Historical Factoids:

[Mal]

I'm going to put up my 'Historical Factoids' which have been published on my Page on another site.  

 

I did them because I was tired of the distortion that was being reported that surrounded these events so that needed to be corrected.  

 

I checked each one with the other people who were involved at the time to make sure I wasn't flavouring things and what I wrote down was as accurate as possible!  

 

First I'm going to start with something I wrote in 2013 and even now, more than ten years later, seems to be as apt as ever, certainly the last bit!  

 

I will put them up in the sequence I wrote them.............

 

The Spirit of Bedlington:

 

Bedlington’s just about a dog, it’s often been said,

If that’s what you believe,

Ge yasel a smack on the heed!

Steeped in history and culture and grime and true grit,

The Bedlington folk would call you a great twit!

Back in the annuls of time,

Forged out of great sweat,

The Town now standing owes

No one a debt.

Back where it began

No one is quite sure,

But it must have been olden

And really secure.

The Town first written about,

Thanks to St Cuthbert the monk,

His laying at rest

The Danes and Normans to debunk.

For long times later, under Durham was placed,

So the Town was not Northumberland based.

A great Hall for the Bishop and privileged to use,

A court building too for assizes to muse.

King John himself liked to stay in the Town,

Not sure he was welcomed without-so-much as a frown. 

This must have meant the Town was of import,

You were lucky to live here not a place of last resort.

The people around for their daily bread did need

The Bishops mill on the river to grind out their feed. 

When this mill went idle another came through

To power the Iron Works and give work to the crew. 

At first the jobs were all for some nailers

But soon they became world famous railroad railers.

Built on coal and iron in times more recent,

The folks hereabouts living lives really decent.

Birkenshaw, Longridge and Gooch

To name but few all men of good grace

Bound up with Bedlington hereto.

The sign above the Iron works

For the Bedlington Nailer,

‘We live by fire, water, iron and God’s favour.

Soon changed to make the iron horses so new

Running on the rails which were Birkenshaw’s breakthrough.

Soon coal was the king and many a pit,

Sunk into the earth thought never to quit.

The town now had jobs but never was clean,

Its bikini line never to be seen.

The Auld Pit came first

Then came the Winnin,

Next off the blocks came Cambois,

But that was for swimming.

Thousands of miners,

Digging out the black gold,

The pennies they earned to keep their households.

Our dogs now must make their timely debut,

No yapping or casting,

And certainly not blue.

Bred from Old Flint,

Down country they came,

But it’s Bedlington where they found their great fame.

The Town and its history so long into the past,

Its role in the county so obviously miscast.

More history than others,

Of similar scope,

A resurgence of pride

We all do but hope.

The people who lived here for such a long time,

Now mingle with others who are just in their prime.

New houses and buildings bring people by the flock

The problem is now development gridlock.

No thought has been put into what folks might like to do,

So the money they could spend locally now just says adieu.

To the shiny cathedrals of metal and glass

Leaving our local traders to feel second class.

It’s the pressures of life this modern we are told,

But it’s our local shops we see having to fold.

Change will come when its least expected,

All standing together no interest more vested.

A proud people and town of once in the past,

No longer just subject to verbal bombast. 

Malcolm Robinson 2013.

Edited December 26, 2024 by Mal