Growing Up in the Bottoms - Isabel Summerside
As a child Isabel Summerside grew up in the Gill Bottoms where she lived until she was nine or ten years of age. February 2016, aged 93, Isabel kindly shares her memories of a by-gone era and place.
As a child Isabel Summerside grew up in the Gill Bottoms where she lived until she was nine or ten years of age. February 2016, aged 93, Isabel kindly shares her memories of a by-gone era and place.
Isabel’s father William, born 1889, was a local ‘lad’ from nearby Greenside. Before the war he had worked as a miner at the Lilley drift in Rowlands Gill, later taking up a job as night watchman with the local council. Isabel’s grand-father, George Summerside, had been a miner at Greenside colliery and was the conductor of the High Spen colliery band. Isabel had been named after her grandmother.
Sarah Jane French, Isabel’s mother, had been born in December 1892 in Tow Law, her father, John French, having worked in the lead mines in Allendale.
When Isabel was born in March 1922, her parents lived at 33 Derwent View where the family rented a house.
Sarah Jane French, Isabel’s mother, had been born in December 1892 in Tow Law, her father, John French, having worked in the lead mines in Allendale.
When Isabel was born in March 1922, her parents lived at 33 Derwent View where the family rented a house.
Derwent View – as the name suggests - was the row of houses which ran parallel to the River Derwent. The last street to be built in the Bottoms, the houses in this row had a luxury facility: a flushing toilet.
Accommodation in the Bottoms was made up of both houses and flats where one family would live in the bottom flat and another in the top – all houses having their own courtyard. Isabel was fortunate in that her family’s house with its scullery, separate living and sitting room, boasted 3 bedrooms.
They also had the standard ‘back yard’ where the washing would be done and where the toilet and coal house stood. Isabel remembers the mangle that stood in their back yard and that other, less fortunate neighbours, would come to use it for times were generally hard and people tended to share the little they had. |
A solid community spirit existed in the Bottoms and people always had a neighbour to turn to or a house where they could knock on the door whenever necessary. Neighbours could be relied on to rally round and support each other in times of need; when there was a birth or a death in the family for example, they would readily look after each other’s children. Isabel recalls her neighbours; Mrs. Oakley, Mr. Charlton with his young daughter Lilian along with the Ainsley family.
Isabel considers herself lucky to have grown up in the Bottoms; surrounded by nature, children had plenty of areas to play and lots of others to play with, Isabel herself growing up as one of five siblings with older brothers John and George, sisters Annie, Ena and Mary. The river Derwent was the place her brothers, like all the local boys, learned to swim. |
The environment in which Isabel lived was free of any prejudice or snobbishness. The residents of the Bottoms were simple, down-to-earth people who trusted one another – doors were never locked – possibly because no one had anything to steal – but also because everyone knew each other.
There were allotments at the end of the Bottoms just past Gibside Street where, in addition to growing vegetables, people had hens and pigeon crees. Isabel recalls there was such excitement when the pigeons were returning home from a race!
The only inconvenience of living in the Bottoms – but something which was by no means particular to the area – was, in Isabel’s opinion, the outside toilet and having to keep an oil lamp going in the winter to stop it from freezing, but as Isabel points out – that was better than the standard midden found in all the other streets in the Bottoms.
It was only when Isabel and her family moved out of the Bottoms around 1931 - to a house with electric lights, hot water, along with indoor bath and toilet - that she realized the Bottoms had, by then, become one of the more deprived areas of the village.
For many inhabitants of the Bottoms, the Primitive Methodist chapel at nearby Cowen Terrace was a focal point of their social life. Isabel attended the chapel with her family and she recalls, as a girl, it played a very big part in her life; anniversaries, harvest festivals, Christmas concerts, the annual trip to Tynemouth, Empire Day, May Day maypole dance and pick nick….all were celebrated through the chapel. |
Otherwise, as a child, Isabel recalls amusing herself with simple things such as games she and other children would make up along with skipping, dominoes and playing cards for sweets. One particularly funny incident has stuck in Isabel's mind to this day: following certain incidents with teenagers congregating in the Bottoms, her father and a few other men had dressed up as ghosts and had scared the life out of them. For a long time afterwards the younger children wouldn't let them forget how terrified they’d been
The people who lived in the Bottoms didn’t have far to go for shops and facilities for many were located just at the top of the bank on Burnopfield Road. There were two fish and chip shops: Carrs and Wilson, Temperley’s DIY store as well as a cobbler and Chapman’s, a general grocer. In the Bottoms milk was sold from a churn in the streets and poured straight into the customer’s jug and once a week the oil man would call selling oil for people’s lamps. Friday was a day looked forward to by many, as that was when a man would call down the Bottoms selling rabbits – almost everyone loved rabbit pie! |
Whilst the station was also right on the doorstep of the Bottoms, the only occasion on which Isabel recalls taking the train was on the annual chapel and school trips to the coast in the summer.
For the men who lived in the Bottoms, many being employed at the nearby pits at Barcus Close, Friarside and Lilley drift, there was also the Vale of Derwent social club just a short walk up the bank. Whilst the club was men only, Isabel recalls that before the premises relocated along Burnopfield Road, even women and children had been allowed in on the occasion of the leek show!
For the men who lived in the Bottoms, many being employed at the nearby pits at Barcus Close, Friarside and Lilley drift, there was also the Vale of Derwent social club just a short walk up the bank. Whilst the club was men only, Isabel recalls that before the premises relocated along Burnopfield Road, even women and children had been allowed in on the occasion of the leek show!
The miner’s institute, otherwise known as the ‘tute’ which was located next to Rowlands Gill school was also a focal point for people from the Bottoms along with those living in nearby Cowan and Lilley Terraces. This was the place where many a wedding reception, concert and dance was enjoyed.
Isabel recalls the 'tute' as it was known locally, also had a sweet shop and a billiard room; one of her brother’s favourite haunts.
Isabel recalls the 'tute' as it was known locally, also had a sweet shop and a billiard room; one of her brother’s favourite haunts.
Like all children from the Bottoms, Isabel attended Rowlands Gill School, the leaving age at the time being 14.
FEB 2016. Information collected by Heather Bliss - with thanks.
Photos sourced on the internet, in particular the Rowlands Gill History Facebook page.
Photos sourced on the internet, in particular the Rowlands Gill History Facebook page.