About 1973. Blaydon, a small town in the north east of England was demolished to make way for a new road system, This short film shows part of the demolition
I remember old Blaydon like it was a dream. I think I can recall visiting Woolworths there which had a dark wooden floor. How they allowed. Someone to rip the heart out of an entire town in exchange for a roundabout and a bus station beggars belief.
Brings back a lot of memories. I grew up there during that period. I still remember the Coop Butcher for sausages and the Sunday roast. Walter Wilsons for some side bacon. A favourite Fish and Chip shop on Chain bridge road whose name eludes me. The bike shop. An Ice Cream parlour at the bottom of the street. A lot was destroyed and rubbish built in the name of progress in the 60s and 70s but at the time we all thought it was a wonderful change. A brave new world.
I grew up in that area in the 1980s, I can't believe how much I don't recognise. The wall at 0:12, on the right-hand side behind the van is still there on Blaydon Highway but it's astonishing to see what the immediate area used to look like. Tore the heart out. This is the area seen at 0:12, www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.965655,-1.7115355,3a,39.5y,280.96h,91.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sT-vHUtm7n-Y3-Drz9MswWg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
I lived in Edward Street as a child and my grandparents lived there until the demolition began. I wish now that I had taken drawings or photos of the area before it was DESTROYED by the planners....and for what? A roadway, roundabout and a white elephant of a shopping centre. That's progress??
I lived in number 75 Edward street and my dad worked at Churchill Gear Machines, great buildings were destroyed that would have stayed up for many years to come, all they had too do was to keep the buildings and made it into a precinct, also they could have built car parks on the outskirts and made a new bus station, it would have kept it's character.
@@alanrogerson7608 I agree Alan. There were options without having to demolish some very good stone houses and the shopping area. When I look back on what the shopping area of Blaydon provided such as drapers, toy shop, wallpaper shop etc. and what the 'Morrison' led centre provides now, is just chalk and cheese.
I see Frank Gillings is part of this channel, I'm wondering did the Gillings family had two sons called Tom and Graham Gillings because I used to go to Blaydon Grammar School with them at the bottom of Blaydon Bank and they were in my class, can anyone tell me. this is 55 years ago.
All in the name of 'progress'. Disgraceful. I believe the chip shop and cafe featured in one of the 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads' episodes was very near Blaydon railway station.
@@music4u138 Yes that was at the bottom of Thomas Terrace and did Tommy Lewins had the paper shop, along Railway Street there was Isaac's i think they sold coal, Edward st had Ettie Pictons and Mordues shop was further along.
The photos at the beginning of this presentation are utterly heartbreaking. An interesting, characterful (admittedly a bit dilapidated) little town steamrollered to make way for yet more roads, it's so sad. Do you have any colour photos of just over the old chain bridge on the Newcastle side? Adamsez works, railway bridge, ord arms pub, regent cinema etc?
Ironically enough, the precinct that replaced a lot of this has also since undergone part re-development. I can vaguely remember old Blaydon as a small kid and a lot of derelict houses, pretty draconian planning back then.
Most of the rebuilding took place in the seventies when the town centre was by passed by the dual carriageway and the new shopping centre was built. I think the old town centre was becoming too congested and some of the houses were at the end of their lives.
There's a small garden centre in Blaydon that is overgrown, everybody has tried to get it, the married couple who owned it were killed in a car crash with nobody to inherit it, it just stands empty
A crying shame, to destroy a town for a road system. I guess the planners took advantage of the lack of oppostion, the inability of people to mobilize any resistance. I loved old Blaydon, Woolworths all the old shops. It did feature in what ever happened to the Likely lads as a sad epitaph.Imagine planners doing the same thing to Harrogate? I think not .. Harrogate has one bit of Blaydon like precinct , not a whole town.
