HIGH PIT WILMA

Doggy waiting patienly,but had ti put this down or I will forget....!!

All the Bible teachings which I had from school,as a child,and from an ex-catholic Mother,never did me any wrong,and did,in fact provide me with a set of morals and principals to set my standards by.

The ten commandments need not have been Bible-orientated,they are good,sound,principles......

Do any kids these days even know what the commandments are?....have they heard of them?

If we,as kids,said..."I swear on my Mother's death.....",the others could take it as sacrosanct,that we were telling the truth about whatever it was we were being questioned about.

Now I know that's nowt ti dae wi religion,but it is a belief in the truth,which WAS instilled into us through religious means.[...."tell a lie and ye'll gaan doon ti the divil mind...."]!

Sorry little black Jess.......aam comin'......[poor little pooch is crossin' her legs!]

Nice one Sym!

Well , Merc,it seems that disregarding our sources of info,we are on the same plane,which I am pleased aboot,cos there was me thinking we were ganna be at gods.... a mean odds...wi each otha heor!!

I agree wi ya sentiment aboot military projects fully,and can cite a case for either that,or a genuine visitor.

My Neice,[whose Dad just gave Malcolm and Foxy a disc of old photo's a few days ago,and who shall remain nameless!],was outside star-spotting,one night, a couple of years ago.[maybe a bit more than that,but fairly recently anyway...].

She was sensibly shining a laser pointer at particular places in the dark sky,after making sure there were no aircraft in the vicinity.

[i know.....!....AWACS and all that,you are never gonna see them!]

Anyway,she heard a faint whirring sound,which got progressively louder,and seemed to be directly behind her,but above her.

As she turned to see where the sound was coming from,she was met with the sight of the strangest-looking craft that was hovering quite still ,just above the roof-tops,it seemed.

It was V-shaped,without fuselage or tail-plane,had a row of lights around the front edge,and underneath,and as she looked,it quietly turned on it's axis and slid away out of sight in a few seconds.

I forgot to add that the laser pointer was of the 20 mile range type!!

She ran inside screaming for her Husband,who was in bed,as this took place in the early hours of the morning.

He came down and tried to calm her down,as she was hysterical.

She persuaded him to go back outside with her to see if the object would return...it didn't.

She has been on a personal mission every clear night we have had since that night,as she wants to prove to others that she wasn't dreaming,or on glue....etc.

There is an official report on the website which deals with UFO sightings,along with a sketch which she did,to try and give an impression of what she saw.

Now she saw something,no doubt about that,cos her friend also saw the lights at the same time,but not  the craft,at the other side of the estate.

Was it a secret military prototype stealth craft?....maybe so,but no positive proof.[the mod aren't gonna come oot and tell us ,are they?!

Now,Merc,what proof do we have about Daniken?...you only read articles about him,presumably.......who wrote them?

How do we know what is truth,and what is not truth?

Many years ago,when I was very young,so young that my name couldn't be printed,a report went into the Ashington Post,about me being fined for an

airgun offence,along with my brother,[a petty and false prosecution by a young police recruit in Bedlington].

There were lines of "evidence",and statements I was supposed to have said to the cop,when he booked us in the Bedlington woods,far away from the

public highway,i.e.the main road.[we were doing no wrong,but he trumped up charges,and they stuck]

When my Parents saw the paper,they went daft,and at 12 years old I formed the opinion that you can't believe what you read,cos this was all lies about my Brother and me.

Later in life,aged 19 years,same thing happened,a motorbike "offence"[again trumped by a young cop],and fined.

Lies printed in the paper again,disgracing me,but me now at an age,where I didn't care a chut,cos I knew I was telling the truth,and the cop was bent.

SO!....the philosophy is ....BELIEVE NOWT WAT YE READ,AND OWNLY HAAF WAT YE HEOR!!

I think,[returning to the subject!!],that it is arrogance of the human race to suppose that we are the only beings in the universe,and time will tell!!

My favourite topic,........The Pyramids,and all the statues on Easter Island,as well all the other giant temples,and ruins around the planet!!

