Byker memories
Here are memories of Byker and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Byker or a Byker photo.
Good Old School Days !!!
I started Walker R C in the 1950's and remember my wonderful teacher called Miss Morgan - she was so sweet and kind. I had very long hair and she would often bring in lovely ribbons for me, I was very shy and she was so very kind to me and every one else. The playground seemed so big and I felt overwhelmed - I'd never seen so many kids in one place. Many of the boy's boots looked ill fitted and some had the seat hanging out of their pants, and the girls didn't look much better - their clothes looked too small or too big. Times were hard, many kids couldn't go to school because they had no shoes and a lot of kids went to school without a warm drink or any breakfast. Still, most mornings we were all asked for our pennies to buy a baby as they called it in those day they wouldnt dare call it that now thankfully. What... Read more
Walker Folk
I lived at 40 Church Street at the bottom of Hexham Avenue from the 1950s, in my mind's eye I can still see me ma black leading the big black fire range, she made the most wonderful bread in its big cast iron oven. In the yard we shared with Mary Dickson was the outside netty and wash house with a copper and a big mangle, me ma would be working for hours soaking the washing, dolly blueing it, washing it then rinsing it before putting it all through the mangle, my 2 big sissters would catch it and fold it before hanging it on the line in the back lane. Me ma had a big family and 4 of us young uns shared a bed, me, Lilly and Nelly at the top and Spider who wet the bed at the time slept at the bottom. People were poor but happy and I don't know how many of us would have managed without uncle George The Pawn Shop, I... Read more
Jacksons Pub Byker
I started work at 15 when I worked at the quilt factory, I later went to work at Tizer pop factory. I had smashing mates there my own age but we all got on with the older women as well. Friday night was the best night of the week when me and the lasses would get the bus home have wor tea and get bathed and wash wer hair make up on and all make wor way to Byker. We'd start off at the Blue Bell pub, then go across to Jacksons, we'd try and wear something white so the blue lighting would make us stand out. Every body knew everybody and one or two of us had our 18th in there.I forgot to say that when we all first started ganning to Jacksons we were all under age and would only be able to afford a glass of cider with 2 glasses so we could share, the landlady was a lovely wife called Jean who happily bought us a... Read more
Life Began in Parker Street
I was born in Middle Parker Street at 162 in 1946 , at the time I had one elder brother (Ernie) and one elder sister, Lil. W lived in a 2-roomed downstaires flat. My mother went on to have another 5 kids in that flat. The back room had a gas cooker an open range fire and a sink in the corner, you have to use your imagination to what life was like in there with 8 of us plus mother and father. There were 3 other families that shared the yard, which had two outside toilets (no toilet rolls then just newspaper), 4 coal houses, and a small building which was classed as the wash house, it had a cast iron bowl and below you could light a fire to boil the water in the bowl. On the otherside of the yard was an air-aid shelter which we used to use as our den and all sorts of other things by the kids in the back lane, yeh, life... Read more
Saturday Mornings at The Ritz
Me and my brother David would get our breakfast then run down Prospect Avenue North to the bus stop beside the shops and once in Clyde Street at Wallsend bus stops made our way to join the huge queue for entrance to the Ritz. We were ABC Minors and that song still sticks in the mind............
We are the boys and girls well known as,
We're Minors of the ABC,
And every Saturday we line up,
To see the films we love,
And shout aloud with Glee!!!............
One Saturday the famous Russian clown COCO came to the Ritx and he said if anyone was going to Bertram Mills Circus on the Town Moor and he spotted anyone wearing an ABC badge, he would come over to them. We went with my Dad and sure enough he spotted us wearing our badges...I got a huge signed photograph from him and he signed my brother's programme.
And what about the Christmas when we all received a box of Welchs' luxury... Read more
My Nanna And Grandad's House
I remember the stairs and the smell of carbolic soap, when visiting my Nanna and Grandad. There were lots of people living there, all in a 1 bedroom flat with just a scullery and a dining/sitting room. 5 children and sometimes there parteners and grandchildren all lived there. It was a happy house and going upstairs on to the landing. that smell was with you for days after I came home. The cobbles in the lane, and the outside toilet down stairs at the back. Mam had married and moved away to Stanley and they are still there, happily married for 57 years.
Nanna and Grandad are long since gone and have left me with some memories. Aunts, uncles and cousins all still live in the area or surrounding areas.
The coal man coming down the street and the kids chasing after it to collect any coal that dropped. The tin bath in front of the fire, I still don't like the cold sides of the... Read more
The Original Slum
In order to accommodate an addition to the family, my parents decided to move into an upstairs flat in Parker Street, Byker.
The flat consisted of 3 bedrooms, a sitting room and a small room with a sink and gas cooker which served as the kitchen.
From the kitchen was an open wooden stair case, leading into the backyard which contained the outside toilet.
Bath night for me and my sisters was Sunday night, taking turns in a zinc bath in front of the fire, I always seemed to be the last, because being a boy I was deemed to be the dirtiest.
To overcome this bathing problem I soon found that for 4 old pence I could enjoy a night swimming at the local baths just off Brinkburn St, which was one way of staying clean, but for hours after you always stank of chlorine.
If I thought that life was hard, then some of our neighbours where much worse off, across the road... Read more
Memories of Tyne and Wear
Lowry Street, Shieldfield And Cyril Vervaet
My mother, Margaret (Peggy) GRAY lived with her family at 7 Lowry Street from 1923 to 1942 when she went to Manchester and met my father during the war. Her mother was Lizzie Gray, father Jimmy Gray and siblings Rosie, Jimmy, Frankie, Mollie, Ina, Jack and Tom. The remaining family moved to Coppice Way in the 50's.
Am also looking for the daughters of Cyril Vervaet, nieces of Alf who married my Aunty Mollie. We have letters and photos from your grandparents that were left with Alf's effects and wish to return them to you but have no idea of your married surnames. Alf lived at 23 Rede Street in Battlefield.
Church Street
I was born above the barber shop and Chronicle office on Church Street, if anyone knows it please reply. I would love to talk to anyone who lived there. I was born in 1949 and went to Walker R.C. School, I can't find any photos of Church Street, has anyone got any? My email is: davyallan06@hotmail.co.uk - if you have some, would you send me some?
The Regal Picture House And The Dene Near Walker Graveyard
I lived in Walker Dwellings in X Block, directly opposite of one of the entrances to Walker Park, from 1943 to 1946. I am looking for old photographs of Church Street and Walker Park. Also I would like contact with anyone from that time.
THE SATURDAY MORNING MATINEE
THE SATURDAY MORNING MATINEE
Of course you remember it ... well most of us do!!!
It all seems so long ago now! but it's beginning to drift up from the fog of 'times gone by'. Hot and damp and steaming gently in the heat of the old Globe cinema at Gosforth (you sold more drinks and ice cream if you kept it very hot!) from the rain sitting there with our knees under chins and feet on the seat with sweaters pulled up to our eyes and pulled down over our knees so we looked like rows of strange beasts, so God help the ice cream girls! There must be about 1000 screaming children rooting for Roy Rogers and Trigger and hell bent on making as much noise as possible! But they never noticed that Roy's hat never fell off in a fight and that he had more lipstick on than Dale Evans his love interest. They would never imagine that poor old Trigger would end up being stuffed... Read more
An Old Building on The Bankies Near The Rocks
Does any one know what the old white building on the banks of Felling was?
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