HIGH PIT WILMA

Symptoms...you got me creasing up here!,brilliant tales! I started Westridge,the first day it opened,in 1956,and I left in 1959,aged 15 years,to go straight down the mines. In those early days,the school was just getting itself established on the map,and the only exciting thing that we were offered,in 1958,was a trip to Holy Island. Well,seeing as the farthest i had been away from home,was Alnwick,on my old home-made-from-parts from - the tip [at Barrington] pushbike......then this was a trip to look forward to. It was a nice sunny day,when we got there,and the thing that sticks forever in my mind was,the big bully lad,who bullied me every day,decided to climb up the cliff to reach a seagull's nest....trying to show off to the girls,who were saying it too dangerous to climb! Whey,wat happened?.....he got aboot ten feet up....looked doon.....went white,and started to shake with fear..!![i can vividly recall the expression of utter terror on his face,and the laugh on me and my friends' faces,when a teacher had ti climb up and "rescue" him,and bring him doon!] He might come on this site,and if he does,i would redeem him for bullying me,if he owned up to the occasion,for a gud laugh!!

Hi Richard,gud luk wi ya projects,and dinna wurry aboot owt that might be oot o' place , so ti speak,cos we aal hae lapses,where we're sure we are reet,but we find oot wa wrang! Nae harm done,and John and the others will not criticise derogatorily,[spelt reet?...big word!],only for the purpose of correctness....and there's nae bugga worse than me,when it comes ti pitwark,for liking things exactly reet.!!We help each other oot,aakay?! Wagon wheels still on sale,but only a fraction of the original size!....but dearer! Can anybody mind the first chewing gum machines? A remember the first one in Bedlington,ootside Hunter's shop,at the top of Bedlington bank,next door ti the old Wheatsheaf pub....there's a blast from the past!....it was put on the ootside wall,and every fourth penny you put in,you got two packets.....so naturally,people like my scheming older Brother, would encourage the more gullible kids ti put pennies in,[ old pennies mind!]....and then he would jump in on the fourth turn,to get the two packets,with one penny......well...he was only aboot 11 years old...mebbe a bit more,but it was aroond 1952-ish...them post-war austerity years,when the only money we got was at blackberry-picking -and selling -time!![no such thing as pocket-money in wor hoose in them days...hard-up times!]

Even when my Brother and me were 10,and 13 yr old kids,we loved lying in bed,listening to the draglines chains clanking,the wailing eerie noises the dragline made when it was walking,the three blasts on the hooter as a pre-warning when blasting was about to take place,then the long single blast after you heard the loud explosion,followed by the house windows rattling!! What with all that,and also the strong thud from the ground,usually about 9-0pm,every night almost!, when the stonemen down the drift at the Doctor pit,fired their shots on the "caunch",on the coalface....now THAT was eerie! Can anybody else remember all this?...surely the Millfielders wouldn't forget!!...they were closer than us at Hollymount.

Hi Lockey,just saw my older Sister yesterday,asked about Alf and Peggy,and she told me that they swapped Mrs Lowen houses. Mrs Lowen,came from Netherton colliery village,when the second half of the square was completed,somewhere around 1950-ish.[They didn't "throw" houses up in a week,in those days,like they do now.] The whole of that side of the square was occupied by all the Netherton colliery families. She,[Mrs Lowen],lived there for a lot of years,but the swap must have happened after I got married,and moved to Grange Park.

Just been to Bedlington top-end,yesterday,[Thursday 21 Nov.],to get thi wool shaved off the sides of my skull,[cos there's none on thi top ti shave off!] The Gent's Hairdresser's,down Glebe Road,before you get to Forrester's,is run by Alan ,and John,[brother's],and as soon as you walk in you are greeted with a gud friendly "waatcheorr"!! Of course,being a mean sod,I only go in on Thursday's cos it's Pensioner's day,and it's a bit cheaper! Both the lad's,and not forgetting Harry,their assistant,[it is Harry ..isn't it?....aam a bugga for forgetting names!],give you a gud haircut,friendly crack,and excellent overall service! Plus,when you see thi old pics on thi wall,of bygone Bedlington,you don't really want to come out of the shop! How come no-body's mentioned them before? Hope they never retire!! Bill.