Do you really believe they used thirty thousand slaves to pull 200-ton stone blocks up the stone hill on pit props,for rollers?

Have you ever watched thirty thousand fans pouring out of a football ground,after the match?

Where the hell would the engineers put the men when they got to the top?

...and how come we were on the planet for thousands of years,as cavemen,etc,then overnight,[in the earth's timeline],we suddenly had Engineers,

Astronomers,Builders,Craftsmen of all descriptions,technology 4000 years ago.....!

One day,Jehovah's knocked at my door,as I was about to go out.

I apologised for being unable to give them a little of my time,and told them I believed the same as them,that Jesus was a top bloke.

They were pleased,until I said yeah,I also think that he was a visitor from another planet!

They gasped in surprise and said they hadn't heard that opinion before!

I got on about the wonder's of the world,and mentioned the lines in Peru.

The young girl,about 18 years old,said she had been there,and seen them.

I said you need to go up the mountains to see them in their entirety,and she said that the guide had taken them up,and it was truly amazing.

I said how long ago was it when they were laid down......she replied..."2000 years ago"

I said how long is it since Jesus walked the earth..."2000 years"......

I said,it makes you think,doesn't it?

She replied..."Yes,it DOES make you think.."

I thought,it's a pity I have to go out,cos I have nearly got this young lass straying from her belief,here noo!!

Doggy-waakin-time....AGAIN!!....JUST WHEN AA WAS GETTIN WARMED UP!!HEH HEH!

Keep a haad lads!!

Disnae really matter Mercuryg,The star theory is my own,no-else's,yes,may have been a comet also,but no way was "a star is born"..the truth!!

People like Daniken,H.G.Wells,etc,were scientists,and scientists don't believe in supernatural events,or things like

Men in white dresses,with feathery wings....!

Now I am not,and I repeat NOT,Atheist,but I have a reasonably balanced view of what might really have happened 2000years ago,and I certainly do not believe there was a virgin birth!

You have to remember the culture in those days,probably even now,that if a couple had a child out of wedlock,they would be stoned to death.

So something had to be done to protect the innocent child and one parent..thus the fable....now where's the Actual evidence of the virgin birth?....It lies in our faith in the Bible!...is that any more convincing proof than scores of

scientists,like Daniken,who have put theories which,at least,are a bit more credible than feathery clad men floating down from the sky!!

More like small landing craft,from a mother ship,come to investigate this beautiful planet,and fornicating with our inhabitants....as you would expect...after a long journey.

"Wheels within wheels...and the dragon had four faces,and wherever the wheels went,the faces went also..."

Not Daniken!!!.....Revelations!!....Ezekiel!!..."and the faces were like that of burnished brass".....Space helmets!

More credible than a four-faced dragon snorting and breathing fire up the mountain!!

But I still believe in a creator of all this,cos it couldn't just have happened by itself....from nothing?

Like I said,we can ask the questions,but we are too small and miniscule,to understand the answers!

The Universe never ends....it's too mind-boggling to even try and contemplate the fact there is no end....

..like believing the earth was flat in olden times!!

We can only put forward our ideas,even we disagree,it doesn't really matter,cos we are never gonna get anywhere,we are still going to carry on destroying our beautiful planet,and it's people.....and God is always going to cause the world's strife,and sit on the fence while it all happens!!

One thing always puzzled me,WHY was Jesus always shown as a white man in Bethlehem?

Wouldn't surprise me at all,if the visitors return,in my short lifetime,[which I have left],if they are perfectly ordinary human beings,and not little green men ,as we have been indoctrinated from childhood,to believe!!

Bet You and Me could while away a happy evening mercury,if we were sat around a comfy table with a pot of tea...[me being a complete tee-totaller!!

For those who aren't familiar with the coalmining industry,and purely for reference,to give some idea of how powerful 250lbs of explosives are,a normal ripping lip..["the caunch.."],on a longwall coalface,would have been shot down using about five,maybe ten pounds of a much less powerful explosive,which would have been "Unigel",or similar.

