Sunday 1 November 2009

Chaloner

Sir Thomas Chaloner I, 1548, aged 28 at the time of this portrait.

Born 1520. Married 1547 to widow of Dr Legh, one of the King’s agents for the dissolution of monastic houses. Thus came into possession f Legh’s lease of Priory estate. Purchased freehold in 1550 for the sum of £998. 13s. 4d. From 1538 to 1564 employed on diplomatic work abroad. Author of Latin verse. One work addressed to Queen Elizabeth in anticipation of his recall from his irksome duties abroad. Queen unresponsive. He remarried in 1564 one year before his death in 1565 and had a son named Thomas.

Sir Thomas Chaloner II, 1564-1615.

Married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Fleetwood who had an estate near the Chaloner family residence at Steeple Claydon in Buckinghamshire.
He introduced manufacture of alum at Belman Bank, Guisborough, in 1605 where he was assisted by his cousin, also called Thomas, who had gained experience in alum-making in Ireland.

Portraits in possession of Lord Gisborough.

Boundary Perambulation 1716
NR Record Office. Chaloner Calendar: ZFM 55 – Manorial.

Guisbrough Boundaries ridden upon the second day of May 1716 Edward Chaloner Esq Lord of the Manor present nigh 200 persons foot and Horse:

Hollbeck on the river that comes by Slapewath to the boundary betwixt the Lordship of Guisbrough and Skelton to Aysdale Gill head So South West by a little Gill or How called Tidkin How directly to a Hill called Hobcrofs So directly to a Hill called Hob on the Hill which is the nighest of the two Hills to the Bride Stones and from thence directly southward to a Stone called Craw Stone and so directly to Ravendale-head to a boundary stone there and from thence to a well called Leaden Well to a Hill called Colemanargus or Todhow and there Guisbrough and Skelton boundaries end.
And from Colemanargus Hill South-west down the Hill towards Skelderscough to a boundary or Hillock of Stones called Sandhill and from thence to Agar’s Intack down Whitby road of the Warth or Water called Skelderscough Warth over the River called Ravendale Beck and to the Middle of the said River is the boundary between Guisbrough Lordship and Danby Lordship to the River Eske on to Dep Hill Bridge or a Ford so called and from thence the Rivulet called Baisdale Beck about 300 yards to an old wall and from thence along Kildale Way Westward to a place called Hob in the Hole or Hinderskeugh or Shinne (Skin) Warth and from thence cross the Moor to a Hill called Dike How and so Northward to a Stone called Haggaback Stone over against Wheyworth and from the said Stone down to Sleddil Beck which Sleddil Beck comes running down between Guisbrough Lordship and Kildale From that place to a Spring a little below Peircy Crofs and the said Sleddil Beck is the boundary for several miles between Guisbrough and Kildale and from the said Sleddil Beck on the south side of the said Spring directly up to Peircy Crofs is the boundary between Kildale and Guisbrough and all the lands lying on the right hand of he said boundaries belongs to the Manor of Guisbrough From Peircy Crofs turn Southwest towards Lownsdale along a way that leads into the said Dale to a Boundary Stone in the Intack nigh the first Gate called Prior Fold and so to Lownsdale beck So up to Ernold or Aryholme wall side to Little Rosemary Hill and so down the road to Bell end and towards Pinchinthorpe
But Guisbrough Boundary from Piercy Crofs as the water runs Northward by a cut to Guisbrough Mill – but on Hutton Moor and Pinchinthorpe Moor &c he Lords of Guisbrough take Waifes and Strays and are lords From thence the country is crossed to Upsill for riding of Barnaby Moor and they begin at a Spring above Upsill Mill and go directly North to an old Hedge about half way of the said Moor and from thence along an old Hedge to Mordell Nook.
(7 March 1979. WB)

At top of the 1716 Perambulation these dates were added:
1716, *1738, 1772, 1798, 1816
Percy Cross WB snap, shows 1856 stone. Now vanished (1990)

*There is a small eroded standing stone with roughly-cut date 1738, south side of gate in wall separating forest and moor. Due S is a view of Sleddale Farm and Valley. Date obscured by cairn stones to preserve it. WB 1983.

Bundle also contains notice: Perambulation to take place 27 June 1856 of “…the ancient and accustomed boundaries of the said Manor.” (Capt Thomas Chaloner’s first as Lord of the Manor.)

Honor Chaloner, daughter of Wm Chaloner, married Thomas Lamplugh, Rector of Bolton Piercy. Tablet in York Minster, S choir aisle. died 1747.

