threegee

It's all there in the news story Mons. Somebody took the trouble to write it; all you need to do is read it!

Yes, an the entire street would go to church all dressed up in their finest. There were no excuses, and anyone who didn't was looked on as far from normal, and probably destined for hellfire! But St C's wasn't the only church after their immortal souls, and soon we had the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Church of Christ (Baptists) on the Front Street to compete with the C of E - besides, of course, Roman Catholics at the top end. Likely a few more besides - I can't remember which sect the Coffin Chapel originally belonged to. No different really to any other mining, or indeed agricultural community, anywhere else in the Country. No, it had little to do with the run-down of industry and then the mines. For the most part it was simply changing social attitudes, particularly in later generations. I'm sure the abnormally high number of pubs got some of the blame. "Middle class" people would continue to go to church in fair numbers for another generation or two. I remember a vicar or someone connected with the church telling me the gallery was demolished because of maintenance costs. It seems it leaked like a sieve, and may have been quite drafty! I'd imagine that exposed way up on that rise, and on the North side of the building too, heating costs would be particularly high, and with falling congregations there was no need to suffer all these extra costs.

Ah Inn not Arms - my misread! That sign on the corner does look to say Anvil Inn, now that you mention it! So it's certainly not a a private house, but a very Public one. I still think that sign on what is now the main part of the Queens says something else though. My money is still on a two pubs into one. Or three if you include the prior Queens. Here's my estimate of where that Guidepost in the picture was give or take a meter or two (note that the pavement is a lot wider now): THE Guidepost or a guidepost? If the former it needs a blue plaque nailed to the road I think.

Wow, Cympil always seems to be able to come up with the shots! Here's something interesting: The only remaining point of reference here seems to be the now Queens Head, Guidepost. But look at it in the 2009 shot, and in the 1912 shot. Slightly different perspective, but it's obviously still the same building. Notice that those unusual twin windows are still there, but the top floor has been lopped off the former private house on the corner which they were part of. In fact it doesn't even seem to be called the Queens Head then. The bit of the sign we can see seems to say something like ...ASEN. Saracen? But you say it was called the Anvil Arms. Could that tall building be a separate pub and not a private house, and maybe the two pubs later made into a single one? Does not compute! I'd always wondered where THE Guidepost was, but it rather looks like the guy squatting on the left is sitting under it! Anyone know any different?

You missed the point Monsta - it's also a vote on the quality of the post, and whether it added anything to the argument or to the collective knowledge. Most people are consumers of info not facilitators. One click now and then is all you can hope for. They've had this drilled into them by the media, and arguably also by the learn-by-wrote education system. This was confirmed the other week by an e-mail from a Bedlington lady (who could have posted on the board to everyone) saying how nice it was to have a website that told her what was on and where. Was it worth writing back to tell her she'd completely missed the point of a community website, and indeed the point of the Internet as a whole? I fear she is by no means alone!

Somewhere near the Guidepost roundabout I think. May have been where the roundabout is today as quite a few buildings were demolished (at the previous crossroads) when it was built. Google Streetview Certainly I've heard of it and have likely been there in the distant past. This isn't very far from where my Grandfather's family lived, and established a stonemasons yard, when they moved to the area from Aberdeen in the 18th century. Someone help my memory here! Please let us have details of who these people were, and any scraps of background information you have. This will do a lot to help other people - maybe hundreds of years hence! What goes here gets recorded in lots of other places and, unlike paper records and stone inscriptions, is here for posterity! Now isn't that an alarming thought?

This is good! This is positive negativity! I can feel a "Are you listening to your customers, or are you a Dinosaur?" ...feature coming on. I've heard more or less the same about Asda-Tesco from Mrs threegee - so it must be true! Maybe Tesco is ahead of the game and is now in the process of fixing this? Library? Well... silly jobsworths I think. Here we are lobbying like hell to save their arses, and when we ask them to stick a couple of little Bedlington.co.uk flyers up by the computers we are told they "don't do that sort of thing"! If they aren't there for the very community that pays their wages what exactly are they there for? Maybe what we should be lobbying for is a change in management?

We could remedy this with http://nickersshop.bedlington.co.uk if there's a real demand for nickers delivered to your door today - in a plain brown package, of course!

