My Life Time At North Seaton Colliery

A Memory of North Seaton.

I was born in Ashington in 1940 and moved to 10 Wood Row, North Seaton Colliery with my mam and dad Sadie and Harry Seymour, my brother Gordon and sister Joan. I remember that the street was full of rats and mice and caught scarlet feaver aged 7, the hygiene then was absolutely disgusting. I was admitted to Pity Me Hospital for 6 weeks, the worst time of my life. I think we moved to 14 East Street about 1957 or 58, a much better place to live although still with pretty basic facilities. Next door at number 13 were the Costellos, with the Cummings at number 12. My dad was well known as the 'The Dog Man' as he had whippets and greyhounds and could fix any ailment which a dog would have. I would walk the dogs 3 miles each night, about 4 or 5 at at a time, for my pocket money and would supplement that with throwing coals into the coal house. I attended the little school aged 5 till 7 and will always remember my first day I started. Miss Morgan sat me on her desk and asked if anyone knew this lad, I was crying my eyes out, and Dorothy Johnson was the only one who answered. I went to the High School aged 7 and Miss Laidlow was my teacher, the best teacher I ever had, and I think that this was the opinion of all of the bairns, she was great. I also remember Mr Sid Nixon with his belt called 'Albert', which I reckon all of my male friends and myself were very familier with. When I was with Mr Graham (about 13 year old) we were asked to volunteer for a school concert to be held at the Welfare Hall by Miss Redpath, what a honey she was, especially to boys at the age of 13! David Crouth, Brian Riddle, Alan Charlton, Alan Taylor, myself and I forget who else was involved decided to perform a mock-up ballet dance regailed in tutus, wigs and make-up - and what a success that was for 2 nights.
In 1955 I went down the pit after training at Bedlington pit and worked on a conveyer end, timber leading, with Ken Lillico for quite a while. I also decided to improve my education at the Ashington Mining College and then transferred to the Northumberland Mining College at Seaton Hirst for three and a half years. The pit closed down about 1959 and I transferred to Ashington where I then decided to migrate to Australia with my wife Jean Wren in 1961 as I was very disillusioned with the coal mines and future prospects.
We left home in May 1961 and spent 5 weeks on a ship and disembarked in Brisbane in June. Jobs were very few and far between so I enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and served for 20 years which I thoroughly enjoyed. During this time Jean and I had 2 girls and one boy. We first came back home in 1974 for 5 months and were quite shocked to see that the old colliery had been demolished to about 3 streets and everyone had moved to the new North Seaton Village where the old Hall had been. We have been back home quite a few times but I would love to hear from any of my old marrahs and see how they are keeping. I'd better close now, so all the best to all of the North Seaton Colliery people.
Regards,
Harry Seymour