‘One guy is supposed to have said that ‘there are no large families now’. So they were in effect birth-control people as well as housing control.

This here is a four-bedroom house. It was formerly three. I wouldn’t have allowed them to reduce the number of bedrooms. People signed up for three-bedroom houses (or four!) and they were breaking all the rules and regulations to reduce that number. If a tenant had stopped the builders getting in, that would have been the end of it!’

When Geordie first moved to The Meadow with his wife Teresa in 1950 it was supposed to be a temporary move.

‘Canal Street was unsuitable for rearing a family. Fishers coal lorries were continually passing the door on the way to Portadown and when my kids opened the door they were straight out and nearly under the wheels of those lorries. 64 Canal Street was going to be renovated and I moved over here for the duration of the work.

‘Sure, I’m still only here temporarily’, he quipped!

But things were starting to improve in the early 50s. When we came out here first I had £6 12s a week and I tell you that was good money. I was working for this firm and I asked them for 4s an hour when the going rate was 3s 10d. You might think 2d difference wasn’t significant but it made a difference to me!

There is one big change. Everybody now can put their hand in their pocket. Then though, your wife would be standing at the door every payday and you’d hand over all your wages. There was no spare money then.

Mostly The Meadow was unaffected by the resurgence of The Troubles.

‘There was a wee bit of bother when they started that ‘bin-lid’ thing, says Geordie.

A group of them came to that opening there across the street, he said, indicating the loanan that joined Derrybeg Drive with Iveagh Crescent. ‘They started banging. But Robbie McDonald and I took a race at them and they disappeared right quick and that was the end of it.

This whole area was a great place to rear children. There was no bickering, no altercations with neighbours, no fighting among the children.

The Meadow was – and is – a wonderful area with wonderful people!”
 

…. End ……….