Information provided by Ray Bellis December 2003
Bellis is a Welsh name meaning "Son of Ellis". My Grandfather Hugh Bellis Snr was born on 11th December 1872 at Durham City. He married Martha Cornall from Brandon Colliery in 1892. Somewhere between 1901 and 1916 they moved to 39 Second Street, Wardley Colliery. They had a large family, Mary Elizabeth, George Cornell, John (Jack), Edward (Ned), Hugh Jnr, Ralf Jordan, Samuel, Lillian, Nellie and Joseph (adopted). All the men worked at one time or another in the pit. When they stated to build the new housing estated in 1938, my Grandparents moved to 46 Whitemere Gardens. My father was Hugh Bellis Junior and was born in 1901 at Durham. He attended Bill Quay School and had to pay 1p a week to go. He married Ellen Preston at St. Mary's Church in August 1928 and went to live at Felling. I was born at 38 Back Holly Street and then in the summer of 1936 we moved to 17 Third Street, Wardley Colliery. My sister Joyce was born there in October 1937. When I was 5 year old I went to old Wardley school. Some of my teachers were Miss Bearpark, Miss Ellison. I went to Jarrow Central when I passed the 11 plus exam. When I was about 10 year old I joined the cubs which was attached to the old Methodist Chapel. The following year I went into the scouts, Wardley 2nd group, and stayed until I was 15 year old. Les Foster used to run it but it broke up when he fell ill. A lot of lads learned to swim in the old quarry but I never did. We would make Zulu spears from scrub branches, or swords if the "Mark of Zorro" was popular or bows and arrows if it was Robin Hood or Cowboys and Indians. In 1938, when I was about 8 years old we moved to 51 Whitemere Gardens on the new estate. My Mam's mother and brother John (Jack) lived with us. Near us lived Mrs. Slowther. She may have been a nurse at one time. She attended lots of births and deaths and looked after people before they died. When she became older my Mam started to help her as an assistant. This was before the NHS, when it stared in 1948 this work fell away. She also helped at reception's etc at the Miners Welfare Hall and Chapel. During the war, when there was a food shortage, she had the reputation of making 1/2 lb of margarine go further than anybody else with regards making sandwiches. There was a children's park beside the welfare ground. It contained swings, a see saw, an ocean wave and so on. We would also play football there. It was half the size of a football pitch and sometimes there would be 16 a-side. We would play for hours on end, starting at 1 p.m. and go through until 7 p.m. at night with people going away for a meal and coming back. As it was crowded, we would sometimes go over into the proper football field but within ten minutes Jack (Goaty) Armstrong, the groundsman, would appear and we would all flee. There were some big blokes among us but we would all run. They would not do that these days. Mr. Armstrong was an ex-miner and looked after the football and cricket pitches, bowling and putting green, and four tennis courts. There was a roller in the grounds and he used to haul it up and down the pitch. It looked as though it was designed for a horse! These days there appears to be half a dozen men do the work and I find it remarkable that he did it all by himself. During my childhood days, nearly all the lads had a nickname. There was a Stinker, Minna, Pendy, Tosh, Knocker, Snuffy, Puggy, Basher, Happy, Ikev, Giant, Anchor and Bomber. My Grandad was called "Bumper" Bellis. Dad died in 1946 when I was 15 year old and, as my mother was only getting 10s to live on, I left school to get a job at Scanner's where I served my apprenticeship and eventually became a draughtsman. When 21 I served two years National Service with the RAF. Mam's Dad was George Preston who was born in Houghton and all her brothers and sisters were born there before they moved to Wardley. Steve Preston had a daughter Ivy who married John Kerr. Their daughter, also called Ivy, married Robert Tweddle and they live in Bondfield Gardens. When I was serving in the forces, Grandad's widowed second wife moved out of 46 Whitemere Gardens and our family moved in. For a long time, it was a standing joke in the family that they moved when I was away so that I could not find them. My sister Joyce started work at Pelaw Co-op store and married a Felling man, Brian Bailey, in Nov. 1960. In 1961 I married my wife Betty, who I met at South Shields, and we moved into our present home in Wardley. Mam passed away on August 6th 1969 at her home in 2 Lingey Gardens. I have two daughters, Carol lives in Wardley and Dawn who now lives in Sedgefield