That's an inconvenience! The family who faced a walk down the main street to get to their house's toilet

Some of you will remember the days of the outdoor toilet but the Cameron family were driven around the bend by one back in 1971.

‘Down the front stairs, along the main street, round the corner, down the back lane and into the yard’

It wasn’t just a case of popping into the back yard to go to the loo for Jean Cameron, her bus driver husband Ronald and their two young children.

Their toilet was in the backyard but the quickest way of reaching it - apart from descending a drainpipe - was down the front stairs, along the main street, round the corner, down the back lane and into the yard.

That ritual was necessary because the upstairs flat had no back stairs.

‘No guarantee of instant relief as it was shared with a hairdressing salon’

And reaching the netty was no guarantee of instant relief as the facility was shared with the staff and customers of a hairdressing salon.

We want to know if this was the most inconvenient convenience that you remember from South Tyneside’s past.

Open fires which heated an old school

To give you another reminder of the time, West Harton Infants School in South Shields was facing its last days and the pupils were about to make the short journey to the newly-built All Saints School.

Three classrooms at the old school were heated in the winter by large open fires, and it had bare floors described as Dickensian.

Headteacher Joan Jackson said: “The old school was so depressing.”

Get in touch with your memories of outdoor toilets and West Harton Infants School.

Email [email protected] to tell us more.