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You may call it coincidence or what ever but our new home was built of the same
yellow brick we used on Mr Oggs house. We were now living on the Grange Field Estate and the road we were living on was the top part of Neville Crescent only 200 yards approximately from where we had fought our way
to when we picked up the load of bricks for Winteringham in the bottom half of it. At that time De lacy Way did not join up with Northlands Road, there was a field between them that had a small track way through it
where people had taken a shot cut between the two roads to the houses that had been handed over to the council and let to families.
Be brave ... whilst I just pull off your fingernails ...
While watching a documentary about sunken ships a sketchy memory about an incident on the River Humber came to mind.
One night while I was still at the school at Winteringham possibly two ships were
involved in what may have been a collision between Winteringham and Whitton and I remember people saying that it was like Bonfire Night with the flares or rockets being set off from the ships. I seem to recollect
that one of the ships ran aground and sank, the other ship managed to make it to port. Having been told of the night’s incident, I was away down to the Haven and then the Point to see if it was possible to see
anything. Looking for all I was worth at the river to the west I was disappointed that nothing could be seen. Much later in the day at school I was able to see the ship sat there in the river.
With school over and having changed my clothes it was back down to the Point again from where this time the ship could be seen. Later in the week we were at the Point with Mum and Dad watching the ships go by when a muddy yellow coloured one with no lights on and the bridge windows open and all that could be seen was darkness inside, passed us towed by a tug. Dad said that it was the one that had been in the river between the two villages for the past week.
Talking with my brother John who now lives at Appleby about the above incident and
one about a small ship running aground on the Point I thought that as he was involved with lad-like behaviour in this incident that the next bit should be told by him and is as follows:
To answer your question about the incident with the boats, approximately 1966
after the collision as you have said a boat ran aground on the Point and was tied to the marker beacon which was there. Bill and I took mussels from the hull and took them home. I do remember Grandma Stephenson was
stopping over at the time and I can see her now putting these things in a pan and giving them a few minutes on the fire in the kitchen. I remember them opening in front of us and also remember tasting them. I did
not like them then and I still do not! But it was a treat for Grandma. This boat also became the downfall to us messing about because after school one evening Bill and I climbed up the mooring rope onto the vessel
to have a look, and opened a hatch which promptly slid shut again with the middle two fingers of my left hand in it thus crushing them. There followed a couple of visits to see Dr Lucy Baker at Winterton, the first
visit I had a needle pushed through the nails to relieve the swelling and when this did not work after a couple of days, she then ripped off the nails. We had to be brave in those days as she did not use any pain
relief and I never forgave her for that. What Mum must have thought as she watched I do not know, but that boat was the start of me getting my fingers mashed and bashed up to today.
The name of the boat I do not know but I do know what I called it afterwards but never in earshot of Mum or Dad.
J.R.
Many thanks John for letting me add your part of the memory to that of mine.
Now in the year 2007 we still hear of incidents happening in the River Humber not only of shipping still getting stuck and having to wait for the next tide to refloat themselves but that the RAF have lost one
of their jets after getting into difficulties that resulted in a crash landing into the river with no loss of life.
A bit of a spectacle!
When I started to wear glasses I was not very happy about it. As I was a young lad
possibly in my second year at the big school at Winterton I would leave home with them on but by the time I had reached the top of the road to catch the bus the glasses were in my pocket safely hidden out of sight
for the day while at school.
On my way home I would wait until a few steps from our house as long as no one was about before I put the glasses back on again.
One night Mum and us lads had gone up to the
Methodist Chapel in West End where I believe the produce from the Harvest Festival was to be sold in the school room. Sitting with Mum meant that I could not get out of having to wear the dreaded glasses, I tried
everything that I could think of not to have them on - like saying that the lenses were dirty and I was unable to see and kept rubbing the lenses as if I was trying to clean them but in the end I had to put them on.
It was not very long before one of the girls there noticed them and said `I like your glasses how long have you had them?`
My secret was out!
Mum heard what had been said to me and wanted to know what had been going on. I had to come clean and tell of how I had hid my glasses away while away from home.
After a telling off I had to wear them every day until told by the optician that I no longer required to use them. That was a great day.
Years later I found myself back at an optician and requiring to wear
glasses not only for my sight but reading as well and I am wearing them to this day, but this time they are normally only taken off for cleaning or bed time.
The Standing-up Bicycle
The corner from High Burgage into Silver Street was rather tight for buses and
lorries to get round. As I and one of my friends stood roughly where the entrance to Winteringham Fields is now a few feet from the corner one day a gentleman from Cliff Road pulled up outside the Co-op and stood
his new cycle up at the kerb and went into the shop. While he was being served a lorry came down from High Burgage and turned into Silver Street and pulled up. As the driver headed back towards the shop the
owner of the cycle came from the shop and pointed at a cycle stood at the pavement and with his voice raised and sounding rather angry carried on a conversation with the lorry driver. With all the commotion going on
we became more interested in what was happening and as we watched the driver handed something to the cycle owner and made his way back over to the lorry and drove off. Still standing over his cycle the gentleman was
speaking with another person and gesticulating with his arms. It was not until he took hold of of the cycle to move off were we able to see the problem with it. Looking towards my friend and I the gentleman angrily
shouted something at us which I can only make a guess at now that it was not very polite, and turned to where his cycle still stood picked up his shopping and then the cycle.
At this point we were able to see what all the commotion was about. The wheels were bent at right angles to the frame from the axles, this was why it looked like it was still stood upright. I am sorry to say that to us young lads it looked very comical even more so when he placed it on his shoulder and walked off. The only good thing about the incident is that no one was injured. The times that I have ridden up to that kerb and just laid my cycle down and left it with the wheel sticking out into the road and nothing happened! I must have been very lucky!
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