For Don Taylor: A couple of corrections to my previous post: the airfield in Norfolk I mentioned is Bircham Newton, not Dereham. And Ernie is buried in the Durham Road Cemetery, not Oxbridge Lane.
For Don Taylor: Yes, Ginger Armstrong was my uncle Ernie, who had a great shock of bright red hair (I think he was also called “Rusty”). And yes, he was in the Scouts .Later on, when I joined the Scouts myself, in Thornaby, I inherited his scout hat, and his woggle, but these unfortunately got lost in a subsequent move. Ernie joined the RAF as a boy and qualified as an air-gunner/radio operator. He was killed on 25 May 1940 (he was just over eighteen) when the Blenheim he was in got into a spin, just after take-off from an airfield in Norfolk (Dereham, if I remember rightly) on its way to the Continent (not training but an operation). All the rest of the crew managed to bail out but he was trapped. He is buried in a CWGC grave in Oxbridge Lane Cemetery, Stockton.
Keith.
For Bob Irwin: If you know Ian Campbell it may well be because we were all three in the same class at FN school. I started there in 1942, along with Bobby Jones who lived in Swale Road (he had a twin sister, Brenda). But when my mother bought a house in Thornaby, at the end of WW2, I moved to Westbury Street school in Thornaby, about 1946. I rediscovered Ian some years back, thanks to Friends Reunited, and he put me onto Bob Jones.
Would Ernie Armstrong be the Ginger Armstrong who was in 1st Norton scouts with me in 1935? There is a photo of him at scout camp in Ripon, 1935 – it is on this site. I lived in no 78 Eamont rd. I Remember when Ginger Armstrong was killed, it was a training accident, he had volunteered for Air crew.
Keith I’ve heard of you from my friend Ian Campbell. I remember the Chambers who lived in Eamont Road near to the end of Leven Road. The father Charlie was a bus driver and he had 2 sons one Charlie. He was a keen cyclist and he had a club foot. The younger one probably a year younger than me, can’t remember his name now but we were friends in those days. On the other corner of your block in Leven Road were the Rentons, Margaret and Phil. In later yers I worked with Phil. They had a cousin living with them called Dickie Barnes. Re the FN School the school gates at the bottom of the school were in Swale Road and the top gates on Darlington Lane. I was born in 1937 but can’t remember you from that time.
I was born in the house opposite this Coop, at 52 Eamont Road, on the corner with Leven Road. This was in 1937. It was my grandparents’ house, Harry and Meggie Armstrong. I lived there later from about 1940 to 1945 while my Dad was away in the army. My grannie would often send me across the road (no traffic in those days – or if there was it was horse-drawn!)to buy sugar, butter or bread if she didn’t make any herself. I loved that place… We also had lots of family gatherings for weddings or anniversaries in the room upstairs. Neighbours were: King, Hunter, Chambers families and others whose names I have forgotten. I went to Frederick Nattrass Primary School at the end of Greta Road (is that right?). Some people might remember my uncle Ernie, killed in 1940 while in the RAF, uncle Henry who served in the Fleet Air Arm towards the end of WW2 and worked at Pickersgill’s, aunt Rita who went to Richard Hind School and worked at Earnshaw’s.
I lived in Norton until getting married in 1973, but used the co-op on Leven Road regularly with my mother. As I got old enough, she would often send me there for bread, butter sold loose in grease proof paper, sugar (in blue sugar paper bag!) I would pass two corner shops on the way, but was not allowed to go there as Mum would want her “divi” on every bit that was spent!
My last meeting with Tom Sowler was on one of my UK Visits a few years ago, I went around to Toms house off Greens Lane Hartburn to get him to sign my copy of Toms History of Stockton. Tom remembered me from my school days as Tom was President of the Stockton Schools Football Association. When Tom found out about me living in Melbourne Australia, he told me his war time pilot mate, or maybe it was his Navigator came from Melbourne. I think Tom was a crew member of a Lancaster Bomber during the War, and he asked me to try and contact this friend of his in Melbourne. I do not think Tom realised that Melbourne was a city of three and and half million people, I tried many phone calls to try and locate Toms old mate but I was never able to trace him to my disappointment. Tom Sowler was a wonderful man, and a very proud Stocktonian.
