Meet the Members

The Members of Chester-le-Street Heritage Group come from all manner of backgrounds and many of them still live within the boundries of our town.
What unites us all is a passion for the area and an obsession to find out as much as possible about our local history and to make sure that it is recorded for all to see.
As part of this objective, we thought our readers would like to know a little more about the individual Members of the Group, so we hope the following will be of interest:

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Audrey

Born in Chester-le-Street a long time ago, I am a true CESTRIAN as was my father before me. I was the second child in a family of four, three boys and a girl and as a result of this I always had to stand and fight my own corner. As a “topender” I attended the Red Rose School where I received a wonderful education which included not only the 3 R’s but a love of handicrafts and nature.
Apart from the basic skills of sewing and knitting Miss. Netta Dodds introduced me to the art of embroidery and Mr. R.C. Dunn regularly took the whole class of children on Nature Walks around the meadows of Parlours Top and the River Banks.



Audrey & her Brother.

This passion for handicrafts and the wonders of the Great Outdoors has stayed with me all my life because of these two teachers .
They also developed in me the joy of reading and a love of books.. In our house we had no story books, we were poor. My Dad had a gardening book and there was also a Bible and two Prayer books. My Gran had in her house a bookcase which contained lots of books. These had all been Sunday School Prizes and on our Sunday visit I was allowed to read these books.
One Day there had been a supply of new books at school and all the children were each given one of the old reading books to take home and keep. Magic.
I had passed the scholarship, no stress in those days because it was just another test which we accepted as part of the school routine. I then had to attend the big school, the Grammar School and from there I became a constant visitor to the County Library and an avid reader. Guided and abetted by the Librarian, eventually I also had a career in the world of books.
Because of these people whose influence helped me in these interests, craft-work and outdoor activities have stayed with me all my life, but I do not know from whence my passion for Chester-le-Street Heritage came.
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Raymond

I was born in 1933 at Dene House, Waldridge and my father was a well known local plasterer in Chester-le-Street.

In the late 1930’s he went to work in London and we all went to live in Greenford, Northholt.
When the Second World War broke out and bomb started dropping, we came back to Chester-le-Street and stayed with our Grandfather who had one of the first taxi businesses in the town.

The school I went to was known as the Council School which is now the Cestria School, then I went to intermediate school in Bullion Lane.


Raymond & Brother Bryan.

I delivered newspapers for Dean’s (Co-operative Street), Wears (in the Arcade) and Greener’s on the Front Street.

On leaving school I started work as an Apprentice Bricklayer at Thompson’s the Builders and worked on many buildings in the town. We also built about ten houses in North Lodge.

At twenty one I went into the Army for my National Service and did 18 months in Singapore.

I continued working as a bricklayer until I retired. In 1957 I married Ann and we had three sons, Tony, Bryan and David.

I am interested in the Heritage Group and could talk about Chester-le-Street and its people until the cows come home.
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Alex

They say that to be called a true Geordie, you need to have been born within spitting distance of the River Tyne. So in 1947, being safely delivered into this world at the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital Newcastle, would seem to fit the criterion required.




I moved to Chester-le-Street some thirty odd years ago, having previously lived in the nearby village of Pelton, and as is often the case, it was only in more recent years that I became interested in my family tree and then local history.



Alex aged 18 month.

I started my working life at H. Young (Motors) Ltd, Front Street, Chester-le-Street as an Apprentice Mechanic, eventually ending my carrier as a Staff Engineer with a large Motoring Organisation.
When I took early retirement at the beginning of 2005, I saw a advertisement in the local newspaper stating that new members would be most welcome at Chester-le-Street Heritage Group. So I called the number given and spoke to the late Edna Stokoe, who at the time was the Group's Secretary and made arrangements to attend the next Group Meeting.
This is my sixth year with the Group and I am enjoying every minute of it, they're a great bunch and the work is so interesting and varied that there is never a dull moment.
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Jim

I was born in Chapel Street, Usworth in 1935, and the family moved from there to Pelton Fell when I was three years old.
My education began at Roseberry School in 1939 and ended when I left in 1950.
My first job was at Birtley Iron Company, where I worked for about 12 weeks, before leaving.
I then managed to get a job at Doggarts in Chester-le-Street. Here I worked on the Menswear counter for 18 months before leaving to start work at Handen Hold Colliery. The first part of my training at the colliery began on the screens sorting the stones from the coal, then I progressed to work underground in the drift mine as a landing lad, then on to pony putting, before going down the mine for real and working as a hewer on the coal face.
I left there in 1958 and joined the Army, serving in Catterick, Osnabruck, Hong Kong and finishing my service at Tidworth.
On returning to civilian life, I joining the Post office at Chester-le-Street in 1967, I worked delivering letters until 1975 when the Parcel Sorting Depot opened at Washington so I transferred there. Here I worked on the machine letter sorting, later being promoted to Postman Higher Grade, then eventually Supervisor. I was there until 1991 when the opportunity to take early retirement through a redundancy scheme was offered.
In 2002 I started guiding people around the European Second World War battlefields.

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Malcolm

I was born in South Pelaw, Chester-le-Street. My father at the time was Foreman Mechanic at Aungers Garage in Chester-le-Street. He was also a member of the local U.D.C. Fire Brigade and later a full time fireman in Durham County Brigade..

I attended the Modern School in Bullion Lane and later worked in Chester-le-Street before serving in the Royal Air Force for a spell. I left the forces and worked in various areas of Durham County until my retirement in the 1990’s. I also worked abroad in Ontario, Canada for 6 years.

I have always had an interest in local history in whichever part of Durham County I worked. As I have been associated all my working career with the uniformed services, i.e Police, Fire and Ambulance, I have, naturally, gravitated to gathering and archiving information pertaining to those three services, particularly their presence in Chester-le-Street.

I have found that my fellow Group members are a most friendly and helpful ‘lot’, and they received me warmly when I attended my first meeting just over two years ago.

I felt my photograph would help them to understand why I may have an apparent warped outlook on life.

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