Growing Up In Seaton Sluice In The 1960s

A Memory of Seaton Sluice.

I moved from Blyth to Seaton Sluice into a newly built house in Cresswell Avenue in 1957. Life as a child in the village was exciting; most days we would either play on the beach and harbour or the new building development behind Parkfield in Easedale. We made camps in the former garden of the demolished Jacobean house at Seaton Lodge and used Starlight Castle in the dene as our own.

At autumn half term break we called this 'Blackberry Week' because that was when they were around and the hedgerows would be full of fruit. Some Christmases had snow, e.g. the long winter of 1963 and a shorter one in 1966. We could sledge down the hill from Parkfield into Cresswell Avenue without any fears of cars approaching.
For most of the year the streets were our own; popular games were Hide and Seek where you could hide in neighbours' gardens without any worries. TV games involved Bonanza, Thunderbirds and Z Cars.

In those days we still had Straughan's greengrocers tour the streets with his horse and cart. Ringtons tea reps also called regularly to sell us tea and broken biscuits. Once a year a gentleman (Frenchman) would knock on doors selling onions that were draped around his bike.

We could shop at the Seaton Valley Co-op store at the end of the street for basics as well as at the Fountain Head Cafe and shop. In the summer our favourite places to hang out were the old bus shelter and the Corner House cafe where the juke box played the latest hits. The number 8 United bus would take you to Blyth, Whitley Bay and Newcastle; the no.7 to North Shields and the No 59 up the Avenue to Seaton Delaval. I used to travel to Blyth every day to go to primary school at Plessey Road. One fateful day, after school, I was involved in a bus crash outside the Astley Arms (c1963) when the No.59 ploughed into the back our No 8 bus at the bus stop. We had to walk home; my Mum gave me hell for being late!

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