Well,being an old ex-miner mesel',and having fired up to 250lbs of "Polar Ajax" in one single shot,at a time,[Ajax being a "P1" Permitted explosive-the highest explosive you can use underground...],I know what it feels like to have the ground,indeed ,the whole roadway,shake like hell,as if an earthquake WAS taking place!!

You get used to it after a while,but when visitors used to come down,in organised parties,led by the Manager and Safety Officer,some of them wanted to get back out of the pit,especially when they couldn't see their hand in front of their faces,because of the dense shotfiring fumes which we referred to as "the reek"..!!...and also the red hot,burning Sulphrous fumes which the reek contained.

Ajax was 33% Nitro-Glycerine,and was pretty potent stuff to handle!!.....especially when the shots didn't fire,and you had to go back into the roadway to check every detonator connection.....it had been known for delayed detonation to take place,even long after the regulatory waiting time after a failed shot 

before going in to examine and check for faulty detonators.

In effect,and practice,we were our own "bomb disposal squad",but never ever saw it like that!!...it was a job,and we just got on with it.

So I understood,and appreciated every word of Tommy's story,as he was telling me.

"Greedy miners....."  ........"Get the rats down their holes where they belong"..."The Enemy within.."........."..like sheep......"

Aye,a bet the aad King and Queen didn't agree wi Churchill and thatcher-the hatcheter ....and their opinions of the miners!!

Great article Eggy,and thanks for posting it!

What the world also didn't know was that the Germans,AND the Japanese, had loads of miners [including my now-deceased old friend and neighbour..]driving the the Burma road through the jungle...[as well as all the other campaigns]

My friend,Tommy, joined the territorial army,when he was 17 years old,with his pit marra's,"ti get  a free holiday doon at Catterick in the summer,for a fortneet.."

Within days of him joining,war broke out and he was sent for training in the regular army,and posted out to the war front.

He was taken prisoner by the Germans,and worked in the German mines,then after escaping,was captured again by the Japanese,and put to work on the railroad.

One funny story he told me,[cos he never told me about atrocities..],went like this.....

The rail gangs came to a massive ,[and he emphasised MASSIVE!] ,tree,bang in the middle of the track-line,and halted progress.

The Engineer in charge,had Tommy,and the other miners,dig holes around the roots..[in jungle heat and humidity!],and filled the holes with explosives. 

After firing the shots,the tree trunk was virtually unmarked.

The tree was probably a Mahogany or similar tree,with a diameter of about 10 feet,and about 300 feet high....a BIG tree!

After several attempts at firing it,and getting nowhere,the Army Officer-in -charge,started threatening the Engineer with his life if he didn't get things moving quickly.

So the Engineer called the miners together,with spatterings of broken English,and asked Tommy how they would blow it up.

Well,it was obvious to anybody who had experience with explosives,except this Engineer,who was brilliant at laying rails,and building bridges,but no good at blowing trees out of the ground.!

Tommy,in his wisdom,saw a way to delay the effort,without failing the task,cos he knew if he failed he would be disposed of.

One thing he did tell me was that the Japs wouldn't waste a bullet if they could kick you into a river to drown,or even leave you in the heat without water.

So he told the engineer that they would undermine the tree roots,which would take a day or two,or three if Tommy had his way!

When they had a decent sized hole made,the Officer wanted to blow the tree.

Tommy insisted it was not deep enough,and got the go-ahead to carry on digging.

After a few days,the Officer was becoming agitated,and ordered the tree to be blown.

Tommy told the Engineer to fill the hole with explosive,and when the engineer had placed a small amount of Dynamite under the tree,and was going to fire it,Tommy stopped him,and insisted he would need to completely fill the whole cavern with Dynamite.

The Engineer did so,piling box after box of powder into the cavern.

When he eventually fired it,Tommy said that the ground shook for several seconds,like an earthquake!!

When the reek cleared,and they all went back to see the results,Tommy said there was no sign of the tree,no branches,leaves ....nothing!!

But there was an almighty crater where the tree had been!!!

The Officer was pleased the tree had gone,but wasn't too happy about it taking a fortnight to fill it in with ballast...!!

Tommy and his marra's probably helped our lads out a lot more than they realised,by creating the delay!

