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Historical Factoids 24. The Bedlington Terriers. We have to go back a few years to start this tale which involves the Bedlington Terriers and even though it’s not in my ward area I felt it’s so integral to the Town it couldn’t be ignored! I was contacted by the guy running the place to ask if I could point him in the right direction for some funding. There were problems with the roof and doors on the clubhouse. I did and they were successful in getting the funding needed to sort those problems out. Next I was asked to help them again this time with their lease because, I was told, a very large grant they had been promised was relying on them having a new lease agreement. That was above my pay grade so the best I could do was facilitate a meeting between the Deputy Leader and regeneration head of NCC and the club. That took place and by all accounts seemed pretty successful judging by the positive comments coming from the club at that time. Jumping ahead a year or two later we then saw the latest reincarnation of the Terriers, as a public body, struck off by Companies House for failing to file accounts. (This has ultimately led to the Terriers dissolving as an entity and NCC stepping in as landowner to salvage the site in case there was a legal challenge.) I was as enraged as other NCC councillors were and demanded a meeting with the Leader of NCC and all officers involved, where we were given the unsavoury legal facts. Back in the 1960’s when Bedlington Urban District Council moved the Bedlington Mechanics off their town centre site to the present one, because they wanted the site for development, they assigned the lease to two charities, the Charity Commission and CISWO, (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation). The land is governed by a charitable trust originally established for the mining community. When the club tried to move forward with the improvements they were after, it became clear that the lease they were operating under was legally invalid. (Northumberland County Council even suggested giving the Terriers another bit of suitable land if it could be found, to resolve the legal issues raised by the Charity Commission.) CISWO (Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation), refused to agree a new lease, citing concerns about preserving the site’s heritage and the community’s free, open and unfettered access. This was now a legal stalemate. It now transpires that this huge grant was actually a loan and anyone who has borrowed a large sum of money for any reason be it a mortgage or car or any number of other things what they actually borrow against is the value of an asset you hold. I believe that’s why a new lease was needed so this money could be leveraged against the lease on the ground. That was never going to happen because the charitable groups would never countenance it. If I thought NCC were in anyway culpable for the demise of the Terriers I would be shouting louder than anyone, however in this case I think NCC acted with the best interests of the community in mind but were stifled by legal issues as can plainly be seen! I think the lack of other councillors of any political hue coming out and criticising NCC as some sort of instigator in this mess is testament to the above sentence! What I do think though is that if the Terriers management had just done the job right they would still be flying under the radar and we would still have a senior Bedlington Terriers club. Who is to blame, if it’s the blame game you are after, make your own mind up but the fact is once more we see a Bedlington Institution lost and a little more Bedlington history consigned to a footnote in our Town’s timeline! Still fighting to keep the Terriers name alive, even if its only through the Juniors at the moment!

Historical factoids 23. Plessey Woods Country Park. When I was first elected as NCC Councillor, 9 years ago, I went down to Plessey Woods and spoke to the staff working there to see how it could be improved. It was about the only major ‘leisure’ asset I had in my ward. Back then it was mostly used by a few dog walkers and the staff said they had seen a steady decline in the numbers of people using the park. No wonder, it looked run down and starved of any investment! First job do something about the play offer there. There were only two ‘springers’ in the kids play park and I thought that was derisory! I lobbied the park management and the portfolio holder saying they were saying they were investing in NCC parks and while I could see investment going into others I think they forgot about one! I argued they have a sea side park at Druridge Bay and a lake park at Bolam and both were getting substantial investments. I said I think you have forgotten about your woodland park at Plessey! So that started to turn the tables a bit and I was offered some funding to put a new play park in and do some repairs to the walkways around the inside of the park. That, on the proviso I managed to increase visitor numbers. I agreed to the challenge but insisted all the monies taken in the parking machine to be used for further upgrades at Plessey Woods! So we saw the two springers ripped out and a new range of play equipment installed. I insisted some of the equipment was suitable for disabled children and I bought two all-terrain wheelchairs so everyone can enjoy the park. Once I had something there I put on some events to get people down and see what we had to offer. Visitor numbers started to increase so I asked for upgrades to the café saying it was going to be too small soon! This time I got a flat no! Covid hit and when we could go outside into the fresh air people descended on Plessey Woods en mass. So much so I had to sort out double yellow lines for the indiscriminate parking which residents down there were up in arms about and which was going on outside the park because the car park and the overspill car parks were full! I argued for a new extension to the car park and used the visitor numbers to justify it. That was agreed in about 6 months which is lightning fast for a council! I also suggested some ‘Hobbit Huts’ which could be hired on a daily basis and possibly some sort of crazy golf, but again all I got back was ‘negative wave’s man’! Just before Covid hit I worked on a scheme to install a national climbing boulder course in the park arguing this would bring in a whole new visitor demographic. I took it to the ‘gaffers’ again and blow me down with a feather they liked it! More on this later but in the course of around 5-6 years which seems the normal procrastination period for councils the prices jumped up to such a height that the 10 boulders I had specified was reduced to 3! I’ve since fought back to get the original one I wanted next to the play area for kiddies, so 4 boulders going in. I’m not about to bite the hand that feeds so……….. I also won the case for an upgrade to the café and like the boulders I’ve put my MLIS money into it to make it happen! Thankfully it was agreed to upgrade the toilet facilities there too. The only bits I’m not too happy about is the size of the kitchen, which is basally the same, and the glass atrium for the café which is basically facing the car park instead of the play area. Apart from those small niggles it’s all good stuff! So after many years of neglect (and I’ve been on several times about the broken play equipment which is now getting sorted) we will soon have a much improved and exciting park to visit on our doorstep. What I would like to see now is an enlarged and committed ‘Friends of Plessey Woods’ group formed so we can drive further improvements in this woodland park. If anyone would like to join please drop me a line. (Still think the Hobbit Huts is a good idea!)

