From Ballaugh to Ballamona and Back…Sarah Christian

Many of us had read Sarah’s recent, delightful book on Glen Dhoo. This gave us a good starting point and is highly recommended.

Opening her talk by describing genealogical research as a personal journey through other people’s lives really grabbed our attention. Any thoughts of research being dull or simply a dry, academic exercise were instantly dispelled.

Sarah said that her interest was awakened by the Head of Kirk Michael School and then further encouraged in 1979 by Bob Forster, the first Head of QE2 when she was in the initial intake. It’s very cheering to us ‘old’ teachers to find that we sparked an interest in pupils that has enhanced their lives. It is a long- term investment, of course and one seldom knows which seeds grow and enrich.

Moving from a developing interest in feminism, Sarah recounted with commendable frankness, a spell in Ard Aalin with depression. She praised the staff and successful treatment that has led her to develop a career in mental health. Apparently, one in four of us will encounter mental health problems at some time in our lives so the better informed and more caring we become, the better.

There is no causal link between mental health and feminism but Sarah’s reasons for opening these two themes became clear as her talk progressed. Her own capacity for work, raising a family whilst successfully studying at the I.O.M. College to secure a BSc (Hons.) in Public Health is a testimony to this remarkable speaker.

A founder member of Ballaugh Heritage Trust, Sarah began research on Glen Dhoo in 1975, partly because of family connections. She explained how she used the Internet, MNH library, the Registry, Manchester Central library and Ballaugh records. She found that she had a relative who was put into Ballamona Hospital because he suffered from epilepsy. This is treatable, now but is still little understood.

Sarah’s feminist interest was partly aroused by the number of women admitted to the mental hospital as, ‘deviant women.’ This term might be applied if they were regarded as drinking too much or were sexually active outside marriage. This process didn’t seem to apply to men, hence feminism.

The way women were used and abused was noted. The military in the Boer War and more recently were so concerned about troops being weakened by syphilis that they organised a supply of ‘clean’ women. History is slow to acknowledge this double standard. 

The study of Glen Dhoo demonstrated problems of in-breeding. Apparently, young couples were expected to court within sight of their future in-laws’ chimney smoke, limiting the genetic pool. This accounted for the small number of family names. Not all were adversely affected of course, nor was the problem limited to this small, isolated community. Do read Sarah’s book to learn more.

Our AGM is on Wednesday, 20th February, 7.30pm in the Centenary Centre. This will be preceded by Frances Coakley talking on Manx mapping. Both are unmissable!

Desperately Seeking Thomas, by Valerie Cottle

In memory of Thomas aged 11years and 3 months and James 1 year and 10 months, sons of Thomas and Mary Cubbin, they were drowned in each other’s arms in the surf on the coast of Madagascar, on the 26^th March1868, after enduring very great privation and sufferings 11 days in a small open boat, through the foundering of the ship Serica, after an awful hurricane in the Indian Sea.  “Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed.”

Thus reads the plaque in Braddan Old Church that aroused the author, Valerie Cottle, to research the background and details of what turned out to be a fascinating journey for her as well as readers of her outstanding book, Thomas Cubbin, Master Mariner and the Wreck of the Serica.

Valerie’s talk was absorbing, combining as it did, a remarkable tale and the research methods that gradually and patiently unfolded the facts. Clearly, despite her familiarity with this absorbing tale, she was still moved by the human story she had uncovered.

Apparently, Thomas Cubbin had written an account of the disaster but MNH couldn’t find their copy. Valerie then discovered a reprint on the Internet, three years ago and bought it. The title is something like, Wreck of the Senica, the Wonderful Adventures of a Manxman. This, of course, was a wonderful primary source.

Thomas and Mary with a rather motley crew sailed from Birkenhead in December 1867 together with two of their children, leaving the rest behind on the Island, we know not with whom. They were 12, 4 and 3 years old!

 The ship had been built in Canada and sailed with a cargo of timber, all for sale. Thomas owned this ship and was a qualified master. She hit one of the worst hurricanes in recorded history. Captain and crew took to a small boat to head for the nearest shore, Mauritius but wind and tide were against them and they sailed to Madagascar. The boat capsized in giant breakers with the loss of their children. However, they’d had another baby before returning to Rose Hill, Braddan!

