Tag Archives: Cremona Park

*** POSTPONED Cobbled Streets and Penny Sweets in ’50s Newcastle POSTPONED ***

We are sorry to announce that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, all Heaton History Group events have been postponed until further notice. As soon as we are able to continue with our programme, we will make an announcement on this website, through social media and in our members’ newsletter.

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Cobbled Streets and Penny Sweets is an affectionate, at times hard-hitting and beautifully evocative portrait of life in a city that has changed beyond recognition. Above all, it is a story of family, friendship and getting through the hard times with a healthy dose of Geordie humour.

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Cremona Park Toffee Factory stood where Sainsbury’s is until the 1960s

So soon after World War Two, the 50s were a time of great hardship and yet people made the best of what little they had, as housewives competed to scrub their doorsteps clean and children turned derelict houses into playgrounds. We’ll hear about some characters of the time and the down as well as the up side of the era.

Our speaker

Yvonne Young`s childhood in 1950s Newcastle was spent at the heart of the city`s industry. With her grandfather working as a ship painter, her uncle Tom helping to build them and neighbours working for the local armaments factory, the shipyards and factories were her community`s lifeblood. Yvonne has published numerous books including: ‘Benwell Remembered’ and ‘Westenders‘ parts 1 and 2, ‘The Grainger Market: the peoples history’.

Book now

The event will take place on Wednesday 22 April 2020 at The Corner House, Heaton NE6 5RP at 7.30pm (Doors open at 7.00pm. You are advised to take your seat by 7.15pm). All welcome. FREE for Heaton History Group members. £2 for non-members. Please book your place by contacting maria@heatonhistorygroup.org / 07443 594154.

Home Sweet Home

As you push your trolley round Sainsbury’s, have you ever wondered what went on there before the supermarket and nearby car showrooms were built? The photographs below (courtesy of Historic England’s Britain from Above project) show the area on 1 November 1938. The houses to the north, west and south east had been built over the previous decade or so but there was still open country to the east. On the extreme right of both photos, you can see Heaton Cemetery.

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A S Wilkin Ltd Cremona Park (on the right) from the west, 1938

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Cremona Park Confectionery Works, 1938

Cremona Park, the self-styled ‘ World’s Garden Toffery’  opened on what was then a green field site on Benton Road in 1920. It was founded by Albert Scholick Wilkin, the son of a Westmorland policeman. Wilkin had opened a sweet factory in Sunderland in 1908. It was an immediate success, especially its ‘Wilkin’s Red Boy Toffee’, which featured a detail from Thomas Lawrence’s famous painting, ‘Charles William Lambton’, later known as ‘Red Boy’. By the end of WW1, Cremona had become a national brand.

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Cremona’s Red Boy Toffee tin

At about the same time, the old Royal Flying Corps site in High Heaton, Newcastle was no longer needed by the military. It gave Wilkin the space he needed to expand his business. There were many new flavours of toffee in ever more beautiful tins.

In 1939, Albert received a knighthood for ‘political and public services in Newcastle upon Tyne’. He was a Justice of the Peace, Chairman of Newcastle Central Conservative Association, governor of King’s College (now Newcastle University), an honorary freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Feltmakers Company. During the war, he served on committees which oversaw the regulation of the confectionery industry. But in 1943, aged only 60, Albert Wilkin died.

Sons, Gordon and Frank, took over the running of the company and after the war, the export markets returned: Hong Kong, China, Syria, Gibraltar, South Vietnam, Puerto Rico, the West Indies, the USA, among others, all loved High Heaton toffee. But, by the 1960s, larger companies began to dominate and Cremona Park had become part of Rowntrees Mackintosh and soon afterwards, the Benton Road factory closed its doors forever.

Home 

Veronica Halliwell (nee Erskine) has vivid memories of Cremona Park in the 1940s. Living what must be every child’s dream, she grew up in the grounds of a toffee factory.

Let Veronica take up the story: ‘I was born in 1940 and lived with my mother and grandparents at ‘The Lodge’, Cremona Park, Benton Rd. Newcastle upon Tyne until I was 8 years old.’ 

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Veronica with her doll’s house and the Cremona chimney behind (not part of the doll’s house!)

