Paddle steamers, and public house palaver

Season 3, episode 4. 27th April to 2nd of May 1882. In Middlesbrough, Fred takes a trip on the Stockton paddle steamer along the River Tees, and back in Sheffield, Janie is rushed off her feet as The Cross Keys hosts a dinner for 75 people.
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Ingrid Birchell Hughes

Transcript

[Intro]
Welcome back to My Love Letter Time Machine, Hi, I’m Ingrid Birchell Hughes, and I’m serialising the love letters of my great great Grandparents, Fred Shepherd and Janie Warburton. Travel 140 years back in time with me now where we take a look at Victorian history through their eyes and today Fred takes a trip on the Stockton Steamer, and The Cross Keys hosts a dinner for 75 people

[Paddle steamers, and public house palaver]

[pub noises, door closing, quieter, pen]
After forgiving one another for the dressing down that Fred gave Janie last time, the letters for the end of April 1882 fall back into the usual comfortable chat and sharing of gossip. In the next couple of letters from Janie, two people we’ve not heard about for a while reappear. It’s at moments like these that the letters make me feel like I’m in a Victorian soap opera, to the point when having a coffee with a friend I’ve actually caught myself saying - oh you never guess what and then rattle off the details of 1882 as if it had happened last week. Anyway, the first is Carry, Janie’s friend whose family, you may remember, had emigrated to Australia. Carry remained behind and moved in with relatives in Harrogate. The second is Mr Herrod Snr. Emma’s former father in-law who has had to endure the disgrace of his elder son John, currently in prison for jewellery theft, as well having suffered from being robbed by his younger son, Tom, resulting in bankruptcy and the sale of the family farm. 

I have here a sheet in Janie’s handwriting in pencil with no dates or salutation. I think it fits here but I’m not completely sure. She writes: 

I am scribbling this on the dresser and while Johnny is waiting a bit for me, and I have to attend to father as well so know you will forgive me. I'm glad you have had two easy days darling. You will do with them very nicely, I wish I could have been with you to make the evening pass more quickly, I long for you love as you do me it is happiness to be with you, we shall miss each other these summer nights and our glorious walks but we will make the best of it love won't we? It would be like heaven to feel your arms around my waist and to have all that glorious time to come over again but we shall have a happy time to look back upon shan't we? And we are both looking forward to the happy time coming. It will be bliss darling to be with you and to give and to receive my kiss when you come home to have our home comfortable for you, you know my husband that I shall never tire of your companionship. You won't get tired of me darling will you? I shall try not to let you, I have your love darling and I shall try my best to keep it so that we shall be friends companions and everything to each other all our lives. Carrie is coming on Tuesday, I wish the doctor would order me away to Harrogate so that I could go back with her and then we should be able to see each other as the sight of you would do me more good than either Redcar or Harrogate.

It is very good of Mr and Mrs Morton proffering the hospitality of having me a fortnight beforehand and of Mr Davis too. I am like you darling rather in a fix I don't know what to do we shall have to see what we can do when you come at Whitsuntide I should certainly like to come beforehand to get things ready but I think we shall have to try and settle it then there will be only four Sundays after tomorrow love so we will try and be patient but it does seem a long time, I am not fretting darling it will not do. It was a beautiful day yesterday but it has been wet today it has cleared since tea I wish you could take me for our usual Saturday night’s long walk. I wish I could have gone to the theatre with you I hope you enjoyed it love. It is now past time so I shall have to give up. 
I love you more than ever my husband and will always 
remain 
your loving true and faithful 
wife 
Janie.

The next letter is also from Janie

Handsworth 
April 27th 1882. 

My own darling husband

I was pleased to receive your kind letter this morning. Father still keeps better and I hope you'll soon be able to get down the stairs but he is very weak, he got up in the bedroom a little while today but was soon tired. 

