The Links, Panama Gardens

In October 1932 Whitley & Monkseaton Urban District Council discussed a scheme for sunken gardens on The Links between Watts Road and Panama House (Stephen Fry was a senior diver on the Panama Canal in his youth), to provide shelter from sea breezes. On 19th January 1933 a Voluntary Contribution Scheme held an inaugural public meeting and pledged to set 20 men to work on the gardens. The men were sent to Briar Dene for stone for the rockeries. The gardens are influenced by the designs of Thomas Mawson, garden designer. At Panama Gardens there is a memorial to a local primary school teacher, Doris Ewbank, killed driving an ambulance during an ambulance during an air raid in 1941. The memorial says ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF MY DAUGHTER DORIS EWBANK WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE FOR HER TOWN AND COUNTRY APRIL 10TH 1941. LET US REMEMBER OUR GLORIOUS DEAD. THIS GARDEN AND POOL HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO COMMEMORATE THOSE OF THE CIVIL DEFENCE SERVICE AND SPECIAL CONSTABULARY OF THE WHITLEY BAY URBAN DISTRICT WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR 1939-1945. LOCAL LIST