Chat with Mrs Winifred Mary Spoor (nee Wanless) on 13th March 2001
Mrs Spoor was born in No. 4 Blue Row, Heddon on the Wall in 1911. Her father was Stephen Wanless, and her mother was Dinah McKenzie Young from Acomb. She had a sister, Phyllis who was three years younger and a brother, William, who was five years younger.
[The 1901 Census shows Diana Young (b.1878 Acomb) working as a domestic servant at Rudchester Farm; Stephen Wanless (b.1878 in Heddon, living at Houghton Moor, was working as a groom. They married in 1910 but I can't find them on the 1911 Census].
Her grandfather [Stephen Wanless b.1846] was born in Heddon. His parents would arrive in Heddon before 1840. They had three children and three more after they came to Heddon. The first of the second three was born in 1840. The family, originally from Rothbury in 1662, whose descendants worked down through Northumberland and arrived in Heddon. Winnie had aunts, uncles and grandparents living close so was brought up in a family atmosphere.
She went to Heddon School when she was 5 years old and then won a scholarship when she was 12 to go to Lemington Secondary School. The teachers at Heddon at that time were Mr Fornear (Headmaster), Miss Farthing from Matfen and Mrs Hills.
Lemington Secondary School was newly built in 1923 and Winnie was one of the first pupils at this new school. William Hall, also from Heddon, won a scholarship and went to Lemington School in the same year. As this was a brand new school, there were children of different ages in one class for the first year before children were sorted into 'abilities'.
When Winnie left school she wanted to train as a nurse but couldn't enrol until she was 19 years old. This meant she was at home for a while, then went as a children's help to a doctor's family in Stockton for a short while, while taking a cousin's place. When she was 19, she went to the RVI to train as a General Nurse.
Winnie's family continued to live in Blue Row until their parents built the house where she now lives, 25 Heddon Banks, in 1937. This was the first house to be built on Heddon Banks. Winnie's mother had looked at various possible sites and had considered buying a house along the Military Road at Heddon, where houses were being built at that time, but there was no mains water to the Military Road houses; they got their water from a well in each garden. Her mother would not entertain a well in the garden, so chose the land on Heddon Banks which Mr Shield (Heddon Banks Farm) was offering for sale. Another definite advantage was that electricity was available, it had already been brought to Heddon Banks Farm further down the road.
The water for the taps in the village was supplied by Bays Leap Farm. There was a large 'pond', narrow at one end and broad at the other end, where the water was collected at the Mill down Mill Lane which disappeared when that land was open-casted. The water would be spring water probably coming from East Heddon. The water was pumped up to the brick building at the top of Chare Bank. The water was not purified. Winnie's brother had been peeping into the storage house on Chare Bank and saw a dead crow or two in the tank! It was led from there to various stand-pipes in Heddon. One at the top of Chare Bank, one between Blue Row and Clayton Terrace, and one for the Square Yard, to name but a few. The families living at the [Coal] Depot (on Station Road) carried their water from the tap between Blue Row and Clayton Terrace. Carrying water was usually the job of the children after school.
Every house had a rain-water butt at their back doors. rain water was very good for hair washing! If it was a hot summer and the water ran dry the nearest supply was a spring on the north side of Heddon Common between Heddon and Houghton. After school the children got the job of taking buckets to the spring to collect water; it was a slow job. A quicker supply, but a further distance to walk, was to South Houghton Farm yard where water was available from a spring which filled the troughs. The people who lived at Hillhead got their water from a spring halfway down a nearby field. At that time, the Ridley children would collect the water for their household and also for the people living in 'the big house'. There were lots of springs and wells in and around Heddon.
[The 1901 Census shows Diana Young (b.1878 Acomb) working as a domestic servant at Rudchester Farm; Stephen Wanless (b.1878 in Heddon, living at Houghton Moor, was working as a groom. They married in 1910 but I can't find them on the 1911 Census].
Her grandfather [Stephen Wanless b.1846] was born in Heddon. His parents would arrive in Heddon before 1840. They had three children and three more after they came to Heddon. The first of the second three was born in 1840. The family, originally from Rothbury in 1662, whose descendants worked down through Northumberland and arrived in Heddon. Winnie had aunts, uncles and grandparents living close so was brought up in a family atmosphere.
She went to Heddon School when she was 5 years old and then won a scholarship when she was 12 to go to Lemington Secondary School. The teachers at Heddon at that time were Mr Fornear (Headmaster), Miss Farthing from Matfen and Mrs Hills.
