From The Church Tower c1955, Blyth

The Woman my Father Married

I don't know a lot about Blyth, Northumberland, only that for some strange reason I visited an awful lot during my life but thought nothing of it. My current fiancee and I would sit for long periods on the old docks at the bottom of Ridley Street area, eating locally purchased cheeseburgers etc.

I remember once booking a romantic table for two in Blyth, but it was a waste of time - she only potted 3 reds!

Much later in my life I learned that my grandfather, James Barns Chilvers, was lost at sea after leaving Blyth harbour on 25th November 1925, on a collier named Galleon, bound for London. She never made it. Only wreckage of the ship was found.

He was born in Hull on the 16th June 1855. He married my grandmother, Dorothy Rose Chilvers, nee Burns, on March 11th 1901, in Gateshead Registry Office.

My grandmothers side of the family goes back hundreds of years and includes Rabbie Burns, the... Read more