Six months in Whitley Bay’.

We lived in Leeds, Roy and I were engaged to be married. The firm Roy worked for, Crowe’s, a Leeds Drapery Wholesaler, decided to move him to their Newcastle office. Roy was then, the firm’s youngest ‘Commercial Traveller’, his claim to fame that he ‘travelled in Ladies Underwear’, which explained the bra in his glove compartment and the knickers in his pocket.

Well!! What were we to do? Bring our wedding forward of course! We married in September 1959, had a week’s honeymoon in the Lake District, returned to Leeds to say our goodbyes to our families. The first Sunday in October we left Leeds. We were so excited and giddy and couldn’t wait to arrive in the North East.

We had chosen a house in Cleadon Village, Sunderland, but it would not be completed until February 1960. One of Roy’s’ customers had put us in touch with a widowed lady, who offered us two rooms in her house, with use of kitchen and bathroom.

The house, in Whitley Bay, was in a huge Victorian terrace house in a tree-lined street, Two blocks away was the Sea Front. For ‘two kids’ from Leeds this was fantastic. Our landlady Etta, (short for Henrietta) told us.

‘Locals don’t go on the beach when the tourists are here’.

We used to go down late evenings, walking down to the front, cutting a corner by going through the Amusement Park called Spanish City. A big white complex built in the Spanish style. We would walk along the beach to St. Mary’s Lighthouse, do a ‘turn’ around it and retraced our steps.

Roy had lived away from home from being 15 years old, but this was my first experience of moving to a different area. I joined the Library and found out about local history and geography. Etta confirmed where we ought to visit. We started exploring the west or, ‘Military Road’, which was a Roman Road going from Newcastle to Carlisle. We visited many delightful rural villages and towns along the banks of the River Tyne, including going ‘Along the Scotswood Road to Blaydon’, but not to the races! We saw Rowlands Ghyll, Corbridge and Hexham.

Then we explored to the North. Roy did a lot of driving over his large selling territory, Monday to Friday, but always ready to take me out at the weekends - he did love driving in those days. His life was fast and furious in its pace. North of Whitley Bay are some glorious beaches, long and deserted. There are also some dreadful ones, where coal mine waste was dumped on the beaches. Along with discarded and rusting machinery. There were beaches where opencast mining digging out ‘Sea Coal took place. A better name would have been ‘black beaches’

As we explored further up the Coast Road, we were amazed at the large number of Stately homes, ancient buildings, and the Castles, big, small, romantic ones, the dark, brooding and menacing ones.  We loved them all. Eventually, we found the stunningly beautiful Beadnell Bay, which passing through leads you to the huge red stone Castle which is Bamburgh Castle. In the sunlight, is stones shimmer and glisten and take your breath away.

Not far north of Bamburgh, is the road that leads down to the Causeway that you drive across to The Holy Island of Lindisfarne. It is a dramatic drive across, you have to be aware of tide times, the Causeway is underwater parts of the day. On your right side, you can see the Pilgrims Way, Stakes in the sand that the ancient Monks  and now, modern Pilgrims use. On your left are the high sand dunes that hide your view of the Priory and the Castle which sits on its rocky outcrop. The first time we rounded the corner and saw them, we held our breath in an instant it began our love affair with the Island. We were lucky at that stage to see it before the mass tourism

If you head north of the Castle, the beaches are isolated, lonely places, you can sit hidden in the sand dunes and look across at the Farne Islands. You have whirlingseabirdss,with their eerie cries, it is so wild and exposed there.

To the south of the Island is a beach area, where old upturned rowing boats are used as sheds and storage places. The village part, has  Churches, houses, pub and the entrances to the ruins of the Priory. This wonderful place became our ‘special place’. If we cannot visit it, we return in our imaginations anytime we feel the need. The Island ‘drew us in’ and called us its own.

Our time of ‘living in’ with Etta was magic.  One day when Roy was expecting a ‘Sunday dinner like his mum cooked’. Etta found me in the kitchen sobbing and staring at the raw meat, not knowing what to do with it. Etta took me under her wing, teaching  me cooking and cleaning, which my mother had never thought to do. If she had not, I do not think our marriage would have lasted for six weeks, never mind the six months our friends were betting on. It has, this year our 49th Wedding Anniversary.

Late February 1960, we moved into our own home, happy and full of curiosity of what adventures County Durham would hold for us was a second reason for our excitement and anticipation, was that I was four months pregnant. We were going to be a family not just a couple…. But that was another experience and another story….

Note: Time of re-writing, we have known each other for 60 years, been married 58 years and have a son, daughter and three grandchildren - not bad for ‘two kids from Leeds’.

(‘Life experience writing’, work done with Beccy in October 08.}

                           

Marjorie Lacy, May 2017.