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Veronica and her mother outside the Cremona Park lodge where they lived

‘My grandfather was a commissionaire who checked transport at the gate of Cremona Park. He was also the office cleaner and a fire warden. My mother also worked in the factory – on the sweet machines. Meanwhile my father was a soldier on active duty with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. My grandmother looked after me.  I have many very happy memories of this time.’

Grandad

‘Grandad had a very smart uniform with brass buttons which, as a child, I loved to polish with him.  I had a toothbrush to collect the dampened solid block of brass polish and we polished it off when dry with a small duster at the dinner table in front of the black-leaded fireplace which always had a kettle on the boil.’ 

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Veronica and her grandparents with Cremona Park canteen to the right

‘When we had finished and the buttons were gleaming, grandad would toast me some bread on a long handled fork over the open fire. Then the tin bath would be placed in front of this fire and Grandad would have his weekly bath!

Now and again I was allowed to go to the offices while Grandad did his cleaning chores. With hindsight, the high, wooden desks were quite Dickensian in appearance with high stools which I couldn’t reach!  I used to play with the black telephones (probably Bakelite) and my Grandad lifted me up and I pretended to ‘clock-in’ at a very large ornate office clock.

The Boss’s office was a different affair altogether with a green leather top, silver ink pots and a wonderful green leather  chair which I could swivel away in to my heart’s content. One day, the boss appeared and I am told that he was delighted with me. So much so that for Xmas 1945 or ’46  he gave me my first hard-backed book, ‘The Little Fir-Tree’. It gave me such pleasure that to this day, 70 plus years on , I still retell the story to all manner of children at Christmastime, even though the book has disappeared in the sands of time.

The fire wardens met in the canteen when they were ‘on duty’ but they never seemed to put out any fires, they just played cards and dominoes while I had a few rides on the ’dumb waiter’ as a reward for singing ‘You are my Sunshine.’ No health and safety rules and regulations then!’

Sweet machine

‘I can remember being carried into the factory to see my ‘mam’ at her sweet machine. The jewelled coloured wrapping paper seemed magical, as sweets slid down a chute at an alarming rate. When all the machines had shut down for the day I can still recall the hot, clean smell as the thick wooden slabs where the  toffee was rolled  were sluiced down with boiling water.’

We are lucky enough to have copies of postcards which show what the factory looked like inside, at every stage of the production process. They are undated but the first image suggests they were taken soon after the factory opened in 1920. So before Veronica’s time but perhaps not her grandad’s.

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Wartime

Veronica continues: ‘We mustn’t lose sight that it was wartime and my uncle made me my very own ’Tommy gun’ which was almost as big as me.  I played with the two sons of the boiler man at the factory but they were older than me and they were boys so I always had to be a ‘Jap’ and spent most of my time tied up in prison. They had an indoor shelter in their bungalow which was a great den until the siren went off one afternoon and we heard the drone of the German planes overhead. According to the grown-ups they had a different sound to our planes.  We were told that the German bombers used the tall chimney of Cremona and the tall chimney next door of the Sylvan jam factory to navigate their way.

There was also a very large brick communal shelter which had slatted wooden benches  where the adults sat or slept during an air raid. I slept in my pram, so I am told, but I can very definitely remember my mam running with me in my pram to the shelter and whenever it is a cold, crisp, clear night I swear I can smell the fresh, cold air there as if it were yesterday. The sound of the ‘all clear’ siren still haunts me and gives me goose-bumps.’

Even though it was wartime I was very lucky to have an uncle whose hobby was making toys-hence the doll’s house you see on one of the photographs.’

When I was almost eight, we moved to a prefab in Wallsend but still continued to go to St Teresa’s School in Heaton.  When I was 11 years old we moved to a house just up Benton Rd. which was only a stone’s throw from Cremona Park and, in my teens, St George’s Methodist Church Youth Club paved the way to friendships and frequent visits to Paddy Freeman’s Park and Jesmond Dene.’

Lovely memories and photos of what must have been a very exciting place to grow up.

Can you help?

If you know more about Cremona Park Toffee Factory or have memories or photos to share, we’d love to hear from you. Please either leave a reply on this website by clicking on the link immediately below the article title or email   chris.jackson@heatonhistorygroup.org

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Veronica for her memories and photographs; additional research by Chris Jackson

Sources include:

‘North East Life’, January 2010. Article by Jackie Wilkin, Albert Scholick Wilkin’s great niece.

