Carole

I've added a new album called ‘End of an Era' in the Places section of the Gallery. It contains newspaper cuttings dating from the 1970s about the end of the colliery. There are some photos and quite a lot of cuttings mentioning people who lived at Netherton at the time. The cuttings make me remember what a strong community it was. Quite a lot of people really wanted to stay but the Council wouldn't improve the houses. Carole

I have just added about 30 more photos to my gallery of old photos of Netherton and Nedderton. All the photos in my gallery are from the same family collection and date from around 1900 to the 1960s. I can't find any more recent ones which is a shame. The new photos include: Photos of the Hall Pit and Howard Pit Pupils at Nedderton School Another photograph of Netherton pitmen Office Row Electrification of the colliery Snow at Netherton Training a pit pony Nedderton village The Winding House controls An engine and a motor at the colliery Children at a Wartime fancy dress pageant Netherton residents on a Wartime day trip to the Kyles of Bute Howard House Various other photos around Netherton I'm having trouble with identifying some of the photos and would be glad of any help if anyone has more information about them. Carole

I've just been given another box of old photos of Netherton. They're from the same source as the ones I have already had, so I'm re-uniting the family collection. I will scan any which might be of interest and add them to the gallery. Looking through, I'm having trouble identifying one of them (attached). Can anyone help me identify what it is? I thought it might be the winding engine because my grandfather and great uncle were Winding Enginemen, and there's another photo of the controls in the Winding House. However, isn't it a bit small to be a Winding Engine? Maybe it's a pump to provide ventilation underground. I'm just guessing. Are any of you experts? Any help you can give would be gratefully received, otherwise I'll have to give it a very vague label in the Gallery. Carole

Thanks for the welcome, and sorry my ‘Hello' was so long in coming. I have had several messages about the photos. I'm glad to be able to share them via the board, and it's good to hear that some of them mean a lot to people. I'm gradually gathering more of my great aunt's photo collection together - they did get distributed around the family, so I hope to track down more which might be of interest. They'll all be from the same era, so apologies to anyone hoping for more recent ones.

Hi everyone, I joined a while ago because I can contribute old photos. I don't live in the North East now but my Dad's family came from Netherton and Bedlington, and I spent a lot of time at Netherton when I was growing up. I have put my photos in the Places section of the Gallery. I get more photos from time to time from family contacts and I'll add any which might be of interest. A few people have been in touch about the photos via the Personal Messenger, and if I know anything which could help I'll pass it on. Regard, Carole

Hi, I have just managed to send a second photo of the girls at Franch Flag Day which might include your Great Aunty Jean without a message (I don't really know what I'm doing!) My Great Aunt Kitty is the girl sitting down in the second photo. Kitty lived at Netherton all her life, and she died in 1999. We have lost all the people who could have answered all the questions we now have. It sounds as if you have a really interesting family to investigate, I do hope you hear from people who can help you. Carole

I've added another batch of photos to my gallery 'Old photos of Netherton'. The new photos date from 1901 to the 1930s and they include pupils at Nedderton School, the Colliery Engineer and Colliery Secretary, some of the staff who worked for the Colliery Manager at Howard House, and one of some pitmen with their motorbikes. I am hoping to get more photos from family sources and I think there will be some taken at the colliery itself. I will scan and upload anything which might be of interest.

Hello again Jojo, I forgot to mention that I came across some more photos and other information about Netherton and other towns and villages on the Northumberland Communities website. You probably know all this, but just in case here's a link to the photo entries for Netherton: http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/Nedderton_C4.htm Carole

Hello Jojo I've had a look through my collection of family photos and I'm sorry but I can't find anything later which could be of interest. I've just got a few very ordinary family snaps which no-one else could possibly want. It's sad that there seem to be so few photos of Netherton, and now there's hardly a trace of it left. Like you, I would love to see any others that people may have if they would be happy to upload them. Carole

