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Bensham
Bensham maps
Historic maps of Bensham and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Bensham maps
Bensham photos
We have no photos of Bensham, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Gateshead| Dunston| Whickham| Newcastle Upon Tyne| Birtley| Gosforth| Lemington| Winlaton| Monkton Village| Washington| Wallsend| Jarrow| Burnopfield| Newburn| Rowlands Gill| Throckley| Lambton Park| Catchgate
Bensham area books
Displaying 1 of 1 books about Bensham and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Bensham
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Bensham.
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Hubert Terrace
I often wondered who Hubert was. Other road names around were obvious. Bank Street was on a bank; School street had a school at the end of it. But Hubert Terrace? One side of my street was brick and the other was stone; something else I wondered about because all of the streets down from us towards the river were brick. Just this one terrace in stone. I say my street but in fact we lived on the corner of Bank Street and Hubert terrace; for a short while my mother ran the corner shop but her soft heart and unsound business practise of extending credit meant the venture was short lived. In the 1970s I came across a photograph by Graham Smith; one of a series he did using a cut out of his father placed in different locations, this shot was taken from across the road looking up towards our old front door on Bank Street, with a couple of strangers (well to me anyway) on the step.... Read more
School Street , Bensham
We moved into School Street when I was nine, along with my two sisters Norma and Iris and our parents Mary and Norman Cook. My father was a lead glazer at Reed Millicans on Team Valley. At the Derwentwater Road end of School Street was the school, some called it Lady Vernon's, most though St Cuthbert's as the church was next to it. At 11 years I went to Windmill Hill School, only because it was near my grandmother's house on Walker Terrace where I went at lunchtime. My sisters went to Brighton Avenue Girls' School when they reached 11 but it closed and they went to Hillhead up Lobley Hill which was newly built and modern. When I was 13 Windmill Hill School closed down and we moved to Whitehall Roa School and yet Windmill Hill's buillding still stands to this day, it was never used as a school but the Gateshead Council used it then it was a nursing home for the elderly. I have very happy memories... Read more
Tyne and Wear memories
Boyhood Memories From 1952
It was around this time that the tram lines were taken up from Sunderland Road in Gateshead. The men stored the old lines in Somerset Street and Devonshire Street. As boys we would dig up the tar from around the streets and paste it on the road safety lamps when they were lit. It was great to see the watchy run around putting the fires out, or what he thought was a fire. We kept him fit.
I too remember the Crescent, the only bit of greenery near our house in Devonshire Street. It must have been a grand crescent in its time with grand people living there. We lived in a rat-infested street which was also covered in grime. I hated using our toilet as it had a resident rat. Inside our house we watched for hours as the mice played with my liggies. They were little grey mice with funny little faces. They were never seen when me da was having a bath in front of... Read more
Childhood Memories From 1949
I was born in Hubert Terrace which ran off Bank Street and along to Cuthbert Street. Further down was School Street and Marian Street which ran along to Derwentwater Road, and on Derwentwater Road was Lady Vernon School which I attended. The boys' school was called St Cuthberts and the church we went to was St Cuthbert's Church and the minister was called the Reverend Burnip. He lived in the vicarage on Bensham Road where the flats are now, the old wall is still there. I can still picture him going around on his bike.
Cuthbert Street used to get called Sammy's Bank because in one of the backyards a man called Sammy used to sell ice cream (imagine Health & Safety allowing that now). Further up was a dairy and at the top was a chemist which led on to the top of Derwentwater Road. The bottom of Cuthbert Street took you on to Askew Road, if you turned left you could go to the teams, right took... Read more
Down Memory Lane
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. ... Read more
Saltwell Park
I was first introduced to Saltwell Park in 1963 whilst attending Gateshead Technical College, what a beautiful place, I thought. Since then I have made many trips to the park with my children, and now grandchildren, and each time my thoughts wander to times gone by and as I look arround I think of all the people who have spent their time walking and enjoying the many sights to see in this lovely place. Reminders are there in the form of benches with plaques on left as gifts by people now passed on for others to sit and enjoy the fragrant flowers or the parks many attactions or to simply watch the children play and relax. If you are young at heart there's the boating lake where you can hire a boat for an hour or if you are daring enough you can buy a burgar and chips or ice cream. The park has had a makeover and been restored to its original Victorian glory and my friend Carol and... Read more
Boy From The Slums
I was born on the 28th March 1947, into an existing family of 5 siblings in a one-up one-down decaying terraced house of 12 Russell Street, Teams, Gateshead, just off Upton Street, near to the coke works, the gas works, the rope works and every other kind of filthy polluting business on the banks of the Tyne. We ended up as a family of 8 children by the 1950s. My father was Leslie George Bull and my mother - Isabella Gattis Chilvers.
The word "Poverty" was part of their wedding vows.
In the back lanes of these rat infested dwellings we played mouse chasing and "liggies"in the "gundi". The area was so bad the rats wore white overalls.
Everything you touched was black with soot, grime and God knows what else.
I remember once being in the back yard. As I gazed into the black night sky, festooned with shining stars, I watched as a bright moon waxed its glittering magic over a cascade of low,... Read more
