There didn’t seem to be any reason looking for jobs anywhere else.
I was born here in 1949 went to live in Chirton and moved with my parents in January 1950 to a new council house at Billy Mill, we lived there until 1975. I went away to university in 1975 and worked in the private sector and other activities. I’m now 76 so I treat myself as sort of semi-retired but I can’t stop doing things.
The way my life worked out there didn’t seem to be any reason looking for jobs anywhere else. We lived in Alma Place for 31 years, house now occupied by Mr Fender.
View from Tyne Street looking East – from TWAM Flikr collection
I’ve always been interested in the history of the town. I was a Special Constable from 1970-86 with Northumbria Police. Although I’ve no connection directly with the sea, many of my relatives have been connected to the river and the sea in one way or another and I think it’s in the blood or in the genes. My favourite view because I think it sums up the place, is to stand up beside the High Light on Tyne Street, look down over the Fish Quay, over the Black Middens and through the piers. And to me that sums up what this place is.
It’s going through a reconstruction but it’s not going to ever be the commercial centre it was when I was a child. My mother would rarely if ever, go to Newcastle to shop. She could buy anything she needed. We had department stores, there was no need to go elsewhere. Out of town shopping centres didn’t exist, so I think the town has sort of stagnated for a lot of years. It’s interesting to see a lot of the places being converted to bars, the Bell and Bucket, the Magnesia Bank which used to my local drinking spot. I drink at the Low Lights tavern now.
I think there’s still a lot to do to refurbish it. The town is divided in two, you cannot drive between the north and the south of the town, there is no connectivity.
Probably the biggest thing I’ve done in my life that’s going to be ever remembered, apart from marrying and raising two wonderful daughters is the Tynemouth which then became the Northumbria World War 1 Project. But that was only the work of 80 people not just me but somebody has to lead and I was the leader so I suppose that’s my legacy and the most visible form is the blue plaques around the town remembering the nearly 1700 members who died in the war but of course, most of the houses don’t stand so they’re remembered in the memorial garden here at Linskill.
The most lasting thing of course, is the on-line database which is not visible to people, but you can access it through the internet and of course that was expanded in 2015 to cover the rest of North Tyneside so you’ve got a detailed biography of 4000 people from what is now the Borough of North Tyneside on line and will be there for all time.
Alan was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 Voices project.