopping first at No. 1 to collect messages and then visit whoever needed him.
“The doctor, I was told, was never in any hurry to leave as he liked my grand-mother’s homemade custard tart, a cup of tea and a chat” recalls Fred’s grandson Charles.
As residents of No. 1, known locally as the ‘Call House’, Fred and his wife would take messages for the doctor ahead of his rounds, the system being if anyone needed to see him they would leave a message. The doctor, in Fred’s time Dr. Robson then Dr. Cassells, would call at the village a couple of times a week, stopping first at No. 1 to collect messages and then visit whoever needed him.
“The doctor, I was told, was never in any hurry to leave as he liked my grand-mother’s homemade custard tart, a cup of tea and a chat” recalls Fred’s grandson Charles.
Fred, colliery mechanic and chauffeur.
Fred’s position with Priestman Collieries included the maintenance, running repairs and the overhaul of various vehicles at the colliery, including the locomotives used there.
In addition to his initial responsibilities Fred’s position evolved somewhat and for some ten years or so, approximately between 1915 – 1925, Fred also doubled as chauffeur to William Archer, the colliery manager, tending Mr. Archer’s flower and vegetable gardens when he resided at Chopwell Villa, Victoria Garesfield and later at The Laurels on Smailes Lane.
Whilst in the employ of Priestman Collieries, Fred was also a lorry and, on occasion, ambulance driver.
Fred retires and receives notice to vacate his home.
Fred’s active working life at Victoria Garesfield came to an end in 1953. A fall from a lorry in which he broke a leg forced him to give up work, and it was at this time that he and his wife received notice to vacate their house at Stable Row, for no longer in the employ of the colliery owner – then the NCB – they ceased to be entitled to their tied accommodation. |
Although Fred and Jane had to leave their house at Stable Row, they initially chose to remain in Victoria Garesfield moving just a few yards away to Clavering Cottage, a small house built of corrugated sheets set back behind Clavering House, to the rear of School Houses.
Fred and Jane raised two daughters, Elizabeth Jane and Mary (Molly), at Victoria Garesfield where they remained until 1959 before their final move to be nearer family in Blackhill.
In addition to their own two children, the couple had also lent great support to Jane’s brother-in-law when, following the death of her youngest sister Lily in 1933, Lily having died in child birth when just 22, they took on the responsibility of raising their nephew Robert Norman Whitmarsh, who they brought up in Victoria Garesfield until the age of seven when he went to live with his father Wilfred.
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Fred, a kindly man of simple pleasures.
A conscientious, valued and highly-praised worker by all who knew him, held in esteem for both his professional skills and personal qualities, Fred Green, as his grandson Charles recalls his father telling him, was a kindly man who enjoyed an odd visit to the Bute Arms at High Spen for a pint, a game of dominoes and a bit ‘craic’ and whose love of nature and gardening remained with him until the end of his days.
Memories shared by Fred’s grand-children, Charles Stephenson and Jennifer Hall, April 2016.