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I am suirprised that they wanted tpo upgrade the pitch to artificial turf. I have no idea how many, if any, other teams in the league the terriers played in had 3G. But I would always want Bedlington Dr. Pit Welfare Park to have a Bedlington football team playing there🤞. Good luck Mal

Go for it Mal!!!

Done! Good luck with this project, Malcolm. What a boost it would give to the area.

An honest assessment of the current legal situation surrounding the Bedlington Terriers from the MP. Bedlington Terriers FC – a deeply disappointing situation For more than two years, my office and I have worked behind the scenes with a multitude of partners to try to resolve the situation facing Bedlington Terriers Football Club. Until now, we’ve resisted making a public statement, hoping that quiet diplomacy and goodwill would prevail. Sadly, the situation is now worse than ever, and I feel it’s time to speak openly. Bedlington Terriers, a club with a proud history and deep roots in our community, has played at Dr Pit Welfare Park for more than half a century. They had secured planning permission and funding to upgrade the pitch to 3G and improve facilities, an exciting step forward. But legal and ownership complications have derailed everything. The land is governed by a charitable trust originally established for the mining community. When the club tried to move forward with improvements, it became clear that the lease they were operating under was legally invalid. This issue, which was first identified in 2012, was never acted upon and only resurfaced a decade later, when progress on re-development was being made. Northumberland County Council (NCC), which holds the land in trust, attempted a land swap to resolve covenant issues raised by the Charity Commission. However, CISWO (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation), which has an interest in the site, refused to consent, citing concerns about preserving the site’s heritage and the community’s access. In December, I met with NCC and CISWO to try to find a solution. The council was open to compromise, but CISWO would not budge. Their position is that preserving the site means preventing any development, even if that development would allow the club to continue playing and thriving in the community. I strongly disagree. In trying to “preserve the site,” CISWO is ignoring the reality: Bedlington Terriers have played on the western portion of Dr Pit Park for five decades. They’ve maintained the ground throughout that time. The rest of the park, home to bowls, sports, play areas, and a Green Flag-rated green space, remains untouched and well-used. At the end of last season, the club was relegated from Northern League Division 2 having failed ground grading criteria. Then in the summer, the legal entity running BTFC was struck off the register because of an administrative issue, leading NCC to require the club to vacate the ground. Though the entity was later restored, the damage was done. Bedlington Terriers are now playing in the Northern Alliance at a home pitch outside of Bedlington. The ground, once secured, has since become a target for arson and vandalism. I raised CISWO’s role in this mess from the floor of the Commons last week and have further meetings planned in the coming weeks. Let me be clear: This situation helps no one. Not the mining community CISWO claims to represent. Not the park, which is now suffering from neglect and vandalism. Not the people of Bedlington, who’ve lost their senior football team. And certainly not Bedlington Terriers, who are fighting for survival outside their home town. I still believe a solution is possible, if sensible heads prevail. I will continue to urge all parties to find common ground and do what’s right for the club, the community, and the legacy of Bedlington.

Malcolm Robinson Bedlington West Ward. I’ve been told I need to expand and better explain my post about the proposed project at West Lea. (Well that makes a change from people saying I’m too verbose!) The project I’m promoting, and have been for some years now, is to see a multifunctional facility at West Lea, next to the cemetery. We need a community centre and we need some sporting facilities so why not get them both in one hit, because in all likelihood we will only get one chance at this. That’s why there are questions in the survey about both sports usage and community usage. I’m also keen to see some SEND provision so that’s why that is in too! Also outside I want the full sized pitch restored to level and with drainage, which will help with, or give access for, some drainage for the path. Beyond that two junior pitches installed. With new changing rooms etc. in the new building this will be the best pitch in Bedlington and have decent facilities for our youngsters coming through. I’ve identified a funding route and have a small group of people who are willing to manage it, namely the Bedlingtonshire Development Trust. They have even agreed to do the training necessary so NCC will consider them suitable. Big thanks to each and every one of them for their commitment! I asked a month or two ago for some ‘likes’ to a post I put out about this in an effort to gauge some public support. What came back was about double what NCC get to their consultations and that enabled me to silence the NCC doubters and press through onto the next level. This time it’s a full feasibility study because we have to prove it’s needed, wanted and sustainable. That will be based off the replies to the survey and that’s why I need as many people as possible to fill it in! This isn’t just about the West End of Town or the Top End its for the whole of Bedlington so please fill it in if you would support it wherever you live. Let’s get behind something positive for a change and let’s start to address the lack of facilities investment into the Bedlington for the past few decades! Click the link and fill the survey in......about 2-3 mins! https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx...

