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Cornriggs
Cornriggs maps
Historic maps of Cornriggs and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Cornriggs maps
Cornriggs photos
We have no photos of Cornriggs, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Cowshill| Wearhead| Ireshopeburn| St Johns Chapel| Allenheads| Daddry Shield| Westgate| Rookhope
Cornriggs area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about Cornriggs and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Cornriggs
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County Durham memories
Good Old Days
In or around 1959 I went on holiday to Ireshopeburn to my grandparents' house, they lived at Woodbine House which was just up from Earnwell.
My grandfather used to work at West Blackdene spar mine which was on the other side of the River Wear.
I ended up going to school at St. John's Chapel and then on to Wolsingham secondary school.
At home we had a large allotment and also kept a lot of hens which I used to feed nearly every day.
Winter time was good as usually the village or the surrounding area was snowed in and that meant we got extra days off from school. When holidays came around a lot of my relations used to visit, so it used to be a very crowded house so some of us children slept in tents and huts and enjoyed it, we used to play for hours in the fields opposite.
Looking at the photos of Ireshopeburn really fetches the memories back.
Growing up in Ireshopebur
We owned the Post Office/ Store in Ireshopeburn and I think the photo you have of it has my Grandmother standing in front of the shop. We moved to New Zealand but I have never forgotten the wonderful years living in Ireshopeburn. I lived there from the age of 3 until I was 8 but the memories live on.
Barmaid Marylin
We used to rent the bottom cottage down from the Co-op and the top house pub. My younger brother had a massive crush on the barmaid of the middle house. She was called Marylin (he is called Ben). Is she still there? I believe her younger brother was a milkman? We rented the cottage for about 4 years on the bounce and had the best holidays ever there. My memories include the pirahna at Horsley Hall, the banana milk from the farm at Ireshopeburn, the Rancho del Rio, playing table tennis near the cement works and the joke shop above the book shop in Alston. Magic memories.
My Ancestors
My aunt is 95 years old and now lives in San Francisco but she talks a lot about St Johns Chapel. She was born there and went to school there. Her grandfather (John Slater Freeman) was headmaster of the school for a number of years. She was born in a large house there and the tradition was that all first borns had to be born in the house. Evidently the house is now flats.
My aunt's name was Olive Freeman.
My cousin and I are making a trip to Durham so that we can visit St Johns Chapel, somewhere we have heard a lot about.
Going to School
I suppose it was round about 1955 not sure. I remember going to school and often the headmistress used to pick us up, and we used to sit in the dicky seat. I remember picking rose hips. I remember we had lots of friends. My name was Sandra Taylor does anyone remember me?? I lived next door to a pub and our friends owned it so we had good times there. Our friends the Waltons also owned the petrol station. oh those were the good old days. Any one else remember them?
The Castle School For Boys.
I was actually born in Middlesbrough in 1953, but being a bit of a handful in my life early life I was placed in certain boys' schools, one being The Castle School at Stanhope. My memories of my 3 yrs there are full of happiness and adventure.
I now try to recall some of the places that I remember but am finding it very hard to locate pictures. Has anyone out there got old pictures of the Wear Bridge that I seem to remember just behind the school, perhaps pictures of the old school itself, the cobble market place that I remember so clearly that used to host the small fun fair yearly, the old church on the hill? I would be so happy to hear from anyone with any info on these things, because Stanhope was a big part of my early life. I was there around 1963 to 1966.
THE CASTLE SCHOOL
I was at the Castle School in Stanhope from 1975-77, I was in Bewdley House and in Big Raby dorm, to me I have no good memories about the place to be honest. I thought it was an evil place, if the law was then as it is today many of the staff would have got a prison sentence after the violence went on there, I am only being honest. At the age of 14 I arrived at the Castle School at about 6pm, had some food, I think it was food, and then I was put straight to work polishing floors, the floor polish was put on so thick it was difficult to polish as you would be on hands and knees, if you stopped the staff would walkacross the front line and stand on your fingers. I remember one boy who hated Cauliflower Cheese and was made to eat it and he was sick, then he was made to eat his own vomit. I was feeling unwell and... Read more
