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Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

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Stewart Young | stewart~DOT~young1~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

I was fascinated by the postings about Marsden and Horsley Hill. I lived in Thornholme Avenue from 1951 to 1968 and attended Horsley Hill Juniors until passing the 10+ and going to the Grammar School in 1960. 'The Hill' was always seen as a place to avoid at night when the Hill Lads ruled.Coincidentally,I was looking for a holiday job in the summer of 69 and did two nights at the Vigilant before being poached by the manager of the Horsley Hill.I spent six happy weeks there,where the customers were at times terrifying big drinkers but always great to be with.

Mon 1-Dec-2008 20:02 - St. Helens Merseyside

Bryan Cooper 1956 - 63 | bryglen~AT~bryancooper~DOT~wanadoo~DOT~co~DOT~uk

I read Neale's posting with great interest. I lived in Tanfield Gardens fron 1952 to 1966 and, as my house backed onto the school yard, was probably on the site of the 'field way'.
With regards to Horsely Hill: I worked in an Approved School in North Wales in the 70's and the head there had been head at Aycliffe school and on discovering my provenance proceeded to relate a series of colourful tales about the inmates he had had from Laygate and Horsely Hill. He certainly considered H/H to be a hotspot of problems.
Having said that, his views were certainly coloured by only meeting the problems and they probably only represented a very small proportion of the total. I am sure that my friends and I never considered going via 'the hill' a problem and nor did we ever have such problems but we were certainly aware of it's reputation.

Mon 1-Dec-2008 10:21 - North Wales

Neale Backhouse | neale70~AT~telus~DOT~net

Michael's reference to the "field way" to and from the High School and Sutton Estate brings back memories. I grew up in Watson Avenue on "the Sutton" and I remember looking from my bedroom window over fields of waving wheat (and oats) to the classic whitewashed walls and black trim of Farding Lake Farm (circa 1841)and beyond that across the fields to the coast line at Marsden. I remember (shades of Thomas Hood)on a summer's day, the shadows of the huge white Cumulus clouds, chasing one another across the fields.
Enough of the poetic license. When construction of the Marsden Estate began,we were spared having any houses directly behind us, by the fact that one of the early projects was the building of Redwell County Secondary School,whose extensive playing fields left our view towards the farm,at least, unimpaired. Unfortunately this, at the time,very modern building, was immediately plagued by ground subsidence, caused by the collapsing of many of the coal mining tunnels situated directly below the school. So bad was the problem that huge cracks appeared in the concrete of the schoolyard, doors along the corridors would not close, an impressive brick portal frame at the entrance to the grounds, bearing the name of the school, collapsed and was never re-built and the large windows in the two magnificent gymnasiums,also at the entrance to the school, were breaking so frequently that the authorities finally gave up and replaced them with sheets of plywood.
On my last visit to South Shields in 1998, I noticed that the school is no more and that a private housing estate now occupies much of the site. I can only hope(reasonable I suppose after fifty years) that civil engineers have determined that problems with mine subsidence are a thing of the past.
Moving on to the reference to Centennial Avenue, I remember this as a ribbon of pink asphalt, running in a dead staight line across fields, to that alien land, Horsely Hill, home of the most terrifying bunch of kids, who inhabited the "B" form at Harton Juniors. So scary were some of these characters that on the few occasions that I plucked up the courage to ride my bike down Centennial Avenue and around the Horsely Hill Pub roundabout,I felt, as I pedalled for home and safety, somewhat akin to what Robinson Crusoe must have felt when he escaped the man eating cannibals! Having said that I must apologise if I have offended the present residents of Horsely Hill. Im sure they're all nice people without any propensity for human flesh (especially mine!)

Mon 1-Dec-2008 03:40 - Victoria BC. Canada

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Robin Leslie's input is interesting in that it evokes memories of the household environment in which many of the post-war pupils/scholars/students lived. Many of the houses on the estates built just before the second world war were substantial but lacking in many of the amenities that people now take for granted. We certainly regarded the houses on the large Marsden Estates as luxurious.

Mention of Park Avenue brings back hosts of memories. I never knew that Bill Murray lived there (incidentally I see from the Google Maps satellite shots that the shops at the Quarry Lane end have not so far been demolished)but I have vivid recollections of the old St Cuthberts Church (a wooden building)and the ramshackle Youth Club building next door just across King George Road. Couldn't have anything to do with a very early girl friend who lived in Park Avenue, also a member of the said club!!!!

In any event, my first daughter was christened in the old St Cuthberts and her sister (3 years later) in the brand new church next to Cleadon Park after the old church was burnt down.

I have replied privately to Robin Leslie concerning some time that we may have shared as members of St Peter's church choir.

Sun 30-Nov-2008 16:16 - Ruskington, Lincolnshire

Robin Leslie | robinleslie~AT~alumni~DOT~lse~DOT~ac~DOT~uk

My grandfather, Archie Henderson of
Henderson Brothers, built all the houses around Ambleside Avenue, all named after the lakes in the Lake District. He built many other estates in the town too, and lived on Sunderland Road by the Methodist Church
and only half a mile from the High School on St. Marys Road.
Do any of you remember John Leslie (my brother) who entered the High School 2 years before me in 1950?

