Growing Up

A Memory of Dudley.

I was born in 6 Hedgefield View, Dudley on 4th January 1947, this is where my life's journey started and at 5 years of age I attended the junior school, then the secondary modern (or the big school as it was known locally), leaving in 1961. Growing up was a very eventful process and I recall many happy times as well as many not so happy times. At the big school there were many teachers who stood out but none more so than Miss Katie Robson, Miss Robson was the one we all obeyed or else we felt the warmth of her 'cat & nine tails', ah yes.Then there was Mr Yates who was a most gracious teacher where the 'benefit of the doubt' was always at the forefront, quite the oposite to Miss Robson.

I can remember going to the burn most nights and weekends with my pals and we would either be found fishing (for tadpoles mainly), making a camp by digging into the riverbank or swinging across the burn by slinging a lentgh of rope from one the many trees that ran along the burn near the railway line. The burn was probably my late sister's least favourite spot as our mam would send her to bring me home at nightime and I would plodge into the middle of the burn and tell her if she wanted me, to come and get me, which always resulted in mayhem as you can imagine.

Oh yes, these were truly good times and the friendships that were forged were always real and true, sadly though the passage of time is not so rewarding as we all move on to do different things once school life has ended and the working life begins. It was at this point that I left Dudley behind, moving down to a small village 7 miles outside Darlington. I remember my first visit back to Dudley as I couldn't believe the changes that had taken place.

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