Canny lass

Friday is upon us once more! Release your inner genius. If he doesn't want to come out then you can use Google: 1. What did Messrs Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain invent in1947? 2. Which is the oldest of the Cambridge colleges, founded in 1248? 3. Which song begins “When you left me all alone, at the record hop; told me you were going out for a soda pop”? 4. Darbies is a slang word for what? 5. Boo boo is the friend of which cartoon character? 6. Who made history in 1997 by becoming the youngest ever US masters golf champion? 7. What can be a box or a part of the body? 8. Which monarchs preceded and succeeded Elizabeth I? 9. What do the initials GMT stand for? 10. Which French word describes a very thick soup? 11. Hearts and Hibs come from which Scottish city? 12. Which stretch of water separates the Scottish mainland from the Orkneys? I’ll bet you didn’t know …. In America there once was a magazine called Chocolate News. It came in a glossy brown cover and actually smelled of chocolate. Answers on Thursday.

It wasn't so much the bridge, though it was quite rickety, it was more the steep incline leading down to it that scared me. It was often muddy and slippery. The footpath from the bridge to Northumberland Ave, is marked out on the map. I've outlined it in red. It skirted the farmer's fields. If you are looking about the area of Francis pit be very, very careful! I don't know how the shaft is today. When I was a child there was an old stone tower, presumably for the winding gear, though I never saw the gear. The tower was removed early fifties and left a gaping shaft. A neighbour's boy fell to his death there. This prompted the sealing of the shaft with old railway tracks (the metal rails only) crossing the shaft and embedded in cement on either side. It didn't stop us playing there - daring each other to run across the rails. It was a wonder no-one else was killed. We were so skinny then we could have easily fallen between the rails. I've no idea how it is today but you can see the shaft marked on the map to the south of the earthworks and path over the bridge. Do take care!

If like me, you are 'optically challenged' it can be a good idea to save the map from here to your own PC then you can zoom in and out as much as you like.

If you mean the text which I've marked in red, it says "Brick works" as do the other two which I've marked blue. The whole of that area was brick works so It doesn't surprise me that you find bricks. I think the kids of Netherton helped to spread them all over the place.

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No, I don't have a legend for any maps.I haven't needed one for a long time. When I've been stuck I've simply typed 'ordnace survey symbols' or 'maps conventional signs and symbols' into the search box and choose from the many sites returned. There are some good quick guides which are compact enough to have on an A4 paper when you are out and about. I've usually found them too small when viewing on my mobile.

Answers to last week's quiz: 1. Brisket 2. George V 3. Rivers 4. Jerusalem 5. Night and Day 6. Flyweight 7. Fish farming 8. Prince Henry 9. J F Kennedy 10. 1929 11. Sheep 12. Bill Bixby New quiz tomorrow!

I'll look forward to seeing them! It must be at least 40 years since I was anywhere near.

Just a very short walk, even for my 8 year old legs, across the fields.

I tried to reconstruct your walk from Willow Bridge and I think you may be somewhere here.

I posted the wrong map and I was too late to edit. This is the 1806 map I meant to post. Here you can follow the whole course from Ewart Hill to Sleek Burn.

It may well be that after passing Willow Bridge it continues towards Sleek Burn. I'll have a look. It does indeed flow into the Sleek Burn as can be seen on this 1806 OS First Series map (Sheet 105 NW)

.... and here's a map from 1947 showing the origin of the Green Letch just north of Ewart Hill. It's the blue line starting just to the west of B in Bedlington.

You’re not wrong in thinking that the green letch has its origin near Ewart Hill and that it runs north towards Red House passing west Lea cemetery on the west - causing havoc with flooding at times - before reaching the eastern outskirts of Netherton Colliery. It then continued past the Francis pit where the ravine was very deep. At that point, there was a small wooden bridge crossing the letch and leading onward was a footpath which terminated at Northumberland and Westmorland Avenues. It terrified me as a child as it was so deep. Passing the Francis pit workings the Green letch continued north east to eventually join forces with the Netherton Letch. I’ll let it be unsaid which name the letch took after that point but I’m inclined towards Green flowing towards Willow Bridge. Here’s a map from 1886 showing its whole course between Ewart Hill and its merging with the Netherton Letch. It’s named on the map and I’ve tried to leave that visible for you. The direction of the flow is also shown (south to north) but it was difficult to keep that. If you’d like to see the map without markings I can post it for you or send it to you by direct message.

I may have been a bit too generous with the red pen there! I believe it's the Green letch which continues towards Willow Bridge - not the Netherton letch - and eventually meets up with Willow Burn.

Sounds like the Netherton Letch, shown in red. Naturally, I've painted the Green letch in a suitable shade of green:

I believe they are earthworks created when the Francis pit shaft was sunk.

No idea what happened to them, Tony but Joseph (Joe, a ginger headed, spectacle wearing lad) was in my class at school.

Could it be the remains of Choppington Brickworks? It's just a small dot behind the Lord Clyde pub (above centre) on this 1896 map of the greater area of Netherton, Choppington and Barrington. As you can see, there are Brickworks the length of Choppington Road. Probably half of Bedlington is built of bricks from here. I know that the newer rows: First-, Second-, Plessey- and Third Street were. Here's a close up. I'm afraid I don't know from which year. If the remains are very near the Choppington road it's most likely to be this. There wasn't much remaining of the Francis pit houses when I grew up in the 50's. Only their gardens remained as allotments behind the new First Street.

These are my favourites: https://www.old-maps.co.uk/ https://www.oldmapsonline.org/ https://maps.nls.uk/ https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/ Enjoy!

Interesting! I always thought it was confusion with the colliery. Never too old to learn!

Now, I've located the map I was looking for! Ewe herd Hill goes back much further than 1820. here it is on what, according to me, is a very beautiful map of the area from 1769:

The community named Netherton on the map is what we now call Nedderton Village. The name was changed due to postal confusion when Netherton Colliery came into being – that’s to say the community that grew around the Howard- and Francis Pits. What we previously knew as Netherton Colliery isn’t shown on this map. Probably a bit too early. Maps are great things but they are like photos – they record only a moment in time. Unfortunately, the ‘moment’ captured in the survey may, very often, not bear any resemblance to the area at the time of publication. That’s particularly true of maps from the 19th century as, in order to keep pace with the needs of growing Industry, coal mines were springing up all over the place at a fair old rate of knots. Map-making, on the other hand was a long and tedious process. Netherton Colliery community doesn’t appear in any detail until housing started to be provided. Though there were as many as 14 mines (not all coal producing) late 18th century in and around Netherton the area was predominantly arable land. Blue-, Burnt- and Redhouse Farms were already established way back at the beginning of the 18th century on land belonging to the Ogle family. The first ‘pit’ of any size was at Nedderton Village around 1789 but it wasn’t until 1837 that any major production started at Howard pit – around which the colliery rows were built. Production was good and in 1846 another shaft was sunk to give better access. This was the Francis pit. So, it was a bit after 1820 that any community worthy of notation on a map was established at Netherton Colliery.

Apropos Ewart Hill, did you know that it was originally called Ewe herd Hill? I've always thought of Ewart as family name but Ewe herd Hill was clearly a way of describing a landscape feature ( a hill where there were shepherds living or working). Here it is on Fryer's map of 1820: