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Seaton Delaval - Sound
Oral History Recording of Mrs. Glenn (15th May 1978)
Transcription of an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Glenn recorded on the 15th May 1978.
Both Mr and Mrs Glenn were born in Seaton Delaval in the early 1890's. During this interview they talk generally about life in the Seaton Delaval district. Mr Glenn talks at length about his employment at the Seton Delaval Colliery from his first employment when he was only 13 years old.
During this extract Mrs. Glenn recalls the housing and living conditions she experienced whilst living at home with her parents at Seaton Delaval.
[Transcription]
Going back to your house, you mentioned that it only had a room downstairs and a loft upstairs. How did you get upstairs?
By, just a ladder, just a ladder took you up and there was this great big trap door, and then you just, well we couldn't, but my mother and my father and anybody would ease it up, and we'd lie two to a bed, and a little window no bigger than that was on the floor. Your windowsill was on the floor and a little window like that.
Just about three foot square?
And you just had to creep across the floor to look out the window, and my sister and I, the younger one then me, lay together in one bed, and we had a partition that my two brothers lay on the other. My father and mother laid in the downstairs, in the kitchen, what we call our kitchens, lay in there, and two other sisters lay in the little back bedroom, just wee little windows. But we survived, we were better in health than they are today.
What were your beds, can you remember anything about them?
Black and brass bedsteads, and just your straw mattresses, there was no fancy mattresses then, straw mattresses.
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 19th and early 20th 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.