Staying With Nanna.

A Memory of New Rossington.

This memory goes from 1953 up to the 1960s because our holidays in them days were always at Rossington, staying with Nanna. Me my older brother Alex and my twin brother John loved it. Nanna and Grandad were Jack and Burtha Bird who lived at 57 Haig Crescent. Grandad was a miner like a lot of people in Rossington. One of my memories was watching for Grandad coming home after night shift. My twin brother and I watched every morning for him and his friend (Johnty Wren) walking up Haig Crescent. As soon as he came through the door John and I were down to greet him. He would get his snap box (sandwich box) out of his bag, open his box and Hey-Presto, there was a jam sandwich each for John and I.

When we got a little older and arrived at Gran's (we were told to call her Gran because we were getting to big to call her Nanna) we would have a bite to eat then away we would go down to Gattison Lane where Uncle Jack and Aunty Margaret Bird lived with son John and in 1959 daughter Anne was born. (Aunty Margaret and Anne still live there today.) We would say our hallo's then off we would go, me my two brothers and my cousin John. We had plenty of places to choose from, there was the welfare park, it had a great paddling pool with thick moss on the bottom which was very slippery and made a great slide, or there was Stringy Billies where we would do all sorts of kids' stuff, but what I liked best was train spotting. We would spend hours at the station crossing, waiting for a train to come. We would be playing cricket or football then suddenly we would hear the bell in the gate cabin and everything would stop; our books would come out and our pencils would be poised ready for the train going through. There was one crossing keeper that would let us hang on the gate as he shut or opened the crossing.

Sometimes on our way home to Haig Crescent we would call in to see Aunty Pat Cooke who worked in a shop, and we always came away with some sweets. Pat married my uncle Ron Bird. We loved every minute we spent at Rossington. I could go on and on about the times I remember. But the one person I did not mention was my mother Joan Bird who was only a few months old when she moved to Rossington, lived in Rossington till her 20s then married a Geordie (Alex Wilson) and then went to live in North Shields, Tyne & Wear, raised a family and is now a grand old lady of 83 (widowed).