Family Pew in church.
A plan to replace the old pitch pine family pew with a new one in 1906 – part of church restoration scheme. Design by Temple Moore, initialled RC (Richard Chaloner) and GHC (George Henry Cobham Rector). Had RC spent too much? Pew never built.
Taken out Monday 6 June 1966. A Lady Chapel in its place. Before the chapel was made the Chaloner vault (below the family pew) was inspected, recorded (and sealed up) on Mon 25 Sep 1966.

“Re Chaloner Deceased, Simpson v Long 1885” - Chancery Division
NR Record Office, Chaloner Papers

Extract from Will of Admiral Thomas Chaloner dated 10 Sept 1884. Proved at York 17 Dec 1884.
Re Cottage Hospital and Sunday School or ‘Chaloner Hall’
(Whitby Lane and New Rd respectively)

‘By an Order of the Chancery Division made 1st June 1886 on the further consideration of the action “Re Chaloner Deceased, Simpson v Long 1885, c. No. 1960” it was declared that the above mentioned devise was valid and that the Trustees of the Will were at liberty with the concurrence of Mrs Amelia Chaloner to declare such trusts as they might think fit other than charitable trusts concerning the said Hospital and School.’

‘By Deed dated 30th December 1886 Alfred Walker Simpson, Robert Charles Yeoman and William Henry Anthony Wharton, the Trustees of the Will, with the concurrence of Amelia Chaloner, declared that the said Cottage Hospital and Sunday School should thenceforth during the life of the said Amelia Chaloner be held by the Trustees of the Will in trust for he said Amelia Chaloner during her life.’

Mrs Amelia Chaloner survived the Admiral by eighteen years and died 8 March 1902. There was no direct heir to the estate. “In … September 1967 … Mr Pegman the Rector informed me that Lord Gisborough no longer intended to use the vault (under the SE Lady Chapel) and that it was to be sealed up for ever. Inside were 14 coffins. A small oak coffin was the best preserved and on this was the following inscription: ‘Infant son of Thomas and Amelia Chaloner – stillborn -March 17th 1868 London.’ *From ‘Priority’, S Nicholas Parish Church Magazine, No 946, May 1980. By Mrs Shirley Knight. The estate passed to the Admiral’s grand-nephew. The Admiral’s eldest sister Margaret Bruce Chaloner married the Rt Hon William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Hume, 8 June 1829. He assumed the name and arms of Dick by Royal Licence and died 1892. Their only surviving child Charlotte Anna Hume married Richard Penruddocke Long in 1853 and their second son Richard Godolphin Long succeeded to the Gisborough estate with, among other manorial titles, the market rights, the rent being collected today 1984, stallholders paying. Richard G. Long assumed the name of Chaloner in 1888, four years after the Admiral’s death. At the time of his succession he was a Colonel, and by 1917 created first Baron of Gisborough. Born 1856. Died 1938.
A subject for research: the Chancery Case 1886. See previous note.)

Now for village gossip!
Mrs Daisy Armstrong (90 years old in 1983) recalls her mother (Mrs Ward) saying that if Mrs Chaloner had stayed at home and had the local doctor for delivery of her child there would have been a direct succession.
Admiral 53 in 1868, Amelia his wife ? years old.

Chaloner claimant

Burial, Thom. 17/7/1884as Chaloner. ‘Union House’ = Work house. 78
Same year Admiral Chaloner died at Longhull.
Some gossip about a claimant? – a connection ??

Mr John Close (Dr W Stainthorpe’s chauffeur) told me in 1968 that the Admiral’s only child had died at birth, and said that his wife (adopted?) her sister’s baby. A claimant to the estate returned to Guisborough c. 1900 and lived at Bradley’s farm near the bridge in Belmangate. Also said that Colonel Chaloner supported him. Mr Close said that the Admiral’s wife, Amelia, saved out of her settled fortune for this child. Was there a lawsuit?

