I like it, I like the people and I like my house.
I’m living about a mile away from where I was born, Preston hospital North Shields. My maternal grandparents lived on Redburn View and my paternal lived in Tynemouth, and I live in Preston Village. I like it, I like the people and I like my house. When I was married, we moved to Gosforth for the golf, I liked it but it wasn’t the same.
[What is your favourite place in North Shields that has a special meaning to you]
Ariel view of The Ridges (now Meadowell). The allotment was near the centre of the image.
Me Grandad had an allotment, and they were quite involved in the fishing industry, but I wasn’t aware of that because I was too young. Me grandad had a one up Redburn View, do you know where Redburn View is?
Well Redburn View went like that and Meadow Well, Waterville Road went like that, so there was this lovely space in the middle that they changed into allotments and just at the back of the house, you just went out the back door.
[Where did you go to school?]
Lovaine Terrace near site of open-air school
Mostly the open-air school and you don’t see much written about the open-air school, but after the war a lot of children were malnourished, they had rickets, they had this vitamin deficiency, so thank God we don’t need schools like that now.
Because, if you can imagine when you went in the gate there was two trees, green grass here and you walked up the centre and they had Lovaine House which was for special educational needs children and they filtered off that way because the school bus used to pick us up through the town. And I remember we used to get some ribbing from the local kids, “Oh it’s where the dafties go”, as they would.
We would sit under, these blossom trees, beautiful old trees and if there was a glimpse of the sun we were decamped out to have our lessons outside even if it got a bit chillier you were outside. You had so many playtimes where you were running around, well those who could run. There was kids on spinal carriages, kids with steels on their legs all sorts of things the matter, but the main thing was to build you up and we got the best food in North Shields, better than I got at home. We got proper milk, like milk puddings, none of your semi-skimmed and you had to eat it all, that was the downside because if there was any fat on your meat, we used to slide it on your plate, squash it down.
We had to go to sleep in the afternoon. I was number 99, I had to go and collect my blanket in number 99’s ducket. It’s like the dark ages isn’t and we had about an hour’s sleep and then a bit more playtime so I wonder how I ever learnt how to add up. I was only meant to go there, the doctor said six months, but it turned into 5 years.
We always referred it to the open-air school, I can’t remember any other name. I remember seeing a book and it had a photograph of us on our canvas beds, because the sun was shining and it was afternoon, so it was an hour’s sleep and it was patrolled up and down by one of the teachers.
I came from open-air school to Spring Gardens just for a short while and then to here [Linskill], which was a culture shock. I was sad in a way if I’d been older and looked at the children, it’s the effects of the wars as well.
I was born in 1943, and I went there when I was 5. You didn’t get proper education, you learned the basics, getting you strong. I mean, we had to have breakfast there, and this is pre bread slicer days and real butter. Imagine this is at the end of the war and what else, porridge, lumpy porridge. The teacher used to stand at a big black cauldron and stir the porridge and you had to eat everything, you weren’t allowed to leave a crumb of anything. You wouldn’t have liked it. And all this goodness paid off, it must have done.
Patricia was interviewed as part of the North Shields 800 Voices Project.