One hundred years ago last Saturday, Doris Tinkler, nee Hartas, was born on 6 January 1924 in a house in Spennymoor.
One of seven children, her parents were Fred Hartas and Mary Binks (daughter of the Binks’s who were part of ABC buses).
The family then moved to the intruguingly named, Linger and Die, a row of railway cottages near Ferryhill Station, where she grew up.
Doris went to Ferryhill Station school, which she left at the age of 15 to work as a housekeeper for six years at a big house in Middleton Tees dale, then at farmhouses in Norton and Thorpe Thewels, where she remembers milking the cows.
Doris married Lawrence Tinkler on 16 August 1944 and they lived at Tolson House in Ferryhill Station until getting a cottage of their own at Linger and Die, where Ronald was born in 1945, Alan in 1947 and Margaret in 1948.
They all went to school down the Station until Doris and Lawrence moved to Dean Road, where they had another daughter, Julie in 1965.
In 1993 they moved to a bungalow not far away in Broomside.
Doris did not socialise much, however she did like a bet on the horses and still watches the racing now. She also enjoys the soaps and quiz shows.
Doris’s husband sadly passed away in 2006, and Doris lived alone until April 2020 when her health declined and she moved to Chilton Care Home, which is managed by her granddaughter, Maxine.
Due to Covid, Doris has not really left the home, other than for short walks in summer as she is always cold. However, with 10 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and 6 great great grandchildren, she is never short of regular visitors.
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