Lemington Secondary School was newly built in 1923 and Winnie was one of the first pupils at this new school. William Hall, also from Heddon, won a scholarship and went to Lemington School in the same year. As this was a brand new school, there were children of different ages in one class for the first year before children were sorted into 'abilities'.
When Winnie left school she wanted to train as a nurse but couldn't enrol until she was 19 years old. This meant she was at home for a while, then went as a children's help to a doctor's family in Stockton for a short while, while taking a cousin's place. When she was 19, she went to the RVI to train as a General Nurse.
Winnie's family continued to live in Blue Row until their parents built the house where she now lives, 25 Heddon Banks, in 1937. This was the first house to be built on Heddon Banks. Winnie's mother had looked at various possible sites and had considered buying a house along the Military Road at Heddon, where houses were being built at that time, but there was no mains water to the Military Road houses; they got their water from a well in each garden. Her mother would not entertain a well in the garden, so chose the land on Heddon Banks which Mr Shield (Heddon Banks Farm) was offering for sale. Another definite advantage was that electricity was available, it had already been brought to Heddon Banks Farm further down the road.
The water for the taps in the village was supplied by Bays Leap Farm. There was a large 'pond', narrow at one end and broad at the other end, where the water was collected at the Mill down Mill Lane which disappeared when that land was open-casted. The water would be spring water probably coming from East Heddon. The water was pumped up to the brick building at the top of Chare Bank. The water was not purified. Winnie's brother had been peeping into the storage house on Chare Bank and saw a dead crow or two in the tank! It was led from there to various stand-pipes in Heddon. One at the top of Chare Bank, one between Blue Row and Clayton Terrace, and one for the Square Yard, to name but a few. The families living at the [Coal] Depot (on Station Road) carried their water from the tap between Blue Row and Clayton Terrace. Carrying water was usually the job of the children after school.
Every house had a rain-water butt at their back doors. rain water was very good for hair washing! If it was a hot summer and the water ran dry the nearest supply was a spring on the north side of Heddon Common between Heddon and Houghton. After school the children got the job of taking buckets to the spring to collect water; it was a slow job. A quicker supply, but a further distance to walk, was to South Houghton Farm yard where water was available from a spring which filled the troughs. The people who lived at Hillhead got their water from a spring halfway down a nearby field. At that time, the Ridley children would collect the water for their household and also for the people living in 'the big house'. There were lots of springs and wells in and around Heddon.
Shops in Heddon
Going back a long way it seemed to be the habit of a widow or spinster to set up a little shop to sell sweets. In the cottage (at the north end of Carter's Cottages) lived a Mrs Straughan. Her spinster sister, Annie, came to live with her. Annie opened a little shop which would sell yeast, sweets and odd bits and pieces.
The main shop in Heddon was run by Mrs Waugh. Her first shop was in Haddock's Hole, in the middle house. On the Military Road side of that house was a pantry window and on the lintel above the window in red lettering was the word, 'Lemonade'. After school time there would be a member of the family perched in the pantry window to sell lemonade and sweets to passing cyclists. Mrs Waugh moved to her new shop at the Old Post Office, further west on the opposite side of the road, which she bought from the Sir James Knott estate in 1924.
Winnie herself would like to know where the original Haddrick's Hall was. Was it the origin of the Three Tuns pub? This sounds feasible. This must be many years back and it is easy to see the corruption of Haddrick's Hall to Haddock's Hole. Haddock's Hole always just referred to the three cottages. Their correct postal address was, 'The Three Tuns Yard'. When Haddock's Hole was sold at Sir James Knott sale it was bought by Winnie's uncle, Thomas Armstrong, who was then Area Manager at the Throckley Co-op and lived at Throckley. The three houses were bought by him, 'just by chance', as a speculation. He was sitting next to Winnie's mother at the sale and when the item of Haddock's Hole came up he asked, "Where's that?" Winnie's mother explained where Haddock's Hole was and said the price was for the three cottages. So Mr Armstrong put his hand up and was then the owner of the three cottages known as Haddock's Hole! Not a planned acquisition!
At the time of the Sir James Knott Sale -
The Jacksons were living in Clayton Terrace, third house from the bottom. Their parents had lived there before them and they were friendly with Winnie's relatives. there were three Jackson brothers and one sister: Will, Tom, John and Annie. Will and Tom Jackson were in the First World War. The third brother, John, was disabled, possibly from an accident at the pit. He walked badly.
