Market Place Club - Early Warning Siren?

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

On the Facebook Bygone Bedlington group site a question from 

Darren Martin Smith

Hi i have a question, dose anyone know if the dome shaped structure i have highlighted on the picture of the market place club was once the housing for a second world war air raid siren? 
There are several buildings locally that have similar structures including the old COOP building at Stake ford and the COOP at Bedlington Station. I have seen them all the place atop large buildings.
Not my photo i lifted it from Google so thank you to whoever took it.

 

I have no idea - Searched on Google but no info returned :-

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Eggy1948

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Close up, from house in Church Lane, taken this morning by Simon Williams :- 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Eggy1948

[threegee]

As someone who lived directly across the street from it as a child (in the 1950's), and so could have seen it every day, I severely doubt that it was ever used for this purpose.  That doesn't mean there wasn't an intention for it to be so purposed at some point in history though.

The siren on the old police station was frequently tested and was easy to hear from the Market Place, so why place another so close?  And where is the actual motor supposed to go?  The electric motor and side vanes on the old police station one were always plainly visible.  Here there is a shuttered core which looks to be an integral part of the construction.  I would have expected a clear platform to bolt the electric motor to.  This is sounding  to me like a recently invented "urban myth".

[moe19]

I also remember the siren on the old police station.

By the end of the cold war in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the national siren system was largely dismantled. The British Government cited the increasing use of double glazed windows (making  sirens harder to hear)  Some coastal areas still retain and regularly test the sirens as part of the flood warning defences and military bases apparently still have the sirens.

 

I think the structure on the club roof is known as a cupola

 

.

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by moe19

[pilgrim]

might be able to shed some light on this --

During the 'cold war' and all the hype about the 4 minute warning - a network of sirens was put in place nationally. They were local authority and council responsibility and had to be tested every month. There was also a telephone system known as xy which was the precursor of the internet, in that it used multi nodal routing. Some councils who were very - shall I say Left - made everything difficult to install and test these. I cannot say too much as I think it is still covered by 'authorised release'.

but there were also 'civil  defence ' dumps of emergency supplies and immediate need equipment, one of which was the green 'nissan' sheds beside the spine road opposite Cambois  - now I believe a worksite HGV training place - or was. These were supply bases to be used in the aftermath - should it ever happen - and it was taken as a serious threat at the time , hence the regular testing

[moe19]

On 07/09/2017 at 19:12, Eggy1948 said:

 
There are several buildings locally that have similar structures including the old COOP building at Stake ford and the COOP at Bedlington Station.

 

 

 

Eggy I believe the Club was built by the COOP,  

the COOP was a much bigger concern years ago and had a building/construction side along with electrical joinery etc.

All the clubs used the COOP for banking etc in those days   

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

3 hours ago, moe19 said:

Eggy I believe the Club was built by the COOP,  

the COOP was a much bigger concern years ago and had a building/construction side along with electrical joinery etc.

All the clubs used the COOP for banking etc in those days

 There are several buildings locally that have similar structures including the old COOP building at Stake ford and the COOP at Bedlington Station.

Never noticed any of them. Can't see (via Google) any on the two Co-op buildings at Bedlington Station but the Stakeford Coop one does stand out, when you look up - must have spent my youth staring at the ground! 

[moe19]

I can remember going in to the Stakeford COOP as a boy with my Grandmother, no self service in those days just about everything sold was loose and was put up to the customers needs, sugar was weighed and put in to blue paper bags, butter was in a huge lump and the customers requirement was cut off and shaped using wooden spatula kind of tools then wrapped, same with cheese cut with a cheese wire and wrapped, bacon was sliced to the customers preferred thickness. The counter assistant who served  you did not take your money she sent you bill whizzing along one of those zip wires to the cash office and they sent  you change and you dividend receipt whizzing back to the counter.

I can still remember our check number , what a job it must have been for the cashiers in those days working out all the yearly dividend payments using nowt more than a pencil and paper.              

[pilgrim]

it was still the same in the early 80's in Yugoslavia, they managed 100% employment as in a shop it was exactly the same -- ooo the sight of all the huge wooden drawers with dried peas etc in, but there you told the assistant what you wanted - another assistant went to get it and gave it to another who wrapped it. It then went to the till - where someone totalled it (and then whizzed it away somewhere to gawd knows how many others, in one of those wire machines) and then another packed it all in bags - you were given a till receipt and took that to the payment till and paid ---then you could go and pick up your shopping. I think the last time I saw one of those wire cash carriers in this country was in Smailes in Morpeth, although I seem to recall that all woolworths were fitted with them. 

[Orloff]

Moe 19, I remember going into the 'ford COOP with my Grandma. The smells of the "store" are still in my memory. I also was fascinated by the wire transmission equipment. Could the "thing" on the roof, be a bell tower? For what use I have no idea whatsover.

[moe19]

16 hours ago, Orloff said:

 Could the "thing" on the roof, be a bell tower? For what use I have no idea whatsover.

Orloff I think its a cupola and was often seen on co op buildings and made  in a fancy dome design ,

I think it was for ventilation or light in the attics

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola

[pilgrim]

I was in the parish today and noticed there are many and varied signs  of the green variety pointing places of import.. can I ask why they are, for example, police station 230 m and market place 120 m -- is that miles?? or some Johnny foreigner thingy ,we may have to be aware of cross contamination from .............dare I say hitlers highway (herself was most amused when I said that was what it was called -- or used to be) but lets have some standardisation - ok the younger ones are all metric  but the UK standard is IMPERIAL (I always think IMPERIAL deserves caps  - as Q Victoria always wore a cap..)

ok - I got out today and the big world was confusing .................

[moe19]

I bet you did not see one of those posh expensive looking green signs pointing out  public toilets Pilgrim,

[pilgrim]

no - but I saw a dog (a Bedlington terrier at that) who expressed its opinion on them ....

Edited September 14, 2017 by pilgrim

[moe19]

46 minutes ago, pilgrim said:

no - but I saw a dog (a Bedlington terrier at that) who expressed its opinion on them ....

Was it that big cardboard cut out dog near the golf club that looks like Scooby Doo with a boil on his lug hole

(or is it wearing a pom pom hat)

 

Edited September 14, 2017 by moe19