Photo Help

[John Fox (foxy)]

Can anyone name the occasion or the place of the attached pic, it was included with some old postcards of Bedlington that I bought from a dealer. It looks like the Waverley Avenue area to me but maybe Keith Lockey will be able to identify/confirm?  Symp if you are one of the characters in the picture I'll send you a framed copy postpaid without  Watermark    Looks a bit like Councillors out on a Freebee to me any ideas?

 

[mercuryg]

Some 'official' looking chappies there, Foxy! Interesting stuff! I have a small collection of local postcards that you are welcome to if you want them, they just sit around doing nothing here.

[tonyg]

that is not Waverly Ave i lived at no 20 .from 1950 till 1967.

[Tonyp]

Looks like dene view going onto Dene view East off wanny rd maybe wrong but the houses look familiar Kieth would be your best bet

[pilgrim]

could it be burnside at the station?? looking at the windows and style of dress - also the pointing on the wall on the right suggests to me a 'ministerial' visit re very new housing - or the usual canvassing prior to an election?

[Symptoms]

Ah, good old Aneurin "Nye" Bevan ... he visited Bedders in '54 & '56 for the Miners Picnic.

 

A so-called 'Giant' of the Labour Party;  shame the present day version is infested by political minnows.

 

Foxy ... I'm not there - wasn't living in Bedders at that time.

Edited January 17, 2015 by Symptoms

[Malcolm Robinson]

Can't believe only Sym knew it was Aneurin Bevan, surly one of your heroes Tonyp?

[Adam Hogg]

Can anyone name the occasion or the place of the attached pic, it was included with some old postcards of Bedlington that I bought from a dealer. It looks like the Waverley Avenue area to me but maybe Keith Lockey will be able to identify/confirm?  Symp if you are one of the characters in the picture I'll send you a framed copy postpaid without  Watermark    Looks a bit like Councillors out on a Freebee to me any ideas?

 

unknownppp.jpg

I am sure i have seen this image before can't remember where, I think it is Westlea or the Hartlands, and the people in the photos are Councillors of Bedlingtonshire Urban District Council with a cabinet minister.

[Canny lass]

I also Think this could be West Lea. Paul Mann would know.

[John Fox (foxy)]

I also Think this could be West Lea. Paul Mann would know.

Where's Maggs when we need her 

[Canny lass]

If I'm right then those windows built a Lovely greenhouse in my brother's allotment!

[John Fox (foxy)]

Have anyone noticed the Lady standing at the front door in the background?

[threegee]

As soon as I saw it I said Bevan!  He was very concerned with post war housebuilding, so this would be late 1940's or more likely 1950's (when Labour was in opposition).  Whilst it's true that post-war Tory governments built substantially more homes than post-war Labour, there's a strong case that the ones built under Labour were higher quality - I think evidenced by the fact that percentage-wise many more are still around.

 

It's just a pity that Labour councils didn't charge that little bit more in rent, going towards paying down the cost, and not simply aim to service the borrowing. It would have still been affordable to the vast majority of tenants. If they'd done that they'd have had the capital to extend the public housing stock, and ultimately would have been able to stabilise, or even reduce, rents instead of constantly raising them.  As it was virtually all rent money went into servicing debt, and they became hostages to the markets.  The same short-termism plagues all Labour governments, and causes their demise.  It's interesting that Bevan himself addressed this in more general terms:
 

His last speech in the House of Commons, in the Debate of 3 November 1959 on the Queen's Speech,^[27] in which Bevan referred to the difficulties of persuading the electorate to support a policy which would make them less well-off in the short term but more prosperous in the long term, was quoted extensively in subsequent years.

 

Bloke on Bevan's right shoulder looks a tiny bit like Michael Foot - stickey out ears, and I think glasses.  Goodness, is that an early donkey jacket?

 

Just found this picture of them together in 1953:

 

 

Looks like he's sent Nye to zzzzzzzz, which would be par for the course!

 

Could there be one or more Holliday's in there too?  I'm thinking maybe the guy on the right with the hat and glasses.

[keith lockey]

How about Hollymount Square...or Millfield?

[Tonyp]

Malcolm I think he was one of my Granda's heroes way before I was born of course,Kieth it's definitely not Millfield if you look at the photo of my dad with his Bedlington council mates,you will be able to see there windows were the old push up ones...