When the rails came to a huge ravine,where the bridge was being built,near to completion,by other gangs of prisoners,the Officer was horrified to find that his rail track was forty yards down stream,from the bridge,out of line by miscalculation.

The Officer went downstream and shot himself,out of humiliation.

Well,he would have been shot anyway,by his superiors.

"The Bridge Over The River Kwai",didn't include this episode....

Aye,there was some mighty clever and tough old miners in those days!!

Tommy was liberated by the Americans,in a totally emaciated and mentally unstable state,as were all the other prisoners,basically worked to death.

He carried on the rest of his working life,back down the pits,and was a really canny old neighbour to have.

The kids nowadays need to learn and have some respect for these guys....but they never will....sadly....

Checking my post above,I meant to edit the part which says i have never read anything....blaa blaa...

Of course I read,I just don't read newspaper tabloids,it is enough seeing the front pages of lies and trash,being thrust in my face,even in places like Aldi

nowadays.

It is like religion,you believe what you want to,but don't,[apart from sensible discussion,such as this....],thrust it in my face,or knock on my door,like Jehovah's do...which I consider to be a tresspass upon my property,as much as I would a thief.

I have to laugh when I hear folk say...it was in the paper....[meaning it must be right enough...!!]

Eh.....aam a simple-minded bugga,except when it comes to Scientific theory and discovery,Geology,Space investigation and travel,anything to do with the marvels of engineering on a grand scale,anything supernatural,spiritualism,occultism,oh......and Revelations,in the Bible..!!.....[666....!]

...not forgetting Coalmining....of course!!

Er......have we not strayed slightly off-topic here........[everyone turning a bit like me....heh heh!!!!]

Well,seeing as I have never watched television or read anything other than the News Post Leader,[only cos it is shoved through my door!],for many years,

I don't even know who this Fry chap is,or what he does,and have never heard of him.

Does that make me a fool also,or uneducated??

Does anyone remember a big Tsunami a few years ago?....not man-made.....where the Arch-Bishop,as well as other leading church dignitaries,admitted that the disaster had made them.."question their own faith"..

?

The current situations at the other side of our beautiful planet,in the name of God,.......WHY?

I am not a church- goer,but I believe in the Commandments,and every bit of good teaching I received as a child.

Now,having reached three-score years-and ten,my beliefs are slightly different to the norm.

Yes Jesus walked this planet,and yes,he was a real good bloke,with many medical and spiritual skills,such as telepathy,pre-cognition,telekinesis,etc...

He came from another planet,tried to teach and help this hopeless place,was much misinterpreted,and over 2000  years,the writings of the chinese whispers became distorted.

Let's look at the Star of Bethlehem.

It appeared,shone for a few weeks,then disappeared...!

Stars take millions....or billions of years to form,live,and die.

It was more likely to have been a spacecraft on a steady heading,which,like approaching aircraft,appear to be still,and hovering in the sky.

The Bible says..."and there were giants in those days....and they came from far off lands..."

It doesn't say how much help and engineering skills they came with,to build our wonders of the world,such as the pyramids,or lay down runways that are

so accurately engineered that they do not deviate by more than a few degrees over hundreds of miles.......

Ezekiel went up the mountain,and heard the dragon breathing fire and noise,and was taken on the dragon's back to other wonderful places........

He saw angels with faces "like that of burnished brass..."....well they wouldn't have NASA written on them,now would they?!!

Yep,you guessed,I've read too many books by Erik Von Daniken,and others,and all the evidence suggests the theories to be true.

Only one question remains unanswered.......Who created the Spacemen?!....and this is where we have to ask ourselves,if there is no God,how did all the beauty of our planet,and the rest of the universe start?

We only have the power to ask the questions....but not the intelligence to understand the answers.

I stated a terminological inexactitude,at the start of this post.....

I said I never watch television,that is mostly true in the majority of my time,if the weather forecast is on,when I carry my disabled Wife's meals through to her from the kitchen,I might for a minute,just see how the day is going to fare!!

She keeps me updated,on current news affairs,but from what I hear from lots of folk when I am out and about,there is so much vile trash on the box,I would rather spend my time as I do,with my Wife,my little dog,my motorbike,my guitar and music,or just watching raindrops running down the window on stinking days....heh heh!!