One young man of the crew was of interest. He had sailed on Brunel’s Great Eastern laying the first trans-Atlantic cable. Some other members of the crew sounded less than ideal.

Merchant Navy records were accessed, as was the Public Records Office in Kew. Apparently, as well as providing several forms of identity, you have to read the regulations and then score 100% on a test before being admitted! Even then, Valerie found that 70% of the records she needed had been transferred to a specialist department in the University of Newfoundland. They came up trumps and pieces of the jigsaw fell into place.

This book makes a fine Christmas present but read it yourself, first!

The Christmas Party is 7.30pm, 11^th December at Peel Golf Club. Excellent dinner plus entertainment. Tickets from Corrie Wooding, 843502. Ring now. All welcome!

Jinny the Witch…….Hampton Creer

There was an excellent audience in the Methodist Chapel, including a goodly number of ‘new faces’. This is always cheering in a heritage organisation where many of us are heading for heritage, ourselves!

Hampton Creer told us that he had become very interested in Manx witches because his ancestors, the Hamptons of Ballabunt, had been defence witnesses at the trial of Joney ( Jinny) Lowney (Lewney) in 1716 who was accused of being a witch. She had been tried, earlier, in 1715 and sentenced to reform but her second trial, the following year in front of Bishop Wilson, took place over four months. There were many prosecution witnesses.

Beliefs in witchcraft and the like were commonplace in the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries. Much of it was the result of people jumping to conclusions, (not the correct ones in these cases) and for many thousands in mainland Britain, a horrible death was the harsh punishment. Most of the accused were poor, vagrant women and not witches.

The terrible scenes of a woman and her son burned alive at the stake in Castletown were not repeated in Joney’s case but she was found guilty. Her punishment was to wear a white robe and go to each parish and publicly repent.

Witchcraft is not dead, of course. Indeed, I believe that our present Vicar General is also Witchfinder General so do accord her appropriate respect.

Hampton went on to describe the Manx tradition of decorating turnips and going around singing about Jinny in our hop tu naa songs. It is well worthwhile looking up Jinny the Witch in Google, Wikipedia. There are several versions of the song or chant, one being rather rude!

Jinny lived in Braddan and was tried at Bishop’s Court on both occasions. Her greatest ‘crime’ was stopping the Ballaughton Corn Mill. She was sentenced for the first ‘offence’ to 14 days imprisonment, fined £3 and made to stand at all the four market crosses, dressed in sackcloth.

We have to remember that this was before universal education and superstition was an attempt at interpreting events, seeking to find a link between cause and effect. Accusing people of witchcraft was often a fail-safe way of getting rid of them for your own reasons!

When children arrive at your door on the 31^st October singing one version or another of hop tu naa, you might ask them what they know about this poor woman!

Thank you Hampton and the Methodist Church for providing the refreshments and the warm welcome.

Our next meeting is back in the Centenary Centre on Wednesday, 21^st November at 7.30pm. Val Cottle will be ‘Desperately Seeking Thomas’. 

‘A day to Remember’ by Ian Cannell CBE

Ian Cannell’s title, ‘A Day to Remember,’ gave us an evening to remember. The illustrated talk centred on Ian’s award ceremony to receive the CBE was particularly appropriate with our minds still focussed on Her Majesty’s sixtieth anniversary on the throne, marked here, in Peel, by the visit of His Royal Highness, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

In a deliberately brief introduction, I referred to Ian’s work as Town Clerk for many years, commenting that the title should really be City Clerk, particularly as we have not just one cathedral bur two and his national and international role with the Royal British Legion. I could have added TT and Tynwald Day commentator and goodness knows what else!

Ian began by saying that he was born in Peel and this has always been his home. He regarded himself as part of Peel Heritage, as indeed he is. He then explained that he was going to talk about the honours system, how you get on it and referred to some of the Manx people recently honoured. His efforts to avoid an ‘ego trip’ left me feeling that I would have liked to know more about the work that had led to his award of first MBE and then CBE. He stressed that one did not use both titles, only the more senior one, commenting that despite his advice, Joey Dunlop’s memorial plaque, incorrectly, bears both! 

Anyone can send a letter recommending a person for inclusion in the honours list, setting out the reasons.  This should be accompanied by supporting letters from others and sent to the Lt Governor who chairs a small selection committee. Their recommendations are then forwarded to Downing Street and on to Her Majesty.

