MAGGIE WILSON & WINNIE HOGG.

Maggie born in Craster, lived here for 87 years, born in the Square, moved over the road into the cottages. Went to Dunston to school, came from local farms and from the village, aged from early 5 to 14. The school belonged to the Crasters. Had two brothers, Adam and Mark. Left school at 14,went to the herring in the summer. Went to work at the Store at Howick. Met Sid, he was in the Army, billeted at Craster Towers, he came from Perthshire and was a sergeant in the Cameronians. Got married in 1943 at the Chapel in Craster. Then lived in Quarry House. Mother was a widow by then. Father was going to go to Canada on the Titanic but didn't for some reason, however, he did go eventually. They were doing contracts on the road in Montreal, he was there about tour years. There were a lot of locals went at the same time. Before the war a lot of people used to go for the harvesting. He died in 1922, father was
killed in the January and Adam was bom in the August. My mother and we children lived with my grandparents. He was killed in the quarry at Moor House, near Longframlington. Maggie and Sid had three children, two still living in Craster, one in Newcastle.

Village changed a bit, it sort of creeps upon you. The top row of houses was built first in 1948 and these two were built in 1953. The bottom row was built in 1933- The Breezes' row was built in the 1920's, they are built of stone. Got the board in our house that tells when they were built, it was on the inside of a cupboard door, it was a made by a foreman joiner.

Winnie can remember playing on a see saw on the Heugh, when there were long planks, and we used to put them on a barrel. Heugh was all rough grass, we used to play on it. We found lots of places to play, we were never off the rocks, they don't seem to play on the rocks like we used to "you don't get the weather that we used to'. We used to go in swimming when it was raining, during the summer holidays. We used to play on the big hill, there was like a proper round swimming pool, when the tide went out, you could jump in. We didn't swim in the harbour, (Maggie) When 1 was very young, my mother was working at the kipper yard, so you had to be there to come back for your meals Winnie's mother bought her a watch for a birthday so she knew when to come back in time for dinner, 'cause she wouldn't know where to look for the children. Most fishermens' wives worked in the kipper sheds, if it was a rough winter you needed the money you made in the summer, to survive. During the winter the women baited lines and they had a baking day, made their own bread every week.

The shop in the village was always there. It was always owned by the Gray family. Everybody had their own gardens and grew vegetables.

Mrs.Nelson's shop on the North Side was there before the war, she had a tearoom at one time and the Post Office for a short time. The Gray's had the Post Office at the West End for a time. Jamsie Smailes' wife, Annie and Ethel they served in the Post Office there, where Neil Robson's house is now. Think they packed up after the War. Annie Jane Nelson got it after that and she didn't have it very long. Annie Jane was an Archbold, her husband came from Seahouses. We were used to getting the cane but we never told our parents. We used to hide the cigarettes in our knickers. The cigarettes that came ashore when the boats were torpedoed, we used to go to the quarry to smoke, several of the lads smoked. Once we went following the hounds, once we went seeking mushrooms and didn't come back. There was a lovely pond which froze over and I remember you didn't go into school when that happened. The ice broke
and several children fell in.

We walked to school and if one was late, everyone was late and you had to like up and get the stick. Mr. Blackburn was the teacher and had a quiz at night time and if you answered the questions right, you got out quick. Winnie, used to be good at that cause he used to read a story and it was a really interesting story, and when he went away he gave Tommy the books, because everybody was listening, he would stop at an interesting bit and start again the following night, he would ask questions and say if you put your hand up then you could go. One of the questions was what fruit began with 'N', the answer was nectarine and we had never heard of that Winnie was always reading books and papers. Mr.Blackburn was an excellent writer, Mrs. Blackburn was the treasurer of the W.I.

