Two Swords

[Eileen]

I think i was probably about ten years old, my best friends father owned a newspaper shop at Bedlington Station, so we spent quite a bit of time playing about behind what used to be Rockets the shoe repairers, there was a barber sop there as well, and Houghtons the show people had caravans parked there. The Gables health centre is there now. Where there is a gap now, next to the pizza shop but further back there used to be an old barn, my friend and i used to sneak in and spent many a happy time playing there. Anyway one day i went to her house and she says she has something to show me, the old barn had been demolished, which was a bit sad, but the workmen had found two swords hidden in the building, she said her father kept one and im sure she said the other had gone to a museum, she showed me the sword they had kept, i cant remember what it looked like. So i was wondering has anyone heard anything about these two swords, or does anyone remember the old barn.

[johndawsonjune1955]

Never come across this find at all.

The only ones i know of are the coffin at the Millfield and the bronze age axe head from Bebside.

Will ask some contacts.

[mickypotts]

I found an antique sword around 1965 out back of the howard arms in the market place, it had a fancy hand guard and the blade was engraved and a bit rusty, I showed it to Desmond Reay and he suggested we hide it on top of the wash house at his home.

a week or so later he tells me that someone has taken it!!!! I suspected that he told his father and he took it, but I never saw it again and Desa has passed on so we,ll never know

[keith lockey]

I found an antique sword around 1965 out back of the howard arms in the market place, it had a fancy hand guard and the blade was engraved and a bit rusty, I showed it to Desmond Reay and he suggested we hide it on top of the wash house at his home.

a week or so later he tells me that someone has taken it!!!! I suspected that he told his father and he took it, but I never saw it again and Desa has passed on so we,ll never know

 

You knew Des, too? He was a funny sort, long hair and always wore a duffle coat. He had a go at me outside the Terrier pub once!! Didn't he have a sister called Andrea?

Edited December 19, 2013 by keith lockey

[mickypotts]

In later life the booze took over his life and he became distant from everyone while fighting his demons, he was always a canny lad when we grew up but still an odd one, we went to London on the school trip and he met the hippies that lived on the top floor of the hotel at Marble arch, they had white rats all over the place and they gave him some cannabis, first time I ever saw a drug in my life.

that was Desa

[Orloff]

Desa did have a sister called Andrea! She was a few years younger than him. Desa lived just across the road from me and we used to hang about together a lot, skate and book down furnace bank and the hairpin, mess about in black bridge and all sorts of things that got you into trouble with mam.

Last time I saw him was in 1974/5 while on a visit back home he was in the market place club.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

This tale reminds me of another antique find!

We used to play in the graveyard behind St Cuthbert's church,at Bedlington Market place.

The infant's school field was next to the graveyard,down Church Lane,where Towers estate is now.

One day,we were all in the field,playing games,[only about ten years old],when my older Brother and me

came across an old gun lying in the long grass beside the wooden fence.

The gun had a massively long barrel,and had two "legs" underneath it,to support it.

We played with that gun for what seems like donkey's ages,always replacing it where we found it.

One day,we were down church lane,going on the road to Humford ,when the two "Broonies" twins walked past us,carrying this massive gun between them!

They lived at Millfield,and we presumed they were taking the gun home,well to us it was as if they were stealing it....[but from who?]

Later on,we were told by somebody that it was an old goose-gun,but mind,it was a rusty old thing,only worthy of a kid's plaything.....so we thought at that time!!!

I often wonder what happened to it,and if the twinnies can remember it also!

Maybe it was worth a small fortune as an antique!