Ian outlined the process as far as the candidate was concerned and the arrangements for the day of investiture. At this point, we were treated to a DVD made by the palace, personalised for each recipient – a remarkable achievement in itself. It included the pomp and ceremony as well as the preparations behind the scenes, the arrival of guests and their progress through the palace, past wonderful works of art to the ballroom where the ceremony was to take place. We then saw the presentations along with comments rounding off a panoply of splendour yet, uniquely personal to each recipient. At its conclusion, our audience broke out into spontaneous applause.

After refreshments, Ian answered questions and we were able to see his awards, citations and photographs.

When it was time to make our usual small presentation to the speaker, I couldn’t resist the procedure we had just witnessed. Ian entered into this fully, bowing and shaking hands and retreating as he had before Prince Charles. A great sport rounding off a great evening with much amused applause!

Next event is Peel’s Secret Gardens on the 14th and 15th July. Admission programmes will be in the usual outlets and in the Market Place on the days.

“Queen of the Mountain”……Carolynn Sells

Most of us know how difficult it is to attend a job interview, speaking about your accomplishments without appearing boastful or self-congratulatory. Somehow, Carolynn Sells succeeded in talking about her remarkable motorcycle racing accomplishments in a modest, charming, entertaining yet modest manner. 

Tim Crookall, Chairman, made a splendid introduction, admitting that he’d made use of Google to assemble some key highlights. Carolynn’s sites are excellent and I cheerfully refer you to them, having dipped in myself.

Carolynn now lives in Lower Foxdale after several moves. She hailed from Preston, spending her childhood at race circuits with her family, her father being a keen racer, competing in circuits all over the UK. These trips doubled up as family holidays, sometimes with the children and luggage wedged in a sidecar hitched to a Norton ES2. This even took them to France. The bike was described as ‘unreliable’. My memory of many Norton’s of this period was their fondness for catching fire!

1985 was Carolynn’s father’s first MGP. She and her brother came over as well. In 1985 they moved here. Where else! 

Carolynn started racing just before her 27th birthday, at Jurby, having borrowed dad’s TZ250. By 2003, she obtained her National Licence allowing her to compete on TT course. Martin Bullock approached her and the rest is history!

A full list of Carolynn’s accomplishments are beyond the scope of this article but to give a flavour of her dedication to racing, include being the first woman to win a championship on the Island, highest finishing woman newcomer, 1st woman in top 10, 1st woman to win a race in the Southern 100 (2005), female lap record in 2008, success in Irish Road Races, won Lesley Anne Trophy for best performance by a female in MGP 2003 –9. Fastest lap of 113mph on Martin Bullock Racing CBR 600 holds 9 silver replicas for MGP and in 2009 became the first woman to win an MGP. The gamble of riding four laps, non stop, paid off and took many by surprise. Phew!

Just to balance all these successes, we were also shown spectacular crashes, including being helicoptered to hospital. She regrets being unable to remember the trip as her only experience of this form of flight!

In 2009, Carolynn made the cover of the MGP brochure and is in the Guinness Book of Records. Despite all this success and glamour, Carolynn showed us a photo’ of  her baby daughter as her greatest reward. To our relief, she has stopped racing but is still heavily involved in the sport, tutoring newcomers and travelling marshals.

The questions from the audience were well-informed and very entertaining. Not surprisingly, Carolynn and the audience were strongly in favour of keeping the MGP as close as possible to the present format. She also admitted that she would be very nervous if her daughter took up racing!

Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Wednesday 20th June in Centenary Centre. – Ian Cannell MBE ‘A Day to Remember.’

M.N.H. Archives for Peel…Wendy Thirkettle

Wendy Thirkettle, archivist at Manx National Heritage, gave us a tantalising glimpse of the wealth of archive material held by Manx National Heritage. She entitled her talk, ‘Aspects of Peel and the West.’ To contain this in a reasonable time frame was an obvious challenge, so she had, sensibly, concentrated on items and events that appealed to her and were likely to be of interest to this largely local audience.

We saw the relatively new five- storey storage building referred to as ‘the stack’. Fresh to our eyes were the internal, mobile racks that can be wound to and fro to allow access between them. Personally, having viewed films where victims were deliberately crushed between them, I would feel a little wary of using them!

