Not Exactly Backworth

A Memory of Backworth.

I was born in May 1950 at 85 Killingworth Avenue, Castle Park, Backworth. I was the only child in the street for a few years and I remember going into everyone's house for biscuits. I played with everyone's cats and dogs and played in their gardens. I remember my third birthday and watching the Coronation on my Nana's new television, that was 1953. In September 1953 we moved across the road to Number 78 Killingworth Avenue and my sister was born.

I started school in 1955 and remember walking into Annie Browns sweet shop on my way to school (Backworth County Primary School). I can still see the complete layout of the school, the smell of vegetables cooking in the kitchens, the smell of the toilets across the yard. Falling over in the PE lesson and getting a huge pebble stuck in my knee (still have the scar). My first teacher was Mrs Broadbent, then Mrs Robson and then Mrs Dunn (they were both in the 'huts'). Standard 1 was Mrs Hudspith, Standard 2 didn't have a permanent teacher, Standard 3 was Mr Vaughan (over 6ft) and Standard 4 was Mr Harvey. The Headmaster was Jackie Rice - he was only 5ft 3in like Ronnie Corbett. I didn't pass the 11+ so I went to Shiremoor Secondary Modern School for Girls till I was 15 and then Secretarial College in Whitley Bay for 2 years. Sadly all the schools have now been knocked down and I only have the memories.

One memory from Seconday School is of the class trying to sing 'Three Little Maids from School are we' from the Mikado. Two of my teachers were in amateur operatics and it must have been awful for them to have to listen to us murdering the music!