A Short account of my memories of the Second World War

I was seventeen months old when the war broke out. I lived at 29 Harvey Street at New Brancepeth with My Mam and Dad and three brothers and one sister. My Dad who had served in the First World War and had been badly wounded as a teenager in Northern Italy in 1917 was the Storeman at New Brancepeth Colliery. He served with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. Everything was rationed. The impact of the rationing meant zero obesity. It is only as an adult and reading about those times the the realisation dawned on me of the huge worry it must have been for my Mam to feed a family of seven. I remember going to New Brancepeth Co-op on Unthank Terrace with my Mam and her handing over the ration books and the man behind the counter cutting out the coupons and handing the rations books back to her. My Dad must have been quite a lad. My recollections of him are very faint as he passed away when I was nine years old. He had had one leg amputated above the knee due to a wound turning to gangrene whilst in the Army. However, he had a garden down the Garden Path and despite his handicap he tended the garden and raised vegetables and kept rabbits in a cree to supplement our diet. I well remember going down the garden on a Saturday night and him picking a rabbit up by the ears and killing it with one blow of his hand across its neck. Then taking it up home and skinning it and cleaning it ready for the oven. I know that this sounds barbaric today but we were lucky that we had the garden with the vegetables and the rabbits. There was no television in those days and my parents would listen nightly to the news on the wireless on how the War was going. It must have been a terrible time for parents with young families not knowing if the Germans would eventually invade this country. I can also remember the German propaganda on the wireless and the well known catch phrase the presenter William Joyce used to introduce the programme “Germany calling, Germany calling” Most people listened to his broadcasts throughout the War. My Dad also cobbled our shoes and I can still see him with a shoe or a boot on his last sitting at the back kitchen table using his skills as he repaired the sole or replaced a heel.

All children were issued with gas masks and these had to be carried to school every day and stacked handy in the classroom. We also carried Identity Cards. I cannot see the big fuss in todays world about carrying ID Cards. I can well remember sitting in class in St. Josephs at Ushaw Moor and the Air Raid Warning siren sounding. We were quickly lined up in Class, handed our gas mask carriers and marched into the school yard then across the Church Drive and into the Air Raid shelter by the side of the drive. The Teachers carried hurricane lamps and when we were all in seated on the wooden seating around the walls the bomb proof steel door was shut with a loud clang and we were sealed in until the All Clear siren sounded. It was wet and damp in the Shelter and very cold even in summer. The Teachers told us stories and we would say a prayer for our safety and I can still remember the lovely fresh air when we left the shelter.

There was a total blackout. No light could escape from any window at home. The Air Raid Wardens would patrol the streets nightly and if the smallest chink of light showed there would be a knock at the door and the householder would be told to make sure the windows
showed no light. There were no street lights so people carried on normal life in darkness.

I have many more memories so I will sign off now and see if there is any response to this post.

Brian Mc

Neesham’s Brewery Shandy – Label

Neesham Shandy – Label

 

NEESHAM’S SHANDY – MADE FROM LEMONADE & BEER

275ml   9 2/3 FL OZ

Anderson’s Grocery shop around 1935, Station Road

Andersons Grocery shop 1935

Submitted on behalf of Margaret Thomspon :

Anderson’s Grocery shop around 1935 in Station Road. My mother Margaret and her sister Nancy standing at the entrance. The shop was situated next door to Arthur Lough’s shoe shop. It was later passed on to my Aunt Rosie Smith and then to Mabel Luke and her husband Norman Lee. Mabel’s mother and father owned Luke’s fish and chip shop below the grocery shop.

 

Comments from Facebook Memories GROUP

• Paul Clough Another great shot. Not seen this one before
• Margaret Thompson I do not think there is another photo of this shop around this time, it has only ever been mentioned as a memory by Peter Howarth before.
• Audrey Tidbury Cooper Staniland Lovely photo!. I guess my mother (nee Gladys Jolly} would have shopped there. She lived in Station House with her parents and i was born in 1935.

