Elizabeth Burrell

I’ve lived in Peterlee my whole life. My parents (George and Betty) moved here in 1952 after getting married. My father came from Wheatley Hill and my mother from Shotton Colliery. I was born three years later in May 1955.

My first school was Dene House Infants. I remember when the Queen’s visit to Peterlee in 1960 when I was in the first year there. A few days before the Queen was due to visit, I got a new pair of shoes. Running from the kitchen, I tripped and fell against the skirting board and split my head. The Doctor came to the house to sew me up and I was kept off school. Fortunately, my mam was allowed to bring me down to the school just so that I could see the Queen. I remember lots of people lining the streets and there being big black cars. The class photo was taken at the end of my first year in the Junior School. The boy sat on the far right of the middle row is Lesley Graham, who now lives in Salt Lake City. His family were Mormons and amongst the first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Eden Lane. I’m also a member of the Church and we keep in regular touch to this day.

We lived at 20 Keswick Road. When I was young, my aunt Cissie [Nicholson] lived nearby on Fairburn Road. Shortly after my father died, we left Keswick Road and moved to Nottingham Place. My mum wanted us to be closer to her sister, who was then living at 47 Lowhills Road. This was in March 1970, just as I was about to leave Dene House Secondary School and start work at Dewhirst on the ^6th of April. I was fifteen.

I started off in the ironing and packing section of the factory. We got paid by the item, so to begin with I was earning less than £5 a week. Once I got up to speed and was packing 60-70 shirts per hour, my salary increased, and I started taking home around £10. The cutting room was at the back of the factory. It was mostly men who worked there. The collar and cuff section were then on one side with the shirt backs, and the fronts and sleeves
at the other side. The parts of the shirts were then brought together. There were strings with clips. These were pushed forward so that all the parts could be taken one by one with each machinist sewing their own part. The shoulder was sewn first, then the fronts and sleeves, and lastly the cuffs and collar. There were usually four of these lines with different styles on each line. The shirts were then inspected and passed to the finishing section, where they would be pressed, buttoned up, folded, and put into a bag before being boxed and sent to the warehouse.

Later I got a job in Time and Motion, which was a big thing back then. That however came to an end in 2000, when production was moved overseas to somewhere in the Far East. Something like 700 or 800 people were made redundant. I was one of those kept on processing shirts being imported for the UK market. This prompted me to do an access course in the evenings at East Durham College. I finally left Dewhirst in 2004, to start a full
time degree course in social work at Sunderland University. After graduating I began work in the Children’s Disability Team at Sunderland City Council. I also did the same job with Durham County Council for a short while, before returning to Sunderland in 2010. I retired in 2018.

The class photo was taken at the end of my first year in the Junior School. The boy in the middle of the back row wearing glasses is Alan Little.¹ He and his older brother became professional footballers.

This photograph was taken in the garden at my Aunt Cassie’s on Lowhills Road. It’s a family gathering, which as I recall was for my cousin June’s sixth birthday. My grandparents on my mother’s side were called William and Margaret Flitcroft. They lived in Shotton Colliery where my mother was brought up. In one of the photos they’re standing by the garden gate at their home in Lee Terrace. The other photo I have of them was taken
in the back garden of my aunt’s house on Lowhills Road. It’s almost certain it was taken when they were there for my cousin June’s birthday.

¹ Alan Little made 403 senior appearances for seven different football league clubs between 1973-1986. In 1993 he became manager of York City, where he spent six seasons in charge.