Eighton Banks & Gateshead, Co. Durham
When
George Pritchard (1897), his wife Nellie and their baby son Brian arrived in Eighton Banks they managed to find a home to
rent at No.8, Jubilee Avenue. George soon found work as a surface worker at Team
Colliery and on December 14th 1930 Nellie gave birth to a daughter, Marion. Three more children,
Margaret (1933), Trevor (1936) and Sadie
(1937) were born in Jubilee Avenue and they were all christened like their sister Marion in the Methodist Chapel at the top
of the Avenue. Brian, Marion and Margaret
all started school in Eighton Banks.
Gateshead High Street 1948
Numerous
members of the family lived on Tyneside at that time. In Eighton Banks close at hand in Brown
Crescent the children had their grandfather and
grandmother, Robert and Margaret Pritchard and they had Uncles, Aunts and cousins living in the Felling, Dunston and Coatsworth
areas of Gateshead.
Saltwell Towers
Built in 1862 for William Wailes the building
became derelict in the 1970's but was
restored and reopened in July 2004
At
the beginning of the Second World War George and Nellie with their children moved to Gateshead. They first lived in Rectory Road
and soon afterwards in Ferndene Road in the Saltwell part of the town. A fourth
daughter Beryl was born in 1940. The three older children went to school there
until German air raids on Tyneside meant that they were evacuated. Brian was
able to go to his Uncle and Aunts farm at Offerton, Stockport but Marion and Margaret were sent to Asenby in North Yorkshire. George and Nellie and the younger children moved back to Lancashire.
The High Level & Swing Bridges
two more of the bridges that link Gateshead with Newcastle
Approaching Newcastle by Rail
the famous junction outside Newcastle Central Station
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