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Hi We are moving to bedlington as we have just bought a property on front street. The property in question has a blue plaque on the wall outside (Gibsons who i believe were a family who made nails) and I've been told used to be a wholesalers and such over the years prior to becoming a home in the early 2000's, id be really interested if anyone has any old photographs of 36 front street (opposite the Black Bull) prior to it becoming a home. thanks

PS Have you read John Dawson's topic 'The last of the Nailers' in History Hollow?

Hi @stustep and welcome to the forum. The Gibson nailers get a mention in Graces Guide https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bedlington_Ironworks where you can read that: "During the first quarter of the nineteenth century the splitting mills became disused at the Bedlington works, and soon after that all the nailers shops, apart from one, disappeared from the town. The last shop belonged to the Gibson family and can be traced back to the beginning of the last century. Mr. Gibson says he was forced to finally pull down the shutters of his shop in 1930. He has since been known in Bedlington and district as "The last of the Nailers". Hope this is of use to you.

@John Fox (foxy) & @Mal I am assuming the council will have records of the Blue Plaques - do you know who to contact at the council offices? I don't know if English Heritage are sent all info on Blue Plaques (to me). @stustep - I know @Andy Millne added an entry into the bedlington Timeline :- @Jammy posted in a topic 'Halfpenny Woods' create by @Canny lass and mentioned the iron Works and in his comment was this bit about nails :- Something else that has me thinking. Which way were the completed steam engines moved from the works. I suppose they could have travelled towards the Kitty Brewster or beyond to flatter ground and joined the rail network in the Bates pit area. The furnace bridge is an arch but is flat on the top so the engines could be wheeled/dragged across it with teams of horses. Then there would be the problem of getting them up to the bank top. I doubt horses could pull them up but perhaps a stationary steam engine could pull them up but where would they go from there. There was a rail track from the iron works that ran along the edge of the river towards the black bridge. This track was paid for by the Iron Works and connected with the Barrington pit track that brought coal to the riverside for transfer onto barges. The iron works then had coal delivered directly to the works. I'm not sure if the trains went along that track because it was probably not a standard gauge track and was used to carry tubs of coal. The trains could have been loaded onto a barge though that would be risky and where would they be off loaded. I'm a bit puzzled. There is a stone block wall next to the furnace bridge which was probably reinforcing the land behind it and was used to tie up barges bringing supplies to the Iron Works or taking some of the other goods produced at the Iron Works. The Iron works also produced 100,000's of stamped nails that were transported all over the UK and the world. I'll have a look at the Evan Martin booklet - Bedlington iron & Engine Wporks 1736-1867' and see if the name 'Gibson' gets mentioned.