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Springwell
Springwell maps
Historic maps of Springwell and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Springwell maps
Springwell photos
We have no photos of Springwell, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Birtley| Washington| Gateshead| Lambton Park| Monkton Village| Lumley Park| West Boldon| Jarrow| Dunston| Chester Le Street| East Boldon| Whickham| Houghton Le Spring| Wallsend| Newcastle Upon Tyne| Sunderland| Cleadon| South Shields| Gosforth
Springwell area books
Displaying 1 of 1 books about Springwell and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Springwell
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Tyne and Wear memories
Springwell Village School 1944 -1954
I was born at 3 Underhill Terrace in Springwell on 18th February 1939 and attended the village school from 5 to 15 years of age. I remember walking from Underhill Terrace daily to the school via what we called the "Horse Holes". my First teacher in the infants was a Mrs. Clough.Later teachers were Mrs. "Pip" Jenkins (a Tartar) and the gorgeous Miss Glendenning. Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Potts were the only two male teachers I can name but I'm fairly sure there was a 3rd. Mr. Garside was the Head. We didn't have trips away in those days, all we ever got was a walk around the school playing field. I can remember sports days. I was in the Yellow Athenians? House. I was also in the school football and cricket teams. I left school on the Friday in 1954 and started work with British Railways on the following Monday. Names I remember from my schoolmates were. Ian Price, Arthur Richards, Walter Tully, Lawerence Outerside, Pat Bamford.
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 called Michael, a girl called Violet who lived in a bungalow off Wrekenton "Long Bank", Angela Belford and many more.
The school was first established in two cottages in 1832 as a "Charitable" school, called Barrington Charitable school, then in 1867 the existing building was built, still... Read more
Eighton Lodge
Does anyone remember the mother and baby home called Eighton Lodge.
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 had to make do with want they had and economise, if you broke a cup, you had to make do with drinking out of a jam jar if there wasn’t a replacement, it was the same with the tea rations, often it was mixed with dried bramble leaves to... Read more
Childhood in Wreckenton
I started school at St Oswald's RC in 1944. We lived on Tanfield Road. I remember the head teacher was called Miss Wilfred, and later we had a headmaster called Mr Clancy. I remember when the war finished and we had to parade around the school yard and salute the Union flag. I remember the winter of 1947 and the snow too deep to walk in and it seemed like it would never go away. We spent our childhood playing in the fields at the back of the house which was known to us as Micky King's field. Beyond that were rolling hillocks of heath grass which led on to moor and gorse we called the whinys and the camp. We would often walk the two miles or so to Shadons Hill and drink water from the well there. I am told that that hill holds a lot of untold history, the first miners meeting there at some time in the1 830s. And it was the spot where... Read more
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 pit and the first thing I noticed was the wind blowing a gale, then the floor was covered in white powder (fire damp). When we reached the coal face which was under the North Sea there was hardly enough room to stand up. That is when I decided that... Read more
Margaret
Margaret lived at 20 West View in 1951 and came regularly to Gateshead. She had a friend who lived near Saltwell Park. When I was called up to do my National Service on 4/10/1951 we were pen friends but she stopped writing after a good while. I went down to Washington for the first time in many years in 1979 and walked up to the door where Margaret lived at 20 West View but I didn't knock. 20 years later I was in Washington again but West View had been demolished. If anyone knows about Margaret's whereabouts I would love to know how she is getting along these days. I have sadly forgotten her surname.
Les May. e-mail: lsmy59@aol.com
