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Hi Alan,firstly,the Bates pic,No 7 is Derek Burt,a smashing really weel-liked lad,who went on deputy work and was posted back onto the face in charge of his own Marra's!!...Unconventional for that to happen,they usually sent new deputies to a different face. Derek used to shout and bawl on at the men ti keep the coal coming ...then play football with them all on a Sunday...highly unconventional,he's Marra's used ti say,jokingly,that he was "Crackers"..!! No 1 looks very much like Davy Wood who took part in the short documentary called" Report from the Northern Coalface",also featuring Alan Dixon,[one of our contributors in the past],and John Douds,who built a model of a pit in intricate detail,which also features in that documentary,and which was on display at the Woodhorn Museum a year or two ago. It's a brilliant well-made Pro. film Doc, and if ye haven't seen it Alan,it is really worth watching. It was made by "Crinkle-cut Productions", and it's advertised on the web. Noo! Thi 1956 pics doon Bedlington main street,and doon Bedlington Bank ,were taken when aa was only twelve years aad. Aa lived just aboot 30 yards doon the street and in ti Hollymount Square on the left turn in, doon Bell's Place. A divvent knaa anybody on thi pics,Alan,but a dae clearly remember an older fella,who used to dance side to side doon the road aal the way from the top-end doon ti thi Field,drunk as a newt,and there is a bit of footage of him on this gallery in one of the short cine films on one of the picnic days. But that fella did that every year!,and he was a lot older,and not as tall,as this lad,in these pics. A can only remember the one fella daeing that,Alan,a cud nivvor mind of anybody else daeing it..he was so funny,we kids used ti watch ti see where he was going to drop onto the road!! Great ti see thi aad Gas lamp on the Bank..nivvor seen that since aa was a wee skittering young ched!! If ye look closely,ye can see a hundred years..[it seemed!], worth of Graffiti on the big wall on the bank,there used ti be some great bits of artwork,only lads in the old days didn't hae spray cans of paint..not even chalk...it was aal done wi a bit o stone,or a bit of red hoose brick! ...AND!...it wasn't caaled "Graffiti"...it was just "Aal thi writin' on thi waal doon thi bank"...ti local folk....and thi Cooncil weren't bothered aboot it...they didn't mek any effort ti clean it off..the weather gradually did a lot of the clean-up. After the Wartime rations ceased,and import restrictions were relaxed, My Mother came in one day from Hemsteads,with a few bananas..the first time we had ever seen one,apart from in Bob Hope films at thi top-end pictures!...they were huge things,and as I grew up and started the pits in 1959,me Mutha used ti put 14 sammidges up for me bait,wi one banana!..YE try putting SIX sammidges up wi one Banana noo..!..aa dae ivry day for me midday bait at yem...and these wee banana's are an insult! Then another day,me eldest Sister,aged aboot 16 yrs,in the mid '50s,came in wi a Pomegranite..the name alone freaked me oot,when a was aboot ten,and it seemed weird to me that we aal sat aroond wi sewing pins,picking sweet seeds oot o this queer-lukkin' fruit! Aam digressing again Alan,but pics like this bring back floods of happy memories of me yem toon,and that bank was the gateway ti wor childhood living!.. Cheers Alan!

Another memory was jogged ,on the right hand side,at thi top of the bank,them hooses have a walkway built -up so each hoose has a pavement ootside their door. Whey,cos thi bank gaans away doon-owa,and the path is horizontal,a waal is formed,getting higher as yi come doon the bank. Whey, one day,when a was a wee bairn,me aulder Brother,[by exactly three years,born on the syem day!!],was poking aroond in thi holes in thi waal,cos Starlings used ti nest in the holes every year.[in the days when we used ti gaan bird-nesting for eggs.] He got excited this day when a Farthing came oot thi hole alang wi bits o' muck at the end of his stick that he was using as a poker. Whey Farthings were still legal currency,so he kept on poking at thi hole wi he's black-handled Jack-knife.[ye knaa..thi one wi a blade at one side,and a steel slightly curved pointed "progger",at the other side...very common sight in kids' pockets, in them days!] After a while,poking thi lime mortar oot wi thi progger,and using his stick ti rake thi hole oot,he got he's hand inside,and pulled dozens of Farthings,just them,nae other coin denominations,oot thi hole!...Buried Treasure!! We got all excited and started imagining that there might be Gold and Silver treasure in other parts of the wall,so we started howking oot thi lime where could,but we only ever found old Starlings' nests!! NOO! ..there's nae reason not ti think that there COULD be a cache of coins or jewellery inside the wall,cos we never telt anybody,but there MUST have been a reason for somebody,mebbe a hundred years before,ti stash a whack of Farthings inside a hole in that wall,in the days when that amount would have been a lot of money to a poor peasant,in the days before the pits came alang!...mebbe the Bailiffs were coming ti tek aal he's belongings and ti kick him oot...like the Coal-owner's heavies did ti My Mother in 1944,when she was in Hospital having me. I was maybe seven or eight yrs old,at thi time of the treasure trove,probably 1952-ish..I wonder if you could find out when the present houses were built Alan?,and whether them hooses are the original buildings on that plot...mebbe there were ancient primitive buildings standing there before the present ones,even though they are very old. Cheers! Bill.

@HIGH PIT WILMA - now these two are the Miners Picnic, c1956, and the guy in the front of the first photo, with the girls either side of him, wearing the Davey Crocket gear is an ex Dr Pit, then Bates worker. I believe for the picnic in the 60's this guy would always be seen dancing, with rubbery legs, in front of one of the bands. He used to Live in Gordon Terrace in the 1950's then moved to Melrose Terrace in the 60's.