Nostalgic memories of Middle Rainton's local history
Share your own memories of Middle Rainton and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
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Displaying Memories 1 - 10 of 21 in total
The others in the house then would be, in order of age: Aunt Annie, married to Joe Smiles, who also lived with us. He worked in the local pit as a collier. Also Uncle Tommy, a complete gentleman, always neat and tidy. He never married, worked in the same pit as Joe, funny thing with miners, there were no baths at the pits, so they came home black, and had to bath in front of the fire in a tin bath. But they would ...see more
Granddad, Mathew Wilson (known to everyone as Matty,) was one of the older brothers, but just too young for the Great War. He sold wet fish from a cart, everyone there gave their takings to Margaret, and until they left home she gave them pocket money only.
Grandmother Wilson had married before the war and had two girls, Peggy the eldest, and Freda. Her husband was Michael Bone, whose family came from Lancashire. ...see more
My Family
I am trying to sort out my recollections of the family history. Most of what I know is from word of mouth mainly from relations who are now dead. Also, this record may not be right, but as far as I can recall it is correct and is what has been passed on to me. You can feel free to use this any way you wish, or pass it on to anyone who is interested. You can use this with the Family Tree, which again I ...see more
Monica and my mum were brought up together and were the best of friends all their lives. My mum was also brought up by Gt Gran in the Fox, across the street from Liza and Billy, and in later life would visit her in Chichester whenever she could, for a chat about old times. Monica and mum left Durham in about 1937 together, and first of all worked in the hospital at Maidenhead, before both going to Arundal, and ...see more
Billy must have died when I was about 9 or so, say about 1949, and I do believe Liza died in about 1953, she died peacefully in bed. We did not see her one day, one of the men went in and she was upstairs in bed, she had died in the night. She had seemed ok the night before, she may have been feeling ill but did not say so to anyone. The house was sold for about £65.
They had 3 daughters, Nora, named after Nora ...see more
Conclusion
On my last visit it was hard to see where the village was. The small triangular field is now a park but it looks so small. The place I remember seemed so much larger than Small Park that is now there.
Having been raised in a small village throughout the 40's and into the 50's we may not have had many possessions, but what little we did have was appreciated. Above all though, we valued our family, our ...see more
And had an inter-house sports day annually that was highly contested. The school was divided into four houses, St Columbus, St Aiden, and St Patrick and St Cuthbert’s.
Church attendances were very high, poor Fr. Tuohey had to give three masses every Sunday to enable everyone to attend. These were given at 9am, 10am and 11am and were always full (St Michaels is not a small church either).
Just a little more. The ...see more
And the upper floor as the church for worship. This remained like this until approx 1880 when the old primary school was built. (This is now demolished and turned into a housing estate). Between the junior and senior school playground was a wooden building known by all as The Hut. It was painted green and was getting a bit dated. I suppose it had been used by the church for social events at one time.
The upper ...see more
Most of the family would help to do this, it took several weeks to complete. Some looked very good according to the people’s skill.
The Children
All played together, boys and girls, all age groups and all stayed out until called in, generally about 9.30pm summer or winter. In daylight hours we played football, cricket and rounders. After dark we played “Kick the Tin”, “Jack Shine the Magi” and other games.
For ...see more
Entertainment
The Men: Mostly the pubs provided a good range of entertainment with darts, dominoes and cards being played. Some men kept greyhounds or whippets for racing, but generally gardening took up a lot of their time, as this helped to feed the family, and there were allotments enough for all. This also then led on to hobbies with things such as Leek Shows, Flower Shows and as about 15% of the allotments had ...see more