Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,578

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    402

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Canny lass

  1. Canny lass
    Hell's bells Malcolm .... I didn't think you were that old!
  2. Canny lass
    Anybody remember a capaign in infant schools in the early 1950s to promote good hygiene? Or maybe it was just Netherton? At the infant school we all had to have a toilet bag with a soap (in a proper soap box), a toothbrush and toothpaste (Gibbs dentifrice - small round tin with a pink block of something that tasted like Germolene ointment), a comb and a face flannel. These bags hung on our coat pegs and during the morning we were lined up at the few sinks to take turns at being instructed in their use. Now's a good time to bring a bit of that back - the soap and hand-washing. Good on ya Greggs! How about a few pasties for the nursing staff of the area.
  3. Canny lass
    ... I hope that's because of involuntary knee jerks and not an overactive cough reflex! Seriously, I hope you've cut the missus loose from the kitchen stove so that she can pander to your every need and have you up and about soon!
  4. Canny lass
    Thanks for the tip! I had a look at this in the app store but there are several different versions. Which one do you have? Mind you, we have a third dimension to the game here. We have the English version of the game and we toss a coin to decide which language we use for the game. It can be very interesting as the most common letter in English is E but here it's A so there aren't enough A:s to go round if we choose his language. Also, his language has three more letters so the O:s and the A:s have to double up for the missing letters. It doesn't help that Y is a vowel here, either but it does make it a lot more fun!
  5. Canny lass
    Sorry Eggy! I was being facetious and making light of a very serious subject. Sorry if I offended. Of course there's a risk, not just to the baby but to all in the delivery suite, mother-to-be and midwives included. But giving birth, for quite a lot of people can be a very frightening experience - akin to dying alone. So, if one person can sit with the dying it seems reasonable that one person can sit with a woman in labour. I remember the time when fathers weren't allowed in the delivery suite. I also remember the time when their presence began to be allowed. They were not welcomed by many midwives who deemed them to be 'in the way'. However, ante-natal care has come a long way since then with many fathers-to-be attending pre-birthing classes with their partner. They receive an education there that makes them a valuable asset in the delivery suite, comforting, encouraging and assisting with prophylactic breathing techniques - time consuming work previously the duty of the midwife. Effectively they can release another midwife for more important things, maybe another birth occurring simultaneously. Then there's the experience itself to consider. For many it may be the only birth they can be part of. One child families, voluntarily or otherwise, are quite common. There's no re-run, no second chance. The risk of cross infection is minimal in a delivery suite as everybody, including the birthing partner, dad, mum, sister, best friend or doolah, is gowned- and scrubbed up and the air is changed every few minutes. Better than in a side ward or a four-bedder on the ward.
  6. Canny lass
    Very good initiative on your part, Malcolm! This is not a group that many will think about.
  7. Canny lass
    Home quarantine, day 5: Temperature 3 degrees, blue sky and sunny. Lovely day for gardening! I've managed to prune most of the bushes, everything except the Forsythia and roses. Too early for those. Morning and afternoon coffee outdoors on the south side of the house, sheltered from the wind. Lovely! I've also gathered up five wheelbarrows full of Birch twigs blown down by the fierce winds we've had lately. I wonder how many days that job would have taken without the help of the corona virus. #Winning at social isolation (and Scrabble)!
  8. Canny lass
    What is it that you don't understand? The newborn presents no health risks. It's been socially isolated for nine months.
  9. Canny lass
    Home quarantine, day 3: Finally had time to give the cupboard under the stairs a good going through! I've been threatening to do it for ages! . Even had a chat to my other half. Seems like quite a nice guy! #Winning at social isolation! At government level: New law passed today, allowing primary and junior schools to be closed if required. Non-compulsory education establishments, uIniversities and high-scchools, already closed.
  10. Canny lass
    I wonder if we'll still be saying that after 2 weeks, Vic! I'm surprised you're being allowed to visit Dot. All visiting to hospitals and homes for the elderly is forbidden here.
  11. Canny lass
    Home quarantine, day 2: It's amazing how much you can get done when life isn't getting in the way. By' life', I mean going to the gym, singing in a choir, a bit of retail therapy, fika (going out for a coffee), night classes, a bit more retail therapy, popping out to visit someone, someone popping in for a 'quick' visit, going to the dentist (won't be missing that). Today we cleaned our windows! All 16 of them inside, outside and even inbetween (our windows have four sides). Would have taken a week normally.
  12. Canny lass
    Over 70s are now in home-quarantine for two weeks here (to begin with) . Dug the Scrabble and the Yatzee out yesterday. Fortunately we stocked up on wine on a w/e in Germany a couple of months ago. Also hoping for a bit of good weather (we finally got snow that stayed, a couple of weeks ago) so that I can get some gardening done without interruptions.
  13. Canny lass
    Of old maps to judge, the PO moved from its location between the King's Arms and The Mason's Arms on Front Street West 1860-61. However, while I can remember it in more recent times once again on Front Street West, I can't remember when it moved there. ... and when the family was completed and the pram no longer used for transport of other household essentials the under-carriage made a great bogey! Two sets of wheels, three planks of wood: one long, two short and a bit of your mother's clothes line for the steering and the dragging it back up hills. Am I right in thinking we also called that a trambone?
