RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Durham => Topic started by: carolmc on Monday 21 March 22 08:38 GMT (UK)
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Are there any lists of names of the people who made the Jarrow March? We know some of our ancestors worked at Palmers and at least one marched. Any help appreciated carolmc.
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https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/surnames.jarrow/2
Boo
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Thank you Boo, somebodies wishful thinking... our surname not listed!! TOPIC CLOSED
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My father in law was an industrial blacksmith at Palmers shipyard. He actually lived in Howdon directly opposite Jarrow across the Tyne. I believe he travelled over daily by ferry (Howdon was only 5 or so streets and was demolished when they built the Tyne tunnel - the northern exit is close to where his street (Barresford Street) used to stand). His name was John Edward Scorer (aka Jack), born in 1907.
Everyone was badly hit when Palmers closed, including Jack, and so he joined the men on the march, though his name isn’t on the list. He got as far as the outskirts of London when he collapsed (I suspect not just from exhaustion but from malnutrition as well). The family all told me what a state he was in when he returned home, and it took him several months to recover. The family were all very proud of him being a marcher, and he did tell me something of it too, but I was very young then and didn’t take much notice as I should have.
As you know Palmers did re open later as a result of the march, as they were subsequently given two ships to scrap, the Olympic (sister ship to Titanic) and the Mauritania. They removed the interior fittings which were sold off, and stripped out the hull prior to the ships being towed to Inverkeith in Scotland for final dismantling. Jack was well enough to return to the shipyard in time for the start of the work, and he worked on dismantling both ships.
Jack was allowed to keep a small amount of the teak decking and a piece of the copper pipe left over from Olympic. Many years later he used them to make me a table lamp, which I still have.
Sadly Palmers did later close but that brief time of work really did tide them over a very difficult patch.
Jack then moved back to work nearer home. Unfortunately the noise from his blacksmithing work led to deafness, and the heat burnt his retinas, so he ended up both deaf and blind in old age, but lived until he was 94.
I don’t think today we have any comprehension of how tough life was for them. The boys in his house growing up didn’t even have a bed to sleep on, but rolled themselves in a blanket on the floor. Jack started work aged 7, taking out a donkey cart to sell milk for the farmer to the locals early every morning, before going to school (Stephenson’s Memorial School, I think it was at Willington).
He was a lovely man, very kind, and a very hard worker.
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Oh kingsgate - what a very moving story.
Thank you so much for sharing it.
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Thank you. There’s an interesting item from Hansard about how malnourished some of the children at the school were in 1929:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1929-02-21/debates/ca65b61a-d7a0-46be-a4ad-3e246c3c5cc6/StephensonMemorialSchoolWillingtonQuay
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It's just heartbreaking thinking of the suffering they experienced.
Maybe we need reminding of it from time to time and we can then appreciate more, what we have.
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Very true
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Hi everyone, the latest posts just show how good the rootschat community is! Topics still show interest and results.My family claim that our relative joined the Jarrow March, however there's no record of him. I believe that John Youger Carruthers probably joined the 'Official Marchers' for a part of the time. I found out that there were 200 official marchers and that 18/20 were ill and didn't march. I also think that as the march travelled south, many men would join the ranks for part or all of the journey south.Incrediable!!
My father b.1920 used to recall how children went to school without shoes and my grandmother wrapped his toys in newspaper at Christmas because they didn't have money for presents. The north east was so poor my family emigrated in 1927. regards carolmc
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carol -- some years ago I did a friend's family history and her ancestors had worked at Palmers Shipyard -- during a time when there were many ups and downs for the company.
I did a lot of reading up at that time, about the conditions in the Jarrow area and it really opened my eyes. I recall reading something about everything 'being black' - the buildings, the houses, the people.
I hadn't realised until then, just how much the people suffered and how they sometimes lived.