Puddler's Raa[Row]

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

6 hours ago, Peter Turner said:

All four photographs of Puddlers Row, Bank top, Bedlington were kindly sent to me by Mr Jack Earl. He was born at number 20 Puddlers Row in 1939. 

Jack contacted me through a request for photos of Puddlers Row in the local history magazine ' Creeful of Coals. 

Many thanks to Jack for the only photo I've ever seen of Puddlers Row. 

 

Thanks for sharing Peter - I think these will be a first for anyone  on this site.

It's too difficult fore me not to make this request - Is it Ok to share these photos with interested parties, ie. old Bedlington folk?

There is one particular person I would like to pass a copy to and that's @Reedy, who is a member on this site but I know he hasn't visited the site since April 21st and uses the Bedlington Facebook groups more. You would see from many of Reedy's posts on this site that Reedy's dad ( born c1929 and lived on the Bebside side of the river next to the Furnace Bridge) has been a source of a lot of info.I would like him to see the photos, if that's Ok with you? The photos would not be posted on facebook but sent, with text on them, via the Facebook personal Message service to Reedy.

eg   

You never know he might be able to name someone in the photos

Edited August 6, 2017 by Eggy1948

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Canny lass said:

This Puddler’s Row has had me perplexed .........................

 

Pleased I wasn't researching Puddlers Row. My Hero = Canny Lass.

[Canny lass]

13 hours ago, Eggy1948 said:

You never know he might be able to name someone in the photos

I think the man in the white coat with the horse and cart could be Jack Antonio (not sure about the spelling), ice-cream seller. He came to Netherton as well in the early fifties. He seemed ancient to me, at 4-5 years old, then. 

[Peter Turner]

I contacted Jack Earl and he's happy for people to share the photos of Puddlers Row. 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

1 hour ago, Peter Turner said:

I contacted Jack Earl and he's happy for people to share the photos of Puddlers Row. 

Thanks Peter.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

4 hours ago, Canny lass said:

I think the man in the white coat with the horse and cart could be Jack Antonio (not sure about the spelling), ice-cream seller. He came to Netherton as well in the early fifties. He seemed ancient to me, at 4-5 years old, then. 

There was another ice cream seller - same type of horse & cart went around the Oval & Bedlington Station estates but I can't remember his name and the only other bit of info that's stuck in me mind is that he came, all the way, from Cambois to sell his wares.

Two images of Jack Antonio in the Doctor Pit rows and it looks like they were both done on the same day, just seconds apart - one from Facebook groups and the other with some info on Jack from Evan Martin's book The Shire of Bedlington in old picture postcards :-

 

[Canny lass]

Thanks Eggy. I must have got it wrong. Those pictures are definitely the Jack Antonio I remember. His cart was very colourful. 

[Reedy]

My Dad John Reed was born in December 1928 and was brought up on Stead Lane. He has a copy of the photograph and identifies the motorcycle rider as Alan Walker and the ice cream seller as Billy Bell.

[Pete]

I remember the ice cream man, he came round the oval area as well as Stead lane early fifties and into the sixties. His second name was Bell but we always refered to him as Jack Bell but his name may well have been Billy Bell. He had a white ice cream cart and it was pulled by the horse.

I remember reading somewhere, not sure if was on this thread that he came from Camboise but I always thought he was from Bebside but again I could be wrong.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

2 hours ago, Pete said:

I remember the ice cream man, he came round the oval area as well as Stead lane early fifties and into the sixties. His second name was Bell but we always refered to him as Jack Bell but his name may well have been Billy Bell. He had a white ice cream cart and it was pulled by the horse.

I remember reading somewhere, not sure if was on this thread that he came from Camboise but I always thought he was from Bebside but again I could be wrong.

My mind @Pete says that my parents told me that the guy with the horse & cart, selling ice cream in Coquetdale Place late 1950s, came from Cambois, but I can't remember his name.   

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Jack Antoniho  came aroond Hollymoont Square from the days when the square was still being built..and my family moved into number 13 when aa was aboot three and a haaf yeors auld...that was aroond 1947-8.

Us kids that had nowt but the claas on wa backs,used ti cadge lifts on his cart aroond thi square,and he used ti gie us a haaf-dozen wafer biscuits ti keep wi happy!!

He was the kindest "old" [ti us!] man we ever knew.

As time went by,me Faatha used ti send me oot ti get ice-cream "Sammidges"...the wafer biscuit type..not cornets..for aal wa family...a once-a-week treat!

So auld Jack knew his business!!....treat thi kids reet....nae bother gettin' mair business as a result!

Oh.....!....and nae historic claims of child abuse wi aad Jack!

Great ti see these pics of Jack.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Weel done Canny Lass!!

