Happy Days - What Happened?

I was born in Darlington in 1944, and in 1958 I moved to Newton Aycliffe with my mum, dad and two brothers.  We moved into a lovely brand new 3 bedroomed house at 38 Macmillan Rd which was heaven compared to the two up - two down terraced house we lived in at Darlington.  My mum ( Amy ) was the organist on the mighty Wurlitzer at the Working Man's Club, near the town centre, for a number of years.  My mum is still alive and active, and lives just north of Newton Aycliffe, and although I now live 100 miles away on the east coast I still get back to Newton Aycliffe when I visit her.

When we moved to N/A it was still a in its early stages of development, with the town centre still being built, next to the development corporation offices in Churchill House, with its big town clock.  I remember it was a bit of a bomb site with all the building work, but it was only a short walk to our shiny new home.  At that time our road was a bit "posh" in that it had living on it a good selection of "professional" people such as doctors, teachers, councillors, and even a golf professional living along side of us. We felt really up-lifted amongst such folk, but they seemed ok with us plebs.

As I said our new home was wonderful, but one memory I have is that our new back garden was a mixture of builders rubble, and a clay soil that was as hard as iron, and it took back-breaking work and a long long time to get it into some sort of order.

At the end of the road was the open field that led over to the "Ranges" which was a bit like cowboy country and provided us with a wonderful playground with the stream, cycling dirt track, tree climbing etc, with never a drug syringe to be seen.

At the time that we moved to N/A my elder brother and I were serious "train-spotters" so within a few hours of moving in I was onto my bike and down to the old Clarence Mineral Line that ran past the town down by the Iron Horse pub. It is long closed now but in 1958 it was really busy with train movements. Not long afterwards I found that if I passed the old shopping precinct at Neville Parade there was a path to the great North Road, coming out at the Gretna Green Inn, and not far down a side road was the main railway line from London to Edinburgh, at a place we called "two bridges".  This was heaven to us trainspotters and I spent many happy hours down by the tracks, collecting engine numbers, taking train pictures, having slow bike races, and even began to find out a little about girls. It was a wonderous place and we were never bored.  Its still there but its not the same now, just memories and ghosts of the past.

As a result of moving to N/A I had to transfer my schooling from Darlington Grammar School ( Posh ) to Bishop Auckland Grammar School ( not so posh ) and this meant a daily round trip by school bus, via Middridge, and Shildon to B/A.  I learnt more about life on that school bus than I ever did at school - what larks? Unfortunately for me I was eventually promoted to house captain and prefect, with a shiny badge and yellow edging round my maroon blazer.  This meant that I had to set an example on the bus-journey so life was definitely not so much fun thereafter, but great memories still. I met my wife of 44years in 1961 at Newton Aycliffe Boys Club, and she always tells me that she was very attracted to my yellow braided school blazer so maybe the change wasn't so bad after all??

There are so many good memories I have of the early days of Newton Aycliffe that it is impossible to put them all down here, but suffice to say that if I had to live them again I would not change anything.  I made great friends who I have not seen for many many years, but they still remain deep within my memory and I miss them all - I guess I am getting old and sentimental.

What do I think of the present Newton Aycliffe? - It is terrible - the town centre is a shambles and looks to be almost derelict.  I was ashamed of it. I suspect that like everywhere else they go Tesco supermarket has done immense damage to the traditional town centre, and in the case of N/A they didnt even have the decency to locate it on the edge of town.  I know that there are plans to rescue the town centre and I hope they come to pass in these difficult financial times.  

I hope that this has been of some interest to you readers, and I would be happy to receive any comments on e-mail at tibbycat2001@btopenworld,com