Willow Bridge, Choppington

[Vic Patterson]

Ah spotted wor lass right away! 

She was rattling the names off, but missed a lot of them, eyesight rather than memory, you just made her day (needed it)

[Margaret Wilson]

"Loved the Photo HPW you look a little darling thank you so much for sending it.  My husband went to that school in the fifties some of the faces looks familiar to me I'm sure some of them went  to guide post senior school when I was there . Getting back to the black pipe it was round  about 48ish when I played there so it could have been possibe you were there.  I remember me and my little freind  were playing on the pipe and her foot got stuck in that  horrible black mud and she lost her shoe in it , we were terrified to go home with only one shoe," her dad had to go and dig it out then wash it on the outside tap . My mams freind  lived in story buildings her name was Beatie Hart she had two little girls Valerie and Beryl Valerie was your age and they got a house at Bedlington when they pulled Story Buildings down . Beatie and my mam were freinds right up untill they passed away. 

[bluebarby]

On 18/01/2016 at 14:08, bluebarby said:

That brings back memories! 

Between the railway and the Willow Burn there was an area that we always knew as the golf course, was it ever a golf course? 

I have a drawing some where of the wooden viaduct that the railway to the Pit went over. 

I am quoting myself here! 

Well as promised here are the photos of the viaduct that took the railway up to the pits. Hope it is appreciated 'cos they took some finding!

 

[pilgrim]

tremendous picture !! I am assuming from the timbers lying about it was taken when the bridge was completed the engineering is remarkable in that it hasn't changed since roman times!!

[bluebarby]

31 minutes ago, pilgrim said:

tremendous picture !! I am assuming from the timbers lying about it was taken when the bridge was completed the engineering is remarkable in that it hasn't changed since roman times!!

These pictures were taken in 1960 believe it or not.

[pilgrim]

seems very odd - as I was born 55 and all the embankment was grown over when I used to adventure there. am wondering if was during some refurbishment but is suppose that it would be another 2 yrs before I ventured forth there on my own -- those were the days - 7 yr olds being ok to wander miles wi the dog (mine was a golden retriever) and no thought of the coming to any harm!!

[bluebarby]

19 minutes ago, pilgrim said:

seems very odd - as I was born 55 and all the embankment was grown over when I used to adventure there. am wondering if was during some refurbishment but is suppose that it would be another 2 yrs before I ventured forth there on my own -- those were the days - 7 yr olds being ok to wander miles wi the dog (mine was a golden retriever) and no thought of the coming to any harm!!

More likely to be that the undergrowth was getting too bad and was cut back in case of fire plus it was winter when the growth was at its lowest. Dont forget steam was still king then and steam chucks out sparks and the viaduct was wood. Track sides were kept a lot neater then than they are now.

[pilgrim]

as I previously posted = post beeching - the sidings at choppington station were used to store the steam engines prior to scrapping -- boychilds dream lol

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Really appreciated Barby!

Somehoo not wat a remember,aav aalwis had in me heed a black bridge exactly thi same pattern as the thi Blyth and Wanny ones!![steel construction]

A shud be ashamed,a was up there plenty reet up inti thi 60's!

Interestingly though,this is similar to what the opencast coal bridge was like,owa the river Bltyth,when thi Acoen Bank site led coal owa the waata ti Bebside pit.

[pilgrim]

I think it was an NCB /railways thing - if it worked do it again and don't bugga about wi it!! - pity the council cant learn that!!

[Margaret Wilson]

4 hours ago, bluebarby said:

I am q toting myself here! 

Well as promised here are the photos of the viaduct that took the railway up to the pits. Hope it is appreciated 'cos they took some finding!

 

Whow to this picture you must be a genius to have found IT blue barby much appreciated A Big THANK YOU.

[Maggie/915]

More history to be proud of in Bedlington.

Waggonways, viaducts , railways , Bedlington has it all.

2,000 years of being important.

That  is our towns unique selling point.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

On 25/01/2016 at 20:26, pilgrim said:

seems very odd - as I was born 55 and all the embankment was grown over when I used to adventure there. am wondering if was during some refurbishment but is suppose that it would be another 2 yrs before I ventured forth there on my own -- those were the days - 7 yr olds being ok to wander miles wi the dog (mine was a golden retriever) and no thought of the coming to any harm!!

I remember when my older Brother,[born same day as me-three years earlier!],went out from Hollymount Square on an adventure trip,one day,through the cut from the square to Beattie Road,and around to the wood-head where Brigg's pig farm used to be.

We bumped into some other kids,and they were from Beattie Road...strangers!

THIS I never forgot!,one of them came to me,threateningly,and asked where I was from,when I told him,he then asked me..."Hoo owld are ye?"...........

"SIX" ....I replied,........"Whey AAM  SIVVEN,so watch wat ya sayin'...!"

SIX YEARS OLD! ...and playing over the steep banksides of the black path wood-head!![mind,my Brother was NINE....and He was looking after me....!!!]

Ya reet Pilgrim,we played for hours doon the picnic field,only it wasn't a picnic field in them days,it was a lovely grassy wild meadow wi Coos wi lang horns waaking aroond us!

Wa Mother's knew where we were ,just doon thi bank from Hollymoont,and we aalwis had little Mickey,my dog....just as ye recall yasell'...that was aroond 1950-ish.

We were safe as hooses in them days.

