SOUTH TYNESIDE - OCTOBER 2019 MEETING REPORT

[Annf]

The meeting held on Wednesday 16th October was a presentation by Julian Harrop entitled 'A Snapshot of the North East in the 1950s and 1960s'.

Julian is Collection Resources Co-ordinator at Beamish Museum and he brought along to the meeting a selection of photographs from the collections which are held at the museum such as The Durham Advertiser.  There was something for everyone to enjoy a 'trip down memory lane' such as photographs of Newcastle RVI, the Oxford Galleries dance hall, Hedley's Soap Works in City Road, the old Redheugh Iron & Steel Company, Stella Power Station, Huwoods and Norwood Coke Works at the Gateshead end of the Team Valley Trading Estate, the old Chain (Scotswood) Bridge and of course Newcastle Breweries.

Long before computers were invented, we were reminded of how office staff worked with heavy manual typewriters and comptometers for doing the accounts and paying the wages!! The way we shopped was also represented by way of the mobile shop, Ringtons Tea, Walter Wilsons' corner shops and Taits Radio & TV were some of the places covered in the presentation. 

Julian concluded his talk by giving an up-date on how the development of the 1950s town at Beamish Museum is progressing.