On Bedlington.uk Now...

Canny lass it is definitely a P not a G it was P for personal F food S supply R ration actually if they didn’t have disc people used to put this information on old spoons & coins removing the royal head of course original information was on the ration cards but people didn’t carry them around to an air raid shelter just this basic disc but definitely not a G on it

Many thanks for your information. I have recently acquired two Bedlington terrier teacups / mugs from 1911. They go with my teapot. Thought I might post them.

Hi @Pegwoman I think that G F S 2 may stand for Government Food Supply, food office 2 (I think there were 2 food offices in the Bedlongton area).

Hi Wilma, thank you for the info regarding my dad. I didn’t know he worked at Choppington High Pit, which was about 3 years before I was born and dad would have been about 21. The amount of times I’ve walked Choppington woods and didn’t know about the antics which went on under my wandering feet. Someone once told me when down the pit, he could be stubborn, un-cooperative and would sit down in protest if things weren’t done his way. I only wish I could sit down and talk with him about the past but now has dementia and hardly speaks a single sentence. He doesn’t remember who I am or much of anything anymore. I remember his loft was a shack with CB and amateur radio's. As a kid, I remember the tv picture going crazy when DXing on amateur radio and CB am, this was before CB was legalized later on fm. Dad still has an amateur radio setup, which he never sat the test for, he was a bit of a rebel when it came to things like that. Dad looked after his things, especially the Lada, having coating it with Waxoyl to keep it from rusting. I got the impression he didn’t care much for the Lada in its later years. There was one time someone blocked his exit in a carpark so he just forced the other car out the way using the car's bumper. Lada cars were relatively cheap to buy and very basic, Russian engineering which was probably built in the same factory they made their tanks lol. Regards, Damian.

@HIGH PIT WILMA - I was looking to see if you were one of the characters in the catoon drawings @Damian Robson posted😁

Hi Damien,welcome aboard!..I knew your Dad very well,you wouldn't have known,but in the mid 1960's he also worked at Choppington High Pit till it closed,in 1966.He might only have been there for a year,maybe two,he was coalfilling in the Top Busty with Harry [Harper] Dawson.Miners played pranks,and one day,in around 1964, I came off the very wet ,low,atrocious coalface to find your Dad and Harry ,stitching my jacket together with Conveyor belt metal hook fasteners.I remember them being startled by me shouting at them and swinging my jacket,still with the heavy zipping machine attached,round my head and hurling it at them!If it had hit them it would have really hurt,maybe even broke a bone or two..I was seething,but they thought it was funny..well by the time I got outbye to the shaft bottom we were all laughing at the state of my ripped old jacket..miners were like that..no fallouts..lose your rag for five minutes..Marra's just the same five minutes later. I was about 20 yrs old at the time that happened...Me and Mixer used to crack on for hours on the CB Radios from 1981 when they were legalised.In those days,I was into Electronics from 12 years old in 1956,so by 1981,and hooking up with Mixer on the air after not seeing him for years,was great cos he built power supplies for CB'S as his other hobby.So we talked transformers and resistors etc!!..Later he came to Bates ,and when he parked his new Lada in the car park,it always stood alone..he told me..there's no way anybody is gonna park too close to my car and block me from getting in .!![Waxoyl and dust kept not only rust away..it everybody away..including thieves!!] Mixer was the nicest lad you could wish to work with..please tell him Wilma is asking after him..if he remembers..he just might.Everybody knew Mixer..just like they knew Wilma!!Take care Damien.

Pegwoman just to let you know there very collectible 👍🏻

First letter any thanks for the information. What you read as a P is a G I always just thought it meant girl. The p and g are hard to distinguish, because of how they were engraved. And the photo is not clear. Found your reply both interesting and informative. Many thanks.

Definitely not what Deb Charlton from ashington said

Hope that solves your mystery

Normal civilians carried these during ww2 incase they were killed during an air raid PSFR is for ration card personnel supply food information 376 is 376 is her personal number that she wood use at the bedlington food office bedlington station was classed as a luftwaffe target as the coal would be transported to river Tyne for merchant ships

@Pegwoman - forgot to say - I have no idea what the letters 7 numbers at the bottom would stand for. Not sure what the first leteer is - ?. F.S.B. 376.

@Pegwoman I don't know anyone who has one but I have seen similar discussed on the Ashington Memories Facebook group. There were a few suggestions but most of the comments, by grandchildren, of those who had them seem to think that theywere worn by many in the areas where the coal mines were during WWII as the workers and family in the mining areas as those areas were likely to be targeted by the enemy. The most detailed attempt to guess was One comment suggested that the Woodhorn Museum might have the answer -

Does anyone out there have one and if so do they know what the letters and numbers stand for under the address. Thanks

Checked on the Facebook Group Bygone Bedlington and the only info I can get is that the photo is pre 1970 :-

No date with the photo. Normally I have the info ie year and who posted it as part of the name the photo is saved under. So in this case I would assume the member of the group I got if from did not comment with any info other than the name.😒

Cheers Mikki. That is a site I have never visited before. I know some of the houses were there in 1923 as my mother lived there in 1923 wheh her younger sister was born therre in 1923. My grandparents kept a family bible and in it are the year and each of the 9 children were born - my mam, born 1920, and her brother Martin, born 1921, are shown as Carrs Buildings, on the Glebe Bank and the next 7, starting with the next eldest, Jane, born in 1923, all listed as Haig Road. I'll have a did around on that site. I did notice when I searched for the Cornwell Crescent photo you mentioned -

Alan on the same page as the aerial view above its got bank cottage also cornwell crescent. (The not cropped version) There is a few of bedlington and surrounding areas. I found them helpful alongside the maps you had already shared.

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/ Not sure if linking is allowed apologies if not, its historic england Ariel photo explorer

100% correct! Tankerville Arms, Blue Fountain Inn, Green Fountain Yard nrs. 1 -6 (in the direction Fountain Inn towards Tankerville Yard). That's a great aerial photo! May I ask where you found it?

So on this image. If the red dot is shiney row and the blue dot it the tankerville, would the, what seems like waste land between them both, be where the fountain stood? I think the buildings are visible in another image ill look for it and upload.

No, you wouldn't be able to identify the Tankerville from that photo. it was much further down the road from the Alma Inn - the "Food Office", as I remember it. In the 1950s. I used to visit with my much older sister to collect "National Dried Milk" for bottle-fed babies, Cod-Liver oil, orange juice and 'Virol' (some sort of malt). Alan, do you have any idea of a date for the photo showing the Tankerville?

Our ex-pats might like this....................

mikki - I just go off the old maps - @Canny lass does the census records. The old photos of Glebe Road and Shiney Row are ones from books on Bedlington by Evan Martin and his father Stephen B Martin that liived in Bedlington. This is the 1920 (20") map I have marked to show the area in question This compilation that we did when we were looking for info on all the drinking establishments in Bedlington shows the Tankerville Arms :- but I can't identify that building in the photo of the Glebe Road from the Evan Martin book :- @Canny lass will know more the me. Alan