Aall t’githor like the folk O’Shields

Janis Blower books provide reminiscences

Curly is extremely grateful to one of his customers who recently donated this small set of books by Janis Blower, the Shields Gazette reporter, “Aall T’githor Like The Folk O’Shields”. I don’t know how many volumes there ought to be in total, but “Mr. Barry” gave me volumes two, three, four, and five, volume one has gone missing! (So if if anyone would care to help me complete the set?)

They are a collection of potted histories of areas of South Shields accompanied by photographs submitted over the years to Janis for inclusion in her Cookson Country page which she has edited for many years. Janis is a “Skyetender” from the Lawe Top in South Shields, I guess that I ought to be known as a “panner” having been born and brought up further up river to the west of Holborn. I was born in a small terraced lower flat in John Williamson Street and remained there until it was demolished in 1972 and the family moved to a new home off Derby Street. I have reproduced this picture from one of Janis’ books, which is already published on a number of other websites, from which I can reminisce and share my thoughts on the current plight of Frederick Street and it’s demise.

Click the picture for a larger view.

The photographer is unknown, but if you hold the copyright to this picture please get in touch and I’ll gladly remove it if you so wish. The view looks down Bertram Street towards Readhead’s Shipyard where another Common Brothers’ tanker is on the stocks, you will need to imagine the sounds of hammering against steel, and scything sizzling of welders at work, the creaking and groaning of cranes tortuously transferring their loads from ground to ship, and on launch days the heavy clanking rattle of chains drowning the cheers of shipyard workers as she slowly descends down the slipway into the River Tyne.

Many times these sounds were audible throughout the night as deadlines approached and the job needed to be finished, perhaps at 04.30 to 05.00 (ish) we might hear the rapping of doors as the “Knocker-up” rose the morning shift, the grinding sound of the “lamp lighter” with his shaking old bicycle supporting his small ladder as he went around the streets pulling on chains to extinguish the gas powered street lamps. (If you look carefully you will see the old gas lamp that stood adjacent to Curly’s bedroom window below it’s more modern electric equivalent). Other sounds that would have been associated with this scene would have included the clanking of tins as Marrs the bakers started making bread at about 04.00 each morning, the shuffling of feet accompanied by the thump of back doors as teams of young boys played football in the back lanes, perhaps with a real leather ball. Ten years before this picture was taken you would likely hear the steel rimmed wheels of horse drawn carts rolling over the cobbled streets delivering tea from Ringtons, soda pops from Sykes, or Evans, you would have heard the scraping of steel shovels as men filled their coal houses from the mound of coal dumped in the back lanes. You might have filled your nostrils with the smell of the polish used on Monday mornings as housewives polished the stone front door steps, the stench of fish on Fridays as “fish wives” plied their trade up and down the lanes, the odour of fresh horse dung followed in their wake. You might have witnessed the length of the queue for fish and chips at South Shields best “chippy” on the corner of H.S. Edwards Street. On Sundays you would have been stirred from your sleep by the sounds of marching bands from the Salvation Army and the Boy’s Brigade from the Methodist Church around the corner in Frederick Street.

Yes, this riverside area was a seething tight knit close community where front and back doors were always left open ready to welcome neighbours for a fresh pot of tea. I often wonder if we might have “improved” these properties with kitchen and bathroom extensions these days rather than destroy whole communities with massive demolitions, but then we wouldn’t have seen a new dual carriageway to bring people into the town.

You may wonder how a boy from John Williamson Street could end up being a Tory voter after being soaked in this environment for so long, an education in Barnes Road Infants and Junior Schools led to a place at South Shields Grammar School for Boys and a reading of history that showed that Labour intended to build a “land fit for heroes” after the Second World War. Well thirty years later people were still visiting the outside “netty”, still had no running hot water, a stone sink in a scullery, a wash house with copper, poss tub, and dolly stick and mangle - enough said!

Frederick Street today is in it’s death throws, it’s shops have lost it’s local community to be replaced by factory units, it’s only salvation can be a minor rebuild with modern units and a supermarket to provide competition for Asda and Tesco, the acquiring of land to be used for new house building in the immediate vacinity can be the only way to provide it with any hope for the future, perhaps the perceived and planned Rekendyke Regeneration might achieve this aim. If we are to awaken this once vibrant commercial centre it needs houses and customers all around it, that’s how it succeeded in the past and that’s how it ought to be in the future.

I will take a while to get through these books “Mr. Barry” and I thank you very much for them, I guess I should try the Shields Gazette to get a hold of Volume One and if they no longer have it perhaps another of my customers may be able to turn up a copy.

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