Mrs Sweeney Remembers Bygone Heaton

Heaton History Group has been interviewing older Heatonians so that we can capture memories and personal photographs to complement more easily accessed published and archived material. Jeanie Molyneux recently met Joan Sweeney nee Potter, who was born in 1922, lived at 23 Sackville Road until 1951 and then in Rothbury Terrace for a further 8 years.

Young Joan, aged 4, in 1926

Young Joan, aged 4, in 1926

We are hoping that Mrs Sweeney’s recollections will interest other longstanding or former residents. Please add your memories to our collection either by leaving a comment on this website (by clicking on the link immediately below the article title) or by emailing chris.jackson@heatonhistorygroup.org .

Mrs Sweeney remembers

– the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Tyneside for the opening of the Tyne Bridge on 10 October 1928. She recalls being taken to the approach Road at Armstrong Bridge by Jesmond Dene and being given a flag to wave and, later, a certificate. Where you there or perhaps at one of the Heaton Secondary Schools which they officially opened the same day?

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Royal visit to Heaton Sec Schools

– playing bat and ball against the wall of the house on the corner of Stanmore Road and Ravenswood Road. She also remembers that in the backyard of her home there was a container for ashes attached to the back wall with an aperture so that the ashes could be tipped into the bath which was brought around the back streets. What did you play in the back lanes? Do you remember ashes being collected?

Young Joan in her back yard c 1932

Young Joan in her backyard with the ash box in the background c1932

– the blacksmith’s shop and Clarendon garage at the top of Chillingham Road (opposite Norwood Avenue). As a child, Mrs Sweeney was sent to the garage to collect batteries for the cat’s whisker (wireless / old radio). Were you sent on errands to local shops?

– the Scala on the corner of Chillingham Road and Tosson Terrace. The First Vets practice premises was Riddells, a photographers. Baobab Bakery was also a bakery in earlier years – the Tynedale Bakery. This photo of the bakery was taken by High Heaton photographer, Laszlo Torday. Thank you to Newcastle City Library for permission to use it.

Tynedale Bakeries / Torday

Next door was the Teesdale Dairy. They also operated a horse and cart which would travel around the area selling milk, pouring the milk from a white container directly into a jug at local residents’ homes. Do Mrs Sweeney’s memories jog yours?

– other local shops, for example, on Rothbury Terrace from the corner of Spencer Street to Chillingham Road included Topliffe hardware store and Tulip’s chemists. She remembers a small general store on the corner of Sackville Road and Stanmore Road which sold food and she recalls helping to serve there on one occasion. Mrs Sweeney also remembers Ochletree’s, a newsagent on Addycombe Terrace on the corner of Tosson Terrace or Trewhitt Road – she is a little uncertain which. Can you help?

– Sainsbury’s on Benton Road was a sweet / toffee factory. Thank you to English Heritage for permission to reproduce the aerial photo below from its Britain from Above website.

A S Wilkins' Cremona Toffee Works, 1938

A S Wilkins’ Cremona Toffee Works, 1938

Also in that area was the Sylvan Jam factory, with a big chimney with the name Sylvan on the side. Mrs Sweeney remembers being able to smell strawberries when jam was being made. What smells do you remember from your Heaton childhood?

– In the years before World War 2, the last tram along Heaton Road (about 11.00 pm) also had a post box on board. The last tram would drop the box off at the Post Office at the top of Heaton Road. She remembers occasions when she would see her father running up the road with a letter in order to catch the final tram.

Tram terminus Heaton Rd

She also remembers that a tram (open upstairs) travelled up to Gosforth Park (she thinks possibly only at weekends). She recalls travelling on the tram to Lamb’s Tea Gardens, next to the garden centre. Do you remember taking a trip to Lambs’ or taking a tram in Heaton?

Share your memories

We really appreciate Mrs Sweeney giving up her time and sharing her memories and photographs with us. If you remember ‘bygone’ Heaton, please get in touch. We can meet you for a chat if you still live locally. Or send your memories by email to chris.jackson@heatonhistorygroup.org