3:50pm Monday 19th July 2010
The other day when I was visiting my dad at Lyons Court at Evenwood, where he is staying following a stroke last year, I noticed a cutting from a newspaper which lay on the table. Dad said somebody had brought it in for him. It was a cutting from the Teesdale Mercury from I believe 1969 and it went like this:- “Thanks for Tees Rescue.”
“A COCKFIELD couple – heroes in a Tees rescue drama on Sunday – have received a letter of thanks from the mother and child they saved.
Mr. & Mrs. Joe Liddle, of 6 Comer Terrace, were sitting by the Tees at Barnard Castle when they spotted a young girl in difficulties. Mr. Liddle jumped fully clothed into the river. He swam to the girl and pulled her to safety While his wife attended to nine-year-old Gillian Cross, Mr. Liddle jumped back in and saved the girl’s mother, herself in difficulties after trying to save Gillian.
From their home in 14 Coronation Street, Barnard Castle, Mrs. Cross has now written to Mr. & Mrs. Liddle, expressing deep thanks for the couple’s prompt rescue.
Reading it brought back buried vivid memories of that day, because I was there along with my cousin, Frank Hull. My parents had taken us to the river for the afternoon because it was a hot day. I can clearly remember the walk down to the river from Scar Top. I remember messing about, but was not allowed to go into the river because dad said it was a dangerous stretch of water and we were best out of it. I was not happy about it and was whining and moaning when shouting broke out.
It happened so quickly, a matter of seconds, I could see a person in the middle of the river and one nearby. In the blink of an eye my dad jumped in and swam out to them. There were lots of other people sat about at the time and I can remember thinking why is nobody else going to help, everybody just sat there and watched.
I started to panic, thinking my dad was going to drown along with the two people he was trying to save and could not look. Mam was trying to keep Frank and I calm, and I can feel now the horrendous anxious gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach. When I did eventually look, dad was bringing the first person, it was a girl of about my age out of the water. A man in shorts waded a little way in and took the girl off him and my dad turned round and went straight back out to get the other person, who turned out to be the girl’s mother. I remember him sitting her on a rock, almost at the other side of the river; she was flailing about and almost unconscious. He managed to keep control of her and got her out the other side, eventually walking back across a bridge together.
The relief I felt when it was over was tremendous, we were all visibly shaken and frightened. Luckily my dad was a fit man and a strong swimmer.
A couple who were sitting nearby took us back to their home, provided dad with some clean clothes and us all with welcome refreshments and, drama over, we went home non the worse for the experience.
What became of the young girl Gillian and her mother I do not know but hope she grew up to have a happy life.
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