Poor Mr Herrod has called today he is on his way to his daughters at Huddersfield, I do feel sorry for him, he is a poor broken down old man, and his two sons have ruined him if they had been good ones he would have been in pretty good circumstances now. He has not heard anything of John for a long time.

Carrie came late on Tuesday night, she wishes to be remembered very kindly to you.

Our Polly is here today, Carrie and I went down to the station to meet her to help to carry the baby they are both quite well we shall very likely take them back to the station tonight, I do wish you could bring me back darling oh I shall miss you this summer nights, but never mind you will take me for an airing in the town when I get there love; won't you love? A nice gentle walk as a constitutional you know.

I am glad I am dearer to you and you love me more than ever, I feel sure we will be so happy in our married life, I don't doubt love but why[while?] shall I feel leaving my friends a little bit at the first but I shall have them all in you and I shall be quite content. I do not mind a bit about living in Middlesbrough and we must live where it is convenient for you darling, I hope your back is better and the pain around your body, if you do not feel it to be getting better, do get something darling and let me know if you are any worse, because I'm always so afraid of anything like that turning to inflammation, I think you must have got a little cold last Saturday.

I am sorry love you have had so much cold meat you shan't have so much when I am your cook. I have to get ready to go with Polly now give you another for Sunday.

I remain 
your loving true and faithful wife 
Janie.

Royal Exchange Middlesbrough, The North Eastern Steel Co Limited
April 28th 1882 

My own darling Janie
I have received a letter from John Meays this morning, asking if we will make it to a party for Whitmonday excursion to somewhere. He says Chambers has been to see him and suggests Castleton.

I shall write to him on Sunday I think, so you might in your Sundays letter love tell me what your idea is on the matter and I will be guided entirely with it. I shall not be able to give you even a moderately long letter today darling, because we are so dreadfully busy and I have to go up to Stockton to see the Surveyor of Taxes about the Income Tax returns. I was working last night until 1/2 past 9 and on Wednesday night until 1/2 past 10 so I think I may consider that I am putting plenty of time in. I shall not be sorry when the works start and things get settled into a groove.

I hope you are enjoying the sweet companionship of Carry I wish you could enjoy mine as well. I almost expected to hear from you this morning love, but I expect you will have been very busy.

I hope your father keeps well darling, and that your sweet sister is a little more amiable.

Please remember me to Carry love. I had almost forgot to tell you that Alvey’s is young lady has requested him to ask me to tell you that she wishes to be very kindly remembered to you which present duty I have now fulfilled.

It only wants 29 days now my darling to Whitsuntide and then I expect I shall have the pleasure of seeing you.

3.15.

I have been up to Stockton and had a sea trip down the river on the steamer, it was grand and I shall have great pleasure in taking you down at some future time my little wife.

You must please overlook my not giving all my love, we are really very busy. I like to write to you at night, and then I can give you more time to it.
I remain my darling wife 
your loving true and faithful husband 
Fred


Arguably *the* icon of the city of Middlesbrough for the last 111 years has been the Tees Transporter Bridge. A surprisingly delicate and etherial looking edifice in light of its steel construction, that ferried passengers across the river Tees in a suspended gondola. Opened in 1911, its unusual construction was to enable continued shipping access along the river. Before this, the only way of crossing the vital north/south route over the River tees, below the Victoria bridge 5 miles upstream, was by paddle steamer.  

Paddles steamers seem to have largely disappeared from the mind in the UK, very few have survived to the modern day. Oddly enough when most brits think of a paddle steamer, they are more likely to envisage a picture postcard American Queen style vessel, carrying tourists up and down the Mississippi River, and so I have to confess that this throwaway comment of Fred’s became another intriguing window back into the past. The paddle steamers in question were of iron construction with the paddles in covered casings projecting duck wing like on either side of the main hull.   

While the advent of the screw propeller revolutionised the development of sea-going vessels, paddle steamers continued to be used in river and coastal services, even until the middle of the 20th Century, because of their shallower beam and easier maneuverability.

