John Woodhead
MY home town is Middlesbrough and I am proud of it. It is not the prettiest town in the world being built on a history of mining, shipbuilding plus steel and chemical works. Like all towns there are parts that are somewhat unsavoury. Particularly towns where there are high rates of unemployment, poverty and social deprivation.
One of the biggest things about the town when I was growing up there in the 60s and 70s was the sense of community. When walking around town it was perfectly normal for my mother to say hello to people in the street, whether she knew them or not. Imagine how she was treated when she tried to do the same thing when she came to visit me when I lived in London. People were crossing over the road to avoid the mad woman.
In the last week or so I have seen something on the internet that shows me that the sense of community is still alive and kicking in Middlesbrough in the internet age.
Just over a week ago, Sue Martin, a 47-year-old from Middlebrough, set up a facebook page called Memories of Middlebrough. Within a week it has gained over 7,000 likes and large numbers of people are sharing written and photographic memories of the town. Both residents of the town and people like myself who moved away many years ago.
I posted a photo on there of our school football team in the early 70s. It prompted the web manager of the Olive Press to post a message telling me to pull my socks up. A very good way to trigger me into writing an article again for this site as I have been a bit lazy recently.
For me Memories of Middlebrough has given me a renewed pride in my place of birth. It has also given me a great opportunity to remember some lovely memories of the early part of my life.
Well done Sue Martin and well done to the extended community of Middlebrough. Let’s hope the football team can also give us something to smile about this season.
what a lovely idea for people to share memories that will soon be forgotten as we get older
It has been such a success it has encouraged me to see if I can create a similar type page for our town here in Spain – “https://www.facebook.com/MemoriasDeAlmerimar?ref=hl”
i was born in Stockton in 1942,in Tilery, a community of old terraced houses overlooking ‘the rec’,where we used to play
cricket.In addition to leading us out for games of cricket,after a full working day at ICI Billingham,Dad used to take me cycling,out to the Cleveland hills,where we would
look down on the Tees valley,at the smoking industries of steelmaking and chemicals which kept our fathers in employment for thirty or so years,industries now either gone or struggling.
As Stocktonians we regarded Middlesbrough as a s…heap,this coming from people who moved to Billingham,known as smogopolis, but,compared to areas of MIddlesbrough,and our own neck of Stockton,a place with houses with gardens and almost a sense of rurality.
We used to bus ,or cycle,through Mbro on our way to,say,Eston or Whitby,and look at the coke ovens at South Bank with horror and astonishment,not having the horrors of ICI as visible,except in the devastation wrought on Haverton Hill by the sulphuric acid plant at Billingham-a sight other people would be astonished by,until it was demolished.
I see the hometowns of the North East exploited by the major industrialists of this century-shipbuilding,iron and steel,mining and chemicals,then left to rot.While the industrialists provided a living for their workers,no plans were made as to what wd happen when the profits dried up:if it was the Tory plan to place Liverpool in ‘managed decline ‘what chance Mbro or Stockton ?
My feelings about Middlesbrough are still ambiguous,but I still love the hills and moors around and above it,and I wd defend it to the death from its patronage by the facile buggers from the sarf tv who decided it was the worst place to live in the UK-haven’t they read ‘Crap Towns’? -even Bath gets a mention.
Meantime,best wishes and Viva Espana.