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Miners picnic 1957

Coming soon! This is an interesting family and I've been researching them this week. I'll post soon, probably on John Dawson's thread The Last of the Nailers. It will probably be long so it may need a few posts.

The aad photo of the shop is hoo aa remember..broon painted shop front..roller shutters in later yrs,probably after the break-ins..the war hadn't been owa just four yrs prior ti my first seeing this Aladdin's cave..the only sweets I ever got at that age was when me Mother tuk me ti Doctor Hickey's Surgery,at Choppington,just up the bank from where a lived in Storey's Buildings,doon aside the Willow Bridge at Choppington Station..Dr Hickey aalwis kept a big tin of sweeties on his table at the side,and every kid who went to see him,even if it was their Mother who was the Patient,they got a sweetie..that was the way to befriend the kids and allay any fear aboot gaan ti see him!![dinna forget..we didnae hae the drugs we hae nooadays..us kids picked aal sorts of infections up..!!

Hi Folks,Wemyssies was a confectionery wholesaler when aa was a bairn livin doon Hollymount Square from 1947..as a got ti aboot five yrs aad,me aader Brother,who would be eight yrs aad,[taakin aboot 1949 noo!],used ti tek me aroond and up Bell's Place,and aroond the corner..and we used to gaze in the windae of Wemyss shop,at the piles and piles of big sweet jars of sweets of aal description..we kids had nowt..me mutha cudnt gie us a jam sammidge in the afternoon when we hungry between meals..so we used ti drool owa the sight of aal these big sweet jars..we used ti watch vans coming and gaanin,loading and unloading whacks of these jars at a time and wondered what was gaan on..we didn't knaa wat the words "Confectionery Wholesaler" meant!..we were pitmans kids..a still wasn't at school yit..[a started in the Autumn term at the Bedlington Village Infants school in 1949].In later years,some of the Millfielders broke in and stole jars of sweets,the same ones broke into the Clayton Ballroom..they got caught and fined..it was a big crime scene in them days..hearing of local lads being taken to court..Bedlington was a quiet peaceful little village!!..It seems that building hasn't changed much owa the yeors...but Bedlington sure has!! Cheers!

Noting wrong at all @Tonyp. I was simply contacting stustep, via the '@' name tag method, so they could see what had been said about the property with the Blue Badge that was the initial query. The info on the other premises is good I see Canny Lass - Coming soon This is an interesting family and I've been researching them this week. I'll post soon, probably on John Dawson's thread The Last of the Nailers. It will probably be long so it may need a few posts. - looks like she has been digging on the genealogy site

Thank you all for getting in touch it’s interesting to have information about the houses and buildings nearby … I think the 2 buildings are heavily related to each other from what you all have said and what I’ve previously found out. thanks

I think stustep appreciated it

Sorry I cannot add anything to this story . The Gibsons were a local family. My family knew someone of that name but right now it is too late to ask the relevant questions . Sadly we never ask the right questions and time defeats us all in the end . A track we love starts with ‘ Will these city streets remember us we walked them long ago ! Torn apart by a bitter wind that took us far from home ‘

Hi Alan don’t think anyone has gone off track what’s wrong with giving a new member information to there question we are just trying to help about the area where he’s new house is I would be interested never mind

Yes, there was a vending machine company on Front Street East at some point. Something Vending prominently displayed there. Back to Weymss: the snacks for the Market Place factory came from there. Also, I've got a vague memory of taking boxes of something like KitKat bars (though maybe they were Penguins) to the Mechanic's Institute for them to sell, that may well have originated from Wemyss.

I used to have morning paper round for hollymount in the mid seventies I remember the shop having coffee vending machines in there so it might have been a supplier to factories etc I might be wrong as it was a long time ago

Didn't one of those on the left used to be Wemyss (sp?), the wholesale confectioner, back in the mid 1950s? I can remember carting an unstable load of empty crisp tins there on my bogey as an infant. Yes, those packets of crisps with the little blue bag of salt used to come in oversized biscuit tins to keep them fresh. My motive was purely economic - to pocket the deposit on them. Mr Wemyss, however - god rest his soul - wasn't prepared to cough up the going rate, likely embossed on the tins, and all I got was a pittance (or maybe a few sweets) for my trouble. The sweets are long forgotten, but the bitterness lingers on - such is life! 🤣