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BERWICK AREA HEART SUPPORT GROUP
April 2009 Newsletter
Berwick Area Heart Support Groups next meeting is Wednesday April 1st 2009 at the Day Hospital Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm, The speaker will be Jo Curtis, who will be showing us how to practice heart-friendly exercise routines, followed by a short session of new age curling. There is time for tea and a chat, and newcomers are given a special welcome.
Funding
As announced at the last meeting ‘Berwick Borough Housing Community Fund’ has now made us an award. We have enough funds to cover the print and postage for the newsletters, and allow us to have a reprint of all the leaflets and posters and have a publicity push.
Discussions within the Housing Association during the award process have highlighted that a number of people with heart problems, or larger numbers that they knew with heart problems, were unaware that our group existed.
I came across an example of this when I speaking to a lady in Berwick who had only recently heard of us and she said “I wish I’d known about the group when I had my bypass. When I got home from hospital there was no one. I sat and cried every day for three weeks.” Although this happened to the lady ten years ago and before our group was formed, it does show that there is a real need to re-publicise the group.
Jus Rol
As I mentioned at the last meeting General Mills Berwick ’Jus Rol’ as well as supplying all our paper for the newsletter have very kindly offered to help with the postage.
Terry
March Speaker
Our speaker for the March meeting was Dinah Iredale, who based her talk on her recently published book entitled “Bondagers”.
Put simply, a Bondager was a female agricultural worker, but it was not as simple as that.
Dinah first became interested when as a young woman in the 70s; she spent time in digs. In general conversations, some of her landlords, Mr And Mrs Turnbull, spoke about local agricultural history, and the subject of Bondagers often came up. This initial interest stayed with her even though her career took her to other parts of Britain, and when she moved back to the area in 1995, her interest was rekindled.
Two other books of interest are Derek Fairnington’s “Views of Wooler and Glendale District” and “A Corner in the North”, by Hastings Neville, who was vicar at Ford, 1872 – 1911.
Due to this being in our relatively recent past, Dinah has quite an extensive array of slides which she showed, many of which were copies of old photographs taken at the time.
The Bondage System was a system of agricultural employment, probably used in various forms, throughout Britain, (I can remember conversations I had with older folk when I was but a mere lad and living down in Dorset) but it was very much a way of life in North Northumberland and the Scottish Borders, from the 1700s up until the start of the 2nd World War.
There only appeared to be two types of rural jobs for women, at this time, either ‘in service’, working in the big house on the land as a ‘Bondager’.
At that time, most agricultural staff were employed, casually, on a 6 month or 12 month ‘hiring’. They were recruited at local ‘hiring days’. A man (hind), putting himself forward for hiring, was expected to also supply a female worker who would be expected to work through the harvest, and on any other days, at the requirement of the farmer. Her wages were offset against the rent for the accommodation during their time at the farm, usually a one room cottage.
This woman was often the hind’s wife, daughter or sister, but could just as easily have been unrelated to the hind. All she had to do was work, but the hind was expected to feed and wash for her from his wage.
Women in bondage were very striking in their dress when working in the fields and about the farm. Their ‘uniform’ usually denoted which area they came from. Whilst they all wore very similar clothing, which was brightly coloured, different colours were used in different areas. The common item denoting North Northumberland was a pink head covering called a ‘wimple’.
All parts of their dress had different names. But the basicswere, a large hat, cotton blouse, striped wide skirt called a petticoat, wimple, shawl, stockings and boots. All this had to be supplied by the woman herself.
On most farms their was a head woman, but on larger estates there was a Number 1 woman and a Number 2 woman, who’s responsibility it was to keep all other women in line, and to ensure smartness, maintain timekeeping, work rate and rest breaks. All women were expected to stay smart which was usually good at the start of the week, gradually getting grubbier throughout the week. but never allowed to drop below a certain standard, irrespective of the week’s work.
Much of a Bondager’s dress was designed to keep the sun off their skin, especially arms and face, but like with some other occupations, a joke of the time suggested, “You can always tell a Bondager, she has a triangle of tanned face”. This was caused by the sun that could hit the central part of the face but not the sides, neck and brow due to hat and clothing.
The ‘Berwickshire hat’ was a large black straw hat, made by the woman herself, with usually a red material lining, and decorations such as ruching [gathered trimming] feathers, flowers or beads round the crown. This was usually overhauled each year.
Most women wore stays or corsets; this gave strength and support to the back for the heavy lifting that was expected of them.
Some women wore waistcoats, called ‘Swaffies’; a ‘Brattie’ was an apron, ‘Breeking skirts’ refers to forming skirts into trousers, when working in wet and muddy conditions. Skirts were made of a thick cotton/woollen type material called ‘Drugget’. An ‘Ugly’ was a hat made out of cotton, braced with canes to lift it above the hair, and well forward over the brow and face, to shield the face from the sun, and on their feet they wore ‘Tackety Boots’
(I don’t think I have ever added so many new words into the dictionary of my computer during any article I have written before)
Most women could operate a ‘straw rope maker’. This device involved two women and twisted straw to make a rope which they used to tie down hay and straw stacks, but also used it to insulate their legs when working in the fields during cold wet weather.
All women wore a shawl, which was pinned at the shoulder, and large enough for the tails to be tucked into the waist at the back. This was a very practical way of wearing a shawl for work.
