Easton, Phil

Philip Easton's Memories

In an email to Clive Dalton 24 June 2009

Hi Clive, I stumbled on you website re. Bellingham and surrounding district in times gone by, and saw a few familiar names. I was born in Hexham in 1936, but moved to London at the outset of WWII with my parents (great timing), once the blitz got going I was sent back to Northumberland to live with my maternal grandparents who ran the Houxty Gardens nursery, at Houxty on the Bellingham road out of Wark, and started school at Wark school in 1941.

My Father was born at what was then the Railway Hotel, in Bellingham, and my Uncle Syd was the cashier at Martin's Bank that you mention, his son Dennis was also an electrician in Bellingham for a while.

Dennis’ sister Margaret is still alive and living in Southern England, and she is my only living relative other than my own immediate family. I went to school with Nichols the grocer’s son at Wark school.

Used to sometimes get a ride with Rod Thompson to school in the winter if the weather was really bad, as he must have had some sort of deal with the school to pick up kids at outlying farms, although I lived too close to normally get a ride.

My Grandparents at Houxty were called Stables, and this was at the time when there was still a Chapman living in the "big" house (Abel's nephew).

Lots of fond memories and a few stories from those war years.

I was last in that area about 10 years ago, and while Bellingham seemed to have retained quite a few of the retail stores and pubs, Wark had been gutted and was strictly a bedroom community, what a difference from the village that I knew as a kid.

Thanks for dredging them out of the murky depths of my memory. Regards, Phil Easton, Cambria, California, USA