And finally, there was bank manager Edward Mostyn Gibson. What happened to him? He has been extremely difficult to find and here’s the reason why. In September 1936 Edward Mostyn’s wife, Mabel, dies at the age of 51 years. Her address is then given as Middleton Street, Blyth. One can only wonder why. After a great deal of searching I eventually found the first trace of Edward Mostyn’s whereabouts in 1939 – and possibly a reason for his wife being in Blyth. He was at that time a patient in St Georges Hospital, Morpeth. How long he had been there is impossible to say. Mental Health Care wasn’t exactly at it’s best in 1939 and admissions were more frequent than discharges. What I can say with certainty is that Edward Mostyn died in St George’s Hospital though, again, it’s impossible to say how long he had been there. At the time of his death, he did however own a home in Bedlington – 106 Rothesay Terrace – next door to his brother at 105 (106 was vacant in the 1939 register when Edward M was in hospital). Those effects are worth only £14,745 today. A sad end to an enterprising family and a big piece of Bedlington’s history. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed researching it.

First and foremost, we can see that in 1939 Bank House was no longer in the possession of the Gibson family. It was now occupied by a mining family and, it seems to me, that the following family (at nr. 38) is living in the same building so possibly converted into flats. To come back to the youngest of the brothers, Philip Hedley Gibson, he seems to have continued in the field of selling. No doubt fuelled by his experience in the shop at Bank House, he has moved his family to the bright lights of Wandsworth, London where he is employed, not in any managerial position but as a salesman in a hardware department of a, presumably, larger, London store. Could one of his older brothers have taken on the ironmongers business in Bedlington? Unfortunately not. Brother William Henry Gibson continued to live on Rothesay Terrace but now at number 105. His occupation is then given as “Air Raid Precaution Clerk” with “Bedlington U, D, Council” so he has, presumably left the drapery business. Note that nr. 106 is vacant (V in margin). The place is not unoccupied but the resident is not available.

There has been very little information available after the 1911 census for the Gibson family but thanks to the release of the 1921 census research has now been made a little easier. In 1911 both Philip Hedley Gibson and his brother, Edward Mostyn Gibson were involved, albeit on different levels, with ironmongery. Edward M was, together with his father, joint manager in the ironmongery business. Philip H was working for them as an apprentice shopkeeper in the family shop at Bank House. After the death of their father, Edwin Mostyn takes over the management of the ironmongery business while continuing with his banking interests. Both Edwin and Philip are single and living at Bank House. In 1917 Edwin Mostyn marries. His bride is Mabel Robinson Turner of Blyth and she moves to her husband’s home. Three years later, in June 1920, Philip Hedley also marries and also brings his wife, Jean Balmbro, to Bank House. Jean appears to be the sister of his brother William Henry’s wife. Note: The name “Jean” would appear to be a misprint as her name is given as “Jane A” in the marriage index and as “Jane Ann” in the 1921 census. One year later, in 1921 the two sons and their wives are sharing the 10 rooms of Bank House. Philip H has completed his apprenticeship and is now entitled to call himself an ‘ironmonger’. He is stated to be an “employer” (rather than a worker, as previously) so seems to be in a managerial position in the business – if not the sole owner. I say the latter because his brother, Edward Mostyn, gives his occupation only as “Bank Manager” and his “employer” as “Bank of Liverpool and Martins Ltd.” but I can see from Kelly’s Directory that he is also engaged as “treasurer of the Urban District Council” of Bedlington. Both men give their place of work as “Front Street, Bedlington” so are presumably working from Bank House. By 1921 brother William Henry has left Bank House and has purchased a property at 89 Rothesay Terrace where he now lives. He is, however, still working at Hedley Young & Co. Ltd., drapers, on the south side of Front Street East, almost opposite Bank House. William Henry went on to become successful in his own drapery business and I’m sure you’ll recognise the premises, with its very distinctive arched windows, on Front Street East – the former ‘Dunns the Drapers’ which I’ve mentioned earlier in connection with the Gibson family. That’s William Henry in the shop doorway but I haven’t been able to identify the two girls. What happened to the three brothers and the family Ironmongers business after 1921? Fortunately, in September 1939, prior to the second world war which was looming on the horizon, the British Government decided to make an inventory of what human resources were available should they be needed. The gap is large between the census of 1921 and the ‘1939 register’, as it came to be known, and there is very little means of finding out which paths the brothers, William Henry, Philip Hedley and Edward Mostyn trod during those intervening years but we can get a glimpse of how it all turned out.

