Historical Factoids 14:

[Mal]

I’ve been asked how the Gateway features came about?

I’ll answer that along with the other things of the same ilk. 

I had started the Development Trust, as a private individual, when we tried to take over the Community Centre when the Lib Dem Administration at County Hall said they wanted rid of it.  That tale in itself might be worth its own Factoid!

Anyway we had a Development Trust and I thought why not put it to good use, even after not been able to take on the Community Centre. 

Like it or not Bedlington is world famous for its dogs so there seemed to me to be a USP at our disposal.  Looking at Terrier designs I thought these would make great seats so I set about a design and a model to make sure they would work.  Then I had to find the funding to make a prototype and did a Dragons Den type thing to get that.  Its actually the 10 year anniversary for these seats! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ahZtXCx6o

Then the unveiling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBiT_B6OKc

So I then had a seat and set about selling them to make money for the Development Trust.  The seats we made had to be of a commercial quality so I could sell them to the likes of NCC etc.  All the monies that we raised were handed over to the Salvation Army to pay for Xmas lunches for our seniors.  In fact during Covid the Trust handed over most of any funding they had left for the foodbanks! 

I was then elected to the Town Council and at a meeting I had proposed doing some Gateway Features for the town because one of the main responsibilities for a Town Council is promotion.  The ruling Labour group came up with an idea to have a pile of bricks and tiles as a feature while I proposed using our long history to find 4 features which identified with the town and install them at each of the four main roads into Bedlington.  Again I was given that project to run to shut me up probably!

Anyway I came up with our Coat of Arms, a Bedlington Terrier, St Cuthbert’s cross and the De Arnaud steam train, made in Bedlington and shipped out to Holland as their first locomotive.   Lots of hassle but eventually I got these as the project.  I even spoke to the director of the national train museum in Holland because they have a working replica of the De Arnaud and I wanted the exact dimensions so I could replicate it at scale.   Also I had to do some detective work to find our ‘lost’ coat of arms but eventually speaking to the old BUDC engineer he had the plates!  

Now having the four designs I enlisted the help of the metal work guys to make them and fit them in place and what an excellent job they made! 

I use iron (Steel) as a nod to the famous Bedlington Iron Works of the past.  I also wrote up brief histories on each to put in lecterns at each site so everyone would be aware of why these are there.  There are some interesting stories attached to each really, especially the coat of arms.  My tenure at the Town Council ended and these were never done.  

So we have the Terrier seats and now the Gateway Features you see around the Town.  The large Terrier down at the bottom of Hartford Road is, as I predicted at the time, a famous stop off point for Terrier owners from all over the world so they can get their picture taken. 

With West Lea Cemetery being a Commonwealth War Graves site and as I was now the local councillor for it, I commissioned the anniversary commemorative plaque for the right-hand side of the entrance gate.  After Covid I commissioned the ‘Thank You’ plaque at the other side.  Both in metal and each quite obviously telling their own story. 

There are more designs coming but I’ll leave that for another day!