LOCAL HISTORY

SHORT BACK & SIDES  – with South Shields veteran barber Vernon Gray.

/ Alikivi / 3 Comments

A post on this site back in December 2019 featured memories of Billy Roberts, known locally as Billy Meths (link below). They were written by a 63 year old South Shields resident operating under the pseudonym Tinwhistler.

Recently he got in touch about another well known character from the town somebody who could be in the Guinness book of records.

79 year old Vernon Gray lives in Washington, Tyne & Wear and for four days a week works as a barber at Westoe Bridges in South Shields.

Vernon Gray in his barber shop, South Shields.

‘According to research on the Internet I’m the joint longest surviving barber in the UK! The other fella is 3 years my junior so I’m at least the longest surviving senior barber in the land!’

‘I left school at 15 year old and started as an apprentice way back in 1961. My mother was a hairdresser so that gave me the motivation. I learnt my trade at Melvins on Dean Road, South Shields. Neighbouring businesses were Quigleys, Robertsons who were both fruit and veg and Tissemans the watchmakers and jewellers.’

‘I was at Melvins for a year and a half and then did about a year with Norman Craig at my current Westoe Bridges address. Then went on to do a further two years or so with Ross Neal who had two shops – one at Gaskell Avenue and the other at Whiteleas Way. When Norman Craig retired, he offered me first refusal on the Westoe Bridges business. That was in November 1968’.

‘My favourite part of being a barber is meeting and chatting to customers and members of the public. The hardest part is often having to stand for up to 4 hours per shift without a break. If yer wondering, it’s my sister who cuts my hair!’

Having a bad start to the day or dealing with some awkward customers has brought challenging moments, Verne remembers a couple of incidents.

‘I recall a situation during a Christmas period, the last customer of the day. ‘What are we having?’ I asked. ‘You tell me’ he replied. ‘It doesn’t work like that’ I stated. His reply was that he didn’t like my attitude. I then removed my gown and told him to fuck off! ‘You’re losing money’ was his response and he left the shop’.

‘On tidying up I noticed he’d left an XXL sweater behind, so, hoping he’d return for it I held onto it. I would have asked for a description of it so as to confirm ownership. He never returned but I had a response prepared to say that it wasn’t an XXL but an FB – Fat Bastard.’

‘One morning I turned up possibly not quite alert. I opened the shop up and when I went over to the chair, I suddenly kicked a brick on the floor. ‘That’s funny’ I thought, ‘I don’t remember putting that there.’ Turns out some likely pissed lout had thrown it though the shop window during the night and I hadn’t noticed the massive hole in the window.’

One customer of Verne’s didn’t want a haircut he requested a singing barber.

‘That would be when local town celeb and friend Wavis O’Shave had a non-musical troupe called The Borestiffers. He talked me into being recorded singing ‘Obladi Oblada’ in the shop after hours. Under his instruction I played the scissors, clippers and hair drier. He put it on a cassette album!’

‘Wavis would call me ‘Sweeney’ for fun and when I once went to Malta I saw a barbers there actually called ‘Sweeneys’ which I found amusing.’

The scorching heat during summer 1976 brought some unwanted guests to the shop.

‘Three whopping great rats had come out of Hornsby’s bike shop garage next door to my shop. They hid under a parked car so I’m told and then trooped into my packed out shop which emptied in a second. Two blokes tried to hit them with rolled up newspapers and I came out armed with scissors and a trimmer. I saw two fellas who I knew sitting on the nearby wall and asked if they’d sent them in!’

Verne talked about today’s barbers and his plans for the future.

‘Modern day barbers have their place and seem to suit people. I’m not interested in offering advice to them as this is a totally different era. For me, I never thought of quitting. The job suits my personality.’

Original interview by Tinwhistler.

Edited by Alikivi  May 2025.

Link to feature on Billy Meths >>>

BILLY’S STORY -The artist formerly known as Meths. | ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE

TIME TRAVELLER – in conversation with Local Historian, Luan Hanratty

/ Alikivi

46 year old Tynemouth resident Luan Hanratty has strong Celtic roots. His father was born in Jarrow with their family connections going back to Galway in Ireland and his mother originally from Rosyth on the east coast of Scotland.

Luan at Arbeia Roman Fort, South Shields.

‘Yes, the Hanratty name is Irish, however, a brief background to my employment story is that I worked the financial sector in Prague, Czech Republic, moved to Shanghai in China where I was employed as an English teacher. I even appeared on TV there and published some books. Education is strong in my background as my father was a Drama Teacher’.

‘After Covid in 2020 I came back to the UK and based myself in South Shields. I was looking for my next adventure when I came across some local history and got obsessed with reading the stories’.

‘With my business partner Gary Holland we put together a website called Penbal – which is a Celtic name for the Tynemouth headland – the site features articles on Tyneside local history, photographs, AI art, links to Maritime Trust, Lifeboats Brigade and Fishermen’s Heritage plus local products for sale – prints, postcards, mugs, t-shirts and more’.

The latest story has recently featured on BBC News >>>

Roman Stones Missing from Mill Dam Roundabout, South Shields – Penbal

Luan’s latest post on the site is about a long lost river which flowed from the Mill Dam in South Shields.

‘Beneath the busy modern landscape of South Shields lies a forgotten natural feature – a river called the Mill Dam Creek but also known as the Branin River. This flowed from Mill Dam, next to Customs House today, out to the sea near North Marine Park and the Pier. This effectively made the Lawe an island’.