Hi Poldweia I'm glad the photos are interesting for you. It does seem quite possible that some people in your Grandma's family could be in the photos that I have got. I have put about a dozen more photos into the Galleries section (click on ‘Galleries' at the top of the screen, then on 'Places Gallery' and then scroll across to the right and click on ‘Old Photos of Netherton'). There is one taken during the Second World War of a large group of people dressed up for a fancy dress pageant - maybe you might spot family members in that one. I'm not sure if we are counting people in the same way in the photo you mention - the people in it are not all standing side by side in a tidy line. There are two girls toward the left of the photo standing side by side carrying trays of flags and medallions, both wearing white caps (a bit like old fashioned nurses caps), and they both have coloured ‘bibs' with a medallion pinned to them. The girl on the left of the pair has a roughly centre parting, the other has a side parting with her hair swept across. The girl on the left of those two (the one with a roughly centre parting) was my Great Aunt Kitty Harrison. I'm afraid I don't know who the other is, in fact I can't identify anyone else in that photo. If you can't be sure about which one is Kitty there's another photo of four of the girls in the Gallery section and it's easy to spot Kitty in that one - she's the only one sitting down. I've noticed your post seeking information about the Tweddle family and I wish I could help but I don't remember ever hearing the name mentioned by my relatives at Netherton. I hope you do get some replies from people who can help you. Carole

Thank you - I now have a cleaner PC but sadly no restoration of the missing function. It feels as if Roxio didn't just deactivate it so that you would be forced to use Drag-to- Disk, it feels as if it is has deleted this Windows function completely. I'm still hoping for a solution but trying to think of a work around to use instead. I know I could re-install Windows XP and I think I've got everything backed up, but I suspect I might just dig myself into a deeper hole.

Thanks very much for your suggestion. I've tried this but you only get the option to select out uninstalling Drag-to-Disk or the whole of the rest of the software suite. If I'd known at the outset what I do now I would have tried a customised installation to avoid installing Drag-to-Disk in the first place.

I installed Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 for a one-off job to edit a collection of old cine films which had been transferred onto DVD. I had various difficulties with the Roxio software, in particular the Drag-to-Disk function. One problem was that it seemed to have disabled the function within Windows which originally copied pictures to CD, ie. 'Copy to CD' in Picture Tasks. Now that I've finished the editing job I decided to get rid of Roxio and I have uninstalled the whole suite including Drag-to-Disk (using Add or Remove programs in Control Panel). I'm left with no way of copying pictures to CD because the 'Copy to CD' function has not been restored to the 'Picture Tasks' Menu. Too much to hope for I suppose. Does anyone know if I can reset the 'Picture Tasks' Menu to restore the original functions? I'm not keen on reinstalling Windows XP if I can avoid this. Help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I'll use it if I ever want to get a picture into a post.

I don't doubt that the Bose speakers Monsta suggests are great but I wanted a 2.1 set of speakers for my PC, not a 4.1 set, and I was looking within a price limit of £100. I tried a range of speakers in this price range - nothing I tried came close to the Harman Kardons. The appearance initially made me think twice because I loved the design but suspected that something so radically different might be putting appearance before function and they could be really let down by poor sound quality. Not so. I was astonished by the sound when I tried them. They produce a clear undistorted sound with more volume than I could possibly want. They have the capacity to produce a really punchy bass if that's what you want, although I generally don't so I haven't got the bass turned up very far. Appearance definitely isn't the key factor for me but I find a lot of computer equipment frankly ugly (apart from Macs - wish I had one) so it's just a bonus to find something in my price range which sounds great and looks great. I looked at Monsta's link to the Bose speakers on That online auction site that is in no way as good as Free Bedlington.co.uk Classifieds to see what I might have missed, but as they are a 4.1 set they weren't what I was looking for, and as the current bid for them is £190 (including delivery) with 3 days to go they would in any case have been way out of my price league. I agree with 3g that by far the best way to chose speakers is to try them out and make your own comparison. People have different preferences for sound quality and appearance. Some people will think the Harman Kardons just look weird and hate them - fine, each to their own! There are loads of customer reviews of the Harman Kardons available on line if anyone's interested. Some people say they are using them with an iPod to replace their main hifi/audio system. I wouldn't go THAT far but they do give our Denon system with Mission speakers quite a run for its money. I notice from scanning some reviews online that one person bought them even though put off at first by their appearance: "Not sure of the alien phallic jellyfish thingy they've got going on but the sound is simply awesome (for less than £100..!) Bargain price too.. I'm hearing sounds on cds I didn't know where there... After the initial should I shouldn't I etc I am simply overjoyed that I did... " Well, that thought hadn't occurred to me... By the way, the price on Amazon for the Harman Kardons has just been adjusted down to £90 (9th Jan 2008).