Fact and fiction
In 1970 we had a visitor: one Mrs Johnson of Lincoln. Said that her grandfather’s brother (then 86) recalls the grandfather leaving home to travel to Guisborough. His name was Thomas Chaloner and he claimed kinship with the Chaloners of Gisborough. Doubtful assertion that he was maintained by the Chaloners. Unlikely. One Thomas Chaloner died in the Union Workhouse in Northgate. Aged 78. Buried 17 July 1884. Church Regs. Admiral Chaloner died 1884, buried in the ‘new cemetery’ on 22 October. 69 yrs.
Several conflicting statements: Mrs Johnson’s statement that he was maintained by Colonel Chaloner (the Admiral’s successor) incorrect. He (the Colonel) took the name of Chaloner when the Admiral died in 1884, but did not inherit the estate until the death of the Admiral’s widow, Amelia Chaloner, in 1902.So this was too late to benefit the other Thomas Chaloner who claimed kinship.
Mrs Daisy Armstrong (89 in 1982) said that this Thomas lodged at Belmont Farm and walked about Guisborough dressed in a frock coat and top hat.
I have also heard that he lived in one of the Admiral’s flats in Belmangate (built 1872).

Tuesday 27 Oct 1987. Researching at Cleveland County Archive, the Burial Register of S Nicholas church, Guisborough, I noted:
“Thomas Chaloner, Union House, July 17, 1884, 78 years.”
“Thomas Chaloner, Long Hull, Oct 25, 1884, 69 yrs” – (180 index: p 167) check against 1881 census.
“Union House” – a euphemism for Workhouse. (now 1987 General Hospital).

Chaloner Documents

Copy of “Summary List of Documents deposited by the Rt Hon Lord Gisborough of the County Record Office, Northallerton”.

“The earliest deed concerning the Chaloner family dates from the middle of the 16 c when they acquired the Manor of Guisborough which had formerly belonged to the Priory there. (Bundle 1A) At this time they also owned property in Steeple Claydon, Bucks., and St Bees Cumberland (Bundles 21-22). Two purchases were made in he Guisborough area in the early 18 c.(including the Manor of Tocketts) and a relatively large number (17 or more) in the 19 c.
Personal papers of the Chaloner family survive only from the 19 c. The earlier history of the family appears in printed books and pamphlets (see the section on Pedigrees and Family History – Bundles 329-331); he library at Gisborough Hall contains a number of works by or about the Chaloners in the late 16 and early 17 c; but the ms sources in the collection are important for the history of Robert Chaloner, who, when the bank of which he was a governor, went bankrupt, took upon himself personally to discharge the creditors; the list of creditors is 34 feet long (see Bundle 173). To pay for this he put the Gisborough estate in the hands of trustees and accepted the job of agent for his cousin Earl Fitzwilliam’s Irish estate. So for many years he lived at Coolatin in Ireland, and his correspondence with the Earl is preserved in Bundle 318. He discharged the difficult job with great honour, as the addresses of the tenantry testify (Bundle 318A). Perhaps this began a fashion in the Chaloner family: Admiral Thomas Chaloner and especially RGW Chaloner (later Lord Gisborough) received most elaborately bound addresses from devoted tenantry, neighbours and colleagues.
Very few documents from the Priory have survived here, the most important is the Account Roll of c1300 (Bundle 56A) already published: Surtees Society Pub. No.89 (1891) pp412 et seq. Two other minor documents (Bundles 350 and 351) may have come from the Priory. There are two Priory leases (in Bundle 20A) and a pedigree roll of c1470-1500 is said to have been written there (Bundle 328). The only other medieval documents in this collection are the deed (in Bundle 20A) and the “De Regimine Principus” of Egidus Romanus (Bundle 349).
Of some interest to the history of Guisborough Cartulary (of which a very brief account is given by Mr W Brown in his edition of the Surtees Society Publications, Vol 86, XXIV and XXV) will be the translations apparently made from it sometime before 1697 (see Bundle 20D).
Among other notable documents are those relating to the Guisborough Fairs and Markets (Bundle 199) and the alum mines in the 17 c (Bundle 206), the mid-19 c notebooks of Admiral Thos Chaloner on the suppression of slave-trading (Bundle 315), the mid-19 c diary of Richard Hale, Vicar of Harewood (Bundle 316), and one of the earliest known versions of the legend of the murder in 1160 of the hermit of Eskdaleside, the supposed origin of the tradition of the Horngarth at Whitby (Bundle 341). There is a fine illustrated pedigree roll, begun in 1605 (Bundle 330B) and ms treatise on heraldry of 1582 (Bundle 331H). Apparently unconnected with any other documents in the archive are the 17 c instruments and appointments to militia offices, mostly from the Bishopric of Durham (Bundle 314A)
Extracts from “Ministers Accounts” for Gisborough Priory etc are in ZK 5838 et seq.
1st March 1965.
MM Ashcroft.

