Church View Care Home in South Church celebrated two special birthdays recently. The first was on September 20th when resident at the home Eva Cook celebrated her 101st birthday. Eva was born in Butterknowle in 1913, just before the start of the First World War. She studied nursing at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary and later moved to Hull in East Yorkshire for further training. She soon became a midwife, delivering babies throughout the Second World War, and during this time also married Cyril Cook, who was also from Butterknowle. After the war the couple moved to Romford in Essex, before later returning to County Durham.
In the 1970s they moved to Bishop Auckland where Cyril was headmaster at the nearby Butterknowle Primary School. When Cyril passed away in 1991 Eva moved into a flat in the town, before moving into Church View just last year. She has one daughter, Brenda Crane, who lives in Bishop Auckland, as well as two granddaughters, Gemma Hamilton and Julia Crane, and three great grandchildren, Rebecca and Joseph Hamilton and Isabelle Crane. Eva still loves to read and socialises with her friend Vera Walker, who lived on the bottom of Bildershaw Bank.
The second special birthday was 10 days later on 30th September, when Evie Mason achieved the wonderful age of 106 – the home’s oldest resident. Evie was married to Sydney Mason and they were well known in the town as landlords of the Alma in South Church Road and stewards of the Grosvenor Club in the Market Place. She later lived in Coronation until she was 98 years-old, moving into Church View in 2007.
Evie has one daughter, Jean, and one son, Sydney. She also has one granddaughter Sarah, who has a little boy Lukas. She celebrated her milestone birthday with a party in the home with her family.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
