I was a child of six on that night. I went with my mother and brother aged 7 to the Boro Cinema in North Shields. Through the middle of the show we heard muffled explosions, but someone said it was breaking bottles, so we just continued to watch the film which was "Mother Riley and her Daughter Kitty".
When we did finally come out of the cinema, the street seemed deserted, but the sky was lit up. Out of nowhere some men came running up shouting that there was an air raid going on and that we'd better get to a shelter. Picking myself and my brother up, they ran to a shelter in Lower Nile Street opposite Parks Photographers. We passed a man lying in the doorway of Burton the Tailors. I assumed he'd been hurt. We went downstairs, the shelter was full of frightened people. When the 'All Clear' sounded we ventured out onto Saville Street. Wellington Street had been razed to the ground and was burning.
We walked along picking our way among the rubble and headed home. We passed the allotments on Howdon Road, the fencing was burning just a few yards from the Gasometer. Friends of the family who lived by the gasyard were evacuated to our house until everything was cleared up.
After the bombing of Wilkinson's, all the debris was used to fill the burn in which ran down Red Burn View where we lived. I remember scrambling over the debris and finding lots of household items: knives, forks, spoons also lipstick and rouge and millions of bottle labels. It seems like yesterday.