Yes Bob, we used to make tha paper dart planes, one day at Trinty in Tommy Sowlers class he was called away from the class. Soon paper darts were flying all over the place. In came Tommy – stand up all those flying paper aeroplanes – I thought who”s going to know so I sat tight. Of course we had the useual tell tale who reported me for not standing up. I got sent to Billy Hewitt and got six of the best with the cane. Still it taught me to tell the truth in future. A principle I still keep.Did Bob Harbron pass on my good wishes at the Scout Celibration? St Mary”s Second Norton and did Bill Darney attend? 22248 Norton Co-Op.
I still make them Bob for my little granddaughter and they still fly but for some reason only turn left in a curve I have not managed to cure it yet. I was looking for my Dads name Saturday and did not find it. The family lived in Beaconsfield Street as it then was in the early 1900″s Dad moved into Mill Lane to look after Grandma Brown sometime later. He would have been the correct age to join the Scouts in 1910-13 some time between. He was a keen Scouter during the war 1914-18 and told me stories of being shown how to stalk and camping in the area around. I had his Scout hand book for years, I lost track of it when I moved on. The Browns had a horse haulage business in those years and Dad took it over, he got his first truck in 1931 and one of my first memories is the sign writer putting the name on the big doors into the Stables-garage, since then they have been removed and small doors fitted. The building once housed the Carriage and horses for Norton House. I was told it was extended from a small cottage to a larger house for the Cook and Ostler, you can see where the front end was rebuilt with the stables and loft over the stables later converted into a flat around 1949-50. Another memory is of making kites with brown paper and bamboo which also flew, now I cannot get the custom made ones to leave the ground, we must have had a better idea of aerodynamics.
Yes I remember those planes, but can you remember the ones we made by hand, using a bit of origami folding to weight the front. Made and thrown around the classroom when teacher was missing. Whilst at the 1st Norton Centenary and looking through the memorabilia I saw the name P. Mee from Mill Lane in the 1st Group of Scouts when it first formed by Mr Reed in 1908. What relation is it to Frank Mee?
Remember those planes well Norman, we would launch them from the top of the bank in the sand pits and they really did fly. We put a tiny stub of candle under the little tin boiler of those boats and they would slowly warm up then scud round the bath. I went from there to a real model steam engine with a section of line in the garden, it was something Dad got in payment for moving something for someone who could not pay, I got my first piano the same way, oh and the Accordion and Banjo. All the controls worked once steam was up and kept me happy for hours. I learned to dance in the Co-op hall Leven Road, at 9-11?? How come? Mum and Dad were competition dancers at a time you got goods or money as prizes. We had a house full of dishes and glass ware. The Baby sitter refused to mind me saying I was a little devil so dressed in my best clothes I was taken to the dance hall and told to sit quiet. I never moved as I was captivated by the lights, the mirror ball, spot lights and finery, long dresses and dickey suits for competitions but mostly by the music and live band. I would be taken back home and sleep dreaming of the music and colour of it all. Being tall for my age some of the ladies would get me up to dance in the intervals between competition dances and I was a quick learner. I danced in halls all over Britain and the continent to Africa and back. I once wrote the story of my dancing experiences another memory of wonderful times.
While you are all talking about shops on Leven Road who remembers buying 1p gliders made of cardboard, with a lead weight on the tip, also the Japanese tin motor “phut phut” boats which you put a drop of meths in and light, which propelled the little boat around the tub or bath. They only cost pence, but what a lot of fun. I think the shop was called Reynolds papershop? We never got bored!
The grocers opposite Alloms paper shop was Acacia stores I remember it being operated in late 50″/early 60″s by Mr & Mrs Coleman. I think it was the first self service store I remember. The shops were Frank Findlay the bookie, Danny Dargue cobblers, Mrs Allom newsagent, ladies hairdressers, gents hairdressers, Everetts butchers, haberdashery shop & an electrical shop……I think. Shop in Leven Rd/Balder Rd corner was Johnie Sell later Gorringe can”t remember who after that.
I lived in Hury Road , my parents were Mary and Kenny Alborn. Gorringes delivered groceries on a bike , then they got a van . Belvedere the Coop in the High Street took their business away . Good memories
Hope your keeping well Norman. I salute your memory its 40 years since I lived in Eamont. Can you exercise your grey cells a little more and recall the name of the green grocers store in Leven Road opposite Allums the newsagents?