I rest my case for/against God.

I will have old E... asked when we [My Wife and me],next see her.

She always mentions the sawmill,down Sheepwash bank,and the shop,but has never mentioned having the shop in Storey's Buildings,where I lived as a child,or I would have been all ears,and asking questions about it.

I vividly remember,as a three year old,looking in the shop window,only a few doors away up the street,with my then six year old Brother,at all the sweety jars ....MASSIVE  jars,they were....[or so it seemed!],and there was a small piece of glass missing from the bottom left hand corner,just big enough to wiggle your finger through,but sadly,to two hungry little kids,in 1947,not big enough to wangle even one sweety through!!

We tried poking bits of sticks into the small hole,well,I should say , my Brother did,and I watched,desperately hoping he could get some sweeties,cos we didn't know what they were like......cos we didn't get any,cos Mother used to swap her sweet ration coupons,for food coupons,and now,thinking back,for cigarette coupons as well probably,cos both her and me Father both smoked all thier life.[priorities!]

What a sad story!![.....cue violins....!]

Every word true.

fascinating post Pete - the reference to Whinney Hill made me recall my great aunt lived there in the first house on the right - she was called Isabel - a formidable type in tweeds and like a galleon in full sail - her husband had lost an arm and was a draughtsman for the colliery. they moved to a house at Sheepwash on the bank on the left side opposite the anglers but roughly opposite the chapel (I think the Million family had the shop there on the other side)

John Million [of that family],worked down Choppington High Pit,when I was a laddie,he was a nice natured fella,and his photo ,along with John Dawson's

family,taken underground at the pit,stands at the entrance of Choppington woods,up Guide Post road,on the left side of the road.

The lady who ran the shop,and whose husband had the sawmill down sheepwash bank,[a lot of years ago!!],is a very good friend of my Wife and myself.

She is now 84 years old,and quick as a button,very sprightly,and dedicates her life to helping those in need,such as the shoebox appeal,and loads of other christian work.

If I can think on,I will ask her about the place,who lived where etc.....mind,she canna mind of my Mother living at the top of the bank,where the Seahorse is.

I was born there,but moved to Willow Bridge,Storey's Buildings,by the time I was about a year old.

Fascinating reading you guys,about the history and origins of our land here,ye got me lost off in places......!!

Jack Tait was a real aad-fashioned gentleman...wi his dicky-bow tie,he was smart as a carrot  always!

When me Wife and me were courting in the years 1962-7,[got married in '67],we would be in the back seats,on a Friday,or Saturday neets....as ye did,in them days!

Soon as ye start ti hae a innocent bit snog..[cuddlin' and a kissin' !],Jack wud tap us on the top o' wor heeds,very gently-like,and stand there, smiling at us!!

We got ti knaa him real well,and he wudn't let ye waak past him in the street,if yi didn't see him!!

Tab-smoke rolling around the upper decks,lit up in thi flickering projector beams.....was sickening ti folk like me who nivvor smoked!

...."a quarta o' Merry-Maids,please,and a box o' Terry's burnt almonds.. " [if a had a weekend shift in,cos them bugga's cost a full shift's pay.....!!]

"Dracula...Prince of Darkness..."  ....starring Christopher Lee....my Favourite type of films,oh,and H.G.WELLS'S movies also......nowt stupid like they are noo wi aal these idiotic computer graphics!!...gie me black and white Ealing,or Pinewood Studios,any day.....complete wi Pearl and Dean.....and "oowwlld King Coouwll was a merry ooulld  soull....."...wi a little cube of coal wi a croon on he's heed,waaking alang..prood as a peacock.....!!

But a canna mind hoo the coalman was,who had that advert on.

Can anybody else mind o' it?

Life was really simple and quiet and peaceful in them days....unless me specs are aal red.......!

My older Brother's Wife,was born at Netherton colliery village...and her Granda was in the Home guard,as was her Father.

