I like living on the coast, I like being on the edge.
I wasn’t born here, I think of myself as an east-coaster because I was born in Norfolk where my mum came from. But my dad came from North Shields. Mum and dad met out in Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe, during the war and she much preferred the northeast to Norfolk. She found the people friendlier she liked my dad’s family, and so we came to live up here when I was 5. And I’m 75 now.
I was a student in Liverpool, and I worked down that way for a while but basically became homesick. I like this part of the world. I like living on the coast, I like being on the edge.
I was at King Eddie’s infants and then I just hopped over the wall into the junior school and that was back in the days when the girls were upstairs, and the boys were downstairs, and we had separate yards. And then, I got to Tynemouth Grammar Tech and it suited me a treat because it was a very practical school.
Most of my life I’ve lived in Bamburgh Terrace but after my mum died I really wanted a garden and I’d always fancied living on Algernon Terrace and I finally got there. I can virtually see where I used to live, it’s not far away as the crow flies, about half a mile I think.
Aerial view of the fish quay in North Shields
I’m fond of the town, it’s a bit of a messy old place but the real draw is, I think, the riverside and the views. I find the river more fascinating than the sea because there’s more going on. I’ve got cousins who’ve got a flat overlooking the river and I really love their view.
Thanks to North Shields 800 there’s a lot of nice things happening, those gable ends, I think they’re really smashing and there’s some new sculptures appeared. The new one on the haven, the bicycle and the seat, and it’s good to see the cycle way up the coast. There’s things happening brightening the area up. I worry for all towns because they’re dying on their feet because everybody’s shopping online and North Shields in our day, you know, you’d have sweety shops and fish shops and fruit shops. Tripe shops, leather shops, specialist places. You didn’t go to Newcastle to shop.
Walkers and Hill Carters, you got everything in there from your furniture to your material to make things from, but now we’re not practical people anymore. We buy stuff ready-made. I’ve got faith in North Shields because the people here are tough and hardworking you know I just wish it the best really. I wouldn’t like to have to move out for any reason.
It’s always been looked down upon hasn’t it slightly. It’s been the poor relation to Tynemouth and other places but when my mum was very ill it was tough women, mainly from North Shields who looked after her and were rough but kind, you know. And I would rather have that.
Linda was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 project.