The main ferry crossing in Middlesbrough was where the Tees Transporter bridge is now, and in Stockton on Tees, just west of where the Princess of Wales bridge stands today. There was also a regular hourly ferry between Middlesbrough and Stockton, itself another important and growing industrial town on the north bank. Indeed Stockton was the site of the Stockton and Darlington railway, the worlds first ever public service railway, and, had a major shipping industry. Being sited across the river from the world’s largest producer of iron, and soon to be steel, you can see why Middlesbrough and Stockton became the then nexus of the latest stage of the industrial revolution. 

And in the middle of this hive of industry a pleasant moment on a boat could be found chugging you gently five miles downstream.

[paddle steamer sounds]

It looks as if there were at least two ferry companies operating at the time, and the Middlesbrough Stockton ferry was operated by the Messrs Duncan’s Passenger Steamboats who were running two paddle steamers, the River Queen and the Royal Charlie.  I’ve found some pictures of the Royal Charlie online and it looks for all the world just like the tug boat depicted in Turner’s famous painting The Fighting Temeraire. While The Royal Charlie doesn’t seem have been pressed into service for towing battleships, it was frequently charted for special occasions. In Freds’ time, The Royal Charlie was often name checked in Middlesbrough newspapers, particularly on boat race days - the steamer did a fast trade in providing the ticket holders a close up view of a race as it followed the competitors. Given the number of mentions and also, surprisingly, the amount of comments on left heritage sites, I’ve been given the impression that for a time, the steamer acquired talisman status and lives on in cultural memory. 

I don’t know if the Royal Charlie was the steamer that Fred travelled on, he had a 50% chance of being on the River Queen too, in fact he may have travelled on them many times.  but it’s hard not too look at a faded black and white photograph of a paddle steamer, crammed with passengers below the plumes of smoke, and engage in some wishful thinking, imagining my great great grandfather on the deck. 

By the way if you would like to see this kind of paddle steamer in action, I’d like to recommend the youtube channel ‘Steve Marsh’, who gave his kind permission for me to use a sound clip from his fascinating video about the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer, the Waverley. The rest of his travelogue channel is totally worth checking out. That’s Steve Marsh, all one word, on You Tube. 

Handsworth 
April 29th 1882.

My own darling Fred

I received your letter this morning and you should have had one from me yesterday I sent one to post by Polly on Thursday, I was too late for the Handsworth post and Polly had one that she had written to post so thought she would not forget. I am sorry you were disappointed love. It has been wretched today raining all day, it is a little fairer now or it would not be fit to turn out. I had a very pressing invitation to spend a week at Mrs Hills, Hathersage, this morning, she is Mrs Allens sister at the post office. I have met her at Mrs Allens, she is very nice lady one you can enjoy yourself thoroughly with and her daughter too, her husband was a doctor and he died about two years ago, he killed himself with drink. So darling I think a week there this summer would do me good, what do you think?

Darling I hardly know what to say about the excursion to Castleton, I certainly should like to see the place, should you like to go do you want to go? It is in this way love if we keep having such expensive excursions every time you come over, it will be impossible for you to save the money. I have been thinking if we went to this one, we would wait until October before we were married it would only be another month and then it would give me a little more time to get the things ready I shall want, after our feast it takes us about a month to get straightened and we should then have your raised salary what do you think darling can you wait for me? Or do you think it would be best to keep to the old time September. If you decide love for me to be your little wife in October, you can send John Meays that we will go, we could manage it then but if not we will have a nice quiet time at home this Whitsuntide not so much running about as we had at Easter I think I have scarcely got over the tiredness yet.

My darling I quite overlook the shortness of your letter as you were so busy; you have worked late, you must not do too much love to knock yourself up or I shall have to come and nurse you if you are ill, and I know you would not care for that, I hope you are alright again and that you do not feel the pain around your body love. You will not I am sure be sorry when the works get started and things get settled into a groove, I hope you will not have to be there so late then darling as you know I shall not care to get my tea without my husband, we shall have a glorious time together it will be like being at Morecambe again won't it love?

