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I remember the shop in market place very well. Jimmy Milne's. As mentioned you had so much choice. I used to visit the cafe on the right hand side and have tea and soup. The young lass I went out with at the time worked in the office there. Really nice lass and She eventually went and joined the police force. I imagine She would have done very well as an intelligent lass and could write in short hand which would have been helpful. It is rather sad all these places closed but it is the same all over. Time stands still for no one. Thanks for the memories. Regards. Jim

Coach Road is shown in blue on the attached 1897 map of Bedlington East End. The road is still there leading to Spring view and the last houses were demolished in the early 1950’s. The East End Church of England school was only about 250 yards from Coach Road so is fair to assume that this is the school in the photo. The school (shown in yellow on the map) was closed in the early 1900’s and the site is now part of Hollymount Square.

@Nicola Riley So pleased that you found her! A little correction: The photo doesn't show a PE class. Miss McLean (Later Mrs McDonald) was a PE teacher but this is a class photo for which Nancy (Miss McLean) was the form mistress. All classes had a form teacher. The class would go to her directly after assembly in the morning and she would fill in the attendance register before the pupils went to their first lesson. As Miss McLean was the only teacher of PE for girls then Joyce would certainly have gone to her PE classes.

April 2025

16th March 2025

You aren't too far off the mark, as both building's roofs could well have been constructed by the same contractor (maybe Bill Scott Engineering?), and they are pretty close to one another. It's the Millne Bike Factory behind the former Turk's Head Hotel in the Market Place (later to become Coop - Millne House, before recent demolition). Looks like the snow collapsed the roof. Date some winter in the 1930s I'd guess, but it could be the early 1940s as they were still making bikes for the Army, as well as Bailey Bridge parts up until around 1945. The roof would have been demolished by the Coop when they rebuilt the rear of the Millne department store. After WWII, the building became The Terrier Plate Works, thought there was still some remaining evidence of bike manufacture there in the early 1950s.

Hi Canny Lass!..many thanks for your kind reassurance and good advice..it is much appreciated!..aye,my Sister is ten years younger than me,and she has had Glaucoma since she was a lot younger..and has had Cataracts removed,and she is still enjoying reasonably good vision,but she has never driven..with me ,and others like me,having to stop driving is like cutting my legs off!!..but I'll get by!! The medical team at the RVI are magnificent!..aye,aam on two sets of eyedrops morning and night..have to see the team in eight weeks time..I do 't drink coffee,and not much tea ....and I aam a teetotaller ,so hopefully things will stay stable!! I thought my laptop screen was fading,cos my pit pics are ,or appear ti be,fading..but's it's me gaan bliind ye bugga!!.. Cheers folks,luvly ti hear from ye's again!! Bill.xx

@HIGH PIT WILMA Glaucoma is a serious illness, HPW, but it doesn’t necessarily have to lead to complete sight loss. You’ll probably need eye drops for the rest of your life and while they can’t cure the Glaucoma or restore what sight you’ve already lost they can prevent further loss of vision so keep using your drops and doing what the doctor tells you! We also have glaucoma in the family and were recommended to avoid caffeine which can increase the pressure in the eye. Avoid, or at least decrease, your intake of: coffee, tea and chocolate. (Tea has only half the amount of caffeine compared to coffee). Take real good care of yourself!

Laura Fawcett, my grandma, the small girl in the front row, was born at the house in April 1900. She would be approx 3-1/2 yrs old in this photo. "... altho' my mother said Laura was born at the waterworks house, it doesn't match with the census (1901 census has them at Pioneer Terrace and Thompson still working at the Bedlington pit as a Colliery Engineerman)"

My great grandpa, Bedlington native, Thompson Fawcett (1873-1953) was the Engineer at Humford Mill for many years. He always wore a trilby and had a bushy white moustache (he may the suited gentleman on the right in the photo above). They lived at the mill in the house on the left with the bay window (the 1911 census lists Thompson, his wife Margaret and daughter Laura. Thompson is listed as Stationary Engineerman). Earlier (1901 census) he worked at the pit until he was injured in a pit incident. By 1904 he was working at the Waterworks as he hosted the wedding reception for Sam Mortimer and Isabella Swann at the house at the waterworks 26 Sept, 1904. (I will post a picture if I can find it.) When the waterworks shut (or possibly earlier) he and his wife moved to Hepscott where he tended some pit ponds.

