Castle Hills, Northallerton

A Memory of Northallerton.

My grand-parents, Ernie and Winnie Hewby, lived in a big old house towards the end of Castle Hills across the lane from a small farm/small holding. I believe the house was called Standard Lodge and that during the war they ran a small café there and kept some pigs. My siblings and I used to love visiting, my grandfather won a competition for his gardens (he loved gardening) and I've inherited his love of roses. We used to wave to the train drivers as they travelled past the house and sometimes they threw sweets to us. At Christmas time we used to practice our carol singing and go to all the neighbour's houses, then there was the big count up of how much we had made that night and this helped us to buy Christmas presents for everyone. We were sometimes sent to the farm across the lane, I think for milk, but this was usually quite risky as they had two dogs one on either side of the path each on a chain and of course they used to leap at us barking loudly, thank heavens we didn't have to go too often. I remember one night coming home to Castle Hills having been out on a trip with my grand-mother, my granddad met us to walk us home as there were no street lights then and so it was pitch dark, I remember thinking how exciting it was. My grand-parents eventually moved on to a council house and left this beautiful house, some years later it was bought and completely pulled down and another house built on the site - I always thought it was such a shame. But we all have lovely memories of the times we spent running around the house and grounds!