Help Needed To Identify Some Photographs

[Reedy]

Finally finished scanning 800+ photographs of Bedlington related stuff including Cambois, Barrington, Netherton etc.

 

There are about 6-8 which Dad can't name so any suggestions would be welcome.

 

I've posted the first which he thinks is a Westridge School Football Team from 1952-53. Confirmation or any players names please.

 

 

[Symptoms]

Reedy - Westridge opened in 1956 so I think your Dad's got the dates wrong;  also the stonework behind is wrong for Westridge.  They could be a senior team from a Junior school as they don't look to be big enough to be 14 years old - loads of the local junior schools were built with stone block.

[Reedy]

Thanks. The dates are correct as they're on the football. I'll try to compare the building with some other team photos in his collection.

[John Fox (foxy)]

Front row extreme right is Albert Hayley who went to the Whitley Memorial but not sure which school after that. I'll ask his brother sometime in the next couple of days. 

Edited February 1, 2014 by foxy

[keith lockey]

The brickwork on that photo actually looks like the Whitley! Could the 'seniors' have played from there?

 

 

PS, photo not mine, I think it's Foxy's.

Edited February 1, 2014 by keith lockey

[threegee]

Yup, they are sitting under the central window.  And, if you wanted to place your H.G.Wells time machine in the right place to view the entire scene, you'd site it about here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=55.131205,-1.59158&spn=0.000834,0.002178&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=55.131259,-1.591461&panoid=kb7NhCLaTXwQbyGzCtgiqg&cbp=12,117.05,,0,-5.74

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Finally finished scanning 800+ photographs of Bedlington related stuff including Cambois, Barrington, Netherton etc.

 

There are about 6-8 which Dad can't name so any suggestions would be welcome.

 

I've posted the first which he thinks is a Westridge School Football Team from 1952-53. Confirmation or any players names please.

Confirmation of Foxy's Albert Hayley + a few others. Not by me, by a relative born 1937.

[keith lockey]

I wonder if it could be the same ball with different dates painted on.

 

Here's one from 1967-68 with Matty Hall in the background and Neil Watson holding the ball. (Still can't work out how he was at that school!!!)

 

 

PS. (A) Derek Wilkinson is sitting to Neil Watson's right. It can't be the same one as Reedy's! Not unless he has discovered the elixir of life! But there is a remarkable resemblance

Edited February 2, 2014 by keith lockey

[Reedy]

Brilliant and thanks for the help everyone. My Dad recognised Albert Hayley and a couple of others who possibly moved to Westridge when they left the Whitley.

 

Here's another one for you to have a look at.

 

We think it's possibly a Bedlington Station YMCA team. The player at the front left is called Watson. I went to school with his daughter Ann.

[keith lockey]

I'm trying to place the houses on that second photo - is it Haig Road? Were they playing at the Terrier's ground?

[Maggie/915]

All your pictures are valuable archives Reedy.

Thank your Dad.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I'm trying to place the houses on that second photo - is it Haig Road? Were they playing at the Terrier's ground?

I'm doing the same Keith. I can only remember 2 YMCA buildings at Bedlington Station. The last one replacing the old one at the North end of Jubilee Terrace (now Jubilee Mews). I can't remember them having any football teams in the 1960's but I do remember there was a reasonable amount of land at the back of the old YMCA so they could have had their own pitch (then there was a slaughter house and the Scout's hut?). If they did then the houses in the background would be Waverley Drive or Bolam Place. However the street in the background to this picture appears to show an arch way in the houses on the far left. The only place I can remember an archway of this type was Hollymout Square where there is one set of four houses but the rest semis.

I would have expected a Bedlington Station YMCA team home pitch to be in the station - somewhere like the old park past the Grammar School and one of those pitches used to be behind the school and back onto Queens Road, but the houses were, and still are, semis.

 

I can't work out where those house would be in Bedlington. 

[keith lockey]

It's not Burnside, is it Eggy? Keith 1 would be able to tell us. Someone give him a knock on the head with a sledgehammer.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

It's not Burnside, is it Eggy? Keith 1 would be able to tell us. Someone give him a knock on the head with a sledgehammer.

Burnside all semis Keith.  Apart from the two blocks of four houses in Hollymount Square I can't picture any street like that in the background of the picture.

[Maggie/915]

It could be the back of Westlea near the Old Red Ash path.

The football grounds near the cemetery .

[Canny lass]

I'm with Keith 2 on this one, Haig Road. My aunt used to live there and her daughter and i used to play under the archway. The archway didn't separate two houses as you might Think but was under one half, the rear half, of one house. The toilet and coal house were on one side of the 'tunnel' and the back door, leading into the kitchen, was on the other. I Believe the Picture must be taken from the rear of the houses that backed onto the park (sorry, I can't remember the name) that ran the length of Park Road. There was often a football match going on there when we went past on a Saturday.