[Tonyp]

Micheal Foot only came once to the picnic I think,when he was leader of the Labour Party

[threegee]

Micheal Foot only came once to the picnic I think,when he was leader of the Labour Party

 

I don't see many marching bands in that picture Tony.  Where do you draw authority for that from? I'd make a small bet that I've seen him on the Front Street several times over the years. He had a very long career in politics before he became Labour leader, and I think there are pictures in the gallery which will disprove it. In fact I'd have said he was one of the fairly regulars, not one of the mob who only turned up prior to GEs.

 

I'm wondering if the guy on Bevan's immediate right (off his left shoulder) isn't Wilf Holliday the then local Labour Party agent. That's just a wild guess, but it would lend strength to the guess of other guy being a Holliday too.

[Tonyp]

3G I did say might I wasn't sure I do know he came to the picnic maybe 1980-81 I didn't really know much about him I knew

he was leader of the London evening standard for a while & yes he hated anything to do with the EEC just thought I'd let you know

That one you maybe have voted for him LOL

[Tonyp]

Meant to say editor

[Maggie/915]

There are many reasons to think the picture

is /was Westlea in the long old days of the 1950's.

However after consultation and looking right here right now there are certain things that just do not look quite right.

I wonder if certain houses were built, or filled in spaces, at a later date.

They did leave areas / spaces between houses that , I believe, were fire breaks . These are now enclosed gardens and some garages have been

built. On one space two new houses have appeared.

[threegee]

There are many reasons to think the picture

is /was Westlea in the long old days of the 1950's.

However after consultation and looking right here right now there are certain things that just do not look quite right.

I wonder if certain houses were built, or filled in spaces, at a later date.

They did leave areas / spaces between houses that , I believe, were fire breaks . These are now enclosed gardens and some garages have been

built. On one space two new houses have appeared.

 

Having looked twice there are actually many "things that just do not look quite right".  There are a tiny few houses of the pattern of the houses in the foreground, but none of them remotely line up like that, and generally Westlea houses have decent sized front gardens.  Save for highly unlikely demolitions and rebuilds there's simply no way this can be Westlea.  Are we even sure this is was taken somewhere in Bedlingtonshire?

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Foxy

Had a spare half hour so had a Google street view around the council built estates, Top End, Station,The Oval, Grange Park, Dene View etc, and I can't see anything to match the design of the houses in the photo. There aren't many houses with no window on the first floor above the front door - so I assume 2 bedrooms. The ones I did find with only one first floor window did not have a bowed window, like the ones in the photo. Neither could I find a council built estate that had parallel rows of houses - can't tell if the row in the background are 2 bedroom semis = chimney stack in the middle of the roof. That's enough for one day, mused gallons of internal fluid, will have to stop and have a pint! 

[John Fox (foxy)]

Westlea houses match the ones in the photo, another member on here sent some pics yesterday I'll see if said member will upload them. 

[Canny lass]

I'm pretty sure it's West Lea..These are the houses numbered somewhere between 60 and 70. There are houses that run parallel to and behind them - the houses that face the main road. These are two-bedroomed houses and there is no window above the door. That area is the stairwell above which is a built in cupboard/wardrobe accessible from the front bedroom. Some people have made it into a shower. The original windows on some of the houses were slightly bowed giving a large window sill in the sitting area. These were all removed and replaced though I can't for the Life of me put a date on it. The workmen sold the old metal frames complete with glazing for a few quid to those who wanted them. I'm not sure just how legal that was! My brother had a couple of greenhouses made from these windowframes. A very large one on the allotments behind Rothsay Terrace and a smaller one in the back garden at West Lea. I Think the man on the left holding a Child by the hand could be one of the Lumsdens.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Canny lass

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Westlea houses match the ones in the photo, another member on here sent some pics yesterday I'll see if said member will upload them. 

Never thought of Westlea - being a kid from the Oval Westlea was never a place I ventured. Only been there once and that was to Netherton CIU approx 12 years ago for a wild night - 80 year old aunts birthday do.

I await the photos as I have just had a quick Goolge view, aerial and road, and although there is a street of two bedroom semis, with bay windows, there are no buildings behind them!