Joan Phillips
Joan belongs to: Cullercoats Community Centre
Joan was born in Cullercoats. She worked abroad before returning to Cullercoats. Joan now spends her time writing.
Joan was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 1 March 2006. The interview took place at Cullercoats Community Centre and lasted 31 minutes and 8 seconds.
Raising funds to build the community centre
"The council said, “we can’t build you one, you’ll have to build one yourself,” so there was, there was a terrific lot of support"
The council said, “we can’t build you one, you’ll have to build one yourself,” so there was, there was a terrific lot of support because there was still quite a lot of Cullercoats, what you called Cullercoats families left then, and they were all very, very enthusiastic. And it was when I came home, I just sort of heard about and wanted to get involved, and of course as soon as I turned up, got a little job to do.
And then when the magazine was in full flow I got on the committee of that because I liked, I liked writing then, and, you know, I used to write various articles for it, and it, it was in existence for 20 years, so, you know, it was quite good.
But certainly in the early days, everybody worked really hard to raise money. You’ll probably hear more about it from Sybil, but I mean, they had a shop on the sea front, which is now pulled down, next to the, I think it was owned by the Pier Hotel, and selling clothes and had coffee mornings, and, you know raising money- they used to sell penny bricks and all sorts of things. And there was a terrific enthusiasm for the whole, which was good, really. And of course, they did, they raised a heck of a lot of money.
And they had so many good helpers, you know; they had electricians, and they had joiners, they had carpenters, and you know, people who did the floor, and it was amazing, really. It was just like the old days when they used to have the, the operettas in, and there was, everybody, there were so many people around to do things- you didn’t have to go into the Yellow Pages, or wonder who you were going to get as a plumber, or a this or a that; they were on the doorstep.
Joan has 9 memories in the memorynet:
Joan's memories with a Environment theme:
Joan's other memories:
Going away with fish- Her Grandmother's routine
- Going with her sister to sell fish
- Raising funds to build the community centre
Joan's great grandmother- Joan's great uncle and aunt
- Joan's grandmother
- Mrs Hardesty Brown's tea parties
This memory has these themes:
Community | Skills | Volunteering
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