There must have been seven or eight families lived in 3 houses.
Pauline
My name is Pauline Grey and my memories of Bishopwearmouth are limited to possibly six or seven years, as a child.
Jim
My name is Jim Scrimger. I was actually born in Monkwearmouth but moved into Carter Street when I was six months old and lived the next 12 years in Carter Street, so I have quite a lot of memories of that area. I actually lived in two houses in Carter Street because first of all, I lived in number 14, which was with me Uncle Davey and me Aunt Annie. Well, I lived with me uncle downstairs, upstairs was me Aunt Annie and me Uncle Jimmy, which was Pauline’s mam’s sister and my mam’s sister, me mother was there as well. And that was actually quite a nice house in Carter Street. Me uncle Davey worked at Ryhope pit and he used to get coal delivered free of charge. All miners used to get that. And they used to come, and they used to dump a ton of coal outside the front door. And quite a lot of people in the street used to be there with their buckets, they didn’t pinch it, “Can we give you a hand to put it in?” And they used to get a bucket of coal. They used to help. They used to take it through the house into the back yard and they used to all get a bucket of coal for helping. I mean the ton of coal went a long way. Me Aunt Annie used to use it, we used to use it and the fire was always up the chimney. That’s one thing we had, we didn’t have money, but we always had a fire. And the yard was actually quite nice. It had a toilet in the yard and it had a tap in the yard, that was our facilities. But we had downstairs. I mean there was the back room that Uncle Davey had, there was the middle room, which wasn’t much bigger than a scullery, pantry.
Pauline
With a big fireplace and stove.
Jim
Yeah, the big fireplace with the stove, the wrought-iron stove and everything…
Pauline
Black-leaded stove.
Jim
…where you did the cooking. And we had the front room, me and me mam, and that was where I had me happiest memories. As I say, we had nowt. But me mother remarried and we actually moved down to Northumberland Street, the other side of Crowtree Road, for a short while and I think my mother was homesick. And I always remember Flossy Fulton saying to me mother, “I’ll have a word with the landlady and I’ll get yous back into Carter Street.” So we actually moved back into Carter Street, opposite 14 Carter Street into number 9 Carter Street, where we’d originally started. The top of the street was a terrace to about the middle, and then there was 3 semis at the bottom of the street. They had the yards at the side, they had a front door and a back door on Carter Street. The terrace that we moved into across the road was a long backyard and there must have been seven or eight families lived in 3 houses. And all shared the backyard. One toilet and one tap and that had the back door into Crow Street.
Pauline
My mother, Jimmy’s mam were sisters and there were another two sisters, so there were four sisters and there would be 2 brothers. I know a lot of brothers and sisters died in childhood.
Jim
I believe there was about 15 or something.
Pauline
14
Jim
14 was it? 6 survived, yeah. When I lived in number 14 Carter Street, my grandmother lived with us.
Pauline
She was a widow. My mother and her family grew up in Farringdon Row. Then they moved to Carter Street and I think they lived in Carter Street certainly until my mother got married. And that was in 1950. But the family continued to live there after the grandmother died. I think she died in 1950.
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Heritage Scheme collection.