Millfielders

A Memory of Newburn.

I remember falling off a bike on Millfield Crescent when I was about 7 or 8 and I had a really bad knee injury, there was no going to hospitals in those days though, it was Kit
Bateman, a first aider at the pit, who mended me and bandaged me up, I still have a big scar on me knee to this day. There were two women who lived in Francis Terrace who never saw eye to eye, Polly Kane and Hilda Robson, they would have shouting matches at each other the length of the street, as one lived near the top and the other at the bottom, every one could hear them and the language was an education in itself!
There was an old fellow lived on Millfield Lane called Spar Gray who only ever said "Merry Christmas", you could say "Good morning" to him and he would only ever reply "Merry Christmas" - it's the only thing I ever heard him say, but then my Granda (KIT PATTERSON) told me that Spar had been wounded in the head in the trenches in the First World War, and it had left him a bit damaged. I always felt sorry for him after that.
There was an old lady called Annie Myhill who lived at the end of Millfield Lane, her door and first-floor window were in the gable end and if we went playing knockie nine door she'd wait at the upstairs window with a bucket of water and throw it over whoever knocked, but she got the rent man one day!
There was a family named Rendall who lived in Millfield Crescent, there were two grown up (to us) brothers (probably in their 20s) called Dougie and Bernard. Bernard was a great cartoonist and could draw all the TV cartoon characters of the time, but both of them were a bit simple, to put it mildly and not unkindly. When the kids were playing Knockie they were a prime target and after knocking on the door Dougie would chase you up the street (so did old man Jeavons), after the first time Dougie would always wait behind the front door to catch us if we knocked again, so we would wait for a bit then shout "It's OK Dougie, we won't knock on your door again". Dougie would always say "Rightie Oh - Thank You" then go upstairs. Two minutes later we would bang like hell on the door knocker and he would run downstairs and chase us again! It was hilarious and it NEVER failed, he did it every time! You couldn't have that much fun with a Playstation.
We used to go down the winning to play, it was a wooded area with a stream running through it and was where John Sample had his stables. He was the local rag man and owned horses and carts that people would take out collecting rags and other stuff, he would let you lead the horses up to the pool for a drink of fresh running water, what an adventure! What a place, and you know, it always seemed to be sunny in those days.
Me granda used to send me to Jackson's for five Woodbines, the shop was always called Jacksons but I don't remember an actual Jackson, it was owned by Fred Lawson and he had two assistants called Joyce and Betty. There were two slot machines on the wall outside the shop, one dispensed Beech Nut chewing gum for a threepenny bit and the other sold Nestle's chocolate bars for a tanner, one time I put a tanner in and got me chocolate, but the machine was broke and kept spewing out bars of chocolate, it was like Christmas! I gave all me pals a couple of bars apiece and hid about 20 or so up the gardens for further consumption, but I was stuck with about another 20 or 30 bars and didn't know what to do, so I went home and told me Ma. The shop was shut (this was on a Sunday) so she made me keep them overnight (and not eat any) and go and hand them in to Fred Lawson the next day. I told Fred about the broken machine and gave him back (half) his chocolate, and he was so impressed with my honesty that he gave me another bar and a shilling as well! Great Days!

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