Millbank

Miss Oliver was headmistress when I was there.  Mrs Napier took the first class, then I think it was Miss McKay, (who I thought was as tall as a mountain!) and then Miss Short (I think her name matched her temper!)

I have never heard of Millbank House. Can someone enlighten me please?

Thanks Millbank!

You got me working things oot here,cos I knew every family in the 66 houses in Hollymount Square,when I was a bairn.

I was living there when the site of number 43 Hollymount was still a row of ancient pit raas for the Doctor Pit men.

I was 11,going on 12 yrs old,when the Chiver's moved in,[one of the big lads by then!]

Brian was 5yrs old,and a bairn!........5yrs later I was 15 yrs old and working underground,doon the pit,amang men,learning a man's job!

It figures that my friends and I who were all the same age  group would be roaming fields and woods and Barn'ton tip etc,when Brian moved there.

I have no recollection of The Chiver's family living at that side,only next ti the cut ti Cornwall Crescent,and Beattie/Haig roads.

Was it a member of the same family who lived in 43,or was it THE actual family who might have moved across the Square,as some others used ti swap in them days.

As I got older,there were a lot of changes,but I lost track,cos I spent a lot of time with my lass at her house,who has been my Wife for 48 years noo!

As a kid,I spent a lot of time in Millbank,playing wi me friends Alan Wilkinson,and Ronnie Leyland,and my  older Sister used ti take me with her ti see her friend [when I about 5 yrs old] who was Millie Madison.

We all went ti thi Whitley  School.

Morning High Pit Wilma

43 Hollymount Square is the second house from the park cut. The Chivers family moved from Gladstone Terrace in the 50s and lived there for over 30 years. I was a regular visitor to the house.

I too went to the Whitley but do not recognise any of your friends' names. Think you're a little bit older than me!

Hi Millbank!

                   The Chivers family lived in Hollymount square,2 doors from the cut into Cornwall Crescent/Haig/Beattie Roads.[adjacent to old Hollymount hall]

That wasn't the Park cut,the Park cut was along from there leading from the "new hooses" [as we kids called them],which faced over to the Whitley school,and Knoxy's Field.It led straight onto the tennis courts area,with a short walk left ti the swings,and continuing through ti the main road and the Whitley School.

Old Frankie Latimer lived right on the cut at the right side,and he always chased us kids if we even showed our faces,not even daeing owt wrang!!

My earliest memory of little Billy[?] Chivers,was him hitting me,when I was aboot four yrs old,not yet at school.and me faatha gaan aroond wi me,and

telling me ti hit him back harder or HE would belt me!!

I vividly remember that traumatic day,having to run down and hit thi kid back,which was totally against my grain,cos I wasn't a fighter then,and I've never been a fighter in my life since....am aal for a peaceful life!!

I don't think they lived there very long after that incident.

My Parents were given number 13 Hollymount Square,as soon as it was completed being built,and the wall plaster was still not dried oot!!

In aboot 1948,as it was,there was nae waalpaper !!....aad-fashioned distemper stippled onti aal thi waals when they finally dried.

Ye taak aboot giving families chest complaints!!...thi new hoose was damper than Aad Storey's Buildings at Willow Bridge,in Choppington.

We had the end hoose,of the first half of the building programme,and they were still pulling the old colliery hooses doon,in Bell's Place,to allow for the completion of the square,a year or two later.

Hi High Pit Wilma

Brian Chivers definitely lived near the park cut, in number 43 Hollymount Square. They moved there about 1955, when he was about five years old, and were there for many years.

Hi Millbank!

                   The Chivers family lived in Hollymount square,2 doors from the cut into Cornwall Crescent/Haig/Beattie Roads.[adjacent to old Hollymount hall]

That wasn't the Park cut,the Park cut was along from there leading from the "new hooses" [as we kids called them],which faced over to the Whitley school,and Knoxy's Field.It led straight onto the tennis courts area,with a short walk left ti the swings,and continuing through ti the main road and the Whitley School.

Old Frankie Latimer lived right on the cut at the right side,and he always chased us kids if we even showed our faces,not even daeing owt wrang!!

My earliest memory of little Billy[?] Chivers,was him hitting me,when I was aboot four yrs old,not yet at school.and me faatha gaan aroond wi me,and

telling me ti hit him back harder or HE would belt me!!

I vividly remember that traumatic day,having to run down and hit thi kid back,which was totally against my grain,cos I wasn't a fighter then,and I've never been a fighter in my life since....am aal for a peaceful life!!

I don't think they lived there very long after that incident.

My Parents were given number 13 Hollymount Square,as soon as it was completed being built,and the wall plaster was still not dried oot!!

In aboot 1948,as it was,there was nae waalpaper !!....aad-fashioned distemper stippled onti aal thi waals when they finally dried.

Ye taak aboot giving families chest complaints!!...thi new hoose was damper than Aad Storey's Buildings at Willow Bridge,in Choppington.

We had the end hoose,of the first half of the building programme,and they were still pulling the old colliery hooses doon,in Bell's Place,to allow for the completion of the square,a year or two later.

Your right Symptons on the Martin Henderson. It just happened, as normal in a pub, that his sister was showing some old photos and this was the only one I borrowed for posting on this site. He is not related to Mickey.

Ken Pearson is the only other one I put a name to. I never went to Whitley. Knew Ken through the senior school and his parents as I went to their flat every Sunday morning in the early 1960s to collect the newspapers for delivery around the Station, Steadlane and Terrier.

I went to the Whitley until 1962 so should recognise all of these lads but I'm only certain of the ones that have already been identified. Perhaps Graham Calvert is right of Michael Henderson and Roy Goldsmith to his left in the rear. Front row, possibly Michael Stafford right of Kenneth Pearson and John Simpson on Mr Hostler's right - but I could be wrong!

I went to the Whitley with Pauline Brown and her family lived in the prefabs down Millfield then.

The Chivers family lived 2 doors away from the cut into the park and lived there for many years.