William & Janet Clark's Children - Janet - Janet & Luke's Children - Jenny - Second Marriage to Norman Stafford

Sometime In 1943/1944 Jennie was invited to 1 Dodsworth North Greenside by a work colleague that worked at Scotswood Baths; their name was Charlton. Norman was friends with the husband and just happened to call in when my mam was there. Jennie and Norman were married on the 1st April 1944.  Norman did not tell his parents that he was going to get married, and I am not sure that my Grandma and Grandpa Dent knew either. There were no photographs taken of the wedding. They had two daughters Dorothy and Pauline.

1 Dodsworth North Greenside today

Jennie and Norman lived with his parents at 16 Milton Street for a couple of years where their first daughter Dorothy was born in 1944. Shortly after their second daughter Pauline was born in 1946 they bought the house opposite, 13 Milton Street Greenside.  

Pauline aged 14 and Jean Stafford 13 Milton Street Circa 1960

13 Milton Street today

By today's standards these houses were very basic, known as 'two-up and two down' (four rooms in all) with a back yard containing an outside toilet and coal house.  Coal was very important as it fed the only heating in the house, a cast iron range in the main room.

Similar Range to that installed in 13 Milton Street 

These ugly beasts were the only means of keeping the house warm, and they were also used for cooking and hot water, as they had an oven and a boiler.  Like many people after the war, Norman and Jennie decided to 'modernise' the house, so after a few years dad ripped it out and replaced it with a tiled fireplace. 


This, thereby, caused a problem, 'what to cook on'.  So a small cast iron coal fired stove was bought called a "Baby Belle," still ugly, but much smaller, was installed in the scullery, so two rooms now had a form of heating.  However, the "Baby Belle" was still hard work, but you didn't have to tramp through the house with dirty shovels of coal from the coalhouse  The stove had round plates that you lifted with a metal type hook leaving a hole where you placed the pans over the flames.  Dad also installed a bath in the scullery with a wooden hinged top over it and this was used as our kitchen table. (all mod cons!)  There was some type of boiler system installed for hot water.

A modern day version of a cast iron stove

This old photograph not only shows a range, note the clothes drying above.  It also shows an old man sitting in a rocking chair and surprisingly it is the same as the one I inherited from Grandma and Grandpa Dent - apparently it belonged to Luke's sister (my Great Aunt Amelia) who lived at Woodlands, near Bishop Auckland.

My Rocking Chair and Black Dolls today