Ebrington

Interview with Nigel
Dougherty
I lived in no 33 next to the chippy and I
used to play ball games against my gable
wall. The house had 2 bedrooms upstairs
then 2 rooms downstairs
There was hardly any traffic back then
so I mostly was outside with my friends
so I think the special memories were
playing cricket and football with my
friends
We entertained ourselves building huts
and making bow and arrows. We also
played all the traditional games at the
top of Ebrington Street, which we called
the 'THE BIG YARD'. In the summer we
would have spent most of the time
collecting materials for the traditional
bonfire on the 11th night. If there were
old pram wheels we would have made GO
KARTS and we would have races down
Bond Street, eventually crashing into
something!
I was a pupil at Ebrington Primary School
and I never missed a day of Sunday
school at Ebrington Church.
Most of the adults worked in the
Rochester's and Young Shirt factory but
the majority of the woman stayed home
and cooked and cleaned.
There was one person I had a grudge
against and his name was Bernard Smart
and he was a bully. I used to live in fear
of him until one day, lets say I sorted it
out, in a 'QUIET MANNER'

Interview with Lloyd Magee

I lived in Glouchester Avenue until I was
23 then I moved to 13 Bonds Street and
lived there ever since. The house had 3
rooms and an outdoor toilet.
When I was a boy in Bonds street the
girls played hopscotch and skipping and the
boys played handball, football, marbles,
and muggy that's how we entertained
ourselves.
With all my friends playing and in the
summer people left there doors open
because you knew everyone. We would have
a race with my friends with a stick and a
tyre
I attended the old Ebrington Primary
School when the new school opened we had
to walk up to the front gate then walk into
the entrance and we would have been put
into our class. We used to get offered
seconds at dinnertime which was semolina
and prunes.
When hurricane Debbie hit my mother
told me to stay inside but I went out to
feel what it was like it was quite scary but
it was a laugh.
I still know a lot of my friend but there
aren't that many they moved away.
There is this one person who I went to the
swimming with, who saved me from
drowning. When one of the war
anniversaries was being commemorated and
also the twelfth we would build an arch we
would get wood shavings and dye them and
build bonfires.
In the summer we didn't go to Spain or
places like that we would have been lucky
to get to Portrush for one whole day.
On Sundays we weren't allowed to play
ball games. I attended Boys Brigade, which
back then was called the Life Brigade.