mercuryg

Having spent a lot of time in Lincolnshire over the past year, I'd take issue that there are far more obese people in Boston than in the whole of the North East!

I have it on good authority, from a friend who works for Northern, that things are good to go...

Have a great day buddy

Sorry to hear of your sad loss Tony, good to have you back

To be honest, Moe, I don't think anything will get built unless there is a certainty that a retailer/pub chain/commercial entity has guaranteed to take it up.

Congratulations to all three of the Bedlington Independents who were successful today. The work and effort that has been put into this campaign has been nothing short of tremendous, so well done.

Yes, saw this announcement, I will be checking it out!

I wish Malcolm the best of luck. This is a man who has put a whole load of hard work into making the town a better place to be. Just a pity I'm not in his ward!

Yeah, I'm just not convinced, from past events, that bombarding people with missiles is an appropriate response. Of course, I don't have the answer as to what is the solution, but I'm quite sure five dozen tomahawks is not. As for things not having gone far enough, let;s bring the Enola Gay out of retirement, shall we? There are a lot of idiots in this world who, sadly, believe war is a solution to anything; its not, and never has been, it simply results in people who don't deserve it getting killed.

Wait a second; am i right in thinking you believe the missile strike will actually change things? Is that right?

Agree Ovalteeny, it is a very attractive street with some lovely touches. Always impressed by the flowers.

No, just a very big supermarket

Canny Lass, use as many sentences as you want!

I've also heard this but am not sure if it is true. I think it is still trading, however.

It's at the very top end of the front street, a few doors up from Watson's newsagent/post office. It looks to have been ready for a while; I've heard tales that it has been put on hold due to illness of someone involved. I really hope it goes ahead, as I believe this will be a roaring success.

Happy belated birthday Canny Lass, hope you had a good day!

Thanks all, he seems to be recovering well. Had a nice few beers with friends yesterday (me, not the cat!)

Thank you, I intend to have a quiet few beers with friends. It's been a fraught weekend as one of my cats was poisoned on Friday, and had to go to vet for emergency treatment. He's home now, so am very thankful for that!

Thanks for all this! I am truly fascinated by this story. I asked a friend of mine - Charlie Kyle - in the pub the other day if he knew Joe, and sure enough, he did! His comment was 'he was like Desperate Dan, could eat pies in no time!'. Great stuff!

I have run a search on here for this guy but it returned 'nothing found' so I hope I'm not repeating stuff! While browsing the net for local history stuff the other day, as I often do, I came across a series of photos, and an article, about this local man - Joe Steele - who was a Champion Eater! I'm fascinated, and have posted part of the article here. Did anyone on here know him? I'm thinking HPW may well have done! "And one of the greatest fairground stars of them all � the world's champion eater. Actually Joe Steele never displayed his talent at Dewsbury Feast. He made a show of his vast appetite at The Hoppings on Newcastle's Town Moor, one of the biggest annual fairs in the land. While working as a journalist in Northumberland, infatuated with the glitz and glitter of fairs and fairgrounds, I made sure I was the one who got to interview Joe. The pint-sized Bedlington miner had a formidable appetite. He once wolfed his way through a 52-course meal. In a sensational crunching session he gulped down 35 packets of crisps in under an hour without taking a drink. That won him an entry in the record books, along with such great names as Georges Grogmet, a Belgian who gobbled up 44 boiled eggs in 30 minutes, and Philip Yazdzik of the United States who ate 77 hamburgers at a sitting. Joe Steele went to Paris to match his eating capacity against the French champion. French chefs served up a 52-course gourmet's delight. "I don't know what it all was," Joe told me. "The menu was in French. I think there was a boar's head, caviar, all kinds of fish. All I know is I ate it." The French champion conceded defeat long before the final course was served. "He said he thought I was a glutton," Joe grinned. Joe, then a miner at Choppington Colliery, began his lusty eating career at the age of 18 by downing a record number of black puddings. During his annual holidays he was a special attraction at the Hoppings fair. There he devoured 121bs of raw sausages and 2� lbs of raw tripe every day for a week. In his long career he never once had indigestion. I interviewed Joe on a sad day in his life. He was setting down knife, fork and spoon to retire from competitive eating. "I think I could still hold it all in my stomach," he said proudly. Then added with profound regret "My teeth have gone. I've only got six left." When Joe's wife made a cup of tea he refused a biscuit. How did a man who never weighed much over 11 stone manage to cope with such fantastic quantities of food? "The way I'm made," said Joe. "That's all there is to it." The site where those glittering Dewsbury Feasts were held when I was a boy is now occupied by a supermarket, a shopping centre, a petrol station. They can't bury memories under concrete though. The sights, sounds and smells of the fair live on, sharp and vivid in the mind. Every town deserves a good Feast. Though in these weight-watching days we're probably never going to see another feasting giant to match Joe Steele."

There are Templar connections not far from here; check out the chapel at Delaval Hall, a very interesting building indeed.

It's difficult to define what 'modern art' is i.e. where and when it began. Many class the Impressionists, from the later 19th century, as Modern art, simply because they approached there work in a different way to what had become traditional portraiture and landscapes. The same could be said of our local lot, the Pitmen Painters, who were by no mean conventional (but, in my own opinion, very important in the history of UK art). Usually, the term modern art is mostly associated with the Pop Art movement and onwards; It's a personal choice as to whether one likes a particular painting, sculpture or work of art, and for me, I just like what I like. Therefore, you can chuck your warhols, Damien Hirsts and Tracy Emins in the bin, and give me more conventional works, such as the utter genius of Da Vinci, who's drawings I could look at for hours, and the glorious colours and detail of the pre-Raphaelites.

No probs, let me know if you do.

Malcolm, are they getting an information plaque to explain the significance?

Yes, I think the dog is the least inspiring of these; the St Cuthberts Cross looks better in the flesh, as the picture doesn't show clearly that the actual cross is gleaming gold.