The Meadows…I love going down there…it helps a lot of people
I’m originally from Boston, Lincolnshire and I’ve been up here since 1957. I married a lad from North Shields. He was in the Air Sea rescue at Boston. I was 27 when I came here. I loved the coastline and all the shops in North Shields and Newcastle and I just loved it.
I worked like at the night shift at Diecast and then got a job down at Hall Sections. And I can’t remember how many years I was there. I was there till it closed down.
I moved in this house in 1968. I lived in Percy, Main for a while in the flats. but they’re all pulled down now. And I loved it there because the village, you didn’t really have to go to Shields for any shopping because all the shops was in Percy Main.
I loved it for the coastline and it was so easy to get to the Lake District, you know, you was out in the countryside.
[Interviewer: And where’s your favourite place in North Shields?]
The Meadows. I love going there, 17 years now. Just started up when I started going and oh, I’ve seen a big difference. It’s lovely now to walk round. I was a farmer’s daughter and I worked on the farm and I wanted to get away from it. So yeah, I love going down there, seeing the difference, how it helps a lot of people, you know, inside, does an awful lot of good. I just go two days a week now, but I used to go every day to get a hot dinner on a Wednesday.
[Interviewer: Do you go into North Shields very often?]
I go every Tuesday. Oh, vast difference. Some things have improved, getting the bus station there and doing the main street, but for shopping. But that’s everywhere now.
[Interviewer: What shops did you like in North Shields?]
Walkers, the Co-op, because you used to get everything there. And when the supermarket came, that was good. And there was Bell Brothers, Hill Carters, and quite a lot. And shoe shops, which we haven’t got now. We haven’t got one shoe shop. It was just, you got everything there. Used to have the record shop and that’s what I liked when I came up here, all the shops.
[Interviewer: Do you go down to the Fish Quay much?]
Not now, I don’t, but I used to. I mean, that was good, because I used to get the fresh fish there. I mean, you could go down more or less any time of the day, because there was fish shops open for the fresh fish, but the best one was Hadaway’s in Shields.
And you used to have Purvis, the Bakers, that was good. Nice hot cross buns there. You’ve got to catch the bus to Shields and then another bus if you want to go anywhere else.
I had a daughter and two sons. First they went to Percy Main School, when they first started school, because I lived there. And then I moved up here and they went to New York School, which isn’t there now.
I always went out in the country, Lake District and the Scottish Borders, because it’s lovely up there. Just went to South Shields to the beach and take the kids to the fun fair. And the ferry used to take cars.
Oh, aye, the Tyne Tunnel, I remember that being built and we often used to walk through the pedestrian tunnel. Oh, the metro. I was pleased with that because it was so quick to get to Newcastle from Percy Main.
Milly was interviewed in 2026 as part of the North Shields Voices project