I lived in little Eamont road from 1927 to 1952 and the co-op dance was a regular haunt of mine. My mother and father held their 25th wedding anniversary there in 1944 and Bert Wallers band played and I invited all my mates,who were apprentices at Fred Kidds engineering with their girlfriends and we had a great time jitterbugging.Mrs Truman was the caretaker and lived in the first house next to the co-op.
Norman Hill, we were close neighbours and lived a few doors away. I well remember Mrs Truman a very formidable figure and yes she did live in “little” Eamont, I also remember the remains of the Ban The Bomb sign being visible for many years, and 30067 was our divi number.
Hi Dr.Davies, if you ask Stockton Picture for my e-mail maybe we can swap stories.You seem to lived in all the places my family lived.I now live in Brantford Ontario. Bill Davies
We should have a competition for remembering our mam”s divi number but not our own. My mam”s was 31137, not difficult to remember and we would queue for ages in Wellington St for our pennies, fascinated by the pnuematic change system. I went to the Pathfinders club in Norton Co-op and we had great annual trips to Tong Hall near Bradford. I also remember dances at the Co-op but I don”t remember which nights they were held. Innocent days
I lived around the corner in Greta Rd. I vaguely remember the transfer to a supermarket style shop from the traditional counter service with blue sugar bags loose butter & broken biscuits. The Pathfinders Friday youth club. MrsTrueman lived in little Eamont in a tied house as caretaker. The end wall was an advertising hoarding for British Rail with timetables & posters. Does anyone remember the ban the bomb graffitti of Easter 1963? when the post box over the road was painted white & a large slogan & sign was painted on the pavement in front of the shop….it was burned off after a few days though the marks remained for some time.
I found this site most interesting, I used to go Tilery school in the 1960s, really great times. I”m looking for some old photos of the great place, can anyone help?
This was our local co-op. and I remember our Mam (Ivy Porter)being a member of the Co-op Womens”Guild and in their Concert Party. She also went as a delegate to some weekend conferences. I have my Gran Spinks Coop Membership card dated from 1926 to 1932. Her local Co-op was at the top of Tilery Road.
In answer to Bob Irwin I remember Mrs Trueman, small petite woman with glasses,but she could hold her own against anybody, Ma trueman we use to call her.
I remember this Hall as well as being a Dance Hall was also used for whist drives especially the Agricultural Drive. My mother attended everyone and won some good prizes there. Can any one remember the Caretaker there. She was Mrs Trueman. She lived just around the corner from the Co-op in Hury Road. We as kids kept out of her way.
Norton Co-op No 29 the building is still standing in Leven Road, closing as a Co-op in 1969. Since that time its been a Furiture Finance Company /Stockton Council Youth Training Centre / Tropical Fish retail shop closing in 2000. Many will remember both their divi number and the the cash disposal systems. No 29 (1930) had a cup and wire way from counter to cash kiosk, while No 8 (1910) Holly Street, Norton High Street had an earlier cash-ball and track system installed. The Hall was a popular venue, with Friday and Saturday dances attracting hundreds. It was also used by the Co-op “Wood-Craft Folk” childrens club, the local Labour Party and Co-op candidates.
This was not my local Co-op as I lived in Oxbridge at this time, that is the late forties. But every Saturday night I went to the dance there, in the hall above the shops, and danced to the music of Bert Waller and his No.1 band! We got a pass out and had a “swift half” in the Highland Lad then back to the dancing. A great old place, is it still there?
Yes, its still there. It has changed hands many times, and now its a Nisa grocery shop, nothing going on upstair. As for the Highland Lad, thats still there but stands empty at the moment.
I remember just after war going to the Leven Road Co-op shopping for my mother. Food was still rationed then. How my mother managed to feed the family on what little food we got still mystifies me. I still remember my mothers “divi” number 14612 but can”t remember my own years later. I also remember going to the butchers next door for spare ribs and bags of bones, these were free in those days. I was also in a childrens club that was held upstairs in the hall. Later on my friend had her wedding reception there.
For Don Taylor: A couple of corrections to my previous post: the airfield in Norfolk I mentioned is Bircham Newton, not Dereham. And Ernie is buried in the Durham Road Cemetery, not Oxbridge Lane.
