Millne Department Store - Market Place

Formerly The Turk's Head public house now abandoned.

Remember it well! Bedlington's first ever 'Coffee Bar' just to the right.

On 08/06/2021 at 11:57, Canny lass said:

Remember it well! Bedlington's first ever 'Coffee Bar' just to the right.

Was that Baccis' coffe shop/bar (a few doors to the left away from Millne's) you are talking about?

On 08/06/2021 at 11:47, Andy Millne said:

Formerly The Turk's Head public house now abandoned.

With a fish’nchip shop in between?, had a woman’s name …?? x

I remember that shop really well. It was probably a little ahead of its time. Sad it has gone now. I enjoyed a bowl of tomato soup and a cup of tea in the cafe. I had a girlfriend who worked in ythe office at the time and we would meet their for a cuppa. Really nice lass.

2 hours ago, lilbill15 said:

With a fish’nchip shop in between?, had a woman’s name …?? x

GATES- Mary/Ethel? Anyone, remember the bag of scramshuns if you didn’t have enough money for chips? Thinking my way around the Bedlington I knew- I remember Feasters but was it Moldens by my time (bought my first pair of tights there) “the Misses Molden”?? Nearby Carr’s paper shop, further (east) Ernie Gurney, then Tallantyre’s. Back over gap in memory then the Northumberland, zebra crossing, ? Todd Hayes chemist, gap Mullens butcher. ?Bank- Johnson’s shoeshop, etc.

6 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Was that Baccis' coffe shop/bar (a few doors to the left away from Millne's) you are talking about?

No, Bacci's wa further west towards the neuk. When Jimmy Millne opened his store it included a 'coffe bar' just out of shot and to the right in this picture. It ran the length of the shop from front to back where a staircase accessed the car park ... AND you could get a cup of milky coffee, something unknown outside of Morpeth.There was also a connecting door directly into the store. Jimmy was often there - service epitomised. He would take your bag, escort you to a seat, exchange a few pleasantries and made you feel really welcome. You don't get service like that anywhere today. As @Jr6468 says, it was a bit ahead of it's time with everything under one roof.

@Canny lass - Can't remeber a cafe in Millne's but there again I never spent teen years at the Market Place/Top End - all spent at the Station where you could get a cup of frothy milky coffee in the early 1960's - Moscadinni's.

@lilbill15 - can't remember the name of the Fish & Chip shop at the Market Place - no name on this photo from the @johndawsonjune1955 collection :- 

This is how I remember Front Street east, starting at the Northumberland Arms and moving east.

As you see, I don't remember any newsagents only a small off-licence. This was early 60s. Of course the O-L may have sold other things than Lambrusco - the 'in' drink of the time - or maybe that's just a sign of my mis-spent youth. We've had Feasters up for discussion earlier (see Topic: 'Old Bedlington shops' in History Hollow. I felt sure that Foxy had posted a picture but I can't find it now.

You may (or may not depending on how you rate my drawing skills) be able to see that Moldens and Feasters were situated on either side of a small 'arcade' with a mosaic floor. Before Millne opened they had the largest shop windows in town with one window acing the main street and the other, much larger, liningthe arcade.

1 hour ago, lilbill15 said:

Anyone, remember the bag of scramshuns

Oh, my mouth's watering! I didn't know you could get them instead of chips but I do remember that they always asked "Do you wan't scramshuns" when they were wrapping up your order. The answer was always "yes please" and they threw a scoop of them into the bag.

29 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

you could get a cup of frothy milky coffee in the early 1960's - Moscadinni's.

... well, lucky you! I think Millne's was the first place I tasted coffee. 

Our early 70’s coffee bar was Taits, on the Glebe Rd, we couldn’t afford coffee, putting our thruppeny bits in the excellent jukebox, Beatles “Revolution “ B-side to ?? was my favourite    @Malcolm RobinsonTAKE NOTE 😆xx

Millne didn't have a juke-box. It catered for an older type of person, I think, a place to rest your feet and have a natter after a hard day's shopping. How we poor women sacrificed ourselves:

14 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

This is how I remember Front Street east, starting at the Northumberland Arms and moving east.

As you see, I don't remember any newsagents only a small off-licence. This was early 60s. Of course the O-L may have sold other things than Lambrusco - the 'in' drink of the time - or maybe that's just a sign of my mis-spent youth. We've had Feasters up for discussion earlier (see Topic: 'Old Bedlington shops' in History Hollow. I felt sure that Foxy had posted a picture but I can't find it now.

You may (or may not depending on how you rate my drawing skills) be able to see that Moldens and Feasters were situated on either side of a small 'arcade' with a mosaic floor. Before Millne opened they had the largest shop windows in town with one window acing the main street and the other, much larger, liningthe arcade.

