The Downs Lane

A Memory of Hetton-Le-Hole.

Further to my earlier memory of living in Hetton. My great-grandparents were Robert and Isabelle DeLap, they lived in Number 1 Downs Lane and had 5 children; Gladys, Annie, John, George and Bob. My grandma was Annie. I remember my great grandma who was an elegant lady, and quietly spoken but I was only two when she died. My great granda Robert was a lovely man, with a pipe who died when I was 4. I used to go with him to Pipers the butchers for pie and peas. Aunty Gladys lived round the corner, Uncle John lived at Peat Carr, Uncle George lived in London and Bob lived at home in the Downs Lane. Somewhere out there I have cousins and second cousins who are part of the DeLap, Atkinson, and Elliot families. I left Hetton in the 60's to live in Oxford, but my heart belongs up north.