Lambton Park: Military Camp

In the early years of the First World War, a number of cavalry regiments were stationed at Lambton Park. This was reported in the Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser at the time and many postcards were published and also printed for the interest of the public. Here is just a selection of those reports and pictures.

April 23^rd, 1915, Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser

We announce elsewhere that at least three regiments of cavalry are to be encamped at Lambton Park under canvas for the summer. As the camp will be on the race course and on the rising ground on the south side of the road leading through the park to the castle, the men will be quite close at hand and with so many of them, about fifteen hundred, we in Chester-le-Street are likely to see a good deal of them. It is therefore to be hoped that efforts will be to keep open the soldiers rests in the town. When they do arrive, it will mean that we shall have encamped within four miles of Chester-le-Street, no less than six thousand men. This comprises Lord Durham’s Own at Cocken, the Tyneside Irish at Birtley, the Scottish Horse at Chester-le-Street and the additional regiments to be encamped at Lambton.

April 23^rd, 1915, Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser

Chester-le-Street is to have another visitation of soldiers. On Monday, the advance party of what is to be the biggest camp we have yet had, arrived from the West Country to prepare for about 1,500 cavalry, who are to be encamped in Lambton Park, on the racecourse and consequently quite close to the town. They have been described as the Welsh Horse but so far, they are known to include the Denbeigh Hussars, the Shropshire Yeomanry and the Cheshire Yeomanry. The officers of the advance party were billeted on various householders and the men were accommodated in the Good Templar’s Hall, Middle Chare and in a portion of the church. It is ancicipated that the rest of the men will arrive in batches almost immediately.

June 11^th, 1915, Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser

A hint

A correspondent draws attention to the insanitary condition of the main road from the Lambton Park gates, Chester-le-Street, to the Four Lane Ends. He points out that this stretch of road is traversed several times a day by horses of the Welsh Horse at present encamped in the park, as they go to and from their watering place and that as things are at present, the road constitutes a menace to the public health. He considers that the road should be swept daily and sprinkled with a disinfectant solution. He calls the attention of the local authority to the subject.

June 25^th, 1915, Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser

Lambton Park Y.M.C.A.

The usual Sunday evening service held among the soldiers in the Y.M.C.A. tent, at Lambton Park was conducted this week by the Chester-le-Street Brotherhood, Mr John Hall presiding. Many members of the brotherhood attended and the large tent was filled with men from the various regiments. The meeting was largely informal in character, the men being allowed to sing their own choice of hymns. Sacred solos were also interspersed throughout the evening. After prayer and a short Bible reading, Mr Hall called upon Mr Reynolds Smith, of the Sheldon Business College, to address the men upon “The value of the individual.” Mr Smith, in the course of a stirring and manly address, applied the principles of the Sheldon Business Creed to the brightening of the efficiency of the fighting unit of the British Army, showing how each man, by applying himself wholeheartedly to the absorbtion and adoption of the four root principles of this system: ability, reliability, endurance and activity, would thereby increase his value not only as an individual, but also as a unit of the fighting forces of the Empire. Dealing with each of these principles separately and finally in their total application to body, mind and spirit (the three-fold activities of the Y.M.C.A., as shown on their badge, the red triangle), the speaker convincingly showed how in each of these branches the area man held immense advantages over his unmethodical fellowman and fitted himself better for the part he had to play in the world.

August 20^th, 1915, Chester-le-Street Chronicle and District Advertiser

The Brigade, which has been encamped at Lambton Park, Chester-le-Street, during the greater part of the summer, has this week left the town and removed to -----, to replace the Scottish Horse, one regiment of which was billeted at Chester-le-Street for four months in the winter. One squadron of Yeomanry and the Field Artillery are to remain at Lambton for some time longer. The removal of these men will make a considerable difference to many people in Chester-le-Street, where they have spent most of their pocket money, to the great comfort of a considerable number of the tradespeople. They have proved themselves an exceedingly quiet, well-behaved set of men and though they have not been made quite such a fuss of as the Scottish Horse, who were there in much smaller numbers and were moreover, the first regiment to be quartered in the town, they have made many friends by whom they will be missed. During the week, the goods station has been kept alive with the bustle of their removal.