A think we'll start caaling ye "VERA"!.........[ A  dinna waatch telly,but aav seen thi film crews knockin' aroond a few times!!...at Blyth and other places!]

[Elaine McHattie]

Doing some research on my family tree.  My grandfather apparently lived at 5 Howard Terrace, Bedlington... Name: John McCafferty.   His mum and dad were John McCafferty and Mary (Nee Murphy).

They relocated from Ireland.  Looking for some info on rest of his family if anyone has any information?

Thanks 

Elaine

[Elaine McHattie]

On 31/05/2013 at 16:56, Eggy1948 said:

On 30/05/2013 at 19:12, Reedy said:

I have been reliably informed that the streets which were located around the 'Bank Top' area were as follows -

Starting at what used to be Joe Jennings farm and shop including Mansion House now possibly 'Smiles' was Glassey Terrace. The first 7 houses were originally named Howard Terrace but the name was changed to Glassey Terrace as a result of misdirected mail as another Howard Terrace existed in Netherton.

Families living in Glassey Tce in the 1940s/1950s were -

1 - Storey

2 - Jobson

3 - Storey

4 - Watson

5 - Tait

6 -

7 - Hedley

8 - Moscrop

9 - Proudlock

10 - Hedley

11 - Andrews

12 - Brown

13 - Gregg

14 - Morton

15 - Gibson

16 - Wonford

Next came the Bank Top Hotel(opened in 1903) Landlord J McKenna.

To the left of the Bank Top pub was a row of about 4 cottages occupied by families McSparron, Cole and Thompson. These cottages were next to the Puddlers Arms which contained flats occupied by Bell, McGregor, Miller , Rooney. These were also known as Craggs Buildings. This collection of homes including the Puddlers Arms were eventually cleared to make way for what is now River View Close.

Continuing away from the Bank Top was River View -

1 - Turnbull

2 - Scoular

3 - Patterson

4 - Dodds

5 -

6 -

7 -

8 -

9 - Stanners

10 - Metcalfe

11 - Tipple

12 - Dawson

13 - Mood

14 - Hall

15 - Short

16 - Fenwick

17 -

18 -

19 - Douglas

20 - Coe

Staying on the right hand side of the road next came 'Puddlers Row'. These houses ran as far as number 2 Stead Lane across the area at the top of what is now Tomlea Avenue where the cottages are.

Families in Puddlers Row approx mid 1950s (some show numerous or duplicate names as families moved or swapped houses)-

1 - McGarry/McAndrews

2 - Donohoe

3 - McCafferty

4 - Conomy

5 - Noon/Odonnell/Tellum

6 - Thain/Furness

7 - Neary

8 - Mullarkey/Smallman

9 - Bellerby

10 -Carey

11 - Murphy/Bolam

12 - Nicholson

13 - Weatheritt

14 - Kelly/Snowdon

15 - Kinghorn/McCafferty

16 - Oliver

17 - Birch/Mulholland/Mole

18 - Easton/Craze

19 - Smallman/Walker/McCafferty

20 - Mullarkey/Earl

These houses led onto Stead Lane with the even numbers on the right as you headed towards Bedlington and the odd numbers (Doyles Shop side)on the left.

I also have an almost complete list of families for Stead Lane if anyone wants them posted.

Please note the information was compiled by my Father (who is now 84 years old and has lived at the Bank Top all his life)and a few old family friends whose names appear in the lists of families. I cannot comment on their accuracy or the exact dates as no records were used only 'grey matter' and memories.

 

Hope my 'grey matter' is still working in 20 years time. Tell him thank you and well remembered from me.

Hello my grandad lived at Bank Top- John McCafferty. I have a copy of the census attached. Looking for info on our rellatives please.

Edited September 26, 2017 by Elaine McHattie

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

10 hours ago, Elaine McHattie said:

Doing some research on my family tree.  My grandfather apparently lived at 5 Howard Terrace, Bedlington... Name: John McCafferty.   His mum and dad were John McCafferty and Mary (Nee Murphy).

They relocated from Ireland.  Looking for some info on rest of his family if anyone has any information?

Thanks 

Elaine

Don't know any McCafferty's @Elaine McHattie

 

 - I see you have had a search of this site finding the info, list of names, from @Reedy's dad.  Is that your family that reedy's dad has living in Puddlers Row in the 50s? 

Families in Puddlers Row approx mid 1950s (some show numerous or duplicate names as families moved or swapped houses)-

1 - McGarry/McAndrews

2 - Donohoe

3 - McCafferty

Edited September 26, 2017 by Eggy1948

[Elaine McHattie]

My mum said she visited my great grandparents in the 60's and they lived in Puddlers Row and a number of their children lived there too.  She can't quite remember names but Patrick comes to mind.

Thanks

Elaine

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi Elaine! Welcome to the site!

