Is your brother younger than you? My grandma seems to remember going to school with a Besford.

The horse and cart driver was Billy Dixon, my great great grandad.2

i am 73 my younger brother is 71 our sister was 74 when she died,

I was born at 60 East Gate Choppington in 1955. It was my grandparents house, Thomas and Margaret Dawson. Big family too there was Eddy, Bart, John who was my dad, Bobby, Harry, Tom "Tucker", Doreen and Bell. i lived at 19 East Gate. John Tasker's daughter lives in that house now.

My Uncle Bob knocked around with Geordie Archbold and they did a lot of poaching. I did too with them as a nipper. Jackie Ramsay was a good friend of my Uncle Bob. My Uncle Bob also had the fish and chip van, does anyone remember ? Who remembers the Swinhoes, Richardsons, Lumsdens and the Gobins?

I have many happy memories from Scotland Gate and a place that i take pride in writting history about.

when you asked who knows these people frome eastgate i lived at number 16 eastgate 1940s till 1960s enjoyed every minute and i new every family that you posted

I was wondering if anyone here could remember a theatre in Choppington in the 1950`s? I came across a photo which was taken in 1955. It clearly shows that it stood right next to `Wally`s` pub.

I didn`t realise that there was ever a theatre there? It was called `The Star Cinema`

Doe`s it ring any bells to anyone?

yes. it was also the "gaff" ganny mather looked after it in the 50s. its in the record books as smallest projection boothe in the world.

hi again i had forgotten all about the jam jars . i can remember we used to pass our tickets out the toilet

window to our mates ... if i remember the projectionist was a man called woodhouse who also lived at easgate

rance woodhouse was his name. i will find the pic of him opening up and post soon.

Hello bediesathome,

Passed on your regards to my Dad and he laughed when I told him about your 'handwalking.' It seems you did it quite a lot.

I dont know if you have seen the Eastgate VE party photograph on the Sixtownships site, the link is here:-

http://www.sixtownsh...gtonveparty.jpg

My Dad tells me you and your brother John are on it as is my Dad and Uncle Jack.

Jack is in the front row, just up on the path wearing a white shirt and you are one place away from Jack's left. Your John is far right of the picture below Margaret Hall. My Dad is in the second row, also wearing a white shirt, and (I hope I get this right) 5th from your John's right.

Other 'well knowns' in the picture are Jean Snowdon and Ronnie Tilbury standing next to each other in the back row, nearly in the middle.

air2air

go to http://www.sixtownships.org.uk then in pics choose choppington. my family, belle, dorren, tucker, harry and bob dawson are in it too.

yes i have seen the picture about the ve day party you are correct in the names that you stated.

i'll get some choppington pics of locals up soon. got a few in my archives. just love pics of the past with people i know on. you know, choppington is a wonderful place and i hold its so dear in my heart.

i know that i am late in posting this but when will we be able to see the photoes about choppington i am looking forward to seeing them ?

Heres an example of the work the group does by putting peoples memories on record. Hers an old Choppington Pic and story.

You got any? Get them to us at: http://www.sixtownships.org.uk

This photograph, past on by Esther Dreyer of East Green, Choppington, shows John George Anderson sitting outside his house at the Old Byron Close, Guide Post. Esther gave information about him at the Guide Post Club, and when it was shown to Stephen Swinhoe, who used to live at Choppington he gave us a little more information on John.

Esther begins her short story on John after reading the short article about Taits Ice Cream in a past issue of Bedlingtonshire Revisited.

John was Esther's uncle from her mothers side. When just a child he was accidentally dropped whilst being carried and this sadly left him a cripple. He was a popular character regularly seen at Choppington after moving from the Old Byron Close at Guide Post. He used to drive the horse and cart for John and Dolly Tait in the early years, to sell their ice cream. Esther also remembers after he stopped working for John and Dolly that he used to make a small living by cobbling shoes for people at Choppington.

