Old Bedlington Shops

[keith lockey]

Am I right in saying Keenlysides at Bedlington Station opened a shop on the front street! I believe it is where Zuenziga (?) and Tino's deli are now. It was all one shop. What happened to it? It didn't last long!

[threegee]

Your right Canny lass. Do you think all these men got their skirts at Feasters?

For the record in Foxy's picture: the shop just this side of the Northumberland Arms is James Millne (Jimmy Millne's) at 110 Front Street East. This was where Radio and later TV was supplied from. It was known as "The Cycle Shop" because it still sold cycle spares, and just about everything else hardware-wise. It also still saw a steady string of miners buying "carbide" (calcium carbide) for their helmet gas lamps about the time this was taken. This was scooped out of large oil drums and sold by the pound in heavy duty paper bags. Maybe the carbide was also used in early cycle lamps, but by this time they were all battery operated by the common 3 Volt Cycle Lamp Batteries.

I also remember a sign saying "Needless to say you'll need needles." yup, not the sewing variety but your actual gramophone needles! Going out of fashion as the electric "pick-up" and amplifiers rendered them relics of the past, but still in some demand in those days of 78's (78 RPM Records). Other things on show, and in demand, would be sets of darts, and harmonicas (Horner?). I remember local darts players weighing darts in their hands and doing practice throws. You wanted high-tech - there were shelves of radio valves with type numbers going back to the year dot! Perhaps the only place you could get those in Bedlington.

A "fashion expert" tells me this picture is 1958 or 1959, and that's about what I'd have guessed, if I'd not guessed a tiny bit earlier. So.. here we are already well into the 405 line TV era, with BBC TV (Channel 5) long established, and Tyne Tees TV (Channel 8) just starting, or getting ready to start.

[Canny lass]

Interesting threegee! Didn't know that Jimmy Millne had anything at that end of the street. Where was the off-licence then. Can anybody remember?

[bediesathome]

their was a saying during the 1940s about jimmy millne it was ride a ralleigh ride a wreck ride a millne break your neck

[Canny lass]

I don't know about that but my first 2-wheeler was a CWS (Cooperative Wholesale Society alias "the store") but my brother told me that CWS really meant "copper, wire and string". I loved my bike anyway!

[John Fox (foxy)]

Am I right in saying Keenlysides at Bedlington Station opened a shop on the front street! I believe it is where Zuenziga (?) and Tino's deli are now. It was all one shop. What happened to it? It didn't last long!

[Symptoms]

Keith L wrote: "I remember Wards Photography shop but am I right in saying he had the contract for the local school photographs? Because I bet he would have a stockpile of old bedlington photos."

Nah! I reckon foxy has the collection and is drip feeding them to us here.

On a serious note ... often old photos/negatives belonging to former photo businesses were kept by descendants, boxes-up for storage and forgotten about. There's been plenty of news stories about old photo archives being found decades later. Anyway, is there any information about Ward descendants? If they exist it might be worth asking if they have anything - what a find it would be and just imagine how enriched this website could be if we had them.

[threegee]

Interesting threegee! Didn't know that Jimmy Millne had anything at that end of the street. Where was the off-licence then. Can anybody remember?

At that time not only 110 Front Street East but no less than three other locations on Front Street East. Will get around to describing those real soon now.

The only off-licence I can actually remember well from that era was half way along the Barrington Road. It was sufficiently remote that it didn't need to be too choosy about the age of its customers!

their was a saying during the 1940s about jimmy millne it was ride a ralleigh ride a wreck ride a millne break your neck

This is indeed true! And well into the 1950's too!

[John Fox (foxy)]

Keith L wrote: "I remember Wards Photography shop but am I right in saying he had the contract for the local school photographs? Because I bet he would have a stockpile of old bedlington photos."

Nah! I reckon foxy has the collection and is drip feeding them to us here.

.

So is this where I got them Symp?

[keith lockey]

So is this where I got them Symp?

Great photos, I'm pleased someone has kept a photographic record of our town. But have you got one of the old bandstand that used to be at the bottom of the Furnace bank - near the river opposite the flat rock? (I don't mean the Attlee park bandstand) Me an my mates used to play there when we were young but now it is just open grass. I've added a recent photo showing where it once stood.

[Canny lass]

Is it this one Keith?http://www.bedlingtonironworks.org/gallery3/37/index.htm

[keith lockey]

Is it this one Keith?http://www.bedlingto...y3/37/index.htm

It certainly looks like it, Canny Lass, you're a star. There are the Seven Sisters trees in the background. But funny enough the bandstand roof looks different to what I remember it! But it might have been changed later on. Anyway, many thanks CL.

[jorga]

Can anyone remember Dunns department store? you could get goods on credit and someone would call at your house every week to collect weekly payments they sold just about everything , it was a large old fashioned shop with big wooden counters, also further along was another departmewnt store with elderly male assistants dressed in black suits. Another strange shop was the one around the corner from the chemists in the market place two old ladies owned it who were dressed in fashions from the 1900`s.

[John Fox (foxy)]

Can anyone remember Dunns department store? you could get goods on credit and someone would call at your house every week to collect weekly payments they sold just about everything , it was a large old fashioned shop with big wooden counters, also further along was another departmewnt store with elderly male assistants dressed in black suits. Another strange shop was the one around the corner from the chemists in the market place two old ladies owned it who were dressed in fashions from the 1900`s.

Is this the one? Wonder if anyone can give us the make and model of that telly in Browns window.

[Canny lass]

Wonder if anyone can give us the make and model of that telly in Browns window.

