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St Helen Auckland
St Helen Auckland maps
Historic maps of St Helen Auckland and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all St Helen Auckland maps
St Helen Auckland photos
We have no photos of St Helen Auckland, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
West Auckland| High Etherley| Bishop Auckland| Shildon| Witton Le Wear| Heighington| Cockfield| Howden Le Wear| Raby Castle| Willington| Staindrop| Crook| Newton Aycliffe| Hamsterley| Gainford| Aycliffe
St Helen Auckland area books
Displaying 1 of 3 books about St Helen Auckland and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of St Helen Auckland
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County Durham memories
Swanson Store
Bob and Sarah O'Neil owned a store at Swanson back in1927 to 19?, they died in the 1950s, apparently they lived there too. I think the old homestead is still there. Does anyone have old pics ofthe store, perhaps even pics of the shops back then? There weren't many.
My Aunt
I wasn't from West Auckland, my dad was. My Aunt Belle lived there, who still wore a long black dress in the 1940s and 1950s. She made and sold vinegar, she also kept hens at the back of the house, she had names for them too like Hetty and Dolly. She would give me a can to go over the road for milk. She would say "If you don't behave, I'll get Mary Cotten to you".
The Nursery
I was born in 4 The Nursery in 1944. My gran Elizabeth Bayles, my mother Emma Bayles. I went to Millbank School at age 4yrs. I can remember my first teacher there Miss Watkins. My Mother worked at Lockeys buses as a bus conductor. I remember Walter Wilsons shop. Reas my half cousins had an ice cream shop next to the WMC. The Nursery was Gaunless Terrace. It was changed due to the amount of children that lived there. There was a picture house which was called The Ranch and sometimes the Loprey Opera. At the back of the Fleece Pub on Front St some of the pit men had their pigeon crees forbidden area for noisy children. At the back of houses in the Nursery is the Beck (river gaunless) Over the beck via a small wooden bridge there were the allotments. Here us bairns would get a stick of rhubarb and armed with a small bag of sugar relish this treat. Further... Read more
Tindale Warriors
I remember going down the field when there was swings, a roundabout and a slide just by the little woods and further up the pit heaps were the so-called big woods. We used to all go up to the little woods and play foxes and hounds and some of the games we had were memories that stay with me even now. I ran away from a childrens' home in 1990 and my mates from Tindale kitted out a shed in an empty house opposite the chippy and converted it into my own little bedroom. Eight months I was in that shed and even had a hand in building the little wall that runs by the West Auckland bus stop next to the club. Aah, to be kids again...
Infants School
Born and bred in Red Houses (then Red House Estate) at a time when everyone took time and effort to keep their home and gardens beautiful. Everyone knew everybody and it was a community that looked after each other. I remember going down to the infants' school (just off from cricket field) having a birthday and being given a cardboard cake by the teacher to open and take out sweets. Before Dale View was built that field had a lovely bank and at Easter we used to roll our paste eggs down the bank. Going over quarry heads and picking all the rosehips and taking them to Mrs. Hart in South Road to cash in.
Grocery Stores
My grandfather Thomas Edwin Mantle had a grocery and creamery in Newgate Street. He died before I was born but strangely my father Herbert Clayton eventually had his own store in Newgate Street, it was called H Clayton esquire, family grocer. I was two years old when we moved to Redcar in Yorshire. So I have no memories of my birthplace.
Mount School
On September 15, 1949, I started attending Mount School at the ripe old age of 4 1/2. The School was located in the Market Place. I travelled with a small group of students from Eppleby to Darlington and then on to Bishop Auckland on the United bus number 1 which stopped quite near the front door of the school.
The boarders slept either at 'The Cottage' which was close to the gates or at 'The Elms' which was a large house which I think was near where Silver Street is now. We wore cream blouses, brown and cream coloured ties and brown gym-slips in winter, and in summer brown and white checked dresses.
I remember Richard and Rita Darling, twins with whom I shared a room when I was very young, also Paul and Steven Muir who were related to Miss Muir (the headmistress), Mrs Smith who taught 2nd form and Miss Heslop who played the piano and I believe taught sewing, sadly she committed suicide early one... Read more
