About Burton Salmon
Burton Salmon 2000
The Millennium Exhibition of Local History and Memorabilia
An illustrated account of the exhibition
complied by
Ronald Addyman
© 2002 All Rights Reserved
Introduction
The Millennium Exhibition in the Methodist Church in Burton Salmon in November 2000 brought together a remarkable collection of historical objects and memorabilia. Visitors to the exhibition were able to view displays relating to the church, the school, the former railway station, the former brewery, lemonade factory, blacksmith's forge and other places in, or previously in, the locality. Also on view was a chart depicting the history of the village, a collection of fossils and antique bottles, pictures, prints, records and other items of interest relating to Burton Salmon and the nearby hamlets of Poole and Byram Park.
The exhibition was opened by Mr Laurence Walters, a former minister of the church, at 2.30 pm on Saturday 4th November 2000. The exhibition was also open on the following day.
I provided a display concerned with the War Memorial in Burton Salmon. The display included a scale model of the memorial with photographs and military items associated directly or indirectly with the men from the parish who fought in the First World War (1914-18). A commentary written to accompany the display provided details about the memorial, a brief account of the men named on it who served in the First World War and a brief account of the men and women named on it who served in the Second World War 1939-45).
The following pages provide pictures and text relating to the various stands at the exhibition as well as the commentary mentioned above.
RA
The Exhibition Stands
The brewery and factory stands
The stand to the right of the war memorial stand exhibited memorabilia concerned with the Burton Salmon brewery now long demolished and the Burton Salmon lemonade factory also now demolished.
The brewery was on the west side of the AI62 by the railway bridge on land now occupied by a vehicle breaker yard and new private dwellings. A house, possibly once owned by the brewery, can be seen in the distance to the right in the war memorial picture. (See the later commentary concerning the memorial).
The brewery display included a lovely colour print of the former brewery showing its long chimney stack, brewery buildings of various kinds, a gas holder, stables, railway sidings, locomotives and railway wagons. The title of the bustling industrial scene depicted in the print is 'John Davies Burton Ales' . It is reported that in addition to its main business the brewery provided gas to light some of the houses in Burton Salmon. The lemonade factory was more or less in the centre of the village. The display relating to the former factory included a press cutting with the heading 'Village with a lotta bottle'. Beneath the press cutting were pictures of the factory and other local views.
A further stand to the right of the war memorial stand had a press cutting concerned with the mini-earthquake felt in Burton Salmon in 1985. The press cutting announced 'Mini Quake Rocks Village'. Additional memorabilia showed the progressive enlargement of the village stream into the present-day lake. The enlargement was due to subsidence arising from old colliery workings below parts of Burton Salmon.
It may be that men from the village once worked at the nearby collieries all of which, by the way, have long been closed down. In addition to colliers, if there were any, men and women and young people from the village would have worked at the brewery, the lemonade factory, the railway station and goods yard and at local farms. These sources of employment are sadly no longer available except perhaps for the farms. But even here the employment opportunities are not what they once were.
Further displays at the exhibition reminded visitors to it that Burton Salmon once had a post office and shop and a blacksmith's forge. No doubt the horses and carts used by the brewery and the lemonade factory to deliver their wares and the requirements of the local farms kept the blacksmith busy.
The fossils and bottles stand
The stand below the window exhibited fossils and antique bottles recently found in Burton Salmon. The fossils were unearthed during building work in the village. A university department examined the fossils which were declared to be over 3,000 years old. The main fossil was a tusk from an ancient creature which once roamed the locality of present-day Main Street and its environs. Also on display was a jar containing small shells or crustaceans also over 3,000 years old.
The bottles were of various kinds as can be seen in the photograph. The main group of bottles were glass lemonade bottles including at least one 'gob-stopper bottle'. These bottles had a loose glass ball enclosed in the neck of the bottle. When filled at the factory gas pressure inside the bottle forced the ball upwards effectively sealing the bottle. The writer remembers buying lemonade in these bottles but can not recall how the contents were extracted. One bottle, or jar, and the fragments of another were made of pot and had labels for 'Burton Salmon Ales'.
The school stand
A collection of items were displayed at the exhibition relating to the village school which opened in 1896. Photographs and school records were placed on view for public perusal and many visitors to the exhibition found them to be of great interest. A striking exhibit, clearly seen in the photograph, was the Commemorative Quilt made by the pupils of the school to celebrate the school's centenary in 1996.
The church stand
Like the school stand, the church stand proved to be popular with the visitors to the exhibition. Photographs and documents relating to both the original Methodist Church in Burton Salmon and the present-day church were on display. These provided a vivid account of the church, its parishioners and ministers over the years and the role of the present church, and its predecessor, in village life.
