Catherine Keegan (nee Mecham/Meehan) of Scotland died at ‘Wasp Nest’ in May 1877 possibly of TB. She was 30 years old with a 5 year old daughter ‘Mary’. Her husband Michael Keegan of Ireland, worked in the iron foundry in 1871 in Darlington. Michael Keegan remarried in 1881 in Darlington to Mary Ann Curran (supposedly 9 years his junior, my great-grandmother). Michael Keegan died in 1891, fourteen years after the death of Catherine but he went on to have 5 more children with Mary Ann, all survived to adulthood. Mary Ann remarried in 1893 (my great-granddad) & went on to have 3 more children although little Agnes died at 23 days old. The old photo’s gives me an idea of their quality of life & living conditions. It’s great to hear the description of the yard & local area. Thank you.
I too remember entering this vacated building and seeing the stocks of abandoned solid mahogany/teak large pulley-blocks stacked high, on the 1st floor, or was it the attic? I also recall at the time ‘The Warrior'(?) was being restored at Hartlepool dock and thinking that these ‘original’, unused, certainly historic items, may have been of some use to the project.
Me and my mates used to play in here in the early 80s, the first pic shows the gate we used to slip through and the derelict building behind had lots of glass tubes and wooden rigging pully’s off old sailing ships often getting chased out many times by some local bobby on his way back to the station. There were also tales of the yard being haunted – two people I knew saw and heard things in Wasps Nest Yard.
Hole in the Wall Focal point for this must be as for much in living memory is the area around The Green Dragon Yard, between Silver Street and Finkle Street, although it would be a lot more exciting if I could say Thistle Green prior to its annihilation in 1927.But it would be nice if those that were around then could tell us about it, local shops and characters of the like. Streets they were all with names and each name had a lot of numbers after them, but to me they were alley ways, nothing rely boarded up, if they were once boarded up then the boards had long gone many moons ago for ’maybe’ fire wood? Quite a few of these buildings had openings where doors once had been, inside a largish room with at one side or the other had a hole in the wall, in some cases going nearly the full length of the room on that side and going quite deep inside. I was told that this was a dwelling for a family and the hole in the wall was the sleeping space for the whole family (cosy). Who told me I don’t know but quite feasible if this is all they had and there were more than one location like this, wish I had a camera then, early 1960’s. Roy.
This was a busy area, Stockton Boxing club, was round the corner, Kay”s Poultry shop was in Silver Street at end of the passage,he kept his live poultry in Wasps nest. Some of the residents here worked on the dock”s, some of the hungry twelve. And of course Smith”s Candy Factory was just before you entered the area in the Photos.
Catherine Keegan (nee Mecham/Meehan) of Scotland died at ‘Wasp Nest’ in May 1877 possibly of TB. She was 30 years old with a 5 year old daughter ‘Mary’. Her husband Michael Keegan of Ireland, worked in the iron foundry in 1871 in Darlington. Michael Keegan remarried in 1881 in Darlington to Mary Ann Curran (supposedly 9 years his junior, my great-grandmother). Michael Keegan died in 1891, fourteen years after the death of Catherine but he went on to have 5 more children with Mary Ann, all survived to adulthood. Mary Ann remarried in 1893 (my great-granddad) & went on to have 3 more children although little Agnes died at 23 days old. The old photo’s gives me an idea of their quality of life & living conditions. It’s great to hear the description of the yard & local area. Thank you.
I too remember entering this vacated building and seeing the stocks of abandoned solid mahogany/teak large pulley-blocks stacked high, on the 1st floor, or was it the attic? I also recall at the time ‘The Warrior'(?) was being restored at Hartlepool dock and thinking that these ‘original’, unused, certainly historic items, may have been of some use to the project.
Me and my mates used to play in here in the early 80s, the first pic shows the gate we used to slip through and the derelict building behind had lots of glass tubes and wooden rigging pully’s off old sailing ships often getting chased out many times by some local bobby on his way back to the station. There were also tales of the yard being haunted – two people I knew saw and heard things in Wasps Nest Yard.
Hole in the Wall Focal point for this must be as for much in living memory is the area around The Green Dragon Yard, between Silver Street and Finkle Street, although it would be a lot more exciting if I could say Thistle Green prior to its annihilation in 1927.But it would be nice if those that were around then could tell us about it, local shops and characters of the like. Streets they were all with names and each name had a lot of numbers after them, but to me they were alley ways, nothing rely boarded up, if they were once boarded up then the boards had long gone many moons ago for ’maybe’ fire wood? Quite a few of these buildings had openings where doors once had been, inside a largish room with at one side or the other had a hole in the wall, in some cases going nearly the full length of the room on that side and going quite deep inside. I was told that this was a dwelling for a family and the hole in the wall was the sleeping space for the whole family (cosy). Who told me I don’t know but quite feasible if this is all they had and there were more than one location like this, wish I had a camera then, early 1960’s. Roy.
This was a busy area, Stockton Boxing club, was round the corner, Kay”s Poultry shop was in Silver Street at end of the passage,he kept his live poultry in Wasps nest. Some of the residents here worked on the dock”s, some of the hungry twelve. And of course Smith”s Candy Factory was just before you entered the area in the Photos.