One of the brothers (Winnie cannot remember which) either got a military medal or was mentioned in dispatches. There was a grand reception laid on in Throckley Store Hall for his homecoming but he did not turn up; he went for a long walk instead. He was a quiet man not wanting a fuss.
The Jacksons did not buy their house, therefore after the Sir James Knott sale they had nowhere to live so Winnie's Uncle Tom (Tom Armstrong) put the Jacksons into the middle house of Haddock's Hole as the tenant had moved elsewhere. One brother died, and Annie died. It is thought that the remaining brother was one of the first residents in Centurion Way when it was built.
Regarding The Cottage, referred to above: Winnie's mother had asked a Great Aunt why The Cottage has the church-type window as one of its rear windows. Her explanation was that a stone mason had built The Cottage for himself. It was thought that as he went around doing his work, repairing and making new windows, he would use the arched window frame which he had collected, on his own cottage.
Tennis Court on Heddon Common
It started possibly in the 1920/30s when a small nucleus of young people from Heddon - Willie and Rhoda Waugh, possibly some of the Dunns, and Violet Armstrong (Winnie's cousin) decided to have a tennis court and a hut on the top of Heddon Common. They had a grass court which they made themselves, and it ran for quite a while.
Holiday Bungalows on Heddon Common
Never a large number of bungalow. When the war came, people came out of the city to live in the country. Many years later, Winnie had met a couple on a Church Open Day who said that their baby had been born in a hut on Heddon Common - life was tough!
Some 'Supply' Vicars at Heddon
Mr Pringle, Vicar at Heddon, was in poor health for some years and Heddon Church had a number of 'Supply' Vicars. Winnie remembers one was very small and, while he was preaching, he would bob up and down in the pulpit, and sometimes disappear altogether for a few seconds. Another was keen on amateur dramatics and put on a religious play, and his part was being put on the rack. His cry was, "No, no, not the rack!"; so that became his nickname - 'The Rack'. This was one of the nicknames given to the preachers by the children attending Church services.
Holidays
There was no going away for a family holiday. We didn't expect to be taken anywhere, except for the annual trip to Whitley Bay. The school holidays came along and we children spent them either on Heddon Common or else down at the Mill (on Mill Lane). When the tramcars came as far as Throckley (I think he fare was a halfpenny from Newcastle) there would be groups of children walking up from Throckley to Heddon Common. They came from Byker and other places around Newcastle. Parents put the river out of bounds.
Winnie remembers two holidays in her early life. Her mother took the family to stay with her Aunt Belle at Cullercoats. Aunt Belle lived in a farm cottage close to a quarry - it could be called Marden Quarry. We used to cross a road, walk down a field and we were in Cullercoats. Another holiday was with her Uncle and Aunt from Throckley as a companion to her cousin, Violet, who was a year older. They went to her Uncle's relatives at Allendale. They went by tub-trap to South Wylam Station. Uncle Tom was quite a portly figure and he got into the trap last through the door at the back and to my horror I saw the shafts rising up in the air and was terrified the horse would go up too! At South Wylam Station we got the train to Catton from where we were picked up by the car and taken to Allendale. Husbands and fathers did not get annual holidays.
We really had a wonderful outdoor life. We would disappear for hours in the morning to go to catch 'harnies' (tiddlers), pick wildflowers, or just roam the Common or go to the Mill. Parents did not worry. There were no safeguards on the Common (there were quarries), it is a wonder nobody got hurt as we were always clambering about and climbing trees. During the Second World War it was proposed to cut down some of the trees at the bottom of the Common, near to the Market Garden made by Goftons [Close Lea], apart from the garden in front of their house. This was a natural screen of trees at the back of the Market Garden which gave shelter. These were going to be cut down, but Mr Gofton protested and the trees were saved. The wood near to Low Farm was all cut down.
The quarries on the Common were all worked before Winnie's time. Her grandfather worked in one of the quarries and had an accident which made him a semi-invalid for the latter part of his life.
Heddon School
The Old School at Heddon was opened just as Winnie's grandfather was due to go to the school (he was the youngest of the family). His mother was so pleased he would not have to tramp all the way along to the Dame School at Houghton. He would be among the first scholars in that school so there have been four generations at that school in Heddon. My grandfather, my father, me and my children were the last in the Old School before the new school was built and opened in the early 1960s.
Heddon Show
Heddon Show was in the Crag Field - the position varied from year to year. There was a disaster when the Show was higher up the field; there was a terrible storm causing damage. The Show was also held in the Bays Leap Field [opposite the garage].