Historical Factoids 25: Borderlands. Seems from what I’ve heard and seen quite a few people aren’t aware of this initiative. The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal was signed in March 2021 bringing up to £452 million of fresh investment to the Borderlands area. This funding was made up of £350M from Government and £100M from local match funding. Around £200M for the English side. The Accountable Bodies are Dumfries and Galloway Council with regards to both the Scottish Government funding for the Growth Deal and that part of the UK Government funding which relates to Growth Deal Projects physically located in Scotland. Northumberland County Council has the role of accountable body as regards that part of the UK Government funding which relates to Growth Deal. As soon as I was aware I asked for a meeting with the lead officer at NCC for this fund. I did manage to convince her that Bedlington should be included and that we had a range of needs which could be addressed as part of this deal. She agreed and not only were we included but we should have been one of the first to benefit. https://www.youtube.com/live/Q4zZGP1LXjI... We are in the Place Programme which is a £50m initiative focusing on smaller market and coastal towns across the region. Our allocation is around £3M and we hear this mentioned time and time again by the political gentry (along with the Cycle track and train station) when they explain just how well Bedlington is doing in terms of funding! The Place Programme includes Alnwick, Bedlington, Bellingham, Dalton in Furness, Egremont, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Gretna, Haltwhistle, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kirkconnel & Kelloholm, Longtown, Newbiggin, Penrith, Prudhoe, Rothbury, Stranraer, Ulverston, Whithorn, Wigton and Wigtown. Fair enough it wasn’t a lot but better than the usual zero investments! How it ran out is something which I think should be used to demonstrate how not to do this sort of stuff!!!!!!! A local Board was formed to bring forward ideas for inclusion and in the first full year of meetings it achieved an introductory paragraph of about a dozen lines for our Place Programme. I think that could have been done in about 12 minutes not 12 months! A call for projects was made public and most of us sitting on this local Board put our own ideas in. About 35 projects were suggested and a year later at a meeting with the Leader of NCC, the Deputy Leader and head of regeneration at NCC I was told none had been forthcoming? My response was that I knew 35 had been submitted and I knew for definite 6 had been submitted because I had submitted them! Seems I was wrong? Pressing further about this and I was told there may have been half a dozen submitted. Nope still not accepting that and the total went up to 21? I knew other people who had submitted projects and again “Nope”! Finally yes 36 projects had been submitted but with no business plans. I said we didn’t ask for business plans we went out with a ‘Call for projects’ and anyway who on earth was going to write or pay to get written business plans before they knew if their projects had any legs? We are now more than half way through this initiative and what’s been delivered……….err nowt as yet! Plenty of meetings, plenty of excuses, plenty of waffle but not one spade in the ground. At one point I suggested putting it all into Keith Fitzsimons project for the Town Centre because that would give us a USP and get people into the Town centre. Can’t really understand why he wasn’t taken more seriously but then again this is Bedlington we are talking about. We now see extra funding being allocated, as was supposed to happen originally, which frees up the strict criteria governing the fund and means other projects which don’t actually strictly qualify for this fund can now be considered. So we now have the proposed café/restaurant on the platform at the station, upgrading the roads, pavements and streets and my pet sports project at West Lea in the mix. We have seen people walk away from this Board because they just lost the will to live, people changed within the membership and some people trying like hell to get it to work. 5 Years and counting………………………..