He then went on to supplying local people with sticks for to light their fires. Esther remembers how she would go to Choppington Low Pit [A Pit] heap and collect wood that had came out from the mine to take to her uncle. He would then chop them and she would take them around the doors selling them for him. If she had a good day she got a payment of a tanner, [2 1/2 d.]

Esther also recalls that after she finished doing work for her uncle, the next oldest in the family would take over.

Sadly John died either during the year 1953 or 54, Esther is not sure but remembers she would only had been around 16 years of age herself.

Next talking to Stephen Swinhoe, he remembers working for John during 1948-49. He and his friend Eddie Allison used to collect the wood from the pit heap and take it to the bottom of John's garden where he had a shed. At this shed there used to be a huge tree trunk. This Stephen recalls was where they used to put the wood and chop it up. They would then bundle the sticks and take them around to the old peoples bungalows at Choppington selling them. If they had a good week, Stephen thinks they received 1s 6d for the week.

The above photograph shows Choppington Colliery Pit Heap. This is where Esther and the others would go to collect the wood for John George Anderson. You can see how high it actually is compared to the colliery houses beside it.

I remember my Auntie Doreen Baldwin, nee Dawson, telling me a story about my Uncle Eddie Dawson and his girlfriend from down south who had never been up north in her life.

She was staying over at my Grandma's and looked out of the sitting room window and said to Eddie, " Eddie, what is that mountain called.†Eddie replied, " That's not a mountain love, it's Choppington Pit heap.â€

I Just thought I would put that one in as it's fairly amusing.

pic of Choppington Cricket Club Dinner 1960s

Anyone put some names to iT ?

esther dryer who married Dor is on it. front row of lasses far left.

Edited February 19, 201214 yr by johndawsonjune1955

hi all. im after a picture of the Kings pub at scotland gate. also a pic of the prefabs from there too and one of the gypsy site behing the travellers. anyone help me out here. ?

my mam and dad held their wedding reception in the Kings, but for some strange reason, i aint got a pic of the pub. me mams 79 in april and asked if i had a pic, and i don't, and its embarrising to me not having one.

cheers

Edited February 19, 201214 yr by johndawsonjune1955

i also lived at eastgate during the 40s my friend joe jobson and me used to collect wood from the choppington colliery pit heap and chop it into sticks and bind them into bundles with an elastic band made from the inner tube of an old wheel jack ainsly used to take the to morpeth on his horse and cart .his horse was called goldie .

Working down the pit and having a coal fire i chopped the sticks when i came off the coal face for my bait. We had string and put sticks in until it tightened up, and carried them outbye and home. If we were lucky, and had a good button laddie, he would do it for us when we grafted. Did you know we called the sticks "!*!@# Wood" Now have any of you got any idea why ? i will hold on to see if anyone knows, if not i will let you know.

And i remember the Choppington pit heap well, we played on it as kids. Lots of timber on it and old conveyor belting, broken shovels etc.

I remember sliding down the heap on a shovel, what speed, i had to get off or i would have killed myself. i landed in the burn, black i was when i got out. and a good clippin from me mother when she seen me.

Me dad worked at the High Pit, Choppington. John Dawson, his brothers were also from Scotland Gate, Bart, Tucker, Harry, Eddie and Bobby. His sisters were Dorren, Belle, and Mary. They all lived at 60 eastgate where i was born. Tucker and Bart worked at the High Pit with me dad. Bart moved away to Pegswood Colliery and became a deputy. Not from the westerns He eventually moved to the Midlands when Pegswood closed. Me dad went to Longhirst, the manager was Kit Miller, who eventually set me on at Whittle Colliery. A good reference was me dad for that job. Our Tucker moved away to tyneside, but i dont think he went back into the pits.

Me dad also bred pigs at choppington where the allotments are today

Uncle bob worked at the railways, but suffered with ill health for ages, as he had TB when a youngin and never really recovered fully. He had a fish and chip van too, and his partner was a ? Slaughter. Sid it might have been, he was a gate lad.

Do you remember, Dickie Archbold ? Well uncle Bob, his real name was James Robert, went poaching with himthey were great friends as to was Jackie Ramsay. Thats Bob Ramsays older brother. They both worked at Whittle too.

