Going to the beach on foot - a 1975 experience re-lived
Shanks’s pony was the means of travel for hundreds of Wearsiders during a summer to remember for very different reasons in 1975.
It was the year when sunseekers headed to the beach on foot to save money on bus fares.
By foot to the beach at Roker
Some even walked from the town centre or the Wheatsheaf - and some took taxis because it was cheaper than the bus.
The debate made front page news in August 1975 when the Echo reported: “The hot summer sunshine combined with the shipyard holiday fortnight on Wearside is attracting families to the beaches in droves.”
The report said that Dame Dorothy Street and Roker Avenue were ‘becoming main thoroughfares for those who are boycotting the buses and travelling on foot with their buckets, spades and deck chairs.”
65 pence on the bus from South Hylton
Joseph Thompson and his wife Elsie were regulars on the journey to the beach with their four children David, 8, Stephen, 7, Mark, 3, and Joanne, one.
They took the bus from South Hylton to the town centre, costing 65 pence at the time, and then walked the rest of the way, across the bridge and down Dame Dorothy Street.
Mrs Thompson said it was a ‘pleasant walk in this weather’.
Red House resident Ena Blackburn said it was cheaper by taxi than bus. She said she and her family of daughter Sheila, 18, sons Stanley, 9, and Robert, 3, as well as their friend Maisie McAneny and her two children got taxis home after going to the beach every day.
‘Last night we got a taxi home from the sea front to our door and it still only cost us 80 pence.”
Share your memories of 1970s days at the beach by emailing [email protected]