  14. Canny lass
    Now that's a turn up for the books! Well done! It clearly went on to be called the Mason's Arms at some time before 1861 when it's named in the census. Something that's struck me as odd over the years is the number of Bedlington publicans who appear to have had a second string to their fiddle, so to speak. 1851 there's a shoemaker/innkeeper (I'm not sure which pub but somewhere between the market place and last house at the east end of the town on the north side of the road). Same year we also had at the Black Bull - innkeeper/cooper, and at the Sun Inn - Innkeeper/blacksmith. 1861 the Traveller's Rest had a Beer Housekeeper/labourer. Clearly, selling beer hasn't always been the lucrative profession it is today. There's also a Swan Inn. I've never heard of that one.
  15. Canny lass
    Cigarette machine on the corner! Who can remember those?
  16. Canny lass
    Village Map with text2.jpg
    Paul, I'll send you a personal message.
  17. Canny lass
    No 26 Howard Row - 1913.jpg
    Correction! Carol's photo of Yard Row shows the same type of window. https://www.bedlington.co.uk/gallery/image/247-back-of-yard-row/ Office Row was also brick-built as were most of the other pit buildings. Perhaps the first 20 or so houses of Howard Row, nearest the pit, were also brick. They were built many years before the rest of Howard Row.
  18. Canny lass
    No 26 Howard Row - 1913.jpg
    Naturally, that should have said 'window' not widow!
  19. Canny lass
    No 26 Howard Row - 1913.jpg
    Is he sure it's Howard Row? I have it on very good authority (family) that Howard Row was stone-built. This looks like brick. Widow seems abit big for the colliery houses as well.
  20. Canny lass
    Village Map with text2.jpg
    Hello Paul! Welcome to the forum. Look at the 1947 map which I posted above a couple of years ago. Howard Row was built in two blocks, with several years inbetween. The first block, the oldest of the Howard pit houses, is nearest the pit head and is where your father was born at nr.7 The numbers ran from 1-22 starting at the pit and going towards the social club. Your family may have lived there quite a while as there is a Lucas family at that address in 1911. I was born in 1947 at the other end of the street but have no memory of how it was because the family was möved to alternative accommodation shortly afterwards so that the houses could be demolished. I know, that at 3 yo I was still living the alternaive accommodation but the family must have returned to the newer colliery houses shortly after, because I started school at Netherton Infants at the age of 4½ in 1951. We lived then in Third Street. By then Howard Row and Yard Row no longer existed.They then seem to have been demolished a few years as the sites were overgrown with grass and bushes - a favourite playground area! The sites of the two blocks of Howard Row can be clearly seen in the ariel photo running north from the letter M up to the pit. Howard Row, nrs 1-22 were the smallest of the colliery houses with only two rooms. Yard Row consisted also of two rooms . The odd house had three rooms but this was because the residents built make-shift lean-toos over the outer areas However, the second block of Howard Row, nearest the social club was built with three rooms. Residents, even here increased some houses to four rooms using the same ingenuity as in Yard Row. As I said previously, I never saw these houses so yhe information I can offer is only what I've heard from older family members about living conditions in Howard Row.(my oldest siste was 20 years older than me). In his book on Netherton, Evan Martin shares this photo of Howard Row, presumably the gap between the two blooks. In the gallery you can find this photo which is reportedly of Clifton Row. I played with school friend in Clifton Row and can't remember it being as delapidated as this. Clifton Row was the newer, more modern of the pit rows before First-Third Street were built. I think this is Yard Row or even Howard Row. Both rows were built to the same plan I believe.
  21. Canny lass
    Great photos! In the second of them I think it says Masons Arms. I'm pretty sure about the word Arms and that the first word also ends with the letter s. The first word is also marginally longer than the second. Not a lot to go on but better than nothing. What I find more interesting is the medallion on the wall above the sign. Looking at the shape it reminds me of the present day Freemasons sign: I don't know when the photo was taken but according to census records from 1851 through 1891 the occupation of 'mason' crops up quite freqeuntly. Not so surprising as Bedlington had a quarry or two. I do know that the Stonemason's Guild eventually became the society of Freemasonry. Did they take over this sign from the Stonemasons Guild? Anybody with connections to the Freemasons who can help out here?
  22. Canny lass
    You aren't able to read the name over the door here, are you?
  23. Canny lass
    THANKS! I owe you one! Now the census is starting to make sense. Those two pubs on the map are the Kings Arms and the Masons Arms with one 'dwelling' inbetween - the Post Office. I thought the first pub on that side of the road was the Kings Arms but now I realise that it must be the Blue Bell. Silly me! Funny how the memory plays tricks at our age. I've always suspected that the buiding which houses Tallantyres was originally two properties because of the asymmetry of the upstairs windows. In the small insert photo Tallantyres occupies not the Masons Arms, but the Post Office (with two upstairs windows). In the larger isert photo, Tallantyres occupies both the old Post Office AND the former Masons Arms (with three upstairs windows).
  24. Canny lass
    Just the mention of the word stotty brings back that bakery smell to me!
  25. Canny lass
    Thanks for trying Eggy! Would I be right in thinking that's the gable end of the Kings Arms (Grapes) to the left of Tallantyres? I can't really place Tallantyres in my minds eye. I thought the Kings Arms was nearer the top end.
×
×
  • Create New...