Francis Pit (maybe)

[lilbill15]

I’m going to try to negotiate this Bliddy awkward group site to upload some photos of where I suspect Francis Pit may have been. @Canny lass will no doubt confirm or shoot me down in flames 🤣😁🌈xxPhotos in chronological order from entrance to the cundy (as I call it=Green Letch corridor between two housing estates, then homing in at where the site of Francis Pit was) Roseanne 🌈xxR 

[lilbill15]

Photos six and eight are 6) Blue House Farm through the trees immediately to the West of the plantation which I think sits on top of where Francis Pit was. photo 8 looking back from Blue House Farm towards the trees on the site of  ?Francis pit, new estate on the horizon. For my next trick I will attempt to conjure up the OS map for the area:……

[James]

On 18/07/2021 at 21:54, lilbill15 said:

Photos six and eight are 6) Blue House Farm through the trees immediately to the West of the plantation which I think sits on top of where Francis Pit was. photo 8 looking back from Blue House Farm towards the trees on the site of  ?Francis pit, new estate on the horizon. For my next trick I will attempt to conjure up the OS map for the area:……

I have entered the coordinates of the Francis Pit from an old map and the red map indicator should be its exact position. If you enter the coordinates shown on the photo on a GPS if should take you there.

[lilbill15]

@James many thanks for this James, however, without Blue House Farm as a reference point I’m a bit flummoxed. Green Letch position suggests I may be right in my supposition that the wood does occupy the position of the Francis Pit, and supports my theory that a lot of the old colliery sites were over planted with trees: BUT I do like to be sure. Maybe you could expand your map to cover Blue House Farm and B1331? , is that the right number for the Bed/Nedderton road, please? 😁🌈xxR 

[jim l]

If i remember right the francis pit was to the right of the new concrete road that went to barrington crossing on the bedlington to choppington road 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

3 hours ago, jim l said:

If i remember right the francis pit was to the right of the new concrete road that went to barrington crossing on the bedlington to choppington road 

@jim l - 1921 map showing the location of the Francis Pit and the lane/road to Choppington. Unfortunately to get everything into the one screen shot I had to shrink the map and then when I extracted and enlarged the section showing the Francis Pit and the road to Choppington the text was not clear so added a couple of pointers

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi Folks, as a bairn we roamed the area, and played aroond aal thi pits in the area. If ye went UP the Netherton Lonnen from the Choppingtin road, the Francis Pit old Mine shaft and Winder tower stood on the Left side of the lonnen, a way across the land. Us kids used ti shoogle alang the rails that were laid over the open shaft, and throw stones doon the shaft, ti hear the booming sounds of the stones hitting the shaft walls as they went doin aboot a thoosand feet! 

My Brother in law had the Ranch, on that same land, where he reared Pigs, Geese, Hens, Turkeys, and his Mother Katie Bell lived in the Colliery raas. I was 12 yrs aad in 1956 when a used ti help him on the Ranch after school sometimes. 

[Canny lass]

On 25/09/2021 at 09:59, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

My Brother in law had the Ranch, on that same land, where he reared Pigs, Geese, Hens, Turkeys, and his Mother Katie Bell lived in the Colliery raas. I was 12 yrs aad in 1956 when a used ti help him on the Ranch after school sometimes. 

I remember the Bells well. They had a son, I think he was called Raymond, who used to do a round of the rows collecting 'tettie peelins' and any other vegetable peelings or waste food that most people put in a bucket or dish just inside the gate to feed the pigs. On Sundays he used to do two rounds as there was so much vegetable peelings from the Sunday dinner - 4 veg was the minimum!  At the ranch they had an old pot-boiler of the type built into the colliery yards for heating water (and boiling the whites) on washing day. This was used for cooking the pig-swill. Sometimes it smelled lovely but sometimes it smelled b' awful.

Edited September 30, 2021 by Canny lass

[Symptoms]

Feeding the porkers pig swill was banned in the EU following that Food and Mouth outbreak in 2001.  I'm not sure how many 'peelings' would be available at the gate these days, what with all the prepacked food folks consume now.  Perhaps, we should all go back to preparing good, wholesome meals and leaving the scraps out for the pigs;  it would also have the added benefit of reducing the number of fat folks waddling about (have I gone too far ... is that 'fat shaming'?).

Way back I posted about the pig swill lorry collecting from Westridge School in the 60s and how the 1st year pupils would get dunked in the stuff by the big lads. 

[Vic Patterson]

That was one of my jobs, Mondays at lunch time, collecting the peelings from our neighbours ,haul them to the allotment and put them into the kettle boiler, light the fire, then go back to school. (but did wash my wellies first!) and feed the chucks! 

After school go and feed the grunters the pig-swill, clean the straw, empty the sump! collect some eggs, always amazed me to see the grunters eating lumps of coal!

