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Beaconsfield House was opened January 1946 when the boys and staff arrived late one night in the back of a lorry. Beaconsfield was a boys home and school. Beaconsfield House finally closed as a Dr Barnardo home September 1953 see below. 46/2 Childhood Memories a photographic history of Dr Barnardo's
Nora Walker ex Member of staff Memory of the old home: I WAS the first member of female staff to work at Beaconsfield, Cullercoats. I worked with a house master and was responsible for a dozen boys. The move to Beaconsfield House occurred very dramatically. We'd been given 24 hours by the local council to occupy the house or lose it and so we arrived in the dark in a lorry, beds and food and all. The house was in lovely surroundings it was right on the sea front. We staff used to cross the road to the beach to do the sewing and mending while the boys were at school. As an 'elderly' ex-member of staff, I often walk past the site where the house was, as I still live nearby. It reminds me of very happy memories walking along the sea front taking the boys to school. My own grandson went to the same school many years later. Also I remember John Noble whose job was washing the upstairs corridors every Saturday morning. He always sang 'Oh Shenandoah'! I WAS fascinated to read Nora Walker's account (Guild Messenger, summer 2003) of the dramatic move of children and staff to Beaconsfield House, North Shields during the night in 1946. I was one of the initial group sent from Dame Margaret's home in Washington, Co. Durham. We did indeed arrive in the dark and our arrival was complicated by a strong smell of town gas, so we literally 'camped out' in the house as the house master Mr Rendle (Rendel?) was afraid to strike a match. Everything was sorted the following day and we found ourselves in a magical place. The house was directly across the road from a most beautiful beach, where I was destined to spend many happy hours. The house had just been vacated by the army, who had used it as a billet for an anti-aircraft unit during the war. Indeed, in the garden, there was still mounted a twin Bofors or Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun on which I spent many happy hours shooting down 'Gerries' (as small boys did in those days). It was the happiest time of my stay with Dr. Barnardo's. Mr Rendle became a personal friend. We corresponded for several years after I was sent to Watts. Mr Rendle had the unpleasant job, I think, with hindsight, of delivering me to Watts when I was I I years old. The following year, he also delivered my younger brother Jim to the same place. Later Jim was to become famous as 'the great escaper', frequently managing to travel from Watts in Norfolk to Cullercoats in Northumberland still wearing his naval uniform. I wonder if Nora remembers me? I was the small cross-eyed boy, who had a front tooth kicked out in an accident on the beach in 1946/47. Fred Drew. When was the home built? Beaconsfield House first records in 1882. The house was built for John Henry Burn who owned the local coal mine. in 1909 there was an explosion in the mine and many lives were lost. When did it become a Dr. Barnardo's home? The building came on the market in 1945 and was taken over by Dr. Barnardo's when two other local homes were destroyed during the Second World War. The children started moving in the following year January 1946 How many children lived there? In the I 940s, there were about I 2 boys. Why did the home close? Tynemouth Council bought the house under a compulsory purchase order in 1953 as it had plans to develop the sea front. While the area's future was being considered, Beaconsfield House was used by other organisations, including Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Rescue Society to provide holidays for disadvantaged children. In 1956 the council took the decision to demolish house and the work was completed early in 1957. What is the land used for today? Plans for a multi-storey hotel and leisure complex were never carried forward the site still remains vacant. In 2003 it was a big open field, each year a circus and entertainments are held on the site. |