Northallerton – The Countryman's Daughter

Pals for all eternity

A photo taken by my dad in 1979 on our visit to the Somme battlefields. I’m not sure which cemetery it is, but it is possibly that of the Yorkshire Regiment. Please feel free to tell me if you recognise it.

Another photo taken on the same visit. Again not sure which cemetery but perhaps one of you know? Do get in touch if so.

When Brian reader contacted me about his quirkily-named relatives Rocious, Fera and Ellengor last week, he also posed a question about his family’s history of serving during World War I.

He explained how his forebears had joined up: “Albert and his brother John Elliott were both in the Northallerton Borough Band and in the 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment band. Rocious and two of his brothers were also in the Yorkshire Regiment, John Jackson and James Edward (killed in action in France in 1918).”

Brian posed the question: “What was the maximum number of people from the same family serving in the same regiment?”

I’m not sure if Brian meant what was the ‘permitted’ maximum of soldiers from the same family serving in the same regiment (if there was a limit), or whether he meant what is the ‘record’ for the most people from the same family serving in the same regiment. Large families were common in the early 20th century, so it was possible that the number could have been a pretty high.

However, my guess is that large families serving in the same regiment would only have been recruited before 1916. You might remember that back in 2019 I wrote a piece about my family’s 1979 visit to the battlefileds of the Somme in France when I was 12 years old. My young self failed to understand the significance of the ground upon which I walked.

When they launched their River Somme offensive on July 1st 1916, the British Army expected little German resistance after a sustained artillery bombardment the week before. They couldn’t have been more wrong, and within the first hour, almost 20,000 of the 120,000 allied troops lay dead, while 37,000 were wounded. The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days and resulted in around 1.5 million casualties on both sides, yet enabled our troops to advance a mere six miles.

The awful death toll led to the military abandoning their recruitment strategy known as the ‘pals’ battalions. To encourage men to join up, the army had canvassed potential soldiers in groups from the same locality, from workplaces, towns, villages, sports clubs and practically any community with a common interest. They promised them that they could serve alongside their family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues (in other words, their ‘pals’), rather than the usual method of being assigned randomly to regiments. Entering the unknown with familiar faces next to you was far more attractive than being thrust into a war alongside total strangers. The drive was highly successful, with ‘pals’ battalions being established all over the country.

It’s worth remembering that most of the soldiers recruited from places like the North York Moors would be farmers and labourers who would never before have ventured far from their own homes. National Service didn’t come in until after the Second World War and so the training would have been extremely limited and the men would have little concept of the atrocities they were about to confront. Entering this scary and unfamiliar world would be easier if you had family and friends coming along with you.

Sadly, as men from the same places served side by side, so it meant they were killed side by side. It left gaping holes in the communities to which they belonged, and devastated families who had sent fathers, sons and cousins to fight. Certain areas suffered far higher losses than they otherwise would had they been assigned randomly to regiments. One of the worst affected was the East Lancashire Regiment, better known as the Accrington Pals. Of the 700 members who all came from in and around that Lancashire town, 235 were killed and 350 were wounded in the space of 20 minutes on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Following the carnage, the army reverted to more traditional methods of recruitment to avoid anything like it happening again. Therefore it is unlikely that a high number of people from the same family would have been enlisted to serve in the same regiment after that date.

I wonder if Brian’s ancestors were recruited through the ‘pals’ scheme to fight in WWI? And do you have relatives who joined up through the ‘pals’ scheme? I’d be interested to hear any interesting war stories, so do get in touch.

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 26th and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 24th Sept 2025

Stop all the clocks

The hand-carved wooden box given to me by my grandad. It is very precious to me.

Sandra’s 18th century long-case clock made by Northallerton’s Hugh Pannell. Will it find a new home?

Back in August I wrote about 18th-century Northallerton clockmaker Hugh Pannell after being contacted by one of his descendants, David Severs. I’d been talking about the herringbone pattern that was commonly seen on the stones used to build moorland homes. David informed me that Pannell had used the same herringbone pattern to decorate his clocks and watches.

Following that, reader Sandra Parkerson has been in touch all the way from Arkansas, USA, because she has one of Pannell’s long-case clocks which needs to find a new home. She writes: “I have a grandfather clock that was made by Hugh Pannell. It has been in my family for way over two hundred years. It is in a beautiful walnut case. I am 80 now and want to move into a condominium so probably won’t have room for it…I do hate to part with it.”

She adds: “It is a brass dial with the herringbone pattern…It was running all my life, but when I got it we had carpet and never could get it levelled correctly. So, I assume with a good cleaning, it will work fine.”

I would not normally use this column as an antiques’ marketplace, but with the connection to Hugh Pannell and the herringbone pattern, and the fact that somehow my column has been read by someone all the way over in Arkansas, USA, I thought it appropriate to mention it. It would be lovely to pair up this noble clock with someone who would appreciate it as much as Sandra (Please note: I do not plan to advertise items for sale in future columns and suggest you try Christie’s (for valuable antiques) or eBay (for general tat)).

It does raise the question of what to do with precious family items that the following generation have no inclination to take on. About 25 years ago, my aunt was moving from a large home in North Yorkshire to a smaller one in Ireland. She could not take all her furniture with her and so offered me her beautiful antique mahogany dining table with six upholstered chairs. I willingly accepted it but then found that once it was installed in my pokey dining room, it took up all the space and was really too posh for the likes of us, a working family with young boisterous boys. It was impractical and unappreciated, and I ended up reluctantly selling it for a song when we moved house again. I was told by the auctioneer that large pieces of dark wood furniture had fallen out of favour and they’d struggle to get rid of it. It was heartbreaking to see such a beautifully crafted piece of fine furniture go for so little money.