Chaloner Estate
ZFM Northallerton Cty Rec Office (8/3/1976)
Mrs Chaloner’s accounts1754-1762 – ZFM 84
Frequent interest payments on bonds (borrowings)
Servants’ wages in arrears 3yrs/3 mths/6 wks

1757: 19 April To the Archbishop of York for renewing the lease of the tythes of Gisborough &c £50.
1757: Recd of Wm Corney for Easter Reckonings £11 (church offerings).
1760: To my Son’s share towards a Subscription for the relief of 14 sufferers by the Fire in Gisborough

ZFM 85
1772: To Wm Chaloner Esq. Aug 24 – By cash, pd Wm Page for half a Years waiges due July 31, 1772, £11/14/-
1773: 21 Jan, £18/6/4 pd for late Wm Page, cooper.
1773: By cash, pd Robt Belt for straw £1/10/-
1773: By cash, pd Robt Belt for coal 12/-
1773: Thomas Bonner for Drefsing Two B 2/-ucks
1774: 2 Oxen £13.
1774: Duty on two 4-wheel carriages £8.
Duty on one 4wheel carriage £4
Duty on 2-wheel carriage £2
Duty on Silver Plate £2/15/-
1776: £2693/1/7..
1778: £2441/1/8
1779: £3883/4/5
1780: £3764.
1781: £3822
1782: £3939
1783: £4013
1784/5: £3409
1796: Robt Chaloner £2271
1796 or 1798: Long Hull new building £343/6/7
1805: Income £3877/18/9¾
Total rents £2857
Yks Tithe £88
£785 - Sale of houses in Guisborough (detail:
£270 Rbt Johnson, house and garth, Westgate
£200 Wm Wilson Jnr, house in Market Place
£120 T Eaton, Sandhill, Commondale
£130 R Pulman, house and garth, Westgate
£65 John Potter, Belmangate)
Recd £66 for 44qrs oak bark (for tanning). Small pieces wood £2/4/-
1805 disbursements £3225/14/0¾
1805 Rebuilding of Howlbeck Mill £652/4/9. (Rbt C. reorganising?)

1825: Trustees Estate of Rbt Chaloner: the Hon Geo Heneage, Lawrence Dundas and the Hon Sir Robt Lawrence Dundas. Bankruptcy of Messers Wentworth & Co, Bankers, York. RC insured for £29000. Annual payments out of estate in 1826 – Mrs Emma Chaloner £800. Interest on mortgages £1913/5/-. Interest on notes and bonds £1657/7/8. Farming Stock £1186/16/10. Wine £930/14/-! Aggregate value of estate £7,245/10/2 in 1826.

1902: Valuation Late Mrs Amelia Chaloner £190,617. Farms £77,057. Accommodation lands £3,214. Houses and cottages £6652. Ground rents £7251. Ironstone royalties £38,762!
ZFM – Admiral Chaloner’s estate. Sale of cattle etc, 20 Feb 1885. Beasts £606/13/6. Sheep £100. Pigs £4/15/-. Implements £115/2/11. Horses £204/15/-. Hay £10. Less H Watson’s costs £42/15/10 = £999/5/7.

Revenues (ZFM at Northallerton)

1780-84 approx – nearly £4,000
Later, 1805, Rents income £2,857
1805 Bark sold (for tanning) £66
small pieces of wood £2/4/-
1805 Sale of houses in Guisborough, Total £785
House sold to Rbt Johnson – (House and Ga) Westgate for £270
House sold to Wm Wilson Jr, Market Place £200
T Easton, Sandhill, Commondale, £120
John Potter, Belmangate £65. JP a farmer

An illuminated Testimonial to Admiral Chaloner.
Local Board minutes 1884
Cleveland County Archives, Middlesbrough

A letter to Wm Buchannan, Clerk, from Mrs Amelia Chaloner (27 Sept 1884) thanking the Local Board for the illuminated testimonial which some members of the Board had taken to Long Hull. (The Admiral had a fatal illness.) He thanked the Members of the Board and was sorry he was unable to see them, but took this opportunity to bid goodbye to them as he would not recover.

Board Meeting of 25 Oct 1884: A letter of sympathy to Mrs Amelia Chaloner on the death of Admiral Thomas Chaloner.

(1869: In Local Board Minutes first reference to title of Admiral (prev. Capt.) Date of title?

