Your Aycliffe 75 Memories

I moved to Aycliffe in 1953, because my dad was a police officer at the then headquarters. There were very few facilities, one shop in an old building. I particularly remember when the queen visited, I was in the Guides, and kept seeing my dad on duty! I also remember the night the Bakelite factory blew up!

My parents and I had been living in a bungalow in Foundry Row, Coxhoe when my Dad started a new job at ENV Engineering on Aycliffe's new trading estate in early 1953. We soon moved into No.69 Bowes Road in the town, a brand new council house in a quiet area, with a green hill at the end of the street where kids could run up and down all day and which is still there. When we moved in, there was a huge tree in our front garden, just a few feet from our living room window. The branches used to clatter against the bedroom windows when it was stormy, keeping everyone awake, and my Dad asked the council several times to remove it. After more than a year he finally reached the ears of the formidable and fearsome Miss Hamilton, who came straight around to see it for herself and then summoned workmen within days to cut it down. The photo shows me aged about three in front of the tree.

I was one of the first people to get married at St Clare's church and we had our wedding reception at the Gretna.