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The Old Broadway House Farm

Maggie/915

By Maggie/915
in History Hollow

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Orloff

Orloff

Posted
Posted

That piccie of Broadway House farm, in the background there is the walking dragline from the opencast mining, does anyone know anything about it? I thought it was called Big Geordie but all my searches drew a blank.

Maggie/915

Maggie/915

Posted
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Posted

Anyone got pictures off the Red House Farm.

We all see buses etc going in that direction but have forgotten what was there.

Seem to recollect people living in caravans when I was small.

No one complaining.

Keith Scantlebury

Keith Scantlebury

Posted
Posted (edited)

big geordie was first at bedlington then he was at butterwell

Nah, Big Geordie was never at Bedlington,could you imagine the cost moving it from Bedlington to the Butterwell opencast.!! I can remember when it was moved to another part of Butterwell, to down beside the Junction pub from Stobswood , I think. They had to take it through Widdrington Station on public roads because there was some reason that they could not use the Haul roads. They had to prep Widdrington Station level crossing, it still wrecked it and there was panic to get it fixed with it being the London - Edinburgh line

.

Edited by keith
Symptoms

Symptoms

Posted
Posted

Yep, he was at Bedders ... I was in his bucket down the hole. Below are a couple of my earlier posts about Costains.

A 2007 post:

"Is this the golf club built on the the old Costains opencast site (been away since the 60's)? Any prospective buyer/developer would be amazed at what was dumped in the hole before being cover over - this was in the days before the concept of environmental impact studies. Has anybody ever seen anything seeping out the ground at the river level below the site? I saw lorry loads of steel drums (contents unknown!), rubble, industrial waste, etc. being tipped. The most memorable was a huge quantity of cosmetic products, especially stuff like shampoo being left - somebody brought a load of it to Westridge School for use in the showers after PE lessons ... foam everywhere!! Probably infected loads of lads with skin infections."

A 2009 post:

Brilliant! Just to get some sense of scale of the drag-line buckets the Dad of a pal of mine (he was the top spark at the site in the mid to late 60s)took a few of us 'down the hole' in a Land Rover which he parked in the bucket ... there was still plenty of room at each side even after we opened all the car doors wide to get out. The Euclids in the film (tractor/trailer jobbies) I seem to remember were superceded by the mid to late 60s by those yellow American brutes ... but maybe others here have clearer memories. There was a rather interesting 'grave yard' dump for all the old & knackered tackle (including some of the types shown in the film) ... yep, it all went in the hole at the end. The explosives shed (a big red steel box) was never locked! - oh, what fun us lads had on the site. Wasn't the coal screening site at Bebside ... I seem to remember another Bailey bridge going over the road next to Jacky Reed's garage?

James

James

Posted
Posted

This photo of Broadacres farm brings back memories of the old road to Humford Mill swimming baths and this is the first time I have heard it called Broadacres Farm. It was always known as "Joe Gillespie's farm". (In the attached photo it is referred to as "Broadacres House")

The present road to Humford Mill takes a 90° turn to the left after passing Bayard Woods housing estate.

Before the opencast started in that area in the 1950's the road continued straight past the present farm house, passing Broadacres House situated on the right side of the road about 300 yards ahead. It then continued around a few bends to the top of the hill from Humford. This was one of two roads diverted to enable the coal seams to be mined that lay beneath the roads. The other road diversion was the road from the golf course up to Ewart Hill. The old road turned to the left after the club house, passing the Bedlingtonlane Farm and continued up to Ewart hill.

Both these roads as they were before the changes can be seen in the attached photo.

The opencast coal reserves lay mainly in a seam known as the High Main. This seam was also being mined by The Doctor Pit that had both a vertical shaft and an inclined shaft (known as "The Drift"). It was from "The Drift" that the High Main was being mined, in a section of the mine known as "The West Winnings". There was a period in the 1950's when the High main was being mined by both the Doctor pit and the opencast concurrently. On those days when blasting operations were being carried out in the opencast, all underground miners were cleared from "West Winnings" workings.

A large portion of the coal reserves mined by the opencast could have been mined from the Doctor Pit so the decision to mine these reserves by opencast methods shortened the life of the Doctor pit significantly.

Attached Thumbnails

post-2987-0-29284900-1360527251_thumb.jp

James

James

Posted
Posted

"Broadacres" should of course read "Broadway" - my apologies.

(I must of been thinking about "The 20 Acres" which is not far from the old Broadway House Farm.)

Maggie/915

Maggie/915

Posted
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Very interesting James.

I think the farm opposite the new Broadway house farm was owned or run by the Grey's.

I know the new farm house had no electric.

Wired up but not connected.

Now people worry about Electro Magnetic Fields maybe then it was electric that was dangerous.

  • 4 weeks later...
johndawsonjune1955

johndawsonjune1955

Posted
Posted

Can anyone remember the old road to Humford past the Original Broadway House Farm

That must be the 1950s as the opencast was working that area out.

I will link some of the footage of that dragline at work very soon.

Cracking old pic that is too Maggie

Its nice to see rare pics than the ones that keep doing the rounds these days. However, there all nice to look back on.

johndawsonjune1955

johndawsonjune1955

Posted
Posted

There is a super DVD called The Giant Steps Out on the Ace of Spades at Stobswood. Can't put my hands on it. However mu uncle alfie worked at the big geordie site, i will see if he hasa anything on it for us , fingers crossed.

Hope i find that Ace of Spades, its bugging me now, wonder if i borrowed it out to someone and never got it back ?

  • 5 months later...

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