Walker, Newcastle Upon Tyne

A Memory of Southend-on-Sea.

I was born in Moorland Crescent in the 1950’s. This council housing estate was built a few decades earlier and has a variety of different style good quality houses. Most people had nice gardens with flowers etc and we had vegetables and fruit bushes in the back garden.
On summer nights it was not uncommon for the streets to be full of kids playing as most people had big families. Also there was not any cars in the street . Not many people had cars then and it was a big treat if you could get a ride in one. I remember the rag men coming round the streets with their horse and carts. The Ringtons tea man would come round with a horse and cab which was always very well presented.
Lots of men worked in the shipyards then including my Dad who was a welder. Some of the factories in the area that I remember were C A Parsons, Sir Howard Grubb Parsons, Donkin & Co, George Angus, Ruberoid and International Research & Development to name a few.
Sometimes in the summer there would be a horrible smell in the air which came from the bone yard at the bottom of Welbeck road. Speaking of awful smells, if you were on the quayside on a hot day the river also smelled as in those days raw sewage was discharged into the river. Sometimes we would walk to Bigges Main which was like a trip to the countryside. You walked along a country lane from Benfield Road with farm fields on either side before eventually arriving at the Masons Arms pub which was the only remaining building of Bigges Main village.
Mam and Dad would go inside and bring us kids lemonade and crisps to sit with outside as children were not allowed inside pubs.
I remember going to Hughs? the newsagent on the corner of the Fosseway & Sutton Street on a Saturday morning to buy a Matchbox car with my pocket money. There was a grocer shop near there called Earles. As you entered, the bell above the door would tinkle and a smiling Mr. Earle would appear from the back in his white coat to serve you.
That’s some of my memories for now, hope that you found it interesting 🙂

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