Duffers

A Memory of Newburn.

We are in year 1955 and I'm sure you older ones from around here will remember what Duffers were, this was a task game where all the gang joined in. We had different modes which would take our fancy, pole vaulting was where we would cut a length of tree, dress it up and use it for a number of duffers, like down the burn we would pole vault in different widths of the burn without falling in, well not on all occasions. Then we would go on Millfield Crescent Front Street which was divided between the two crescents, one even numbers and one odd. Anyway they had a walled garden around each terrace flat, all bare or full of grass or weeds. One side was about five feet high while the other was only three feet with a path between, say 10 feet. We would work our way up the street from the high side to low then back down low to high, this took some doing as you were vaulting uphill, so to speak. One day we were in the Crescent standing outside the house of Raymond Coe, who was the same age as me at the time. He threw a slate up in the air and as we all watched it came straight down and stuck in the top of his head, and if I remember right that's the way he went to hospital, but he was not seriously hurt.
At the end of the lane and terraces was Albert Terrace and Victoria Terrace which ran diagonal to these and followed the run of the hill down and up the other way. Albert Terrace had a footpath which led down hill to an archway through the centre of the houses, there were railings following the hill and connected over the path and attached to the bricks of the houses, where these connected we would start at the top of the path doing duffers and hanging on to the rail then dropping, this was the easy one but each and everyone after that began to get higher an higher as the path dropped away until you reached the arch, this was about a twelve feet drop. Then it was up the other side as you went up the drop got less and less. I never knew of anyone breaking anything but there was lots of sprained ankles in Dr Scott's surgery. This brings me to tell you he is still about, I have just finished converting a bathroom for a retired Dr Frank Hudson and his wife. When I brought Dr Scott's name up, I couldn't believe it when they said they were great friends of his and he visits them regularly. Can you old ones remember Dr Picton, (his full name was Guy Brougham Picton) who ran the Newburn surgery with Dr Scott? When you went in the waiting room there was a gas fire on and a great big bulldog snoring away in front of it, and there was no way of him moving.
There was always a rope swing on Millfield Bank opposite Jacksons shop, this was tied to a tree which was above a stone wall, maybe six to eight feet and you would swing out across the road, but it was OK as there were no cars in Millfield then. Our game was 'piley on' where one would start off on the swing, then one by one the others would pile on until it almost reached breaking strain. We also had a swing in Walbottle Dene, this was at the bottom of Blucher Path and when it rained heavily a big pond would build up right below our swing, and guess what, if the piley on went wrong, the lot of us went straight into it. No one was hurt, until they got home when we got clouted around the lug-hole off our parents for the state we were in! Two days in the week I hated were Sunday and Tuesday. I hated Sunday because we had to put our best clothes on which meant games were out, I still can't for the hell of it think why, because we never went to church or Sunday School, that is unless we wanted to. Then there was Tuesday - after coming home from school, when you entered the back lane there was all the clothes strung across the back lane, I don't know why I hated that day, it's just something I've carried with me all these years.
I remember a lad called Don Stuart who was around 15 at the time and he lived in Albert Tce with a relation, he was a wizard at making model planes, gliders and planes with petrol engines. We used to stand with mouths agape when he was on the clay field flying them, I remember he had no control of them they just went and landed when the fuel ran out, which he was a good judge on fuel and distance but many a time he got it wrong so off we would run and help retrieve these over on the Banka hills beside Blucher Path or doon the winnin in the trees. All us kids thought he would end up a a fighter pilot but I think he ended up in the pits as most of us did. I remember me Ma giving me money to buy this huge tent off him it was 6ft high 6ft long and 4ft wide, me and the gang had many a memorable night in it on the clay field without incident. During the school holidays there was always someone camping oot as the summers were summers in those days.