Washington

Read and share memories of Washington and Tyne And Wear inspired by Frith photos

Washington Chemical Works

I was born at 55 Pattinson Town about 20 yards from the chemical works which manufactured products from asbestos.  Most of my mother's side of the family worked at the factory and have since died of asbestos related diseases. I am surprised that no mention or photographs exist of this factory.  I used to pass through the village green going to Washington Glebe secondary school.  The school had terrible subsidence problems with a mine shaft going directly underneath causing the wood block floors to buckle.  My father was demobbed from the Royal Navy after serving in submarines during WW2 and he then got a job as a deputy in Washington "F" pit.  When I was 14 he took me down the ...read more here
Contributed by gordon brown

Washington Chemical Works

I was born at 55 Pattinson Town about 20 yards from the chemical works which manufactured products from asbestos.  Most of my mother's side of the family worked at the factory and have since died of asbestos related diseases. I am surprised that no mention or photographs exist of this factory.  I used to pass through the village green going to Washington Glebe secondary school.  The school had terrible subsidence problems with a mine shaft going directly underneath causing the wood block floors to buckle.  My father was demobbed from the Royal Navy after serving in submarines during WW2 and he then got a job as a deputy in Washington "F" pit.  When I was 14 he took me down the ...read more here
A memory of Washington contributed by gordon brown

My School Years

I started at Eighton Banks Primary School in 1952 aged five, having been moved from the slum clearance of the Teams, Ghd. To be in open countryside after the lung-choking life of the industrial Teams was absolute heaven.

The headmistress was Miss Smith. My teacher was called Miss Forster, I believe. I loved playing on the old "camp" at the back of the school, (before it became an animal shelter) with my good friends George Harrison who lived on Longbank in a detached stone house, his mother and father were very good to me, she would give me food and clothing, Tim Shield who lived in Springfield Avenue, Eighton Banks, (his mother was a teacher at the school), someone ...read more here
A memory of Eighton Banks contributed by alan bull

Memories of Wrekenton a mining village in Gateshead

Memories of Wrekenton a mining village in Gateshead, County Durham from my late mother and my memories from the 1950’s
My mother was born in Wakes Yard in a mining village called Wrekenton, a village close to the village of Springwell, Gateshead, County Durham, she lived at Eighton Terrace a cobbled street with 2 rows of sandstone built houses, darkly stained due to pollution from coal fired chimneys over the ages, she was an orphan with her 2 sisters, being brought up by there grandmother on there mothers side, a Hannah Watson. Mother’s grandfather was James Leslie Watson and he was a coalminer who worked down nearby Springwell Colliery.

In the war years, there were many shortages, people ...read more here
A memory of Wrekenton contributed by Ron Summerson