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8 Alex Swan (Best Man at my wedding) 3 David Fenwick (Me) 4 David Veitch 10 Bernard Foster ??

Welcome to the group Kathleen. I can't really tell you any history behind te East Homes Cottages other than, as @James has written above, that what is in one of Evan Martin's books on Bedlingtonshire. In the book Bedlingtonshire Now and then this is what evan Martin posted :- The name Gibson House in Rothesay Terrace doesn't ring a bell with me but that's nothing unusual these days. I know at each end of Rothesay Terrace there was a large detached house. As far as I remember the one across the road from the Easton Homes used to be lived in by the manager of the Bedlington 'A' pit and it is now Holmside Residential Care home. At the other end of Rothesay Terrace the detached house is now the Willows Nursing Home :- No 9 Stead lane is a cottage that I would assume from the back garden you would be able to see the Furness bank down to the Furness bridge and the river Blyth where you would have been plodging - ioor as we would say - you went plodgin in the clarts I don't recall anu of the names of the lads you played with around Stead Lane. I lived behind the Oval shops, Coquetdale Place, from 1949 onwards and we were regulars in the council estate across from Stead Lane where my mam's aunty lived in Elenbell Avenue and we used to go to a shop, Doyles, in Stead Lane.

My Gt Grandmother and Gt Grandfather had a building business. His name was James Johnson Mole and he married Catherine Easton. I often wondered if the cottages were any connection to her.. They lived in Gibson house in I think Rothesay Terrace. Their son Robert who was my Grandfather built a lot of houses in Stead Lane and you will still find manhole covers saying JJMole on the pavement in Bedlington. I was born at 9 Stead Lane, which my grandfather built and the house Pearmans next door as well and I remember very clearly the shop which I was sent to get messages for my Grandmother Alice Mole nee Green. In 1944 my Dad came home from the war and being a cockney we had to come doon sooth which broke my heart as I loved Bedlington. Alas, there is nobody I know now, either they moved away or died but my heart is still a Geordie and I can still speak the language fluently. We played with David and Arthur Fenwick, Olive Tipple, Tony Savilly who was called by us Tony is a billy because we could pronounce his surname, his Mum married an Italian and lived in the house right next to the shop. We played lots of games on Stead Lane, no traffic then, went to pledge doon the river Blyth, a children’s paradise The memories come flooding back. KATHLEEN NOTT - Maidstone Kent