Barton Lad

This photo reminds me when I was very young chap, dashing across the railway foot bridge at the Station to miss the engine smoke. I am sure the engine fireman through some extra coal on, just make the smoke as black as possible. I also seem to recall that every Friday there was a racing pigeon special train. The platform was often seen with many pigeon baskets ready to be loaded on the special pigeon train. I have never being involved with pigeon racing, hence I have no idea where the final destination was ?

The engraved glasses were popular in recording events of interest that are pecular to the North East and the mining industry. There was even a glass engraved for the loss of equipment at Barrington Pit, 13th July 1894, not life which is bit unusal. The pit cage was damanged by a tub, with the result the miners were stuck down the pit for a day, until the repair was carried out. You may wish to check the records for confirmation. This engraved Pit glass implies that the family of Noble did not receive any income from the glasses. Engraved glasses in those days, must like selling football shirts today,

The engraved glass is in memory of John (11y) and Thomas (8y) Noble who were drowned at Barrington Colliery pond on 9th January 1895. The two boys were skating on the ice, when suddenly the ice broke, which resulted in them both falling into the frozen pond and drowning. These were the only two sons John Noble had. In those days it was very common for people to buy such memorial glasses. I can also remember as a small boy playing around that pond, which did freeze over sometimes in the winter.

I can remember a NCB boxing tournament which was held at the Clayton, maybe in the late 1950's. In those days amateur boxing was a big sport. Each area Northumberland, Durham etc., had their own champion. You could watch the NCB finals on national TV, if you lucky to own a TV. The famous North East girl group the Barry Sisters also appear at the Picnic Queen Clayton dance. Today they would have romped home in the X factor. The landlord who took over from Cragies converted the back room into a discotheque environment. I think the theme was a jail.

The Shane Fenton show was an all ticket. I seem to recall it was Monday night, the Friday night was the hop and nothing clashed with the hop. I arrived at the Clayton at about 10pm after a few drinks at Craiges. Only to discover that the Bedlington boys had been throwing pennies onto the stage and Fenton had packed up and gone home. I was not happy, but maybe it was a lucky escape. Does anyone else remember that incident ? I also seem to remember in those days the pubs closed at 10.00pm and the dance hall close at 10.30. Times have certainly changed.

There was band played at the Clayton Ballroom, I think the band was called Billy Mason. Every Friday and Saturday nights. There were several Special dance nights for example the final of the Picnic Queen contest.

Keith, I think you are correct, Cympil has posted some photos of the Raisbeck buses, it looks the same. An odd place for a bus stop on the Clayton corner,, unless the bus had broken down. Can anyone remember going down the Hair-Pin bank in an United double decker from Blyth? No seat belts those days.

Barrington School photograph, around 1947. Quite a small class compared with typical class numbers of to day.

This is the very last stream train leaving Furnace Sidings at the Station. The engine was 43070 from North Blyth, date Saturday 9th September 1967. Any ideas whose bus it is in next to the Clayton???

This train would be very typical of a football special, bringing the supporters back from St James Park.

In the late 1950's Hemsley owned the fish shop, which was close to the Percy Arms. I can remember every Friday lunch time the tables were full with workers from the Welyny factory.

Every night it was our job to fill the pails of coal for the fire. The coal house was across the road. It would take three pails to bank the fire up for the night, plus two pails for a late top up. It was a quite a task, every day of the year. This day we spotted a fuse wire with a detonator attached. Our dad was on hand and immediately took this prize away. The mind boggles if had being missed and landed in the fire. It would have taken half the house away.

Photograph, which shows a class in 1949. Not to sure what ages the group is, but is it quite a small class. Does anyone have any names?

I understand the 7ft high wall surrounding the power store was to contain the blast if the store blew up. I can also well image the wall toppling over. You be pleased to know this store, being close to houses, would only contain the fuse wire and detonators. It would also appear to be the practice for miners to steal the power, fuse wire and detonators and make up the "firing shot†in the house. They would do this because of the better light compared with down the pit. Unfortunately this practice resulted in many accidents in the home. I am not an expert, so maybe someone could correct the statement

I understand the building, which has the 6ft high wall around, was where the pit stored explosive powder. Each pit had there own storage building. The building in this photo was used by Bedlington A pit. There were two other similar buildings in Barrington. One (used by Bedlington F pit) was located near the pit pony training centre. The other powder building was located within the Barrington pit. The building in the photograph must have been knocked down in the 1920's. However the other two powder storage buildings were still standing in the 1950's.

Cympil, do you have any information when this photograph was taken ? There are no TV ariels on the chimmey's, I would guess pre 1950. The first upstair window appears to be much larger than the other ones ? Also the first house has a chimmey pot, whilst the other's have none. Must have been some posh people living in the first house.

Rex, good to hear from you. I was talking to George Wilkinson, who lived next door to you at Double Row. George (lives at Bedlington) and passes his good wishes on. There was a Thompson, Grieves and Alan Hall who also lived in High Row.

Interesting rail journey from Choppington to Scotland.

Does have anyone have a better picture of the Barrington Flood, which happened in Oct 1900. The conditions must have been terrible in the houses that got flooded. No leaving the houses in those days for several months to allow drying out the floors, walls etc. I guess the row you see in the back ground is Blacksmith Row.

I understand there was a culvert, which ran under the Bedlington - Choppington railway line, under the gardens, under the pit railway embankment and finally into Willow Burn (Barnton burn). The culvert was open, but in 1889 was piped into a 18" drain. In 1900 the culvert became blocked and Blacksmith, Middle Row and Chaple Row was flooded. The flooding lasted for some days, until the engineer freed the blockage by blowing up the pipe where the blockage was. There are two stories how this was done, 1) Explosions placed on top of the pipe, which was under water 2) A miner crawler into the pipe from the pit side to where the blockage was and placed the charge. The picture shows where the pipe was blown up. A great photo.

I understand this photo of Choppington Station was taken in the early 1900's. The track was single then, later increased to a double track, then back to it's present single track. Note the 4 gas lights (I assume they were gas !!!) at either side of the gates. There does not appear to be any street lights, so it must been quite spooky walking around at night time. The building beyond the signal, was the railway ticket office and the bus stop to far off places, like Ashington.

Cympil, I have annotated the photo with the names of the rows. Office row was pulled down 1968/69. I think Blacksmith row was demolished 1930's. The other "rows" were Railway Row, Victoria Row, Stone Row. The photo must have been taken about 1900, due to the elevation from the pit rail track. It must have taken a quite bit of effort to take this photo. I wonder what the party of school children are looking at ??? It looks like a bomb crater. Also what is the building to the right ? It looks like a prison, maybe its a pig cree. I am sure the photo holds some interesting facts.

Cympil, these are two cracking photographs, well done. I would guess the photo of Office Row was taken 1960? There are TV ariels on the chimmey's and it would appear that No's 1,2,3 & 4 have been partly demolished (roof is missing, but I could be wrong) The dirt track led to the Park, which was the football field. There was certainly no swings, or round abouts etc. But I guess it sounded good when you talking about "the park" to other people in the surrounding villages. Once a year Hilton Taylor, farmer used to cut the grass with his tractor and grass cutting machine. The Park was indeed Barton's wembley. PS: We used to use the tree at the top of picture as a tarzan swing.

The editor is not letting me put the abrevated word for Richard, I guess it assumes it is rude is.