I remember when all shops on the small shopping parades around the town had business in them The likes of Fens / Owton Manor Lane / Catcote Road / Brus Arms / King Oswy / Headland and the likes. I often wonder who owns these shops Is it the council because they all have apartments above If it is the council you would have thought they would offer free rent and rates for a year to allow ambitious people the opportunityto start a business. It's got to be better than leaving them empty to rot away.

it seems an obvious thing to do but is there any interest now from people to take up the offers unless its vape or mens barbers shops and other types of shops run by the new immegrants.

The others to open in Hartlepool are the nail / beauty shops which keep on opening. Makes you wonder if we closed every barbers hairdressers beauty type shops and tanning shops what would we be left with.
Quite sad there seems to be a need for these girlie shops when people are struggling to live. Are young woman that low in self esteem that they need to over spend on luxury beauty treatments and sunbeds. Then a lot of them need the designer bags and shoes etc. How can they afford them or is it all on credit cards etc. They can only do it so long before it all comes crashing down and take the shops with it. Unless they bag themselves a premier league footballer.

[quote="Leggie43"]The others to open in Hartlepool are the nail / beauty shops which keep on opening. Makes you wonder if we closed every barbers hairdressers beauty type shops and tanning shops what would we be left with.

I would have thought that was obvious Leggie-
A LOT of hairy, pale people with shocking nails- just like the old days!

Think social media has a lot to do with it- everyone APPEARING to be living their best life. Very few post pics of themselves looking as they actually do- without the layers of war paint or filters.

Think most of these establishments are shell businesses that are basically there for money laundering purposes (allegedly). I mean how often do you see them with more than 1 customer maybe 2 at a push?

You do make me giggle Kettering.

have never knocked any lass for spending their cash on any beauty treatments and clothes and accesories they wanted to make em look and feel better about themselves. i,d be the first to complain if out with me that they looked dead rough as its a slight on me as much as them. womens beauty treatment and womens clothes shops have been around in one form or another as long as i can remember unlike vape and turkish barber stuff that seem a growth industry.

Correct woman should look good and why not. But I do wonder how many put themselves into debt to achieve that. My brothers 21 yr daughter keeps getting new credit cards and has now had two bank loans over the past 3 years just to keep up with her friends. My brother only found out when a debt collector called to collect £641 on behalf of a bank she had loaned from that she stopped paying with less than £200 left to pay on it. Ironically she was in Greece on a girls holiday at the time, she borrowed (£750 ) off her dad for that holiday. All her cards & loans he paid off at a cost of £3800 and for now she is paying him back £25 a month which he reckons will teach her a lesson. When he went through the card statements nearly every transaction was beauty or clothes. She said its addictive and all her friends do it. like I said to him good luck with trying to keep her under control especially now she is debt free to start again.

I get surprised at the number of teenagers behind the wheels of cars I can only dream of, one of my sons says they’re all leasing the cars….must be living at home and giving the mam a full fiver a month for their housekeeping.

and being a named driver on a parents insurance for them. just need to check up the amount of insurance that they,d have to pay if they insured the thing. gone are the days where a teen or 20 year old paid less in insurance than the road tax was like i did on a 4.5 lire car back in the day. my lads first was a 956cc talbot samba 15 years back that cost him £750 ish back then.

I am surprised at the number of young lads in Mercs BMWs Audi when I enquired how they could afford them one lad I know said they selling drugs its as simple as that. Thing is I know one of those is unemployed but owns a 3 year old Merc. He doesn't hide the fact he is unemployed and even parks his flash car near the unemployment centre when he is made to attend. How come the police don't investigate these people because with a little common sense alarm bells should be ringing.

The bridge in Hartlepool train station knocked down in the 90s

How do you get across to the new platform now

Good question

It's a long jump- fortunately the builders left a big pile of sand to break your fall- IF you make it

any second hand zip wires about.

Bear Grills will carry you over Accy

I remember when the old wooden stand was getting demolished. It was being taken down in June / July ( 80s ) and I was talking to one of the lads on site when suddenly from nowhere a helicopter stated circling above getting lower and lower. It landed on the Rinkend half of the pitch and none other than a smiling David Bellamy got out with a knife and bag. He walked over to the stand spoke to a council official then cut a small piece of the fungus from the wood got back in the helicopter and gone within 5 minutes total. It turned out to be an extremely rare fungus that had been found under the stand and Bellamy wanted a sample. Don't know how far he came for that sample but must have been a few miles considering he came by helicopter. That is the only time I have known a helicopter to land at the Vic unless others know differently.

