Iv lived in bedlington all my life except for a brief period 1976 to79. My dad worked at the old co-op which is now millfield court, he did everything from working in thr warehouse, delivering milk by horse and cart, and driving the funeral hearse. In the 1950s we used to have a sign in our wash house window Board Kept Here, when someone died there would be a knock on the door anytime day or night so they could collect the board to lay out the body. When i was a child i was convinced the dead bodies were in the wash house, i still have the sign. When my mam and dad married in 1947 they rented a flat in Hollymount Hall, have spent years trying to find photos, without any luck can anyone help. I will stop now as i will be here all night, just wish my dad was still here, he had loads of stories about bedlington, i think he entertained many fellow drinkers in thr black bull with his tales.

Hi Eileen, welcome to the site. Hope you enjoy it and good luck with your searches. (Ps. Is this the Eileen who contacted me on Friends Reunited about old school photos?)

1. The Bedlington Co - operative Society was formed in the upstairs room of the Northumberland Arms on Monday evening 29th day of April 1861
   

Welcome to the Bedlington Forum Eileen.

Hi Eileen, welcome to the site. Hope you enjoy it and good luck with your searches. (Ps. Is this the Eileen who contacted me on Friends Reunited about old school photos?)

h

hi keith yes its me, thank u for the advice

hi keith yes its me, thank u for the advice

Nice to see you joined. I'm often on so we''ll 'chat' again.

hi Eileen welcome to the site from Tony G

Hi Eileen, welcome to the site hope you enjoy it here.

welcome from me too,..

Welcome to the community Eileen

Welcome Eileen

Hi Eileen, My Dad, like yours, would be more able to tell tales about Bedlington than me.

His pub of choice was The Sun Inn and the darts team.

Was Hollymount Square not owned by the Co-Op at one time ? Something sticks in the back of my mind that the co-op built some houses arround that area ? ..... Oh and by the way welcome to the site Eileeen !!

Hi Eileen,welcome to the site,you are among old friends here..methinks!

I was born at Guidepost in 1944,lived at Storey's Buildings Willow bridge,Choppington,until i was three years old,then My Parents

moved to Hollymount Square,in Bedlington.

The square was only half built,and our house,No 13,had the keybricks on the gable of the wash-house in readiness for the next phase of building to commence.

Building work was halted until the last of the old terraced houses were demolished,which was a continuation of Bell's Place,and which ran right down to the park.Knox's field was never built on,so that was a great place for kids to play,climbing trees,making camps,etc.

There was an air raid shelter in the field like an underground bunker,with a grassy mound over it.

My older Sister worked at the Co-op for years,from leaving school,around 1954

She married one of the van drivers,who worked in the catering dept.

His name was Fenwick W. [sadly deceased R.I.P.FEN],and he was the most likeable lad at the store.

When Hollymount hall was vacated,it was a really exciting scary place to play in,especially after dark,cos it was reckoned to be haunted.[me and my friends were only about 10-11yrs old!]

My older Brother used to play with a lad called Mick Robinson,who went to London,in later years,i believe,and he lived in the hall.

The place was all lit by old gaslamps,powered by the Doctor Pit gas Company.

Eeeeee....you got me going on a nostalgia trip here,Eileen!!

Welcome Eileen hope you enjoy the Forum

Hi Wilma, thank you for telling me about your memories you must have had loads of fun playing around the old hall, it was supposed to be haunted by a maid who had hung herself. I would have loved to have seen it and looked around inside, and i didnt realise Bells Place continued down to the park I would love to hear more of you memories of Bedlington. My Dad used to talk a lot about a friend called Fenwick, my Dad worked at the co-op until1969, I wonder if it was the same person, cant be many people called Fenwick, I will ask my mam. Thank you.

I put some information under the tag Bedlington Equitable Coop Society Eileen.

It may interest you.

Keith,Hollymount Square was the first housing programme to be built in Bedlington,after the end of WW2.

When we moved there,in 1948-ish,the square was only half built.

I remember seeing loads of high wood poles tied with ropes,around the houses which were still under construction,but didn't know what they were for!!

Scaffolding poles have changed a bit since then!

When they were pulling the old terraced houses down,in Bell's Place,about 1949-ish,my older Brother,and his friend,Micky,were

playing in the ruins of a partly-demolished house,when they found what looked like a ball of tarry string.

