Lived In Peterlee Until I Was 7 Or 8 Yrs Old

A Memory of Peterlee.

I was born in the little maternity hospital in Easington and lived in Kiln Hill Walk in Peterlee. Later we moved to Cumbrian Way, this is the house I remember. I attended the infants school that was knocked down in later years, I think it was called Ellison School. My sisters went there too and I also remember them going to Dean House(?) I can't remember exactly what it was called! My grandparents lived in Blackhall and we would spend quite a lot of time over there too. The West Indies batsman Desmond Haynes lodged with them as a young man at the start of his cricket career - so I have fond memories of that experience. I remember walking to the shops regularly with my mam as she didn't drive and carrying the shopping home. We would occassionly go to the town centre in Hartlepool too, where my grandad lived and where both of my parents were born. Most of my memory of living in Peterlee and surrounding areas is pretty clear. We left Peterlee when I was seven or eight years old and headed south for work, where both parents found jobs and that's where I spent the next years in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, until the age of thirty-two when I emigrated to New Zealand.