I feel me dad there a little bit you know… his cardigan still hangs on the back of the shed door
I was born in Sydney Street but we moved away when I was 6 months old, to Stevenage and then we moved back when I was 6. I moved away for university at 18 and then I met my husband and then we lived in Leeds, I’ve lived in Aylesbury, I’ve lived in Milton Keynes and then when I had my second child, I decided I wanted to move home so we moved back up here in 2001.
Whenever we’ve ever moved, we always had fish and chips on moving day. That’s probably my first memory of that and I went to the school at St Cuthberts so literally at 6, 7 walked myself to school, that type of thing.
My recollection of my first day of school, just all of these kids coming up to me, say this word, say this word, because I would be saying schooul kind of thing, and I just remember me sister who was 5 years older than me came up and shooed them all away, go away type of thing. I’ve got a friend who I made there in reception and I’m still friends with her now.
Angela Goodwin (l) with mum Emma Laidler (r) copyright Hazel Plater
When I moved back, my sister lived in a four-storey property and we lived in her attic, it was just two rooms, just the four of us, it was just a great time. We had Christmas together which was excellent, you know this huge family Christmas which my mum and dad also slept over and stuff and then I moved out after 6 months just to get a flat which was Park Crescent and then moved to like a stone’s throw, so yes, and I’ve lived there and don’t really have any intentions of moving out.
Me allotment is literally a two-minute walk away from my house, it’s on Park Terrace Allotments. I’ve had it 20 years but me dad had it 20 years before that. My dad had allotments all of his life, he had the one where the Parks is now.
And then they sold that off to build the Parks Leisure Centre and they offered him instead, Mariners Lane or Park Terrace and what swung it was he liked Mariners Lane because there’s about sixty to a hundred plots on there but you have to share the water with about four different plots, on Park Terrace you have your own tap. I feel me dad there a little bit you know, there’s still remnants of his. His cardigan still hangs on the back of the shed door, and I think he would be really pleased,
But being in this digital age I think it must be difficult for shops to survive, we buy everything online it’s so much cheaper to buy things online so I can understand why the shops are depleting. But I think that the things that they are doing now are looking good. I love that new ramp down to the fish quay. That ramp actually existed when I was a kid and then they filled it in, but now they’ve brought it back again but a different format. So, I like the new stuff I think Howard Street’s looking lush, the square’s looking lush. Onwards and upwards I guess.
Angela was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 project.