View source for Close Houses

''From the Heritage Centre Newsletter November 2021 by Bob Borthwick''

[[File:Map of Close Houses location.jpg|frame|left|alt=Small Map of Close Houses location|Small Map of Close Houses location]]
We moved from Ray Lodge, near Knowesgate, to Close Houses, midway between Cambo and Wallington, one Saturday in late May 1955. My father had the use of a cattle wagon (no doubt suitably washed out) from his employer, Jack Telfer of Scotsgap, to move us and our possessions. That way of moving house was certainly easier than the way my Charlton grandparents used when they moved from Fairspring near Corbridge to Raechester (Redchester) just north of Knowesgate around 1914. Then, my grandmother and her two very young children were conveyed by a horse and cart belonging to Tom Cowan of Horncastle, near Kirkwhelpington, while my grandfather walked the not inconsiderable distance with his cow.
<div style="clear:both"></div>
[[File:Close Houses Distant View Black and White image.jpg|frame|center|alt=Close Houses Distant View Black and White image|Close Houses Distant View Black and White image]]

Close Houses was a group of seven houses in two blocks together with our single storey cottage, just visible behind the post on the left of this picture. The latter was officially known as “The Outlook” presumably since it looked out towards the Wallington-Cambo road. It consisted of a living room and two bedrooms with a small room off the living room which contained a cold water tap and a wash basin. It was a new experience to have neighbours: at Ray Lodge our nearest neighbours were half a mile away. The area between the houses was known to everyone as “The Yard”. One of the buildings in The Yard was the “Power House”. From 1930 to 1946, this housed a generator which provided electricity to Wallington, Cambo as well as Close Houses and the Dovecote (a group of houses between Close Houses and Wallington). In 1946, the area was linked to the National Grid and the Power House lost its role.

[[File:Close Houses View Black and White image.jpg|frame|center|alt=Close Houses View Black and White image|Close Houses View Black and White image]]

The house we moved into, seen on the extreme left of this picture, was not large but it was sobering to be told that at one time it had been two separate houses. Neither family could have had very much space. It was also decidedly damp having been built without a damp course. But it was not expensive. The initial rent my parents paid was £15 a year plus a £1-10-00 water charge.

[[File:Close Houses View looking along the terrace Black and White image.jpg|frame|center|alt=Close Houses View looking along the terrace Black and White image|Close Houses View looking along the terrace Black and White image]]

Modernisation came to Close Houses in 1957. For us, that meant taking a slice off the living room to create a bathroom with an indoor toilet and a bath. Prior to that, the privies were outside. Each house had its own. For six of the houses, these were arranged in two rows of three, which backed on to each other, while the seventh house had its own privy in a wooden shed. I still find it rather amazing that, each Wednesday, the Morpeth Rural District Council truck would come into the yard and the men would shovel the contents of the privies into the back of the truck. I am sure that they were delighted when the houses were modernised. Modernisation meant an increase of £4 a year in the rent of our cottage.

Cambo is an Estate Village, part of the Wallington Estate, which was then still run by Sir Charles Trevelyan and his rather formidable secretary, Miss Edith Bulmer. It consists of essentially three rows of houses called very logically Front Row, Middle Row and Back Row. Middle Row was quite short and I don’t remember if those houses had gardens but the other Rows certainly did. Front Row has splendid views looking over the gardens towards Shaftoe Crags. At each end of Front Row are still two fine houses: Cambo House and The Two Queens. The latter had been an Inn in the days when Cambo was on the main coach route to Elsdon and points beyond. That was before the “New Line” was built past Kirkwhelpington in the 1830s, which provided a much more direct route from Belsay to Otterburn. That development meant that coaches no longer needed to travel via Cambo and take the difficult route to Elsdon via what is now Harwood Forest. The fate of The Two Queens Inn was sealed when Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, the leading Temperance advocate of his day, inherited the Wallington Estate in 1846. Local people in search of a drink would find that The Ox Inn at Middleton was their nearest outlet.

Thus Cambo became a dry village and a legacy of that tradition was evident in the 1950s. The annual trip to Whitley Bay for the children of the area was organised by the local branch of the Band of Hope. I recall having to sign a pledge promising not to indulge in alcohol in the future in order to be eligible to go on the trip. The Band of Hope in Cambo was wound up with the death of Lady Mary Trevelyan in 1966.

[[File:Back Row, Cambo Black and White Image.jpg|frame|center|alt=Back Row, Cambo Black and White Image|Back Row, Cambo Black and White Image]]

Cambo in the 1950s had more facilities than it does today. The Village Hall was at the centre of those activities. It was looked after by Bill Hoy and his wife Hannah, who lived in the house adjoining the Hall. It was home to a range of organisations including the Women’s Institute and the Youth Club. Regular dances were held there and, in addition to the main hall, there were smaller rooms, one designated the “Reading Room” containing a small library while another housed a billiards table. In an age when television was only just reaching the area, one of the main winter entertainments was the whist drive. Regular whist drives were held in the Village Hall, seen on the right of this picture, with the most important being the “Christmas Whist”. Each village in the area had a traditional slot in the week before Christmas: Capheaton on Monday, Kirkwhelpington on Tuesday and Cambo on Wednesday. They attracted some very serious card players. The tables were arranged in lines around the room with ladies playing on one side of the tables and men on the other. As a youngish participant, I can recall being taken to task by mature ladies for what they perceived, probably correctly, were shortcomings in my play. Certainly some of those ladies had an amazing capacity to remember exactly which cards had already been played. Alas, once television took hold, whist drives lost a good deal of their hold on the rural population. I think we must have got our first television around 1956. It came from Robson & Cowan at Scots Gap. My memory is of a machine that frequently went wrong, with the picture degenerating into a mass of lines or a snowstorm. Then it was time to send for Edgar Coulson, who looked after televisions for Robson & Cowan. I think that he was kept very busy dealing with this groundbreaking but infant technology.