Toys
As children we did not have many bought toys. My sister got a set of dolls furniture and I got a sewing machine. I was a bit disappointed because it did not work as well as my mother's machine.
We improvised a lot in those days - in winter time, everyone had a wooden sledge.
We had seasons for playing with toys. There was a season for the iron gord [Scottish: 'gird' for hoop] and your mother or somebody would make a crook to run it with. Mrs Moore who lived up the road was very handy and would always make a crook from a bucket handle. The gords would probably be made by the blacksmiths. There was a skipping season and marbles for the boys. There were never many mechanical toys.
The fruit carts would come around Heddon and the oranges would be in wooden orange boxes. If the box was empty when the cart got to your house, for a copper or two you could have the orange box. The women would buy them for sticks for the fire but I was lucky, I know I started off with a two tier box but I did get one with three compartments and I made a doll's house. The box stood up on end and with three compartments I could have a kitchen, a living room and bedroom at the top. Lots of the pieces of furniture were made out of such boxes. We had celluloid dolls which were very tricky to dress. We spent hours with our homemade doll's house, it was papered and painted and we would scrounge a bit of oilcloth or carpet to cover the floors.
Easter
Easter was a great time. Mother was very good a dyeing eggs with onion skins, she got some very pretty ones. We used to collect them, we called on our friends who would give us an Easter egg and probably we would finish up with about six eggs, and then eat them! Not all at once!
Trips to Newcastle
An aunt of mine was very keen to take me with her when she went to Newcastle. We would walk to Heddon Station, or take a tram from Throckley. Sometimes we would join forces with my aunt and cousin from Throckley on the tram. My cousin was a bad traveler and we would wonder if she would hold out until we got to Scotswood! We had to change trams at Scotswood to go into Newcastle. There was a big old fashioned drapers shop called Potts at the bottom of Clayton Street with very old fashioned assistants and the money ran along in the balls. Potts was a regular port of call. There was a large assistant, probably in charge of the ground floor, wearing a long skirt and my aunt would deposit us with this 'body' and say, "Sit there until I come back". Maybe she thought she would get on quicker without us, I don't know. My aunt would go all the way up to Wilson and Carters at the top of Northumberland Street and do her shopping, then she would collect us on the way back.
On other occasions when I had been with Violet, her mother and my aunt , we would go up to Grainger Street and go to the Carrick's Dickens cafe and both Violet and I would be dying to have fish and chips but we always got fish cakes because they were frightened that if we got a fish, we would get a bone stuck. So we never got our fish and chips.
We rarely got to the Town but this aunt popped us into the photographers - it was 'While you Wait Photographer' also in Grainger Street, near to Newgate Street. We were for ever getting our photographs taken! (About 12 years old).
Going back a long way it seemed to be the habit of a widow or spinster to set up a little shop to sell sweets. In the cottage (at the north end of Carter's Cottages) lived a Mrs Straughan. Her spinster sister, Annie, came to live with her. Annie opened a little shop which would sell yeast, sweets and odd bits and pieces.
The main shop in Heddon was run by Mrs Waugh. Her first shop was in Haddock's Hole, in the middle house. On the Military Road side of that house was a pantry window and on the lintel above the window in red lettering was the word, 'Lemonade'. After school time there would be a member of the family perched in the pantry window to sell lemonade and sweets to passing cyclists. Mrs Waugh moved to her new shop at the Old Post Office, further west on the opposite side of the road, which she bought from the Sir James Knott estate in 1924.
Winnie herself would like to know where the original Haddrick's Hall was. Was it the origin of the Three Tuns pub? This sounds feasible. This must be many years back and it is easy to see the corruption of Haddrick's Hall to Haddock's Hole. Haddock's Hole always just referred to the three cottages. Their correct postal address was, 'The Three Tuns Yard'. When Haddock's Hole was sold at Sir James Knott sale it was bought by Winnie's uncle, Thomas Armstrong, who was then Area Manager at the Throckley Co-op and lived at Throckley. The three houses were bought by him, 'just by chance', as a speculation. He was sitting next to Winnie's mother at the sale and when the item of Haddock's Hole came up he asked, "Where's that?" Winnie's mother explained where Haddock's Hole was and said the price was for the three cottages. So Mr Armstrong put his hand up and was then the owner of the three cottages known as Haddock's Hole! Not a planned acquisition!
