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Hi Marie and welcome to the forum! Two things that I’ve found useful are census records and old maps. Both can help you paint a picture of how the town was. You may need to approach the census in a different way and Instead of looking for a specific person look at the whole area. Follow in the footsteps of the enumerator by starting at the beginning of the district you are interested in working your way through to the end. Depending on which year you are looking at you can see such things as: Housing conditions: How many rooms? How many occupants? Were they overcrowded? Did the tenant sublet? Many had a boarder (Noted under ‘relationship to head of household’) to supplement their own income. Size of the family: How many children have been born in a marriage and, more important, how many are still living? This often reflects the health and sanitation status of the era. Occupation: you can get a good idea of what the area had to offer in the way of work. Having only Shanks’ pony for transport meant that people worked locally. Bedlington has had many and diverse industries over the years. Particularly interesting are the ‘occupations’ given for women who are heads of household. No benefits meant ingenious ways of earning a living. Age: look at the age which children were put to work and the type of work they did. Look at the age at which female heads of household became widows. Place of birth: gives an insight into what type of workers were attracted to Bedlington and even why. If the wife was a Bedlington lass and the head of household from elsewhere then matters of the heart may be the answer. If the whole family was born elsewhere it often reflects hard times there and better times in Bedlington. You’ll be surprised just how far people have moved. Relationship to head of household: even that can reveal things like illegitimacy levels. Given a head of household named XXXX with a wife, daughter and grandson also named XXXX then there’s a good chance that the grandchild was born out of wedlock. It seems to have been more common during some periods. Old maps can reveal a lot about the development of the area. Not only can you see the actual growth of the town but you can also see the decay. When you see that new housing has appeared and another area of housing disappears then it’s safe to draw the conclusion that the latter was probably in an appalling condition. If you’ve had relatives living there then they haven’t had it easy! Many things are marked out on old maps which can give you an idea of religious practices and persuasions at the time. New churches of differing denominations as well as mission rooms appear and disappear. Compare the number of such establishments with the number of inhabitants and do the same for schools, hospitals and public houses. It’s a painstaking job, Marie, but if you’re interested it’s really fascinating to see how people have lived.

Thank you ever so much. I've been working on family history for years but it just goes to show you can always learn something new, thanks for giving some subjects to chew over.

Nothing here either Vic.

to be fair that website was compiled before Lidl came to town..........but interesting to see no mention of Bedlington on current site https://www.aldi.co.uk/about-aldi/property/required-towns/north-east-england-north-yorkshire-and-cumbria If Aldi are the new food retailer the Councillors who voted for it want a kick up the backside for being so stupid

I just hope the well known food retailer is not Aldi as we already have Lidl and Morrison's which for a town the size of Bedlington with no through traffic is enough and a good mix discount/major retailer Having Aldi here will not work and will mean a closure of existing shop on the other hand something like Iceland might work