HIGH PIT WILMA

Update on 25-4-2022..Still busy with my book,and wonder if aal ivvor get it finished..since a started writing it in 2009,loads of me Marra's who figure in the book,are now not with us any more. But they are remembered forever if my book ever gets to be read by people other than my own family. 34 yeors after this pic was taken,Bill is a fine lukking distinguished grey haired aad chep..trying ti convince me he is fit as a lop...!! Wi lungs like a Blackboard after yeors of coalcutting n hand-filling coal onti a conveyor belt,a think he will be mair like me..blaa'ing like an aad cuddy,and as much gud as a nrokken paor o' limma's!!heh heh!!

25-4-2022 update..Still nae response from anybody in Local Council or Government to refute my claims and take me up for slander...cos its aal true! Noo,Alan,we need Musky ti invest and follow up Nicola Tesla's free energy from Space-generated and transmitted-to-earth Electricity project! Howw,Alan,a few years ago Cath n Me were at thi Lake District,and oot on a run.We came across a Country Event at a big mansion and gardens like Cragside. There were several exibitions stands like the RSPCA etc. One stand was the Water Board..and among the exhibits was a stall selling Wind Turbines. A wee one for the garden ti charge ya car batteries was aboot £200..! Cath said ,Billy,ye cud buy a lot of Batteries for £200! A big yin ti power aal ya hoose was a few thoosand quid! A said ti thi canny guy,a just want boil thi kettle man,a divvent ti buy a power station! THAT was aboot 20 or more years ago! Cheers Alan!

Update..4-2-2022...and no-one from govt or any other official body has come on to dispute me about Archbold having a personal vendetta againdt Bates Colliery in the 1980-s..Now the Russian President Putin has invaded Ukraine,and is cutting oil and Gas supplies off to the West,our energy prices are rising by thousands of pounds a year,it will be interesting to see if we re-open some of the drier pits in Nottingham and other places...gotta dae summick!!

Hi Folks,a bit late,but just caught up with one! Around 1962,my lass got me a camera for Christmas,and to gain experience and to learn how to drive it,[yes!..Shutter speed,aperture,focus,depth of field..rings!],I went around taking reference pics of objects and places which I knew would always be the same...including this stone. Well ,I knew about this stone from being a kid about 10 yrs old..maybe younger!,cos us kids used to play all over Bedlington,Cemetary included! Now my theory of objects I thought would never change,is blasted to hell! I was saddened to see how this stone has deteriorated over the the last 60 years,since I took those pics! Us kids always thought that the figures at each side were Werewolves!...I learned later in life that they were Gargoyles,and the purpose of them was to ward off evil spirits!..I stand to be re-educated on that one Canny Lass! If ever I can find those old photos,I will post them,and you would see how much this stone has deteriorated,partly due to vandalism..the chips taken out of the top ridge suggests that modern kids haven't been like us kids,and just played,they have been destructive..we just used to climb the conker trees or play hidey seek in the dark neets!.. 1741..it's stood there a long time eh?!

Aahh! lilbill, a really appreciate ya kindness, but aam as stubborn as they come, My Family GP, the Consultants in Cramlington Hospital a fortnight ago, Nurses, even my Gud Nybors have aal said the same, I really shud have help, but as lang as aam on me two legs.. aal manage! A canna express me gratitude enough, towards aal the caring kind folk like yasell, mind, right from the first lockdoon, last March, in 2020,me two sets of Nybors, have tekkin torns daeing shopping for Cath and Me, owa a yeor and a haaf!! Cos we were classed as vulnerable, but we have both been double stabbed, and feel a lot more confident noo. Thas only ten hooses in wor street, and every nybor has said Bill, just ring or put a shopping list through the door, if ye need owt! Wa really spoilt! Cheers!

