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Whickham Memories 1954
That was the year that as Ann Riches, I married William (Bill) Urwin. Having lived in the Teams area of Gateshead until I married, it was wonderful after living in an upstairs flat to move into a new three bedroom, semi-detached house, in Whickham!
The house in Park Drive, Whickham, was one of the first private houses built by Alec Watson when permits for private building were issued. The Police houses built in Duckpool Lane, being the first houses built by him after the war. It was exciting to watch the houses being built and view the various stages imaging the day we’d move in and it would be our first home. We moved into number 3, on the 4th of December 1954. The lounge was a lovely big room, we had a carpet on the floor and net curtains at the windows to mask the fact that the room was empty of furniture.
It was hard at first to settle down as I was working at Proctor and Gamble in Gosforth, and had to leave home at 7.30 am to catch two buses to get there in time. There were no houses in Lambton Avenue then just fields right across to Swalwell, so it was easy to see if the 89 bus was in the distance and decide whether to walk or run to catch it. The fare was 5d single to Newcastle or Gateshead, and 9d return or 4s for 12 journeys.
In 1956, our daughter was born which was wonderful! I gave up working in an office but worked in the house instead.
One of the penalties of going into Whickham to shop was the fact that there still were no paths or roads and if wet, the pram, my pride, was a Silver Cross pram which kept sticking in the mud. I don’t know which was worse, going up or coming down.
There was a good selection of shops in Front Street then - Hadrian, Laws, Co-op, fruit shops, paper shops and the cottages along toward Back Row were lovely to look at. I was glad that some of the trees that were in their front gardens were left when the houses were demolished for the shops that now form St. Mary’s Green. Old ladies used to sit outside their doors in the afternoons wearing their white pinnies that were dazzling in the sun when it shone. The assistants in Hadrian and Thompson Red Stamp Stores always gave biscuits to the children when mums were shopping.
There have been many changes in the village since we came to live here. Whickham is not the little village we moved into but the camaraderie still exists. People always exchange greetings when meeting in the street.
We attended West End Methodist Church enjoying the fellowship and doing various duties for the church. In 1980, a new church was built in Ancaster Road and all members transferred thereThe green outside St. Mary’s Church is the responsibility of the council; the flowers there get better each year.
The Britain in Bloom Committee was formed in 1980 Bill was one of the first members due to his love of gardening. I was co-opted in 1998 onto the committee and enjoy serving on it, doing duties at the various shows in Lobley Hill and the Spring Flower Show in Whickham.
Park Drive now has a road, pavements, houses opposite and a smart permanent brick building built in 1960 to replace the wooden hut used by the Whickham Scouts.
The bank doesn’t get any easier but Whickham is a great place to live in.