Contradicting those words somewhat, both Common and Peacock described the wide variety of visitors to their street. On route, they were regularly stopped by Croatians at road blocks before reaching a refugee camp in northern Croatia. On page 56, Common talks about the trials that a man from China had to go through due to appalling behaviour from some young people in Heaton. School-yard games included (for those of us who wore boots protected with metal studs to save shoe leather; and that was most of us) being hauled by a long column of boys around the smooth concrete, sliding at great speed whilst on hunkers. Jack and Wilf ended up having a somewhat difficult encounter with members of the opposite gender. When it was fine we played in the schoolyard. Previously from a young age,  he’d  served with the Royal  Scots Fusiliers, giving it upon  marriage. This ability meant that Common was able to convey the richness of working-class life in Heaton in a way which still resonates with us today. The struggle against hatred and prejudice goes on. In 1911 the family, including sister Rita, were living at 18 Fifth Avenue. There were ten of these, of which ours was Third, all built in one plan though not by any civic authority. Their father Thomas Henry Sibbit was a ‘Schoolmaster, Elem (Head)’. One in particular remains a friend to this day, even though she now lives in Scotland. Smajo was six years old and was living in a new home his family had just built. In terms of what people in Heaton and Newcastle can do to help those torn from home at time of war or other crisis, Smajo simply says to give them a warm welcome. In 1949 I began attending Heaton Grammar School in form 1c and stayed at ‘c’ level until the fourth year when I became a ‘d’, not exclusively due to my own lack of application. On page 55-6, Common relates how, on their mission for support, ‘at the bottom we almost collided with the Eighth Avenue lot who were scattering away before the charge of an infuriated Chinaman brandishing a knife — at least that’s how they would have described it. They were afterwards given a free treat at the Scala Theatre.’. Claire remembers going to the school gates that first morning and that she had no real knowledge of what Smajo and other children from Bosnia had gone through. At 3.00pm there was a choir and band concert at St James’s Park. His concern was with a humanistic analysis of capitalist society. Basil’s mother came from a family of sailors. He had been friendly just a week earlier. One recipient was Dorothy Mary Flann who, aged 10 years old, had just started Chillingham Road Senior School. Undoubtedly, as a Heritage school, our history and archives evidence many of the changes in education and society experienced by the Heaton community. Other children in the street were Moira and Brian Law, Teddy Masterson, Alan  & David Hinkley, the Nicholson brothers, Ernest Wray, Lucy Aspinall, Joyce Munster. Smajo’s father and other men were arrested in July 1993 and put in a concentration camp by the name of Dretelj, which was to become known as the Camp of Death. Tramcars ran along Chillingham Road past the school to Gosforth Park. The Peacocks considered themselves middle class. He understood then the panic he had seen earlier in the adults around him and what they had been talking about. If you were walking between Chillingham Road and Heaton Road down Third Avenue and Cheltenham Terrace back in 1904, you might well have encountered two year old Jack Common on the street. You can contact us either through this website by clicking on the link immediately below the article title or by emailing chris.jackson@heatonhistorygroup.org, ‘Kiddar’s Luck and the Ampersand’ by Jack Common; Frank Graham; rev ed, 1975, ‘A Newcastle Boyhood 1898-1914′ by Basil Peacock; Newcastle upon Tyne Libraries and London Borough of Sutton Libraries and Arts Services, 1986, ‘Tinker’s Mufti: an autobiography’ by Basil Peacock; Seeley Service, 1974. He was then taken to a meeting point in Zagreb and then flew to the UK on a charter flight for refugees. There were differences between the two boys’ upbringing, however. Her father and brother were master keelmen. As for Chinese philosophy, Confucius did of course preach the importance of patience, when he said, ‘ it does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop’, although another of Confucius’ famous sayings might be more relevant here: ‘Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance’. From what Common says about this lesson, it appears that this method was not only rather uninspiring, but also on occasions unsuccessful. They listen to music from many different cultures in primary schools and rightly so. However, he does remember one incident vividly. Other nights I took the newest, through the clean air of the parks and crossing the Ouseburn by Armstrong Bridge, that is over the tops of cherry-trees and a cackling of geese at a farmhouse below. On page 25, Common tells of how after a trip to Newcastle City Centre, ‘we came home happily in the shaky old trams which sparked over the wind-clutched Byker Bridge’. Diverse occupations but definitely no pitmen! He died on 27th July 1916, age 20 and is buried at Lavente, thirty miles north of his brother. Highly prized marbles were lost! He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial and also on the War Memorial at Chillingham Road School. Would Jack and Wilf fare so well as recruiting sergeants at the Eighth Avenue? I turned my attention to Bertie and Chester Potter whom I originally thought would be related to the Potter family from Heaton Hall. Going to the air raid shelter where we sang  songs:  ‘Ten Green Bottles Hanging On The Wall’ and many more. He and his family had a home, but it didn’t feel like a home at first. What Claire did I will never forget for the rest of my life and we can all learn so much for that one act.’