Maybe it was a magic mushroom - he always sounded like he was off his tits when he started talking! He must have heard on the County line that we had some particularly good shit and he just couldn't resist -

'Fuck the planet, fire up the Copter, I need my fix' said David, after seeing the pics

'I can't let John Smart nosh the lot!'

He said it was " an incredible species"

Maybe the 'incredible species' witnessed, was also a reference to some of the natives spotted on nearby Cameron Road and Belk Street as he was coming into land his Copter.
AFTER previously spotting the horse (with it's head hanging out of a first floor window) on Bombay Grove- Wildlife at its finest!:

Susan George actress and sex bomb of the 70s.

Didn’t she have a liaison with the present king

Well if she did Blue it can't have been for his lugs or should that be looks. I didn't know that though and if it's true he is one l luggie bastard sorry lucky.

I wonder what attracted her to the Jug-eared, future King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

know now if i,d have been him i,d have been dead before my mother with the chances he would have got ears and all.

££££££££££££££££s

Very much doubt that lady "D" once said he does not spend money just counts it.

Does anyone remember the cafe in the old united bus station and the one at the transporter bridge .if I missed my breakfast on the way to school I always had a cup of tea at one of them

Yes Blue I used the old bus station cafe many a time for a bacon butty & coffee on way to work. I have used the one next to the transporter a few times aswell.

What about the brus cafe That place kept us kids alive during the 6 week school holidays with sausage sarnies earned from golf ball sales.

Bandit country

I always thought it was a rough area near the brus

Are you from Wynard Probably 75% of Hartlepool is rough especially now. We lived on the headland but spent many a good day with our school friends up at the golf course in the summer months. I never had a problem with west view area and most of my mates lived there. I have always found most people are sound regardless of area in Hartlepool. No matter where you live you will always find the good the bad and the ugly...the trick is not to judge a book by its cover.

From central estate and I never had any problems either.

I had mates from the central and still do again sound people. I moved into a flat at Owton Manor with a girlfriend
( when aged 17 yrs ) and was told I would get loads of bother up the Manor but I never got into any trouble at all and still have many friends up there again sound people. I moved to Bury aged 19 yrs and made friends got no bother at all, the same when I moved to Bilston London and Glasgow to name just a few in the UK not mentioning abroad. I think it's a case of you can literally live anywhere if you respect the place and people and I honestly believe Hartlepool people are sound people. Whenever I have had friends visiting over the years they all seem to love " what they called friendly people " which makes me proud of our town and its people. I may have just been lucky that way but me granda always told us as small kids to " mirror image people " the good the bad and the ugly and the rest will take care of itself.

Agee

The farm on the right hand side up throston lane that was turned into houses.

unless things have changed over recent years its been my experiance as well. even the bad used to be fine if you left them alone and not try to wind them up or pretend you were better than them. all i do know is that if the experiance of a milkman i knew was correct around all areas the so called rough areas caused him less hassle in paying than the so called posher ones where it was always next week that sometimes never happened.

That's it in a nutshell Accy

The farm on the coast road opposite the Queens pub. Now more housing.

Radio rental televisions. You had a money box with slot attached to the back and had to put coins in to watch the television. I cannot remember when it was or how much it cost to watch but we had one.

Can remember them fields fulla animals.
Can also remember loads of football pitches on the Saxon Field.
And Clavering ending at the top of King Oswy drive.

Nowadays :
No wonder I seen a Squirell running along a path last week. We destroying their habitat to accommodate the suet rats from Dover Beach.

I hate how they broke up community’s like the Central Estate when maybe a modernisation of the terrace houses like they did Off Hart Lane would be better.
My mam lived down the Headland before the war next to a pub roughly where Verralls is now on the old High Street….their houses were compulsorily purchased and everyone moved up to West View…all the original family’s of the Croft ….and what annoyed her was they were all moved out for the Croft Gardens outside the Borough Hall to be laid out….she didn’t like West View and didn’t go down the Croft ever again

thats a story similar to many who had to move out of old property to a new estate when the newness of the move and house wore quickly off. given a choice many would return to somewhere really not fit to live in but they were at least happy with their lot. really how many of us really are no matter how much we get.

You are spot on about the way they have slowly killed community's all over this town. I still struggle to with the millions spent on the Marina and town centre but very little spent around the rest of the town.

I was happier on the central estate than the king oswy estate