Business archives were illustrated by Irving’s Peel pop works with views of original accounts, including supply of drinks to the Knockaloe Internment Camp in the First World War. Usefully, members of the audience were able to help identify people and places or to give dates such as when the pop works was demolished. Its name lives on in Pop Works Cottage on the corner of Atholl Street and Douglas Street. Other business accounts we examined included Peel Fishing Co. 1893 – 1905 and J. Teare, ships’ chandlers, 1866 – 1929. Wendy commented on the way people helped each other out, exchanging goods and services rather than relying, totally, on a cash economy. Mind you, in Peel, at least, we still have a strong tradition of mutual help -an important element in a community as in a family.

Court records were shown as an important archive. We were shown a couple of examples. One striking one was the Peel Riot of 1758.

An interesting item was the proposed swing bridge in 1900. The plans we saw showed a remarkable similarity to the one we now enjoy, a century later. Patience is a virtue! The original was set aside because it was felt that there would be too much delay if it was hand operated and a hydraulic drive would cost too much to recover in a reasonable time. Tolls were predicted to raise about £235 pa but the construction cost would be £4k. The famous ferries and wheeled boards continued for another half-century or so.

Various committees’ archives were displayed, as were letters and testimonials, some relating to loss of life at sea and courageous rescues. Lots of material is available from the Knockaloe internment camp. We can, of course, see much of this in our own Leece Museum on the quay.

Wendy has referred us to a new website, www.manxnationalheritage.com  I’ve just accessed this and recommend it to follow up any interests you have in the past, including the new I.Museum in Kingswood Grove, soon to be on line.

Next meeting, Wednesday 16th May, 7.30 pm in the Centenary Centre. M.G.P. winner, Carolynn Sells will tell us her adventures in this male dominated sport. Non-members are always welcome, with or without ‘bikes!

‘Roy Moore Remembers’

Good grief, where do I start or end! Roy took us on a wander through his memory bank moving to and fro, from topic to topic from infancy to the present. Yes, he did get to his experiences as a commentator for Manx Radio T T at the Gooseneck, as billed! 


Roy began by saying that at a previous talk to the Dyslexia Association, he was hailed as a shining wit. The chairperson was, presumably, Dr Spooner. Another triumph was at the Haemorrhoid Society where he received a ‘standing ovation’! 


Within a few moments, we heard about Geoff Cannell, a relative, an uncle Jack who raced here and was in THE film, ‘No Limit’ – (I think!) We were then swept along by Geoff Duke, on his 4 cylinder Gilera, as we all were, at the time and Reg Armstrong. Help, hold on tight, we were now in Lea Terrace, one of his several homes. We had been in the Glencrutchery Road a few seconds back. 


Rowing boats in the harbour came and went – a lot faster than my efforts at rowing them against wind and tide. Then we seemed to be in Peel with a brother called the Olympic Torch because he never went out! Peel generates some wonderful nicknames. Fortunately, you do not always know your own!


Douglas Head ferries were recalled, together with Pierrot shows and the “Snotty Bridge” at Kewaigue – so called, Roy, said, because of ‘what hangs from it.’ Presumably, stalactites from lime leaching out with water ingress. This is a guess - you’ll have to ask him.


The much-loved Clypse Course, surfaced next. I liked this because the bikes came round so often. It was very intimate – you lifted your legs to let the sprung hub Triumphs bounce round. These must have been difficult to overtake, as you never knew which way they would bounce next.


A coach-driving uncle came and went at this point and memories of his hero, Mike Hailwood.


Roy’s cousin (?), Geoff Cannell, started commentating in 1968 and Roy followed on in 1984. Refreshments were announced but we had got to the Hairpin!


Back at the start line – a tap on the shoulder and we were away again.


The broadcasts are set up so that all the commentary points are linked to the control room at the grandstand. The commentaries were carried down a special, pure telephone line to avoid interference. The producer says, when on air, how long before the commentator has to speak and gives a count down. It is often necessary to listen and to speak at the same time – a difficult skill to master.


Roy mentioned how difficult it can be to fill in gaps between riders or when racing is delayed.  One rider hit a seagull that, fortunately, did no more than embed itself in the fairing. Roy found himself saying, “Shows how easy it is to pick up a bird in Ramsey!”


Next meeting – Wednesday, 18th April, 7.30, Centenary Centre, Wendy Thirkettle, MNH.