Chapter 2 -Amber Meadow Well, A Community Portrait Project

Amber Meadow Well 2021 Growing up in The Ridges

Maria Maza

Bill Carr

I

had the pleasure of meeting Bill after he had seen our appeal for contributing stories about Meadow Well for the project. We met for a few hours, which I enjoyed immensely as he is a great raconteur. He painted a vivid picture of what it was like growing up in The Ridges, as it was known then.

The Ridges was built to accommodate slum-clearance families from surrounding areas; these typically large families formed a

Being seventh out of eight children from a poor family, Bill recognises what a tough childhood he had, but he also lights up when he talks about the freedom that children had then.

He and his friends could go on day-long adventures without any adults, exploring all the environments available to them: Tynemouth beaches, timber yards, marshes, etc., and not always with proper means to get there and back! Even then he knew some of the things that they were up to were not safe, and he knew other children who got into serious accidents and even some that died, so he does not over-romanticise those days. But his childhood in The Ridges stayed with him, and misses the close friendships he made growing up.

Even though he remembers being four years old and being horrified that he had to go to school, he ended up being quite happy throughout his formative years. As a bright, well-liked kid, he enjoyed school because of friendships and a few subjects that interested him: history, English and maths.

Bill attended Ralph Gardner High School as he did not pass his 11+ exam.

Despite doing well enough, he finished school without qualifications, as he didn’t sit any exams. Regardless, he immediately got a job in housing, aged 15, and has made a very successful 50 year career of it. working class way of life, jobs were available for most school leavers. Boys were promised the same job their fathers did from the moment they were born. Many of Bill’s contemporaries went to Swan Hunters, which at the time was one of the region’s biggest employers.

Bill is full of stories and memories, and I hope he writes his memoirs. He is a good writer and has dabbled in script writing, he even had a commission for a film by BBC Scotland. It was about a boy with Down’s syndrome and his dad, keeping pigeons together, combining different aspects of Bill’s own past. This was actually made in 1988, but sadly not shown on TV, as it wasn’t deemed Scottish enough!

Bill, on the right, with his two brothers during a Christmas celebration.

His family of ten lived in a comparatively spacious four bedroom upstairs flat on Appletree Gardens.

The three brothers shared a bedroom, and his five sisters shared two bedrooms.

They moved out of there in 1971 as the parents wanted to move back closer to the New York area they were from.

The move had to be improvised in a very short space of time, and Bill never had a chance to say goodbye to his good friends.

Contributions by others who grew up in Meadow Well (Via our Facebook group)

Michelle Luke My mam Ann Wilson/ Brown always had us in Easter bonnets.

Andrea Cowen 1970s

Meadowell Primary School 1979-80 Supplied by Andrea Cowen

Next chapter: Tony Richardson – Music in Meadow Well School photo supplied by Bill Carr, circa 1961

Other images supplied by Meadow Well residents, included with permission

Portraits of Bill Carr ©Maria Maza 2021