Hi ShynewbieDiane!! Fuggles,up Barrington Road,between Bedlington Station and Choppington station,have a good reputation,and they have a banner outside advertising their function room for free. As a complete an utter teetotaller from birth,I have no idea about the place other than it used to be the old glove factory,but a few friends of mine regularly have a drink of Northumberland ale,or a meal,both of which they highly recommend,so I would say,"A shy bairn get's nae bread",so give them a call and see what happens!!Good luck with your project. Bill.

At the risk of being criticised for "hogging the channel"..[C.B. speak!],may i recount the worst trauma I ever had in my young life,full stop. One day,when I was about 11 years old,in Matty Hall's class,at the old Whitley school,in 1955,I asked to go to the toilet. As I went through the cloakroom,to get to the toilet,[this was in the prefabricated building-opposite the main building],I saw what looked like an important-looking letter lying on the floor,and picked it up and put it my back pocket,intending to tell the Teacher what I had found. Well,by the time i got back into class,i forgot about it. When I got home,I gave it to my Mother,and she put it under the old clock on the sideboard,with the intention of it back to school next morning. Mr Nicholson,[the tyrannical headmaster],announced at morning assembly,that a letter had been stolen,from a coat pocket hanging in the cloakroom. The letter had contained a £1 note,which was a lot of money in 1955! After assembly was over,i told Matty Hall,[my class teacher]about the letter,and he sent me around to report it to Mr Nicholson.[aad nicky!] It's now 1-30 am and i am falling asleep,I will continue this long story,if i may,as i think it shows how victorian it was even in 1955!!

Hi K.L.,what year did Alf and Peggy Brown move into Hollymount Square? From My family moving there in 1948,the only Brown's i knew,didn't have Daughter's with those names.Now i started courting my Wife in 1962,when I was nearly 18 yrs old,and as our five year courtship progressed,I saw less and less of my neighbours. People moved out and new people moved in,but there was a Mrs Brown moved next door bar one,to My Mother,and I'm pretty sure that her name was Joyce. That would have been number 11. She was a real nice canny Woman. As kids,My Brother and Me used to lie in bed,[in the days when you were in bed at 7-0pm,not a minute later!],and we used to rhyme off every tenant's name of every house,starting with number 1. There are 66 houses in the square,many of them privately owned now,and the place,as I knew it,is barely recognisable. I remember the Chiver's family,they lived down near the cut which takes you to Haig/Beattie roads. When I was about Four,or Five years old,Jimmy,[i think that was his name],had hit me,and sent me home crying. My tyrant of a father sent me back around with orders to hit him back,cos if i didn't,he would "bray my bliddy arse..." Can you imagine the trauma I was in? I was a shy quiet kid,being forced by fear,to hit another kid to save my skin,with the idea of learning me to stand on my own two feet! Good old fashioned victorian values eh?!! The Chiver's didn't stay long at Hollymount.

Welcom to the site,Tullybrone,good luck with your search. I worked at Bedlington A pit from 1965-1971,and knew all the men,except some of the surface workers, but i cannot remember anyone of that neme during that period of time. However,i will,like the others on this forum,try and put word out through old pit "marra's" [mates],to see if we can find anything of help to you. Cheers, Bill.

Hi Micky,you mentioned Allen's field,well,i wonder when it changed hands,cos from 1948,as far back as i remember it was alway's Knox'y's field. We kids used to try and get into the air raid shelter,but in those days,it had been blocked off so you couldn't get in. Once some of the big lads...[....big lads!...aboot 12 year old..!] [when i was aboot 8 or 9 years old..!]..dug out a wasp's nest,at the entrance to the shelter, and when the swarm came out,they ran away,leaving a little tot about 3or 4 years old,if that,in the field on his own. The swarm of wasps came down on the wee tot,and almost stung him to death,there were stings all over his little body,in his eyes ,up his nose,in his ears ,just everywhere......and guess who got his older sister's tongue lashing at him,and gettin all the blame....? Yep!...poor HPW seemed to get blamed for lots of things in those days! Fortunately,after a lot of suffering ,the little tot recovered,but i never forgot the feeling of being accused by folk for something i knew nowt about cos i wasn't even in the field when that happened.

