These are the lovely reminisences of Ray Buck ,
currently living in Northallerton .
"Being born in the May of
1939, at Stockton on Tees, to a Mother ( Nee Heselton ) that originated from
South Shields, 104 South Eldon Street, in 1907 one of six children, I spent a
lot of my holiday time with my Auntie Hilda Clark ( Nee Heselton ) with whom my
fond memories of South Shields were formed until she died suddenly in 1954 as a
result of an accident falling off a table helping the neighbour, Mrs McRichie
to put up curtains at the parlour window, at this time I have attained the ripe
old age of 15.
I remember very little of the early war years, in
fact what I do remember may be distorted out of all proportion as at that age
events that took place seemed colossal, I still remember the people living in
the flats , I suppose that's what you call them , one downstairs, the other
upstairs living in the adjacent numbers in Mowbray road
were:-
No . 217 ground floor were the McRichie's, "Mrs
Mac" then , there were two sons Jimmy and Davy , both were skippers on the
tugs, I forget the name of Jimmy's tug ( I think it was a paddle type ) but
Davy's was the Cornhill mentioned in your web site, Davy was very proud of it ,
as I think I recall , it was a fairly new vessel in the late 40's / early 50's.
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| France Fenwicks tug " Cornhill" . |
No. 219 was Mr & Mrs Priestman on the upper floor . I remember
the semaphore gesticulations between the two facing kitchen windows for
various thing or when the kettle was on the boil.
No. 223 was Mrs Gude , this was the flat directly below my Aunts (221)
she had a very young son whose name escapes me.
Further down Mowbray road before the Marsden Rattler railway bridge
was a small grocer's shop to which I was sent regularly. It was owned
by Frankie's , who also owned the café on the promenade, coincidently,
Big Frankie ( as he was known being a large rotund fellow ) also used
to travel to Stockton Market on a Thursday & Saturday to supply the
stall holders with the large paraffin lamps for lighting and heat, my
wife's Father worked for him to make a bit extra cash.
Some of the earliest recollections, was the walk down past the allotments
, then queuing / waiting to get onto the beach around the bandstand area
whilst a section of the defences were removed and the beach cleared. Getting
the No 12 ( I think it was ) trolley bus from Crown Hotel to the Market
then on to the ferry . Another bus in North Shields to Welch's sweet factory
in Whitley Bay with a bag of sugar , stand in an never ending queue (
or was that just impatience ) to be given what seemed to be a very small
return in hard boiled sweets , it always was worth the wait and the long
trip . Memories of walking down the pier with my Dad , asking what time
it was and without taking his hands out of his pockets would say the time
and I marvelled at this , it was not till years later that I realised
he had good eyesight and could read the clock on the flats on the North
Shields River bank !!
There was, I recall what appeared to be a part of a ship that had been
damaged in the war either anchored or aground on the seaward side of the
South Shields pier . I never knew what it was, or what happened to it,
also there was a structure on Trow Rocks which has since been removed
believed to be a dock gate which broke loose during delivery, can't confirm
that was true !!, I wish I had a fiver for every lead fishing weights
that were lost in that area,.
Then there was the little sand train which ran at the back of Frankie's
Café, along the length of the back of the promenade from Trow Rocks
and the little cottage to the pier. Can anyone put more detail on the
cottage? .
If memory serves me correct , there were several Frankie's café's
, one between the pier and the Groyne , one at the bandstand , the other
was a bit further towards the Trow rocks , we always favoured the nearest
to the bandstand , this member of the Frankies was a large man and very
jovial and always gave a good portion ( perhaps it was a bit of favouritism
knowing my Aunt ) !! As mentioned in the guest book , the struggle you
had with those large canvas tents on a folding wooden frame being so heavy
it was nigh on impossible to walk across the beach in the soft sand ,
but a necessity if the weather turned, also shielded you from the wind
which inevitably blew sand in the sandwich's ( if you didn't drop it first
), the balancing act carrying a tray of tea from the café take-away,
was nerve racking in case you went *** over ***and not only scolded but
got scolded . On each visit to Shields , my Aunt Hilda & my Mam would
drag me along to the Pier Pavilion, every time Bobby ( The Little Waster
)Thompson was playing, I would have been much happier spending my pennies
in the slot machines opposite .
During the hard time just after the war you had to make your own amusement
so cards was the usual pastime, in the evenings we would sit in the bay
window of 221 watching what was going on and playing rummy at the same
time , I was nearly always allowed to win a few coppers . The fun came
when the pub The New Crown Hotel turned out , the antics of some of the
inebriated revellers going home as they passed the end of Tadema Road
was hilarious, in those days Tadema Road was only a short terrace of houses
. We kept watch for Davy McRichie to come up from the pub which he probably
visited on his way home from the Tug , as he usually had a bag of something
fishy, prawns , crabs or codling that he been given, it was always a sign
of a good meal the next day.
Are these the ramblings of an old man trying to recapture his youth???
" .
Ray Buck 2004
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