James

Maggie Thatcher is generally despised in the North East mainly because of what she did to the mining industry. So exactly what effect did she have on the coal mining industry in Northumberland? When I started work in the mines in the late 1950's there were 63 collieries in Northumberland as can be seen from the attached list that is taken from a National Coal Board plan drawn up in 1957. A few of these may already have been closed at the time the plan was drawn up but we can be sure that there were in excess of 50 operating mines in 1957. When Maggie's party won the elections in 1979, the only collieries still working were Whittle Drift, Lynemouth, Ellington, Woodhorn, Ashington, Bates and Brenkley Drift. When she left office in 1990, Ellington and Whittle were the only two collieries still operating. So, according to my calculations, during the 11 years that Maggie was PM only 5 collieries were closed. It was her predecessors that were mainly resposible for the destruction of the industry, not Maggie, and almost all of the mines around Bedlington were closed under the Labour government of Harold Wilson. The coal mining industry in Northumberland had to come to an end sometime and what hapened was inevitable. The tragedy is that not one government, Labour or Conservative, in the last 55 years made any real effort to establish new industries to replace the jobs lost by the closure of the collieries in Northumberland. NORTHUMBERLAND COLLIERIES 1957.doc

Hi Wilma The only people in the classrooms in 1956 were the builders. I can assure you the school opened in Sept 1957, ask some of your old school pals. In Paul Mann's book he writes about the school opening for the first time in his chapter on "1957" I'm sure there must be a few old pupils (othere the two of us) that can help us confirm the date.

This pic is from "Historical Architecture of Northumberland. When the Westridge School opened its doors to pupils for the first time in 1957 the farmhouse was still there and was opposite the school but I cannot remember the exact site where it was located. I'm pretty sure that the Ridge farm pub was not built on the site of the farmhouse but think that Netherton club is where it was positioned. Can someone please help?

Here is another pic of Joe Craddock. The caption at the bottom of the photo states- "JOE CRADDOCK IN 1945 HE FILLED 73TUBS OF COAL IN THE 5/4 SEAM 2ft 3ins AT THE "A" PIT, BEDLINGTON IN A 71/4 HR SHIFT (35 TONS)

Reading through The History Forum recently I picked up a comment about a book called "The Leek Clubâ€. I then discovered that the author attended the same schools as I did (the Whitley Memorial and Westridge) and was a couple of years behind me. Mary Wade's delightful autobiography "To the Miner Born†published in 1984 describes life in the town from 1918 to 1945 and is an important record of the social history of the town over that period. I was hoping this book to pick up where Mary Wade's book ended giving us an ongoing historical record for future generations. However, the book was the exact opposite to what I expected! We learn that in 1962 he rejected the town, his Geordie dialect, his friends and even his parents. I continued reading the book in the expectation that at the end of the book there would be some reflection and "soul searching†to explain his actions. However this is not a book that analyses emotions, and to make things worse there is no joy, love or humour to be found anywhere! The book concentrates mainly on unpleasant, dislikeable, and untrustworthy characters with low moral values and questionable ethical standards. This unpleasant portrayal of the town is necessary from his standpoint in order for us to understand the reason why he could no longer live is such a place. He even implies that his rejection of the town and everybody in it was a natural outcome for someone of his intellect. Because of the claim that it is (sort of) a biography, anyone reading it may think this was typical of life in Bedlington at that time, which it is not. I know - I was there! The book is generally harmless but why the episode about the paedophile doctor? Surely the author could not have been so desperate for a story that he has introduced this unsavoury episode into his "biography†just for the sake of book sales. Or does he know something we don't know? It is a pseudo biography and nothing is to be taken as being factual and nothing in book is to be taken seriously. It's a pity because he is an accomplished writer. I would be interested to know from others who have read this book what they thought of it.

"Broadacres" should of course read "Broadway" - my apologies. (I must of been thinking about "The 20 Acres" which is not far from the old Broadway House Farm.)

This photo of Broadacres farm brings back memories of the old road to Humford Mill swimming baths and this is the first time I have heard it called Broadacres Farm. It was always known as "Joe Gillespie's farm". (In the attached photo it is referred to as "Broadacres House") The present road to Humford Mill takes a 90° turn to the left after passing Bayard Woods housing estate. Before the opencast started in that area in the 1950's the road continued straight past the present farm house, passing Broadacres House situated on the right side of the road about 300 yards ahead. It then continued around a few bends to the top of the hill from Humford. This was one of two roads diverted to enable the coal seams to be mined that lay beneath the roads. The other road diversion was the road from the golf course up to Ewart Hill. The old road turned to the left after the club house, passing the Bedlingtonlane Farm and continued up to Ewart hill. Both these roads as they were before the changes can be seen in the attached photo. The opencast coal reserves lay mainly in a seam known as the High Main. This seam was also being mined by The Doctor Pit that had both a vertical shaft and an inclined shaft (known as "The Drift"). It was from "The Drift" that the High Main was being mined, in a section of the mine known as "The West Winnings". There was a period in the 1950's when the High main was being mined by both the Doctor pit and the opencast concurrently. On those days when blasting operations were being carried out in the opencast, all underground miners were cleared from "West Winnings" workings. A large portion of the coal reserves mined by the opencast could have been mined from the Doctor Pit so the decision to mine these reserves by opencast methods shortened the life of the Doctor pit significantly. Attached Thumbnails

The weir was originally constructed to supply water to Humford Mill. It was built at that position to create a head of water of sufficient height to allow it to gravitate through a pipeline to the mill. When the mill closed and the site converted into swimming baths, the same pipeline was retained to supply water to the baths. The pipeline ran from the weir, over the river, supported on the bridge and down to the baths. The river water was discharged from the pipeline into the filter bed where dirt particles settled out; the water then passed through filters and was then chlorinated before being delivered into the swimming pool. Old photographs of the swimming baths often show the filter bed. You can still see the odd supporting "plinth†on which the pipeline lay on the right side of the footpath leading up to the weir and the section of the woods between the baths and the weir was known by local's at that time as "The Pipelineâ€.

Keith has pointed out that the date I gave for the demolition of the bandstand is incorrect. Evan Martin's book "BEDLINGTON IRON & ENGINE WORKS 1736 - 1867" has some information at the end of the book that seems to indicate it was demolished in 1974. At the end of his book he he summarised the events that took place in the area following the closure of the Ironworks in 1867. The following information is taken directly from the book - 1906 - Last chimney (that of the engineworks) felled. 1936 - Old ironworks cottages near Bank Top demolished. 1959 - Remaining works building cleared, and park made with with impressive bandstand predominant. 1972 - Bandstand wrecked, park overgrown, water pools stagnant. A retreat for stray dogs and dumpers of old prams. 1974 - Bedlington Council has performed a cleaning up operation and "the seclusion and loveliness of the spot" has returned.

Unfortunately the quality of this photo of the "Seven Sisters" is poor but you should be able to see the bandstand behind the tree on the extreme left (the seventh sister!). The photo taken from the "hairpin bend†with the Ha'penny Woods on the left and the Free Woods on the right. I believe that sometime in the late 1960's the "Seven Sisters†were cut down and the bandstand demolished. The poem on the post card was written by Gladys Laws who lived in Bedlington and this particular poem was included in a book of her poetry called "Gems of the Heart†published in 1964.