Anthea’s back with another Remember When? post. Enjoy, and as always, questions, comments and opinions in the comments box below! Thanks.
Well, we’ve had a look at Underhill and a look at Ashfield so this week is the turn of Home House and the final family to connect all three properties. John Mawson had a daughter – Emily Bryham Mawson (he had more than one daughter actually but that’s another story!). Emily married a prosperous young publisher/bookbinder names Edwin Dodds and they set up home together in Edwin’s childhood home – Home House on Kells Lane. They had five children – Brian, Molly, Madeleine Hope, Ruth and Sylvia and it is the last three children who are the really interesting characters.
They lived in Home House virtually all their lives and never married. Hope and Ruth were both historians and Ruth was also an Independent Labour Councillor for Gateshead in the 1930′s. But the real claim to fame is that all three sisters bought the land and paid for the building of Gateshead’s Little Theatre on Saltwell View – apparently the only theatre to open in England during the Second World War. Ruth became the first woman to be awarded the Freedom of Gateshead.
Ruth wrote a play which had the same title as one of Thomas Wilson’s most famous poems – anyone know what it was called?
I think I’ve got the answer to this one but I’m going to leave it for a bit and see who else can come up with an answer!
Ruth’s play was ‘The Pitmans Pay’ – I know that because I have a copy !
Nice work Mike. That was my answer too. Now I feel much more confident.
Well done – I will have to try a harder question next time! Ruth’s play, frequently performed in the north east during the general strike, is much more serious in tone than Thomas Wilson’s poem.