‘The channel played a vital role in the development of the town, both as a waterway and a habour, and once it was dammed with ballast, the Mill Dam formed a bridge between the north and south reaches of the early town’.

‘So important then, was the creek as a resource that it forms the base of the first industrial activity in South Shields, with coal mining also evident on the south bank where the pit wheel now stands above Asda carpark in Coronation Street’.

‘If you stand on the long sloping escalator when exiting Asda and look out across the huge carpark, you really get a feel for the valley nature of the Mill Dam Pond. Imagine what it must have looked like all those centuries ago’.

‘Another twist to the story is that in the 19th century much of the eastern end of the creek was covered by Denmark Street, where the Denmark Centre is today. In the 1830s, while building the street, a Viking longboat was discovered beside what was originally the river bed’.

‘Maybe there is someone out there who has more information about this amazing find. We know it featured in The Shields Gazette in the 1980s’.

Viking ship article in The Shields Gazette 1980s.

Full story >>> The Lost Waterway of South Shields:  Mill Dam Creek – Penbal

Luan stresses that he has no plans to research any murders or the race riots that have happened on Tyneside.

‘So far, we have over 200 local history posts and we don’t look at any taboo subjects, I just like to paint a picture of our very rich heritage here on Tyneside’.

For further information contact Luan >>>>

Penbal – Messis ab Altis

Alikivi   January 2025

A TYNESIDE HERITAGE – new book by author, Peter S. Chapman

/ Alikivi

Cleadon born Chapman has enjoyed a varied career – educated to Master’s degree level leading to a housing career in London.

He’s devoted time to being chair of a number of charities – manuscript restoration in Egypt, Archaeology & Anthropology in Cambridge and even found time for a local youth football team – The Kensington Dragons.

But Chapman, who lives in London, still retains close links to the North East…

The South Shields Local History Group invited me to give a lecture on the lives and public service of my grandparents, Sir Robert and Lady Chapman. It was their lives, and their exceptional contribution to South Shields and Tyneside, which inspired me to write ‘A Tyneside Heritage’.

It was quite an undertaking and took me six years. My research into family and Tyneside history was fresh in my mind and if I didn’t write the book now it would never get written.

Summer fetes at the Chapman home, Undercliff, were popular events throughout the 1930s.

As a teenager I became fascinated by my grandparents’ collection of scrapbooks at Undercliff, their house in Cleadon where I was born.

These scrapbooks recorded family events over three decades from the 1930s, and some newspaper articles covered events in early nineteenth century Tyneside.

The 424 page book weaves the Chapman family story with local history.

He features the boom on Tyneside of the industrial revolution and the bust that followed culminating with the Jarrow March of 1936 and Ellen Wilkinson MP taking the Jarrow platform in one of her speeches “The unemployment rate was over 80 per cent, 23,000 are on relief out of a total population of 35,000”.

With his family heavily involved in local politics I mentioned to Peter about my Great Uncle Richard Ewart who, after working at Whitburn Colliery, was Sunderland MP in 1945.

He and my grandfather would have known each other on the South Shields Borough Council in the late 1930s.
My Grandfather was Col Sir Robert Chapman (1880-1963), at the time of the First World War he was Major Robert Chapman.

He became a South Shields Borough Councillor, MP for Houghton-le-Spring 1931-1935 and Chairman of the Team Valley Trading Estate. He had numerous business and charity directorships and chairmanships.

Richard Ewart’s life, including at Parliament, was extremely interesting to read about, and there would have been numerous Parliamentary bills on which he would have brought his ‘real life’ experience to bear – no full time professional politicians in those days.

He would have been in good company in the House of Commons, with many former miners representing County Durham constituencies, including Jack (later Lord) Lawson at Chester-le-Street and Bill (later Lord) Blyton at Houghton-le-Spring. Both feature in my book, which has a good index.

Outside Undercliff July 1941, left to right: Col Robert Chapman, Major Robin Chapman & wife Barbara, Helene Chapman, Nicholas Chapman. (pic. James Cleet)

Chapman features the invaluable work of South Shields historian & photographer Miss Amy Flagg (1896-1965), who I made a documentary about in 2016.

Yes I watched it, a really good film, and Amy Flagg’s history writings and World War Two photos feature in my book I am very pleased to say.

When researching the book, I also came across some unusual stories including the one about new potatoes during the Battle of the Somme, in World War One.

Food rations were basic during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Major Robert Chapman told his junior artillery officers that a field of potatoes had been discovered nearby.

Under the pretext of searching for a ‘forward observation post’ they dug them up and enjoyed their first new potatoes since leaving England eighteen months earlier. 

Are you working on any other projects?

I have one or two ideas for future projects. Meanwhile I am writing articles and am busy preparing for upcoming lectures and events.

I have already had what my wife Joan and I called a ‘book warming’ party for ‘A Tyneside Heritage’ in London. However, the focus of book events will be in the North East with a launch in the afternoon of October 20 at a venue to be confirmed.

A talk has been arranged in Sunderland at 2.30pm on Monday 18 October during Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival and a talk at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle at 6.00pm on Thursday 21 October. 

The cover price for the book, published by History Press, is £25. Peter Chapman is offering it to followers and their friends in the UK for £15 including package and postage (payable on delivery).

If you live overseas contact Peter for a p&p quote.

email: peterschapman@chapmanlondon.com or

write to: 53 Highlever Road, London W10 6PR.

Provide your full name and postal address. Peter will send the invoice with the book.

Interview by Alikivi  August 2021