The Court House Etc

A Memory of Northallerton.

I want to write mainly about the Court House, circa 1937, but some later memories have crept in. I was born in L'Espec Street. My grandmother lived in South Parade, opposite the Atkinson's house already mentioned elsewhere. Before the Court House was built (by Tom Willoughby, I believe) it was possible to walk from L'Espec Street, diagonally across the field it was subsequently built on, to the far end of the back garden of my grandmother's house where you had to scale the wall, before dashing into the conservatory, making a lot of noise, to be given a cuddle and a pink sugar mouse to eat by Aunt Ada, while grandmother looked on disapprovingly as it was guaranteed 'to spoil my dinner'. Born in 1845 or 1846, she lived to be 92 and had once been Matron of the Workhouse. She felt that having pigeons on the house roof was a 'bad sign' betokening imminent death, and would go into the yard waving a feather duster fixed to a bamboo pole, to scare them away. Both had died by June, 1939, and my parents and I moved there shortly after the start of WW2. The house was sold in 1978, the family having lived there for seventy-two years, during which time there were no births or weddings, only funerals. I was pleased to see, when I visited Northallerton some twelve years ago, that fixed to the front door were colourful balloons, denoting that at least one child had been born there at last.

I distinctly remember my mother saying to the builders as the Court House was nearing completion: 'In a month or so, I fear we will not be allowed to take this short cut any longer.' And so it proved. The site was then landscaped and well-tended for many years by George Fowler, a contemporary of my father's.

Grammar School Lane in about 1946 was where Dr Todd, who looked after the health of school children, had a beautiful garden with a pond, which she would allow you to look at through a wrought-iron gate. Another elderly lady who lived in this road used to collect pig swill from houses during the war. It was poured into a drum which stood in a trailer attached to her car, and which would trundle along the road, leaving the smell behind. I do not know where the pigs were kept.

I can vaguely remember a fancy-dress parade held in the market place, possibly in 1946, to celebrate the end of WW2. One girl was riding on an ostrich - well, not really, because the papier mache bird was fixed to her body, yellow reins keeping its head and neck up - and her own legs did the walking. I was puzzled for ages about this, until I realised that the second pair of long legs with stockings on show, plus wellington boots, were artificial and stuffed, being attached in some way under her coat, which spread across the ostrich's back. I hope I've made this clear. It must have made a great impression on me. I can still picture her - and I hope she got a prize!