Some cracking large families in them days. maybe because there was no television i recon .

where was the burn beside the choppington a colliery pit heap i can remember a pond beside it but not a burn the only burn near it was the willow burn that was at the other side of the colliery and came along side the willow bridge beside the old lord clide pub

There was a small burn and it faced the morpeth road side towards clarks farm. that would be looking north. to the west was a large pond and i also remember a old pit waggon for moving coal there. we used to catch the tadpoles there. There was of course the horses field, and the ponies from the colliery would be put in there during the holidays. I dont remember any pit pony training there tho. If you went south towards the !*!@# wood and willow bridge theree was a burn there too. We used to go scrambling on old motorbikes as it was great land for that. You also had the old wooden bridge at the railway. I think thats long gone. The wood is where i also believe the guy who murdered the train driver in the 1930s, as it was on its way to stobswood, buried the gold sovs. My uncle fred was playing in there and found one of the coins. It was handed into the police and confimed from the robery and murder. to this day the gold sovs have never been recovered. another lad, name i dont know found two coins in the same area. The bag what had the coins in were found in the old iron pit near barmoor and hepscott. no coins in it. Did you know that part of an anglo saxon village is under the pit heap ? the other half is in the field. Then you have an anglo saxon buriel site not a stones throw from it. There is also another anglo saxon village towards the high pit. all these untouched. i spent a huge part of my time at the farm as i was good friend with neil patterson. sadly not with us now. we did the tetee pickin there too. loads of old gunshot kept gettin turned up there in the fields and i know of two cannon balls that neil turned up too. my cousin kevin found the old coin. it was later confirmed as FAKE, it was in the newspapers, what gets me there was that barry mead, heritage officer then, took the coin away to be examined. it was in the shape of the angle coin with the dvil on. it was never returned tho for some strange reason by barry mead. wonder about that. you know if that coin was real, it would have put choppington on the map. and, the coin was associated with travellers and trading. if a traveller was ill he would, if he was wealthy get this coin around his neck to ward off the devil. Now that brings me to another point, thats with me living in the area and knowing the area as i do, very well. the ancient sheepwash hospice. that coin, if it was real, and never returned, dont know if they just said it was fake, but if it was real, i believe the traveller would have been taking to the sheepwash hospice. in my travels and interests i was with a good friend of mine and we were looking for some evidence of this and choppington castle. firstly we believe we may have found the ancient hospice. we were in the fields at sheepwash and found the superb floor, mosaic, i think the spelling may be slightly wrong, but beautiful. not a huge floor, but why there. it must have something to do with it, and i still have a piece of it at home. the rest of the floor was fragmented, but you could make a lot of it out. choppington castle was another quest, and we believe we have its location. we did metal detecting there and found old coins. declared too. the walls too it are under the ground when we had a scrtach around. i would like something done to dig it. its great find as was the mosaic floor. the mosaic floor is a few mile from what we believe is choppington castle. the anglo saxon villages are now recorded and so is the burial site. there is lots of other interests around there and sheepwash too, along with green lane and that hold some of the oldest structure in our area. another good place you need to look is willow burn as you mention. thomas mason began the first coal mine there and it was a land sale mine. have yourself a look and see what you can find. my cousin and i know whats there and it is of great importance if you look very hard. barrington fields where the industrial eastates was used during ww2 for home guard practice. i dont know if you know that too. but i also know that one of charly chivers sons found a handgrenade from there and too it home with his m8 to front street at scotland gate. young chivers, bless him, began hitting the grenade with some pliers and scewdriver, it went off and killed him. the bang was that powerful, and remember they lived in a downstairs flat, mrs mchugh lived upsatairs, was in bed, and the shudder blew her out of her bed when the grenade went off.

