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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

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!

@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 :-

Bowers Garage is visible in this photo of The Neuk. For those of us who lived at the "bottom end" (Hollymount, Millfield) and worked at the Doctor Pit, the quickest route to work was through The Neuk and into the railway siding of the pit, located just behind Bowers Garage. In mining terminology, each end of a longwall face was known as a "neuk," meaning a dead end. Similarly, if you entered The Neuk from the marketplace, you would find no through road—hence the name The Neuk.

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

Awarded to Malcolm Robinson for his volunteer work in the West Bedlington community and his online postings on this group and Facebook keeping the community up to date with councill business that was, and wasn't, happening in the area.

Piper Award certificated presented to the volunteers.

Anonymous guest post:

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) slowly but surely! 😁

@loopylou at the moment just 5 names - 4 positive and 1 '?'. Any updates I will let you know.

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

@loopylou no luck with ant names from from my sister in law. I could post your photo, with space for names, on the Facebook group Bygone Bedlington and see if we can get anyone identified and I will add the name(s).

@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

@Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) The Welwyn is well before my time, so I don’t recognise anyone either! I think this was my great-grandmothers photo. 🙂

@loopylou Don't recognise anyone in the photo. Don't think I have ever seen any stats etc on the number of people and different trades there were at Welwyn. I must have passed the place a hundred times in the early 1960's but I can't remember ever having been anywhere on the Welwyn grounds. Normaly as school kids in the early 1960's we explored everywhere we could - but not the Welwyn

December 2024 - photo from Simon Williams.

Yes, I think that's Elaine. But this isn't actually Laird's House front garden. It's the house to the East of Laird's House, the large front room of which was originally the Laird's House (40 Front Street East) kitchen. Elaine's father worked for the BUDC and was I think the first tenant on 40A after it was separated from Laird's House sometime in the late 1950s. The numbering system became a little confused there due to the dividing (and subdividing) of the properties over the years. I think fractions were involved somewhere as well as letters - I used to be able to explain this in detail! The plaque on the wall (above the pram hood) is probably that of Ian Henderson: the dentist who came to Bedlington around that time. That building later became the Post Office. At some far earlier point, this building was given the name Longstone. If you look beyond the hedge, you can see that at this point the two shopfronts hadn't been fitted to the single story building there. The nearest one of those became Rediffusion after it was a dress shop. Beyond that, you can see Todd's wet fish shop (the first taller building), where Mrs Todd still had an open window displaying her fish. Next one down on the other side of the arch was Allsop's (sp?) the barbers. I think you can even spy the windows of the BUDC offices where the Miner's Picknick brass band contest judges used to sit, and onward...!

I have this photo, my class is central in this section of what is a very long photo

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

The words ' The Fourteen Club' replaced with 'XIV CLUB' and the year changed from 1958 to 1960- update from @bluebarby

This scan looks like the inside of Tyred and Exhausted's garage going off the steel construction and the glass panels in the roof. Does anyone know different?

Formerly The Turk's Head public house now abandoned.

Think it was pre-Brexit Wilma!

Divvent ye dare!

I think that Mr Bebbington should be added to that list HPW.