Dinah showed a photo of a ‘Bondager Pin’ which was about 2 inches long, and made of brass, and was used to fasten the wimple.
Although the Bondager system existed up until the 1940s, attempts were made during the mid 1800s for it to be discontinued. In Wooler in 1837 for the first time a farmer hired his men without bondage condition. In 1866, many meetings were held to oppose the system completely. Gradually the system fell into disrepute, and women could be employed in their own right, but a ‘hind’ with family members willing to work the fields as and when required, was still likely to be hired first
Gradually the term ‘Women Workers’ came into fashion, instead of the name ‘Bondagers’. Mechanisation meant that farmers no longer needed so many workers at harvest time .
I personally found this talk very interesting. “Thank you” Dinah for you time.
Wally
Copies of Dinah’s book are available at Grieves in Berwick, and The Tourist Information Centre, at Berwick, and Brown’s at Wooler. It costs £11.95.
Memories
Dinah has mentioned to us how much she enjoyed conversations with the group and your early memories that surfaced after her talk. She tells us that Lynda Bankier (Berwick Archivist) would like any members who do not mind being contacted, to volunteer to record these, however small. Every snippet is valuable. There is a project on 'aural / spoken history' going on in the Berwick area just now and every contribution is welcomed, especially regarding 'Food Production' and 'Second World War'. Let us know at the next meeting or give us a call if you would like your name and number to go forward.
Fruit and Vegetables
Phil writes
I thought I would hold over again the piece on risks that we run from cancer in addition to heart disease. Rather, I have been reading some recent cheery stuff, as if you needed to know, on the value of fruit and veg as well (as the usual warnings “no- no” about saturated fat and salt in processed food). The following is from a new scientific review by medical research doctors in Switzerland and USA and is positive about cocoa.
Quote: “Epidemiological data demonstrate that regular dietary intakeof plant-derived foods and beverages reduces the risk of coronaryheart disease and stroke. Among many ingredients, cocoa mightbe an important mediator. Indeed, recent research demonstratesa beneficial effect of cocoa on blood pressure, insulin resistance,and vascular and platelet function.” (Circulation. 2009;119:1433-1441.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.
[Worth noting however that this is cocoa not sugar or milk as in chocolate and some drinks.]
Another recent study makes the point, yet again, about the value of strawberries in counteracting ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, and another suggests that barley as well as oats will help reduce LDL. The latter study was for only 391 patients but showed results in-line with the significant amount of work that has been done on oats, oat bran and the soluble fibre beta-glucan. Barley flour is a strong taste but barley makes a good ingredient for all kinds of meals.
I have been thinking for a while that it would be nice to have low-cost dry extracts of all these fruit and veg, done carefully enough to preserve the vital ingredients ‘out of season’ and at much less expense than flying water half way round the world or storing them frozen. I notice that dry versions of some vegetable extracts are beginning to appear, but the fruits would be a welcome addition for making up fruit drinks and sweets at the end of winter. Has anybody noticed stuff that I have missed?
Wallys Yarn
A rich man decided that he wanted to throw a party and invited all his friends and neighbours. He also invited Colin, the only Englishman in the neighbourhood. He held the party around the pool in the backyard of his mansion. Everyone was having a good time drinking, dancing, eating prawns, oysters and BBQ flirting. At the height of the party, the host said, 'My pet 15ft man-eating crocodile is in my pool and I'll give a million pounds to anyone who has the guts to jump in.' The words were barely out of his mouth when there was a loud splash and everyone turned around and saw Colin in the pool fighting the croc and kicking it's ass, jabbing it in the eye with his thumbs, throwing punches doing all kinds of stuff, like head butts and chokeholds, biting the croc on the tail and flipping it through the air like some kind of Judo Instructor. The water was churning and splashing everywhere. Both Colin and the croc were screaming and raising hell. Finally Colin strangled the croc and let it float to the top like a goldfish. Colin then slowly climbed out of the pool. Everybody was just staring at him in disbelief. Finally the host says "Well Colin, I reckon I owe you a million pounds . " Nah, you’re all right, I don't want it," said Colin. The rich man said Man, I have to give you something. You won the bet. How about half a million then?" 'No thanks, I don't want it' answered Colin. The host said, Come on, I insist on giving you something. That was amazing. How about a new Kia and a Timex and some stock options' Again Colin said no. Confused, the rich man asked 'Well Colin, then what do you want?'
Colin said ------ 'I want the b***** who pushed me in the pool'
Printer
The printer started playing up whilst I was printing off some of the leaflets. I got every colour under the sun on the leaflets all at the same time. They were rather eye catching; the only colour I could rely on not to change was black. I looked at the price of replacing the part and was astonished to find for a few more pounds we could replace the printer with a similar model and get a three year guarantee.
The new machine was ordered and when it arrived they had sent the wrong model, and had sent a much higher spec printer. I contacted the supplier and they said they didn’t know when and if Epson could still supply the one I ordered. After one or two phone calls they offered us the better printer at cost which is still around the same price as the original printer we ordered.
I will be using the old printer to print the newsletters until the ink runs out so if the colour changes as you turn the pages don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, it’s the printer.
We were glad we had the money that came via Dr Higham in December, because it was just this kind of sudden replacing of the 5-year old printer that required us to have a bit of a reserve. There is still some left.
Terry
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