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

Don't panic! Keep on clarting!

Unfortunately CL I am at the stage where I don't want to start learning, and paying a monthly charge for, some new 'photshop' software . I enjoy the world moving forward and advancements in all fields progressing and making the working day easier for the professionals but I'm in my little world using the Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 (MDI) software that I clarted with for many months finding out what I could achieve. When I first bought a new Desktop with Windows 7 I did export the MDI software from the vista PC and import it on the Windows 7 PC but the software wouldn't load so I have kept the old PC going for the last 5 years. I have, three weeks ago, replaced my Windows 11 Desktop PC (that one daughter said wasn't 'fit for purpose' ) for a new PC with i5 16GB processor and if I was into gaming I would have gone for the i7 with 32GB RAM but I am not into gaming, just clarting

It's a man thing. Trust me, I'm a woman!

Thanks for that little gem, @James! I thought that I'd researched my old school (Nedderton village) well but I never knew that it was once a church school.

Thanks 😊 they work quick on there!

@loopylou names for 7,8 & 9 from the Bygone Bedlington group :-

Thank you 🙂

Steve (No 10) and Carol's (No 17) list of names added to the photo.

Now that the memory has been jogged by Steve's list I also recognise 2, 5, 15, 21 and agree with those names.

Finding the information interesting Alan ,thank you

@loopylou - unfortunately still no one in the photo identified by any of the ex employees of the Welyn that are members of the facebook group Bygone Bedlington. Latest comment was :-

Bower was my grandad , I was a kid and lived near the yard

Anonymous guest post:

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) That would be lovely, thank you!

@loopylou I have a sister in law whoworked there in the lat 1960's I will see if I can get her to have a look at it and possibly identify anyone in the photo. Don't hold your breath

December 2024 - photo from Simon Williams.

Thanks a lot,CL,for all your kind advice!..on the subject of Audiobooks..heh heh..My youngest Son has been a Recording Engineer/Producer,and now Editor of Audiobooks for nearly 20 yrs!!..we have a few in the house already,what he brought for his Mam to listen to..a while ago,but she couldn't get into them,so one night I started to check one out,and got into it the first five minutes..but didn't intend listening to it all..my spare [!!] time is spent wi my second love..my guitars!![I am easily pleased in life!!].I see the RVI Consultant Opthalmologist in a few weeks time..so we'll see what happens..I surrendered my driving licence back to DVLA a few days ago..mind,that's like cutting me legs off!! Apart from aal that moaning aam aareet and Chinkaplonka!! Cheers Bonny Lass!! Billx

Sorry, this is in bits and pieces ... As Mr Boll Sr. was schoolmaster at the village school throughout his career then I think it's fair to assume that this is him (standing at the back) in the photo from 1902. He bears a bit of a resemblance to the man standing centre back (with moustache) in the group photo.

William Henry Jr was born in Netherton Village and like his father went into teaching. In 1916, living in School House with his parents, he goes to war. Luckily he survives and in 1921 he is engaged in full-time studies to become a teacher. He marries a Newcastle girl in 1929 and they move away from the area at some point within the following 10 years. Certainly in 1939 he is living in Penrith and employed as a schoolmaster but he and the family seem to move back to Newcastle as he dies there in 1963. I have never been able to find any evidence that either of the two worked in the infant school in the colliery. I've scrutinised the group above and if it is correctly dated to 1912 Mr Boll Sr would be 50 years old. Mr Boll Jr. would be 14 years old. The latter could be one of the older boys but I don't know if there are any 50 year-olds there. It seems like a family group to me.

