HIGH PIT WILMA

Haven't been doon for a month or two,heard aboot it from me next door neighbour,hoo far does it go? It used ti tek yi reet ti the steppy-styens,and my Wife could manage it in her mobility scooter,a few years ago,but of late,it is a total impossibility. Hope the plan is to renew the whole path eventually,mind there's a certain fraternity intent on destruction,and look what they did to the nice picnic tables doon at Cambois,and other places. Aal be up ti me owld childhood haunt in a few days time ,hopefully,and aal check the path oot,for suitability for the scooter. The river Wansbeck path is also restricting to sufferer's of spinal pain,when using scooter's,as the vibration on the rough areas make travelling very difficult,otherwise most of the path is a lovely walk/ride. The Bedlington "Free" woods is,and always was my favorite place to be as a child!

Chinkaplonka Fourgee!! I thought certain words could be taken for key words,with violent connotations,if you know what I mean! I'll let you off this time...Marra! Foxy,I ain't been to I.O.M. TT but would love ti gaan. Excellent U-Tube videos next best thing taken from helmet cams. Haza,hope you get settled wherever you choose,just jokin aboot Morpeth,it's a luvly place an aal,as is the whole Coonty of Northumbria!

Hi folks,update on accdent! Sym,you read me spot-on there!...the officers on the scene were like angels on earth,along with the doctor and paramedics. Highest esteem and respect for all of them. The Police even helped me unload my car contents into my Brother-in-law's car,and before my Bro-in-law came,they were gonna bring all my stuff,my Wife's mobility scooter,and my little black Jess,to my home,first,then take me across to the Hospital to be with my Wife. As it was,my B-in-L. saw to LBJ etc,and I travelled with my Wife in the Ambulance. When you see these guys on,in the Ambulance,at first hand,you canna help but be filled with a sense of admiration and gratitude! Noo,a got a call from the Police officer handling my case to say they have the third party driver,but she,unsurprisingly,has denied any part in the crash,coming oot wi nonsensical alibi's and stupid statements. So they can't go any further without any solid proof.[which is perfectly understandable.] Let's not forget credit to the Hospital staff who took my Wife straight in without any hanging around and had her X-rayed and given a thorough examination. A normally dinna wish any bad on anybody,but noo,just noo,this minute,a wud like ti see this person tek a blind corner at the same speed she was daeing,when she hit me,and find a Huge C.A.T in her way.....the tracked variety! Many thanks again to you all for your kind words of support.

Maggie,and Canny Lass,Aav led a sheltered life,undergrund,a divvent even knaa where Bilbao is!!

er.....note to Mods....."Axes",are rock'n'roll for Guitars....!! My last post is awaiting Mod approval....methinks "Axes" struck a bad chord.........[chord......ugh!]

It's different to Morpeth,much better...not so snobby...unless that's what yi waant like!! I lived there for 31 years,moved 8oo yards,put myself over the border,inti Bedlington! I was born and raised in Guidepost,Chopppington,then Bedlington,till I got married,then most of my married life in Stakeford,and it's a great place ti live.The whole area is great,there are plenty good walking areas for doggy-walking,got the welfare football and cricket fields,bowling,snooker hall,the Social club is next door to the welfare.... ...and anyway,us muso's gotta stick tigitha! Strat,Burns,and various other axes!

Chris and Peter together were my childhood hero's in the days when you pulled your jacket collar up and raised youreslf up a bit to look bigger...... ......when you were 14 years old.....to get in at the Top-end flicks...."Nea bother man".....[was the braggy crack to ya mates!] Ron and Chris will sadly be missed. R.I.P. Chris and Ron.

Maggie,a shudder to think about that![predictive text etc!!] Probably make D.H.Lawrence look like a Mills and B. writer!! Thanks for your kind words also,very much appreciated! Sym,sorry aboot digressing,a like ti keep the entertainment light sometimes!