The railway stand
Visitors to the railway stand were able to see pictures and records relating to the once busy railway station at Burton Salmon. Pictures on display showed views of the station buildings which included a ticket office and passenger waiting rooms. Other pictures showed locomotives and carriages on the lines, the signal box at Burton Salmon and a view of the steps leading up to and from the road bridge which passengers used to reach the ticket office or change platforms. Timetables and other memorabilia were on view relating to the station of which all that now remains are the railway cottages, the station master's house, a long unused railway platform and space where once were railway goods sidings. Of course, the two bridges in Burton Salmon, one over the busy lines and one under them, and the embankments are present features of the local landscape and are likely to remain so.
The war memorial stand
The war memorial stand had a wall display incorporating illustrations and a table display incorporating various war-related objects. A feature of the table display was a scale model of the memorial made for the exhibition by the writer. The model was exact in detail except that the roof beams are exposed. Another feature was a group of Great War medals (on loan from a military museum) similar to those awarded to Private Thomas Alexander Bailiff, DCM MM, of Poole - the small hamlet adjoining Burton Salmon. The group of medals included two bravery awards - the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal - the 1914 Star, the War Medal and the Victory Medal. See the later commentary regarding Private Bailiff's bravery awards.
A miniature canon and a Princess Mary Gift Box were added to the display for their general interest. Gift boxes similar to the one on display were sent to British soldiers, and others, serving on the Western Front and in other theatres of operations as a Christmas present from Princess Mary in 1914. The soldiers from Burton Salmon and Poole serving in the trenches would have received one of these boxes. It is believed that they contained chocolate, cigarettes, matches, note paper and a pencil.
Part of a Great War shell with its attached fuse mechanism and a separate fuse mechanism were also added to the display for their general interest. The shell fragment and fuses were found in a field in France in the 1980s - more than sixty years after they were fired from British field guns during the Battle of Arras in 1917. They were given to the writer in 1985 by the mayor of the village of Fontaine-lez-Croisilles, which lies to the south-east of Arras, as a memento after the unveiling of the British war memorial in the village. The fuse mechanisms being made of copper have not deteriorated as steel tends to do and are still in working order except that the incendiary device in the fuses are spent. Visitors to the exhibition were able to rotate the central portion of the fuses thus setting them in the same way that the gunners would have done prior to loading the shells into the guns and firing them.
A number of items previously belonging to Corporal Frank Pickup, who is named on the memorial, as is Private Bailiff, were displayed on the war memorial stand. Corporal Pickup was from Spring Farm, Burton Salmon. During the Great War he served in the trenches and was wounded on at least one occasion. The items, which were loaned by his son for the exhibition, are not shown in the views of the war memorial stand but can be seen in Plate 1, the war memorial, brewery and factory stand. Corporal Pickup served with the 2nd Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment during the Great War. A photograph of him with other soldiers was among the illustrations in the wall display mentioned above and is reproduced here. The items on display included his Lincolnshire Regiment cap badge, the piece of shrapnel from a German shell which wounded him, and his identity discs. These latter items proved to be of some interest to visitors to the exhibition. They were informed (by the writer) that the discs - one green and one red each stamped with identification details i.e., surname, initials, number, religion - were worn by British soldiers on separate strings around the neck. In the event of the soldier being killed or dying of wounds, the green disc was left with the body and the red disc taken to the soldier's field headquarters so that the necessary notifications and casualty reports could be made, the visitors were told.
1. The War Memorial, Brewery and Factory Stands
2. The Fossils and Bottles Stand
3. The School Stand
4. A View of the War Memorial Stand
5. The War Memorial at Burton Salmon
6. Private Thomas Alexander Bailiff DCM MM and his wife, c 1916
The photograph is thought to have been taken after he received the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal from King George V at Buckingham Palace.
The exhibition featured a photo of Corporal Frank Pickup (1898 - 1985) with other soldiers at Brocton Camp, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, in 1916
We hope to add this photo in the near future
Commentary
The War Memorial at Burton Salmon, Yorks.
For the better part of eighty years now a war memorial has stood by the roadside in the village of Burton Salmon to remind all who pass by of the men from the parish (Burton Salmon with Poole) who lost their lives in the First World War (1914-18), or Great War as it is also called. Their names are recorded on a panel inside the memorial. The memorial is situated at the junction of Ledgate Lane and Hillam Common Lane on a plot of land given to the villagers of Burton Salmon for the purpose of building a war memorial by the Lady Betty Hastings Trust which owned land in the area.
The memorial has the form of a Iychgate without the access that such gates have. It is constructed of oak timbers under a slate roof. The memorial's inscriptions are mainly on panels at the back of the memorial with an extract from Ecclesiaticus 'Their name liveth for evermore' (Verse 44-14) at the front. It is likely that the memorial was erected in the early 1920s in the aftermath of the Great War when so many British soldiers lost their lives and many more were seriously wounded. The cost of the memorial is likely to have been met by public subscription.
