No need to wonder how this row and the one next to it got their name seeing the close proximity of the furnaces. We have the following reminiscences of this terrace; John Winspear tells us: ”I remember them well. I used to walk past these houses every working day from September 1955 till January 1964, on my way to work in the the fitting shop which was situated on the land immediately behind and to left of the two rows of houses. I also delivered sunday papers there for five years. A wonderful group of people who had little in the way of materialistic value but were generous to a fault. I recall the names of only a few the Garbutts, the Parrishs, the Summers; I went to school with sons and daughters of them all. Doris Summers worked in the drawing office as a tracer, her dad Charlie was the trainer for the works junior football team. Salt of the earth”. Derick Pearson also says: ” I also remember the McGuires, the Swales, the Whartons, the Smithies, the Pearsons and others”. Sue Doig (nee Kennedy) tells us: “In 1911, my grandfather, Patrick Kennedy who worked in Skinningrove Main, and his wife Mary and son John lived at 3 Back Row, Furnace Cottages with the owner, Mark Ford and his family”.
Thanks to John Winspear and Derick Pearson for these memories; also to Sue Doig for the update.
I was born in 1956 here in Furniss cottages,.My Grandad Bob Alderson and my Father James Alderson both of them worked at Skinningrove works like myself later in the works canteen My Aunt Joyce Kennedy and uncle Peter and our Brenda had a little shop in the frount living room with lots of lovely things which I never forgot …we didnt have much money thise days but enough to buy some sweets …Folks didnt have things easy those days but the doors were allways open for a cup of tea and a chàt..all times of the day . kids played together in the streets and we all got dressed up on Sundays for the church service….most of the family’s moved into the new council house later in Liverton Mines like my family but it’s allways lovely to think about our Childhood with a smile on our faces …Sheila Alderson