The Local Dances And Playing Pool

A Memory of Newburn.

In the mid 1950s to early 1960s there were local dance halls, one at Newburn which was down Station Road, take a left towards the bridge and it was just there on the left side opposite the level crossings near enough. It was a wooden hut as far as I can remeber, I was too young to get in but I would peer in the windows. There were always fights with rival gangs from Blaydon, Ryton, Stella, Blutcher, Throckley etc. There was also a dance at Blucher that got closed down on a couple of occasions due to the fights. Then there was the dance upstairs in the Ord Arms next to Scotchie Bridge. Winlaton dance was also a good place for a fight. I'm talking fisticuffs, not weapons. One dance in Stamfordam was good, they did a canny Bradford Barn as they all did at the end of the night, but it was a canny walk home if you missed the last bus, as did many. Forest Hall was canny, as was West Denton, and then of course the good old Madge at the bottom of Westgate Road corner of Clayton Street every Saturday afternoon, when this emptied on to the streets you wondered how everybody got in. The good old favourite that was known throughout the country if not the world was 'The Oxford', and I'm sure a lot of marriages came out of there. Most of the lads bought their drapes from Jackson the Tailor and they cost £9.19s.6d, and that was made to measure. There was another popular tailors on Clayton Street, opposite Jacksons, maybe someone can jog my memory and tell me the name. Then we had the Cafe with a jukebox, and Marchetties ice cream parlour in Station Road was very popular, there were seated areas which were divided by glass screens above the back rest of the bench, you could just see over the top into the next one if you stood up, I think there were about 4 maybe 5 of these, each could seat about 10. Old Mr Marchettie never ever smiled but his wife was lovely. At the end beside the jukebox there were a couple of steps at the end of the counter leading to a door which led up to the Snooker & Billiard Room which also had an entrance in Station Road and an entrance at the back, down a dirt lane adjacent to the allotments, I shave seen lots of money change hands here. There were about six tables in here, the best one was next to the cafe door where their son Dino played a lot and he was very good. We would play a game called pool, not like the game now, there could be any amount of players. The balls would be entered into a bottle-shaped basket, if you used all the colours you then used colours with a spot on. Say eight people stood around the table, one lad put all the balls into this basket, shook them up then rolled them out in order around the table leaving his ball the last one. You paid say a bob (one shilling), each ball followed the one before it in numeral order to what each ball accounted for, your task was to pot the ball before you and so on and so on till yours was the only ball left and you won the kitty. Then you went off to the door in the cafe to pay for the table, depending how long the game took, on average a bob would cover the cost. Then it would start again, this game could get quite addictive.
The next cafe with expresso coffee and a jukebox was on Hexham Road, Throckley and it was just along from the Road Ends, when it started it was ok but it wasn't that popular. Then there was the one at Lemington just up the bank from Sparkies (Lemington Hotel) (Bangler). If we went to meet mates from school down there we would go in. It got quite full but wasn't that big inside so it wouldn't take many to make it look packed, later on Tommy Teasdale who owned the Removals company took it over.
Can you remember Bill Scorer from Walbottle? I read he had passed away, I'm sure it was last year. Bill was a removal man as well, he was married to Marjorie who was a Beauty Queen and they lived at the top of the bank on the left in an old white cottage. I used to help Bill with his business and I remember working in a damp cold place that was at the side of his house where the floor was clay. I would bundle sticks for him to sell and I can't remember being paid, let alone being given a free bundle of sticks! The last time I saw Bill I went to buy a catwalk from  someone in the village and he was opposite in a bungalow. I introduced myself and we had a good bit of crack about old times. Do you know what! He looked exactly as I remembered him, still tall and lean with fair hair. See! Not everything changes in life.

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