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Lynemouth - Sound
Oral History Recording of Tom O'Keefe (31st October 1979)
Transcription of an interview with Tom O'Keefe recorded on the 31st October 1979.
During the full interview Mr. O'Keefe talks about his career as a boxer in the Ashington and Tyneside districts of Northumberland. He also recalls various events in the Ashington and Lynemouth areas.
During this extract he talks about the house that his family moved into at Lynemouth and the subsequent visit of the then Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward the Eighth, to see the new housing for himself.
[Transcription]
Yes we had a big canny house at Lynemouth; yes it was a seven-roomed house you know.
Yes, they were fairly good houses those weren't they?
Oh, they were real modern houses, well I think it was 1925, the Prince of Wales came down to see them you know. That was the old King Edward, the one that abdicated. He came to Lynemouth to see the houses, because they were really first class houses. They were the only miners houses with a bathroom in, you know. There was no bathrooms in any of these houses at that particular time, they were real modern houses. Hot and cold water.
Ashington Coal Company wasn't it?
All the facilities, Ashington Coal Company, yes, of course.
They'd have been model houses really wouldn't they I suppose at that time, practically?
Yes they were, they were really first class miners houses. In fact they were the best in country.
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.