Get me to the church on time! Groom kept Lily guessing as he came home on leave
Lily Lonsdale passed away on January 3 2008 after living in the same house in Hunstanworth for more than 70 years, and her grandmother for 50 years before that. In October 2007 she told me a little about her life in the village…
Lily was born on December 9, 1921, the daughter of Thompson Gowland and his second wife Emma Taylor. The family, which included step-sisters Peggy and Ena (Gowland) and step-brother Stanley (Hunter) lived in Wrekenton and Eighton Banks before making the move to granny Barbara Taylor’s house in Hunstanworth when Lily was 12.
Lily really liked the move to Hunstanworth; there was more space to play compared to terraced streets she’d left behind. She would walk the two miles over to Presser on the other side of the valley to play at friends’ Gwynneth and Joan Ellis’ house – and they used to walk to hers.
They met at a dance in Rookhope… Lily Gowland and Joe Lonsdale
Lily’s father died quite soon after the move, and so did her grandma, who had been born in 1851 and was aged 82 or 83 at that point. So by around 1933 Lily’s mother Emma would take in paying guests to make ends meet, holidaymakers from Newcastle and other places throughout the North East.
The young Lily was not too keen on school. She said: “Mr and Mrs Clegg the teachers were quite strict. The Cleggs had two children, Betty and Jim, and Jim was the biggest divvel out! The school had a wooden floor, and one day Jim put his father’s cane down a hole in the flooring.”
Both boys and girls got the cane as punishment; Lily remembers getting the cane a few times, usually for talking or not taking notice!
But she did have some fond memories of schooldays; she liked sewing and reading, and she recalled the annual school outing to the seaside:
“Every year there’d be a school trip to Whitley Bay, where you’d lay out your best clothes the night before in readiness. A bus would take us on the two-hour drive to the coast, where we’d play on the sands until teatime, then go to the Spanish City on the rides and have ice cream.”
After she left school (about 1935) Lily went to work at The Old Vicarage which was a hotel at the time. She did everything – washing, cleaning, serving meals. She worked there for nine years. Visitors came from all over the North East – and Lily kept in touch with many of them all her life.
Lily first met husband to be Joseph Thomas Lonsdale at an August Bank Holiday dance over in Rookhope – Lily was about 16 at this time. That night they chatted, and Lily said: “The very next day I got home from work and he had turned up in Hunstanworth! By sheer coincidence he was starting work at the quarry in Blanchland and was lodging with another, older quarryman in a house behind ours.”
Joe worked at the quarry for eight years – then war was declared. Joe was in the Army for the whole six years. They kept in touch by letter, then they decided to marry.
May 1944… a young John Hunter greets his Auntie Lily and her new husband Joe Lonsdale as they emerge from St James’ Church.
Lily hadn’t seen Joe for two years until they walked down the aisle together at St James’ Church on that sunny afternoon in May 1944; he’d got home on leave late the night before and Lily wasn’t even sure if he’d be back in time for the wedding. With a perfect view of St James’ Church from the Gowland’s house, Lily’s bridesmaid was hanging out of the window on the day to make sure Joe got to the church before his bride.
After the war Joe worked at the Fluorspar mine at Ramshaw, but had to give up work when he started suffering from epileptic fits.
Son David was born in June the following year, followed by Kathleen, Christine and Harry.
The couple were able to buy their house in the 1948 estate sale, when they got house, gardens and even the row of village pigsties for £300.
Lily was a keen competitor in the Blanchland and Hunstanworth Show bakery section, winning top prizes several times, once for a Madeira cake. “And Joe used to put his vegetables in the show”, said Lily, “We never had to buy any, as Joe grew everything in the garden.”
Lily Lonsdale (left) with lifelong friend and neighbour Hilda Everitt.
