Blyth History.

[dolly dimples]

There was Mary Tucks on the Broadway circle  x
One-on-Coomassie Road   X.

[pityackafromblyth]

Re the fish and chip shops, - 'Morgan's' rings a bell in my memory, and perhaps someone will confirm re that name/owner.
As regards the one near the Spartans' entrance, that is still going and gets rave reviews from away supporters who visit when their team is playing The Spartans. They post their comments in various forums re that fish shop.

[TriciaK]

"near the Spartans entrance" on Plessey Road - that's the one we used to go to.
I don't remember the one on Broadway Circle, Dolly - that would have been nearer.
So when did fish and chip shops start to open and become popular? It must have been post-war.

[peteloud]

Thinking back to the fish & chip shops of the 1950s & '60s, reminded me another aspect of life that disappeared a long time ago, horse and carts.

I remember that in New Delaval, in the 1950s the store, (Co-op), butcher had a green horse drawn box van.  I think the butcher's name was Arthur Harrison. A few times I was given a short ride, up by the driver.  That was really exciting.

In summer there was an ice cream man came down the back lane in a horse drawn trap. We would get 'monkey's blood' on the ice cream from him.

In the the 1960s, by then living in a new council house in Etal Road, there was the fish man who came around on Fridays.  I remember his call, to me it sound like "Cod 'n Horn", but was "Cod & Herring." Fish was very cheap in those days. I remember coming home from school for lunch of chips & turbot in batter.  I can't afford turbot these days.

There were lots of ragmen with horse and carts.  Give them a bundle of old clothes and kids would be given a balloon.

There was French Onion Man came around on his bike, with strings of onions hanging from the handlebars.

I'm sure that there were other horse and carts coming around.  What can you remember?

 

[pityackafromblyth]

The fresh fish man.  His call was "caller harn."   Caller is a very old NE word,and possibly Scottish as well, meaning 'fresh'.  'Harn' is the old NE word for herring.
Horse and carts, milk, coal, co-op veg and whatever.  I can remember them coming round New Year's Day in the later 40s and early 50s.  The were offered a drink, glass at most houses. Many of those delivery men were 'stottin' and sometimes nearly legless by the time they got to the top end of New Deleval.  As in those days, and tales we hear elsewhere, the horses and ponies new the rounds and the route back to the stables.

[TriciaK]

What about the rag and bone man?
"Any old ragabo!"
I have a vague memory that he gave you a bottle of 'pop' in exchange for your donation.
pityacka - there's a song about Caller Herrin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5dINsK-_k

[pityackafromblyth]

Tricia, Many thanks for that link, and also the other ones which followed on after I viewed your suggestion.  Northumbrian songs and music, what can we natives say ?  I once remarked to a work colleague, who was a Scot, and we were having a drink in the local down here in darkest Yorkshire. I said to him, " Jock, do you know the difference between the bagpipes and the Northumbrian pipes ?"He confessed that he did not know, but when I said, "There's no bliddy cat inside the Northumbrian pipes."  He just had a good laugh.
And the Northumbrian Pipes - the Clough family of Newsham. Two or three occasions in the late 1970s, or thereabouts, at New Year's Eve, I was privileged to visit the Clough's then house in Cowpen Estate, and hear the pipes being played by the father.

[peteloud]

The fresh fish man.  His call was "caller harn."   Caller is a very old NE word,and possibly Scottish as well, meaning 'fresh'.  'Harn' is the old NE word for herring.

. . . .  Northumbrian songs and music . . .

That brings it all back.  The sound I heard was "caller harn".  My saying ""Cod n horn" was me trying to put into words what I thought it might have been.  Thanks for tying up that loose end.

I've never been particularly interested in Northumbrian songs, but here is a good collection of Northumbrian tunes, http://www.peterloud.co.uk/tunebook/tunebook.html.

[Yossarian]

Re: chip shops and itinerant food sellers.

When I was a child living on Beecher Street, I waited every Wednesday evening for the arrival of me nanna, who would bring chips from Martin's shop, which was down near the Buffalo. The chips were sometimes only lukewarm, but we gobbled them down while watching The Dick Van Dyke Show.

My dad told me of a mushy peas seller who roamed the streets of Cowpen Quay selling only that when he was a child. Customers took a cup out and got a ladleful of steaming peas for a penny or so. Condiments were available, and my dad doused his peas in vinegar before devouring them. I have poured vinegar on my mushy peas since he told me this.