[[File:Peel Tower and Vicarage Black and White Image.jpg|frame|center|alt=Peel Tower and Vicarage Black and White Image|Peel Tower and Vicarage Black and White Image]]

Cambo had a thriving shop and post office. This was housed in the impressive Pele Tower. By the time we arrived in the area, it was a branch of the Ashington Co-op managed by Norman Turbill and his wife with the assistance of a youthful Tommy Middlemiss. To the west of the Hexham to Rothbury road, there was a blacksmith’s shop run by Mr. Pallister and a butcher’s shop. The main business of the latter was done by a van, which did the rounds of the neighbouring countryside. At that time, Bert Snow was the butcher. For a couple of years, it earned me a little pocket money. In order for Bert to have a holiday, he would need to be replaced by someone sent out from Ashington. However, such a person could not be expected to know the various rounds, which involved numerous quiet byways, and the many farms that had to be visited. So I spent one week going round with Bert to familiarise myself with the rounds and, over the following week, I was able to act as native guide to the relief butcher sent out from Ashington.

In the mid-1950s, Cambo was better connected to the outside world by public transport than it is today. There was still a service to Newcastle, though that didn’t last much longer, and Jimmy Batty’s bus to Morpeth ran three times a day.

Cambo Church occupies a fine position on the highest point in the area. When the churchyard was full, a new cemetery was opened just beyond Cambo School. The vicarage was next door but one to the village shop. John Towell was the vicar when we arrived and he was succeeded by Andrew Walker in 1960. Mr. Walker served for over twenty years but he was the last vicar of Cambo. Thereafter the parish was joined with Kirkwhelpington and it was there that the vicar was located.

Just behind Close Houses was a field, which was still referred to as The Cricket Field, though Cambo Cricket Club had ceased to exist some years before we arrived. It was, however, still home to Wallington Football Club who played in the Coquetdale League. So, for the 1955-56 Season, I could not have been closer for their home games. For away games, the team and a few supporters travelled in a bus provided by Tait’s of Knowesgate. This bus made a rather circuitous journey starting from Knowesgate, picking up John Atkin and Ken Beattie at Harle and then Alan & George Kennedy from Kirkharle. I got on at the Close Houses Road End and then there were further pick-ups in Cambo and Scots Gap. Early on in my travels with the team, I was advised “Bring your boots.” Thereafter I always did, though they were never needed until one Saturday in March 1956 when the team was a man short at Thropton and I played my first game for Wallington. Not having been signed on for the club, I played under the name of another player.

To my great sadness, the football club did not continue after that season. Jack Kennedy, who was secretary, manager and trainer, quite reasonably decided that he had had enough and, without anyone willing to succeed him, the club withdrew from the League. It was restarted for the 1958-59 Season but by then it had lost its ground at Close Houses but found a new one at Scots Gap. It has to be said that the facilities were rather better at the new ground. Instead of the old henhouse, which served as a changing room, there was a more modern hut. Since then, the club has gone on to be very successful, though with much less input from local players.

The Cricket Field was also the scene of an important annual event. The third Saturday in August was the date of Cambo Show. In a big marquee, there were sections for vegetables, flowers, fruit, knitting and baking, as well as categories for children covering a wide range of things from essay writing and painting to collections of wild flowers. Outside the big tent, there was a range of sports including running, wrestling, six-a-side football and a pony gymkhana. There was also a clay pigeon shoot and, in a field on the other side of the road up to Cambo, there were sheep dog trails. If I remember rightly, the day’s festivities concluded with a dance in the Village Hall at Cambo.

Things were remarkably relaxed in the 1950s. We had access to the woods at Wallington and Wallington Hall had a tennis court just below the south front of the house. No-one ever gave us permission to play there but equally no-one ever objected when we did. It was a great summer amenity. Admittedly the surface had seen better days but it was fine for us.

Sir Charles Trevelyan had announced in the 1930s that he intended to leave Wallington to the National Trust on his death. It was formally handed over in 1941 but remained under Trevelyan control until Sir Charles’ death in 1958. From then on, the Estate was run by the National Trust. The House at Wallington had been open to the public on three afternoons a week while Sir Charles was alive. This continued under the National Trust but with the innovation of making a charge for entry. This was 2/6d. at first, a far cry from today’s charges, but local residents continued to enjoy the right of free entry to the House and Grounds. The change meant that the National Trust became the owners of Cambo village, though the Trevelyan family retained ownership of the two big houses on Front Row.

I went off to university in 1958 and so I realise that I had only three years of living permanently at Close Houses. It just seemed so much longer at the time.
[[Category:Streets and Premises]]