Wheatley Hill Mother's Club Logo Dorothy Peacock
Photograph of Dorothy Peacock
 My name is Dorothy Peacock and I am the chairperson of Wheatley Hill Mothers Club. I joined in 1962, but the Mothers club has been part of my life for much longer than that. Mrs. Powell our president and founder member is my mother and from the start of the club in 1949 I have known what was going on in the Mothers club. I was born at 'Almora' Wellfield Road Wingate in 1938. My parents were Evelyn (nee Humphries) and Francis Powell. The year after I was born was the beginning of the 2nd World War and my father being a regular soldier was sent to France in September 1939. I spent most of my childhood with my mother and maternal grandparents in Wingate until my father was discharged from the army after the battle at Dunkirk. When I was three years old we moved to Wheatley Hill my father by that time had a job at Wheatley hill Colliery. I made lots of friends in Byron Street, Ann Bishop Gladys Raine, Muriel Ferry, Freda Parsley, Florence George, Sylvia Churlish, Margaret Carter to name a few. We played in the street all day until it was dark. The games we played were skipping, buttony, marbles, blonk knocky nine door and many more. There was no fear of anyone being run over as in those days there were very few people with cars in Wheatley Hill. Mr. Lister, Miss Hutchinson, Mr Durkin, Dr. Gary and Dr. McLean, who had a chauffeur, a horse and cart made all other deliveries. The store cart brought groceries, green groceries and bakery. Baldesara sold ice cream, Mr. Carr sold oil and Mr. Symmons was a scissors and knife grinder. My mother took me in 1943 to start school. We met Miss Bellinger, who was the head mistress of the infant school. She took me and a group of other children into the 'baby class' as it was known and the teacher Mrs Charlton introduced us as new starters. In 1947 my mother had a beautiful baby girl who I named Margaret. I was 9 years old when Margaret was born. I enjoyed my school life and eventually went to Stockton Technical College at the age of 15 to learn shorthand typing and book keeping. When I left college in 1954, I was employed at Greatham Airport for a company called BKS airlines. This company was one of the first in the country to start package holidays abroad for the general public. I was given free air travel to places that I had only read about. The 50's and 60's were the start of the consumer eras most things were available after the austerity of the war years. Jobs were easy to get and we all were able to buy things and go places, which we had never done before. There was so much to do in my teenage life. In Wheatley Hill alone we had two cinemas, an ice cream parlour, where we met before going to the pictures, a dance hall where all the top bands came Ray Ellington, Tubby Hayes, Eric Delaney and singers like Marian Ryan and George Melley. The Welfare Hall and grounds run by the miners had all the leisure activities available. The dance hall upstairs in the hall had a beautiful sprung floor, which is still their today. A snooker room was down stairs where the lads could congregate and play dominoes etc. Outside grounds had bowling greens, tennis courts, and putting greens bandstand, play area and beautiful gardens to sit in. I didn't have to go far to meet my husband, as Ray and I went to the same school, spent our teenage lives in Wheatley Hill and married in 1959, and as a wedding present from the firm I worked for we went to Majorca for our honeymoon. We travelled on a 48-seated Viking aeroplane and had to land at Paris Orly Airport to refuel. (How times have changed) Ray was from a family of 7 sons and 3 daughters His mother was Florence (nee Amos) and his father was Henry Isaac Peacock. Ray followed his father and brothers to work at Wheatley Hill Colliery and was known for being a good worker. In 1961 he was a coal hewer working on the coal face and he and his (marra) Joe Bradshaw filled the County record for coal hewed from the coal face, 96 x cwt tubs equivalent to 48 ton of coal in one shift. This record has never been matched. Ray left the mines and looked for work elsewhere when it was inevitable that the pit would have to close. He went to work at the Brewery at Castle Eden and worked his way up to become a stock taker. In 1983 he started his own business stocktaking. In 1962 I had my first son Frank, my second son David was born in 1965 and my third son Raymond in 1969. I am very proud of my family; I also have 6 grandchildren who I adore. Throughout our married life, Ray and I have had two very good friends, Enid and Harry Ainscough, who we have shared both good time and bad times with. We have shared holidays and have had many happy memories so I think they deserve a mention in my life story. When my children started school, I went back to work. All my employment has been of a clerical nature. I have worked for the University of Durham and the District of Easington. I have found that education goes on throughout ones life and I have learned many skills by being Chairperson of the Mothers Club. My mother and I have made the Mothers Club part of our lives and have seen it grow from strength to strength and move with the times I have made friends within the Mothers Club and we all feel like one big happy family.

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