Whatever happened to the Sunderland teenagers who became 1970s fire heroes
Let’s hear it for two Sunderland teenagers who became the heroes of a huge fire almost 50 years ago.
They risked their lives in a bid to save vital farm produce from a multi-thousand-pound blaze.
Beaten back by the heat
Farm-worker’s son Thomas Riding (13) and his 15-year-old sister Mary, plunged into a blazing barn at Hastings Hill Farm, Sunderland, and began pulling bales of hay from the flames in 1976.
But they were beaten back by the heat as the fire spread through almost 30 tons of produce, endangering nearby machinery, homes and farm outbuildings.
More than 20 firemen fought for almost an hour to put out the blaze, and managed to halt the flames as they licked at expensive potato harvesting equipment in the barn.
The roof was gutted
Firemen said the hay - much needed bedding and fodder for the dairy farm - was either destroyed or too badly damaged for use.
The roof of the brick barn was destroyed and the interior gutted. Checks were being made on damage to machinery, and firemen attended for several hours damping down.
A spokesman said it was too early to estimate the cost of the damage, but it was likely to be several thousands.
To give you more of a reminder of the time, all of this made the news in the same year;
Top of the European shipbuilding league
Austin and Pickersgill, the Wearside company, topped the European shipbuilding league with record profits of nearly £5million.
The rapidly developing Crowtree Leisure Centre was chosen for a film to show its progress, almost a year before it was finished.
Father Peter Spargo, the Vicar of St Margaret’s, Castletown, called for a 9.30pm curfew for vandals in Sunderland to keep them off the streets. He made the call in a piece within the parish magazine.
A Sunderland primary school won a £1,000 first prize in a national competition on international respect and goodwill. For ten weeks, 48 children at St Anne’s Primary School, Pennywell, worked on Project Olympus sponsored by a national biscuit company.
Old Tyme Music Hall in Sunderland
About 300 elderly folk were entertained by an Old Tyme Music Hall in Thornhill School, although none of the players’ was a pupil. Teachers and parents combined to put on the show, watched by pensioners on the first night.
The site of a stone age settlement at Hastings Hill in Sunderland may have been discovered by archeologists at Durham University, led by Dr Dennis Harding, the Sunderland Echo reported.
If any of these stories bring back memories, tell us more by emailing [email protected]