HIGH PIT WILMA

Hi Alan,this excellent little shop has been there for I don't know hoo lang noo..but it is ganna be a big miss..there is aalwis a steady stream of customers aal day lang!!It is like what we used ti say aboot Matty Robinsons..in the 1960's.."if ye ask for a pink elephant they will get one for ye ..if they hevn't aalriddy got one in stock!!" The shop is like the TARDIS!!..it is full of every known item ye might need in everyday life!..and the Owner,Liz,and her assistant Sharon,are really friendly and helpful. Aa canna praise Liz enough for carrying on the business..a mammoth task...after losing her husband Marcus,who also was a great guy.R.I.P. Marcus.

Well done to all involved in this brilliant transformation!! It looks really nice.I put my feelings on the subject somewhere else on the forum..earlier tonight..but don't know where!! Cheers and a Happy New Year to all!! HPW.

I have just seen the article about the remembrance garden restoration project..it looks fantastic,and I am sure it will be well appreciated by visitors. Well done to all who were involved in the planning and creation of this fine garden.It will be lovely when spring and summer flowers start to bloom.A very nice garden to just sit quietly and think of loved ones..Thanks to all involved.

Shame on me!!..I forgot to give credit to Cathy,and also Rebecca,[Liz's Daughter]..two reet canny lasses as weel..Many thanks for providing the people of Bedlington the best service for all round Household and D.I.Y.tools and Stationery. I wish Rebecca all the best for her future..[currently at UNI.]

Hi Folks!..it is sad to know that Sonia's at Bedlington Station will be closing for good in a couple of weeks time. Liz,the owner,and Sharon,her shop assisstant,have managed the shop admirably since the loss Marcus,Liz's Husband...and nothing has ever been a problem to them.They have always been pleasant and a pleasure to shop with.There is nowhere else as local to fulfil our d.i.y. needs,and Sonia's as a name will be sorely missed.However,I wish both Liz and Sharon all the best for their future.TWO REET CANNY LASSES!! CHEERS BILL.

Hi CL and Sym! Aam a bit late in catching up but appreciate your comments! Hope you all have a nice time over the festive season!! Cheers and all the best!![that goes for Alan and everybody else that contributes on this great forum!!]

Heh heh Thanks for your kind comment CL!..you remember a few years ago,I mentioned on here I had started writing my life story,from as young as I can vividly remember..approx aged 2 years old..[cos I can still see my leather reins with white felt fabric star shaped decorative buttons kept in place by chrome studs..]well,I started writing that book in 2009,and for a yr or two I hadn't even looked at it..until a few weeks ago..my Wife wanted to read it,all 600 pages ,so far,and still not complete.!!...So she read a wee bit every night,which spurred me on to start where I left off,writing a few pages each night...Trouble is,it's hand written in pen and ink on A4 pads.If only I had had computer knowledge,in 2009,I would have typed it..and stood a chance of it being published. I went back a few pages to recap where I had finished the last writing session,a year or two ago,and found myself absorbed in it!!..then I thought..it's interesting..and it's ME that aam writing aboot!!...hoo crazy is that?!! Cheers to all!

CL,I live next to the main road,and when the Bedlington Station High School is coming out,after 3-30pm,the "kids"...aged anywhere from 13-18 yrs old come past my front garden each day walking along in small groups,or some are on cycles.While it's wrong to generalise..I have seen a massive change in their attitudes over the last 24 yrs I have lived here..I have noticed how Boys aged 15-16 yrs ,a lot of them,act like wee bairns..in fact my two wee bairns didn't gaan on like some of these dae..and a think..when aa was 15 yrs aad..straight from my school desk...[yawn...roll eyes!!]..I was working and training underground at Seaton Burn Colliery..six miles away from home..I went down Choppington High Pit after my 16th birthday ,working with two older men,for twenty days "close personal supervision",then I was on my own..still working with the two John's,who were by now,my good Marra's..by the time I reached 17 yrs,my two older marra's left me to go to another pit to do their coalface training.After a few days.Ned Cushing,our old Training Officer,brought a lad inbye,same age as me ,and gave me a Certificate to say I was in charge of this lad for twenty days,then he would be my new Marra..next day, Ned brought this Lad's older Brother in and gave me another Certificate putting me in charge of him also.My point is,at 17 yrs old I was down a mine,in atrocious wet,dangerous conditions,in charge of two strangers..who were to become great Marra's IN and OUT of the pit..Now!..when I see these "Children"[by definition"]..aged 15-17 yrs,acting like idiots..and showing off in front of the lasses..I think...by hell..a wadn't waant them buggers working wi me a thoosand feet doon and ten miles oot under the North Sea filling 24 tons of coal onto a conveyor belt..driving an old fashioned coalcutter,drilling hard coal and stone by hand..carrying heavy arched girders which weighed aboot the same as two bags of cement..on their shoulders...for a quarter of a mile at a time...if we ever get back to mining coal..we will have to bring the German Contractors in..as we did in the past sometimes when the NCB wouldn't invest in specialist tunneling techniques which were way above what we had at our disposal..like at the Bewick Drift at Lynemouth..so much Water pouring in and flooding the workings..they brought Thyssens in..who had specialist refrigeration and freezing techniques ...they drilled holes all around the tunnel roadway,pumped a refrigerant into all the holes under high pressure..and this froze the water..allowing concreting of the roadway to take place..which sealed the roadway from water ingress..and I think these Specialist mining companies from Germany..even China!! will mine our coal in the future..if at all..seems I am back again....sorry for digressing!! Cheers!!

