My Chidhood Friend, Wilfred Jobling Of Brandon Road, Eshwinning

A Memory of Esh Winning.

I was born in 1931, Middlesbrough. My parents were Thomas and Lily Hunt. My sister Sylvia, was born in 1937. From an early age, before and after Sylvia was born, mum would take us every August by bus to Durham city and on to Brandon Road, Eshwinning. There lived my Uncle Tom, Aunt Liza, and Uncle Jimmy. An older girl called Ursula was sometimes there, but I do not know where she lived. I was more interested in Wilf Jobling, who was my age and lived next door with his mum. I think his dad was in the R.A.F and I don't think I ever saw him. I loved my one week of the year there. I came from streets of terrace houses where grass and trees meant a visit to Albert Park. Wilf and his pals were my willing guides to all that was meant, by the freedom to roam in the woods, the fields and the beck. He even arranged for the sun to shine and rain that never soaked us. At some time, during our yearly visits (but never with our dad), Uncle Jim was no longer with Uncle Tom and Aunt Liza. I was never told why, so now I can only assume he died. I think he must have been in the first world war. Dad was never with us because he only had one week of yearly holiday, and we used it during 'Race Week' at Redcar by the Sea - lucky me. In 1940, after dad was discharged from the Royal Artillery with diabetes, we all visited Brandon Rd. I was taken from school because it was not a holiday. If it was before May, I would have been 8 years old and and seeing a dead grandad for the second time in my short life. In 1939 my maternal grandad was killed in an industrial accident, and now I was being shown my dad's father who had never ever been spoken of. Anyway, Wilf and I were more interested in the cream doughnuts provided by Sparks bakery, than a strange smelling coffin. Wilf and I were Wolf Cubs and he took me to his weekly pack meeting, where I fell in love with the pretty Akela. I was able to demonstrate the different knots to the other cubs at her request, and felt quite proud of myself. I last saw Wilf during playtime at the school in Brandon Rd, as we passed to catch the bus home. I was never taken back to Eshwinning, and years later my mum told me that Aunt Liza said that she could take Sylvia and I away from her and have us raised as Roman Catholics, because she, Uncle Tom and dad's dead father were of the ' true faith' - needless to say this never happened. A lady I called Aunt Johanna lived at Waterhouses with three girls and a son, I think their dad was in the army. They were called Budd - nice people. My two grown-up granddaughters are urging me to write a family history, but I lack certain essential facts that died with the relatives I can no longer ask. I do not know the number of Wilf's house or or that of my next door relatives. I do not know the surname or the relationship of my relatives to that of my paternal grandfather or aunt, Johanna Budd. My mother did say that female catholic 'Hunts' always married outside the faith - Aunt Liza had the last laugh. My mother and father had a legal separation in August 1943. When he (my dad) died in December 1943 aged 42, he had turned or returned to being a catholic. Mum brought him home and he was buried as such. As for grand memories of Eshwinning, I will mention those I can still remember at my age of 81. Seeing 'The Slave Ship' starring Walter Baxter, Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. Leaping for a stepping stone in the middle of the beck, at the same time as a girl. There was only room for one, and I won. She fell into the water and her big brother chased Wilf and I, but we were never caught. If the young lady reads this, please accept my grown-up apologies - it was not done on purpose. At the side of the cinema or picture house as we would call it, Wilf showed me where bits of film had been swept out of the over head projection room into the alley. The trick was to roll it into small squibs of paper and set it alight - it smoked with a horrible smell. A place with a not unpleasant but a different smell, our Middlesbrough lavvy was at the bottom of Aunt Liza's yard. A brick shed whitewashed inside, and housing a bench topped with a wooden board, equipped with two comfortable oval shaped holes on top of something which was emptied when dark, by the nightsoil men - no prize for guessing its usefulness. The National Records Office can't find a birth certificate for my dad who was born in 1901, as per his death certificate. My only chance of information could be from Wilf or someone who remembers the 'Hunts' in Eshwinning. Thank you for your attention - I hope it was entertaining.

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