I can trace part of my ancestry back to my grandmother’s family in Tyneside. She was born Margery Besford in Hebburn, now South Tyneside, but a book I inherited through her from her father suggested he had once lived in Cramlington, Northumberland. There in May 2021 I found this headstone relating to an even earlier generation of Besfords.

The gravestone tells of the unfortunate fate of John Besford. He was run over by a train on Stannington viaduct. How devastating that must have been for the family. His young wee daughter followed him just a year later. Annie was obviously a bad luck name for the Besfords as the Annie in the following generation, my granny’s older sister, also died very young, of Scarlet Fever I think.

I had remembered Family’€™s The Weaver’s Answer as a 1970 song. On listening to Sounds of the Sixties last Saturday though it seems it came out as an album track in 1969. As a result I have renumbered my Reelin’€™ in the Years category to take account of this and added The Weaver’s Answer to Friday on my Mind.

It does give me an excuse to use another Family track (definitely from the 1970s this time.)

Family: Burlesque

Stephen Baxter’s Emperor, which I have just finished reading, has as its motive force a Weaver of Time’s tapestry. Inevitably it brought to mind this song.

Family: The Weaver’s Answer

Family’s songs didn’t usually have straightforward structures and so they stray into Prog Rock territory.