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I use my keyboard - 'Print Scrn' key to take a copy of whatever online image I am looking at. Then I use the 'Paste' option to add the Print Scrn image to whatever photo/paint etc. package I have available on either of my PCs. My preferred choice is my very old (and no longer supported) Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 (MDIP10) and that's where I do my 'clarting & clagging' of text and shapes etc. onto a blank file. Unfortunately MDIP10 does not work on Windows 7, 8 or 10 and I run it on an old PC that still has Windows Vista as an Operating System😁. Even if you had a Windows Vista system you wouldn't be able to get the MDIP10 software to install😞. Fortunately I can still access this group, and the Facebook groups, via my old PC but if that bites the bullet, before me, then I'm snookered. On my 2018 purchased PC running Windows 10 I often use the Print Scrn key take a snapshot of whatever full screen I am viewing and I paste that screen image into 'Paint 3D' that is a free Microsoft package that was already on the PC when I bought it. The only feature I use within Paint 3D is the 'Crop' option to remove all the unwanted info around the image I am after. I have never clarted with Paint 3D - at the moment I have no need. At the start of 2020, hoping my life expectancy is longer than MDIP10😷, I trialled the Adobe 'photoshop' product. It has very similar options to MDIP10 but you can't purchase the product, just lease it, and it has ( if I remember correctly) about 8 packages that all have unique 'clarting & clagging' menu driven options. I was paying £20 a month for just two of the packages and I did clart with it a lot but after a couple of months I decided it wasn't for me. If I wanted to have all the features I have access to now I would have to be renting all the photoshop packages at approx £100 a month. That might be Ok for the commercial world but not for a home clarter & clagger like me. What I also have on my Windows 10 PC is GIMP = GNU Image Manipulation Program - GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software.................... I have played with GIMP but there is an awful lot of new techniques to learn, and even with a 19" PC screen I have to strain to read the options available. So at the moment I am sticking with MDIP10

Happy Birthday Foxy It’s great to survive to this great age !!!

Of course it did

And thank you very much @Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)Xx I’ll have to read this a couple more times before I start to understand it!! I’ll also take up @Canny lass‘s suggestion that I get to the library and see what I can do there. I’ve just been mucking about with this iPad and (I think) I’ve enlarged a section of an old map indicating Puce Bush Farm and saved it in the Apple book app?? You’ll find out if/when I manage to post it to you 🤞🏻👩🏼‍💻🙇🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️(not a patch on your moving emojis!) I’m a very untechnical (not a real word according to this iPad!) sort of person but I’ll work with it slowly and take frequent breaks so I don’t make it feel like hard work. Best regards dear Sir, watch this space 😁🌈x

I had to plot a route on Google maps, going from town to town, to get the distance of 26.8 miles. . I thought the site that gives info on all the bridges built on all the Northumberland rivers would have given me the distance - but it didn't https://www.bridgesonthetyne.co.uk/intro6.html

You are not alone! We are also being governed by the same uncaring self interested politicians , I can't name a country that is being run for the interest of the average normal person who elected them!

Going towards Bedlington after the gates to the stables was another row of houses that extended to where the Netherton waggon way crossed the road these were called Sunnyside for some reason. I used to get off the No3 bus from Ashington tech then walk up the waggon way home after a pint in the Lord Clyde. I remember the barman in there towered above me and I am over 6ft! I had a look over the bar to see if he was stood on something! Can't remember the name of the second pub though.

Pil,the sprightly old Lady I mentioned above,is Christopher's Mother,and they the closest Mother and Son I think I have ever encountered! Chris is a Lecturer at Newcastle University,and teaches teacher's. He has degrees in music theory,plays piano as good if not better than anyone you are likely to hear these days..classical and every other type of music also! Altogether a really smashing bloke.

the Millions had a son called Christopher and I was at school with at choppington primary -- (that's choppington as in Scotland gate to avoid any confusion!!!)

I will have old E... asked when we [My Wife and me],next see her. She always mentions the sawmill,down Sheepwash bank,and the shop,but has never mentioned having the shop in Storey's Buildings,where I lived as a child,or I would have been all ears,and asking questions about it. I vividly remember,as a three year old,looking in the shop window,only a few doors away up the street,with my then six year old Brother,at all the sweety jars ....MASSIVE jars,they were....[or so it seemed!],and there was a small piece of glass missing from the bottom left hand corner,just big enough to wiggle your finger through,but sadly,to two hungry little kids,in 1947,not big enough to wangle even one sweety through!! We tried poking bits of sticks into the small hole,well,I should say , my Brother did,and I watched,desperately hoping he could get some sweeties,cos we didn't know what they were like......cos we didn't get any,cos Mother used to swap her sweet ration coupons,for food coupons,and now,thinking back,for cigarette coupons as well probably,cos both her and me Father both smoked all thier life.[priorities!] What a sad story!![.....cue violins....!] Every word true.

