Barnard Castle, The Castle c.1985

Photo ref: B23701K

The pub to the right of this image is The Shoulder of Mutton and when this image was taken it was ran by my Great-grandfather Sidney Addison. Three years before this was taken my grandmother was born in the pub and would have been in the buiding the day this image was taken.

When I was small we used to walk to the abbey bridge from my Nanas house in thorngate,at the corner of Gray lane. The elderly couple who were in charge of the toll used to sell lemonade in one of the little toll houses, and the toilet was in the other, I can remember looking down into the toilet and seeing the tees many,many feet below. This was in the 50s, I went again in the early 90s and the ...see more

I was born at Barnard Castle in 1946. My dad Norman Kay, worked for Tommy Carter who owned the brewery next to the Castle and we lived upstairs, before moving to the Bank. My parents also ran the Dance Hall for the soldiers. It's a long way from Colorada Springs USA, where I live now.

George Parkinson and his wife, Ann (nee Bowron) married:13.5.1845 at Rokeby Parish Church. After living and working at Balder Mill, just outside Cotherstone, the family moved to live at Desmesne Mill around 1853/4. The Mill has been renovated, but when The Parkinson family were there, they would have lived in the cottages. During their time at the Mill, another five children were born there, to ...see more