Hannah and Stephens’Bottles

By Josie Bland.

The mining museum at Skinningrove has had a stateof-the-art makeover, and with its new name, Land of Iron, is opening its doors to the public .The mining experience is enhanced by imaginative displays, but sadly missing are two engraved bottles that once belonged to farmer Stephen Emmerson and his sister Hannah.

This couple championed the local ironstone miners, and, although we’ll never know for sure, all the evidence points to the bottles being a gift from the miners to the Emmersons.

Generations of my Emmerson ancestors lived on Hollybush Farm in Skelton-inCleveland, and in 1886 we find Stephen Emmerson(80) running the farm, helped by his sister, Hannah(82), and his greatnephew, John Foster Emmerson. The brother and sister were prominent in Skelton for their support of the mining community,particularly hosting miners’ Gala Days on Hollybush Farm. The very first Gala (Demonstration) Day of The North Yorkshire and Cleveland Ironstone Miners and Quarrymen’s Association was held on Hollybush Farm in May 1873. Alexander McDonald, President of the NUM, later to become an MP, was the main speaker,and 8,000 + attended. Stephen became known as The Miners’ Friend, a phrase inscribed on his gravestone.

Over the years the miners showed their appreciation for the Emmersons by presenting them with gifts - a gold watch for Hannah, a silver tea and coffee service for Stephen, and his portrait in oils. The gifts were always accompanied by an eloquent speech from the Cleveland Ironstone Miners’ Association President, Joseph Toyn, and the events of the day were reported in the local press.

About six years ago I was contacted,and then visited,by a man with the name of Stephen Emmerson. Sitting in my living room he carefully unwrapped two engraved bottles which had belonged to the brother and sister. Each has the name of its owner and the word SKELTON forming a circle. Within these circles are outlined holly leaves – a reference to the farm – and across the centres the name of a tipple – BRANDY for Hannah, and WHISKY for Stephen.

He told me the bottles had been passed down from his great-grandfather, John Foster Emmerson, who, like his father,(my great-great-grandfather),had spent most of his childhood and young adulthood on Hollybush Farm, helping the ageing Stephen and Hannah.

Family lore has it that these bottles were engraved by an armless miner, and it could be true. Beamish Museum has a small collection of this particular type of glass engraving, and two collectors have produced a book on this craft. Titled: An Alarming Accident, in it they claim that the glassware was engraved by miners who were unable to work because of industrial illness or accident, (which ties in with our armless miner) or because they were old, and it was a way of generating a meagre income. They also insist that this production was confined to the Durham/Northumberland region around the coalfields. The majority of the glasses commemorate mining disasters;thus they are nicknamed Disaster Glasses.

Stephen and Hannah’s bottles, whilst stylistically clear examples of this craft, do not fit into the genre in other respects. The brother and sister lived south of Durham, in East Cleveland. However, An Alarming Accident mentions a one-off itinerant miner/ engraver who travelled around the coast selling his wares. Could this be our man? The bottles I am describing were not about accidents and disasters, but personal to Hannah and Stephen, and, to my knowledge, this celebration of individuals, whilst found on glasses, bowls and tankards, is not to be found on any drink bottles. The Emmersons’ two examples may be unique. Although the engraving is far from delicate, the artist has created some convincing drawing. Outlined on Stephen’s bottle is the new All Saints Parish Church which had been consecrated only two years previously in 1884, and the image of a heron graces Hannah’s bottle,(a similar specimen is still to be seen beside the local pond). Recognisable but crudely drawn objects cover the rest of the bottles. On Stephen’s there is a seated dog and a cat. A flag, probably naval, flies above the church. Hannah ‘s bottle depicts a swan -they are still breeding in the local and Castle ponds-and an image of the final move of the Skelton Sword Dance, in which the dancers mesh their swords to form a star which is triumphantly held aloft. The symbols from playing cards -diamond, heart, spade and club - are dotted around on both, while more birds and insects adorn Hannah’s. Thus, the bottles provide us with a window of social history from the penultimate decade of the 19th C, with a view of a farmer and his sister, prominent citizens of the village of Skelton. A couple who genuinely cared about the local mining community. But who made these bottles? I fany one possesses a similar example of this type of engraved glass, or knows any family stories about an armless miner/engraver, let me know. We may yet get an answer.