Heddon-on-the-Wall - Sound

Transcription of an interview with Mr. And Mrs. Hall recorded on the 24^th February 1978

Mr. Hall was born at Newburn in 1894. He moved to Heddon-on-the-Wall in 1924. His parents also came from Newburn, where his father was employed as a Blacksmith. Mrs. Hall was born at Heddon-on-the-Wall in 1894. Her parents also came from Heddon-on-the-Wall, where her father worked as a Stoneman at Heddon Colliery. Mrs. Hall was a Gibson before she married. The Gibson family is one of the oldest in Heddon-on-the-Wall.

During this extract Mrs. Hall recalls her time as a girl skating and sledging on Heddon pond.

[Transcription]

Of course the pond is were I used to slide on. As a little girl I used to, well I was grown up when this was taken, but from being younger than that you see I used to sledge and slide. We used to come down the chair bank, there was a bank and you used to come right onto the pond with your sledge.

Did people used to skating with proper skates on the pond when it froze up?

Yes they did. And there was some people fell in to when it began to thaw.

Did you have irons made by the blacksmith?

Well I don't know, I never skated, but I had my sledge and I used to slide, but I never did any skating, but there was they came from different places to skate on Heddon pond.

 

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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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