One day,in the early 1960's,when the couple were still courting,My Brother took me up to Netherton,to meet her Granda,as he was Bandleader of the Netherton Colliery Brass Band,and I was learning the guitar,[self-teaching],with a view to getting some tips on music.

While we were there,my Brother asked Granda  if he would show me something he had upstairs.

Granda said "Take him up and show him....".

So my Brother took me to Granda's bedroom,and, leaning down to the floor,pulled out from under the bed....................THREE big wooden ammunition

boxes,in army green livery.

One was full to the brim with clips of .303 cartridges,and machine gun belts full of cartridges.

The other two were full of  small cardboard boxes of .38 and ..45 [snub-nosed] cartridges....hundreds of them!!

Enough to blow Netherton village up!

I was about 15 years old,and started shaking with fear,at the sight of them,and just wanted to get out of the house!

They were "left-overs" from the war,ammunition which was supplied,and never had the opportunity of being used. 

They were later handed in during amnesty,but I bet it raised a few eyebrows at the police station,who were probably used to getting the odd .410

or Army service revolvers,or small-time weapons,being handed in!

There must have been thousands of bullets in these boxes,and to me,the most fearsome looking of all them were the .45's .

Granda had been a weapons instructor in the Home Guard,and authorised to hold the ammunition.

It was the same when they pulled the old houses down ,in Bell's Place,to build the rest of Hollymount Square,in the very early 1950's/late 1940's

I lived in the first half of the square,when they were built after the war,around 1947-ish.

We played in the deserted old terrace,which was being pulled down,and one of my older friends,found some shotfiring black powder fuse.

I think I related the long story elsewhere in the forums,but the point is, the elder generation seemed to hoard stuff like that,then die!

Mind,in those days,the old miners had to buy all their own pit gear,and explosives,and they used to keep the powder and fuse "wire",in the coal oven

heater cupboard,near the mantelshelf,to keep it dry!

In the mid-1960's,my mate's Brother,Bob[?] Walker ran the pub on the right side of the picture...was it the Traveller's Rest or the Railway Tavern?

This is the posh end of Westlea,opposite the Cussins estate turn -in to the right..Threegee.

Top of the picture is opposite Red House Farm estate,you can see the wide path running at an angle to the road.The old bungalows are to the right,out of sight. 

Foxy's pic is further south-easterly,t'other side of Red House Farm estate.......no?[at least over in that direction...sort of....!]

By the way,HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR MEMBERS!!

It's opposite where my Brother and Sister -in-law live,Westlea.

Nobody notice the obvious?

Ewart Hill old opencast site in the background!,....it's not a pit heap or natural landscape.......in a part of Bedlington where all the land slopes away down the hill......this one is quite high!

Maggie,spot-on,and in full sympathy with my view of how it was, and how it is now!

Nobody even seems  to want eye-contact nowadays,I speak to anybody that passes me,whether they have a dog,[which I usually have],or even just standing at a bus stop!....sometimes I get a queer look....as if I was about to attack them or summik.......[at 70 years old!!!]

I think one dog-owner was right in his views about evolution.....thoosands of years time,people will be born with only two thumbs...and no fingers!

Correct Tony!

Shaft-drive,and water-cooled engine,no cooling fins like air-cooled motors have,just a solid-looking lump of metal,long-stroke-high torque,but purred along

like a sewing machine!

.......Mrs White,had a fright,in the middle of the night........

........She saw a ghost,eating toast,halfway up a lamp-post.....![sang to the twirl of the skippy ropes!]

........Carling,Palm,....Paste-egg day........[??????????????]...please finish it someone!![memory-block on this one!]

Courtesy of my Wife,who was adept at all these activities as a lassie!

Maggie,dae yi not think that sumbody in high places have created this culture where they've poisoned thi ordinary affectionate folks like us....

....child issues...! ...one time yi cud stop and coo ti a bonny babby in a pram,even used ti put a peice of silver in it's little hand.....noo yi daren't even think of it

or yi might be regarded as a ..............

Aam pleased we lived and played,and grew up in the times when we did.....hard up,but sociable and friendly,and affectionate with one another....

.....mainly cos everywhere was  mining communities with a close bond.[ a knaa not ivry body was,a said mainly...which was aboot reet...!]

