Blyth History.

[Oaker]

I remember music lessons, 11 year olds in the early days of the Beatles singing, Blaydon races, Bobby Shaftoe, The Minstrel Boy, De Camptown ladies sing dis song, Green grow the rushes oh, Oh Adam Bucham Oh. And hymns.
One day at Newlands they let us sing Sloop John B and we were so enthusiastic you could hear it all over the school.

[garthwaite76]

The song I remember best from Crofton is Lillibullero - we had no idea what it meant and certainly no notion of any political association. As far as I can recall no-one ever gave any background or explanation. But the tune was rousing and we'd sing out at the tops of our voices.
As for the hymns, I always associate "Glad That I Live Am I" with Crofton Juniors. It always made me feel good, the line about blue sky just somehow uplifting. And most oddly, whever I hear it I think of dinosoars. I recall singing it in assembly then going straight into Mrs Hayton and history lessons. Those lessons began with being shown how dinosoars roamed the earth under blue skies millions of years ago. She would show us fossils and pictures of tropical swamps with Brontosoaruses and Tricerotops, and I must have been carrying the tune in my head. It still works, I can't hear the tune without thinking of dinosoars and whenever dinosoars are mentioned, I hum the tune. Doing it right now! 

[Oaker]

Onward Christian Soldiers, got us stamping our feet. Also stamped feet at Essoldo Saturday morning pictures when the cavalry arrived. It was 6d in and if your ticket number came up on the screen you had to stand on the stage and get awarded a free pass for the next Saturday. I saw a picture in one of Jim Harlands Blyth memories books of the Denver stagecoach, it cost 3d for a ride around the back lanes with a dozen other kids hanging out of the windows and roof, his horse was called Silver I think.

[garthwaite76]

Essoldo pictures were  brilliant - I never won a free ticket - Seghini's Eskimo Pies at the interval.

[Oaker]

I never heard of seghinis Eskimo pies. My favourites in summer was frozen grapes and some custom made ice lollies with bits of fruit in them made by Mr Morgan at his paper shop on Plessey road. Also frozen jubilees could last for ages in your desk, but you had to keep lifting the desk lid up to suck them. Winkles in a newspaper cone could last for ages but you couldn’t pay me to eat one now. Gob stoppers are probably illegal now, some were massive and changed colour as they shrank. I wonder how many kids choked on them. Pomegranates were only available in autumn I think but I loved picking seeds out with a pin. Also monkey nuts.

[garthwaite76]

Ha! Eskimo Pies were little fluted pastry cases filled with ice cream with a chocolate lid. They used to sell them at the Essoldo and you could buy them at Seghinis ice cream shops (I think here were two shops). I remember  fruit in the ice lollies, round fat tub shaped with two sticks for extra support, orange or strawberry - although we used to get them from Bethams on Broadway Circle. Plessey Road wasn't on my way to school. There was also a bakery on Broadway Circle that used to sell penny loaves from their back door behind the shop that we'd eat hot on the way to school. The taste was fantastic and the smell of teh new bread- oh God it was gorgeous!

[TriciaK]

The Seghini family was famous in Blyth for introducing ice cream just after WW2. They probably still live there as the older Seghinis lived next door to my parents on Broadway, near the Circle.
Mum died in 2002.

[Oaker]

I knew of the Seghinis, just never heard of Eskimo pies. There was a little chap on a bike with an ice cream cart on the front , I think he was called Martino. Ordinary cornets were about 3d and sugar cornets a bit more. We called the red sauce Monkey juice for some ridiculous reason. Ice cream vans killed off a lot of that sort of trade.
Why was the area across from the power station called Monkeys Island. What is a monkeys as in, I don’t give a Monkeys.

[Oaker]

Sorry about the question, I looked up origin of I don’t give a monkeys, and it’s not appropriate for this forum.