The roof and windows of our cottage suffered much damage, and as it was old it was beyond repair. That was the last time I lived in the home where I was born.
To this day I can still hear the bombs screaming down that night, and my Aunt saying," the next one is for us", and being frightened.
No one ever mentions the pasting the dockland took, where people were living, we had a lot of incendiary bombs dropped on all the pit props, which were stacked there. I remember an unexploded one being found by my Grandfather ( Mr Walter Hunter), just near our cellar door.
I've enjoyed visiting your site, I now live in Cambridgeshire, but I'll always be a Geordie at heart.
Sincerely
Brenda Brown (nee Hunter.)
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My name is Marguerite Ada Mavin. Having seen the website referring to the Wilkinson’s Factory Air Raid Shelter Disaster I would like to add what I know of the disaster and also to correct an entry which already exists on your Web site.
My mother’s name was exactly the same as mine: Marguerite Ada Mavin. She and my brother, James (Jimmy) and my sister Rosalie were in the shelter when it was bombed. I have found their mortuary records on the Web site. My mother is actually listed in the records as “Margaret� not “Marguerite� which was her correct name.
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At the time of the air raid, I was in hospital having yet another operation, following a road accident which I had suffered approximately two years earlier. I was approximately seven and a half years old at the time of the disaster. My leg had been badly damaged in the accident and I had already been operated on several times before then. Had it not been for the accident, therefore, I would have been with my mother at the time of the air raid. I do remember being in the air raid shelter before this incident, when I was still living at home. I remember this especially because it was a very dramatic incident. As it was pitch black, my mother was having difficulty in coping with myself, my brother and the baby in a pram and was calling for help. A policeman helped us all to the air raid shelter.
My father was in the army and was based in Newcastle at the time of the fatal air raid. All leave had been cancelled the weekend of the air raid. I discovered afterwards that the telegram from him, telling my mother that his leave had been cancelled, was actually still on the table at home after the accident, even though the front of the house had been demolished. We lived in Church Street, but I cannot recall the number.
It was many months afterwards that my aunt, Millie Moore, took me home from hospital and told me what had happened. I lived with my aunt for a short time after this until my father was given leave to look after me. Clearly this could not last long as it was necessary for him to return to the army. I then lived with my aunt Dolly for a short time before going back into hospital. After this I was sent to live at a Children’s Home in Earsden until dad left the army. I was twelve years old by this time.
Finally, I would like to correct the mistake which appears on the Web site. At the moment it states the following:
“Millie Moore
Mrs Millie Moore lost her father's brother, wife and children: the Mavins. Mrs Moore identified the bodies.�
As is clear from the facts I have given above, this is not the case. It was actually Millie Moore’s sister in law and her children who died. Millie Moore was my father’s sister. Mrs. Moore’s father and uncle were both killed in the First World War at Ypres. Sadly, Millie Moore herself died just over two years ago at the age of 92. I had kept in touch with her and her sons since leaving North Shields in 1953. I now live in Leicester.
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A 1949 Advert from 'County Borough of Tynemouth 1849-1949. [click to enlarge]
William Arthur Wilkinson had 9 children and all three of his sons worked in his business. His eldest son, also called William Arthur, worked at the factory. He lost an eye operating the Beavis bottling machine. His second son, George, worked in the firms’ depot in Choppington. We have a 10 oz codd and pint aqua cylinder embossed Wilkinson Junior/Choppington with a central WAW monogram. When Billy started, bottling wasn’t carried out in Choppington. The filled bottles were transferred from North Shields and three draycarts, each pulled by two horses, were used for this purpose. After the Choppington branch closed (1918), George did selling and was in charge of deliveries. Wilkinson’s youngest son, Earnest, was in charge of the factory itself. All the employees at the factory were women. Billy remembered an old woman who cleaned the bottles, and women that pasted the labels onto the bottles by hand (surely a dull job!)
Billy himself used a smaller cart pulled by only one horse and usually did the round of Whitley Bay and area, 3 or 4 trips there and back each day. There were several other rounds although Billy would only do these when he was ‘on relief’. Of interest to us, he had occasionally done the round of New York and Murton villages and could recall delivering pop and cigarettes to the Rickard’s general store in New York which was ran by my Dad Stew’s uncle and grandfather. My Dad has fond childhood memories of drinking Wilkinson’s delicious ‘Smila’ brand lemonade, from pint screw top bottles. Aside from pop, Wilkinson sold Bass, Bulmer’s cider, his own port wine (6 shilling a bottle) and Guinness. The Guinness had to be checked by a ‘traveller’ to see that it wasn’t too old. Wilkinson supplied many pubs including the famous Wooden Dolly in North Shields.
W. A. Wilkinson became a limited company in 1926. The only bottles we have from W.A. Wilkinson Ltd are a soda syphon, clear glass pint screw top minerals and the bottom half of a 6 oz codd. W. A. Wilkinson Ltd must have been one of the last North East companies to use codd bottles. How many codds do you get on a 1920s dump?
