I enjoyed my first 21 years living in the town from 1939 to 1961 attending Haltwhistle Infant School (Mrs Birkett), Haltwhistle C of E Junior School where Miss Martin (now Mrs McPhillips and living in Morpeth) was my Class VI teacher; QEGS Hexham (1950-57); University of Nottingham and University of Exeter (1957-61). 

Until 1958 I lived at ‘Stoney Rigg’ in a West End terrace – my father was a United bus driver from 1920’s to 1954 then worked at the Paint Works until his early death in 1957.  My mother (Edna Bell) lived on in town post 1957 on Capel Avenue (Comb Hill) reaching 97.  In the 1920’s and 30’s she worked at Haltwhistle Co-op as cashier.

From age 11 I spent most Sundays at Moorfield (Shield Hill) given the hospitality of the Fleming and Birkett family with their links to life and politics both local and national.

My close childhood and adolescent friends included Pamela Murray (Scotsfield), Edwina Smith (River Terrace) who is a retired biology teacher; John Watson (Scotsfield) and still proactive in town life; Keith Ruddick (Wydon Avenue) recently retired as Professor of Physics and a world authority on ‘quarks’ (particles from space) at the University of Minnesota in USA; Laurence Thompson (ex Deputy Head at Haltwhistle Middle School); Linda Thompson (Gregg); and Malcolm Docherty now retired from a career in the NHS in Cheshire.  Other ‘West Enders’ I knew were the Wilkie brothers, Alan Burns, Mary Lamb, David Little (Cemetery Lodge), Marian Robinson, Peter Dent (Crossfields).  Junior school associates included Olsen Lamb, Jennifer Lawson, Dennis Lightfoot, Melvin Mason …

My Haltwhistle days of youth involved at various times and ages: Sunday School at the Assembly Mission (now demolished), the Wesleyan Methodist youth club with table tennis and snooker below the chapel; regular visits to the ‘Gem’ and Westgate cinemas; tennis at ‘Tradesmens’; playing cricket for Haltwhistle first and second XI’s as a ‘solid’ opening batsman; railway enthusiasms watching trains from the ‘Metal Bridge’ and hence a lifetime interest in railway history; vacation jobs at Elliot’s bakery and shops (at Gilsland and in the West End) and the paint works; exploring the local countryside via the valleys of the South Tyne, Tipalt, and Haltwhistle Burn; playing football and sledging on the ‘Tipalt Flat’ and Sheep Hills (Wydon Nab); watching my father fly-fishing in the South Tyne and Irthing; family riverside picnics when very young on the Tipalt Flat; Sunday walks with parents as far a field as the Roman Wall and Featherstone via Wydon Eals; helping out Hannah Routledge in her back room shop at Crosshills; watching a travelling circus on River House field, or visiting Slater’s ‘hoppings’ when in town; Saturday morning rugby or cricket at Dean Park or Prior’s Flat in Hexham, with away games in Hawick, Alnwick, Morpeth, Newcastle, Tynemouth, Whitley Bay, Carlisle and Durham; Haltwhistle scouts when 11 to 14 with Easter or Summer camps at Park Village, Coanwood, and Lanercost; Saturday afternoon outings to St. James Park with the Docherty family; ‘sales’ shopping trips by United bus to Carlisle with lunch at the ‘Silver Grill’; a host of childhood games along ‘The Rush’ and over Wydon Nab to the ‘primrose’ wood, or via Wydon Farm to the ‘bluebell’ wood at Redpath; and working on the Christmas post when in the Sixth Form at QEGS or home from University.

Hopefully some of the above will stir memories of similar happy childhoods in South Tynedale in days prior to most families having a car, TV, or telephone.  I relied on my bike or ‘shank’s pony’, or lifts.

Haltwhistle in the 1940’s and 50’s still had operating coal mines at Bardon Mill, Lambley, Ventnor’s Hall, and Blenkinsopp; steam trains to Newcastle, Carlisle, and Alston plus ‘pick up goods’ trains; a plethora of churches and chapels (Primitive on Castle Bank; Salvation Army on Wapping; RC at Ashcroft; Wesleyan and Presbyterian on Westgate; Elim Hall on Park Road; the Assembly Mission in the West End; and our 12^th century church and 1906 Church Hall); a Board School and C of E school on the Fair Hill; an annual Haltwhistle Agricultural show over the wrought iron Tyne Bridge; an active blacksmiths in the Market Square (Jackson’s since 18^th century); two cinemas in the purpose built 1920’s ‘Gem’ (demolished in 1990’s) and the ‘Westgate’ (once a dance hall and now a the library); Pougher’s gas-lit ‘sweet shop’ on Westgate and Suzanna Bowerbank’s ‘kiosk’ at the Station Corner; a host of old established family retail and service businesses (Hastewells (drapers), Forster and Robinson (drapers), Saints (newspapers), Gregg’s, Dickinson’s (furniture), Carrick’s (greengrocer), Liddels (agricultural seed merchants and hardware), Oliver and Snowden’s (agricultural services), W. Eals and A Eals (ice cream and sweets), Sharps (house auctions), Isaac Watson (memorial stone mason and undertaker), Bowerbanks (greengrocer on Wapping), Tallentyne (coal merchant), J. Clarke and Sons (estate agents), Bells and Milligan (chemist), Waughs (shoes), etc; three garages (John Elliot in West End, Robsons at Station Corner and Potts at foot of Wapping); a police station and court house; an extensive Haltwhistle and Greenhead Co-op providing grocery, drapers, hardware, butchers, milk and funeral services, and a West End shop; a post office still collecting mail from the station by handcart; a thriving paint works; Kilfrost; Elliot’s bakery on Aesica Road ....