Edited October 1, 2021 by Vic Patterson
Add pic

[Canny lass]

1 hour ago, Symptoms said:

  I'm not sure how many 'peelings' would be available at the gate these days, what with all the prepacked food folks consume now.  Perhaps, we should all go back to preparing good, wholesome meals and leaving the scraps out for the pigs;

 

I've never stopped! I don't think I'm alone there. I think most women of my generation were brought up learning to help their mother with making plain, wholesome, home-cooked food. I could cook  a Sunday dinner for 10 when I was 12 and I don't think I was alone there either. Unfortunately, I don't have access to any pigs but I do have hungry hares, deer and squirrels. I also have a fantastic, year-round, insulated compost so I've never had to buy potting compost and I use about 200 litres a year.

I don't think youngsters are raised the same way in relation to cooking today and one of my nearest neighbours, on a visit to England, was flabbergasted at the amount of 'ready-made' frozen food on sale in the average supermarket, not to mention take-aways.

[Canny lass]

47 minutes ago, Vic Patterson said:

After school go and feed the grunters the pig-swill, clean the straw, empty the sump! collect some eggs, always amazed me to see the grunters eating lumps of coal!

Is that you in the photo, Vic? Eating coal? You should have seen me during my pregnancies! I lived in Doncaster and it was the only thing I asked for if anybody was visiting me from the North East. Couldn't beat it for heartburn.

[Vic Patterson]

Yes that's me, how did you discover that eating coal cured heartburn? maybe an old wives remedy? Burnt toast is the only odd remedy I'd heard of.

[Canny lass]

On 01/10/2021 at 19:20, Vic Patterson said:

how did you discover that eating coal cured heartburn?

... quite by accident - same way I found out that it satisfied a craving for something but didn't know just what it was i craved. Just happened to pass a coal scuttle one day and instinctively took a piece of coal and started chewing it. I got a lovely sense of calm and well being from it and realized that coal (or something in it) was what was missing. Later, when I had heartburn, I noticed that it disappeared when I was eating coal and continued to use it for that purpose too. As children my brother and I both loved it when we were near a steam-roller because then we could get our hands on lumps of a hard, but chewy, black, material which we called pitch. I've no idea if that's the right name but it's the stuff they melt and mix with gravel for road resurfacing. It could be chewed for ages without losing its taste. Strange things we did as kids.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

On 01/10/2021 at 16:52, Vic Patterson said:

That was one of my jobs, Mondays at lunch time, collecting the peelings from our neighbours ,haul them to the allotment and put them into the kettle boiler, light the fire, then go back to school. (but did wash my wellies first!) and feed the chucks! 

After school go and feed the grunters the pig-swill, clean the straw, empty the sump! collect some eggs, always amazed me to see the grunters eating lumps of coal!

Vic - removed the white marks from our photo.

[Vic Patterson]

Thank's Alan, looks good, but still smelly! some smells can trigger such memories! all good.

[Canny lass]

I was having a clear out of unwanted files on my new lap-top and found this photo of the Francis pit. I have no idea where it came from so apologies to the photographer as I can't give you any credit. This is exactly how I remember it from the early 1950s. After the death of Mrs Watson's son, who fell to his death down the shaft, the building was demolished and the shaft covered with iron rails. Didn't stop us playing their as HPW describes above.

 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

49 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

I was having a clear out of unwanted files on my new lap-top and found this photo of the Francis pit. I have no idea where it came from so apologies to the photographer as I can't give you any credit. This is exactly how I remember it from the early 1950s. After the death of Mrs Watson's son, who fell to his death down the shaft, the building was demolished and the shaft covered with iron rails. Didn't stop us playing their as HPW describes above.

 

 

@bluebarby would like that photo

[Canny lass]

Interesting to compare these two photos. As I said, I've no idea where I got this photo from. I can have had it for 20 years and it's labelled Feancis Pit. It's also how I remember it bur when I see bluebarbie's photo there are a few differences that I can't explain. The twophoos are clearly taken from different sides of the building: bluebarbies photo looking toward Bedlington and mine looking towards Netherton. On mine I can see a building to the left which I think is a part Bell's Ranch. However the pit building is asymmetric. The 'windows'/openings will surely have their explanation in the machinery of the era but I can't understand why two adjacent walls would be buttressed and not the other two. Maybe HPW can throw some light on the subject.

[lilbill15]

On 22/07/2021 at 15:48, James said:

I have entered the coordinates of the Francis Pit from an old map and the red map indicator should be its exact position. If you enter the coordinates shown on the photo on a GPS if should take you there.

Yup, that’s exactly the spot. Looks like it was policy to plant trees on all the old colliery sites. All of Me’nMax’s favourite local walks were once pits and their raas: positive thoughts Rx

[bluebarby]

On 13/10/2021 at 15:26, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@bluebarby would like that photo

Both these photos are the Francis pit they are taken 180 Deg of each other. There is still one little bit of evidence left as to where it was if you know where to look. It's a retaining wall next to the burn. If you could scale it you were one of the gang!

 

BB