Delivery was central to the business and horses were essential, so they were well cared for. Horses were left with a filled feed bag overnight and were fed between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning by a lamplighter, a part-time employee who did this after putting the street lights out. Billy’s first job was to muck the horses out and then clean and harness them. Every Sunday the leather harnesses and brasses also had to be cleaned, (maybe they even used a horse brass with a codd bottle on it?) As Billy said “This one Monday it had poured down and the harness was spoiled and everything was dull. As I was coming out of the gate, Wilkinson was standing there with his white hair and beard wearing a grey 3-piece suit and a gold Albert, and shouted ‘hey boy, stop that pony! Take that pony back into the stable, clean that harness and you’ll do your deliveries when it’s clean’. All that work, and all for 8 bob a week.�
Billy didn’t like delivering 6 oz codds because not only were they heavy, he was also expected to haul them across the Long Sands beach at Whitley Bay to supply the seaside kiosks. Aside from the hard work of delivery, it could also be dangerous. One day in 1920, Billy was making his usual Whitley Bay delivery. He left North Shields and as he ascended out of Spital Dene (which in those days would have been quite steep) his horse became unsettled and lurched away sharply. The jerk threw Billy to the ground and since the weight was all at the rear of the cart it tipped backwards spilling the delivery onto the road. Billy had to pick himself up quickly and run to catch the horse. It says a lot that Billy was more worried about turning up in the delivery yard with an injured horse and a spilt delivery than he was about his own injuries.
Unsurprisingly, we were keen to know what happened to the empties and as we might have known they were collected and re-used. If Wilkinson’s ended up receiving another company’s bottles they took them to South Shields bottle exchange and got paid a portion of the deposit on the bottles and also picked up any Wilkinson’s bottles that had been handed in by other companies (but they had to pay the full deposit (a penny) on these so they ended up out of pocket overall). Billy especially remembered exchanging bottles from Evans and Reaveleys. Any broken bottles were collected by hawkers from Gateshead for ‘a few coppers’. By the time Billy joined the company, stone bottles weren’t used although they were still stored - sometimes Billy took them home to use as hot water bottles. The only stoneware bottles used were ‘gallon jars’ in 1 & 2 gallon capacities for malt vinegar.
When other local mineral water manufacturers closed down, Wilkinson bought their bottles; Billy remembered half pint and pint glass bottles from Matthew Knott, Holliday & Co. (both North Shields) and Sam Vincent (Howdon) being stored in a garage in the yard (sadly emptied long ago). In 1954, W. A. Wilkinson’s brother, Joseph, sold his factory and bottles to Margaret Pearson of Sunderland. It wasn’t long before W. A. Wilkinson met a similar fate; he sold up in 1964. In 1900, Wilkinson was a big fish in the small pond of North Shields, but by the sixties he just couldn’t compete with the larger national companies that dominated the market.
When Wilkinson’s factory closed, all of the old equipment and the bottles were taken away and dumped. Billy remembered making several trips to the municipal tip with a lorry full of old crates and boxes of bottles. It took Billy and the other workers about three days to complete, they must have tipped thousands of bottles. Anyone for digging 1960s dumps?]]>
Norman Darling Black in first aid uniform
My father was trained as a first-aider and seeing the seriousness of the situation was prepared to work until everyone was out. He did this for many hours in very dangerous conditions until everyone, injured or dead was taken from the basement. For his bravery he was awarded the British Empire Medal.
Two other men were awarded the George Cross. My father's friends and colleagues thought that he deserved further recognition for his actions, so they presented him with a gold watch.
On December 1st 1941, my father, mother and I travelled down to London. On December 2nd at Buckingham Palace, His Majesty King George VI awarded ARP Warden Norman Darling Black with the British Empire Medal. It was a proud and wonderful day for the family.
Whilst we were in London, we stayed at the Salvation Army Hostel, Hoxton Goodwill Centre and were escorted around by Captain Giles who was an Australian.
After the war, my father became a psychiatric nurse at St. Nicholas Hospital in Gosforth. Before he retired he became Deputy Chief Male Nurse.
Following the disaster numerous children were evacuated to safer locations. The day of the evacuation we all met at the school we attended which was Queen Victoria school. Our mums and dads were there to see us off with a parcel of food, big hugs, kisses and a lot of love and tears.
My placement was at Horsley Vicarage near Otterburn with the vicar, his wife and housemaid. There was another boy who stayed there with me. We went to Otternburn school. I'd like to say a big thank you to the people who looked after the boys when we were evacuated.
When my father and mother moved away from North Shields to a village called New York, about three miles away, I was allowed to go back to my parents. I lost contact with the boy who I became friends with when I was evacuated. Does anyone know him? He would be about 70 now and I'd very much like to get in contact with him.
I went to several local schools: Queen Victoria and King Edward's in North Shields, New York Junior School and Shiremoor Secondary Modern (?). Perhaps someone remembers me?. I left North Shields and joined the RAF as a musician, I then became a psychiatric nurse, just as my father had been. I now live in Lincoln.
Whilst writing this and remembering those times, Psalm 23 has been going through my mind..."the Lord is my Shepherd...". God bless.
From the War Cry: 27/12/41
Transcript
At Buckingham Palace On December 2nd H.M. the King pinned the British Empire Medal to the breast of Colour-Sergeant Gordon D. Black of North Shields Corps, and said "I congratulate you."
A bomb struck a public shelter under a factory and many tons of debris and machinery collapsed upon it. Brother Black, serving with a First Aid unit, struggled through a narrow opening, risking his life to find living people buried under the debris.
For four hours he worked at great hazard to extricate a child imprisoned by many tons of masonry. He was advised to rest after this dangerous feat but returned to rescue an imprisoned man. With a 'jack' Brother Black began to prize up the crashed roof, knowing that four high walls and about 40 tons of machinery were suspended insecurely above his head.
A doctor crawled in and handed anesthetic to Brother Black who adminstered it to the imprisoned man. He then cut the vicitm's boots away and pulled the man out of his boots to freedom.
He does not know the names of the two whose lives he saved.
Brother Black has studied First-Aid for eight years. When his duties allow his joy is to carry the Army Colours. While in London for the presentation Brother Black, his wife and son were entertained at the Hoxton Good-will Centre.]]>