[pilgrim]

safe as hooses ...... strangely enough there was more probability of being subject to some form of molestation/abuse between 1940 and the late 60's than from the 70's to now!!!!!

the difference is - the press and the advent of television and the banner headlines about what was once 'unspeakable' and went largely unreported, the fear factor that sells papers!!

but, yes, the 'darling buds of may' era - that time of nostalgia and great happiness that occludes the hardship and perils - but we lived through and made us what we are. I do wonder what folk in 50 yrs time, when I am long gone, will look back on and see as highlights of how they spent their youth - how does texting and speaking with thumbs compare with a  walk with the dog and dare I say bird nesting and being at one with the natural world all around us??

 

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

".................................aye,Son!.............when aa was a lad Androids WERE Androids!.......ye cud actually TOUCH them wi ya thumbs........not like aal this new -fangled

thought-processing telepathy stuff wat ye kids think aboot aal day......ye shud get yasel summick ti occupy ya brains man,it was hard work when aa was kid....ye had sair thumbs by thi end of ya shift..............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Heh heh!

[pilgrim]

it makes me wonder now how the present children would cope with our lives then? (outdoor toilets and a tin bath which was hung in the yard outside every house!! manual washing machines in the 'wash house' which had a copper , a poss tub, one of them ridged boards, and the mangle) I despair when I see a group of kids walking along together and none are talking to each other, but all are 'texting' someone else, why bother socialising??? Its even worse when you see folk in their 40's doing the same!!!

Those days of a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of 'waters and robson' pop (and delivered to the door by the 'pop' wagon!!!) was a feast for a day out - there was something about the taste of the pop during the course of the day when the bottle ended up with crumbs floating in the pop - food and drink in one!!!

is the black bridge still standing??

[Maggie/915]

I always wonder what would happen if the satellites fail and we loose that

(perhaps) vital asset to modern life.

Telstar and beyond then the connection is gone gone gone.

It could happen.

[bluebarby]

Nay bother at all.............Its just back to two tins and a bit of string. It always pays to have a plan b.

[pilgrim]

interesting article I saw from the royal geographic society a few months back - most kids can't read a map now!! (look at all the grief from folk slavishly following the 'bitch in the box' satnav and getting stuck!!) coupled with the damning report this week about numeracy and literacy, which I was ranting about at uni 20 yrs ago and you have a disaster in the making!

but enough of that....

is the black bridge still standing? and are there kippers still for tea??

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh! A few months ago my Wife and me...[er...."I"....!!!] ,were sitting in our G.P.'s waiting room,in the Queue to see the Doctor.

Naturally,most folk,young and old,had their smart-phones or tablets out on full display...nothing discreet!

The lady in the seat directly in front of us,was keeping a very young kid entertained with  her phone,which,it was hard NOT to notice,had an Arithmetical

program displayed.

The kiddie was typing in simple multiplication and division "sums",and passing the phone to her Mother [?],to answer the problem.

The Lady was seriously counting on her fingers,and sometimes got the wrong answer!

I thought ,no!,she is only keeping the bairn happy!,but after about half an hour,and various attempts at corrections,it became clear that the neither of them knew how to add 2x2!!

I think the only 4x4 she probably knew was her poser jeep standing ootside!!.......[my sarky joke!]

No black bridge standing there noo,up the Choppington fields,Pilgrim,nae pits!

Nae open fields either,aal planted wi mature trees noo.

Mind,it's a lovely waak through the Choppington Community Woods on a warm summer's day wi ya dog,reet from where the High pit used ti be,doon various offshoot paths,alang what WAS the railway line that brought thi High pit coal doon ti thi Low pit.

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

@HIGH PIT WILMA - you have a fan on the Villageguides Facebook group. Currently posting info on Choppington and you get a mention in the posting on the Unitarian Chapel on Station Bank (can't recall it ever been called that before ) :-

 

 

 

Villageguides

 

Here is another ‘new’ old photograph that I discovered last week while researching Robert Elliot one of the founders of the Choppington Coop. I have not seen this photo on any of the local history forums up until now which makes it something of a rarity.

It was taken in 1968 on the occasion of the 100 anniversary of the Unitarian Chapel on Station Bank in Choppington and was published in a recent newsletter of the Newcastle Unitarian Chapel. This photograph also shows one of the clearest views I have seen of Storey’s Buildings running down the hill. If any of you reading this know “High Pit Wilma” from the Bedlington History Hollow Forum, be sure to let him know as he spent much of his early childhood there. 

Tomorrow, I will return to this site and let you know the full story of the chapel.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Eh Alan!..thanks a lot for notifying me of this great pic of my old home village!

Please convey my special thanks to the person who made the reference to me on Facebook.

Brings back a lot of memories..climbing on the wall behind the chapel,which was a helluva height....for a three year old laddie..in truth it was probably about the same height as the one shown here..maybe four or five feet high!...playing in the back lane..up the field where the ponds were...in the days when they were lovely green meadows stretching aal thi way up the Barn'ton Born!

Imagine,we just used to walk over that road ti play in the "Front"  field,in the bomb crater,which grassed over by then..

Cheers and thanks again!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

10 hours ago, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Please convey my special thanks to the person who made the reference to me on Facebook.

 

Done - copied and pasted your full reply to the Village_guides admin. I have no idea who the admin is but they must read this forum.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Late of catching up as usual,but a BIG thanks Alan!

Caring duties at home becoming more intense Alan,so will be checking in whenever I can.

Cheers Bill.

[lilbill15]

On 29/07/2010 at 10:52, Hillbilly said:

Cheers Cympil... hasn't changed much really!! In fact I am sure that bloke walking over the bridge with the briefcase still drinks in the Monkey

Any more photo's welcome

Dear Hillbilly, I think that bloke with the briefcase is a WUMMAN! xx