Aav got a, short Dvd video, of The Opencast site, which was apparently an old 8mm Cine film reel, which somebody rescued from a skip, and had transferred it ti Dvd. A think the Six Townships were selling it, and my Wife got it for me for Xmas, a few years ago. It shows the 42 ton Coal Haulers crossing the river bridge, and proved what a told me two Sons, and me Wife, for years, aboot the centre span of the bridge bouncing up and doon like a Yo-Yo!. as the Coal Haulers went across the bridge! Amazing Engineering, those Bailey bridges, and a never saw another one for another 50-odd yrs, till they renovated the old bridge at Rothbury, a few years ago, and they built a temporary Bailey bridge next ti thi aad yin, so they could close the aad yin ti start work on it. A took hundreds of photos and videos of the different stages of work in progress, every time we went from the Caravan owa ti Rothbury! The design of the Bailey Bridge sections hasnt changed one bit since a first saw them in the mid.. 1950's.. right up ti thi present day!.. Well, if it ain't broke... dinna fix it!!!

Great ti see this aal again, wat a blast from thi past! Tha used ti 100,000People gathering in Bedlington, in them days, aal the pubs and clubs packed oot, and just the odd one or two arrests for drunk and disorderly! lilbill, me wee dog was a Lakeland Terrier Spaniel/cross, mostly Spaniel to look at, temper of a terrier, if another dog crossed him, but otherwise gentle as a lamb! Micky was his name, and me and him roamed them Woods, and aal the fields, wa two selves.. like Elvis and Old Shep!! He used ti sleep aside the coal fire, cuddled up wi me Cat, Tiddles, snuggled tigitha, and when Tiddles had a litter, Micky used ti lie with his front paws around the kittens, guarding them like hell! When they were just born, he used to preen them, by licking them aal thi time, and not even me dare gaan near them for the first few days.. he wud growl at me or anybody else who went near! But as soon as the kittens started wandering, after a few days, he used ti pick them up and carry them back to their Mother, and wag he's tail, like Spaniels dae! Old Dr Hickey used ti call in just ti say hello, is everybody all right, Jean, (my Mother), and he used ti marvel seeing Mickey nursing the kittens, and he wud say, Well, I've never seen anything like that in my life!.. and he bred Greyhounds aal his life! I had Mickey and Tiddles from aboot Four years old, till a was aboot Twelve years old, when that swine raced up Bedlington main street like a maniac, same as aal his marra' s, on bonus work, and couldn't stop his worn oot banger of a lorry. Everybody used ti complain aboot Tulips aad smoky noisy battered aad lorries. the driver got oot, callously pulled my Micky ti the roadside, and got in his wagon and buggaad off, leaving me sobbing wi me dying dog. A carried him aroond home and he was lifting his head, bleeding heavily, and he was gone as a reached me hoose gate. Aav never forgotten him, and a well up every time a think of that day, around 1956.Noo aam 77yrs old, and a well up instantly when a think of me last litte darlin'... LBJ.. everybody on here knew LBJ, though they never met her.. Little Black Jess. Alan, seems like aam back!.... off topic, am an Allison, we are aal thi syem, we canna help it... gaan ti Newcastle ti get ti Edinburgh!

Wahey! Exactly as a remembered it! Costain Mining laid this temporary road and built the two bailey bridges, this one and the river crossing one, to take coal from the opencast mine at Acorn Bank, overland to Bebside Colliery, after public complaints about coal laden lorries speeding down Bedlington, otherwise quiet, main street, one of which knocked my faithful little dog down and killed him, having nearly hit me as we crossed the road. Tulip owned the fleet of old banger lorries, and they used ti belch out black smoke screens all the way up the road, after having climbed Bedlington Bank, empty, on the way back to the Opencast site, where the Golf Course is now, but this was around 1956. The 30-ton Euclids trucks, and also 42-ton Coal Haulers, used to make the bridges bounce e up and down as if they were made of elastic! Thanks for posting Alan! Made me happy ti see it again! Cheers Bill.

Luvly photo,Cambois Beach?...aah!!..just spotted the windmills on the horizon,and the perspective suggests ti me that this could be Newbiggin,maybe!

Tony,if ye are still in there,aav had another gud luk and a still canna place anybody else. A sat next to Ronnie Helmsley,at the Whitley School,in the 1950's and my Aader Brother was in Ronnie's Aader Brother's class,Dennis Helmsley,and they knocked aroond tigitha efta Schyuul at neets!

Bit late in catching up,Tony,a canna place any of these lads at aal!