Micky knew what it was,and proceeded to his wash-house around from where I lived,in Hollymount.

It was shotfiring fuse,like the cowboys used in the movies!....some old miner from days gone by had left it in the cupboard,next to the fireplace,to keep it dry,and forgot about it.......

Micky said howway,we'll mek a bomb.....and so him and my Brother started to unwind the tarry string,collecting all the black gunpowder on a piece of newspaper..

They got a short piece of copper pipe,flattened one end with a hammer,filled the pipe with the gunpowder,and left about 2 feet of fuse sticking out,also sealing the end.

[Where Micky got the know-how to do this at his age,hardly ten years old!!...beats me!]

He dug a hole in the back garden,put the pipe in the hole,put the old tin bin lid over it,lit the fuse and we all ran into the wash-house to watch through the window.

.....Sorry to leave it there for now,but my little dog is frantic to go out!

Priorities!

I will catch up later!

Right!..it's now 24 hours since I had to abort,doggy is sleeping so i will finish my tale!

As we watched the explosion through the window,we saw the old "tin" bin lid lift up into the air like a flying saucer,and ,because it was so near the old stone wall that ran down the bottom of the gardens,at the side of old cobbled-stone Hollymount Avenue,it knocked the coping stones off the wall!

The neighbours all came out to see what the loud bang was,and Micky told us all to lie down under the bench to hide!As I was the bairn of the group,

i was the most scared that we would be caught and thrashed!

Now,when I think about it,lads often used to take the gunpowder out of penny-bangers,and put a lot of it into an old spent roman candle,seal it with clay,and set it off,under the bin lid.....always the bin lid!![ cos they were heavy galvanised steel lids in those days]

Anyway,no harm was done,nobody hurt,no windows broken,but it later led me to experiment with the "Carbine" powder that the miners used in the old Acetylene naked-flame lamps![Another story!]

Hi Eileen,getting back to the Co-op,when I was 11 yrs old,in 1955,I used to go over to the old Co-op Dairy,down

Hollymount Avenue,just around the corner from Smail's shop,to help old Bob Reed,the dairyman,to unload the big lorryloads of milk crates,that came from Stocksfield,and which supplied all the Co-op dairy's in the area.

Bob had only one arm[his right one],his left one was taken off at the shoulder.

Now!!!!When folks get on about safe driving,I always get on about old Bob,cos he drove all around Bedlington,in the small 5cwt bedford van,delivering milk,and I never knew him have an accident.

He used to put his right arm through the steering wheel spokes,reach for the gear lever,change gear,[crash gearboxes in those days as well!],and carry on driving and smoking away.....40mph down bedlington main street!!

Admittedly,very little traffic on the roads,but that doesn't take away Bob's driving skills.

He used to lift the old heavy wood crates full with 20 old-fashioned thick pint bottles,the sort that had the cardboard milktops,what us kids collected and used ,to play "skimmers" with!,by using his only arm and balancing the crate against his thigh,then lifting his leg up to stack the crates three-high.

It took the lorry driver,myself,and old Bob,more than two hours,to unload over 40 crates of milk,stack them in sets of three high,pull them across the concrete floor,using long-handled steel hooks and place them in rows.

We then had to pull all the stacks of "empty" crates,i.e. crates of empty bottles...across the floor,over to the lorry,

and the driver and myself would take turns as to who went onto the lorry to arrange and stack the crates five-high.

So one of us did the stacking on the back of the lorry,and the other threw...yes...literally...threw..the crates up onto the lorry for the other one to pick up.

In the beginning,at 11 years old,I could hardly lift a crate!,but as time went by,12 years old,and well-experienced,I

threw the crates up as if they were made of cardboard!!

I used to travel in the lorry over to Seaton Delaval dairy,exchange about 20 crates there,come back over to Scotland Gate dairy,in Choppington,another 20 crates exchanged there,then back home to the Bedlington Co-op.

By then mind,I used to be truly jiggered,and ready for bed!

The drivers always put a few "Buckshees" on the lorry to allow for "breakages",which very,very rarely happened!....and

they would reward me with a couple of pints of milk,and maybe a 1/3 rd pint bottle of orange juice[anybody remember them?]

Doesn't seem much now,but remember in those days,rationing after the war had just about ended,and my Mother was very hard up,so it helped her a lot.