 

I would love to make my ‘like’ into a. ‘wow’! Yes, I laughed out loud (?LOL?), to be reminded- and yes @Canny lass ,you’re absolutely right about the mini arcade, Bedlington’s answer to the Central Arcade’ish x I have several memories of shopping in Feasters for essential feminine apparel, but no memory of entering Moldens, was that clothes possibly? Something beyond my teen means probably. My first memory of clothes shopping (beyond Raymond Barnes school outfitters in Newcastle) was???Joblings?? in Ashington, on the corner where Poundwotsit was last time I was in Ashington. That was for an outfit (maroon cords and maroon NYLON shirt with white flowers) which Dad bought me for Picnic Day!; I was escorted to “the shows” by a very handsome young gentleman who will remain anonymous (he remembered last time I spoke to him). We were probably 13-14? 1970/71/72?? Aah, bliss x.  Nowt wrong with your drawing skills, Missus, spot on x
 

41 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

Oh, my mouth's watering! I didn't know you could get them instead of chips but I do remember that they always asked "Do you wan't scramshuns" when they were wrapping up your order. The answer was always "yes please" and they threw a scoop of them into the bag.

Apparently I have run out of reaction (emojis), there seems to be a ration on responses. I LOL!, at your response re scramshuns, I can’t remember ever having scramshuns AND 🍟 (deprived childhood 😂)

1 hour ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

@Canny lass - Can't remeber a cafe in Millne's but there again I never spent teen years at the Market Place/Top End - all spent at the Station where you could get a cup of frothy milky coffee in the early 1960's - Moscadinni's.

@lilbill15 - can't remember the name of the Fish & Chip shop at the Market Place - no name on this photo from the @johndawsonjune1955 collection :- 

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)Moscadinnis was a great pleasure palace in my young world - only capped by Mark Toni(y)’s on Percy St N’castle, the very rate Knickerbocker Glory days, birthdays most likely , Dad’s big treat 😋x

41 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

Millne didn't have a juke-box. It catered for an older type of person, I think, a place to rest your feet and have a natter after a hard day's shopping. How we poor women sacrificed ourselves:

@Canny lass, hmm, now that sounds like today’s  Rutherford’s at Morpeth, ladies recovering between bouts of shopping, a lay-bye rather than a destination clutching pocket money for feed the jukebox before we achieved the luxury of a stereogram at home 🎶🤗xx

1 hour ago, Canny lass said:

As you see, I don't remember any newsagents only a small off-licence. This was early 60s.

 

Photo on it's way of F.C. Carr & Son newsagent,, right of Millne's,  but probably from the 1950's - I'm waiting for the person that posted the photo to give an approximate date. I'm sure I have seen the name Carr's, but can't remember where, so I am guessing that FC Carr handed the shop on to his son.

Roll on tomorrow - time to close down PC🙂

12 minutes ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Photo on it's way of F.C. Carr & Son newsagent,, right of Millne's

3 hours ago, lilbill15 said:

Our early 70’s coffee bar was Taits, on the Glebe Rd, we couldn’t afford coffee, putting our thruppeny bits in the excellent jukebox, Beatles “Revolution “ B-side to ?? was my favourite    @Malcolm RobinsonTAKE NOTE 😆xx

A-side was “Hey Jude”. x

2 hours ago, lilbill15 said:

Apparently I have run out of reaction (emojis), there seems to be a ration on responses. I LOL!, at your response re scramshuns, I can’t remember ever having scramshuns AND 🍟 (deprived childhood 😂)

I wrote chips not the McDonald’s cartoon- apologies x

19 hours ago, Canny lass said:

This is how I remember Front Street east, starting at the Northumberland Arms and moving east.

As you see, I don't remember any newsagents only a small off-licence. This was early 60s. Of course the O-L may have sold other things than Lambrusco - the 'in' drink of the time - or maybe that's just a sign of my mis-spent youth. We've had Feasters up for discussion earlier (see Topic: 'Old Bedlington shops' in History Hollow. I felt sure that Foxy had posted a picture but I can't find it now.

You may (or may not depending on how you rate my drawing skills) be able to see that Moldens and Feasters were situated on either side of a small 'arcade' with a mosaic floor. Before Millne opened they had the largest shop windows in town with one window acing the main street and the other, much larger, liningthe arcade.

I need to correct my drawing of Front Street east. Thanks to Andy's wonderful photo collection I can now see that the off-licence wasn't situated between Millne's and Molden's as there is no shop between them. I can see now that at one time Feaster's has occupied both sides of the 'arcade' (the Feaster sign covers the whole length of Molden's and Feasters as I remember them). It must have been split into two outlets before my time. 

After Feaster's comes Carrs, but I've no idea what sort of shop it was. It seems too big for the off-licence. One photo shows Millne's gift shop directly to the east (right on the photo) of Carr's (compare signage and facade work). Next comes a row of 3 small shops, the second of which (possibly joined with the third, as it was quite a large shop inside)  is Walter Wilsons (farm produce). I believe that one of these three shops eventually became Wm. Ward photographers, One of them may have been the off licence but I seem to remember it being nearer the Northumberland Arms. Could the OL have been in Millne's cycle shop after it's closure? Anybody know when that closed?

1 minute ago, Canny lass said:

Anybody know when that closed?

@threegee?