Tell me about your Mum and Dad

My Mum was born Mildred Hutchinson on 30th April 1902 and my Dad, Gordon Beldon, on 30th December 1898 (I was told that I was expected on the 30th of June but I jumped the gun a little!).

Mum was born at Warren Cottage, Acomb near Hexham in Northumberland and later moved to another larger house around the corner called Allan House, a name which I think I remember my Mum saying once that she suggested the name for, after her brother Alan. I have no idea where she went to school, presumably the local school in Acomb and then school in Hexham. She probably left school at 15 and as far as I know, later went to work at Robb’s department store in Hexham as, I think, a clerk. I don’t recall any other job she might have had or how long she worked at Robb’s.

Dad was born at Oswald Terrace, Durham (I think that these houses no longer exist) and as a young boy moved with his parents to Hexham where he grew up. Presumably he went to school in Hexham, maybe 3 or 4 years ahead of my Mum. I’m not sure what jobs he had after leaving school but one of the first was at the Swan Hunter shipyards as a clerk. He went on to work at the Ministry of Employment and I think was there at the time of the Great Depression when the amount of unemployment was horrendous.

Mum and Dad apparently courted for a while in the mid ‘20s, broke up but later, I think in the early thirties, got together again and married in 1934. I don’t know much of their social life but I think Mum was quite a well-dressed social girl (not quite a ‘flapper’) and Dad played rugby for a minor Durham team. I also recall my Dad saying that he had a motor-bike, a Norton Diamond, on which he hit a bump one day, landed on his head (they only had pilot-type helmets in those days) and woke up 4 days later in hospital with severe concussion. He said he was OK, it was only his head!!!