Hi StocktonBobLeeds, That's all really interesting and will be of great interest to a lot of people on this site. I am particularly interested in the Harkers which you have said were a travelling family. Can you give me some names and information on them.
Val
Hi Val,
As a child I knew the Harkers well, but being a child I didn't take much notice of who they were or how come I was related to them. David Harker was a real gent - who had a scrapyard near the Transporter Bridge approach road in Middlesbrough. Blind Frankie Adams used to sit at the gate on sunny days. There was David Harker, Robert and Hannibal, there was two others both of whom still attend York Machinary Sales come hail, rain or shine, whose name escapes me. I never knew the father, but stopped with the mother and her sons in Wisbech, Cambridgshire, for a few days whilst they were fruit picking in Wisbech in 1958. The mother's name was I believe
Ann Harker but everyone called her 'Nan Tut'. I was unaware that her sister was my Aunt Margaret Foster, Margaret Foster, South Bank, might have been an Adams who married
Foster [first name unknown] who was an abandoned child brought up as a traveller, he was informally adopted by my granddad Henry Wilson of Old Stockton and Middlesbrough. If your ever travelling on the A66, the Stockton to Darlington Road, do call in at Elton, the first house on the right is an Harker brother, you'll see their caravan in the yard, and just 400 yards away over the A66, in 'Darlington back lane', is two more Harker brothers look out for the horse boxes. Regards, Bob.
