An evening to commemorate the 75th anniversary bombing of the Wilkinson lemonade factory in North Shields
East End Youth and Community Centre, George Street, North Shields
Tuesday 3rd May 2016

UPDATE
Although the event is still very much in the planning stage, things are moving!
We have the perfect venue as the EEYCC stands on the footprint of the factory and resonates with memories of that fateful night 75 years ago; there will be dramatized accounts of the incident gleaned over the years from survivors, eye witnesses and surviving family of those affected; we have background information to put the tragedy into the context of what was happening in North Shields at the time; we have music, including talented local guy, Jim White, with his emotional song about the incident Teardrops and Bottle Tops; we have an informative exposition from expert Jim Rickard on all that is left of Wilkinson’s – its bottles and adverts; and the evening will be concluded with a short remembrance service from a local minister.

And this is not an exhaustive list! There will undoubtedly be other items and we will do our best to instil an atmosphere of early wartime North Shields. Above all, our aim is to remember those who gave their lives 75 years ago and to honour that memory.

We further hope that there will be a permanent plaque at the site of the raid to augment the one which exists in the shopping centre. This, like so many aspects at the moment, is not carved in stone – although the plaque, in a way, may be!!

What we don’t have is an accordionist!
A strange request you may think, but www.northshields173.org (the website dedicated to the factory bombing – and the definitive archive on the subject) received so many mentions of an accordionist in its survivor and eye witness reports of life in the shelter, that we thought it would be appropriate to the spirit of the evening to include one!

We now know through Bill Atkinson that the accordionist in question was 23 year old Billy Curran, who sadly also lost his life that night. Details can be found at . . .
https://northshields173.org/blog/tag/curran-2/

SO . . . if there any accordionists out there who would be willing to give us a turn please get in touch through these pages or by contacting the website at info@northshields173.org

Finally for this update, this is a free event but accommodation is limited. If we are over-subscribed, we do not rule out the possibility of a follow-on event (or two!) but watch this space. I already have a few names of people who have already provisionally booked but please, if you want to attend what promises to be an extraordinary and emotional event, please let us know as soon as possible.

Terry Wilkinson