https://www.northumberlandline.uk/post/information-event-for-bedlington?fbclid=IwY2xjawQX3CFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeGq31wYOlmvitH7fTrbXez0vl5Uw8Gnd9Fa7S0joveuHVsgwxNpGqGof-3M4_aem_2J7qcihtnFF1wahH6hdxDw

Hi Mark, you should be getting some info' forwarded from the post on Bygone Bedlington FB group as I worked closely with Hugh. I've a few photos of older Electronic stuff I was involved with ranging from old Taiwanese winders on which we changed the control systems and converted the feed system to handle much finer wire (Hugh's design). The "Magic Roundabout" in question may have been a twin turreted rig for making fuse cards for Fiat lorries - but there were several things we did that involved a single turret. Hope your dad's OK!??!

Hi Mark! I only ever got into the factory two or three times, and remember the IBM computer doing the wages, and the resistor banding machines on the metox precision resistor line. In fact, I probably still have some of the floor sweepings and production overruns gifted in a large paper bags by Dr Kirby (the head of research) as a thank you for very occasionally helping him with electrical and electronic bits and bobs he required urgently. Latterly, I also knew John Storey, who worked in engineering there, and was an assistant flying instructor at Newcastle airport in his spare time. The Magic Roundabout sounds like an interesting machine. Keen to know more.

@Nicola RileyHi Nicola, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your mam's death. If I'm thinking of the right person then I went to school with Joyce - Westridge Secondary Modern 1959 - 1962. A very nice girl. She wasn't in my class but in the same class as my best friend so we hung about together during our breaks. You'll find a couple of school photos of that Joyce in the Gallery, Westridge album. Might be worth a look. I think you may have found the topic related to Fountain Yard where your nanna's brothers are mentioned. I don't think Fountain Yard comes up in any other topics. Dr Pit is up for discussion frequently. Type "Dr Pit" (inverted commas are important) in the search box, top right and you'll get a list of where it appears.

Hi everyone, I’m putting together a career memory book for my father, Hugh Jefferies, who was an Engineer at Welwyn Electronics for many years. He is incredibly proud of his work on the factory’s automation, especially a machine nicknamed the "Magic Roundabout." I’m looking for any photos or scans that might help bring those memories to life for him: The "Magic Roundabout": Any shots of this or similar assembly/indexing machines. The Factory: Photos of the engineering offices or production floor (1970–2010). The Team: Candid shots of the engineering department, staff presentations, or old company newsletters. If you worked at Welwyn during this era or have any old photos tucked away, I would be so grateful for a digital copy or a lead on where to find one. Thank you for helping me celebrate his time at Welwyn! Best regards, Mark J

@Mark JThat magazine was issued randomly mid 60's to late 80's. My wife has a couple but they don't really have much in them. I've found a few photo's of some pre mid 90's stuff we built that I'll email you. As I mentioned in an earlier 'mail, Hugh himself may have some photos stashed away somewhere.

I've contacted Mark via email.

Blimey, Dr Kirby & IBM computer, they're blasts from the past. As for John Storey, I was an apprentice '66 to '72 and can only remember him from the earlier years in the Tech' block.

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Just playing around with AI Alan..............

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) that would be great if you can post this and see if anything comes back. Much appreaciated

@Mark J searched on the FB group Bygone Bedlington and the only postings on the group about the Welwyn are group photos of office parties among the female workers, What if I screen shot your first comment and posted that on the Bygone Bedlington site and see what response it gets?

Welcome to the group @Mark J Although everyone in Bedlington would have known of the Welwyn and people who worked there there has been very little mention on the facotry and staff that I can remember or find photos of. If you select the Gallery section of this group and enter the one word - Welwyn - into the search box at the far right of the screen you will get a link to every comment that has been made that contains the word Welwyn. @loopylou created an album - Welwyn Photos - in the Gallery section but there are only three photos that she had fond in her family home but no info with the photos and neither of them were taken inside the factory. I knowm there are a couple of ex Welwyn workkers who use the Facebook (FB) group, Bygone Bedlington, but I can't remember many photos having been posted within that group. I will havve a search of the FB group and see what I can find and if there is anything that fits what you are looking for I wil ask those that posted the info if it's ok to share with this group.