Why it's there: The system was originally devised as a way to flag-up those quality posts that are worth spending a little time reading. Even the moderators don't have time to read everything. Through this it tends to encourage quality postings, and discourage slanging matches, where both parties generally get voted down - unless one party is grossly out of line. We often get the odd prat who emails something like "I'd join in if you removed some of the idiots" and by implication ran the thing more responsibly. Also implying that their opinion has far more weight than anyone else's (but they don't want to risk ther cosy prejudices being challenged). Of course if the moderator's cow-towed to them they most likely wouldn't, and probably have nothing worth saying anyway. But to those people the rep system illustrates that what's already there has stood the test of mass approval, and that it's they who are the odd ones out! Personally speaking: I broadly agree with Mr D. Except I try to apply the has it been helpful to anyone and has it made me think tests, before I apply the do I agree with it test. Two out of three generally gets it. On negative I suppose it has to be the opposite, though I'd immediately vote down anything abusive of someone else, especially when it was unprovoked by personal remarks. And finally: To sum it up I'd say that the rep system - although originally devised to flag what was worth spending time reading - sort of fully democratises the moderation process, and adds a bit of social pressure to ensure better behaviour (why I'm going to vote -rep stays). Because a lot of members know who a lot of members are there's very little for the moderators to do anyway. The only problem seems to be that not enough members are aware of it. Maybe a red button will make them use the green one too?

Unfortunately you are right! Formatting all over the place in Open Office! Can't we persuade them to put it out as a standard .PDF? A prior requirement to buy, or steal, a £300 proprietary software package can't be the best way to present the face of law & order! Someone needs to point out the Public Notices section to them too I think. The concept of "free" might take a little explaining.

The system is heavily weighed against small parties, and I think quite deliberately, to stop any new movements from getting off the ground. The arguments against PR are greatly overstated. The present system has disenfranchised large sections of the population for decades. I don't see anything wrong in drawing a government from across party boundaries either. No one party has a monopoly on good ideas. OK, so the PM loses a lot of his rights to act like a dictator that have simply been appropriated over the last fifty or so years, but that's all to the good. I also think that five years in power without any real answerability is too long these days. Probably the US has it about right at four years. But, how does a system reform itself when it's against the self-interest of those in power to reform? A looming revolution, or mass civil unrest, has been the only way that has worked in the past. All we are seeing at the moment is the worst examples of abuse by individuals being dealt with, and a bit of trimming of the rules. Instead of real reform the system is, as always, just doing the bare minimum to protect itself. There needs to be a way for ordinary individuals to bring about change to the system without the explicit approval of the system itself. Maybe a real people's chamber which can only deliberate on constitutional matters and heavily relies on IT for its mandate? Could be the best ever reason to ask their lordships to find somewhere else to have their afternoon nap!

The well known Bedlington estate agents "OK Matews ER" (Stitching problem) They're only reasonably good, and have the Queen as a client! Nice day for it, but the time changes of the various sweeps through the place certainly show. I think Dennis got caught under where the Bedlington.co.uk sign is now.

Unfortunately the same people who misuse +rep will misuse -rep! They'll vote for/against people rather than the content. The solution is to encourage far more people to use the rep system, and make it clear that it's to vote on the quality of the post. That you should even consider voting up posts you don't agree with if the argument is well put; after all your instincts could just be wrong and the posters logical argument right! Diversity of opinion is good for any community, just so long as those opinions have been properly thought through. Another point to make is that you should make up your own mind, and not be influenced by other people into how you vote. There's already enough herd instinct around to do for all the "lemmings" fifty times over!

Great heads-up mobius. But in case we get accused of putting the wrong spin on this that's not quite what The Journal reporter implies. This would indicate a voluntary liquidation. There's also the implication that individuals and not these companies were being prosecuted, and that Wansbeck gave up pursuing the matter for other reasons. So there's nothing in The Journal, or here, to say anyone did anything criminal, or even that there were any civil penalties imposed. Nice sensitive remark for his family to see Monsta! Who will ever be able to say for sure what his state of mind or health was? It could well be that he was preoccupied and didn't see the train coming, or suffered some kind of medical emergency in the wrong place at the wrong time. Stranger things have happened.

Well we have the TV debates, and Monsta's take on them, to look forward to. To keep them from getting into too many bad habits I'm inclined to only vote UKIP at the Euro elections, and toss a coin (without Mad Gordon's head on it) at national and local elections. More than two terms of any of them has never been good. We probably wouldn't be in quite the mess we are in now if Teflon Tony hadn't lied about serving a full third term. That's apart from his "little fibs" that got us into two very expensive wars against people who never set a foot on any of our land! I remember a pit wife near the raas telling young me that Winston Churchill was an "old war monger". This was puzzling as I knew he'd got us out of one, but I still don't know of any he got us into. After a while I straightened this out in my mind: she wasn't really an Old Labour supporter at all; she was a Nazi parachutist in drag!