The memorial's unveiling ceremony some eighty years ago would have been both a solemn and splendid occasion. Most, if not all, of the villagers of Burton Salmon and Poole would have attended the ceremony and the children might have provided a charming scene as they placed flowers around the memorial. The men from the parish returned safely home from the war would have been there bemedalled and in a place of honour. Clergy, a band, possibly a choir and military and civic representatives might all have taken part in the proceedings at which prominent local people, including Sir John Ramsden (who is named on the memorial) might have been among those present. The church, the school and the public house may have been among the venues in the village providing refreshments prior to and after the event
A special feature of the Burton Salmon memorial is that in addition to recording the names of the four men from the parish who fell in the Great War, the memorial records the names of the thirty-five other men from the parish who served in the Great War - a considerable local response to the call to arms. The departure, however, of such a large number of men for war service must have been keenly felt in the parish. A further panel was added to the memorial after the Second World War (1939- 45) in memory of AH Wallgate who lost his life and to record the names of the twenty-four other men and the three women from the parish who also served in the Second World War -again a considerable local response to the call to arms.
A not entirely unexpected but nonetheless impressive feature of the Burton Salmon War Memorial are the many local family names recorded on it During the Great War most families had, it seems, a loved one, or more, serving in the armed forces most likely as soldiers in France and Belgium. Among the family names are Bailiff, Harrowsmith, Knott, Pickup, Laxton, May, Durham, Sharp, Cox, Lawson, Webster and others many of them repeated more than once and in some cases three or four times. The largest group, however, are the five Bailiff brothers who served in the Great War - a remarkable patriotic contribution to the war effort by one family in the parish.
One of the brothers lost his life in the war. He was Richard Moody Bailiff, the fourth son of John and Ellen Bailiff, of Poole. An elegant brass plate in the nearby church of St Edward the Confessor, at Brotherton, informs us that he was killed in action at Delville Wood, France, on August 19th, 1916, aged 21 years, whilst serving as a lance-corporal in the Royal Scots Greys (note 1). He is the first-named on the Great War central panel in the Burton Salmon War Memorial.
The third son of John and Ellen Bailiff, Thomas Alexander, was twice decorated for bravery during the war. He received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal - outstanding awards rarely doubly gained. Prior to his war service he was employed by the Ramsden family of nearby Byram Park where his father was the head forester. We will return to Thomas Alexander Bailiff shortly.
The memorial's inscriptions are on oak panels in the form of carefully carved raised letters on a recessed background. The layout of the inscriptions and the brief sentiments expressed by them exhibit simplicity and style in keeping with the appearance of the memorial as a whole. The central panel relating to the Great War records the names of the four men who lost their lives in the war. The side panels record the names of the men from the parish who also served in the war. See below for the actual inscriptions.
| Those Who Served |
APPLEYARD A |
1914 1919TO THE
|
LAXTON T |
| TO THOSE WHO SERVED 1939 - 1945 |
| AND IN MEMORY OF A H WALLGATE WHO GAVE HIS LIFE |
W BUTLER |
J LAWSON |
F WETHERILL |
The citation for the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal to Private T A Bailiff was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette on March 11th 1916. A copy of the citation has been acquired by the Bailiff family. The citation reads as follows:
Private T A Bailiff, 1st Battalion, Hertfordshire Regiment, T.F.
For conspicuous gallantry in rescuing wounded in the open under fire,
and continuing his efforts all night until wounded himself.
A handwritten entry below the citation records:
'Festubert, 18/5/16' (see note 2)
How Thomas Alexander Bailiff came to be serving with the Hertfordshire Regiment is unclear. We know, however, that the Ramsden estates included land in Hertfordshire's neighbouring county of Buckinghamshire. It may be that Thomas Alexander was working there at the beginning of the war in August 1914, that he enlisted locally and subsequently joined the Hertfordshire Territorials.
The Hertfordshires were among the first Territorial Force (TF) units to serve on the Western Front. They were brigaded with four Guards battalions: 2nd Grenadier, 2nd Coldstream, 1st Irish, and 3rd Coldstream with which the Hertfordshires formed the 4th (Guards) Brigade. The Hertfordshires were well regarded in the Brigade. (See Rudyard Kipling's The Irish Guards in the Great War ). (See note 3).
With regard to the Irish Guards mentioned above, a nephew of T A Bailiff has provided the most interesting information that among the wounded rescued by Private Bailiff was the Irish Guards officer the Hon H R Alexander who, as many will know, became a famous general in the Second World War and ultimately a field marshal and an earl - the Earl Alexander of Tunis. The nephew also stated that his uncle received annually a sum of money from the Alexander family as a token of their appreciation for his brave and humanitarian action in assisting their wounded son. (See note 4)
The records relating to Private Bailiff's award of the Military Medal are believed to have been lost in the Blitz during the Second World War.
