Memories Of My Life In Kibblesworthnee Graham

A Memory of Kibblesworth.

I was born in Kibblesworth in 1945 but my parents and I moved back to our flat in the Redheugh Area of Gateshead when I was about two or three. But mam put me on the bus every Sunday morning to travel to the primative Methodist Church Sunday school. Peggy Balmer would meet the bus and take me to sunday school. Afterwards I would climb the bank up to Short Row to Gran Wards for tea and the rest of the family would arrive for tea and a game of cards afterwards. The last hour would be spent by my parents at the Plough before returning home on the last bus. All my school holidays were spent in the parks of Kibblesworth the middle park with its islands being the favourite. Then in 1953, after my sister Jacqueline was born, we were rehoused as part of the slum clearance to Wrekenton. I was 8 by then and found the Wrekenton schools a shock to the system. Dad was working at Marley Hill by then and had a long walk down the Bowes Incline through Kibblesworth to Marley Hill, so mam organised a three way swop - we went to Kibblesworh, another family went to Barley Mow and another family went to Wrekenton. For me and my brother it was heaven - like holidays all year round. I have fond memories of the school, Mr Dickson being my favourite teacher - although Friday afternoons reading TS Elliot's Cats with Mr Robinson was a highlight. I moved from Kibblesworth to Coventry in 1992 to get work but my memories of the youth club (where I met my husband Ron) and the friends like Dot Brownley (nee Green) and Margaret Fullard I am still in touch with.

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