Sun 30-Nov-2008 13:55 - Buckinghamshire

Robin Leslie | robinleslie~AT~alumni~DOT~lse~DOT~ac~DOT~uk

This is an interesting discussion! I lived in Ambleside Avenue until we, as a family, left South Shields for Glasgow. I distinctly remember all our haunts, and our (I was one of 5 children, two of whom went to the High School)range of play extended right up to Cleadon village one way, and to Laygate and Westoe village on the other! This took in King George Road, Prince Edward Road and the Ridgeway and Cleadon Park. I'm just wondering if the Park Avenue of which you speak is the road that runs parallel to Cleadon Park and which was a council estate? Those council houses were very good houses, and were a lot larger than the new houses that have been built since 1980. It might interest you to know that housing space per capita (or for each household) is the lowest in Europe, so that the room space in these post-1980 houses is minimal. In spite of their pretentious
facades, they amount to nothing inside, and the original council houses could have been refurbished at a quarter of the cost!
Anyway, I used to play football on the King George playing fields, as did many
clubs in Shields, and what a wonderful variety of clubs and strips there were!
My main activities were concentrated around St. Peters Church Harton where I was a choirboy until I left at the age of 14 years of age! There were a number of High School boys at St. Pters including Geoffrey Hilcote, who lived in North Avenue, Ronnie Kemp who lived off West Avenue and Billy May who lived off Sunderland Road just behind St. Peters Harton (his parents had the sweet shop opposite The Ship Inn. Ian Murray, the cricketer at the High School, lived in Grasmere Gardens.
His father and mother were teachers, though one died early in Ian's life.
One Ian (?) Atkinson an athlete at the High School lived on the corner of Mortimer Road and King George Road, and Ian Jarvie lived on Mortimer Road near Windermere Gardens.
Bert and Kenneth Land and George Catling, all rugby players for westoe 1st XV lived a few doors away from my family in Ambleside Avenue, and I think(?) Billy Edgar lived on the corner of
Mortimer Road and Windermere Gardens. John Coxon lived on Cauldwell Villas.

Sun 30-Nov-2008 13:48 - Buckinghamshire

Ed Forster | ed~DOT~forster~AT~route2~DOT~pe~DOT~ca

I was born ( "at a very early age" as an old comic used to say ) at 40 Sycamore ave. Cleadon, then at 5yrs of age moved to 25 Lisle Rd.
Round about that time a large council estate was built beyond the high school end of Lisle Rd. They were known as slum clearance houses.
When calling them that to brother George he told me that he was born in a house in Lytton Street which had no electricity & a dry outside netty & when he was seven moved to Sycamore Ave. which in turn had been known as a slum clearance estate. He said it was like moving into a palace, inside toilet & electric light. Also a garden back & front. " In future when opening your mouth, be careful what you say "

Thu 27-Nov-2008 13:24 - Snowy PEI

Fred Dunmore | duncat~AT~blueyonder~DOT~co~DOT~uk

Michael Lawrenson describes the demolition area very accurately. To get a picture of the town in all its glory I recommend going on to Google and clicking on to 'maps' on top left. It is quite up to date although the building hasn't commenced on the site at the time the pictures were taken by satellite.If Bruce Graham asks for 'School Approach' he will be able to see the developement of the estate that he remembers as fields.
I was interested to see that the developement of the roads at the bottom of Imeary Street, where the Westoe Bridges and the renowed 'Westoe Netty' used to be, is clearly seen.
I hope that this stirs some more memories for our friends living away from the old town.

Thu 27-Nov-2008 00:30 - South Shields

Michael Lawrenson 1946 | lawrenson~AT~hollyburn~DOT~plus~DOT~com

The demolition of the houses around Park Avenue has been quite drastic. On my last visit to Shields I walked round the area (my sister still lives in the top end of The Ridgeway) and I think that all the houses from Prince Edward Road up to Park Avenue have been demolished and are being replaced with modern housing. From Park Avenue to The Ridgeway it is more selective with the western streets being demolished and those nearer Sunderland Road left alone. Cleadon Park Primary, which was hidden behind houses for many years, can now be clearly seen from King George Road.

School Approach as I recall led off from Centenary Avenue but beyond that to the south of Centenary Avenue it was indeed all fields across to Marsden. In 1946 we walked to the High School from Sutton Estate along East Avenue but an alternative way was to the east of the Harton Junior Schools, what we called ‘the field way’. It didn’t last for very long as round about 1947 or 1948 building started on the new estate and our semi-rural journey home was concreted over.

Wed 26-Nov-2008 19:44 - Scotland

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Fred Dunsmore's recollection of Bill Murray and his habit of throwing things in the woodwork room brought back some scary memories!

I was also interested in his comment about the demolition of the council estate around Park Avenue. I presume that means that Cleadon Park primary school is also gone - maybe it went some years ago. Whatever, it reminded me of the "feeder" primary schools in the town in the 50s. I can recall Harton, Cleadon Park, Mortimer Road, Ocean Road, Barnes Road, Stanhope Road and Baring Street but there must have been several more.

Is the demolition just in the area surrounded by Prince Edward Road, Sunderland Road, The Ridgeway and King George Road? As I remember this was one of the first council estates in the town being mainly constructed in the 1920s (my Grandmother was one of the first tenants). I suppose the next plan will be to re-develop all of the pre-Second World War estates but that would be a huge number of houses including all of the houses to the south of the School and Horsley Hill not to mention the estate around Harton School and those the other side of the Sutton Trust.

Incidentally, talking of re-development when the "new" council estates were being built in the late 40s one of the roads bounded by the "old" estate near the school was named School Approach. Presumably (I can't remember) it was all open fields leading down to Horsley Hill??

Wed 26-Nov-2008 17:30 - Ruskington, Lincolnshire

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