Heh heh! Nice one Eggy! Neorly theor noo,wivafewmissinwards! Howw,this is a bit of a hobby thing wi me,this isn't new,yi naa!! A few years ago,me gorgeous young Neice was in the Para's,and stationed in the Falklands..[i think] For a laugh,a sent her a hand-written letter,a few pages lang,on A4,just ti keep in touch,and mek her feel at yem,reading Northumbrian text. Noo!...aboot fower pages were nowt else but unpunctuated pitmatic text,which,at first glance,resembled Egyptian heiroglyphics! Aam not taakin aboot Northumbrian,here noo,..aam taakin aboot true pitmatic,using loads of old ancient pit terminology which pitmen's Wives adopted in their everyday vocabulary![such as some which Eggy didn't twig on in his decoding post......"anaamnoreddaroondyitcosaam....".."I haven't got any housework done yet..."etc. ANYWHEH!,me lovely Neice spent a few neets in,trying ti work it aal oot,which kept her oot o' mischief! THEN,she discreetly posted it up in the mess,on thi notice board. Next thing she knew,was a superior officer holdin' it up in front of ivry bugga,waantin ti knaa who was responsible,and what did it aal mean!! So!,they could decipher enemy signals,send in tornado's heavily armed,blast thi bugga's ti bits,but they cudn't read aad Wilma's twang! [Wilma isn't a pseudo,by thi way,it is so well-knaan a nickname,daft as it is,but will be in archived N.C,B,reports,from High Pit,Choppington,if any still exist,cos even thi Manager didn't knaa me real nyem....in thi late 1950's -60's-70's and on ti thi present day by aad marra's who are still alive!!] ..."Wilma....fined five shillings....throwing bait papers down in the roadway causing the spread of mice......" ...."Wilma....fined two shillings and sixpence for riding thi pit ponies underground"........ Heh heh! Happy days!! P.S.......watwarwitaakinabootaforetheornooathinkaavstrayedawehaweebitagain.......!

Hi Maggie!....not in this day and age,these sort of scum have nothing between their ears to be able to feel emotions of any kind. One of the Police Officers who were first on the scene said that for all she knew,[the female driver who ran],we might have been left for dead,or dying. It was a serious criminal offence,and they were sure they would arrest her very quickly,with the aid of the dogs,and the helicopter.......I'm still waiting! I'm now starting to doubt whether the chopper was indeed called out at all,cos my Wife was in the Ambulance a fair while,being seen to by the Paramedic Angels,and I never saw or heard it before we left for the Hospital. Now in that length of time,even a decrepit old bugger like me could have escaped over three fields and phoned a friend to pick me up somewhere!! I think I am not being told the full truth about things...which I fully understand, confidentiality and secrecy must prevail,or it wouldn't be much good having a police force otherwise. It would be nice to just be told they are still on the case,but I am afraid Vic may be right,and that we are just another statistic.

Luvly bit o' workmanship, Maggie! ...but you got me beat.....[hope I shouldn't be ashamed for saying that!......].....where is it from?

Thanks Vic,and Adam! No word from the police since I made a statement nearly two weeks after it happened!! Aam ganna chase them up afore long,aam very tolerant and believe in letting them get on with thier work. Aav had four cars written off,the first one like Adams Dad,in 1978,aa was lying in bed at 5-0am..drunken driver wrote my car off at the door. Next three a was in the cars,lucky each time..this last one was the WORST one oot the lot! Vic,underground used aboot a hundred or more lives up ,so aam thinking he musn't want me yit! ......wat's that aboot temptin' fate?!!

Fascinating stuff ivrybody! When a was at school prior to leaving at 15 yrs old,I hated history and geography[and P.E.!] I didn't see the point of it all!...I was home-studying electricity and electronics,radio and tv theory and principles,Faraday,Ohm's law etc etc etc! I could read theoretical circuits ["schematics" we call them now],at the age of 14 yrs,and was building circuits using high-voltages with Valves. I now wish I had put a bit more effort into studying History!! Fortunately I can learn from all on this forum,better than I could from my teacher!!,even though I had the best-liked greatest funniest fella for a teacher at Westridge....Mr Abrahart!![We usually couldn't write down his dictation,cos we were laughing so much,he was very theatrical in his dictation,and used to assume the characters such as Napoleon,Disraeli,Gladstone,etc.] Keep it up Canny Lass and all the rest of you! Sorry,apart from Pitwark,a canna contribute ti this one!!.....howld on theor....a just thowt on...... Weren't the Monks actively busy digging smaal bell pits aal owa Northumberland,and a lot in Bedlingtonshire,ti get coal for tha caad drafty abodes?!!

Many thanks for all your very kind words,all of you,I can say we were all, [My Wife and Little Black Jess..who was in the back fast asleep..and myself..].. ....very lucky to be alive. I thank Vauxhall's Traction Control System for helping me to bring a car which was up on it's side on two wheels,[after being rammed from the front nearside],to a safe halt....even though my nearside front end of the car was severely damaged,and the roadwheel was mangled backwards,with the suspension,driveshaft,and steering rods all destroyed mechanically.My car veered violently from one side grass verge to the other side verge and back again,throwing my Wife around like a crash test dummy,knocking her unconcious. My car travelled 150 yards down the road from the site of the collision,braking only on two wheels,and me fighting like hell to keep it on the road. I truly thought my Wife was dead. My little Dog [Jess] was also thrown around,and is now very nervous,and spooks at the slightest of unexpected noises. Thankfully we are all recovering slowly,from whiplash and other expected joint pains all over. My Wife is now very frightened to travel in the car,even though she has to,being disabled to start with. One thing I can tell you is what I told a Police Officer who attended the scene,"If she was standing here noo,a wudn't think twice aboot ripping her heed off,for wat she's done to my Wife and little Dog.."[Referring to the other female driver who tried to drive her wrecked car away,and did so,for about four hundred yards,and when it seized up,got out and ran away on foot.] The Police Helicopter,and Tracker dogs failed to find her in the surrounding fields! Stolen car-cloned registration plates! What chance have I got?! If she sees this,by any chance....[and you never know weirdo's].......she needs to take note.........if I get to know who she is...I just need to be lucky once .......she needs to be lucky all the time! Thanks again folks,let's get back to light entertainment eh?!!