[James]

Finally finished scanning 800+ photographs of Bedlington related stuff including Cambois, Barrington, Netherton etc.

 

There are about 6-8 which Dad can't name so any suggestions would be welcome.

 

I've posted the first which he thinks is a Westridge School Football Team from 1952-53. Confirmation or any players names please.

The team is the Whitley Memorial Seniors team and the player holding the ball ("the captain") is Derek Wilkinson. Our team photos were all taken at the school so I assume this one was taken at the Whitley.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I'm with Keith 2 on this one, Haig Road. My aunt used to live there and her daughter and i used to play under the archway. The archway didn't separate two houses as you might Think but was under one half, the rear half, of one house. The toilet and coal house were on one side of the 'tunnel' and the back door, leading into the kitchen, was on the other. I Believe the Picture must be taken from the rear of the houses that backed onto the park (sorry, I can't remember the name) that ran the length of Park Road. There was often a football match going on there when we went past on a Saturday.

Still looking, but doubt if I will find the street. In my mind I have ruled out the now Dr Pitt Welfare where Bedlington Terriers play. The attached is an aerial photo showing Park Road and the two sets of houses that back onto the welfare are Haig Road & Hollymount Square.

Note the Chimney stacks are in the middle of the rooves (old houses, old word) are shared by the semi-detached houses.

The chimney stacks on the houses on the left of the photo are at the gable ends.

Might have to drive around the shire with Google Street View looking for these houses. If they still exist!

[keith lockey]

This might help with that last 'YMCA' photo. It's one of Foxy's again, I believe. It shows the Whitley School but look above it to the top right to the football field and then the houses beyond. They look similar.

 

Edited February 3, 2014 by keith lockey

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

The team is the Whitley Memorial Seniors team and the player holding the ball ("the captain") is Derek Wilkinson. Our team photos were all taken at the school so I assume this one was taken at the Whitley.

James - see the image attached. We have managed six of them and there names are embedded in the photo, including Derek. Any ideas on the other 5? 

[Reedy]

I posted the Whitley School and surrounding area picture a little while ago and agree that the houses look like Hollymount Square.

I suppose the team photograph could have been taken at an away game which opens it up even further. The other YMCA team pictures in Dad's collection seem to have been taken at the old YMCA site opposite Melrose Villas in Bedlington Station. The strips are similar though.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

This might help with that last 'YMCA' photo. It's one of Foxy's again, I believe. It shows the Whitley School but look above it to the top right to the football field and then the houses beyond. They look similar.

 

whitley school ground.JPG

Keith - I know what you mean,  - I will keep looking but doubt if I will find anything else.

 

Reedy - it's just when I used to go to the YMCA the field at the back had been tennis or bowling. My memory (often wrong) seems to recall it was not big enough for football and any house in the background would be Waverley Drive and they are semis with chimney stack in the middle.

[keith lockey]

Sorry Reedy with the mix up with whose photo it was. I wish I could help with naming the people but I wasn't born when those were taken.

 

Eggy, I know when I was at the Whitley in the 60s we used to play at what is now the Terrier's ground, that's why I still think those houses in the background are Haig Road.

[Canny lass]

This is an interesting one Eggy! Good Point about the chimney stacks. However, there don't appear to be any Gable ends in the photo. I Think they are hipped 'rooves'. Could be the blocks of four houses on Beatty Road, behind Haig Road. There was a small area of grass there as well.

[Reedy]

Keith, no problem with the photo. My Dad has the printed photograph but can't remember who gave him it as quite a few people have donated photos and other stuff to him over the years.

Some of his collection is his own and some has been donated or taken from the internet. If you didn't take a photo then you must have got it somewhere and sharing this stuff helps with peoples collections and family research. We've added to his collection from this site so thanks to everyone who posts.

 

Scanning all his photos has been great for me as I've learned some stuff about Bedlington which I was never aware of. I never knew Bedlington once had an athletics club and a swimming club. I never knew that bombs were dropped on Bedlington Station in WW2 or that Edward Prince of Wales once passed through the town in an open top car.

 

Anyway enough waffling on from me. I've put out a feeler for someone to id the possible YMCA photo so here's another one for your ponderings which might be easy for someone.

The team is a Bedlington Football Team which I think has my Grandfather Thomas Reed (Netherton and Dr Pit) standing second from the right in the back row (tall one).

The inscription on the ball is B.I.R. 1912-13 but we don't know what B.I.R. stands for.