Howden Le Wear memories
Here are memories of Howden Le Wear and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Howden Le Wear or a Howden Le Wear photo.
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I know records will prove me wrong, but summer seemed to start around the beginning of May and last until getting on to Bonfire night. We walked to Witton-le-Wear night after night to swim then walked home or, if we were lucky, got a lift in an empty meat van, not unlike the one driven by Corporal Jones in 'Dads Army'.
When it got too cold to swim we set about building and guarding our bonfire in the park. There were few organised displays in those days but there was tremendous rivalry between Bitchburn, High Grange, Valley Terrace, Victoria, 'Them up the New Buildings', and us. We invariably won, but to be fair we were well in with Dougie Wilks for a few tyres, and we enlisted the aid of a few 16-17 year olds, who in those days were not men but still big boys. We also had all of the park to ga at for dead trees and branches, not to mention a few live ones!
Shops
Bryant's Post Office with Mrs Robson, a Queen Motherish figure always dressed in a black two piece, dishing out pensions, stamps and postal orders from the aloof position behind her cage.
Duggie Bain's cobblers, the warm oily smell, my first football boots were bought there for 13/6d. The proprietor ever smiling, with his gold rimmed glasses, shiny bald head, gammy leg and leather apron, he could have been Pinnochio's dad Gepetto himself.
Harry Waggot's, as wide a range of foods as Morrisons, but served with courtesy, a smile and a joke for the kids. Next door was Peggy's wool shop, but a young lad would not be seen dead in there!
Gibsons, substitute Joyce and Mark for Gladys and Bill, treble the 'dying trade', but otherwise things are very much as they were, indeed, as they should be!
Finlay and Wilks, two pumps on the footpath, an endless barrel of paraffin, batteries, light bulbs, puncture repair kits and sticks. Just shows what can be achieved with... Read more
Village Characters
Mr Joe (Cloggy) Jackson
Almost everyone who met 'Cloggy' has stories to recollect of this colourful village character - Dave Quinn recalls:
Mr Joe 'Cloggy' Jackson, Club Doorman and Saturday Evening vendor of 'The Pink', AKA Sunderland Echo. Invariably dressed in flat cap and tight fitting jacket, riding breeches and leather boots, Cloggy looked every inch a 'horsey man'.
He claimed that as a lad he had been bed-mates with champion jockey Manny Mercer. This was extremely doubtful as Cloggy was not so much economical with the truth, but rather he embellished it.
The classic case occurred one hot Sunday morning when Cloggy was sitting shirt sleeved and barefoot by the well along Witton Road. A by-passer remarked upon Cloggy's weary and overheated state and was answered in no uncertain terms. 'Thou'd be hot if the'd just warked back from Ireland.'
Being something of a romancer Cloggy was also rather gullible. The most famous example of this being the Friday evening phone call to the... Read more
School
Vague recollections of my first days, being taken in my little blue coat and cap by the girls next door. I seemed to cling to them for ages. (Was this a sign of things to come?)
Finally graduated to playing with the boys, sliding in the school yard in black boots with 'segs' in. It was all boys because the yard then was divided by a wall and the red brick toilets and you just didn't venture into the girl's half. What is now the school field was still 'Carter's' field, where Alf kept his pigs.
I suppose most of my generation will have roughly the same memories of the school, such as the huge thermometer on the wall, dinners in the W.I., sitting on the pipes in the winter, 'Tommy's Pantry', and maybe the old oak desks with wooden pens and ink-wells. Surely though, the most lasting impression must be of a certain Miss Elizabeth Heslop. 'Lizzie', with her imposing figure, grey moustache, specs stuck on the... Read more
Howden Primary
Hello, I have just come across this site and have been reading some of the memories about Howden, I went to Howden Primary School, I lived in Wear valley Junction or the Junction as it was known to us kids. I remember Mrs Heslop at the primary, we used to call her fatty Heslop, but I do not think that she was fat compared to some people now. I also remember Mr Moore who I think was the Head Master, he used to preach at Sunday school in the Junction. I have been back to that area a acouple of times in the past 65 years and still have happy memories of the place. I remember that the school had a garden or allotment that we used to go and weed etc every week, and walking home to the Junction past the brickworks where there were always tramps who lived in the works. I do not suppose that kids would be allowed to walk on their own that way now,... Read more
Football
Seeing Frank Golden being carried shoulder high by his team mates back to the pub after a successfull result thanks mainly to Jonty Raine who was a local star at the time.The Carnivals were great fun.Howden Juniors won the County Junior Cup a year or two later.
