On Bedlington.uk Now...

My latest offering........... Been told off several residents today they have received their postal voting papers today and they have filled them in, ticking my name, and reposted straightaway. Thanks very much I really do appreciate the trust you have shown! I have tried to steer well clear of the shenanigans going on at the minute with political posts in Bedlington, preferring to illustrate lessons from recent Bedlington history we should all be aware of. Failure to learn from the past is a recipe for continued failure and I think we have had enough of that! As all the main political parties played roles in what I see as snubbing the needs of this Town I cannot understand how anyone can trust them again. Time and time again we have seen decisions based purely on political party benefit and that’s why I think the political parties are part of the problem not the solution! It’s also one of the main reasons I get reprimanded so much by chairs in meetings because I call it out every time I encounter it. There are excellent Independent choices at these elections, people with real experience and knowledge, people who have leant how the system works and where the failures are, so they know what to look out for and how to get around them. That takes years to learn, not 5 minutes! I said at the very beginning of this election this is about trust, I don’t think we can trust any of the political parties given how they have screwed us over every time they have been in power. Even at national level we can see how much political manifestos are worth and if they can get away with it what chance do we have at this level of government? In the last 8 years of being a county Councillor I’d like to think I have never broken the trust and faith people gave me when they elected me, from day one! It’s your choice, please use it wisely.

@loopylou I agree with you on the cottage numbers for River View👍. You have really put a lot of work into delving into your family's past

I think this is how Craggs Buildings may have been numbered. It seems it was named this due to the former license holder of the Puddlers Arms being a J. W. Craggs. He had the pub in 1887 before dying in 1889, aged 43. No. 1 started where the Bank Top is now, and continued down to No. 13/14 next to River View. No. 1 - 4 are the cottages that separated the Puddlers from Bank Top Hotel. The 1881 census lists an address “Clark’s Cottages” inbetween “Liddle’s Cottages” (Liddle’s Yard) and “Puddler’s Arms”. I think it’s likely Clark’s Cottages referred to No. 1-4. A former landlord of the Puddlers was Henry Clark. No. 5 - 8, an auction piece on 22 Oct 1864 (Newcastle Daily Chronicle) lists the Puddler’s Arms as having “eight large rooms”. Possibly that the Puddler’s was split into four two-room flats. No. 9 - 14, the same auction piece lists the Puddlers Arms as having “three houses, with four rooms each, adjoining the above.” I believe these were split into the six two-room apartments of No. 9 - 14, as a later auction piece on 27 Feb 1869 (Newcastle Daily Journal) now describes the attached property to Puddler’s Arms as “six double cottages”. Photo with the door numbers included.

Possibly this?

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) I think the bungalow you reference as River View in the older picture is actually the second one in, number 2? Maps has a no 1 River View which nearly lines up with a corner house in Tomlea Avenue . But the current end house (2) is a bit further down. I assume a few got demolished over the years.

Then and Now

@loopylou & @Canny lass the only old photo I have seen that includes Craggs Buildings is the 1930s one in one of Evan Martin's books on Bedlington :- And I think Craggs buildings are the ones I have marked with a red star in this copy :-

It looks like that between 44-49 (presumably 1944) that the middle block was demolished after the fire but the outer houses kept. Then at some point between 1949 and 1959 the lower houses also demolished, keeping the ones closest to Bank Top Hotel until River View Close was built.

Not that my memory is brilliant these days but I do recall Joe Rooney mentioning the fire when he posted a comment about his older broter :-

That's the first picture I've ever seen. Hadn't heard about the fire either. Thanks!

@Canny lass yes, no one ever seemed to stay in one place. 😄

I don’t know if there are photos of Cragg’s Buildings out there, but there were some in the papers in 1943 after it was on fire. (No. 5, 6, 7 and 8).

I see what you mean! They did move around a bit in those days. They sort of outgrew their living space and swapped with another family member with a smaller family.