I wish I could enjoy your companionship as well as Carrie’s, I did long for you last night it was moonlight just right for one of our old walks. Polly says we shall have to go there this Whitsuntide so I think we shall have to go on the Saturday night if we don't go to Castleton, we will go on the Monday, there is only three more Sundays than you and I will have the very great pleasure of seeing each other again oh darling I wish it was here I do want to see you.

Father still keeps better, he has been up and dressed in the bedroom nearly all day, it will be rather awkward this next week it is the club feast on Monday and the rents dinners on Wednesday we shall have a very busy week. We have always set a table in fathers room before so we shall have to make some other arrangements this time, we have began[sic] upsetting the things out of the club room today and piling them in the old room, I fairly dread it coming on it is such an upset if we could have everything in the usual way we should not feel it but we can't love so we have to make the best of it it is a nuisance though. Remember me kindly to Miss Smith through Mr Alvey darling, I suppose we shall be near neighbours Sunday. I should very much have liked to have been with you at Stockton and had the sea trip down the river on the steamer. You shall have the pleasure of taking me sunday, do you remember being on the steamer from Morecambe to Blackpool I am sure we were taken for bride and bridegroom, you did used to blush didn't you love, when they cast suspicious glances at us I did enjoy it, it was a happy week. I have not time for more

I remain 
my darling husband 
your loving true and faithful 
Wife 
Janie.

Going back to the first paragraph of this letter with the discussion of Mrs Allen and her family, I’ve found picture of Mrs Allen and her family in front of the post office in a memoir of Handsworth by Florence Fisher Earl. She was born to Charles Fisher, one of the owner’s of the Handworth Nurseries, in 1885, so she would have known a lot of the people in the village that Janie had known growing up. 

The section on the post office reads: 
“Next came the Post Office with its little carriage entrance to the back, and what a different Post office it was, to that of the present day. Mrs Mary Allen was the Post Mistress [assisted by Kate Bell, quite a young girl, who in later life became Mirs Mirfin. After Mrs Allen’s death, she in turn was Post mistress for many years and was much esteemed.] The house was double fronted and the Post office was in the room to the left, with a high counter, but there were more interesting things than stamps and postal orders for sale, hoops, marbles, shuttlecocks, battledores, skipping roes and whipping tops, also children’s boots and various wares. [These were chiefly in the shop son the right hand side of the entrance door.] As Christmas approached there was the excitement of a a show of toys etc. 

In the photograph of the post office, Mrs Allen is wearing a black dress and cape, her hair is tightly scraped off her face and she’s wearing a kind of pill box hat. Her face sadly is rather blurred and I’m left squinting once again through the misty window into the past but it’s it rather lovely to have this extra detail about someone who mostly likely have handled every single letter that Janie sent and every one that she received from Fred. 


FS 21 Church Street, Middlesbrough
May 1st 1882.

My own darling Wife

I received your letter of Thursday on Saturday love, I think Polly must've forgotten to post it before Friday.

I am glad to hear that your father is recovering love, I hope he will keep well for sometime. I think he ought to take more care of himself.

It is a sad thing for old Mr Herrod that his sons have turned out so badly – it seems to be the rule rather than the exception to turn out bad.

Thank Carrie for me love for her kind remembrance. I should like to see her, does she keep up well love, and has she quite resigned herself to be alone in England.

I shall be most happy my darling to take you for a constitutional when I get here, and what is more, I shall see you that you do take it love. I am happy to say love, but I have quite recovered of the pain in my back and round my body and I'm now (excepting for the hard work) in very good health.

I am pleased to hear that I shall not have so much cold meat love, when you are my cook, if there is, there’ll be a row!

Please thank Polly for me love, for her kind enclosure it is very pleasant to know that people are thinking about you I think we shall be able to give them a look in at Whitsuntide shan’t we?

