Family pays tribute to Redcar gran Norma

WHEN Redcar’s famous donkeys resume their beach duties on Good Friday, one of their driving forces will be missing.

Norma Burniston took a keen interest in the town’s seaside animals ever since she married into the family which operates the beach rides.

But while Norma’s death on January 29, aged 81, means she’ll be missing when the donkey ride season resumes on Good Friday - it’s the same day every year - her family has pledged the tradition she loved being a part of will continue for a long time yet.

Norma, whose funeral on Wednesday was a poignant affair true to her Romany roots, loved her family’s dedication to providing seaside entertainment, whether it was donkey rides, swings and roundabouts or making candy floss and toffee apples.

And as late as the mid-2000s, the loving mum, gran and great- gran was helping run the donkeys with one of her two sons, David.

The Leeds-born daughter of a Romany mother and horse trader father, Norma came into the Burniston family after meeting Redcar lad Tom Burniston at Doncaster’s racecourse.

They married at St Mary’s Church, Garforth, but soon came to live in Redcar, where the Burnistons were, and remain, well-known traders.