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You've got a goodun there!

Ooops meant to post this one along with the photo showing the entrance to the 'A' pit. This one shows the back lane of South Row in 1966. You can see the house are stone built. across the back lane are the 'netties' and the crees = coal sheds/bunkers and the entrance to the gardens. This is the front of South Row with the brick walls so I assume the rows were originally stone and then whatever extension work was carried out to the row bricks were used to face the building - but that's just me guessing :-

I think they were still there in the very early sixties. I remmeber attending the funeral of a YMCA member - young lad by the name of Routledge (Pete would probably know better). He lived there.

@Diana - I will add each posting as a separate comment and if you have any questions then you can select the 'Quote' at the bottom left corner of each posting and that action will include the previous comment you are asking about. This image of the 'A' pit will be late 1940's as the street named Waverley Drive (like many other council houses in this area) were built after the end of the II world war.

Unfortunately @Jammy - nobody left in mine or the wife's family left to ask. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cowell family butchers, across the road, from Cramlington Co-op, were in business/competition at the same time. Do you know any of the Cowell family? @Symptoms we Bedlington Station lads wouldn''t know about a library at the Top End. In Evan Martin's books he gives info on the West End Branch - Bedlington equitable Industrial Co-operative Society but that's a building I have no memory of. I definitely remember the Co-op presence on Front Street East. That's where we had to go to get school clothing for the BGS - it wasn't the real school clothing, just a similar colour green jacket. The real BGS gear was from Rutherfords (I think) in Newcastle. We had to get the school badge from Rutherfords to sew onto the jacket pocket of the Co-op green blazer. The East End Coop shops started at the Locke building and went down to nearly to the Dun Cow.