Rochester Dwellings, (Walker). Newcastle Upon Tyne..

A Memory of Walker.

Great to read comments from Lynn Reynolds about Rochester Dwellings. When I was 5 to 6 years old (195O..ish), I lived in the 'dwellings' with my grandparents in 'R' Block. There were some of the first tenants in the dwellings in about 1936. Each house had an inside 'stick tinder box'. My grandparents had some lovely oil-type looking matching paintings of english country hunting scenes in one of the rooms. My first local memory is going to West Walker school and on my first day, seeing the 'toy-corner' with a large toy horse and, a brilliant metal pedal motor car which you could also sit in. I remember a dolls house there also. I used to walk to school and escort a lovely girl about the same age called Gale, who also lived in the 'dwellings', she had a calliper on one of her legs. Some other memories the weeping Madonna, Mr Hills (pig recycling) food bins on R Block. Children occasionally swung on ropes from the dwellings balconies. The only negative thing was the repugnant smell of the local Bone-Yard near Church Street. My uncle who had just completed his National Service, also lived with my grandparents. He showed me his precious Stamp Collecting album and how to affix stamps with the tiny adhesive hinges. My grandparents left me alone for a few minutes in the sitting room, I took down from the wall a Cuckoo clock which my uncle bought in Switzerland to see how it worked and got told off. My grandad had been wounded in one of his legs (machined gunned at the Battle of the Somme etc..) during the first world war and had shrapnel in one of his legs, which just missed amputation. He received the Silver Badge War Wound Medal. I am not ashamed to say in order to supplement his meagre pension he did all sorts of odd jobs, for people in and around the 'dwellings' including paid snow clearing in the winter. He also collected metals and rags in his spare-time, to sell for recycling in fact he was known as 'Davy', the 'Rag and Bone' man (often seen pushing a handcart or old pram with lumber in). Times were hard (there were also some other 'ex-service Rag and Bone men) but despite Granddad's war wound and emotional war-wound turmoil, he never lost his work ethic, living and working until he was nearly 74 Years. I just remember the boating lake in Walker Park, Henzels Sweet shop, the small local swimming pool and 6 foot plus tall friendly Newcastle city policemen at the corner police-box near The Stack and Corporation Public Houses Church Street/Walker Road. The police helmets were very distinctive then, they had a 'ball-bearing' type feature on the top of their helmets making them looking like giants. I got lost one day near Walker Park and ended up sitting in a Fire Station, I think it was on or near Scrogg Road. The friendly firemen bought me an ice-cream before my parents arrived. I remember a man selling second-hand shoes and clothes in the dwellings on a hot summers day, all the goods were dumped in a pile on the ground and people sifted through them for a bargain. I learned years later that times were hard not long after the second world war had ended. Part of Rochester Dwellings had its doors blown off by German bombing and apparently the nearby naval shipbuilding yards in the Low-Walker- Pottery Bank areas had some very near bombing misses. I have a faded memory of a Public House being on fire in Walker Road, not far from Rochester Dwellings but have never discovered where and when. The Rochester estate people were lovely, kind, caring, friendly people who both suffered and worked hard during the war years. There was definitely, what I would call, real poverty around. I remember my grandmothers making a one off steam rail trip with me, from Newcastle Central Station to Wylam near Hexham to pick blackberries, which we placed in the National Health powder milk tins. My uncle finally emigrated to Canada from the 'Dwellings' about 1956, he was a trained Dental Mechanic in the British Army and brought up a lovely family there, running his own Dental business and did extremely well. He never forgot his Walker 'dwellings roots' and more than often talked and reminisced about the hard life but many happy times in the' dwelling's ' with absolute affection. Most of the original dwellings are still there but have been highly modernised and landscaped during the years.