For Don Taylor: Yes, Ginger Armstrong was my uncle Ernie, who had a great shock of bright red hair (I think he was also called “Rusty”). And yes, he was in the Scouts .Later on, when I joined the Scouts myself, in Thornaby, I inherited his scout hat, and his woggle, but these unfortunately got lost in a subsequent move. Ernie joined the RAF as a boy and qualified as an air-gunner/radio operator. He was killed on 25 May 1940 (he was just over eighteen) when the Blenheim he was in got into a spin, just after take-off from an airfield in Norfolk (Dereham, if I remember rightly) on its way to the Continent (not training but an operation). All the rest of the crew managed to bail out but he was trapped. He is buried in a CWGC grave in Oxbridge Lane Cemetery, Stockton.
Keith.
For Bob Irwin: If you know Ian Campbell it may well be because we were all three in the same class at FN school. I started there in 1942, along with Bobby Jones who lived in Swale Road (he had a twin sister, Brenda). But when my mother bought a house in Thornaby, at the end of WW2, I moved to Westbury Street school in Thornaby, about 1946. I rediscovered Ian some years back, thanks to Friends Reunited, and he put me onto Bob Jones.
Yes thats him. He was connected with youth organisations.
Would Ernie Armstrong be the Ginger Armstrong who was in 1st Norton scouts with me in 1935? There is a photo of him at scout camp in Ripon, 1935 – it is on this site. I lived in no 78 Eamont rd. I Remember when Ginger Armstrong was killed, it was a training accident, he had volunteered for Air crew.
Bob would that have been the Charlie Chambers who ran the Pathfinders with Colin Allen at the Coop youth club.
Keith I’ve heard of you from my friend Ian Campbell. I remember the Chambers who lived in Eamont Road near to the end of Leven Road. The father Charlie was a bus driver and he had 2 sons one Charlie. He was a keen cyclist and he had a club foot. The younger one probably a year younger than me, can’t remember his name now but we were friends in those days. On the other corner of your block in Leven Road were the Rentons, Margaret and Phil. In later yers I worked with Phil. They had a cousin living with them called Dickie Barnes. Re the FN School the school gates at the bottom of the school were in Swale Road and the top gates on Darlington Lane. I was born in 1937 but can’t remember you from that time.
I was born in the house opposite this Coop, at 52 Eamont Road, on the corner with Leven Road. This was in 1937. It was my grandparents’ house, Harry and Meggie Armstrong. I lived there later from about 1940 to 1945 while my Dad was away in the army. My grannie would often send me across the road (no traffic in those days – or if there was it was horse-drawn!)to buy sugar, butter or bread if she didn’t make any herself. I loved that place… We also had lots of family gatherings for weddings or anniversaries in the room upstairs. Neighbours were: King, Hunter, Chambers families and others whose names I have forgotten. I went to Frederick Nattrass Primary School at the end of Greta Road (is that right?). Some people might remember my uncle Ernie, killed in 1940 while in the RAF, uncle Henry who served in the Fleet Air Arm towards the end of WW2 and worked at Pickersgill’s, aunt Rita who went to Richard Hind School and worked at Earnshaw’s.
I lived in Norton until getting married in 1973, but used the co-op on Leven Road regularly with my mother. As I got old enough, she would often send me there for bread, butter sold loose in grease proof paper, sugar (in blue sugar paper bag!) I would pass two corner shops on the way, but was not allowed to go there as Mum would want her “divi” on every bit that was spent!
My last meeting with Tom Sowler was on one of my UK Visits a few years ago, I went around to Toms house off Greens Lane Hartburn to get him to sign my copy of Toms History of Stockton. Tom remembered me from my school days as Tom was President of the Stockton Schools Football Association. When Tom found out about me living in Melbourne Australia, he told me his war time pilot mate, or maybe it was his Navigator came from Melbourne. I think Tom was a crew member of a Lancaster Bomber during the War, and he asked me to try and contact this friend of his in Melbourne. I do not think Tom realised that Melbourne was a city of three and and half million people, I tried many phone calls to try and locate Toms old mate but I was never able to trace him to my disappointment. Tom Sowler was a wonderful man, and a very proud Stocktonian.
Yes Bob, we used to make tha paper dart planes, one day at Trinty in Tommy Sowlers class he was called away from the class. Soon paper darts were flying all over the place. In came Tommy – stand up all those flying paper aeroplanes – I thought who”s going to know so I sat tight. Of course we had the useual tell tale who reported me for not standing up. I got sent to Billy Hewitt and got six of the best with the cane. Still it taught me to tell the truth in future. A principle I still keep.Did Bob Harbron pass on my good wishes at the Scout Celibration? St Mary”s Second Norton and did Bill Darney attend? 22248 Norton Co-Op.