Ushaw Moor Co-Op

From Original Memories BLOG

brian mcloughlin– Tue Nov 16 1:42:17 GB-Eire 2004

Tonight I would like to concentrate on the building where Mc Cormicks shop is now situated in Durham Road. This building was constructed in the years leading up to the First World War by the New Brancepth Cooperative Society. If we start from the first department of the store from the Broompark end then this was the Greengrocery department. There was a female employee worked in this department but I cannot remember her name. Next was the Butchery Department. The butcher was Norman Ridley and he lived in a flat behind the Butchers shop. The butchers shop was huge and in the war years when I was a child there was a lack of fresh meat. The shop was spotless and you could literally eat your food off the floor. (My Dad was serving his time as a bricklayer in 1915 on this site when as an eighteen year old boy he volunteered for the Army and enlisted with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.) The thing that fascinated me as a young child was the size of the walk in fridge in the butchers shop. There were no domestic fridges in those days; it was the first fridge I can remember.

Next to the Butchers traveling towards the Flass was a loading area which was used among other things to take goods up to the Hardware Department upstairs in the store by means of a pulley system. The main door to the store led into the Grocery and Hardware Departments. The stairs leading to the Hardware Department rose directly from the main door. It was a very limited magic world of shoes, bedding, lino, furniture, cloth, buttons, cottons, and high ceilings. The man in charge was Eddie Manford whose family originated from Pringle Place at New Brancepeth. If you turned to the right inside the main door you entered the magic world of the Grocery Department. Butter and cheese came in barrels in those days, the wooden barrels were stripped from their contents and the butter or cheese was cut into portions with thin steel wires. Everything was measured out and placed into strong paper bags and it was magic to watch sugar, flour, raisins, currants, biscuits, and other commodities expertly weighed and bagged very quickly. The men behind the counters were known personally, Kit Kitchen Billy Calvert amongst them and they were on first name terms with all customers. The bill was made out by the server but you took the bill to the office. The “office” was a small area enclosed by a wooden partition which looked out onto Durham Road. There was a small hatch where the transaction took place. The lady, again I cannot remember her name took the bill and asked for your check number. She then gave you a small paper check which registered the money you had spent The smell in the different departments were magic, numerous unwrapped commodities side by side, they blended to create individual smells for each Department. Last but not least was the Cobblers, this situated on the gable end of the store where the road led down to High View. The smell of leather and chemicals in the polishes was magic, plus the sound of the high speed lathes, or a knife cutting leather and the nails being hammered into the leather repairs. Danny Henderson from Mew Brancepeth worked there and I knew the cobbler as “Cody” who I think came from Esh Winning. Our check number was 27. An article on the “Dividend” is in the pipeline. I hope readers enjoy this and add their own memories to this excellent website. Please add to this article.

Posted on behalf of

Brian Mcloughlin

Martin Gallagher – Gallaghers Shop

My Grandad was Martin Gallagher who built and ran the little grocers shop at the top of Arthur Street with his wife Ruby. They had two daughters, Shirley and Isabel (my Mam). Auntie Shirley and her husband, Tom Wilson (from Bearpark), succeeded to the shop then it passed to my Auntie Lily and her husband Bert. It finally closed around 1979/80. My Mam and Dad were living at 13 Arthur Street when my sister and I were born in 1964 and 1966.

We moved to Gilesgate in 1969 but I still spent a lot of my childhood visiting relatives in Ushaw Moor, by then my Grandad had moved to 11 Whitehouse Lane. I remember my sister and I being taken up to the allotments – to me it was like stepping into another world, pigeons everywhere! We would go for walks along the College Road then call in at “the shop” where we were allowed to choose a cake each. My favourite to this day is a peach melba.

Old Store Ushaw Moor

Broughs store at the bottom

of Station Road operated a delivery service which covered a large

area of the Deerness Valley. They created employment for at least

22 people in 1914.