Childhood Dreams Of Grosmont.

A Memory of Grosmont.

1942 was the year that my mother, Ethel Tyreman (nee Davidson) and sister Iris and brothers Harry, Fred, Frank and myself Eric, moved to Grosmont when our Whitby home was hit by German bombs.
My dad, Fred, was a P.O.W in Germany. As a family of six, we lived in a one down, two up house in Waterloo Cottages. The house had no running water or electricity, and the toilet was a cinder closet around the back. Water was collected from a single communal tap along the street. The fireplace had a side oven on one side, and a water tank on the other side for hot water. Coal was in short supply, so our fire burnt logs collected from the Esk river...Happy days.
Mother would bake bread in the side oven, and one Christmas she made a big christmas cake.It took all night to cook with a large branch of wood sticking out of the fire, and had to be eased gently under the oven.
In the downstairs room we also had our own 'Anderson Shelter'.
The photo of the level crossing gates brings back memories of when my dad returned home from Germany in 1945, and after visiting his own mum and dad in Whitby cycled to Grosmont on a bike he bought for the family. The bike had cable brakes and, unfortunately the cable broke as he was riding down Grosmont bank. As he came racing down hill, his prayers were that the level crossing gates were open. Fortunately, his prayers were answered, but he didn't stop until he reached the bridge over the river, just past the sports field. Needless to say, he took the bike back to Whitby and replaced it with one that had rod brakes.
As primative as life was in Grosmont, they were some of the happiest days of my childhood. Our school air raid shelter was the railway tunnel, which I do remember came in very handy when an enemy plane crashed near the level crossing.
As a family, we moved back to Whitby in 1948-9, but Grosmont is still very dear to all of our family. Dad still worked at the Eldon Brick Works for many years, travelling by steam train.