I still make them Bob for my little granddaughter and they still fly but for some reason only turn left in a curve I have not managed to cure it yet. I was looking for my Dads name Saturday and did not find it. The family lived in Beaconsfield Street as it then was in the early 1900″s Dad moved into Mill Lane to look after Grandma Brown sometime later. He would have been the correct age to join the Scouts in 1910-13 some time between. He was a keen Scouter during the war 1914-18 and told me stories of being shown how to stalk and camping in the area around. I had his Scout hand book for years, I lost track of it when I moved on. The Browns had a horse haulage business in those years and Dad took it over, he got his first truck in 1931 and one of my first memories is the sign writer putting the name on the big doors into the Stables-garage, since then they have been removed and small doors fitted. The building once housed the Carriage and horses for Norton House. I was told it was extended from a small cottage to a larger house for the Cook and Ostler, you can see where the front end was rebuilt with the stables and loft over the stables later converted into a flat around 1949-50. Another memory is of making kites with brown paper and bamboo which also flew, now I cannot get the custom made ones to leave the ground, we must have had a better idea of aerodynamics.
Yes I remember those planes, but can you remember the ones we made by hand, using a bit of origami folding to weight the front. Made and thrown around the classroom when teacher was missing. Whilst at the 1st Norton Centenary and looking through the memorabilia I saw the name P. Mee from Mill Lane in the 1st Group of Scouts when it first formed by Mr Reed in 1908. What relation is it to Frank Mee?
Remember those planes well Norman, we would launch them from the top of the bank in the sand pits and they really did fly. We put a tiny stub of candle under the little tin boiler of those boats and they would slowly warm up then scud round the bath. I went from there to a real model steam engine with a section of line in the garden, it was something Dad got in payment for moving something for someone who could not pay, I got my first piano the same way, oh and the Accordion and Banjo. All the controls worked once steam was up and kept me happy for hours. I learned to dance in the Co-op hall Leven Road, at 9-11?? How come? Mum and Dad were competition dancers at a time you got goods or money as prizes. We had a house full of dishes and glass ware. The Baby sitter refused to mind me saying I was a little devil so dressed in my best clothes I was taken to the dance hall and told to sit quiet. I never moved as I was captivated by the lights, the mirror ball, spot lights and finery, long dresses and dickey suits for competitions but mostly by the music and live band. I would be taken back home and sleep dreaming of the music and colour of it all. Being tall for my age some of the ladies would get me up to dance in the intervals between competition dances and I was a quick learner. I danced in halls all over Britain and the continent to Africa and back. I once wrote the story of my dancing experiences another memory of wonderful times.
While you are all talking about shops on Leven Road who remembers buying 1p gliders made of cardboard, with a lead weight on the tip, also the Japanese tin motor “phut phut” boats which you put a drop of meths in and light, which propelled the little boat around the tub or bath. They only cost pence, but what a lot of fun. I think the shop was called Reynolds papershop? We never got bored!
Is this the same Dargue who had thhe Cobblers Shop on Harland Terrace?
The grocers opposite Alloms paper shop was Acacia stores I remember it being operated in late 50″/early 60″s by Mr & Mrs Coleman. I think it was the first self service store I remember. The shops were Frank Findlay the bookie, Danny Dargue cobblers, Mrs Allom newsagent, ladies hairdressers, gents hairdressers, Everetts butchers, haberdashery shop & an electrical shop……I think. Shop in Leven Rd/Balder Rd corner was Johnie Sell later Gorringe can”t remember who after that.
The Gent’s Hairdresser was my Grandad – Sid Jenkins.
I lived in Hury Road , my parents were Mary and Kenny Alborn. Gorringes delivered groceries on a bike , then they got a van . Belvedere the Coop in the High Street took their business away . Good memories
I believe the name of the greengrocer”s was Acacia Stores.
Hope your keeping well Norman. I salute your memory its 40 years since I lived in Eamont. Can you exercise your grey cells a little more and recall the name of the green grocers store in Leven Road opposite Allums the newsagents?
