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Walbottle
Walbottle maps
Historic maps of Walbottle and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Walbottle maps
Walbottle photos
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Newburn| Throckley| Lemington| Ryton| Winlaton| Ponteland| Wylam| Whickham| Newcastle Upon Tyne| Dunston| Gosforth| Rowlands Gill| Prudhoe| Ovingham| Burnopfield| Gateshead
Walbottle area books
Displaying 1 of 1 books about Walbottle and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Walbottle
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Tyne and Wear memories
ACCUMULATORS
This would be about 1950. Radio was the in thing, me Nanna and Granda had one that was powered by an accumulator, this was a square glass jar with two elements inside connected to two terminals on the top which would fit and connect in the back of wireless. When the power ran down I would walk from Millfield to Newburn, Walkworth Crescent to be precise, where I would exchange this for a charged one (as you would do now with your car battery). This man had all kinds going on in his front parlour, he would also repair bikes and wirelesses etc. Saturday night was the night 'Dick Barton Special Agent' was on, everybody crowded around the radio for this one.
Lotto was a game that was taking a hold about now and on certain nights people would gather in certain houses to play, sitting wherever there was room. The kitchen, which also held a bath, which in turn had a hinged piece of timber over it to make... Read more
Sally Bash
This was about 1954. The Salvation Army was a large hut on Millfield bank, they did lovely pie and pea suppers now and again for about threepence. Every Sunday evening from six till about seven the Salvation Army band would play on the corner next to Lloyd's Bank. I was enthralled with the musical instruments and decided I wanted to learn how to play one of these, so I joined the band. I went along to band practice and Mr Hurst who was the band master, and Captain if I remember right, gave me a cornet to learn on, but no matter how much I tried to do the scale my cheeks blew out. This wasn't good enough for Captain Hurst, you just didn't puff your cheeks out with a cornet, so he gave me this very large trumpet which you 'had to blow your cheeks out'. I was allowed to take it home and bring it back for band practice once or twice a week. I seemed to be... Read more
KNOCKIE NINE DOORS
This is about 1951 and Millfield Lane was opposite the allotments and the clay field. On the dark nights we would tie thread to the door knockers and lead it across the road and up the bank to a grassy hollow where we could see but not be seen from the houses, then a sharp tug on the thread would bring a puzzled face to the door, a couple of knocks on the same door would have us in hysterics. Then we came up with the idea to tie two adjacent doors together by the door knobs with string, knock on the doors and vanish back into our grassy hollow. The people had to walk around from the back street to open the doors. Buzzers! We would stuff the bottom of the iron rainwater pipes with newspaper and light it, once it got going the noise was a loud buzzing drone. Sorry every body!!
On the back street of Francis Terrace there was a footpath leading past the gable ends... Read more
BEST DROP
It was about 1953. Saturday afternoon was a great day down at the Imperial picture house in Newburn. Roy Rogers and Trigger, Gene Autry with his guitar and six guns, Flash Gorden with his ray gun, Batman and his cape. I remember an older lad than us called Wee Wee Reed, he had bright ginger hair, anyway Batman had been on and when we came out Wee Wee put his black Burberie mack, tied the sleeves around his neck and ran down to the station railway bridge with all us in his trail, he stood up on the top girder and jumped, shouting "ME BATMAN", hit the waiting room hut and broke his legs. Johnny Weissmuller played Tarzan then and I joined his fan club, I used to get a birthday card from him every year and the only reason they stopped was cos a moved away and a was 17 by then. Good auld Johnny yi never forgot me.We would come out and walk up Hareside path past the... Read more
SAMPLES YARD
I used to live a few doors from auld Jimmy Sample and his wife Carrie, his son John was married to June and they lived in Francis Terrace. They had their rag and bone yard down the Winnin, anyway I would spend summer nights, weekends and holidays down there. Early morning before school I would be up knocking at Jimmy's door, out he would come with Gyp the fawn greyhound that went on the cart with him. I once saw this dog chase after a balloon which had escaped from the cart, catch it in his mouth and bring it back without bursting, this happened in the top buildings in Throckley. Anyway, he would give me a couple of slices of bread and a rope halter and then off we would go. He was always dressed the same way, with his neckerchief on, a big belt round his trousers, trouser braces, a waistcoat, brown cord trousers and his hands hanging on the lapels of his coat. We would walk through... Read more
THE SALES
It was about 1956. John Sample had started to change with the times and bought himself a pick up truck, him, 'Auld Jimmy' and me went to the horse sales at Gateshead just over the bridge, and I cannot for the life of me remember if it was the High Level or the Redheugh. They went to buy a horse, which they did, and it was my job to bring him home, they bought this poor sad horse showing its bones and saddle sores, it had obviously been ill treated so they left me with a rope halter to make my way back on the five mile trek. Normally I would be on its back like a shot, but he was a bit skitterish because of the bridge so I waited until we got to the other side. Once over, I did the normal thing of getting him near a bit of a slope so I could use this as a step up, I grabbed his mane and was about... Read more
CLIPPIE MATS
It was 1947 and I had just started school at Newburn infants, I was only four and a half, I can still remember me Ma crying when she left me, she should have been clapping her hands. There I was in a lovely knitted jumper - me Ma was a great knitter and my job was sitting in front of the coal fire holding a hank of wool, arms in rhythm with me Ma winding it into a ball. Bah, some of them hanks went on for ever. We also used to make clippie mats in the sitting room, with a piece of hessian tensioned between lumps of wood, and the clippins were bits of coloured rag cut into small pieces, then we had our proggers, these would be used to plunge the clippin through the hessian and back in a loop out the top. This wasn't done just any how, chalk was used to mark a pattern on the hessian, all kinds of inventive sketches were made and the... Read more