My Wife is the Sister of the fella who kindly shared these very rare pics with us,and she was nine years old when they moved out of the Puddler's Raa,to the new Grange Park Estate.

That would have been in 1955..I have always assumed the Raa was pulled doon then....not in the 1960's?

When WERE they pulled doon exactly?....anybody knaa?!!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I keep asking people in the street HP but nobody seems to kna, it's as if they just disappeared one day! 

I have no recollection of Puddler's Row. My mam's aunt lived in Elenbel Avenue and me, and my two older brothers, spent loads of time at their house in the mid to late 50's :-

Elenbel 1955 or 56 - I first got my specs in 1955 age 7

The old maps at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/427570/581434/10/100708 only have an issue date, not the date the area was surveyed, and the 1951 map shows Puddlers Row but no council houses, including Elenbel around the Oval area. We moved into an airey house, Coquetdale Place, in 1949 

 0ne bike between us - a wheel each.

so the 1951 map is a few years behind.

The next map, 1961, shows all the airey houses and Elenbel, Tomlea and the old folks bungalows, Trotters Grove, but no Puddlers Row and Trotters Grove is in a line with a grassed area that people older than me say is where Puddlers Row was.

Dosen't answer you question HPW but filled in 10mins of my time.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh! Thanks Eggy,still very interesting!

My Wife says the grassed area you mention is where the raa was,but she canna mind the raa being pulled doon,cos she was only nine when her Family moved into the new Cooncil hoose at Grange Park.

Aa remember when the Cooncil laid the tarmac paths and roads leading from Stead Lane into the "Grunds"[slang nyem for "the Grounds"].....still beats me why it got that nyem like!,when they started building the Airey hooses etc,cos a was aboot ten yeors aad,in 1954 [July],[might hev been the following yeor like!],and the craze at that time was .....not mobile phones......[!]......but mobile wheels!!!

Aye,ivry kid worth he's salt,had a pair o' roller skates for Xmas one year,and they were either Milbro,or AW,noo a canna mind wat the AW stood for ,but that's wat mine were.

SO!!,why a mentioned aal that drivel,was cos word got roond the kids owa Millfield,which was passed ti thi HollyMoonta's,then doon ti the Beattie and Haig crews,and some of the Parkies,[them that lived doon the terrace from the Whitley Schyuul,facing onto the park..],and before lang,ONE MASSIVE snake of skaters went fleeshin doon from Stead Lane onti the new -fangled Tarmac,which was as smooth as a babby's hint-end,and quiet and easy on both your skate wheels,AND ya bones!!

THAT new set of roads doon theor became the place ti gaan skating efter schyuul!!,cos it was cheepa on wheels...the rough concrete roond Hollymoont wor the wheels oot in a fortneet!![and skatin' on the paving stones was ten times worse!!]

Jimmy Milne sowld them for a haaf-croon each..[25 pence in today's money,but a fortune when ye had ti pick blackberries aal weekend and sell them roond the doors ti get money ti buy a wheel!]

Noo! aa was ten in 1954,so if they were building,and developing aal that surroondin' area they wadn't want an eyesore of aan aad raa caaled Puddlaa's Raa,ti be left stannin dilapidated wad they,so aam thinking,just thinking mind,they mebbe pulled them doon as soon as they were aal empy!!

Me Wife was nine in 1955,when she shifted,aa was eleven in July that yeor,so mebbe that's when they went!!

Lang draan oot story as usual,but the subject just set me reminiscing.......!!

P.S. Strange fate that a few years later,as we got inti wor teens,and skates were a thing of the past.....until the day me Motorbiking Marra's[who were also me marra's doon the High Pit!],one day sed ,"Wilma,dae ye fancy gaan doon ti thi Skating Rink at the Station?"

"Skating Rink?????????Wheor thi hell is tha a skating rink????"!....[aa hadn't been owa the plate-ends till then!!]

So we went and the rest is telt elsewhere on the site!!!!!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

.....were the Airey's being built in 1949 Eggy?

Got me puzzled!..mind a dae knaa tha was a massive building programme gaan on after the war got owa,wi West lea,Hollymoont Square,the Grunds,then Grange Park...when ye left schyuul,it was eetha the pits,or thi Cooncil Buildings for them that warn't brainy enuff ti gaan ti grammar schuul....like me!!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

15 hours ago, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

.....were the Airey's being built in 1949 Eggy?

Got me puzzled!..mind a dae knaa tha was a massive building programme gaan on after the war got owa,wi West lea,Hollymoont Square,the Grunds,then Grange Park...when ye left schyuul,it was eetha the pits,or thi Cooncil Buildings for them that warn't brainy enuff ti gaan ti grammar schuul....like me!!

