Newburn / Millfield Memories

Coming back to this site, I was so glad to read the memories that Jimmy Burrows has added for Newburn & Millfield. His memories was just a lttle before mine but the areas are so vivid in my mind of when I was a kid. I had 3 aunts that lived in Millfield Lane - Chrissy - married to Dicky Done, Patsy - married to John Crossan and Rita (Loretta) - married to Joe Calinski. I remember well Bernard and Dougie. Another lady I remember was Lidia, she used to look after me some days. My Mam worked at Spencers, she used to bring me across the school field from Conniston Avenue in the mornings to my Aunty Chrissy's, where I used to have breakfast before I went off to Newburn Manor School. On a really good morning, my Uncle Dicky used to take me up to his allotment - before the flats were built - where we'd lay siege to those bloody slugs who used to have a good feed on the lettuce. Uncle Dicky used to grow the best pansies in the world. Me and my friends, Judith McCready, Trudy Angus and my cousin Stuart used to go for walks through Newburn Dene to Sample's stables. I went to school with John Sample and thought he was the luckiest boy in the world having horses. I used to love seeing the horses pulling the carts up and down the avenues in Newburn. It wasn't until later years I reflected on how hard it must have been for those poor horses to pull the cart up and down all those streets. My cousin Joseph and me used to climb up on the roof on the old Methodist Church on Newburn Road. It was a GREAT hiding place! Many days were spent down in the ponds at Blaney Row with the air rifles. I could go on forever thinking of little things that have come to mind. I too, Jimmy, used to walk across the ledge of Newburn Bridge. I was a right Tomboy. We used to also jump from the brick work to the lamp post of the old Railway Bridge at the bottom of Station Street - next to Newburn Hotel. I think I was the only girl who could do it. As we got older about 11 or 12 ,we used to 'fall in love' every year with one of the boys from the Hoppins. They always seemed so dangerous. We would follow the lucky guy around like little puppies - ha ha. When I was a kid, I used to see how may somersaults I could do without stopping on the railings that ran up the stairs of the monument oppisite Station Street. When I was older, I used to sit up on the memorial when I wagged school, dodging around the monument when someone walked by. I was dobbed in by the barber whose shop was in Station Street, he told my dad. I had really liked him before that because he used to cut my hair a la Allison McKenzie in 'Peyton Place'. Anyway, Jimmy, it's so nice to know that the little snapshots I have of home are shared by someone else. We made our own fun in those days. We were quite happy with a cardboard box sliding down the hill in the clay field or building a den in the trees on the bank next to Spencer's steel works. It's been a pleasure walking down memory lane.