Hillbilly

I find the history of the town facinating and I am trying to educate my two young kids about our histroy. I wondered if we should start a thread that encourages people to post pics from around the town in either the recent or distant past. If you have any pictures.... lets see them!

It'll be a shame to see the old school go, but hey... the thing has stood empty and filled up with rusbbish and rats for the last 15 years!! We have to accept that any progress is good progress and as someone posted earlier I am sure our beloved council will ensure that the 400 (Sorry it was 19 wasnt it) flats are in keeping with the area. I bet we will get a shock when that place is levelled at just how much land there is there... I remember running around the yard with my Cubs uniform on and it is a fair size! HURRAH for those developers... Welcome to Bedlington! I say... CRACK ON!

The last post was Tongue in cheek! sorry Deb and Malcolm... But seriously though.... How the money is carved up behind the scene doesn't hange the fact that Bedlington is generating possibly twice as much in council tax as it was 15 years ago and the facilities we have are very very poor! Morpeth, Blyth, cramlington, Newbiggan all have leisure centres just as one example! Where ever the blame should be placed... I am sure it isn't withthe people shelling out the taxes! Dejazar - well done for speaking up!! It would have been easy to read these comments and walk away! Could you give us some guidance on what we should/ could do next as a community??

After recieving my Council Tax bill last night, I have changed my mind! ALL of the responsibility sits with the council!!! We have a population of some 15,500 people in Bedlington lets say that the average household is 2 that is almost 8,000 council tax bills collected. If the average is £100 per month (which I think is probably less that the true average). That means the council is collecting £800k a month or c£10m per year from households. Thats before you take business rates, government budgets and all of the other sources of income into consideration. Now I know the bin men get a decent salary but........

Who is going to pay for the landscaping... I got my council tax bill last night and if that is anything to go by, judging by the increase in houses in Bedlington in the last 15 years they should have plenty of cash! The council always pleads poverty in our area but we are paying as much council tax as some of the best served boroughs in the area!! So cash is a convenient excuse and not one that washes with me! If we could get the email address of the MEP or similar I would suggest that every one of us separately email her and give our views and point her to bedlington.co.uk. I think it was Deb who said you need to make a nuisance of our selves and she is right. If we fill her inbox with emails every day for a month, she will have to listen!! Does anyone have the email address and should we agree on the topics to highlight as it is no use just whinging at her... we need to be constructive, specific and consistent!

A nah wot yu mean. When I say the woards av typed undaneeth, nee one at woark nahs what am gannin on aboot. Tha al a bit posher than me. A had tu dee a translation fo thum English to Bedlingtonian translation – Lesson 1 English to Bedlington Awnings - Plastic or canvas covers - Wages or salary Bared- Stripped naked - Opposite of good Bells - Musical Instrument - Male gentiles Cane - Walking stick - A tin of beer Chute - Sloping water slide - To talk loudly Clare - Girls name - Animals fingernail Clerk - Office Worker - Tells the time Crayon - Wax drawing stick - Large lifting devise Creche - Nursery - Bump or collide Cress - Green salad plant - Angry Curled - Bent or twisted - Low temperature Cursed - Under a spell - The seaside Curt - Rudely abrupt - Warm outer garment Curl - Twist - Heating fuel Curler - Hair styling aid - sweet fizzy drink Dense - Thick, not clever - Move in time to music Scoot - Disappear quickly - Older Cub Send - Despatch - Grains of sand Sewer - Waste Disposal - Bitter Shirk - Avoid responsibility - Sudden fright Shirt - Clothing - Injured by gun fire Sir - Important man - Stitch with thread Slur - Speak drunkenly - Opposite of fast Slurp - Drink noisily - Hill Spurt - Short burst of speed - Spot or pimple

I have been following a thread on here 'A Rant about Bedlington' which has been very interesting and provoked some great debate. It has made me reflect on who's accountable and responsible for sorting out all of the challenges we face as a community- Us or the people in power? My reflections have brought me to the conclusion that while we all share the responsibility to make any improvements work, the ACCOUNTIBILIY to deliver those improvements should sit fairly and squarely with the people who take their salaries from our hard earned wages via taxes! We hold down jobs and take accountability for delivering to our customers, why shouldn't they!? The point of the post is that I don't even know who these people are never mind whether or not they care... Lets see if anyone even knows the names or whereabouts of our councillors – the people who should be representing our views and fighting the fight to improve our town... any sightings of these mythical beasts should be posted on here! We could always get that bloke from 'Monster Hunter' to track one of them down or at least prove or disprove their existence!! If there are any councillors reading this... please post a response and let us know your thoughts too... after all there are two sides to every argument!

How about we combine the two and build a big bonfire with the rumble from the demolished garage and use that for the ritual burning! Now that's efficient! In all seriousness though mispasispa, you raise an interesting point – I have no idea who the councillors are or how we could even contact them. If they are worth their salt they should be viewing bedlington.co.uk at the VERY least and reading our comments. I think we are all part of Northumberland County Council now! Lets see if anyone even knows the names or whereabouts of our councillors – the people who should be representing our views and fighting the fight to improve our town... any sightings of these mythical beasts should be posted on here! We could always get that bloke from 'Monster Hunter' to track one of them down or at least prove or disprove their existence!!