As already indicated, AH Wallgate from the Parish of Burton Salmon with Poole lost his life in the Second World War. He was a merchant seaman and died as a result of enemy action during the Malta convoys. Unfortunately this is presently all we know about him.
The Malta convoys were among the great naval campaigns of the Second World War. Between 1940 and 1943 convoy after convoy fought their way through the waters of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Malta in the face of fierce enemy sea and air attacks to deliver essential supplies to the beleaguered Maltese and the small British force on the island. The merchant ships and their warship escorts were indefatigable in their efforts to get through to Malta whose survival was of the utmost importance to the Allies war effort. Some ships got through but many ships and their brave crews were lost. The people of Malta were brave too as they endured relentless air raids and suffered the sorrows and hardships arising from them. But the island held out. AH Wallgate and his shipmates nobly made their contribution to the survival of Malta and the Allies victory which eventually followed.
Returning to the Great War for the moment, it is noted that apart from the few brief details relating to Lance Corporal R M Bailiff previously mentioned, little further is presently known about the other men from the parish who lost their lives in the Great War. However, it is fairly safe to assume that they were born in the parish, went to school here (see note 5), possibly worked locally and had family here. It is likely that they enlisted for war service at the beginning of the war, or when they were old enough to do so, and after training in England went to France to fight on the Western Front. There they would have faced danger and endured the hardship of trench warfare in that monumental struggle. They died in the service of their country. The memorial helps us to remember them.
The memorial reminds us also of AH Wallgate who lost his life in the Second World War, as previously stated, and of the men and women from the parish who also served in the Second World War and had the good fortune to return safely home. They too faced danger and endured the hardships of war. To a greater or lesser extent so too did the people at home in both wars but particularly so during the Second World War. This latter group are not named on the memorial - and would not have expected to be. Many served in numerous essential capacities nevertheless.
Notes
I. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Details Lance Corporal Richard Moody Bailiff lost his life whilst serving with the 6th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. However, a photograph in the possession of the Bailiff family shows him wearing a bandolier worn by cavalry units - which would be the Royal Scots Greys as stated on the memorial plate in Brotherton Church.
2. The handwritten entry below T A Bailiff's citation for the DCM i.e., 'Festubert 18/5/16' appears to have an incorrect date. Otherwise the publication of the citation on 11/3/16 took place before the action which the citation commemorates. Furthermore, the location and date do not correspond to known action on the Western Front. If the year is changed to 1915 everything fits. The Hertfordshires fought at Festubert on 18/5/15 as part of the 4th (Guards) Brigade which suffered heavy casualties, the Irish Guards particularly so.
3. Two volumes of the Irish Guards in the Great War one for each of the Ist and 2nd Battalions were published in 1922 and recently reprinted by Spellmont. Rudyard Kipling's son, John, lost his life in the Battle of Loos in 1915, aged 18 years, whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion The Irish Guards. Rudyard Kipling was invited by the Irish Guards to write the history of their service in the Great War which he agreed to do as a monument to his son. The result is regarded as both a military and literary masterpiece.
4. The information regarding the rescue of the Hon H R Alexander by Private T A Bailiff could be correct. However, the present writer has been unable to find any reference to the Hon H R Alexander being wounded on 18/5/15 (or 18/5/16) although he was wounded on at least two occasions. There is, however, an account in Rudyard Kipling's book (Volume I) relating to the Hon W S P Alexander (possibly a brother of the Hon H R Alexander) also serving in the Irish Guards who was wounded at Festubert on 18/5/15. Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding here on account of there being two 'the Hon Alexander' serving in the same Regiment and for some of the time in the same Battalion.
The second part of the information - the annual token of appreciation - would still apply whichever of the two 'the Hon Alexander' was rescued by Private Bailif.
5. The Burton Salmon County Primary School opened in 1896 as an elementary school providing education for boys and girls up to the minimum school leaving age which in 1914 and for some years afterwards was 13 years. Many of the men from the parish serving in the Great War would have attended the school as would, no doubt, many, or all, of those who served in the Second World War.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Mr Alan Webster of Burton Salmon for valued information relating to the Burton Salmon War Memorial. I also wish to thank Mr John Henry Bailiff of Darrington for valued information and for the loan of material relating to his uncle, the late Mr T A Bailiff DCM MM. My thanks also to the Rev David Robinson, priest in charge, St Andrews, Ferrybridge and St Edward the Confessor, Brotherton. I am grateful to Mr Cyril Pickup of Selby for the loan of items of historic interest concerned with his father, the late Mr Frank Pickup. I also wish to thank my wife, Margaret, for her photographic work.
Ronald Addyman TD BSc MA
Burton Salmon
2002