Hi Alan, Where was the old chapel? I am interested in the history of the area around the Willow Bridge as I now live up the hill from it (next to the speed camera).

I found a watch medallion on the site of the old chapel there inscribed G .T Scott 1904 a few years ago.My Mothers cousin A Fitzgerald lived there in the 30s

During the first World War the Zeppelin came over here and dropped incendiary devices. No one was hurt, but buildings, including the Railway Taven and Lord Clyde, had there windows shattered by the explosions. There was a huge crater left at the side of the road and in a field a little further up on the right on your way to Bedlington. That Zeppelin was seen by fishermen just off Blyth hovering waiting to move and do damage and kill. If i find my eye-witness story i will post its very interesting.

I understand this photo of Choppington Station was taken in the early 1900's. The track was single then, later increased to a double track, then back to it's present single track. Note the 4 gas lights (I assume they were gas !!!) at either side of the gates. There does not appear to be any street lights, so it must been quite spooky walking around at night time. The building beyond the signal, was the railway ticket office and the bus stop to far off places, like Ashington.

I think the station closed to passenger trains after the war, but was open for special trains, such as the Morpeth Picnic day specials. There was also a train on New Year's Day to Morpeth, which had the train connection to Edinburgh for the professional sprint handicap at Powerhall. Professional running was very a popular sport in Choppington, which held its own sprint handicap with bookies etc. Joe Ball, Blyth won one year and went on to win Powerhall which was the Mecca for running in those days. I seem also to recall the station being used as a collection point for the baskets, which contained the racing pigeon. The baskets were transported by rail to far off places. I think the pigeon guys used to meet in the Lord Clyde.

Great picture Barton Rafie... bet there aren't too many pics of choppington station still knocking around - what a find!! Thanks and keep them coming!!

Hi, just discovered this photograph which was taken about 1950. The train was a miners Picnic day special, which was travelling to Morpeth. The station, which is now all gone, was at the top of the bank.(opposite direction to the speed camera of course) The track is also now a single track. The building on the left was definately the ticket office, whilst I think the building on the right belong to the railway, maybe the station master. I suspect these buildings were there when the photo below was taken.

Cheers Cympil... hasn't changed much really!! In fact I am sure that bloke walking over the bridge with the briefcase still drinks in the Monkey Any more photo's welcome

Found this, it`s title Willow Bridge, Choppington. I don`t know the date of the photograph though, although it looks like it could be around the year you`re looking for.

Hi Tony! Frankie Heron,and he's Brother Jackie,lived with their Parents,directly opposite my Family home in Hollymount Square,in Bedlington,from the first dozen houses built not long after the war.[somewhere around 1947-8 ish] They were two big smart fella's,Frankie being the extrovert,always shouting over a loud hello to my family,out in the street,taking photo's of life in the street,all of the bairns playing,sitting us on the wall for group shots,etc. I have got Frankie to thank forever,for taking the only shot in existence of my little Spaniel/lakeland terrier dog,sitting on the wall, like an ornament,posing for him! I would have been roughly 12 yrs old,and my little dog got killed on the road beside the "store"..[Co-op],by a speeding opencast coal lorry,not long after the pic was taken. This would have been about 1956,when Bedlington suddenly went from being a quiet,traffic-free road,[the main street],to Tulip's coal lorries thundering down the street overladen with coal,speeding down Bedlington bank,spewing smoke-screens of exhaust fumes,on the way to Bebside Pit to be unloaded at the washery plant. Jackie was very reserved,but still very sociable,in a more quieter way. Old..[to us kids!] Mr and Mrs Heron,were a lovely couple,and Mrs Heron and My Mother were very close friends for years. Frankie had the nickname of "Spanky",at the Doctor Pit,probably cos when he went out,he always went dressed to the knocker,immaculate,his ginger top always vaselined doon!! When we talk aboot thi gud aad days,THEY WERE gud aad days,in a proper aad-fashioned pit community. Thinking back,a suppose everybody got dressed in "Sunday best",when they went anywhere special,cos most folks had nowt except work clothes, and "best" clothes.....nae big wardrobes full of designer-wear in them days! Sorry to hear of Frankie's passing ,Tony,thanks for the info. R.I.P. Frankie.