One of the drivers had family here,so he used to park up,outside of the dairy,usually about 9-30pm,and nip over to the

Black Bull for a pint with them before driving back to Stocksfield,leaving me in charge of the lorry while he was away!!!His name was Bob ...i'm sure it was Marley,cos there was a few Marley's in Bedlington..[My Teacher at Westridge School,and the timekeeper in the tally office,at the aad pit at Bedltn Station...].

All this couldn't happen nowadays,cos,apart from the health and safety aspect,the drivers would be accused of being..........well....today's poisoned minds would have something to say about kids hanging round...etc...nuff sed!!

There were originally a few of us lads who used to do this on different nights,taking turns,but on by one they all dropped off,i think it was too much like hard work for them!

Other people who worked at the Co-op were Brian Rosemo.Tommy Laws,Mr Smith [lovely old gentleman..the Tailoring dept..

old school fella!]My Sister Bett..,Aiden,Lydia Coult..grocery and bacon counter.Wor Fenwick,bakery dept..[my Brother-in-law],Mrs Nichols.hardware dept...[my neighbour].."Hi-Ti"[nickname],slaughterhouse man,did Brian Morg.and George T.

also work there?

Does this stir any memories Eileen?

Hope so!!

Cheers!

Thank you so much, you have made my day. My dad was called Bill Purdy and had a few different jobs at the co-op, before he had to give up work due to the loss of his sight and other health problems he worked in thr warehouse with a Mr Savage. A cousinof my Dad Tommy Thomas who sadly recently passed away said my dad was a bit of a practical joker, but know the job that meant the most to my dad was looking after the horses. Tommy told me that one day when he was a young lad he was out helping deliver milk with my dad when a lady gave him a sweet, he said he had never even seen a sweet before, my dad said let me have a look, then promptly gave the sweet to the horse, Tommy said he was devistated, and when he told his mam she gave my dad a right ear bashing. Its the usual story I wish i had asked my dad more, and had just got the chance to ask Tommy when he passed away, so hearing your stories means a lot.

Eeeeee.....Eileen,it's gud ti reminisce isn't?!

A been racking my auld brains aal day,cos summik bugged me aboot that driver's name,who a thought was Bob Marley,a knew there was a connection between my Wife's family,and this fella,and it finally came to Me tonight!!

Aa used ti work with a fella called Paddy Connolly,when a was only aboot 17 years old,down Choppington High pit.

As time went by,a found out that he was a very good friend of my Wife's Uncle....[who a was just courting,at the time!!...me Wife...not the friend!!!]

Anyway,this bugged me cos a cudn't remember Paddy's Surname.

A asked me Wife tonight,and the minute She said Connolly,it hit me......THAT was Bob's Surname!!

Bob Connolly,rolls of me tongue noo,a can even picture his canny auld face,even though he might only have been thirty or forty yrs old,when aa was 12 yrs,anybody even 17 or 18 yrs,looked old!!

A hope somebody who knew Bob,or was related to him,comes on here for a natter!

Eileen,life was so slow and simple when ye got ya groceries,milk,ice cream,shoe repairs,etc aal done wi horsepower!!

There used to be a race out in the street to pick up the horse muck,by the aal the gardener's!

Auld Bob Reed used ti be at Bedlington top-end finishing his milk round,just as we kids would be coming out of school at Westridge,

and he would stop and pick up aboot four of us,aal in the one front seat,in his little van,and race us down home...it was great!

...Not forgetting that nobody except the doctor,police,and the odd business man,had cars,not even our school-teachers,they used to walk down the main street to go home after school,same as us!!,so it was an exciting experience for the other kids as well.

Ye knaa,a used ti gaan owa ti the co-op,[the store!] next ti thi Locke Hall,for me Mother's groceries,aboot seven or eight things held in me memory,nae notes in me hand mind!,when a was aboot 11 or 12 yrs auld,and me little black Lakeland Terrier/Spaniel used ti cum inti the shop wi me,sit beside me at thi bacon counter,gud as gold,no leader on,better behaved than kids i see today in most shops!!

Aal my recounting here was in the years around 1954-[ ten yrs old ]- 1956-ish.Bill Haley and his Comets had just about hit the pop scene with "Rock around the clock"....then...of course...Elvis!!