Hi Franky I started at Washington Grammar in 1965, just as the New Town development was starting. By then the motorway up from the Tyne Tunnel along the bottom of Springwell Village was under construction and Donwell Village and the Usworth Flats had been started.
The bus on the way to school went from Eighton Banks to Springwell down Village Lane and then turned left at the Havanah Army Camp and down Blue House Lane past the F pit and then turned right up Spout Lane and on to the village.
I was mates with a lad who lived on Biddick Lane past the Vic and remember Calders from when I would go to his house.
As soon as I was old enough to climb into the cab by myself I would go with our Cattle Waggons and a lot of work was for Farmers around Washington, some I can recall:-
Dryden’s behind the Washington Arms,
Bellerby’s and Joe Shaw both on the Village Green at High Usworth,
Potts at Low Barmston
Gordon Proud at West Moor opposite the Horse Shoes Pub
Snowdon’s Hillthorn (next to the Seven Houses)
We also did a lot for Lord Lambton and I can remember loading cattle from the stone buildings that now form part of the Biddick Arts Centre.
All gone now, even the old school has been demolished and rebuilt !!
Cheers Tyneside