Parson's Estate.
I moved from Summerhill Terrace in Newcastle to Longbenton in 1956 with my dad and sister. We moved into a ground floor flat on West Farm Wynd. I could see the farmland from my flat – there were no big flats or church. I could hear the cock crowing from the farm, it kept me awake.
When we moved into the flat there was a cooker and a boiler for washing the clothes. The fires were coal fires with boilers at the back for hot water. I remember there was a laundry service that came around the estate, they would come and collect your clothes, wash and iron them and then bring them back for you.
There were no shops then; we went shopping in South Gosforth and Four Lane Ends. The bus terminus was on Chesters Avenue and I could see the number 61 bus coming in from our flat, so I didn’t need to stand in the rain waiting for it. There were two buses to take the workers to Parson’s and to the shipyards.
The estate was known as the Parson’s estate because the majority of people worked at Parson’s – I worked there.