All true CL,and Vic!..not so long ago,my GrandMother was just one of a set of children aged 14 yrs old working at Ashington colliery with the ShaftSinkers when they sunk the later shafts..the Men did the hard work drilling and firing the bottom up but the lassies,because they were small and took no room up in the confined space,were employed to fill the basket with the stones that were fired up.That would be in the very early 1900's..Ashington was five pits in one with five shafts ...5000 miners..and the biggest mining complex in the world in those days.

Hi Canny Lass,we are now talking about conditions under the National Coal Board which was invested [is that the right word?!]..in 1947,in which Widows were allowed to live in their family home.Remember my Mother was evicted by the coal owners thugs ["Bailiffs"...THUGS]...BECAUSE MY fATHER WAS IN hOSPITAL DYING..AND NOT WORKING DOWN THE PIT WHERE THE OWNERS THOUGHT HE SHOULD BE..THEY HAD NO CONSCIENCE..NO CONCERN ABOUT THE WORKERS AT ALL..BUT IF A PONY WAS INJURED OR KILLED..THERE WAS AN INQUIREY AND THE PONY HANDLER WOULD LOSE HIS JOB AND POOSSIBLY BE JAILED ON TRUMPED UP NEGLIGENCE CHARGES....sorry about caps lock being on..glaucoma now..difficult trying to type and watch the screen..didn't realise it was on!!..I live at West Terrace in Stakeford for thirty years..the first 14 yrs were under NCB ownership,and I paid rent weekly from my pay.Down the street there were several Miner's Widows living with families in those houses.But NOT in the days before 1947!!...The pony's were "hung" onto the tubs or trams with either tracing chains from their collar each side and onto the tub handles,or Limbers..["Limma's"]..Shafts either side attached to a steel yoke and coupled to the tub middle "CockHole"..[I explained a few years ago about that term!...not indecent!!"]..with a Sheckle and Sheckle pin.So they PULLED the tubs along behind them.

Hi Folks!.Canny Lass,ye knaa me,not a nitpicker,only for correctness,for the education of the uneducated!!...but miner's coaal was never FREE!!..NOR WERE THE "FREE" houses they lived in!!..They were part of a miner's wage in lieu..and speaking personally,Linton Colliery gave the Miners coal which otherwise would be tipped on the pit heap..more stone bands than coal,also full of "Brass"[!!]..Iron Pyrites..which used to spit out onto the clippy mat and us if we sat too close!!..So!!Putters!!..the pic in my gallery on here,of my Father aged 14 yrs old,with his pony,in 1929,is when he was coal putting to his Marra,the older fella who was a Hewer.My Father putted the tubs out to a landing,where the other putters did the same thing..when there was a set of six tubs or more..the Drivers used to drive the set of tubs to the shaft bottom to be taken to bank.Every pit had it's own terms,but putters was generally the term used either for hand putting,or Pony putting.Hope that clarifies the subject.Never heard the term Cartman anywhere in any of the pits I worked at..[5 in total].

Aaahh,Scott,I am so sorry to read of your Dad's passing.We worked down Choppington High Pit in the early 1960's,when we were very young.We recently caught up again,and I know Eric was really ill with his reduced lung capacity...please accept my sincere condolences,from my Wife also.My deceased oldest Sister June was friends in the same class at the Whitley in the 50's..as your Mam,but we all knew her..she was always a lovely Lass. Kindest regards Scott. Bill.

Sorry Alan,canna help here,but mind there are two lads who I thought I recognised but they have been named..Cheers Bill.