I lived in little Eamont road from 1927 to 1952 and the co-op dance was a regular haunt of mine. My mother and father held their 25th wedding anniversary there in 1944 and Bert Wallers band played and I invited all my mates,who were apprentices at Fred Kidds engineering with their girlfriends and we had a great time jitterbugging.Mrs Truman was the caretaker and lived in the first house next to the co-op.
Graham Wynn I remember you well. Indeed somewhere I have a photo of you Trevor & I think Paul in your front garden. Divi number 39349.
Norman Hill, we were close neighbours and lived a few doors away. I well remember Mrs Truman a very formidable figure and yes she did live in “little” Eamont, I also remember the remains of the Ban The Bomb sign being visible for many years, and 30067 was our divi number.
Hi Dr.Davies, if you ask Stockton Picture for my e-mail maybe we can swap stories.You seem to lived in all the places my family lived.I now live in Brantford Ontario. Bill Davies
We should have a competition for remembering our mam”s divi number but not our own. My mam”s was 31137, not difficult to remember and we would queue for ages in Wellington St for our pennies, fascinated by the pnuematic change system. I went to the Pathfinders club in Norton Co-op and we had great annual trips to Tong Hall near Bradford. I also remember dances at the Co-op but I don”t remember which nights they were held. Innocent days
To Bill Davies in Canada. Who are you?? We have the same name and live now in the same country?????
I lived around the corner in Greta Rd. I vaguely remember the transfer to a supermarket style shop from the traditional counter service with blue sugar bags loose butter & broken biscuits. The Pathfinders Friday youth club. MrsTrueman lived in little Eamont in a tied house as caretaker. The end wall was an advertising hoarding for British Rail with timetables & posters. Does anyone remember the ban the bomb graffitti of Easter 1963? when the post box over the road was painted white & a large slogan & sign was painted on the pavement in front of the shop….it was burned off after a few days though the marks remained for some time.
I found this site most interesting, I used to go Tilery school in the 1960s, really great times. I”m looking for some old photos of the great place, can anyone help?
This was our local co-op. and I remember our Mam (Ivy Porter)being a member of the Co-op Womens”Guild and in their Concert Party. She also went as a delegate to some weekend conferences. I have my Gran Spinks Coop Membership card dated from 1926 to 1932. Her local Co-op was at the top of Tilery Road.
My first job was trainee butcher/errand boy in the early fiftys at this store I went to the dance on the upper floor and had some great times.
Mrs Truman lived at 20 Lune Rd. Norton. Great friend of my family We live in Grassholm Rd.
In answer to Bob Irwin I remember Mrs Trueman, small petite woman with glasses,but she could hold her own against anybody, Ma trueman we use to call her.
I remember this Hall as well as being a Dance Hall was also used for whist drives especially the Agricultural Drive. My mother attended everyone and won some good prizes there. Can any one remember the Caretaker there. She was Mrs Trueman. She lived just around the corner from the Co-op in Hury Road. We as kids kept out of her way.
Norton Co-op No 29 the building is still standing in Leven Road, closing as a Co-op in 1969. Since that time its been a Furiture Finance Company /Stockton Council Youth Training Centre / Tropical Fish retail shop closing in 2000. Many will remember both their divi number and the the cash disposal systems. No 29 (1930) had a cup and wire way from counter to cash kiosk, while No 8 (1910) Holly Street, Norton High Street had an earlier cash-ball and track system installed. The Hall was a popular venue, with Friday and Saturday dances attracting hundreds. It was also used by the Co-op “Wood-Craft Folk” childrens club, the local Labour Party and Co-op candidates.
This was not my local Co-op as I lived in Oxbridge at this time, that is the late forties. But every Saturday night I went to the dance there, in the hall above the shops, and danced to the music of Bert Waller and his No.1 band! We got a pass out and had a “swift half” in the Highland Lad then back to the dancing. A great old place, is it still there?
Yes, its still there. It has changed hands many times, and now its a Nisa grocery shop, nothing going on upstair. As for the Highland Lad, thats still there but stands empty at the moment.
I remember just after war going to the Leven Road Co-op shopping for my mother. Food was still rationed then. How my mother managed to feed the family on what little food we got still mystifies me. I still remember my mothers “divi” number 14612 but can”t remember my own years later. I also remember going to the butchers next door for spare ribs and bags of bones, these were free in those days. I was also in a childrens club that was held upstairs in the hall. Later on my friend had her wedding reception there.