@James update to the names and info. Jean McDonnell (nee henderson) has named No 15 as Freda Allen and No 32 as Doris (not Dorothy) Armstrong - Jean says she was on the trip but not in the photo. Joan Davison (nee Muckle of Lilly Avenue) has named her as No 19 and says it was 1956.

I'm Raymond Ball. I'm actually number 16 and my twin brother, Trevor is 17. 5 is Trevor Jones and 13 is Dennis Hall.

!. is I think ? Dodds and 2. I am not sure of. 3 George Grahame 4 Martin ? 6. John S Smith. 6. Brian Richmond, 7. ? Cross, 8. I think it is ? Turner, 9 ? I have forgotten. hope this little helps.

On the left John S Smith and on the right George .

Yes Captain Mainwairing

Thankyou - photo added to the album.

Of course. I am glad to have found such a gem of a photo to add to your collection.

Unfortunately my old Microsft Digital Image Pro 10 is no longer available on the Windows 7 to 11 platform. I have tried a few of the new 'photoshopping' products but just couldn't get them to do what I had learned, over a couple of years, to do with my old software.. I'm hoping the old PC lasts out longer than me or I will be stuck with nowt to keep me occupied

@carly No 10 switched to No 9👍. I will let you know if we get any feed back from the Bygone Bedlington group.

@carly I have checked all the school photos that we have for the Village school, Church Lane and the Whitley Memorial school, Vulcan Place and I would agree with @Canny lass that our best guess would be your great granda went to the Whitley Memorial. The 1897 map that @James has posted showing the other school closest to Coach road and the info from the St. Cuthbert's church history booklet is backed up by info on the East End of Bedlington in a booklet 'Bedlingtonshire Villages History Series - Bedlington' by Stephen B. Martin. The info in that booklet saying it was a 'Private School' built c1850 ran by a Mr Whittle I would think the info from 'carly' rules out the possibility that her great granda would have attended that school. But there again, at my age (21), my logic, according to the wife, is often wrong

The information attached is from a St. Cuthbert's church history booklet.

it was Coach Road, not Row. I feel like I am getting closer to finding out which school it is. I feel like the brickwork looks similar to the Village School / Vulcan school. If my great great grandfather was 4 in 1891, and I would say he looks between 4 and 6 on this photo, it would suggest it was taken around 1891-1893

@carly I'll see if i can find Coach Row on any of the old maps and if I can find it it should give us a clue to what school they went to.

@carly - we don't have any school photos from the 'late 1800s' and I can't find a photo with brickwork that completely matches the brickwork in your photo. I have only ever found three schools that were in the area in the 1800's. They are :- 1. The Village school, opened 1874, on Church Lane Bedlington (flats now built on the land) 2. Bedlington station Colliery school. Don't know when it was built but it is identified on on and 1859 OS map. This area used to be named Sleekburn but changed it's name to Bedlington Station after the Bedlington railway station was built in Sleekburn. 3. On an 1896 OS map a school is identified in Bell's Place in Bedlington. Unfortunately no image of this school have ever been posed on any of the local groups. This is a compilation of your photo + Bedlington Village School photo + Bedlington Station Colliery school photo :- This is the only reference, 1896 map, to the school in Bell's Place + a Goole Street view of the area now - Bedlington's East End area :- I would guess you are researching your family. Do you have any info on where they lived in Bedlington?

@carly - I keep a copy of all the school photos where the names have been added so I will have a scan through them all and see if I can find a photo with a similar background. I will let you know weather I find a match or not but I don't recognize it.

I know in the late 1950's we would run along the path from one end of the cottages to the other but can't remember us ever stopping to read the info on the plaque between numbers 6 & 7. I would assume it has Emily Easton's name and the year they were built. I'm surprised @John Fox (foxy) has taken a photo of the plaque

We cracked it, full house. Well done everyone. Its also helped my memory!!

Think it was pre-Brexit Wilma!

Divvent ye dare!