The memoirs of Cissie Ewen

Married Life

Shopping at the Co-op

We didn’t see much of the couple who lived above us, but we did get very friendly with her older sister, a Mrs Nurse, who lived next door, and whose husband suffered shell shock during World War I. It caused him to have fits so he couldn’t be left very long on his own, in case he should injure himself in any way while taking a fit. They had two children, a boy of about seven years or maybe a year or two older but small for his age, and a lovely little girl about three years. Eddie, the boy thought the world of John, perhaps because he was not able to communicate much with his sick dad. He used to come a lot into our place at the times he knew John would be around the place.

Louisa and I used to walk to Wallsend each Friday morning to do our shopping, and go to the open market where we were able to buy some cheap things. During the weekdays, we used to shop at a Co-op store. We got a cheque each time for the amount we spent there, and at the end of a year they paid out a dividend. I used to buy bars of Watson’s household soap, and the covers had coupons, which I used to save. I got quite a number of things for the house with the coupons in the three years we were in George Street. A bread bin, a pair of kitchen scales, a pair of household steps, some nice fancy drinking glasses, and a box of dessert knives and forks were some of the things I remember getting.

We used to pass Haggie’s Rope Works, and we could smell the tarry ropes. I believe they had a lot of men and women working there, for it was a big factory, almost the length of the street. They also made the big thick ropes for ships; they made ropes all thicknesses and lengths. We could also see parts of the remains of Hadrian’s Wall. Ann Ewen, after she was married (to David McLeod,) lived in Rosehill Terrace, quite close to the Roman Wall. One could hear all the machinery going in the factory for quite some distance, as well as the ships’ sirens on the river, and the different buzzers going. It must have been 1½-2 miles to walk; we enjoyed it and we knew we could get things cheaper there, and both having small incomes, had to make it spin out. Louisa’s girls were at school, and Jim Nicholson, her husband, was a Merchant seaman.

The year after we were married, just before my first child, Robert John, was born, my sister, Maggie, married Fred McKay and they lived with Fred’s widowed mother in Lilburn Street, Chirton. Shortly after that, Alex married Theresa Turner, and it must have been about that time when Mam moved back into Silkey’s Lane. At that time all the open space, market gardens and farms, had been taken over and houses and roads built. The lonnen was no longer there. Silkey’s Lane was no longer a one-way street and houses were built opposite, both front and back.