. This ‘other England’ would indeed take decades after Common’s best work to even be fully discovered. Chillingham Road Primary School is one of a number of primary schools in the Heaton area with a well-deserved good reputation today, but while the building may have changed little since the early 20th century, it does appear that it the teaching methods today are a little more enlightened. CHILLINGHAM ROAD PRIMARY SCHOOL Ninth Ave, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5XX - Tel. We collected for the war effort (magazines,) and for the cot fund. Heaton History Group member, Robin Long, has been looking into the shortened lives and sad deaths of some of those who died in 1914-18. Researched by Mrs Joan Brusey (1890 – 1992) and Denis Wardle (1992-1999). Basil’s father was privately educated at elementary school and although he had to leave school early because his family weren’t well off enough for him to continue, eventually he was able to set himself up in business because of his wife’s dowry. Smajo notes that people here did that extra bit for them, acts of kindness from people in Heaton, such as having the class song translated into Bosnian. Everybody knew it was Kirkby near Liverpool, but those were the rules of the game at the time. Young sister Dorothy eventually went to Central Newcastle High School For Girls. Researched and written by Arthur Andrews of Heaton History Group, with additional material by Chris Jackson. White-collar workers were comparatively few and tradesmen, office workers and particularly, council employers were considered well-to-do… On Saturdays the gutters were strewn with helpless drunks … the pitmen, delving and sweating miles underground, were a race apart; they took their beer in quarts, needing the liquid to replace the copious perspiration they lost during working hours.’ TM p6. She saw fit to keep this memento until she died in 1983. I was my baby sister now who was the pride and anxious delight of the girls.……According to the incidence of boy-population, about half the corners had their own gangs. Primary school routines. Smajo’s dad  felt compelled to patrol with an old gun. John served as a second lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers and was killed in action on 10 July 1915 and is buried at Ridge Wood Military Cemetery, Ypres. However Smajo was so quiet, not saying very much at all and this lack of English language left teachers unaware of the trauma he had gone through. How often do you see children playing on the streets of Heaton today? He states that they had no option but to flee. So the air about Seventh was knit up with rankling injustice, heavy with frustrated vengeance and melancholy, because of the mirage of smokes they might have had if they hadn’t been so uselessly honest. Marvellous!’ KL p 27, ‘Early in life, I became a voracious reader, especially of adventure stories, once I had advanced beyond the ‘Tiny Tots’ sort of publications. Interestingly, Douglass then goes on to talk of how he felt sympathy for Common in his role as worker-writer. 154 personnes étaient ici. 154 were here. It didn’t. Fortunately I discovered that Sandra MacDonald (19th Newcastle Scouts) was doing similar research and was able to pass much useful information me. Some of the more exotic ones, for example from the south of England became much sought-after and were used as ‘currency‘ or for swaps. However Smajo was also sad at leaving grandparents, family and friends behind. Here, Basil Peacock’s memories of marbles: ‘Most marbles were then made of pot (fired clay). Undoubtedly, as a Heritage school, our history and archives evidence many of the changes in education and society experienced by the Heaton community. Jack Common was a wonderful writer and I hope to give him some circulation again.’ These characteristics of Common’s writing could be said to be the hallmarks of his work and why he was so revered by people like George Orwell. Smajo faced a number of initial problems at school at Chillingham Road Primary. After the horrors of Bosnia, living in Heaton and attending Chillingham Road Primary School was a very positive experience for Smajo and others. After revisiting his birthplace many decades later, one of the boys wrote: ‘ The terrace seemed little changed except that the entrance to it had been barred for motor traffic. We can see from the 1901 census that the Peacock’s neighbours on Cheltenham Terrace included two booksellers, a sailor, a commercial traveller, a draper, a manager in an iron foundry, an overseer at the Admiralty, a clerk to an oil merchant, an agent for Cook’s Tours, two butchers and a self employed builder. The Jack Common who wrote ‘Kiddar’s Luck’ was undoubtedly a north-east writer. Basil Peacock died in 1990, aged 92. On pages 31-2, Common describes how, ‘we were given brushes and little porcelain dishes containing water-colour, or else coloured straws which we were supposed to plait – babyish stuff, but not too bad. Information taken from Chronological History of the Parish Church of St Gabriel, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne. In his early days at Chillingham Road, Smajo would wait outside every morning, until it was time to come in. Smajo’s dad joined with the Croatian army to fight against the Serbs but after a year all the Muslim men in Stolac were sent to a concentration camp – by the Croatians. Ultimately it was the international language of football which helped, as playing football was the way he got friendly with people; Smajo had also played football in Bosnia. In primary, when wet, we would be entertained by Miss Brown playing the piano. It was looking bad for Jack and his mates…. On the other hand, its irony and subtly bitter  universality went largely unrecognised.’, Perhaps the truth is simply that writers such as Common have had things to say which worry establishment elites and worry them to such an extent that it is safer to just put him away in a box which limits his relevance to only the north-east. There was often a song at the end of class and Claire taught the children how to sing it in Bosnian. News and information for families of Chilli Road Primary School. Chillingham Road Primary School - 6 and literacy strategies and National Curriculum guidelines have also been introduced in other subjects and are being tried out this year. There were three front steps to each dwelling leading to a small tiled level surface before the front door.