Has to be the most pointless budget in history! Gordon wants a give-away, and Alastair - asserting the new-found Independence of someone who's going to lose his job very soon - wants a responsible, steady-as-we-go, one. Neither can to do what will be needed - just yet! So... if they somehow scrape back in they'll sneak all the tax increases etc. in at a later date, or if Cameron/Osborne get in, any measures won't get past the Commons vote or will be nullified very quickly. Either way it's a completely pointless pretence at going through the motions of normal government, and a waste of paper.

Hang on, VAT was only temporally increased to 17.5%! But somehow that temporary became permanent. It was originally introduced at 10%, and that was all the revenue that would be needed in the brave new Eurocentric world. That netted about the same as the former Purchase Tax on "luxury goods".

So what's wrong with the IMF? Easy one to answer: they don't control it! No gravy-train jobs there for washed-up europoliticos. No, do what we tell you because we have the power to remove you. No, put hard economics before political manoeuvring. crisis management a bit strong Malc. Not the crisis bit, the management bit! BTW did you notice Greek VAT up from 19% to 21%? UK VAT to 20% within months - that's now a cert! Even VAT on food being contemplated. Who's going to be the first to use the phrase The Decade of Discontent?

So Dr Trotter's house (the tallest of the buildings bottom right) was still a private house in 1930! Not yet a Martins Bank of Dad's Army fame! Certainly it doesn't look like a bank in this shot. That's the main reason I put this a few years earlier. I wonder what those people walking across the Market Place would say if you told them that less than 80 years hence £2M of public money would be spent on repaving it. You'd have to tell them how much a loaf of bread or pint of beer would then cost to put things into perspective. But even after that they'd be struggling to believe it. In a town that's in danger of losing some of the basic services we had even then I'm still struggling to believe it!

In the picture - sort of - but not where you think it is! The houses off to the left in the middle distance are the Doctor Pit houses. And I think you can probably see Telephone Row nearest the pit head. That was the first row to be demolished, as my newly reclaimed memory now tells me! No, where you are looking for Double Row is in the misty distance to the right of the large chimney. I'm not totally sure if you can see the Barrington Colliery houses extending from the right border just below the horizon, or if they are somewhere in the mist a bit nearer the chimney. But that's the general direction of Double Row, as this was obviously taken from the top of the Church Tower looking out a tiny bit West of North. BTW that large chimney was demolished some time in the very early 1950's, as I can remember being asked to look North from behind the Market Place and say what was missing. Such is youth I had to be told; I simply couldn't see anything different about the view! Any more pictures from this viewpoint? Difficult to date from this one alone - no vehicles, no close ups - but the 1920's seems a candidate.

What modest Andy isn't saying is that he wrote - and is continuing to develop - the software that powers the new classified section. He's been working on it for months, and has lost count of the hours expended. There's already a number of other websites worldwide lined-up to deploy this feature themselves, but Bedlington gets first crack of the whip. So come on Bedlingtonians and get your chattels listed for free! Shame on us if other communities make more use of OUR software than we do ourselves! There's been a bit of a discontinuity converting from the old classifieds, as the old software (not written by Andy) lacks - amongst other things - a proper tie-in with your Bedlington.co.uk membership. So some of the member names on some of the current ads are guesswork, and so you may need to either repost your advert, or ask a moderator to do a correction. This tiny problem will work itself through before too long. What you currently see is only the start of a regional advertising network. By supporting this free service with a little of your time, not only will you move your surplus goodies at zero cost (and far less hassle than auction sites), you'll be in at the very start of what will eventually become a feature of countless other people's lives. ------------------ REMEMBER THAT PICTURES SELL THINGS! There's no charge to post as many pictures as are reasonable. So get that phone or digital camera snapping. If you have problems uploading pictures then we want to know AND WANT TO HELP YOU. PM us; post on the board; use the contact form; send a message by carrier pigeon, or open your bedroom window and shout! We need to know how things can be further simplified, we need to know about any problems you are having, and you need those pictures in your ads!

Did you put it on the Town Calendar? Remember to post pictures, and maybe write a follow-on news article. For maximum exposure events should be posted in the Announcements Forum. That way you get home page exposure, and it goes out on the RSS feeds to other websites too.