I was delivered in 10, Beatty Road, by Dr Brown, 14-10-1948, and they tell me they were so excited they forgot to have me weighed at birth. So that photo of me standing up, with the left leg of me nappy/pants hanging doon taken at No 5 Coquetdale Place, could only be autumn 49 or Spring 1950. Me mam, the oldest of me grannies 9, did say that No 10  Beatty Road was full in October 1948 = 5 Edgar's, granny & granda + at least their 4 youngest - so me mam & dad took the keys to No 5 Coquetdale before the rest of the houses were habitable. One comment that has always stuck with me was - 'misses, is that youngin still alive, he's nivver moved all the time we've been busy....' and that was from the workmen still finishing off No 5. Apparently left outside in me pram I slept like a log and that ability to relax and dream away stayed with me to this day ( doobe do do doobe....). That's another reason why Barrington CP school  had as many, if not more, pupils from Bedlington than Barrington in the 50s as nearly every family from Coquetdale, and the high numbers in Waverley Avenue (also airey houses - bottom bit from the cut through to Pioneer Terrace  built earlier in traditional brick) had to go there - stuck in no man's land between the Station & Whitley schools catchment area. 

[Elaine McHattie]

On 16/01/2013 at 16:48, keith lockey said:

HPW - do you mean Puddler's Lane? I remember my granny saying Terrier Close, where I live, was called Puddler's Lane.

HI Bill.  My great grandfather was John McCafferty and the informant for his death was H.M. Craze.  Is this relations of yours? He died at 3 Puddlers Row

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

16 minutes ago, Elaine McHattie said:

HI Bill.  My great grandfather was John McCafferty and the informant for his death was H.M. Craze.  Is this relations of yours? He died at 3 Puddlers Row

@HIGH PIT WILMA - nearly 3 weeks since you commented on any topic. Hope all is Ok

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi Eggy! Thanks for the P.M.,and a big HI! to you Elaine,and welcome to the greatest forum on the planet!!

Sorry to have missed your post , Elaine,I have had a rough time lately..health-wise,but back into catching up on all things domestic which have to be done!

My Wife's Parents,and GrandParents lived in Puddler's Row..[known locally as .."Puddlaas Raa.."],and my Wife was nine years old when they moved to the "new" Grange Park estate,around 1955,when it was just being built.

She has often mentioned Paddy McCafferty,and only a few weeks ago Rosie McCafferty passed away,she was a close friend and neighbour of my Wife's family at both dwelling places for many many years.

Rosie lived next door to Harry Craze and his Wife Bridgie..[ that's what we called her..],at Grange Park,and she was a  McCafferty also,but not sure if she was a Sister of Paddy's,or a different relation.

Those were the good old days when all the neighbours would give you a shout over the street if you hadn't seen them as you walked by,or if you were busy in the garden,it was hard work trying to just get something done.....due to being distracted by chatting too long over the fence!

The McCafferty's were no relation to me or my Wife,but Bridgie,Harry,and Rosie were all so lovely,homely,and affectionate,that they were in many respects closer to us ,as neighbours,that they would have made a lovely family for us!

True old saying..."Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves"....!

[Elaine McHattie]

On 02/05/2018 at 01:13, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Hi Eggy! Thanks for the P.M.,and a big HI! to you Elaine,and welcome to the greatest forum on the planet!!

Sorry to have missed your post , Elaine,I have had a rough time lately..health-wise,but back into catching up on all things domestic which have to be done!

My Wife's Parents,and GrandParents lived in Puddler's Row..[known locally as .."Puddlaas Raa.."],and my Wife was nine years old when they moved to the "new" Grange Park estate,around 1955,when it was just being built.

She has often mentioned Paddy McCafferty,and only a few weeks ago Rosie McCafferty passed away,she was a close friend and neighbour of my Wife's family at both dwelling places for many many years.

Rosie lived next door to Harry Craze and his Wife Bridgie..[ that's what we called her..],at Grange Park,and she was a  McCafferty also,but not sure if she was a Sister of Paddy's,or a different relation.

Those were the good old days when all the neighbours would give you a shout over the street if you hadn't seen them as you walked by,or if you were busy in the garden,it was hard work trying to just get something done.....due to being distracted by chatting too long over the fence!

The McCafferty's were no relation to me or my Wife,but Bridgie,Harry,and Rosie were all so lovely,homely,and affectionate,that they were in many respects closer to us ,as neighbours,that they would have made a lovely family for us!

True old saying..."Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves"....!

Hello 

Further to my family research Harry Craze was the named informant on my great grandfather's death certificate.  Harry was the informant (son in law).  Assuming my your info he was the husband of Bridget (Bridgie).  

Looking for any information on any 'living' McCafferty relatives that I could make contact with.  If anyone could help i'd appreciate it so much.

BTW it's a 'GREAT' forum :-)

Edited May 11, 2018 by Elaine McHattie