Skating and swimming at Crowtree Leisure Centre to Seaburn Fair and Roker Beach - how you spent a retro bank holiday in Sunderland

Communities across Wearside and beyond will have the opportunity to come together and celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 7 and 8, as well as taking part in some seasonal fun on the Early May (April 29 – May 1) and Spring bank holiday (May 27 – 29) weekends.

And with those three long weekends coming our way, the Echo has been asking readers for their fondest long weekend memories of old.

What did the bank holiday weekend mean to you in your younger days? You may have been getting your swimmers ready for a plodge at Seaburn or a splash at Crowtree, spent all three days at the pub (we’ve all done it!) or visited another attraction elsewhere in the North East.

Your bank holiday weekends might have been all about the football; making the pilgrimage to Roker Park for some of the season’s final games, or having a kickabout with friends in the local park.

Picture the scene – it’s a retro bank holiday weekend in Sunderland, and here’s what’s in the diary ...

Roker and Seaburn beaches – ‘a big family day out’

Trevor Maddison: “Working on the waltzer on the fair in Seaburn.”

Lorna Button: “Go to the Seaburn beach and on to the fairground to play on the dodgems.”

Ian Scott: “When I was really young it was paddling in the sea at Roker and then to the fair at Seaburn (now Morrisons).”

Julie Parsell: “Plodging at Seaburn.”

Yvonne Mutimer: “Going to Seaburn. On the Cat and Dog steps all day and a bag of chips.”

Stephen McKeever: “Go to Seaburn, a big family day out.”

‘Out Friday, home Monday’

Linda Anderson: “Chaplins, Fitzgerald’s, Masters, Idols, Chase and Finos.”

Brian Hill: “Round the town on a night, in the long gone days when it was class.”

Lisa Smith: “Go out Friday, come home Monday.”

Crowtree – a local legend

Jax Armes: “Crowtree. Ice skating or swimming.”

Kirsty Dickson: “Ice skating at Crowtree then swimming followed by cheesy chips.”

Sandow Sonia: “Ice skating, dinner then swimming in the afternoon.”

Things to do in the North East

Beverley Ann Hopper: “South Shields to the market down to the park, go on the train, the beach, the fair, then chips sitting outside.”

Maureen Herron: “Go on a wander to South Hylton woods or Penshaw Monument with friends.”

Hilary Andre: “It always seemed to rain so we used to get the bus to Durham and visit the cathedral.”

Elsie Drillingcourt: “Mum and dad always took us to Whitley Bay, usually on the bank Holiday Monday bus to South Shields then over on the ferry to North Shields then another bus to Whitley Bay.”

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