Westridge now August 2014

Heh heh!!

                "Reserved for headmaster" bay!

When aa started.....IN 1956...[!], tha was nae car parking,cos nae bugga had cars!..[or,if they DID,they were left at yem!!]

Aal thi teachers waaked up thi road ti school,syem as us!

Mr Cook..[?],who was the woodwork teacher,came inti thi yard on he's aad green "Sunbeam" in-line twin motorbike and sidecar combination.

It was a gud aad workhorse,but cars?....definately not!

A used ti speak ti Mr Freeman,our maths teacher,on he's way doon past thi Market Place,gaan doon Vulcan Place,after school hours,carrying he's briefcase,lang after aa left school,and was working doon Choppington High Pit by then!

Everything was absoloutely pristine in the school grounds,in them days,having been newly built and landscaped,worthy  of being photographed!

It's sad ti see it noo,lukking dilapidated!

The two class pics musta been aboot 1960-ish,cos a recognise a few faces among the lasses,who were in my class,in 1959,when aa left school.

Aa was in the Upper Remove when a left...[the G.C.E. stream.].....stupid name for a class aa thowt,.....it suggests yi were removed from class for being a baddie....methinks!

Hey man,hope you had a great day/night,and many mair ti come..!

Belated birthday wishes from HPW,Keef!

History books are like the Bible,and the Durham Mining Museum....!!

Very misinformed,distorted in places with the wrong facts,and very contradiictory....you take things with a pinch of salt,and don't get excited cos one book says different to another....or one History Teacher tells you how it was...!

Do you,for example,really believe that the angels were blokes with feathery wings....and lovely satiny skirts,or dresses....whichever way you want to view them?[and if they were,was there a factory unit set up to make them for the angels....and were the Angels all white in a black,or brown race of people...no obese ones...all slender built.....?...!!!]I am a believer!....with a different perspective of the whole scenario!!

The Durham Mining Museum,has loads of false information in,where people who refer to it to get "the facts and figures"

actually know nothing about the mining history,or they wouldn't need to refer to it!!

There are dates of fatalities for instance,at Choppington B Pit,which,to have been true,would have meant that I started the pit when I was 13 or 14 years old![people I worked with who were killed in the pit 10 minutes after I last spoke to them.....just to give a really sad example of how history is written and then "misconstrued"....is that the right word?]

Sorry it I went off a bit,but just trying to press a point that Maggie has also made!

Now let's all have a singsong for christmas eh?!!

Sorry to tell you this but king john came to the throne after Richard must have been watching to many Robin Hood movies

Who portrayed him as a bad man he was far from it in fact it was him who raised the ransom money for his brother who

Was imprisoned where as Richard was hardly in our country during his reign..

Never watched the movies or telly for the last 30-odd years...would rather spend that sort of time playing guitar or biking or out walking!!

Last Robin Hood I watched was the series when it first started in around 1958-ish......or whenever Tyne Tees TV was inaugerated,and we were inundated with American and British productions of all sorts of things....westerns,drama's..cartoons etc![and I was a very young laddie!!]

I tell a lie!!...it just came to me!!....the last Robin Hood I watched,was at the Plessey Seam loader-end,where the loader lad was called EXACTLY that!!

[doon Bates pit!...in aroond 1971-ish...!]...and he wasn't firing arrows....he was loading 3-ton mine cars from a conveyor belt with coal!

One day the conveyor belts all stood for aboot half an hour...[a lot of coal production lost..]..and the Manager rang him to ask what was going on.....

.....the Manager asked who was speaking,and the poor lad had to reply........."Robin Hood".....!!

"come to my office tonight "...."but......but......."........"Office I said....."......"Aareet Mr ........"

When the Manager checked with the Pay Clerks,HE had to apologise to poor Robin!!...[his Mother and Father must have loved Richard Green..the

Original Robin Hood..!!]  Who is this Kotsner bloke you are talking about?.....you must watch a lot of movies then?...to know about such unheard of people!!........[deliberate mis-spelling for dramatic effect...artistic licence!]

Great to have a nice debate Tony!!