Wilson/Tyson Family Gathering

On the weekend of 11 – 13 June a large number of people descended on the small village of Netherwasdale . They were all relatives (some rather distant!) of Rachel Hughes who is the joint owner with Nick Putnam of the two pubs there – The Screes Inn and The Strands Hotel.  The weekend was organised by Rachel’s mother Norma Hughes, who lives in Gosforth, to bring together the relatives of her grandparents William Wilson and Margaret Tyson who spent their married life in Ravenglass.

William Wilson’s family originally came from Ponsonby and Gosforth before moving to Ravenglass and Margaret Tyson’s family from Netherwasdale, so it was appropriate that the event should be based there.

The planning started in the middle of last year when a circular invitation was sent via the internet to relatives in New Zealand , USA , Canada , Australia and South Africa as well as to relatives in this country.  The end result was that we had 15 from the US , 4 from New Zealand , 3 from Canada , 23 from various parts of the UK and 40 from Cumbria ! 

Eighty five people were going to take some organising!  The weekend was therefore divided up into a Tyson day on the Saturday and a Wilson day on the Sunday.  Lets hope the weather would be good so we could spread outside.

On the Friday evening those who had already arrived agreed to have an informal meal together in The Screes dining room.  I was certainly an interesting experience walking into the dining room and seeing it full of people who I had never met before but had been communicating with for the past few months, and trying to match names to faces!

On Saturday morning everyone was given a name badge and were pointed in the direction of a large family tree which contained the names and  relationships of everyone present (except for a few local Tysons who came along on the day and we weren’t sure they fitted into the tree beforehand.)  Over coffee they had great fun finding themselves and highlighting their own names.  The morning was then spent looking at our Tyson ancestors, the earliest being William Tyson who married Ann Stephenson in 1760 and lived at Old Strands, Netherwasdale. By lunchtime, the sun was shining and after lunch at The Screes we divided into three groups – one to climb to the top of the Screes and walk to Wasdale Head, another to walk to the lake via various houses that the Tysons had inhabited in the past and the third group to walk across the fields to Greendale, where Tysons had lived for many generations. 

Although in the 1800 over half of the houses in the parish had Tysons living within them, there wasn’t a Tyson living in the valley now. The other interesting fact was that there was only one relative there bearing the name Tyson!  All the other Tysons were from the female side of the family so had not inherited the Tyson surname.

The first day concluded with a fantastic buffet meal at The Strands shared by about fifty people when local fare was enjoyed, including rum butter.  You can’t have a family celebration in Cumbria without Cumberland rum butter!

It was a warm sunny morning on Sunday as we gathered in Ponsonby Churchyard to begin our” Wilson ” day.  Joseph Wilson lived at Addy House (now a ruin) near Peel Place , and his son John, who married Margaret  Bateman in 1787, farmed at Calder Farm all his life.  He and Margaret and several of their children are buried in the churchyard at Ponsonby, which must be one of the most beautiful in this part of  the country.  After a brief resume of the history of the Wilsons we departed for Ravenglass and a walk down the Main Street , looking at No 8 where William and Margaret had brought up 11 children.  They had all been baptized and some also married and buried in Muncaster churchyard, so that too had to be visited . While in Ravenglass we had also called on cousin Stan Wilson and his wife Joyce for a cup of tea which turned out to be an enormous spread (bacon and egg pie, trifle, rum butter, scones, sandwiches) so there was no need to find somewhere for lunch.

We divided up into groups again for the afternoon, the more energetic walking along the top of Muncaster Fell to Irton Road and back on the Ratty,  the less energetic walking around Muncaster Castle grounds and the rest enjoying a trip on the Ratty to Dalegarth and back.

In the evening we had a farewell meal together at The Strands for those who hadn’t already departed. 

Since the family gathering I have had many telephone calls from Tyson descendants living locally, asking about the weekend and saying how they would have liked to have been a part of it.  As a result, I have decided to arrange a “Tyson Day” at Netherwasdale on Saturday 6^th November.  It will start in the morning with coffee and lunch at 1.00 p.m. at The Screes.  I haven’t decided on the format for the day as yet, but if anyone is interested in coming please get in touch with me as we will need to know how many to cater for. I will let you know more details nearer the time.

Norma Hughes (Tel: 019467 25366)