One thing I treasure greatly is a small oval wooden box that my grandad gave me. He was a skilled wood worker, and I have a number of his beautiful hand-turned bowls. This box is what an antiques expert might call ‘naïve’, in that it is clearly handmade and hand-carved, with a series of little flowers and garlands etched into its surface. Nothing is straight or symmetrical, which is precisely why I love it so much. Someone has taken a lot of time and effort to chisel out all the tiny decorative elements which makes it so unique and personal. They have also coaxed the wood into this oval shape, with tiny little dowel joints holding the base in place. I have no idea of its age, whether my grandad himself made it, or whether it was passed down to him from his own ancestors. I do know he kept bits and bobs for fishing inside it, like hooks and flies, and when I was little I spotted it on a bench in his workshop and said how much I liked it. And so my kind grandad gave it to me. Unfortunately, my youth meant I didn’t ask any pertinent questions about its origin and therefore its history is lost in the mists of time.

Because this is just a small thing, I am fairly confident that one of my boys will happily hang on to it when I take my final leap into the great unknown, but the question is, which one?

If you have more than one child to inherit your precious stuff, how do you decide who gets what?

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me via the ‘Contact’ tab at the top right of this page.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 27th Dec and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 18th Dec 2024

The legacy of lost things

1-100_0612 — A clock face made by reader David Severs’ ancestor Hugh Pannell with the herringbone pattern around the outer edge of the dial and around the name boss, along with the rare ‘Clock & Watchmaker’ inscription.

I’ve had some more feedback from readers following the column I wrote about the stones marked with the herringbone pattern typically used in the construction of traditional North Yorkshire moorland homes. Reader John Severs had referred me to a book entitled ‘Life in the Moorlands of North-East Yorkshire’ written in 1972 by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby. There was a section on this specific type of masonry along with some photographs featuring a well-known local family, the Weatherills.

Another reader, John Buckworth, has emailed to say: “Good to read your article re. Mr G. Weatherill. We were a customer of his some years ago and a great admirer of his craftsmanship. I pass his stone yard at Ainthorpe quite frequently and still see the antiquated home-made crane to lift the headstones. Also there’s a piece of carved stone on his wall depicting a fox’s mask, brush and hunting horn. Most country people followed the hunt and I find this a great tribute to the past way of life. Being now in my 80s I am a great admirer of country life and your father’s writings.”

He added: “I think the old crane was built by his grandfather…There are some very fancy and OTT headstones. However when my wife’s father died, he was a man of the soil and we walked into the stone yard at Ainthorpe and there was a piece of rough Yorkshire sandstone which fitted the man admirably.”

My editor at the Darlington and Stockton Times, Hannah Chapman, spotted something relevant on a weekend walk: “I was walking on the Cleveland Way yesterday (north from Lordstones café) and I’m sure I spotted a stone in the path with the grooved diagonal pattern you wrote about in the Chop Gate area. Could the old stones from houses in the area have been used to build paths?”

I think Hannah probably has a point – why not reuse stones from the tumbled down moorland buildings in the construction and repairs of our public walkways?

I also received a couple more stories about ‘lost things’ and how difficult it is to discard a lone earring. Monica Ganz contacted me all the way from America about a bracelet her mother had given her: “It had a daisy as a charm. I loved it, because the daisy was painted yellow and white…I was delivering newspapers on my bike and somehow the Daisy fell off, never to be found again. When I was older in my 20s, I was water skiing. I wore these cute little gold huggy earrings that had small diamond on them. Of course…the earring popped off…I still have the bracelet and the one earring…Why do we lose treasured items? Hard to know why, right? And it’s hard to part with them.”

I wonder if it is more the memories and feelings that are held within the precious item that makes it hard to let go?

David Severs from Northallerton had his own fascinating story too: “You might be interested to know that in Saywell’s ‘History and Annals of Northallerton’ he recounts how a gardener’s newlywed wife had lost her wedding ring in their garden and 14 years later, in 1796, it was found when a customer cut into a turnip and found the ring inside.”

David also mentioned how the herringbone pattern was used in the decoration of clocks and watches: “Herringbone engraving was used on the brass dials of long-case clocks in the early years of the 18th-century in London … said to be a sign of quality. Some clockmakers used it until about 1740. My ancestor Hugh Pannell, the Northallerton clockmaker, was in business until he died in 1788. I have traced well over 100 of the clocks he made and many of them have herringbone engraving. Most clockmakers decorated the spandrels on their brass dials (the corners) with cast-brass decoration; a few engraved the spandrels; and even fewer left them undecorated: Hugh did all three…Most of his dials have herringbone engraving somewhere. Incidentally on the photograph (seen here) he described himself as ‘Clock & Watchmaker’ and this is very rare indeed. In very many years I have found only one example by one other clockmaker whereas I have found five examples by Hugh Pannell, three of these dials now being in the USA.”

I’d love to hear from you about your stories, memories, opinions and ideas for columns. Use the ‘Contact’ button on the top right of this page to get in touch.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 9th and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 7th August 2024.