The Seven Sisters and The Bandstand = my childhood. I was born 1948 and in the late 1950's spent days in the river next to the Bandstand. We were forever rebuilding a small dam across the river from the Free Woods side to the Bebside side where there was a wide slab of rack that was used to dive from but the dam was necessary to make the water deep enough to dive into.
Yes, all the shit pubs, barbers, takeaways, tattoo parlours and supermarkets have made Bedlington the place to be when it comes to Northumberland 'villages'. Step aside Bamburgh, there's a new kid in town. (I mean village).