Part 12

A Memory of Middle Rainton.

Hetton Council then cleaned up the remainder of the site, put on topsoil, and turned it into a sort of small park. There are some articles I have from the local paper published at the time giving a bit more insight to what happened. The final demolition was started about 1963, families were gradually re-housed, and the last property, the old Fox & Hound pub, the last to go about the end of 1964. Ralph Peter and Thomas Wilson were never re-housed; they still had the horses and carts and the land with the stables. So they bought a caravan, put it on the land with the stables, and were allowed to live in this until they died, they never sold any more fish, but kept one horse. The carts were stolen, as was the harness, and nearly everything from the house. Not all at once, but over a period of time. It was there when you went to bed, and gone in the morning. The stables were then demolished and the land returned to agriculture. A very sad ending.

The Fish Trade:
Great grandfather died in the late 1920's. Great gran, Margaret Wilson, was left with a house full of children and no breadwinner. At that time, most of the eleven children were still at home. She was a very determined women. She bought a horse and cart, left the children at home with the older ones to look after them, and set up a small business to support them all. She would leave home about 4.30am twice a week to drive the horse and cart to North Shields to buy fresh fish. This was packed in boxes with ice. When she got home, she took what was needed for the day, and went out selling the fresh fish. She did this by herself until the older boys could take over. Some of the older boys did not do this, so got other jobs to help provide. Billy (William), Matty (Mathew, my granddad), Ralphy and Peter all sold the fish as they grew up. Gran would then only go to Shields to buy the fish. Billy got married, as did Matty; Billy lived just across the street from us and still got the fish from his mother, but sold it to provide for his own family. Matty also got his fish from Gran, but had moved to Houghton by this time with his family.

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