Newbottle Village

A Memory of Houghton-Le-Spring.

I remember Newbottle when there were four farms in the village, Hunters, Wheatmans, Coulsons, and Tindales. My grandparents Herbert and Rachael Flintoff worked for Hunters, many happy times were spent milking the cows, tattie picking, and snagging turnips.

I remember camping out on the swing banks, me, Eddie Brown, Barry Cummings, Bekkie and a few other lads, roaming the woods around the witch's cave, playing in the coal washer at success getting chased by the watchie, getting soaked in the yard pond, and swimming in the reservoirs on the hill. Roasting the farmer's tatties in camp fires, mouths coal black off the burned spuds but they tasted great. School holidays spent roaming the roads for hours on en,d parents never worrying where you were, mind they would have messed their pants if they knew half of what we were up to.

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