Well thats my historic info on the fields around our area. there is more, and maybe i will write them soon as there is some important information around our area. but get yourself down to the willow bridge, see if you can find whats left of the original pit that thomas mason began. oh, choppington station sign that was beside the railway, its still in the area and in a field. theres also a coal tub there too. just shows what you know when you know the fields as well as i did and still do. but, its all part of our heritage, and im proud to be involved in it with what i do.

heres a little info, if anyone is keen. go down willow bridge after heavy rain and look in the stream, and see what gets washed down. old bottles from the 1800s, and more. when the unitarian chapel was pulled down a lot of the building was dumped down there too. but its interesting to look around. i dont get down there now because of my health, but theres some good finds been uncovered there, and bits of thomas masons coal mine. beautiful pieces of archtecture too. but look very hard, and dont go in, its dangerous.

i can now visualy see where the burn was we used to have a rope hanging from one of the beams on the willow bridge to make a swing there was many a time it snapped and landed us in the burn . i can still remember the training ground for the ponies before they went under ground if i think right i am sure that ronnie tillberry was one of the trainers for a while i knew about ronnie chivers and the handgrenade he was a friend of mine . if i think right the grenade exploded close to tiny rices fish and chip shop

yes it did explode there. ronnie tilbury, was he knicknamed harvey? was keith his son the pigeon lad ? and there was twin girls too, one called karen, i think.?

teeny rices fish shop was a cracker, a had many a good fish supper from her.

ronnie was nicknamed harvey one of his sisters was called brenda she was the youngest of the family

if i think right the training ground for the pit ponies was near to the managers big house

splendid. that sorts a lot out for me now. i dont think he is alive now. i remember his son was very poorly, thats keith, he had cancer, but ok last time i was informed. they raced pigeons too as father and son. they did very well. my brother tom was very close to keith, the son, he was nicknamed "till" in those days. i think he moved to ashington ? did he marry an archbold ? anyway lovely lass she was, and young keith was a canny lad, i was at ellington colliery, he was there too, and had been transfered from woodhorn colliery to ellington. i think he was on the continuous miners, as i was, working bord and pillar. im sure he was in the grangemoor, number 3 pit, i was and moved to the number 4 pit.

is i right in beliveing harvey was into motorcyles as a youth ? i think i recall me dad saying he was, but i may be wrong.ha

rveys wife was a canny lass, not well built, tall she was. i remember keiths, gran- mam and gran- dad very well, they lived in east gate.

we lived at 19 east gate, next to the field at the end of the cul-de-sac. my parents got the house, as they rented a room in that house, when the tenant died.you could do that in those days.

our next door neighbour was the lee family. john, robert, george, edmund, lilly, mary and the mam and dad. john and robert died very young in age. what cracking lads thet were. lilly married john tasker, and their daughter, lyne, is in our old house at number 19. she aint a very well lass is lyne, but a lovely lass. john and lilly are very good friends of mine. edmund lives in ashington, george died a few years ago. mary married bob ramsay, i worked with him at whittle pit, but knew him very well as i did his brother jack. is jackie still alive ? i knew he was proper poorly at one time .

my god, i am still rambling on. never mind, i have a great fondness with the people of choppington of old and always will. salt of the earth in my eyes. proper chopperlites, or gaters as they were once known.

wally brown and emilly from the travellers rest and their son wayne, good friend of mine. do you remember hank ? keith hodgeson ? cracking lad he was. then there was john hunter, a barrington lad, he lived at guide post, worked at whittle, and died young, he was a good friend of all of us.

i learned to play card games off them all, something i can still play today, and nap, solo whist, brag. you name it, cracking in those days.an

yway, enough waffling on, take care and lovely to reminence.

you are right in harvey having a motor cycle he used to have a 650cc tryumph i used to service it for him i lived at 16 eastgate i knew the people that you have mentiond i have very fond memories of eastgate that i will never forget.

i knew an allan dawson who lived inwhat we called the square at eastgate we used to call him daw daw he like the rest of us would often go swimming in the river wansbeck beteen bothal and sheepwash to get to it you crossed a field opposite to the entrance of choppington high pit many a happy year i spent there i can remember allan used to take an inflatebill dingy

great. i remember me dad telling me how he was on the back of it one day and he fell off it at hartford hall way.