Mary English
Mary belongs to: The Fishermen's Mission
Mary grew up around North Shields Fish Quay. Her father was a fisherman and she has many memories of both the Fishermen's Mission and North Shields Fish Quay. Mary still helps out at the Mission.
Mary was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 20 January 2006. The interview took place at North Shields Fishermen's Mission and lasted 1 hour, 6 minutes and 46 seconds.
Pops and Kit
"Kit was very special to me because Pops did two trips in the summer"
Kit was very special to me because Pops did two trips in the summer. Prior to that in 1971, in the January gales at this point in time, he got hit in the face by a huge, the big block and tackle, the big wood smacked him in the face, you see. Whacked. So he was split on the inside, split there and split down the whole lot. And that was on a Tuesday.
And on the Thursday, Irvin’s came in and said to my Mum, “I’m sorry to tell you- Jack’s had a bit of an accident.” Well, my mother hit the roof and I went off it. And the options were- they were stuck on a sand bank outside Aberdeen harbour and they couldn’t get on. So I wasn’t happy about that, to say the least, and anyway on the Friday morning he says, “we’re getting them off and he’s at Aberdeen Infirmary.”
I went to work and I had rung them up and he said, “oh, he’s on his way home, he’s alright.” And I thought well, that’s something. They had sent him home by train, no money in his… nothing, they had given him an overcoat- it was a herringbone overcoat. He had an old salt and pepper jumper and a pair of jeans and that. That’s all he had, what he stood in. All the rest of his gear as such had been thrown over because it was covered in blood. Kit had sat for two days holding my dad’s face together because they couldn’t stitch it because it was inside.
So when he came home, I had gone to the train station and I was furious because the guy from Irvin’s wouldn’t even pay twopence for a platform ticket to go and meet him. And some students had taken pity on him and they had given him tea and they had it watered down and cooled off so he could have a drink. They had offered him a sausage sandwich at Aberdeen Infirmary, but he couldn’t eat.
So when he came home his face was black and it was just, what a mess. At least we got him. He had broken his nose, broken his jaw, his cheekbones and he was a vast improvement. He managed, but Kit had held his face together, and that is something I will always be grateful for, otherwise we might not have had him.
Mary has 12 memories in the memorynet:
Mary's memories with a Sounds and Smells theme:
The smell of the guano worksMary's other memories:
Fishing boatThis memory has these themes:
Childhood | Community | Danger | Relationships
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