SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND IN HISTORY

Guisborough Work House.

The following e mail was sent by Heather Ryan of Lincolnshire. My father, Wilfred Searle, was born in September 1918 in Guisborough Workhouse. His mother, who was unmarried at the time, was Mary Ellen Searle. Wilfred was afterwards taken to 78 Harker St, Skelton Green from where he was baptised and he lived there until he was about 3 years old. Could 78 Harker St have been used as a Poor Union accomodation address around this time ? After that he was fostered out somewhere in Yorkshire , but I have no details regarding exactly where. At the census of 1891 Mary Ellen Searle's father, William was living at 7 Ricey Hill, Skelton in Guisborough. William Searle, an ironstone miner aged 18, had been born in West Hartlepool and lived at Ricey Hill with just his mother, Elizabeth. William died in 1901, but by this time he had married and had three surviving children, Mary Ellen, Walter and John Searle.

My father, Wilfred Searle met my mother in Peterborough during the last war and unfortunately never knew much about his own family. He died in 1992. I would like to know if anyone knows any more about the Searle family or these times. Ricey Hill was near Lingdale which is in Skelton Church Parish area, but about 2 miles from Old Skelton village. On this map of 1856, Lingdale did not exist and only came into being with the opening of the ironstone mine there. The site of the village is shown here as "Skelton Moor". Ricey Hill is marked on the left.

The above story has a happy ending. It has been on this website since 2003/4 and then in February 2007 an email was received from Dave Harris, asking to get in touch with Heather. Heather sent the following:- I am pleased to confirm that the Dave Harris that you had an enquiry from is in fact my cousin!! I never in a million years ever thought that I would be in contact with a relation of my fathers. I have found out that Mary Ellen was married in 1924 to a Mr Barratt, in Scarborough. Six years later she gave birth to my Auntie [a sister that my father would never have known about.] I would like to thank you for your wonderful website etc. And Dave Harris of Clacton on Sea, Essex sent this:- I am writing to thank you so much for your extremely interesting site; for the work involved in making so much information available,and for passing on my details to Heather. As you are aware from her e-mail we have discovered that we have a common grandmother in Mary Ellen Searle. My mother did not know she had a brother, and Heather’s father did not know that he had a sister. There is the possibility of a further unknown daughter of Mary Ellen’s. We are awaiting more details on this. Mary Ellen died in 1934,soon after giving birth to another daughter, who died aged just two months. She had a short and difficult life. Many thanks again for everything.

Sheila Bocking, who went to Skelton Green Junior School during the last War and now lives in Woodbridge, Essex has sent scans of Skelton Parish Magazines which were published in the 1890's. The date of this one is February 1893. At that time each monthly magazine cost one penny each. These particular copies were apparently collected by a Mrs Eleanor Norton, who lived at 17 William Street, New Skelton. At the census of 1901 she was aged 33 and married, with two daughters, to John Norton, a blacksmith. For a charge of one shilling, [12 pennies], a batch of magazines could be taken to the local vicarage and sent off to London for binding into book form. Somehow Mrs Norton's book made its way to Monmouthshire, Wales and was recently put up for sale on the internet. Sheila has acquired the book and kindly sent extracts, which I will include under the relevant dates in the website. The publications provide much local colour about those late Victorian times. Religion meant much more to people then and the magazines show how the Church of England services and community activities were an important part of life. All Saints Church in the High St, built 1884, would still have been sparkling, before it was blackened by all the coal fires. The Skelton curate at the time was the Rev Robert James Ellis. MA Cambridge. The church at Moorsolm was just being built and there are many details of events at North Skelton, Boosbeck and Lingdale as these villages all came under Skelton Parish. The Wesleyan Methodists at the other end of the village were equally full of religious fervour at these times, being in the midst of their schism with the Primitive Methodists.