Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
The caption, on page 20 of Tom Hutchinson's book
'The People's History of Barnard Castle and The Tees Valley',
reads:
'Middleton - back to less serious matters.
'Postie' Walton on his round a long time ago!'
www.northernecho.co.uk The Northern Echo - South-West Durham News
Saturday February 16, 2008.
Don't worry, I haven't cut up your copy of Tom's book to put through the photo scanner!
Dave.
E-mail - jim.mctaggart@nne.co.uk
'Postie' Walton circa 1895 - picture courtesy of Tom Hutchinson.
Tom writes: "The photo is from a a guy called William (Billy) Swinbank of Mickleton. He used to live at Low Side - it could have originally belonged to him / his family."
See below for the Australian 'Great Gold Rush' branch of 'Postie' Walton's family.
Doomed bootmaker who sailed away to find his fortune
John Wholah was Richard Green's Great Grandfather.
www.northernecho.co.uk The Northern Echo - South-West Durham News
Saturday March 1, 2008.
More fascinating details, from Australia, appeared in Jim McTaggart's column 'Teesdale Talk' on Saturday March 8, 2008:
Bow of Brunnel's ss Great Britain in dry-dock at Bristol.
Speeding the Mail
- built by Isambard Kindom Brunel.
'Great Britain' 1/- [5p] stamp in the British Ships issue of January 1969.
Private 262 Jack Walton, born 1892, of the Australian Infantry Force (A.I.F.), killed 1917 in the Battle of the Somme.
Teesdale Talk: Details of dale posties from Down Under
By Jim McTaggart
EFFORTS to trace details of Teesdale postmen of years gone by have led to information arriving from a surprising source - Australia.
Richard Greene logged on from there to the Royal Mail website to tell about John Walton, who was a delivery man around Middleton from about 1889-1921. He was born in 1860, the son of Nancy Wholah Walton and Joseph Walton.
Nancy died in 1905 and is buried in St Mary's churchyard, in Middleton.
John, a popular local figure, used to ride a horse around his long delivery route. He lived at one time next to his mother, at 18 and 19 Chapel Row in the village.
Nancy was the sister of Mr Greene's great-grandfather, John Wholah, who emigrated to Australia.
Dave Charlesworth, manager of the Royal Mail Delivery Office in Barnard Castle, where the historic details are being gathered, said: "To get information like this from Down Under about a dale postie who worked long ago is truly remarkable".
"Some of the other details we have received have come quite a distance, but this is the furthest so far. It was a lovely surprise and we are delighted."
There was further good news when Mr Greene recalled that a photograph of Postie Walton on horseback had appeared in Tom Hutchinson's book 'The People's History of Barnard Castle and the Tees Valley', which is now out of print. Mr Charlesworth got in touch with the author at his home in Chester-le-Street, and he sent a copy of the picture so it can go into the archives.
"We are thrilled to have it," said Mr Charlesworth. "It is incredible that we heard about it in a message from 12,000 miles away."
Other reports about the men and women who have battled through all weathers over the decades to put mail through dale letterboxes can be found on: www.royalmailteesdale.piczo.com
Teesdale Talk: Doomed bootmaker who sailed away to find his fortune
By Jim McTaggart
RICHARD GREENE has sent me fascinating details from Australia about two of his Teesdale ancestors, John and William Wholah, who lived in Middleton before emigrating more than 150 years ago.
John, who was a bootmaker in the village, sailed off first in 1854 to seek his fortune as a gold miner in Ballarat, Victoria.
William, his younger brother, followed in 1857, but was shot dead two years later, at the age of 26, in a swamp near the gold mining centre.
An inquest declared the killing accidental. As far as is known he never married. It may have taken weeks before John learned of the tragedy, although he lived a short distance away.
It would take much longer for the news to reach Middleton.
Mr Greene said that John lived a harsh life at a time when boatloads of men arrived from Britain and elsewhere to join the great gold rush. Many lived in tents and huts near the Yarrowee River, where a tent city at one point was home for 10,000 people. He may well have dreamt of peaceful Teesdale.
John married Mary Garvin, who arrived from Tipperary in Ireland in 1856. They lived in Sebastopool, but Mary, 43, died of fever in 1874, a week after their son, Joseph, was born.
John later moved to Melbourne with some of his family. He went back to his old craft as a bootmaker, making use of his dale skill, and later worked as a gardener before he died in 1891 at the age of 65.
Mr Greene was mentioned here two weeks ago after sending facts about his ancestor, dale postman John Walton, to Royal Mail officials for their history project. He has worked in Australia, Indonesia and Cambodia as an international banker.
He stated that although John Wholah had a tough existence, future generations of the family benefited from his courage in leaving Middleton. We will include some more news about them in a future column.
Teesdale Talk:
By Jim McTaggart
THE surname of John and William Wholah, the Teesdale brothers whose departure to Australia, in the 1850s, was recorded here last week, has disappeared.
John sailed on the Nimrod, a whaler which carried 70 passengers. William followed later on the Great Britain, a combined steam and sailing ship, which is currently being restored in Bristol.
Richard Greene, their descendant, who sent me details from Down Under, said no other family in the world had used the name, which ended with the death of John Thomas Wholah in Melbourne, in 1948.
He thinks the original name was probably Whaley. William was shot dead two years after arriving, as stated last week, but his brother, John, started a branch of the family, which has flourished in Australia. His daughters, Hannah and Mary, had children who, in turn, produced children who became successful farmers, teachers, nurses and other professionals across Australia and beyond.
His son, John Thomas Wholah, born in 1863, became a senior railway surveyor and lived to the age of 84. Some members of the family fought in the two world wars. One, Jack Walton, who was born in 1892, joined the Australian Infantry Force and was killed in the Battle of the Somme in May 1917, after earlier being wounded three times.
Mary Wholah, who was born in 1867 and died in 1935, was the grandmother of Richard Greene, who as we mentioned before, became an international banker and has given us all this information. He was a guest at the East German elections in 1990, and, that same year, visited the Soviet Far East representing Australia in trade talks. He visited Teesdale last summer and the houses in Middleton, where his ancestors lived.
