Dear Editor
I wanted to write to you to express my thanks to the Weardale Museum and the Weardale Railway
and to promote the wonderful service and information provided to me by them both in not only
solving a mystery but for shining further light on my family.
My thanks also to Weardale Gazette for your interest and courtesy shown to me.
On her passing in 2011, I received from my mother (Winifred Lawson (nee Cass) – the oldest child
of Frank and Martha Ellen Cass latterly of Stanhope- a very old photo that it was thought contained
an image of my grandfather, Frank Cass.
My Mam had said to me that she thought that Frank was second from left on the top row,
together with several other people standing on what appeared to be a wooden viaduct. Frank was
born in 1898 and among many other things, including serving in the army in the late 1910s/ early
1920s and the home guard during WW2, became a ganger on the railway in Weardale for many
years.
This is the image that I have and the keen-eyed may notice that there are some initials next to
some of the people, but impossible to read or know what they stood for.
Being a keen Ancestry user tracing my family tree, I was surprised to find several moths ago
trough searching their archives that the same image had appeared in print in a local paper some
years ago. It was entitled “Bridge over the river …..?”
To try to find out about the bridge, when and where it was and if anyone could confirm the
names of the people standing upon it, I contacted your publication and the Weardale Museum. You
offered to help, but before that the Weardale Museum came back to me.
To my delight the museum knew all about it and sent me various cuttings about the bridge, its
history, that it existed as a temporary structure to help clear woodland and transport the trees to
Eastgate railway for distribution in about 1916-17. They included the names of all the people on the
bridge. One of those was indeed my grandfather! And yes, he was second on the left on the top row.
I have retained the other names if anyone needs them.
The museum included a plan that showed the exact location of the viaduct in Eastgate. This might
jog someone’s memory?
But that wasn’t all! They also sent a newspaper cutting about the bridge that contained
information provided by Granda’s wife and my Nana, Marthal Ellen Cass (nee Bell) who was (and I
remember this well as a frequent visitor as a little girl) the level crossing keeper at Unthank Crossing
in Stanhope, just by the stepping stones.
This led me to look at my inherited photos in more detail and I found more pictures of Martha
working the crossing. Their son, Len, my uncle- a railway signalman in Weardale and then the North
Riding as it was- also shown at the crossing. I also found aa picture of my Mam, Winifred, a railway
goods and booking clerk who worked all across Weardale from the age of 14 until I was born in 1957
and in the late 60s-70s, the North Riding of Yorkshire too. The pictures included a very poor image of
the last train to Wearhead from June 1953, taken I believed on Wolsingham station.mOn the reverse
of this picture, my mother had noted that the fireman was named K Thompson and the driver, M
Lynch.
At this point, I contacted the Weardale Railway and they confirmed the picture of the people
waiting for the train as being in Wolsingham and suggested two possible names for the station
master who appeared in the photo with my Mam. The Railway suggested this is either Miles William
Cook, or the one who had the role just before him, John Smith. If their dates are correct, I am
thinking this must be Miles Cook as according to the Weardale Railway, he took up post in 1952.
They sent a much better picture of the last train to Wearhead on its return and final journey on this
line.
They confirmed the names of the driver and fireman, unless anyone knows any different? We still
don’t know who was who on the picture though……So, all in all, a wonderful piece of family and local
history I could never have found alone!
Frank and Martha also had another two younger sons, Frank (confusingly) Cass, who also worked
as a signalman I believe out of the Crook area, sadly now gone, and their youngest son who is also
now my only surviving uncle.
I have been so delighted with the response I had from both the David at the museum (who
incidentally went to school with my surviving uncle!) and the railway archivist who in turn has
worked on the mystery of the bridge with the museum previously, that I have made very modest
donations to both fabulous charities and included my own photos and memories.
My thanks are also due to your own publication which presented the article: “Bridge puzzle
solved”, back in the late 80’s.
I would encourage everyone wherever they hale from, to support these two important
movements. Whenever I think of my birthplace, Bishop Auckland, my home village of Hunwick and
my dear Stanhope where me and my uncles and their children, my cousins, spent many happy
weekends and holidays together, I do so with a warm heart and pride in my family.
I am grateful in particular to David from the Weardale Museum and to John from Weardale
Railway Trust. Long may they continue their important and valuable work into our social history.
If your readers can contribute anything, whether by donations or sharing memories, photos or
diaries, I strongly urge them to do so. Their contributions will be received with kindness and respect
- I can vouch for that. And it will keep our histories alive for those who come next.It can make such a
difference.
With warmest regards,
Linda Boys (nee Davison, daughter of Winfred Cass)
PS Just had a thought – I have a photograph of a family scene, without the youngest son who was
not on the railway, otherwise they were ALL railway employees! I am guessing from their ages it is
early to mid 1930s. My mother, Winifred, was born in 1927 and was the eldest child.
Address withheld but if anyone has any further information, please contact the Weardale Gazette
Editor at and Linda will be informed. Thank you (Ed).
……more photos – as many as you can get in but definitely the ORIGINAL PHOTO and with the map
too?…….