It's been a while but I have managed to do a fair bit of research between dahlias and geraniums. I'd like to get this finished before I fly off to the sun and return to piles of autumn leaves and snow. I've managed to get all my notes written up this week so here's the result. It'll probably need a few posts. Now, where did I leave off? Henry Gibson, head of the family, had died in 1902 at an age of 80 years. His son, Phillip Hedley Gibson – widowed and with no heirs – had followed him to the grave in 1906 leaving his brother, William James, to shoulder the responsibility of running the business. William James was then living in Vulcan Place with his wife Sarah (nee Mostyn) and their children: Mary, Edward Mostyn, William Henry, Lilian, James and Philip Hedley. However, by 1911 he and his family have moved back to Bank House on Front Street East. It has presumably been inherited after Philip’s death in 1906. There are, however, some notable changes in the family in 1911. William James Gibson is still in business as an “Ironmonger & Bank manager” and the property on front street is now described by the enumerator as being a “house and shop”. William James is also widowed but I haven’t been able to ascertain exactly where or when Sarah died. There is a death for a Sarah Gibson, 57 years old, registered in the first quarter of 1911 at Morpeth registry office – just prior to the census being done on April 2nd 1911. On that date three nieces of Sarah (daughters of Sarah’s two sisters), are shown on the census form as being at Bank House. Could they have been there because of Sarah’s death? Unfortunately, Sarah’s death has not been the only grief suffered by the family. In 1908 daughter Lilian had died aged 21 years, at which point, according to the newspaper obituary, her mother Sarah still lived and the family address is given as “North Eastern Bank” ie. Bank House. The only remaining daughter in 1911, Mary 28 years old, is still single and living at home, most likely taking care of the household now that her mother is gone. Also at home at Bank House are sons Edward Mostyn Gibson 27, William Henry Gibson 25, James Gibson 20 and Philip Hedley Gibson 19. The four sons were soon to be left fatherless, however, when William James Gibson dies November 3rd 1912 aged 57 years. He is sadly followed by son James, then 26 years old, in 1917. Those effects are worth approx. £275,450 today, so he didn’t do too badly either. Of the remaining three sons, only Edward Mostyn- and Philip Hedley Gibson have followed their father into the ironmongery business. The eldest, Edward Mostyn, is an ironmonger and also a bank clerk, while brother Philip Hedley concentrates solely on a career in ironmongering. At the age of 19 he is still learning the ropes as an apprentice shop-keeper, presumably in the family shop at Bank House but more about them later. Brother, William Henry, doesn’t appear to follow in the family trade choosing instead to follow his career in the drapery business. In 1911, now aged 25, he has completed his apprenticeship and is working as a draper’s shop assistant. The girl he will marry two years later in 1913, 23-year-old drapery colleague Alice Harbottle Balmbro, is also recorded as a visitor to Bank House in 1911. So, is this the end of an era for the Gibson Brothers Ironmongery business? Now, with their father dead and William H engaged in the drapery trade, only Edward Mostyn and Phillip Hedley remain to carry on the work started 88 years earlier by Phillip Gibson in 1814 – but will they do so?

Maybe Bedlington history society and you could join forces. BEDLINGTON needs its own museum. Maybe John Hall originally from North seats ,but went to Bedlington grammar school would donate the opportunities are there. It needs a team of volunteers to organise it. I was at school with Claire Mitchell ner mam wasEllen Mitchell. I am sure that her family would be involved. There are just so many people who would support this. Also I have an extensive collection of disaster glasses some that are unknown linked with Bedlington and guidepost, Anyway it’s just a thought

Thanks. I suppose that the council knows who owns the land. I will ring them. If they do maybe they will donate it.

@Pegwoman - 1924 map showing Puddlers Row at the end of Puddlers Road (now Stead Lane) :-

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Thanks for the info about the land. It was an uncle of mine who kept everything and we had to have an extension built to house all his parents stuff. Friends and family who see it think it’s a time capsule. At the moment I am busy cataloging all documentation and correspondence. Wish Even Martin was still around.

So a mini Beamish for Bedlington. Sounds good @Pegwoman. Do you think there is a spare plot of land, with Carparking, in Bedlington? The grassed area at the top of the Elenbel & Tomlea Avenue where Puddlers Row used to be? Our home is like yours as my wife keeps everything, stashed away in cupboards, just incase we ever need it

I actually have loads of artifacts from 1906 to 1980. Furniture , clothes, China, gramophone records. Household insurance documents, curtains from Shiney Row. First and Second World War correspondence. As well as photos. Then I am sure others have artefacts from 1980 onwards. Anyway it was just a thought. I loved Woodhorn as it was. Thanks for your comment.

Unfortunately @Pegwoman I would thing any artefacts of Bedlington's history will surely be with existing collections outside of Bedlington. Probably all Bedlington has left are a few photos

Can Bedlington have its own museum. . . .? Having been involved with Beamish in the 1960s and then Woodhorn museum later on and the Northumberland Fusiliers museum at Alnwick Castle I wonder why the hell Bedlington hasn’t got its own museum. Grants and donations can be obtained I would love to be involved in such a project. My contribution would be financial and advice. Come on we deserve a museum.