Thanks Keith. If I can find the pic I will try and post it.

Whey,as aan pitman who knaas nowt,except pitwark,aal yi bugga's are leaving me bemused here! A gotta agree wi aad Sym....an' as far as passwards are , nea bugga came on an' deciphired me little love letter ti the forum a while back....[aav forgotten where it is noo...a think it was in thi UKIP thread], but just as a reminder,di yi think even thi Enigma wud get this one........ ......aadbliddywilmasabootnakkaadnooanisgaantibliddykipcositslateanaamnoreddaroondyitsothibuggarillhaetibidetheortithimornnoocosaamowaknaakaadtidaeanymairsoaalsaygudneet, andhappyborthditiyungAdamHogg! Gudneetfowlks!

Eeh,yi bugga! Thanks Maggie, and Merc! It's nice to feel appreciated,after sitting for hours typing slowly,dog-tired,in the wee smaa hoors of thi mornin' !! Aam a bit late of replying,having a rough time since our Easter Sunday car accident by a hit and run driver. Canna say owt more cos it's a police matter....but a will when it's aal sorted oot!! Cheers kind friends! Wilma.

"....In future...doing nothing for the patient may be the best treatment for them....".....!!! Of course!,and also the best line of trade to be in will always,and more so....be that of those who take care of us after we depart.....!! What a load of politico buzz-words for an old pitman to try and digest at 1-0 am!! Sym,thanks for posting this,I think I fully agree with your fears,but you made a serious mistake by deleting the word "Evil" and B..............ds"!!!!!!!!!!! Freedom of speech is what made this a great country to live in,and I'm from an old ilk who does not have the word "Offended " in my vocabulary. My reasoning is,that if an adult person is going to be "offended",because of some remarks made,they would not have lasted 10 minutes working in an underground environment....grown-up children...still immature...in my mind. We had a saying underground......"Sticks and stones....blaa blaa",so you took any insults with a pinch of salt,and anyone showing just a hint of having a "Lip-on",might as well pick thier bait-bag up and go home! Why not joke about Islam??????...we joke about God,talk openly if we disagree with Christianity,the Royal Family,or Churchill...not to mention thatcher-the-hatcheter.........so what's the difference? Aye,aa say...."When in Rome....blaa blaa...."!!. Aye,Three-gee,in 1980, I had a bad roof-fall accident,while winning out a new coalface,down Bates pit. I was injured and taken to the old Ashington hospital,in the Coal-Board van,which was quicker than waiting for an ambulance,in those days! It was common for injured miners to be taken straight out of the pit,"Black as a craa",meaning "black as a crow",unwashed from being down the mine,in other words. I was lying in a side room,bleeding through bandages put on by my own marra's,as there were no doctor's to be found 180 yards up a three-feet high wet,rough coal-face,at 5-0 0'clock in the morning!![when the roof came down over my head and shoulder's...] A black doctor came to see to me,around nine o clock,and asked me how this had happened,and what time. When I said "5-0 o'clock this morning,doctor..",he was very gruff,and spat out his words as if he had a lip-on..! "Why did you not come to Hospital sooner....."...[like a red rag to a bull!!] I was in a lot of pain,not having had any treatment for so long,since being injured 4 hours beforehand,and tried to explain that there are no doctors and ambulances down a coalmine..........it took over two hours to come off the face,get first-aid,travel outbye,wait for a cage to the surface...etc,then I lay over two hours in the hospital waiting on this bad-mannered man to come and see to me!! THEN he started talking about our proposed pay rise,quoting press reports about us getting 10,000 pounds a year,[in 1980!],which was engineered miner-hating sensationalism!! THEN he said,"You will get more pay than me..." THAT did it!!...I said doctor,di ye not think a deserve as much pay as ye?....hoo many doctors come here haaf-deed through thi middle of thi neet,like me?.....eh?......" He stormed out of the room and left me still bleeding,only with no bandages on. I lay for about ten minutes in agony,when a young doctor came by the room and saw me. When I told him what happened,he quickly saw to my injuries,and told me that that other doctor had a chip on his shoulder,for some reason,and had been nasty with other patients. My own family G.P. was Dr Abbey,an Indian doctor,who was really pleasant and friendly,and who was,I later found out,a brilliant surgeon. Just the opposite,but that was in the days when immigration was not on the scale as it is now,and nobody made a fuss. Ashington Hospital was founded and built,originally,by the Miners of Ashington,who saw the need for a local hospital,in the days when Ashington pit employed 5000 men,and was the biggest single employer in the country. We would have been badly on without it,for all the odd horror stories that surrounded it sometimes!!

