Longlands College 1957

A Memory of Middlesbrough.

I came to live in Boro with my parents, George & Mary Smith, and my young sister Karen, from Wingate, Co. Durham. My Dad was to take over as the first caretaker of the new Longlands College, which was still being constructed. We lived on the college grounds in what we thought was the best bungalow we'd ever seen!
I was 9 years old, football mad, and the college had, what was to become MY football pitch. I had come from a little junior school in Wingate to what I imagined was the biggest college in the world! Thats how it seemed when you're only 9.
I made many friends during my time living there, who else had a football pitch in their back garden ?? My dad continued as a very popular caretaker until he reluctantly had to retire in 1985. He only had one arm (lost the left one in WW2) but it never ever held him back, and over many years at the college he always had a really good football team. Many guys over the years remember him knocking on many a classroom door and enquiring, 'anybody interested in soccer training tonight ???. Longlands College, I know, held many fond memories for a lot of people and it was a crying shame to see it demolished for housing.