The perfect Christmas present for Shildon folk, Shildon exiles and Shildon relatives once-or-twice removed, is still available as the big day draws near.
Local lad and multiple award winning journalist Mike Amos MBE published his book All change earlier this year to mark the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
It seeks to marry memories of growing up in the town – train spotting, Timothy Hackworth school, endless back street football – with reflections on the way things are today, based on numerous visits to organisations and events during 2024.
Mike also affectionately recalls some of the unforgettable Shildon folk he got to know – from legendary police officer Tommy Trebilcock to celebrity safebreaker George Raynolds who himself was well known to the constabulary.
He remembers men like One O’clock Show singer George Romaines and long-serving councillor Tommy Taylor, who ended up in hospital after an accident involving a matchstick while on night shift at the wagon works.
He recounts tales of women like Bertha Pallister who rode pillion on her 95th birthday, like appropriately named songstress Jenny Wren who on her 100th birthday credited youthful looks to regular visits from the Avon Lady and like Blondie, whom the young lads ogled while train spotting neat Tunnel Top.
A year of return visits included time with Shildon FC and at the Railway cricket club with particular memories at both of the late Jack Watson. He spent an evening with the scouts, returned with incredulity to marvel at how much has changed to Timothy Hackworth primary school and spent a richly educational afternoon at Thornhill Gardens school, highly praised by Ofsted.
He spent a day at Brusselton, attended the 40th anniversary reunion of the closing of the works, joined the 15-strong congregation at the town’s only surviving Methodist church. Once there were seven, each capable of holding several hundred worshippers and often with few free seats.
Much impressed by the efforts of the town’s allotment holders, he called the resultant chapter “Gaining the plot.”
In youthful days Mike had himself been an Urban District councillor for the Sunnydale ward, churchwarden and church council secretary at St John’s, has been a lifelong supporter of the football club and served for 20 years as Northern League chairman.
The book’s cover shows Enniskillen Guards – with their bikes – sent to Shildon station in 1912 to help keep the peace during one of many railwaymen’s strikes at the time.
“Those who’ve read the book seem fascinated by the contrast between then and now by the rich panoply of Shildon folk past and present” said Mike. “I’m greatly blessed to have known many of them and remember them with huge affection.”
A year of old home town trips ended on Christmas Eve 2024 with the midnight service at St John’s – selections from a tin of Quality Street at the end – and on New Year’s Eve with a brilliant party at Santinni restaurant over the road, Mike surmising that there may for many years have been a subterranean limoncello mine in the vicinity of Primitive Street.
The biggest surprise may have been that some of the town’s remaining pubs – and Old Shildon Club -were closed by 10pm on December 31 and that other licensed premises were near deserted. “It’s exactly what the book seeks to reflect” says Mike. “Times change.”
*All change –large format, 220 pages, richly and nostalgically illustrated – costs £13 plus £3.50 postage where appropriate. It’s available from the author at 8 Oakfields, Middleton Tyas, Richmond, North Yorkshire DL10 6SD or from the Forget-me-not floristry at the top of Main Street, from the George Sameul Brewery in the former wagon works canteen at the bottom of Byerley Road or over the bar at the Railway Institute.
Mike also promises personal delivery before Christmas – thus saving postage – to any address in the Shildon area. Details from mikeamos81[@]aol[.]com.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