Check old newspapers –
Long Hull: Geo Page photo – ‘Welcome Home’ –
Display of Decorations there 29 Oct 1900
Priory Gardens – ‘Mafeking Day’ Celebrations 24 May 1900

Lord Almighty!
Evening Gazette 11 Dec 1981
Fury over feudal right
A market town’s lord has come under fire for imposing his feudal rights.
Lord Gisborough’s decision to prevent the sale of cut-price bus tickets from a van in the town’s market place brought an angry response from Langbaurgh Borough Councillors.
Although he has the right under a 16th century charter his decision was slammed as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘abominable’ at a meeting of the higways committee.
The committee was told the van was to see the recently introduced Fairsaver tickets one day a week but an agent acting on behalf of Lord Gisborough said that because it was not an open market stall it was not suitable.
Councillor Paul Harford commented: ‘I consider this to be a gross abuse of power. Lord Gisborough is acting irresponsibly and in a totally reprehensible manner.’
Councillor Ray Tough added: ‘It is abominable that a man of his standing should deprive the people of the town of the opportunity to get cheaper travel.’
Councillor Allan Gwenlan suggested the tickets should have been sold from council offices in Guisborough and Councillor Mrs Audrey Collins said she believed the fairsaver scheme had not received a very encouraging public response.
However the committee backed Councillor Arthur Seed’s suggestion that the matter be thoroughly investigated.
‘It may be a costly business,’ he said. ‘But I think we hope to see if there is any way of taking some power away from this man.’
The council’s policy and finance committee will decide at a later date what course of action to take.
Mr Peter Fawcett, agent to Gisborough estate said: ‘Basically we are sympathetic with Cleveland transit’s problem. But for a considerable number of years we have been trying to raise the standard of Guisborough market.
‘One of the things we are aiming at is that the market should be a traditional one and should not be filled with mobile stalls and caravans but all trading should be done from stalls of good design and pleasant colour.
‘The reason we asked Cleveland Transit to stand down was because they have a caravan and also we wanted to keep the market rights to Thursdays and Saturdays only and not every day of the week. If anyone else comes along during the week and starts trading we point out it is not a market day and ask them to move on.
‘I did offer to try and find alternative accommodation for Cleveland Transit in a shop but this was thought unsatisfactory. They didn’t know what I was tying to find for them so I don’t know how they can say it was not suitable,’ he said.

Manor of Gisboro 1856

MANOR OF GISBOROUGH
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
That the Court Leet with view of Frankledge and Court Baron of Thomas Chaloner Esquire, Captain in the Royal navy, Lord of the Manor of Gisborough, in the Conty of York, will be holden on Friday, the 27th day of June next, at the Town Hall, in Gisborough aforesaid, at 9 o’Clck in the forenoon, when and where all persons owing suit and service at the said courts, are required to attend.
AND
NOTICE
is
HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN,
That immediately after the Jury at the said Court have been sworn, the Lord of the said manor will perambulate the ancient and accustomed boundaries of the said manor, of which all Lords Stewards, and Freeholders of adjoining Lordships, Manors and Territories, and all other persons interested in the said perambulation are required to take notice.
Dated this 20th day of May 1856
T.T. Trevor
Steward of the said Manor

Hodgson, Printer, Gisborough.

(Thos Ch. succeeded 1855)

Mary Chaloner’s Account Book
ZFM Chaloner Papers Northallerton County Record Office. Culled 3/1/1973

13th February 1754 "Dr. Coats, attendance on Mr.Chaloner £4/4/-." Mr.Chaloner died 17 Feb.
"Cash pd Mr.Walker for my son's schooling and pocket money disburst on his a/c as per bill £8/161-". Boarding school or private tutor?

1st August 1754 "To Oliver Preswick for sail cloth for covering of Pond House £1/18/6d.

13 February 1760 "To my Son's Share towards a Subscription for the Relief of the Sufferers by the Fire in Gisbrough £2/2/-.

Presentation to Volunteers
1902 – 9 August. Presentation by Mrs Chaloner of Watches to three Guisborough Volunteers: Privates Davis, Shore and Beeton. Davis still in S Africa, his wife received the watch.

1901 – July – From Guisborough Parish Magazine
Volunteers South African War 1900-1901
Pts Davis and John Wood of 1st Vol. Btn of Princess of Wales Own Regt – 16 months service. Met at Guisborough Railway Station by Band and members of K Coy of PWO and by Guisborough Band. Carried shoulder-high to Market Cross “where cheered”. Guard of Honour of Guisborough Art. Vols under command of Sgt Major Dadd. Mr Wm Charlton, Chairman of Urban District Council, presented each man with a handsome silver watch with monogram inscription – “Appreciation of Voluntary Services in S. African War, February 1900 to June 1901”.

