Newbiggin-by-the-Sea - Sound

Transcription of an interview with Gladstone Storey recorded in October 1972.

Gladstone Storey was born in 1891 at Sandwich near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. His father was a fisherman and also worked at Cambois colliery. In this particular extract Mr. Storey talks about where and when he was born, his early schooling and the need for soup kitchens in Newbiggin village.

[Transcription]

I was bred and born at Sandwich, that's up the top end of Newbiggin beside the lifeboat house.

Oh yes

And eh we lived that close to the lifeboat house sometimes when the lifeboat gun went off it used to break all our windows. And that's how we always new when there was a ship ashore.

What year were you born?

Ninety-One

1891?

Aye

1891?

Yes

What em, where was the school at Newbiggin in those days?

Well there was an infants school just about 100 yards from where I was born. It was a church school. Now we used to pay a penny a week, what they called school pence, but their was a lot didn't pay, because, their parents maybe hadn't a penny in those days, because they were hard days.

They used to have soup kitchens, and I've heard them say that some of the fishermen were that hard up, that they used to catch starlings.

They used to catch them for the soup kitchens?

For there own use at home many time

That was the hard up days

 

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This tape recording comes from the large collection of oral history recordings held by the Northumberland Archive Service. Interviews were conducted by Record Office staff from the early 1970's right through until the mid 1980's. The purpose of the recordings was to capture the essence of life in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Many different subjects were covered, including coalmining, farming, fishing, domestic life, World Wars and entertainment. Over 350 recordings have been collected comprising approximately 700 hours of recollections.

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