A welcome retreat: The Sam Watson Rest Home in Richmond

The Sam Watson Rest Home in Richmond is a lasting reminder of the spirit of welfare within the mining community. The rest home provides short breaks for the wives and widows of miners in Durham and Northumberland and is the last facility of its kind in the North East.

When the mining industry was in its heyday homes like this were spread throughout the region, now only this one remains. What makes it special, and even more rare, is that it caters for just women.

The home is run by the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organization, (CISWO), a national charity which has delivered community and welfare services within mining and former mining communities since its establishment in 1952.

CISWO was originally formed as a partnership between the National Coal Board and the Mining Unions to “address the welfare of employees and their dependants beyond the colliery gate”. Following the privatisation of the coal industry in 1995, CISWO became a charity, having received an endowment from British Coal. The organization has developed a range of community development and service delivery for local miners’ welfare charities, social work programmes and other initiatives including providing facilities around the country for recuperative breaks.

There are a total of seven CISWO convalescent homes in England and Scotland providing breaks for miners and dependants and special breaks for those with serious needs. Vincent Clements the secretary of the home, who oversees its running on behalf of the trustees, described how the home was founded. “Mr. Sam Watson, the then General Secretary for the Durham Miners’ Association, was the main instigator in setting up the home back in the early 60s,” he says. “They looked around the Durham area and there wasn’t anything suitable so they came here”.

“This was a residential building in the early 1960s and prior to that it was owned by the Zetland family, so we purchased this property in 1961 for the purpose of operating it as a convalescent rest home.”

The Sam Watson Rest Home is an impressive listed building that overlooks the pretty town of Richmond with accommodation for 29 guests per party for an eleven-day period. All bedrooms have fitted washbasins and sleep 2/3 persons. There are bathroom facilities on all floors, lounges, a hairdresser’s room and a dining room that leads into the light, modern Conservatory.

In a recent interview, Vincent explained why the home is not open to men as well as women. “Other homes were there as convalescent facilities for the miners themselves. So, for example, if they got injured at the colliery and it meant that they were going to be off for five or six weeks they could go into one of these,” he says. “The idea was they could go there, get themselves right, then go back to work. It took a lot of stress off the NHS”.

“Somewhere along the line, Sam Watson and his colleagues must have thought ‘we’ve got sufficient homes for the men but we’ve got to look at the women who have to look after the men’, what can we possibly do to help them?”

Since it first opened in the 1960s it’s seen some 18,000 guests, but things have changed in recent years. “The rules have slightly changed,” says Vincent. “There used to be an upper age limit but we have done away with that. We used to have a figure where beneficiaries could only attend three times, purely as there were so many people wanting to come, but the trustees also decided to do away with that. The Durham coal field and the Northumberland coal field amalgamated in 1986 so we now include Northumberland beneficiaries”.

With no more mines, those who can claim a 12-day stay are getting fewer all the time. Yet Vincent states the home will run for years to come. “When the industry was in its heyday, funding wasn’t a problem because there were hundreds of thousands of miners and they used to have a levy taken off their pay packets every week. This was sufficient to keep several homes running, but once the collieries started closing they lost the levy and it became more and more difficult to keep these places going – hence the decision to close a lot of them.

This home has got a good long-term future due to the funding being invested very prudently by the trustees. As things stand at the moment, we are over-subscribed, which is good – long may it continue.”

Matron Carol Rutherford has a reputation for keeping the place like a hotel. “I’ve actually worked at the home for 20 years, although I only started doing the matron’s job in the middle of 2000, and I love it,” she says.

“You would be no good in this job if you didn’t like what you were doing, I actually sleep here every night the our guests are in. I know them all – they’re wonderful ladies.”

Though she is 61 herself, and has a family of her own, her dedication never wanes. What lies behind this is respect from knowing just how hard the women’s lives have been. “In the olden days things weren’t the same as they are today,” she gently points out. “For instance, the coal mine was on the go all the time – 24 hours a day – so there could be a woman at home with a husband and three sons. That mother and wife was expected to be up with a meal on the table when they all got in from work, and it could go on all day and all night. They were worn out.”

For further information relating to any of the convalescent breaks offered by CISWO, please contact their Gateshead office by telephone at 0191 477 7242 or visit their website www.ciswo.org.uk.

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