There were about 50 in the school and still just two teachers, Mr. Blackburn and Miss Barber. There were no school dinners, we came home every day, unless it was thick of snow and we would take sandwiches. We got horlicks in the winter and milk in the summer. There was a big stove and unless you were around it, you were frozen, you wore lots of jumpers and woollen stockings and things in the winter They had Wellingtons, mackintoshes and so'westers, we were never off school. Winnie left school at 14 and had a job the next week at the Pipeworks at Littlehoughton, I used to make links for railway sleepers. Maggie Renwick and Ena worked there as well. We worked from 8 a.m. till 5 p.m., I cycled to work. Winnie then went to work at Dunston Square Farm, worked on the farm for a while, then I went to Alnwick. I had put my name down to sign on and I went into the A.T.S, when I was seventeen and a half. Ada was called up, I volunteered. The War was finished when I joined up, never got abroad, which was the reason I joined, to see the world. I started in Leicester and then moved to Scotland and then to Newcastle and from there to Yorkshire and then to Durham and (then to Leamington Spa and that's where I finished, had been in then almost three years. I went in to be a driver but didn't pass the test, was in the Stores. Came home and wasn't doing very much, was going to put my name down to go on the buses. Went on the
herring when 1 first came home, thought I'd give it a try for a while and then I might re-join the Army -I had got used to being in the A-T S. and quite liked the life. Life was a bit quiet from what I'd been used to, I had made a lot of friends. For a lot of people coming from close-knit communities it was like the world was opening. There was a lot of people signed on when the War was over. You got all your food and clothing and the money you got was just spending money, you got free passes and everything was taken care of A lot of people "enjoyed the war', cause it opened up a new way of life.

There were a lot of young men in the village who lost their lives in both Wars. Take for instance, George Robert Archbold, who was an only son, his plane went down near to the end of the war, his mother, on the memorial in the Chapel it's got 'unlisted', she would never say that he had been killed. Villages were very close-knit before the War. People had to have nicknames in the village at that time because there were so many members of the same family, fathers and sons with the same Christian names. Winnie's father was called Scottie Archbold, George Archbold was called Cuddie and William Archbold was called Clippie. In the Smailes, there was Pittas Bob and Fire. Little Adam was the harbour man. You wouldn't have been able to differentiate, without the nicknames, there was Raffa Archbold. There was so much inter-marrying between the families at that time. People then started to move away and others
came in.

Winnie met Tommy at a dance. He came from Embleton Mill. Tommy's father was a shepherd at Embleton Mill for the Robertsons', he worked there for 60 years and his father before him. His father before him, looked after the horses. Tommy's brother always used said 'Our Audrey was a throwback', cause she was the only one that used to be interested in the horses- I got married in 1949 and lived in the Square, moved in with my mother. Moved into the house next door to this one and my mother lived in this one. The last man to leave the Square was Billy Simpson and do you know what he said 'He wasn't moving along to the old age pensioners' houses, he would be carried out' and they found him dead in the house. There were three in Winnie's family, one of whom still goes to sea and her grandsons go to sea.
Dougie always loved the sea, he used to go with his grandfather when he was young.

(Dougie's story is told separately)

Winnie was born in Craster and has lived here all her life.

We used to enjoy the dances, we used to get the bus to Embleton or Howick dances, which were every Thursday night, they were excellent, a lot of convalescents from Howick Hall used to be there, we had to walk back from the dances. The waltz was always the last dance and the partner you had for that was the one who walked you home, what a carry on you had getting the one you wanted!! There were good dances at the Towers, they had one every Friday night. There was always a band, the soldiers got a band. Hilda Rogerson used to play on the piano, Dennis Dawson used to play the accordian. We used to go to Alnwick to the pictures, if we could slip away, we used to go on a Sunday. There were two cinemas, the Corn Exchange and the Playhouse.

There was a lot of people in the village with the same name and we had to identify them with a by-name, there was that many Archbolds that they had to be named with nicknames.

(Willy Archbold)
The womenfolk used to go to Lowestoft, the herring shoal moves around the British Isles, right around in a 12-month, and they packed the barrels. My mother used to love to go there, mind it was hard work. They would be down there for October and November. There was always family here to look after the children, in them days the womenfolk were going about 10 o clock doing the herring and having a bairn at 1 o'clock in the morning.

(looking at photographs and remembering ladies in them)
I can remember most of those people. that was my Aunt, my mother's sister, they called her Isabella Archbold. Meggie Wilson's mother, died about 30 years ago, same time as my mother. That was a Stanton but she married Dodie Archbold a fisherman, that women is Aggie Mitford, that is Lily sanderson (Norman's mother) her sister worked at the Bogie, Marge. This woman was Martha, she was a Smailes, she
went to live at Nebiggin, that is Mrs. Robson, the old grannie and that woman is Mary Jane Archbold but she married late in life and they called her Mistress Parr. That is my mother and this woman is called Allison Dawson, this one is Isabel Archbold, and this was Mrs. Caislev. you know
Alice Shell, that was her mother. Billie Smailes' father and her were brother and sister.

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