Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'

Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'
[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

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Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Norman Dunn on 8/8/2026, 10:38 am

In the 1950s along that right hand side were cubicles with a curtain for the ladies to change in.At the far end on the left was the stairs down into the 'dungeon' where us lads had that horrible changing area. As Joseph said it was unbelievable it was only 6ft deep and diving from a 15ft high balcony was certainly dangerous. Many people would have hit the bottom.

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Mac Hardy on 8/8/2026, 7:13 pm, in reply to "Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Spent most Sunday mornings in there with my dad after a bath.

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Patrick on 9/8/2026, 8:31 am, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Vivid memory of the 8 - 10 session on a Saturday morning - seeing dead cockroaches being skimmed off the surface by Mr Callaghan

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Thomas Buglass on 9/8/2026, 11:40 am, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

When I was in the last 4 years of schooling at St Aloysius I always looked forward to the Monday 9am because we always went swimming at Jarrow baths.

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Mac Hardy on 10/8/2026, 11:49 am, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Forgotten the name of the manager at the baths, recall he was a very big lad ?

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Patrick Brennan on 10/8/2026, 12:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Are you thinking of Joe Metcalfe?

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Patrick Brennan on 10/8/2026, 12:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Joe Metcalfe

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Norman on 10/8/2026, 1:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

I used to go to Joe Metcalfe's Judo Classes at what we called 'The White Hut' in Hartleyburn Ave Hebburn 1960ish. He must have lost a lot of weight by then but still very big.
A friend of Joe's was Tony and he was an Instructor and we really enjoyed it, but then suddenly they decided to close the club before we could go in for the various belts to show how good you are.

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Annb on 10/8/2026, 1:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Remember taking a bus from Clegwell school to learn to swim. We got a certificate if we could swim the length of the baths using breast stroke. Believe it was the Gym teacher who was in charge.

Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'

Posted by Mac Hardy on 10/8/2026, 5:38 pm, in reply to "Re: Memories from when we were young! 'Jarra Baths'"

Thanks Patrick, that’s the guy I remember, a big lad !

[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

Rules! No bad language or derogatory remarks or we will delete. Anyone sharing our content on Face Book must credit 'Hebburn and our Neighbours'.