Down Memory Lane

A Memory of Gateshead.

I was born in Nottingham and came to live in Gateshead when I was 4 years old. My mother was in the W.R.A.C and met my father when she was stationed down there. He was a Waiter in the Crown Hotel in Bawtry and was originally from Derbyshire. They were married in 1942 had me and my brother and decided to move to Gateshead. My mother was homesick for her family.

I remember as though it were yesterday...my granddad carrying me on his shoulders across the high level bridge. I have vivid recollections. There was lots of hustle and bustle at both ends of the bridge. We arrived at my grandma's house and I was fascinated with the bottle top on the milk. It was dymo and the bottle top was wire with a plastic cork and a rubber washer. You clipped it at eithe side to release the cork ...then returned the cork into the bottle and snapped it shut. Also I loved the taste of the milk. I had only ever tasted fresh farm milk and the bottles certainly didn't have wire tops like the dymo!!

We lived for a while in one room in Romulus Street, at the end of Coatsworth Road. My first school was St Mary's. It's still there and in fact I went down there recently and had a look around. Of course it's much different now but I couldn't believe how small it is. We eventually moved to Greensfield Terrace where I lived until I was 15 years old. I have many lovely memories of that area but also bad ones. The bad ones are mainly of the rats! We had 'Horns Garage' in our back lane which attracted them as well as the poor housing conditions. The good things I remember though was playing out in Greensfield Street, Clarke Street. We could play out for hours without any worries. I used to wrap a rope around the Gas Lamp in the Street fold my coat over it to make a seat and sit there for ages swinging back and forwards. The kids would all take turns. We would play two baller and with tops and whips. Neighbours all seemed to take it in their stride.

My dad was a miner and worked long hours. There were only two drillers at the pit where he worked and if one was off sick the other had to cover for him. At times he would have to work almost around the clock. When he had his summer holidays though we looked forward to going to Whitley Bay. We had a great time. We would have the deckchairs out and the wind shields. We always chose a spot just in fron of the cafe where we could get pots of tea. Mum always took plenty of food, she would bake the day before and make all kinds of treats. We loved it it was the one time of year when we really had a good time, except of course for Christmas when we all had a great time! Dad would make most of our Christmas toys. Especially the large items like desks, trains, cots and mam would crochet and knit.

Friday nights were our family nights! Pay day! Mam would take us shopping. First of all we went to the Co-op in Jackson Street. We would clip clop on the wooden floors over to the long marble counter; where butter and cheese would be in the shape of the barrels they came in. Sugar would be weighed out in 2lb bags and 1lb bags. Mum would have a ration book. When we had finished in the Co-op we would go over the road to Steels wool shop where she would buy wool and knitting needles. We then walked down to West Sreet where there was a shop sold clippings for clippy mats. Mume would get some of these to mix with what she had already recycycled. Then last of all the Newsagents where she would get comics for us and True Romances for herself along with sweets using the sweet coupons. Once home and after tea we would get the hessian frame out that Dad had made and prodders that Mum had made earlier out of wooden pegs. The fire would be banked up especially in winter and we would all sit around making the clippy mat. We usually aimed to make a nice new one for Christmas! Mum and Dad had seven children altogether and although things were hard we had happy times and wonderful memories!