17 Caledonia Street

A Memory of Thornaby-on-Tees.

I was born at 17 Caledonia Street in 1958, delivered by a lady known as Aunty Didd who lived across our street. The second son of Billy and Gwen Mason, originally from Cannon Street, Middlesborough. Yes Rosemary, the street was cobbled with high curbs. The shop was owned by I think Jimmy Spyte (Spyties) who was also a fireman? Our mam would send us with a note (written on the back of a sugar bag) to get groceries on the slate to be paid at the end of the week, we got a little bag of sweets if Mam paid on time.

All the kids would play out in the street and we used to play football aganst the police station wall, no one ever complained in those days. We went to the Misson Sunday School on New Street (Mam still has our booklets with the stamps in).

Dad worked as a welder at Kennedy Gratings next to Minnories Garage, Stockton (where I would later serve my apprenticeship as panel beater and paint sprayer). On Saturday nights Ddad would pop out our back gate and walk down the back alley to the Maket pub for a few pints, and maybe a few more in the Black Bobbys which was opposite the police station. Sometimes Dad would take Mam to meet friends at the little club called the Embassy Club behind the town hall (Mam has a lovely photo of them all one Saturday together in the concert room). Happy days.

I'm still a Thornaby lad living just behind the Jolly Farmers.