I've always felt as though I belonged here
Dave Young copyright Hazel Plater
I moved here via Preston Hospital because I was born here. I’ve always felt as though I belonged here and obviously I feel that more and more as I explore the town’s past and appreciate its history and heritage.
I went to the shipyards as an apprentice joiner, hated every aspect of it so I came out of it. I got a bursary from North Tyneside, and I did an HND up at the Poly. I did really well and got taken on by a huge company called John Laing Construction and they put me through more education. I got a BSc and then I got a Master’s Degree. I never planned anything in me life, but I always thought there was somebody guiding me you know whether that’s right or wrong.
I spent my first 20 years on the Ridges estate before we moved up to Sunniside and then when I was married, I moved to Chirton. I moved away once but I always moved back, I felt not just a draw towards Shields but a draw towards the Chirton area of North Shields. I went to school there and I now actually live there, and I keep telling people that I live in the metal work room.
I think growing up my favourite place was Smiths Docks playing field which was right next to Bridge Road where I lived and I remember playing there as a boy, football, cricket. There was three pitches there and on Saturday and Sunday they would be surrounded by spectators. Smith’s Docks had a team there, there was a team called Nelson Villa. The Pineapple and The Nautilus are the other two teams that come to mind. And I remember there was a guy called Dickie Bailey and every Sunday morning he would turn up with his boots and offer his services to anybody because they’d obviously all been on the drink the night before so a few of them didn’t turn up on the Sunday and Dickie Baley would bring his boots and he would play for loads and loads of different teams. He became a real character of the place.
I had me first kiss in the park. I have very vague memories of Empire Day taking place there when I was tiny having a picnic there with me mam. There was an old green sports pavilion there and that used to be decked with flags and buntings. It eventually became the changing rooms for the football teams and loads of families off the Ridges estate and probably from the Trust houses and farther afield all gathered together to celebrate what was Empire Day.
Early in the football season, they would move the goal posts every season and it was the thrill of playing on new grass and not claggy mud you know and then once a year a lake would appear in the bottom end of the field because the drainage was so poor there.
And then it changed as I got older my favourite place became pubs as I spent an awful lot of time in the pubs, places like the Stanley and the Fountain Head and the White Hart, the Top House, the Charlie Robsons, the Neville and the Railway and the Clock Vaults and the Welwyn Hotel that’s to name but a very few. The music and the banter, some of them were like saloons in the old west, full of gun slingers and folks with reputations and I used to love them and I never felt out of place there. Obviously, I was from the Ridges estate there was a real atmosphere in some of them. There was always punches and fights and things like that but I just loved it.
And then as I grew older it became the library. The library was the place I spent most of my time, such a welcome space and I know a lot of the staff there.
I remember a huge change from the old library which was as silent as a Quakers’ meeting house. Now you go in and there’s bairns running all over the place and there’s loads going on, there’s loads of meetings, it’s just a very welcoming space you know. Real heart of Shields, I think.
I’d just like it to continue to be a welcoming place. It always has through its 800 years history this was the place where non conform churches came and dissenters came and all moulded by the quaker community. I was reading in an article about a non-conformist that was thrown out of Wooler which is miles north and he ends up in North Shields for the reason that he would have been welcomed here. People didn’t try to talk down your ideas or alter your ideas; your ideas were yours and people accepted that back then, essentially, it’s the same now.
I hope that there’s more housing and the families who live here, grow up here, are not outpriced by that, because a lot of them can’t afford to live here any longer. So, I hope there’s more housing for local people.
I love the fact that we’ve had a huge influx of creatives, so we’ve got loads more painters and poets. We’ve got the places like The Exchange, The Globe and The LInskill. I just hope the place becomes a bit more vibrant in the centre. I’m very positive about the future.
I grew up and I had what my mother would call me uncles, one of them was a black guy from Mauritius and the other was a Chinese guy who I called Uncle Chong and they lived with me mother in Bellevue Terrace it was like a huge bedsit area. You had the likes of mariners who would come and stay, and I think a lot of influences from the outside shaped the moral code of this town, there’s no doubt about that at all.
I write short stories based on life, so I pull a lot of the stories that I’ve come across doing research into the town’s past. We’ve done a lot of work through the heritologists. We’ve went into schools, and we’ve delivered different lesson plans on various things such as slavery and Smiths Docks and stuff like that. I’m hoping just to continue to do that which I love. Continue to do more talks more research, a book possibly, nothing big, nothing too ambitious but possibly.
Dave was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 Voices Project.