Canny lass

As Kieth 1 would say: ERRRR--

I would never have got it!!

Welcome, welcome, welcome. It'll be nice with a bit of female company - even if I feel like one of the guys!

Excellent, and as you say some very nice pictures! Thank you Symptoms.

I came across this site and wonder if anybody knows anything about the flint implement found at Nedderton in 1998 or the burial cists found at Millfield in the 1930s? www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N13980

Did he say PINK?

I agree whole heartedly. I think the majority are great as well. What was heart warming for me wasn't only what these youngsters did but actually HEARING about it. We 'adults' aren't too good at singing their praises in public. It's the odd few who've gone astray that hit that headlines, unfortunately.

Really warms the heart to hear something good about young people.

Hello fellow Westridgians! I'm also an old A-streamer, left in 1962. I remember all these teachers. Richard Coulthard rings a bell with me. He was in my class.

Are those buildings used at all now?

There were two cookery rooms on the landing of the stairs from the main entrance but the library was accessed from the stairs at the righthand side of the building (viewed from the exterior). I can't remember any classroom between these and I can't think how you would get to it, other than through a door leading from the library. There was no door leading in that direction from the cookery room. However, I remember that the corridor downstairs was very long so there would have been room for something between the library and the cookery room. I left in 62 but there was a Mrs Wilson, art teacher, at that time. A small, demure creature with a french pleat hairstyle. She often wore pleated tartan skirts and cashmere sweaters in beiges and browns. Could that be her? I had no Idea that the catholic school had taken over the premises. When did that happen?

Now that brings back memories. I used to miss assembley at Westridge most Wednesday mornings when I was in my third year and go to Beadnells to do the shopping for the domestic science teacher. She had to have the ingredients before the first class of the day started.

Thank you kind sirs for your warming good wishes. Foxy, what's a weekend-off? Hasn't your good lady told you that a woman's work is NEVER done?.

Welcome Wilma.

When you say "this place" are you referring to the Red Lion or Bedlington.co.uk? If it's the latter I have to agree with you! It's like a good book which you just can't put down for a minute.

Went into the British Library on Euston Road but wasn't allowed to even look at a book as I couldn't produce an electricity- or gas bill. This is perfectly true! To use the library I had to register. To register I had to produce one item from each of 2 lists. One Item containing my signature and one item containing my adress. I only had my passport to show my signature. Unfortunately I didn't have the required gas/electricity bill with me with which to prove my adress so I couldn't register. I tried to argue that my electricity bill would be of no use, as it wasn't in English, and was informed that "we have translators." What's Britain coming to? (I've now packed an electricity bill in anticipation of my next visit).

Why not? It's certainly another possibility but I agree that much depends on just when the name first saw the light of day.

Does indeed Pete!

That's very good Threegee!

This could be a tough cookie to crack! According to the site mentioned earlier, www.englamdsnortheast.co.uk an important clue to the early settlement of Anglo-Saxons lies in the place names they left behind. The author claims that most of the place names in the north east region are Anglo-Saxon in their origin and mentions in particular that "almost all places ending in 'ton' or 'ham' are of Anglo-Saxon origin."That would suggest that Bedlington is Anglo-Saxon in origin.However, looking at the ending -ton purely from an etymological angle there are other possibilities. English, German and Dutch together with all the Scandinavian languages belong to the same language family but have developed along two different paths, one toward the west and one toward the north. In all of these languages there has a been a word with a similar meaning to the ending -ton, as in Bedlington. England has been invaded many times and every invasion has left its mark on the English language. If we trace the development of the word town, we find it started its journey meaning enclosure and went on to mean garden, then cluster of buildings on a piece of enclosed land, then farmstead, and finally a cluster of buildings (not necessarily enclosed). All these changes in meaning happened approximately, as far as researchers can demonstrate, between 700 -1100 AD, a period in the history of english language which we call Old English. Where the word came from is difficult to pinpoint but in Old English the word was tun, as was also the word for town in Old Saxon, the forerunner of the present day German language. Old High German also had a word zun with the related meaning fence or hedge and Old Norse, the forerunner of the Scandinavian languages had tún. Just to complicate the matter the latter was thought possibly to have some relationship to the celtic word dun in placenames or even the welsh word din, meaning a fortified place.(Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology: OUP 1996) So I think the best way to go is to find out who Bedla (?Bedel, ?Betla) was and where he originated from. I'm in London for a couple of days from tomorrow and if I get time I'll try and get into the library and see what I can find out.

We certainly do have public libraries but nowhere on the scale of Britain's library system. We are just a couple of million tax-payers keeping this long, oblong country solvent and moving! The network of roads needed to get people to the libraries devours a great deal of the taxes. I have a round-trip of 200 km to the nearest reference library of any quality. Mind you, should i choose to, I can take a taxi to the nearest bus stop for the same price as a bus ticket. The government is very kind!! Then we have a book bus! Comes once a month but you have to know what book you want so that they can have it on the bus. There's no way I can do a computer search on the bus and if it's a work of reference I'm after they can't supply it. I have to go into the library. Uni students have the priviledge of being able to log in to the system and search from home but once your studies are finished that priviledge is withdrawn. I've never understood why the system can't be open to everyone. This is why I said it may take some time.

There was a Twizle Farm Cottage just outside of Morpeth on the way to Stannington in the 60's but I think it was demolished when they built Searles factory. I found a mention of Twizle on one of the sites you pasted a link to (great site by the way): "Other twisels in the north include Twizel near Berwick, Twizle near Morpeth and Twizell between Chester le Street and Stanley". www.englandsnortheast.co.uk www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/PlaceNameMeaningsEtoJ.html Drew a blank on Grubbo though.

What a good idea Pete!

They may well of done Merlin but Ganny Watson in Netherton (she who rewarded my services with a brass shovel when she ran out of sweets) still had one in the 1950's - and she still used ut. They made things to last in the 1800's!

Thanks Malcolm. I'd like to know more about this chieftain Bedla. Can't find anything on the Internet except a mushroom and an Indian clan. Does he pop up in any literature? Was he British or Scandinavian? If he was Scandinavian then the chances are strong that a genitive 's' would have been included in the place name, as in Grimsby which literally means Grim's by (by = village in Swedish or town in Norwegian). The differing practices regarding the retention of the genitive ,s' in English and the Scandinavian languages can be demonstrated more clearly with surnames. The English language removes the genitive as in Peterson, Harryson, Johnson, meaning Peter's son, Harry's son and John's son. In the Scandinavian languages the genitive 's' is retained: Petersson, Harrysson, Johnsson. I'll see what I can find out from the language faculty in Gothenburg next time I'm there. May take a while though.