Newburn Shops

A Memory of Newburn.

About 1953 onwards. I wrote this out a while ago and somehow it got lost, I know Rob Blackburn read it as he left a comment, so I will try and recall as much again. In Millfield we only had a couple of house shops one was Meggie Gribbles who took over from her parents and the other was Sewells which was run by Mrs Vietch who lived over the road in Albert Terrace, she had a daughter called Ann who was friend of mine as we were the same age and went to the same schools. Ann used to help out when her mam wanted a break and a still paid the same price for me bullets no matter who was on, these were both at each end of Victoria Terrace. Jackson's grocers was a proper shop at the top of the bank, but any serious shopping was done in Newburn. Ive come back to add this in as I had forgot about this shop, it was on the next block to newburn police station it was a house with a proper shop at the back from Newburn Road, it was Jackie Liddles and he was open on a Sunday night so we had until about 8pm to get any last things before Monday. Jackie was a little stout kind of man with googly eyes, I don't mean to sound awful but that is the way everyone saw him. From Millfield we walked past Newburn Manor, the drill hall, past the two army houses then 50 yards was the shop.The army houses is where Susan Redshaw and her sister Jacki lived with there mam and dad. Their dad was in the army and they came to settle here and go to our school it must of been when Susan was about 14 as we started dating. I was a milk monitor at Walbottle School and I used to go beetroot when I went to her class as I could here the whispering and giggling among the girls.  On Warkworth Crescent was Coffees which I'm sure was the wool shop which I was never away from getting wool for me Ma, I remember buying a lovely pair of grey jeans there, which were special cos all jeans were blue then. As always they were never tight enough so out came the needle and thread, which I had already bought from Coffees to match the colour grey. I had to have these as my cousin Jean was coming up from Leeds to stay during school holidays and she was bringing a girlfriend so I needed to look cool. On the run up to Christmas he had a room downstairs with every kind of toy imaginable, there was a gate at the top of the stairs to stop us little uns from entering on our own. He or his wife had to take you down and stay until you had satisfied your dreams as that's mostly all we could afford. Next on the corner was Lewins (who were related I'm sure) they sold sweets and groceries, next was the Post Office and further around the corner was the Meadow Dairy, this was a biggish grocers and they employed a lad who delivered orders on a bike with a basket on the front. I remember one day in Millfield Crescent, the end near Albert Terrace the lad on his bike came down the bank and crashed into the yard wall of the end house. The groceries were all over the lane and there was Annie Myhill with a spoon scooping up sugar into a bag then running into the house. True! I seen it with my own eyes, the lad just had to get on with it, leaving with a bump on his head and a buckled front wheel. I never found out if he was sacked or not, or who he was, maybe he will read this and own up. The Meadow Dairy had the biggest letterbox in the world and they once stacked biscuits next to it in the window. Well once this was discovered the boys soon found how to get a treat for nowt, there was biscuits galore that night, a long thin arm is all that was required. further down was Nardinis fish shop, best chips threepence a bag. Opposite was Marchetties the ice cream parlour which Ive mentioned before, then the Imperial pictures. The Hotel pub was and still is on the corner. Then into Grange Road with Billy the Barbers who kept a plank of wood to stretch over the arms of the chair to do us young uns' hair, as we got older the plank wasn't used, this gave us a sign of growing up, and the haircut moved from short back and sides to the chop at the back and nought off the top. Billy also new when we were old enough as out of the draw came the girly magazines he would push into our hands while we were waiting to get in the chair, mind these were very very tame compared to whats on the top shelves now. Then the Wireless shop which was run by a posh man and his wife, (I believe,) I never knew his name but I would go there for my vinyls. Then came Talbot Smiths paper shop which his son had took over when I did my papers but the old man still used to help out, If my memory serves me right he had one of those Jimmy Edwards mustaches. Then came the stores aye the Co-op where you got ya divvi. I remember been sent down by me Ma to collect it. This was a little money bonus you got depending what you spent there and you would let it build up for a while then cash it in. The divvi number was something you never forgot as this was your way into your cash, a bit like your pin number now.

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