At the time of the Sir James Knott Sale -
The Jacksons were living in Clayton Terrace, third house from the bottom. Their parents had lived there before them and they were friendly with Winnie's relatives. there were three Jackson brothers and one sister: Will, Tom, John and Annie. Will and Tom Jackson were in the First World War. The third brother, John, was disabled, possibly from an accident at the pit. He walked badly.
One of the brothers (Winnie cannot remember which) either got a military medal or was mentioned in dispatches. There was a grand reception laid on in Throckley Store Hall for his homecoming but he did not turn up; he went for a long walk instead. He was a quiet man not wanting a fuss.
The Jacksons did not buy their house, therefore after the Sir James Knott sale they had nowhere to live so Winnie's Uncle Tom (Tom Armstrong) put the Jacksons into the middle house of Haddock's Hole as the tenant had moved elsewhere. One brother died, and Annie died. It is thought that the remaining brother was one of the first residents in Centurion Way when it was built.
Regarding The Cottage, referred to above: Winnie's mother had asked a Great Aunt why The Cottage has the church-type window as one of its rear windows. Her explanation was that a stone mason had built The Cottage for himself. It was thought that as he went around doing his work, repairing and making new windows, he would use the arched window frame which he had collected, on his own cottage.
Tennis Court on Heddon Common
It started possibly in the 1920/30s when a small nucleus of young people from Heddon - Willie and Rhoda Waugh, possibly some of the Dunns, and Violet Armstrong (Winnie's cousin) decided to have a tennis court and a hut on the top of Heddon Common. They had a grass court which they made themselves, and it ran for quite a while.
Holiday Bungalows on Heddon Common
Never a large number of bungalow. When the war came, people came out of the city to live in the country. Many years later, Winnie had met a couple on a Church Open Day who said that their baby had been born in a hut on Heddon Common - life was tough!
Some 'Supply' Vicars at Heddon
Mr Pringle, Vicar at Heddon, was in poor health for some years and Heddon Church had a number of 'Supply' Vicars. Winnie remembers one was very small and, while he was preaching, he would bob up and down in the pulpit, and sometimes disappear altogether for a few seconds. Another was keen on amateur dramatics and put on a religious play, and his part was being put on the rack. His cry was, "No, no, not the rack!"; so that became his nickname - 'The Rack'. This was one of the nicknames given to the preachers by the children attending Church services.
Holidays
There was no going away for a family holiday. We didn't expect to be taken anywhere, except for the annual trip to Whitley Bay. The school holidays came along and we children spent them either on Heddon Common or else down at the Mill (on Mill Lane). When the tramcars came as far as Throckley (I think he fare was a halfpenny from Newcastle) there would be groups of children walking up from Throckley to Heddon Common. They came from Byker and other places around Newcastle. Parents put the river out of bounds.
Winnie remembers two holidays in her early life. Her mother took the family to stay with her Aunt Belle at Cullercoats. Aunt Belle lived in a farm cottage close to a quarry - it could be called Marden Quarry. We used to cross a road, walk down a field and we were in Cullercoats. Another holiday was with her Uncle and Aunt from Throckley as a companion to her cousin, Violet, who was a year older. They went to her Uncle's relatives at Allendale. They went by tub-trap to South Wylam Station. Uncle Tom was quite a portly figure and he got into the trap last through the door at the back and to my horror I saw the shafts rising up in the air and was terrified the horse would go up too! At South Wylam Station we got the train to Catton from where we were picked up by the car and taken to Allendale. Husbands and fathers did not get annual holidays.
We really had a wonderful outdoor life. We would disappear for hours in the morning to go to catch 'harnies' (tiddlers), pick wildflowers, or just roam the Common or go to the Mill. Parents did not worry. There were no safeguards on the Common (there were quarries), it is a wonder nobody got hurt as we were always clambering about and climbing trees. During the Second World War it was proposed to cut down some of the trees at the bottom of the Common, near to the Market Garden made by Goftons [Close Lea], apart from the garden in front of their house. This was a natural screen of trees at the back of the Market Garden which gave shelter. These were going to be cut down, but Mr Gofton protested and the trees were saved. The wood near to Low Farm was all cut down.
The quarries on the Common were all worked before Winnie's time. Her grandfather worked in one of the quarries and had an accident which made him a semi-invalid for the latter part of his life.
Heddon School
The Old School at Heddon was opened just as Winnie's grandfather was due to go to the school (he was the youngest of the family). His mother was so pleased he would not have to tramp all the way along to the Dame School at Houghton. He would be among the first scholars in that school so there have been four generations at that school in Heddon. My grandfather, my father, me and my children were the last in the Old School before the new school was built and opened in the early 1960s.
