Slag Heap

[Eileen]

I was talking to someone recently about the ironworks at the bank top, he was telling me he lives at Melrose Avenue, and that the estate is built on the slag heap from the ironworks, Lived in Bedlington all my life this is the first time iv heard this, does anyone know if its true.

[Maggie/915]

Wonder who would know now Eileen.

The Iron works was so long ago and not sure if any records are kept of any kind of refuse tips.

The old Victorian Tips have been found in the search for bottles but maybe the need to record a slag heep for the Iron Works would not have happened, before rules and civic planning.

[Reedy]

From about number 35 to 50 melrose avenue was built on an ash tip. These houses back onto the main road under the 'black bridge'. Numbers 1 to 32 were built first and used land previously used by rag and bone men such as Jakey Miller, and fruit and veg sellers such ad Benny Andrews, Ben Jennings, Joe Jennings. This land was solid ground. Dad still digs up bones when he hoes his garden at the bottom of the street. I remember as a kid helping/hindering Harry Speight when he was starting to build Summerson Way and finding loads of old bottles in the earth.

[Eileen]

Thank you Reedy, so did the ash come from the ironworks?

[Reedy]

Apparantly the ash came from the hundreds of coal fires in Bedlington which was collected by the local council and dumped there.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Then it must have been after that ,when they started dumping all the ash and household refuse,old prams ,bed frames,old pre-war wireless's etc,at Barrington,which we kids called "Barn't'n tip.When I was about ten years old I used to go down there with the

big lads [ my older Brother and his mates].

When I was 12years old I took an interest in electricity,and started going down to the tip,humping massive old pre-war wireless sets,in heavy wooden cabinets with umpteen valves inside,and huge mains transformers,back home to Hollymount Square,with the help of my friends and my Brother.

I used to pull the insides out and eventually learn't how to build a two-valve short-wave radio set...[i was about 14 yrs at this advanced stage!!

There were fires burning constantly all over,with a characteristic smell.....the place was teeming with rats,ponds with loads of bullrushes,[which were fashionable as ornaments in the sitting room windows at the time,so we risked drowning quite often,to get some for our Mother's.....but they would have killed us if they knew how we got them!]

Eeeee.....tek's me back.....!

[norman]

I remember the Barn't'n tip well, a lot of the stuff tipped there came for Hugh Bollcos' ship breakers yard at Blyth we used to collect rope to make swings in the free and hapny woods, we also used to build rafts to sail on the many ponds at the tip. I remember collecting enough parts to build most of my first bike.

[Maggie/915]

My dad used to work at the Barrington tip with a council JCB.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I remember the Barn't'n tip well, a lot of the stuff tipped there came for Hugh Bollcos' ship breakers yard at Blyth we used to collect rope to make swings in the free and hapny woods, we also used to build rafts to sail on the many ponds at the tip. I remember collecting enough parts to build most of my first bike.

Can you remember the one bloke with the old bike, a couple of sacks and a red face? He spent every day (that I can remember when going to Barrington school in the 1950s) filling his sacks from the tip - I assume it was all scrap metal he was collecting.