Young Rascals And The Market Square

A Memory of Consett.

I have lived most of my life in Australia, Hong Kong and more recently Japan. However memories of Dear Old Consett will live on eternally.
I was born in Medomsley Road in December 1945 and later moved to West Parade and around 1953 moved into my grandmother's home in The Avenue.
My grandmother Annie Edna Brown had the Tobacconist/Gift shop A E Brown which was located bottom of the Market Square near corner of Front Street. I think in those days it was Victoria Road. The shop was next to Lloyds Bank and on the other side was her brother's wool shop and I think on the corner was Cornforths, across the side road was Atkinson and Browells garage.
I recall collecting orange boxes from the fruit vendors and if I'm correct Atkinsons fruit vendors of Middle Street had a stall there too. I converted the boxes to sticks in my grandfather's cellar which then I bundled and sold door to door for sixpence a bunch. Not exactly a Richard Branston-style beginning!
I generally was a good boy coming from a respectable church going family.... well.. a couple of us went. However I do also recall being a young rascal at times. One of those times I, with a friend, stacked up a couple of orange boxes and stood on them to peer through the glass window slats into the ladies' toilet at the old bus station... I jumped off the boxes when a woman entered the cubicle... I realised then I was not cut out to be a pervert! In addition we used to throw stink bombs into the men's toilet.
Saturday morning Matinee at the Rex was a must and I fondly remember a school pal Ronald Woolnough onstage during the intemission singing Paul Anka's new number one hit "Diana", a grand performance indeed.
The Co-op Dance Hall was the place to go for the older boys at the beginning of the Teddy Boy era. I was only twelve at the time but did hang around the entrance with my peers on occasions.
I attended Consett Secondary Modern Boys School and like many school boys have some fond and not so fond memories. I recall the Catholic school boys coming to our school during winter when snow lay on the ground and  the teddy boys from our school joined in the annual ritual of 'scrubbing' where a boy was caught by members of the Catholic school and vice versa and scrubbed with snow it was a scary rough and tough time for them as I watched the older boys from a distance. The school boys were known as Cats and Dogs.
A few of us used to hang around Rossi's ice cream shop at the corner of Medomsley and Front Streets and play the early recordings of Elvis and Roy Orbison on the Bel Ami jukebox. Battles Fish and Chip shop in Seymour Street on a Friday night was a must. Best in the land in my opinion.
We later moved to Delves Lane and I spent some memorable years helping out at Steels Farm which was located up the hill from Knitsley. The name of area escapes me. I also fondly recall the farms owned by Billy Jewson and that of Willie and Annie Swan in Knitsley. I'd like to finish off by sharing a humorous story about the latter. Willie and Annie Swan were your typical simple old farmers akin to the Beveley Hillbilly stereotype. Their son Billy was a prankster who had a farm elsewhere and visited them regularly. One day he bought a large bar of Laxative chocolate which was a new concept at the time. He offered it to his parents as normal chocolate and then disappeared out to the tractor shed where he picked up a can of tractor grease and promptly headed for the toilet where he adequately smeared the seat. The chocolate soon had the desired effect and neither of them spoke to Billy for weeks.
Yes fond memories of Consett indeed even the red sky when peering through the classroom window when the tapping of steel occured. And not forgetting the lovely strolls around Shotley Bridge.
It was the early days after the Second World War when people struggled and worked together to make a better life for them and their families.
I am blessed to have lived in Consett in that era with such wonderful caring people.
The Spirit of Consett lives on ...
Ian Sharkey Bell

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