Shocker for the Lords ...
Evening Gazette 14 November 1985
Only two pupils are legitimate!
All but two children in a school in the Middlesbrough area are legitimate it was claimed today.
The claim by Cleveland’s Lord Lieutenant Lord Gisborough shocked the house of Lords.
He used the revelation as a warning that 61 of a schools 63 pupils are illegitimate as a warning of how unemployment is helping to rock the fabric of society.
He said that bored girls were getting themselves pregnant deliberately , so they had a ‘toy’ to occupy them.
Lord Gisborough was clearly referring to Middlesbrough but he declined to identify the location – when he said: ‘I come from a place not far from a town where there is 25% unemployment throughout the town.’
There was one particularly harrowing area of 18,000 population with a housing estate where unemployment approached 90%. This produced boredom, depression, inactivity and despair.
Lord Gisborough commented on an Evening Gazette report when he went on: “The youngsters are bored and, needless to say, prone to get into trouble. They have time on their hands. They are a nuisance They run across the roofs; they vandalise; and they are careless.
“I have a headline which says ‘Yobs laughed as pensioner lay dying.’ They chased the pensioner until he started dying, then surrounded him and laughed at him. That sort of headline is not unique to the town.”
Lord Gisborough then turned to the plight of the jobless youngsters, who were not only unemployed, but unemployable.
“They look for something to do that they can enjoy. They form, very often, early sexual liaisons. The girls deliberately go and get themselves pregnant so that they can obtain from the State – I refer to one particular case of a three-bedroomed house. But very often they get their own flat. They get a Social Security income. They get independence. “They get a form of status that they want. They also have a child which is a toy and which gives them something to do.
“It involves children between 14 and 16. In one school, 61 out of 63 children are illegitimate.”
The town – again Lord Gisborough wouldn’t name it – had a 25 per cent illegitimacy rate. And the problem tended to repeat itself. Illegitimate youngsters tended to leave home early and repeat the whole process bringing “a great danger” to the social structure.
The youngsters must not be allowed to “rot into unemployment” Lord Gisborough said during the Queen’s Speech debate.

Schoolgirl claims denied
Evening Gazette Friday 15 Novr 1985
Education chiefs today threw down a “put up or shut up” challenge to Lord Gisborough over his sensational House of Lords speech.
The Lord Lieutenant of Cleveland, who claimed that 61 of 16 pupils in a school in the Middlesbrough area were illegitimate, had officials baffled over its whereabouts.
And Cleveland’s educational spokesman David Stevenson, firmly denied such an illegitimacy rate existed.
He declared: “The whole thing as far as we can see is without foundation.”
“I spoke to the heads of two small schools in an area of urban deprivation,” he added. “They have no record of illegitimacy.”
In the Queen’s Speech debate Lord Gisborough said that bored girls were getting themselves pregnant deliberately so they could have a “toy” to occupy them.
Mr Stevenson said there was no evidence that girls “were forming early sexual relationships. “Nor was there “any evidence of increase in illegitimacy.”
He added: “I would like to know his sources. If he has evidence it would be helpful to now what it is. We feel disturbed by what he has said.”
After is speech Lord Gisborough refused to elaborate and was not available for comment today.

Breaching the great divide
Evening Gazette Comment, Friday 15 Nov 1985.
Peers were startled to hear from such a pillar of the establishment as Lord Gisborough, the Lord Lieutenant of Cleveland, the claim that unemployment was destroying the fabric of society.
They may have expected such a litany of social decline from a Labour Life Peer but the fact that it came from a figure from the fabric of the aristocracy must inevitably carry more weight.
Lord Gisborough should be applauded for his unequivocal revelations and for speaking up for the victims of unemployment.
The problems of teenage hooliganism in all its dreadful forms and the sheer futility of young girls getting pregnant out of boredom or to get state benefits are becoming familiar stories.
Without saying so it seemed evident he was speaking of Middlesbrough. But he could just as easily have been speaking of any part of Cleveland.
There must be doubt about his claim that a school exists with 63 pupils only two of which are legitimate, unless it is a special nursery for unmarried mums. But his concern remains intact.
If his Lordship – so closely reflecting the view of Prince Charles – at one extreme and the unemployed at the other are (sic) aware of the problems, why do those with the power to tackle the problems refuse to acknowledge and still less do something about them.

No comments:

Post a Comment