I posted a question a few days ago about Storey's Buildings in Choppington/ Guidepost and have some great replies... so, thanks if you did reply!! I thought I would give it another shot. I am researching my family history and all of next generation and the one before that were miners. Some in Bedlington area some beyond. Do records of workers in the various mines exist anywhere online?

Our options as far as I can see are ... Anarchy, Petition, Move Away, Put up with it or my personal favourite ritual stake burning of all senior council members! I've lived in Bedders all my life and have never been as disappointed as I currently am. Someone mentioned that we will ultimately drive people away and I couldn't agree more - we will all suffer as house prices dip through low demand and this will drive us further down. If I could afford it and the market was better I would move like a shot! The state that that front street is in, is an absolute disgrace and it depresses me to drive down it... It looks like the opening scene of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!" We'd be better off levelling the old Elliot's Garage that having that building determinate the way it is. Is it just me or does the new market place look worse that it did before!??? By the way I am normally a very positive person!!... For goodness sake Wansbeck ( or whatever the hell you are calling yourselves these days)... DO SOMETHING BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE Rant over!

Sorry I cannot help with where he is burried Ian... But I remember growing up while Dr Brown was a big and well respected part of the community. I remember he would walk his dog around the town (A REALLY old Boxer with some kind of growth on its back! - if I remember correctly). He would stop and talk to us as kids (I am 33 now) and I never heard a bad word said about the man! Everyone knew him and everyone always made a point of saying hello and asking him how he was. He was a great person and when he passed I remember many people in the town talking about it and about what a genuine miss he would be. Sorry I cannot help with any of the detail, but I thought it is important that you hear how well he was regarded

Lets hope there are no greater spotted newts or four leaved clovers on the gap site... that is about all it takes for the council to reject the planning permission... It's only taken 8 years to get permission for the old school! For goodness sake... if anyone from the Council reads this... do the right thing and approve the application quickly before Tesco change their mind!!!

I am researching my family history at the moment and my grandfather and great grandfather both had an address of Storey's Buildings... Does anyone know what they were, where they were or have any information on them at all? Thanks!

I started a thread about a week ago about the mass exodus of business from Bedders and the state in which it has left our beloved front street - Starting with; Elliots garage, Johnsons shoe shop, the red lion, the 'mortgage' shop, the old schopol, dun cow - need I go on? I checked with the office of national statistics this morning and it is now officially the biggest peacetime evacuation in UK history! Anyway, I thought I would try to inspire someone to take the plunge with a new business by asking everyone what they want in Bedders? But wanting a business isn't enough... We cannot just have these businesses set up just to stop the street looking like a scene from a spaghetti western... we must USE them - otherwise they will simply go bust like a lot of their predecessors. So, lets inspire the someone to take the plunge and set up a business we would all use... collect some views and ideas on what you would 1) like to see and 2) would use regularly?

This has turned into a really interesting thread, so thanks to everyone participating! I think the reality is that traditional retail is dead... baring of course services, such as; hairdressers. You only need to take a walk through the Metro Centre! While the closure rate of businesses in there isnt quite as bad as our fair old town, I have NEVER seen as many vacant units in there as I did on Saturday and I got parked straight away... At lunch time on the 3rd Saturday before Christmas!! So, the conclusion for me is that if the Metro Centre, which has been the shopping mecca of Europe for 20 years is struggling... what hope is there for a high street that never could attract businesses to begin with!? My view (For what it's worth) is that we should aim to attract service based businesses. As someone said earlier in this thread, I'd rather have a street of hairdressers than empty shops. Traditional retail purchases are increasingly done online and that trend will only accelerate - besides even if other retailers did move in, I am not sure that they would do so in enough volume to encourage people from outside of Bedlington to use them and therefore would probably pull out through lack of custom. I think the only hope for our street is 'service businesses' or things that cannot be easily or conveniently purchsed online; hairdressing, drycleaning, dog grooming, local delivery items such as flowers and fresh food, taxi companies, estate agents... and to a lesser extend restaurants, coffee shops etc. Views?

Sounds like I am not the only one getting sick of things!! I saw on another post that Barclays and the Leeds Building Society are closing too... I wonder what will be left except the hair dressers!? Is the extension to Tesco's still happening?

OK... I am a pretty patient person but what on earth is taking so long!? Its not like they are building a new shopping centre... In fact I think the improvements to Morpeth have happened in less time than its taken to lay some new pavements I hate to sound like a whinger... but if Elliots garage, the old school, the red lion, dun cow, Johnsons shoe shop, booze busters (and now I hear the blue bell is closing) again aren't sorted out, I fear that all the work will be in vein. The worst of the lot is Elliots... I know planning permission has been knocked back before, but something has got to be done before this down ends up looking like Wallsend in the 1980's! So... any ideas or views?