According to the birth certificate William's father was a labourer (as was William himself on the 1881 census)
I don't know where or when William's parents married, just their names from the birth certificate - William Cruddace and Elizabeth Nixon. They were living in the St John's district of Newcastle at the time of his birth in 1853. I've tried a census search using every spelling variation I can think of but none of them seem to match up. I didn't try Scotland, although I'm not sure why a labourer would travel that far as there seemed to be plenty of labouring work in Newcastle. Will give it a go though.
Thanks
Chrislats