Memories of County Durham
The Back House
I was born in Sedgefield and lived in North Bitchburn until I was 7 years old, me and my twin sister Elizabeth and my mam amd dad who worked at the pipe yard. We lived in no 1a Constantine Terrace, it was the back half of the house. Our cousins lived in Low Row, so did my granda and mother Coates (my nana). I have some happy memories of Bitchburn as when we moved away we came back every six weeks holiday, we played down the Naxy, were chased by the pit ponies and climbed the monkey trees. All the kids played out until it was dark, we played hide and seek along Low Row from no 1 which was Grants End as we called it to no 20 which was Peaks End. We used to take our granda's beer bottles back to Martha in the Red Lion and buy crisps with the money then run round the back and get the beer bottles back and go in and buy more... Read more
Rumbyhill
My grandparents, John and Ginny Loftus, lived at Rumbyhill farm from the 1920's until they retired about 1950. This was the old Rumbyhill farm, subsequently the name was given to the farm across the road.
My mother grew up at the farm and has many happy memories. Granddad used to give out oranges and apples to the children at Christmas. Rumbyhill was a proper little village in those days.
Does anyone remember the Loftus family or have any old photos of Rumbyhill? My mother would love to get in touch or see the photos.
From Childhood Onward,
South-end villas, that was my world in them days as a child, it was like the whole world revolved around it. I was born and brought up there, if I had to write a story about the things we had to do as kids,or should I say found to do it would take forever. This story will only be recognised by the people of that time in that place, but I wouldn't change a thing; people involved in this story are Kevin Bainbridge and his sister Mag, her friend Linda, Greg, Martin, Keith, now I know there were more people later on but this was the early days, Tony, Kim, comes to mind. Where do we start with memorys, bony night, well I loved that night collecting, you would get jail for burning tyres now but we got wagon tyres from Tarans by the dozen. I would like to bring in now John Chedd, a lovely lad, I would get inside a wagon tyre and John would roll it down... Read more
Up The Heaps
well lads and lasses can you remember going up the heaps sometimes to roll a tyre back down again ,boy that was exercise, or sometimes to slide back down on a tin sheet or car bonnet or anything that would slide , we didnt need a gym in those days you had to be fit to do what we did, anybody up for a game of kick the can down the garages,if you were part of this gang you will know what its like to get hit on the back of the head with a flinger in the back field specialy if it had a knott on it .well im off to willobys now for some kett and a bottle of that new pop its only a tanner, i will carry on with this story as things come back to me ,.
Ice-Cream Cart
Can anyone remember the horse-drawn ice-cream cart, the guy had as I remember a green cart, a white coat and a whistle. His ice-cream was really good proper stuff, then soft ice-cream came along and that was it, he must have just packed up. It's the old story, you don't know what you've got till its gone. Some names have come to mind, Mrs Hosey, Larnicks, Mrs Bond, Mr Woodhall, Susan Harker, John Hall, I think his dad drove the broughs wagon, have I mentioned Keith and Phil Hansom, and Carol their sister, Mable and Frank were their parents. Frank always had some paraffin on hand to light the bony. Funny how things like that come back to you. I would say that our main meeting points would be on the green, on the seat outside Mag and Kev's house. I can only think of one year when the top half of the green had their own bonfire, there must have been a bit rivalry just coming to an end,... Read more
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