Found this little gem while rummaging for information on the whereabouts of the Bedlington Post Office, mid 19th century. It is a "Report to the General Board of Health for Morpeth re Cholera, dated 1849. It certainly makes me grateful and thankful for how Bedlington is today.

No recollection whatsoever of reading it earlier! Clearly another of my 'senior moments'.

@Nicola Riley welcome to the forum. Seeing your post made me check the album, Doctor Pit and Rows, we have in the gallery section and I see we don't have the old maps showing the rows so I have added a compilation from the old maps showing the siting of the rows. This 1896 map shows the location of the Dr Pit and rows within the town :-

Sorry about that! Going further back, I found John Urwin in another trade directory, History, Topography, and Directory of Northumberland 1855 p. 897 and see that even then he was Bedlington’s Postmaster while at the same time running his chemist and druggist business. The question arises – did Urwin live in the same place? I looked him up in the 1851 census. The 1851 census doesn’t reveal so many household addresses. A couple of prominent buildings are named: Fountain Hall and the Vicarage. Apart from Sun Inn and the Red Lion Inn no pubs are named on Front Street. That doesn’t mean to say that pubs did not exist. The number of “Innkeepers”, “Beer-house keepers” and “Publicans registered in the town says otherwise. However, I could not find John Urwin living next door to any of them, suggesting that he may not always have lived next door to the Grapes Inn. Following the enumerator’s route from the Market Place towards the Red Lion I find at schedule nrs. 215 and 214 a “retired innkeeper” and an “innkeeper” next door to each other. Though not named as such, their proximity to the Market Place and the fact that they are neighbours leads me to believe that they are the Masons Arms and the Grapes Inn. Continuing westwards and 28 dwellings later (presumably located both on Front Street and in the various yards) I find John Urwin at schedule nr 203. Moving on, past another 16 dwellings I find the last dwelling of West End, on the corner of Glebe Row, at sch. Nr. 187. It seems to me therefore that John Urwin is living nearer the Red Lion than the Market Place and this location could therefore possibly be Baptist Yard. John Urwin was not a local lad, having been born in Lanchester, Durham. When he moved to Bedlington I can't say but as he was, with certainty, the postmaster, at least between 1855 and 1858 he must have held that position when the telegraph system was installed but I haven't been able to establish at which address. The OS map of 1860shows a Post Office situated between the Grapes Inn and the Mason’s Arms at the lower end of Front Street West. As maps require a few years of research and survey work prior to publication, it’s fair to assume that Urwin may have lived and worked here in 1858 in his capacity as Postmaster. If this is the case then the telegraph system could have been installed here, rather than in Baptist Yard. Its installation could well have been the reason for his move. A bit more work required yet.

The many comprehensive trade and residential directories are a great source of information covering such things as businesses, notable residents, tradespeople and local institutions - of which the Post Office is but one - so I spent yesterday (and a fair bit of today) rummaging through those I have access to and I thought a fair place to start would be the 1858 Post Office Directory of Northumberland (later called Kelly’s Directory). Part of the entry for Bedlington, p. 26, looks like this: Bottom left I can see that Bedlington did indeed have a “Post Office”. The Postmaster was John Urwin and letters were received by him, from Morpeth, by mail cart. Middle right we can see that John Urwin was a man of many talents when, under the businesses section, he appears as chemist, druggist and postmaster. I thought that was odd but further rummaging through the GPO and Post Office Museum sites shows that it was more than common to combine the role of ‘Postmaster’ with another profession. It seems that by the 1850s the postal system was so well developed that “no village, however insignificant” was “without its receiving-house”. By 1855 there was a network of almost 10, 500 post offices across the country “(made up of 920 Head Post Offices and 9,578 Sub-Post Offices and Receiving Offices)”. There were, in other words, several types of ‘Post Office’, whereof the receiving house had least responsibility. For them, it sufficed to receive letters from the Head Post Office and display them in a window so that anyone passing could see if they had mail to collect. The Postal Museum (online) describes the role of the Postmaster as “a salaried male official in charge of PO operations and staff within a specific area defined by its Post Town”. The term Postmaster, they add “was often used colloquially to refer to a Sub-Postmaster. Most Sub Postmasters and Sub Postmistresses were not employed by the Post Office. They had a main business, like a shop, which offered Post Office services”. Those who took on this role were often considered central, trusted figures in their community. That explains a lot! To me it seems that John Urwin was a sub-postmaster and, looking quickly through several other small towns in the directories, the terms ‘Postmaster’ and ‘Post Office’ are used fleetingly for what appear to be Sub-Postmasters and Sub-Post Offices – having mail delivered to them once a day from a Head Post Office by whatever means available. In 1830 mail was distributed by train for the first time and when Morpeth got its station, in 1847 (on the London to Edinburgh line), it appears to have become the location of the Head Post Office for quite a large area, including Bedlington, to which it distributed mail for further distribution or, more commonly, for collection. Next, I looked at the nearest census returns (1861) to see where John Urwin lived: There he is, schedule nr 36, right next door to the Grapes Inn. His neighbour on the other side, at schedule nr 35, is the Masons Arms: That all fits in nicely with what we can see on the 1860 OS map below. I can also mention here that the Post Office can be seen to have opened in the Market Place (Sch.nr 17). It is occupied by Robert Dobson who gives his occupation as “Ass’t. Overseer” rather than any sort of Post Office worker. Perhaps this dwelling is above the Post Office. I'll take a break here as one of the grandchildren has just arrived. I'll try to post the rest later.