Hopefully for them,a gud move,cos they are two hardworking lads who I knew a lot of years,and have dealt with them frequently for spares,as well as washing machine etc. In reality,they may find the local trade loss a disadvantage to business. Pleased I checked out the forum here,cos I didn't know they had moved,it seemed I was only phoning John yesterday!![for parts] Can anybody remember old Tommy,who stripped down all the trade-in machines of all descriptions? He was a real friendly canny fella,always willing to help you out with advice,[when the shop was the old original Forrester's..] Tommy was a pipe-fitter down Choppington High Pit,in the early-mid 1960's,and I used to work with him when I was just a 17-year old skittering young ched wi'a snotty nose!!![he was exactly the same natured fella then,as he was in the shop,many years later!] I wish Forresters aal thi best in the future for their business.

Welcome back Sianabix,you were here before me!

Heh heh! ...."Pelmets"...! When we moved into our first house ,in 1970,[a colliery house that had stood empty and dilapidated for over a year...!],I was proud as a peacock when folks used to come to visit and remark how nice our pelmets were,and I told them I had made them......what a task it was....with just a pit axe and a long bit o' string.......!!! What a blast from thi past,Orloff!! [they really were thi "in" thing to have...at thi time!]

Hi Orlof! Thanks for that info. I will post the pic if I come across it in my albums. What puzzled me was why anyone would want to throw out old family photographs!

Welcome Millbank! My old school-friend who I sat next to, right through the Village Infants ,Whitley Memorial,and Westridge schools,was a lad who lived at Millbank,right on the brow of the hill-top of the road down to Cambo Avenue...or whatever!! Alan Wilkinson,and he is on this forum,along with his next-door neighbour,Ronnie Leyland,in the Whitley School football team colours,alang with Matty Hall. You will find them if you do a bit of scrolling around. I knew most folks down there,and Beattie road as well,we all went to school together. You should have tried climbing out of Humford Baths,with a soaking wet hand-knitted wool cosser on....without being embarrassed....need I say more?!!

Hi Vagabond,and welcome to the forum! I'm not a dinosaur yet,but gettin on,and was brought up in Bedlington,Hollymount Square,from the first houses being built,[circa 1947-8 ish]. The word D.I.Y. hadn't been coined,when I was a kid,although Jimmy Milne sold everything but Gold Pigs! Matty Robinson was more diversified than Jimmy,but as a kid,I didn't know Bedlington Station existed!! I moved away to Stakeford in 1970,so was it after that when your Dad had the shop,or am I just ignorant of the fact that it might have been earlier ,and as a young man,might not have been interested,as I wouldn't have any DIY to do....except for repairs to my guitar and motorbike....!!!!

Forgot to say thanks Maggie,for your kind comments,I love sharing my experiences,as much as I enjoy hearing about other people's. Talking about Whin,["Blue-Whin..i.e.],when our Sons were just little bairns,we were on a touring caravan weekend,just over at Bellingham. One day we walked along the embankment of the old railway track,[then a lovely grassy walkway]. As usual,I was talking about how we blasted out through solid Whinstone Dykes,after picking pieces of Whin ballast up. My oldest Son [who was about 11years old..around 1979..]],was always interested in my stories. I explained to him about the smells of gases released from the stone after it was fired down,and we proceeded to try and break smaller bits of the Whin ballast,by hitting them with larger pieces. We succeeded a few times,probably because the small bits were fractured to start with. The interesting thing was,even after lying out on a rail track,in the fresh air,for God know many years,the same pungent rotten-egg smell could be detected!! [H2s-Hydrogen Sulphide..a deadly gas...but safe in the open air.!] Next time you are out walking,bring a small bit of road ballast home and crack it with a hammer..[with safety goggles and totally wrapped up around the face and neck...fine pieces fly off like red hot bullets!!],and see if you find the same thing. That gas was trapped in the stone,about 200 million years ago,when the Whin was molten Lava from an erupting volcano!! Fascinating stuff man!!