Childhood In Chopwell. South Terrace

A Memory of Chopwell.

Born in 21 south terrace chopwell had a few friends with whom I played football on the green every night then into the street under the lights till mom called me in . Then the boys were mad at me because I had the ball, game over. I started to play cricket for the juniors at around 13 or14 yrs old ,this was a great memory for me. There was a garage with big lorries that wasn’t far from my house and my Uncle Tom worked for them and my cousin Tom and I used to go on some trips with him. We loved that. We use to go on the green to the pigeon lofts sometimes and we had a great time there I think the boy was a Noble who had a shop on the green. The butchers was called noble and I used to go there to see Linda.

Many more names are just not registering as of yet.....John Baum, bill bailey, Pattinson who I use to play tennis with.

Will try and get back there in the next year or so for a look at the village.

Enjoyed my time there Peter Scott.


Added 09 February 2021

#689026

Comments & Feedback

I have very happy memories of playing tennis on Chopwell Welfare courts during my school summer holidays in the mid 1950s. As well as the names Peter Scott mentions there was also my very good friend George Bell who lived in Scott Terrace next-door to my grandmother Rhoda Houghton (Bushby) nee Bell. The top 3 courts were fine gravel and were meticulously raked every morning by the groundsman who would stand for no nonsense. The bottom 3 courts were tarmac and not our courts of choice as the surface very quickly removed the tennis ball surface. The Methodist Chapel youth club (MAYC) was also a favourite gathering place to meet friends but only 1/2 of the evening could be devoted to (frivolous and sinful) dancing and the rest of the evening being given over to games and other activities. Compared to teenagers today we had nothing, but living in a comparatively small mining community in Chopwell we all went to the same school (Chopwell West County Boys' School) all knew each other and made our own entertainment in the open spaces of either The Burn Wood or Chopwell Wood, swimming in the river Derwent and roasting our 'tatties' in a camp fire by the river.

I was born in Chopwell in 1941 in Tees Street and later on lived in Humber Street. I gained my first degree at Leicester Uni 1962 and later on my Masters at Durham Uni. Whilst at Leicester I also gained a wife, Elisabeth who hailed from a business family in Sudbury, Suffolk. The contrast in environments could not have been more stark, revealing and evident. We married and started teaching together at the same school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Accepting a promotion we moved to Sunderland which proved a real cultural shock for Elisabeth. As time moved on we added two children and later three grandchildren to the family. The grandchildren live in Exeter (where my daughter is a professor at Exeter Uni) and on a recent visit 'up north' I took them to see where I was brought up. Armed with photos of Chopwell Colliery we had a 'then and now' experience and they were amazed and unbelieving when they were shown 22, Humber Street, coal house doors etc. etc. How things change over time but I will never forget a happy, fulfilling childhood in Chopwell.

John Houghton Patterson
Correction - My tennis partner was George Lee NOT George Bell.
Anecdote - A few years ago whilst attending a conference near Northampton I got talking to another delegate during a coffee break. Recognising my accent he asked what part of the North east I was from. I replied a small pit village outside Newcastle and that he wouldn't have heard of it. The guy (Mr. Lee) lived in Devon and when I mentioned Chopwell I was 'gobsmacked' when he replied that his nephew George Lee (my tennis partner) had lived in Scott Terrace next door to my grandmother. Mr Lee had lived at Hamsterley and worked at Chopwell Colliery. They say fact is stranger than fiction. The sons and daughters of Chopwell have spread world wide. I wonder how my old school friend Mark Christer is doing after emigrating to Australia to be with his younger brother Alan. Their mother kept a corner shop in Belfour terrace. My good friend Stan Rutherford left for Canada as did another acquaintance Geoffrey Laws. Where are they now?
John Patterson

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