I received your letter yesterday morning love, and should have answered it the same day, but yesterday was our landlady's birthday and we had a lot of visitors and I really had not had opportunity of writing to you. This morning Mr Cooper went away and we have been so busy all the day that I could not find time to write. I hope you will forgive me love this once.

[…] I do remember our journey from Morecambe to Blackpool love, and I also remember my blushing as well, you see was not for myself but for other people, because I did not like them to be under a wrong impression. 

Speaking of remembering, do you remember our journey from Morecambe to Sheffield back again alone my darling?

I had to go down to Redcar again last Saturday about our Secretary’s house. When I got down about 3.0 it began to rain and it did rain I came away at 5.0 nearly drowned. (if it had been fine I intended walking to Saltburn on the sands and then riding from there.)

It rained incessantly until bedtime on Saturday, and again last night from six until 10, and today we had a dreadful thunderstorm, which I had the pleasure of being out in, as I was coming from the works. I got rather wet but I do not think I have caught cold, I have not time to think of such trivial things as colds.

Is your cold better my darling, and have you quite recovered from the severe strain I put you to at Easter love? Do you feel equal to going through the same again, for I suppose you will do if I come over.

Don't you think it would perhaps be better for me to stop here at Whitsuntide love and then there would be no risk, because this time it will be just after the month instead of being just before as it has been before?

I bought a name stamp today love, for marking linen[?] And of course I took care to get your initial as well so that it would be useful to you when you change your name for mine darling. Have I done right love? When you get this love, it will only want 24 days to our meeting. 
I remain my own darling wife, 
your loving true and faithful husband 
Fred


Handsworth 
May 1st 1882. 9—30 P.M.

My own darling husband

We have just got one of our busy days over, we have had 75 to dinner, I am very glad for I begin to feel very tired, I wish you were here darling to rest my eyes upon I am sure I should feel better then. I could not make time to write today before this, they are very busy in the bar yet but mother has gone in to release me for awhile, so thought I would begin your letter tonight as I might not have much time tomorrow, with father being poorly. We had to take our John’s bed down and make that into a dining room, we should scarcely feel the difference if we had not so much moving things about. You would not like to sleep in my bedroom for a trifle tonight love, everything bundled in, boxes heaped up one at the top of another it will be a treat to get everything straight again. We shall have to clean all down tomorrow for Wednesday, we do not mind now we have got this over, it is much quieter on Wednesday there will be only twenty.

Everything went on well today until dinner was over and then our Emma got some more drink in fact she could scarcely speak she was so drunk, oh darling I don't know what ever will become of her she gets worse and worse, she has now gone upstairs to take the children to bed and I hope she will go to, I got Kate to ask her to go long since but she would not. I can't write any more tonight darling I am so tired and sleepy I will try to finish tomorrow good night love (x) I do wish I could kiss you, I do love you.

Tuesday, May 2, 1882

My darling, 

I was disappointed this morning at not receiving a letter I thought you must be ill love, as I generally get one either Monday or Tuesday, I do hope you are not, I do not know what I should do if you to be ill over there. I am anxiously waiting for tomorrow's post to see what is the reason.

We are very busy getting ready for tomorrow you will forgive me for not giving you a longer one this time. Carrie went to Miss Mottorshed’s yesterday for a few days until we get the throng over.

I remain always my husband 
your loving true and faithful 
Wife 
Janie.


We’ll leave it there for now. Next time the insecurity regarding Fred’s lodgings grows, as his landlady, Mrs Gordon, tells him to start looking for somewhere else to live. 

[outro]
Thank you so much for listening to My Love Letter Time Machine. I’d very much like to share Fred and Janie’s story with more people, so If you haven’t already - can I ask to share this podcast with someone you think might enjoy it? You can also find excerpts of Fred and Janie’s letters on instagram at my love letter time machine all one word and you can write to me at my love letter time machine at gmail dot com.

Until next time, take care.
© Ingrid Birchell Hughes 2022