What year was this photo taken Foxy?

[threegee]

Is this the one? Wonder if anyone can give us the make and model of that telly in Browns window.

Now who would know a thing like that? I'd need a much closer look, but I can tell you what it isn't; it isn't one of the major brands, because they were all tied up between Millne's and the Coop. Likely something like a Regentone, though there were dozens of smaller manufacturers around in those days - mostly gobbled up by the majors. It's likely a 70 degree deflection angle TV rather than the 90 degree sets being introduced around that time. That's guessed purely from the front styling, the depth of the cabinet (and any rear projection for the tube) would be the decider.

Must say I'd quite forgotten there was a furniture shop there before the Gas Board. It can't have lasted very long.

OK, having looked at pictures of late 1950's Regentone's - which are close, but not close enough - I'm going to guess at a...

Note it's those gramophones again! This advert is taken from a popular trade price book, which the public wouldn't generally get to see. Thus the talk of "sales figures" etc. I'm not sure what the public would have made of some of the (overblown) tech-talk either. Talk of "semi-conductors" would probably have had them scratching their heads. And, these days RGD would surely have trouble getting some of their "automatic" claims past the ASA.

What year was this photo taken Foxy?

The year is much the same as the earlier photo looking the other way. For that we guessed 1958, or 1959 at the latest. At first glance it looks more modern, but logic says there can't be much more than a year's difference. So, a very good chance it was taken at the same time.

[John Fox (foxy)]

Just testing you threegee,............

its the 70 degree deflection angle thats a giveaway......... Would Ena Sharples be around in those days?

Edited August 9, 2012 by foxy

[John Fox (foxy)]

What year was this photo taken Foxy?

I think threegee's probably right with 58 or 59,

this is not one of my own photo's me being just a young lad it was passed on to me from the Family.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Whot..........being just a young'un in 58 or 59 or being just a young'un now?

[John Fox (foxy)]

Whot..........being just a young'un in 58 or 59 or being just a young'un now?

I would be playing Catchy Kissy with all the young Lasses in 58 and 59 Malcolm !!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I would be playing Catchy Kissy with all the young Lasses in 58 and 59 Malcolm !!

Thought that was what we used to play at the old Top Club...............

[threegee]

I think the TV is now pointing these two pics much more at 1958 than 1959, and that matches exactly with our "fashion expert" opinion. With quite a few old Bedlington pictures it's possible to make a fairly accurate guess at the time of year, and an accurate guess at the time of day. But there are no shadows in these pictures, so that's out.

its the 70 degree deflection angle thats a giveaway......... Would Ena Sharples be around in those days?

About exactly this time TV's switched from using very long tubes (70 degree) to significantly shorter (90 degree) ones. Some manufacturers were quicker and made more use of the technology change to update styling than others. UK Philco (not UK Philips) was particularly clued up here - must have been the influence of the US parent. Philco sets made even the major UK manufacturers look outdated, and even they learned some quick lessons. This in part drove the rash of takeovers in the industry. Around this time, or shortly after, everyone knew the difference between 70 degree and 90 degree deflection angle TVs, even if they called it by something else. "Slimline" would have been most often used I think. These were very innovative times, even if the technology was crude by modern standards. Very soon after there would be a change to 110 degree tubes, and that, more or less (117 degree was claimed), is where the cabinet shrink stopped, until very recently.

No one in these pictures would have heard of Ena Sharples, "Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960". And - unless they travelled - they would have had to wait a short while to see their very first broadcast advert.

------------------

Technical note for any researchers reading this: The "Electrostatic" bit in the above ad IS significant, though all manufacturers would be able to claim it by then. It meant those two huge weighty ring magnets around the CRT neck were done away with (and the flat lever sticking out of the TV back cover on earlier sets). For a decade or more after kids would salvage these magnets to play with - far better than ones you could buy at toy stores! This was a big cost and weight saving. From then on the focus really didn't need any fine servicing adjustment until the introduction of colour TV. The "In-built automatic focusing" is probably a marketing persons reference to the same thing, and marketing froth. Nothing to do with the TV manufacturer of course, it was simply a newer CRT technology that was generally adopted.

[threegee]

Update: I have detected some shadows in the first picture and so submitted the image to intense enhancement and computation. Can now unequivocally determine that the first picture was taken on the 14th June 1958 around 1pm (GMT), and that there's an escaped budgie from that day's show at the library perching on a TV aerial, just out of shot. Anyone know what happened to that budgie?

http://www.nrfta.org...rfta/12161.html

[Canny lass]

Don't know anything about the budgie and I don't know anything about William Hemsteads Fruit and Confectionery shop either. Anybody know where it was?

[threegee]

Don't know anything about the budgie and I don't know anything about William Hemsteads Fruit and Confectionery shop either. Anybody know where it was?

Well, Malcolm Hemsted is apparently "website administrator" of "http://bedlington.pl...ay-cricket.com" and has published his email and picture there, so why don't you ask him? Better still ask him to come on board and post what he knows about the family for posterity. If he has photos to post then so much the better.

Hemsted rings a strong bell, and if I had to guess I'd say it was one of the shops at the East end of Front Street East, to the right of the banner here http://www.bedlingto...iners-picnic/ possibly the one with a double awning. Am a bit ashamed I can't remember precisely just at the moment. I'd certainly have shopped there on the odd occasion. For the record the one immediately to the left of the banner is Miller's Fruit and Veg, and they also owned the smaller shop to the left of the lamp post, though didn't always occupy it themselves.

And I think you do know what happened to that budgie...