A short biography of Nellie Allison.
Nellie (short for Susan Ellen) was born in 1922 in Grange Villa, a village just outside of Chester-le-Street in County Durham, England.
She was the eldest of Tommy and Sally Wilby’s four daughters.
She joined the Royal Air Force early in the Second World War, and after training down south was stationed locally at Houston. She was a very sociable person and had a reputation locally as a great dancer.
Her aunt lived in Crook, and it was on one of her visits that she met Bill Allison, a miner from the nearby village of Roddymoor.
They married in 1943 and had two children; Joan in 1944 and Billy in 1945.
Nellie and Bill spent most of their married life living at Briar Gardens on the Low Mown Meadows Estate in Crook. Both Joan and Billy married and raised their families in Crook too, and Nellie became grandmother to three boys. (I’m the eldest of them).
Family was very important to Nellie. Sundays were spent hosting the family and always involved Sunday lunch prepared for the grandkids, and an afternoon of home baking fresh for tea with the whole family. And several days in the week she spent afternoon and early evening with her children and their families who lived nearby.
Socialising continued to be big part of Nellie’s whole life. She played darts in a local pub team, and she loved to dance regularly at the ‘Football Hut’ – the local football team’s social club.
Nellie was also member of the fans committee when Crook Town AFC were at the height of their powers in the Amateur FA Cup in the 1950s and 60s.
Nellie died in 1997, and still has family and friends in Crook who remember her – and her stotties – fondly.
Nellie Allison's stottie cake recipe 