Heddon Show
Heddon Show was in the Crag Field - the position varied from year to year. There was a disaster when the Show was higher up the field; there was a terrible storm causing damage. The Show was also held in the Bays Leap Field [opposite the garage].
Toys
As children we did not have many bought toys. My sister got a set of dolls furniture and I got a sewing machine. I was a bit disappointed because it did not work as well as my mother's machine.
We improvised a lot in those days - in winter time, everyone had a wooden sledge.
We had seasons for playing with toys. There was a season for the iron gord [Scottish: 'gird' for hoop] and your mother or somebody would make a crook to run it with. Mrs Moore who lived up the road was very handy and would always make a crook from a bucket handle. The gords would probably be made by the blacksmiths. There was a skipping season and marbles for the boys. There were never many mechanical toys.
The fruit carts would come around Heddon and the oranges would be in wooden orange boxes. If the box was empty when the cart got to your house, for a copper or two you could have the orange box. The women would buy them for sticks for the fire but I was lucky, I know I started off with a two tier box but I did get one with three compartments and I made a doll's house. The box stood up on end and with three compartments I could have a kitchen, a living room and bedroom at the top. Lots of the pieces of furniture were made out of such boxes. We had celluloid dolls which were very tricky to dress. We spent hours with our homemade doll's house, it was papered and painted and we would scrounge a bit of oilcloth or carpet to cover the floors.
Easter
Easter was a great time. Mother was very good a dyeing eggs with onion skins, she got some very pretty ones. We used to collect them, we called on our friends who would give us an Easter egg and probably we would finish up with about six eggs, and then eat them! Not all at once!
Trips to Newcastle
An aunt of mine was very keen to take me with her when she went to Newcastle. We would walk to Heddon Station, or take a tram from Throckley. Sometimes we would join forces with my aunt and cousin from Throckley on the tram. My cousin was a bad traveler and we would wonder if she would hold out until we got to Scotswood! We had to change trams at Scotswood to go into Newcastle. There was a big old fashioned drapers shop called Potts at the bottom of Clayton Street with very old fashioned assistants and the money ran along in the balls. Potts was a regular port of call. There was a large assistant, probably in charge of the ground floor, wearing a long skirt and my aunt would deposit us with this 'body' and say, "Sit there until I come back". Maybe she thought she would get on quicker without us, I don't know. My aunt would go all the way up to Wilson and Carters at the top of Northumberland Street and do her shopping, then she would collect us on the way back.
On other occasions when I had been with Violet, her mother and my aunt , we would go up to Grainger Street and go to the Carrick's Dickens cafe and both Violet and I would be dying to have fish and chips but we always got fish cakes because they were frightened that if we got a fish, we would get a bone stuck. So we never got our fish and chips.
We rarely got to the Town but this aunt popped us into the photographers - it was 'While you Wait Photographer' also in Grainger Street, near to Newgate Street. We were for ever getting our photographs taken! (About 12 years old).
Memories of sledging by Winnie Spoor
from article in Heddon Gossip December 1999
The Editor has asked for old Heddon memories - so here is my effort which, as far as I can reckon, goes back to the Winter of 1922.
There was a heavy snowfall and a very hard frost that year, ideal for sledging!
So, as soon as school was over out came the sledges. Now these were solid wooden affairs, shod with iron runners on the two side pieces. The sledges were homemade and the runners put on by the blacksmith, either George Armatage or Harry Amos. A hole was bored in the front of each side piece to slot the pulling rope in place.
The reason this Winter was so memorable was because we could start our run from the Reading Room (now known as the Old Library) go down past the Square, round into Station Road, fairly steady to Old Coal Depot and then speed up until we reached the sharp bend down to Heddon Hall.
This bend had to be negotiated with skill and terror because the next steep stretch reached breath-taking speed plus the sharp turn at the bottom.
By the time we reached the top of the put bank we were breathing easier, ready for the longest almost straight stretch.
The momentum from this bank took us away past the Manager’s House at the bottom and, on one occasion as far as the edge of the level road to the Heddon Station.
Then came the long haul back up the bank to Heddon and down again. We maybe did this twice if we had any energy left!
The only survivor of this tale is my 83 year olf brother who has a vivid memory of the one time when we didn’t take the Hall bend and landed in the ditch ... none the worse, except that the steerer’s shoe heel had been torn off - me being the steerer!!
I think this particular Winter’s long run is memorable because I’d never heard of it happening before and certainly not since.
