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It was back-breaking work but plenty of you did it when you were younger. We’re talking about potato picking.

The tradition usually reached its height during the October half term school holidays and it was popular for decades.

Here are scenes from Warden Law and Tunstall where youngsters were seen hard at work.

Our Echo archive photo from 1979 at

Trevor Chesterton, James McGough, Paul Chesterton, Deborah Garwood, Julie Garwood and Louise Eldridge got stuck into the job at Warden Law in October 1979. | se

The photos from Tunstall were taken five years earlier.

Colin Whitfield 15, Ian Henderson 13 and Alan Butler 12, who persevered with their work despite the rain in 1974. | se

Pictured in 1974 were Colin Whitfield, Ian Henderson and Alan Butler who were pupils at Ryhope Comprehensive School.

They were pictured on a day when hundreds of school children and other people were sent home by farmers in the Sunderland area because rain had spoilt the potato fields.

Ian Henderson 13 and Alan Butler 12, who didn't mind the rain on their day of potato picking in 1974. | se

The tradition faded out as advances in farm machinery came into effect.

Tell us how much you earned from a day of potato picking and where you collected the tatties.

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Life in Sunderland in the 1970s, when potato picking was an October half term tradition

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