A bit late,marra,but we dinna live in a free speech country any mair!! See my new topic titled "Banned"! Cheers Folks! HPW.

The 3 booklets note that the first post office was located at Baptist Yard. It seems logical that the town’s first, more primitive post office would have been the location where the towns first telegraph messages were received, (the Victorian equivalent of email or texting.) I can find no reason to believe that the photo is not the Baptist Yard. The following is from ChatGPT. Bedlington’s First Post Office and early Postal Presence in Bedlington · The earliest record of a postal connection for Bedlington shows that in 1834 mail was already being handled for the town via the Morpeth post town. This means Bedlington had recognized mail services in the official British postal system from at least that year, even if there wasn’t yet an independent office building in the town itself Historical timelines compiled by the Six Townships Community History Group, note that a post office with a telegraph system was present by in the Baptist Yard in1858. This suggests that a functioning postal office at least capable of handling mail and telegraph messages existed in the mid-1850s. As the postal system became more organised in the UK, Bedlington’s postal facility was officially incorporated into the national Post Office numbering system. This moved operations from a yard setting into a more formal postal classification. By 1863, Bedlington had its own Railway Sub Office (RSO) designated with the code B75. An RSO was typically a postal facility associated with a railway station or rail mail sorting point, vital during the 19th-century expansion of mail transport via rail. After operating as a Railway Sub Office, the Bedlington postal facility later became an Independent Sub Office in 1905, indicating a more standard and autonomous local post office service. The postal office’s officially identity evolved over the 20th century, sometimes tied to railway-based names as the town and its services shifted: Bedlington Colliery office existed and changed name in the early 20th century. Bedlington Station became a recognised postal identity around 1936 Eventually the Postal Identity was simply “Bedlington”

@Canny lass this dosen't prove anything but I see in John Dawson's Bedlington Timeline he has an entry :- '1858 Bedlington's first post office had a telegraph system installed. It was situated in the Baptist Yard' - but no reference to where the info came from. i don't know if John still runs the Facebook group - Past Times History group - as he kicked me out of the group a couple of years ago because he thought I was an admin, and I wasn't and never had been, on the Ashington group and had deleted his post about selling his books/CDs on the local area.

I doubt if the Sleekurn edition would cover Front Street, West End, Alan. I don't have any of Stephen B Martin's books but I have several by Evan Martin - including the one above, posted by Vic. Evan Martin uses the same photo of 'Baptists Yard' accompanied by almost the same text. Unfortunately he doesn't disclose the source of the photo or the information in the text. He does say that the "The Baptist Yard" contained " Bedlington's first Post Office and in 1858 the telegraph system was installed there." (page 99). I find it somewhat strange that just 2 years after such an investment, the Post Office would move to new premises nearer the Market Place as shown on the 1860 map. It's also worth remembering that maps aren't created overnight. They take several years of survey work before being published, so the location of the PO shown on that map may well have been surveyed prior to 1860. I have to admit that I have wondered if that really is Baptist Yard and if the PO was ever located there.

According to Stephen Martin's booklet about Bedlington, the first Post Office was in the Baptist Yard.

Uk doesn’t have free speech unless it depends on what side of the fence you sit on I’m afraid politically correct ok not politically correct no chance