1960s

A Memory of Darlington.

I grew up in Dundee Street in Darlington. I remember the shops on each end of Dundee Street and Montrose Street, and the alleys between, the alleys were made of blue tiles that always sparkled in rain and frost. I remember the rag and bone man on his cart pulled by a horse, calling "Rag and bone, rag and bone" as he trundled down the back alleys. We had a coal shute in our back yard that had an opening in the alley that the coalman used to put his load into and we had an entrance to the shute that we retrieved the coal from. We had an outside loo with newspaper hanging on a hook, not the soft toilet tissue of today. My great-grandmother and great-uncles lived in the adjoining street, Montrose Street, the house always smelt of kippers and offal that my uncle cooked for his whippets, my great-uncle still lives in that house. We had Browns' sweet shop at the top of Dundee Street, jars and jars of sweeties, and multi-coloured sherbert, Mrs brown always had lovely styled hair, curled in a 1940s' hairstyle. The Macdonalds had a shop at the bottom of Montrose Street, we knew them as the Macs, they sold penny ice lollies, home-made of cola or lemonade, they had an unusual taste, and one of pleasures was to have a penny on the way home from school and we would discuss which was our hopeful flavour when we got to the Macs, oh such childhood pleasures.
I used to go to the market in the town with my parents and used to watch my mother agog at the market traders promising that the shops sold these goods at this price but today only they weren't charging that price, and the pitch would get into full flow until the crowd pushed and jostled to get the latest bargain.
My mum had grown up in Albion Place in Darlington and told me so many stories, unfortunately the only sign of that house now is the pear tree that stands in the middle of a traffic island now.
I attended Corporation Road Junior School, with my cousins. My brother, who died in infancy, was born in Greenbank Hospital, how ironic that years later my grandmother went to live in a retirement home in Greenbank, the old hospital had been converted. I later attended Gladstone School. I left Darlington when I was 12 and moved south, I never forgot my roots though.

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