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) thank you for the advice, very helpful. There’s a lot of stuff on here to look around at 😁

Sorry I don’t think I worded it right. Oh dear 😅. I did mean door numbers, not the schedule in censuses—I meant to infer that at some point in time the Rooneys seem to live at nearly every door number (3, 6, 8 etc) and the numbers are always changing because they switched houses that much. It is quite interesting to see how everyone in such a small space was connected, because there was quite a lot! In 1939, No. 9 (Tweddle) & 10 (Bell) families connected to the Rooneys as the Tweddle’s adopted a grandaughter of Ellen Rooney. I think the Tweddle’s had been at Cragg’s since about 1914 too.

@loopylou You may be confusing schedule numbers with door numbers. There are very few door numbers in the census records before 1911 but there are always schedule numbers in the far left-hand column of the census returns. These numbers can and do change as they don’t refer to any building, only to the households within them. The 1911 census was a bit different. You will find the schedule number in the top right hand corner of page 2 for each household - the part filled in by the householder. The correct address and house number (if there is one) you will find on page 1, filled in by the enumerator before he delivered the forms to the household. The address given by the householder on page 2 doesn't always agree with the address given by the enumerator. Everybody in the same street could call it by a different name. AS for 3 Craggs Buildings at the Bank Top. From your fragment of paper it does look like John's wife was living there pre-WW1 but by 1921 it was her daughter Ellen who occupied that house together with her husband James Thompson and they were still there in 1939. You need to go a bit further along the road in 1921 to find John's wife Ellen at number 8 Craggs Buildings. She is then widowed and head of the household. Living in are son Bernard and his wife Rachel together with their 5 children. Still at home are sons Joseph C and John Edward.

@loopylou if you have been using the saerch facility on this group then there are a couple of points that we eventually stumbled on.If you put a phrse in the search box eg - Bank Top Hotel - then the system returns you every comment that includes the word Bank or Top or Hotel. If you add quotation marks - "Bank Top Hotel" then you only get comments with the full phrase 'Bank Top Hotel' If you enter a phrase within a category, eg. History Hollow, then the system only searches that category. If you select the 'Discussion' tab and then search then the system searches all the categories.

@_pauls do you follow Malcolm Robinson on this group and Facebook? This is a link to his Facebook page :- https://www.facebook.com/p/Malcolm-Robinson-Bedlington-West-Ward-100057586923534/?locale=en_GB

Hello - just checking in for the first time in a year or so to see how people feel it is going? From my hideout in West Bedlington I can see that we have invested in a wonderful set of traffic lights and cones while we widen footpaths that will result in approximately 0 additional pedestrian and cyclist journeys to the station that we haven't got yet. Entrance to the memorial garden looks nice*. In a couple of weeks I will cast my vote for my local independent candidate because at least I know he actually cares, but in a sense I wonder how the electoral comission can keep a straight face when offering elections for Bedlington when I suspect that NCC hasn't even heard of the place. Although to be fair they got it spot on when they decided what we needed was half a dozen empty flats and 4 empty retail units. *for real... not sarcasm in case anyone wondered

@Canny lass thank you for the thread, I’d not noticed it before. I think the families must’ve swapped around quite often. Each time I see new census’ and records the building is the same but the door number has changed 😁. Rooneys started living at Craig’s Bldgs by Aug 1914 at least, before that they were at Back Row in 1912 (according to school records of the youngest two sons; Joseph C b. 1900 and John Edward b. 1902 — and a death record for the infant son of eldest dau Margaret b.1888). John’s wife Ellen was a next of kin for my relative in his WW1 record. This had her living at number 3.

Topic: Mary (molly) Rooney 1926-2008 It was the same Joe Rooney that posted the above topic in ‘Public Notices & Announcements’, December 8 2008, that I was referring to. He died in 2010. April 2010 @sissinghurst posted 2 topics: 'Joe Rooney poorly' followed by 'Joe Rooney’s Passing'. @loopylou the topic 'Mary (molly) Rooney 1926-2008' posted in ‘Public Notices & Announcements’ might be of interest to you as Molly was born at 6 Craggs Buildings, Bank top which you mentioned in an earlier post.

I joined the group in 2013 and I remember coming accross his comments on the housing and the families that lived at the Bank Top in the 1940's :-

Moved to Canada. Hasn't posted anything on here since 2010.

Wow, what a small world! 😁

@Canny lass if I am on the right wave length was Joe Rooney, ex Banktop moved to Australia, a member of this group and he posted lots of info in History Hollow on the area and the families around the Banktop?