Wearside and County Durham

A War Baby: In Sunderland

It was known as the being the largest shipbuilding town in the world at that time, for it had seven...

“My War”

But I was to be excluded from the ‘fighting’ — I was to travel to Burnhope to collect a...

Pride Before The Fall - A Bevin Boy.

When we first got ours I overheard my wife bragging to the next door neighbour one day saying,...

Evacuated from Sunderland Shipyards to Coxhoe, County Durham

We played outside the vicarage while she went in to talk with Mrs Lumley who told her she would like to...

Durham lad in Canadian Army

At the outbreak of the 2nd World War, the Canadian Militia was renamed as the Canadian Army and January...

It was a long time for some dates: Childhood Memories of Bishop Auckland

My mam said he was abroad and they didn't want the Germans to know where my dad was. We put my bike...

WW2 Bomb Shelters

The Victoria Tunnel was built to carry coals from the Spital Tongues Colliery at Newcastle upon Tyne, to...

Royal Ordnance Factory

I worked at the Royal Ordnance factory at Spennymoor. The ROF Regiment were stationed in Spennymoor factory...

Lost in the Blackout

One evening, in December 1940, when I was 11 years old, my friend Fred Harle and I decided to go carol...

As big as a penny: Memories of 54th RAC

I was out on training one day at Barnard Castle,I was in the 54th R.A.C,I was learning to drive a 15cwt...

My memories of World War 2: A Child in Sunderland

On a clear, warm night in Sunderland at one in the morning a loan German bomber came in from the sea...

A Small Boy in Southwick

The pavement underneath the lamp was used for 'Itchy Dabber' - you would slide a heavy stone or an...

Childhood Memories of the Second World War: Durham

These were just a few which were forever assailing our ears,especially in the newsreels at the pictures and...

Fifty Years On : Remembering the Lodge Terrace Incident of 24th May 1943

DIED Alice Harris, 17 years Kathleen Harris, 11 years Ronald McArdle, 11 years Anne Huntley, 6 years Annie...

Early School Days in Bishop Auckland

There was a world war on, when at the age of five in 1942 I started my education at Cockton Hill...

Wartime Memories Taken From ‘ Wartime Memoirs’

We were subject to German air raids all the time we were unloading the supply ships on the beaches of Avola...

World War 2 Recollections

My Mother, Father, Brother Bill and I lived at 185 Stanton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. I remember on the...

Jimmie's War

The altar servers and the choir were surprised when our parish priest, Father Francis Holmes, invited us...

My Call-Up -Part Two

The next part of our training was a five weeks gunnery course, during this period we fired all manner of...

Schooldays: In Gateshead and Bishop Auckland

My mother's sister, Nellie Wanless lived in Merriden, Western Australia, together with her husband John...

Sunderland Memories: Childhood Memories

One raid I remember was when St. Thomas's church in John St. was hit and the vicar was killed in the...

The Collaborator: Childhood Memories in Bishop Auckland

I was recounting to a small group of people how, as a child, I had walked to school passing the local...

Boy's Own War

Every day we walked in a crocodile to the Baptist Church in Station Road and went down into the basement,...

My Father's War in the Village of Plawsworth

One was the son of a lady in the village and he was shell-shocked after a submarine was hit. German...

Memories of Wartime: A Child in Sunderland

My grandmother was a marvellous person, who had no intention of letting the Germans intimidate her, she...

Joining the Army

We changed trains at Durham and boarded a train to Brancepeth Castle... Whilst in Brancepeth I visited...