Thanks Vic,pleased to hear that! Wish i could have caught up with Dot,[or Doreen..as I was brought up to call her from younger than four years old!],last time you were over here,for a natter...and a few hugs while you were'n't looking!![give her one from me for Christmas Vic....and aal thi best ti ye as weel marra!...sorry for going off-topic there...carried away with reminiscing!]

My family moved into number 13 Hollymount square in 1948,it was the first building programme after the war ended,by the Bedlington Urban District Council.

Then it must have been after that ,when they started dumping all the ash and household refuse,old prams ,bed frames,old pre-war wireless's etc,at Barrington,which we kids called "Barn't'n tip.When I was about ten years old I used to go down there with the big lads [ my older Brother and his mates]. When I was 12years old I took an interest in electricity,and started going down to the tip,humping massive old pre-war wireless sets,in heavy wooden cabinets with umpteen valves inside,and huge mains transformers,back home to Hollymount Square,with the help of my friends and my Brother. I used to pull the insides out and eventually learn't how to build a two-valve short-wave radio set...[i was about 14 yrs at this advanced stage!! There were fires burning constantly all over,with a characteristic smell.....the place was teeming with rats,ponds with loads of bullrushes,[which were fashionable as ornaments in the sitting room windows at the time,so we risked drowning quite often,to get some for our Mother's.....but they would have killed us if they knew how we got them!] Eeeee.....tek's me back.....!

Aye,Lockey,a realise that,and while a sentimentally agreed aboot protecting the innocent,a canna help but feel it's ALWAYS the perpetrator,or their families that people want to protect,while the victims and their families seem to be ignored and forgotten about. I bet Dennis's family are still hurting,nearly fifty years on..... Nicky caned me a few times as well as all me mates,lads and lassies,for the most trivial things,like being late for school,etc. This was in the mid-fifties.Mr Davidson [Wonk was his nickname!],was a real Fatherly natured teacher,liked by eveverybody,he used to make us laugh during"art" class cos he always had us making things out of nothing!! He showed us how to make a santy out of papier-mache,using a milk bottle to stick newspapers around,in narrow strips,using also what he referred to as "claggum".."staggum".."stuckum"..."tikkt-stuff"....etc..! We used to be howling at his vocabulary!!Wonder if Dot can remember all this ...Vic,have her asked will you please,to prove i'm not romanticising here!

Although I was universally known as Wilma throughout the pit, there was only one miner at Choppington High pit who DIDN'T call me that,and i can't recall his name,,but he was a real canny fella,very warm natured,and he used to greet me during shift changeover with...."Halllllowwwww Bert,are ye still playing that twangy guitar?"!!![mekking thi motion of holding a guitar and swinging his arm up and doon as if he was strumming a guitar!] That was aboot 1962 if my memory is correct,the year a met me Wife at the Clayton Ballroom,only it was on a wednesday neet,and it was a roller-skating neet! So instead of dancing the neet away,we skated thi neet away,and went yem buggaad!

Welcome Scoobox! I worked at High pit from 1959-1965,just before it closed i was transferred to Bedlington A pit. I knew every man at the High pit,cos I was on heavy transport,then girder-leading,which took me into every district in the pit,therefore you got to know everybody through time.I finished there as a coal-filler. I canna mind anybody called Graigs,but it was a long time before I started there,however i will ask my old marra's if they knew of anybody of that name. Good luck in your search. Bill.

Eeeeee.....Eileen,it's gud ti reminisce isn't?! A been racking my auld brains aal day,cos summik bugged me aboot that driver's name,who a thought was Bob Marley,a knew there was a connection between my Wife's family,and this fella,and it finally came to Me tonight!! Aa used ti work with a fella called Paddy Connolly,when a was only aboot 17 years old,down Choppington High pit. As time went by,a found out that he was a very good friend of my Wife's Uncle....[who a was just courting,at the time!!...me Wife...not the friend!!!] Anyway,this bugged me cos a cudn't remember Paddy's Surname. A asked me Wife tonight,and the minute She said Connolly,it hit me......THAT was Bob's Surname!! Bob Connolly,rolls of me tongue noo,a can even picture his canny auld face,even though he might only have been thirty or forty yrs old,when aa was 12 yrs,anybody even 17 or 18 yrs,looked old!! A hope somebody who knew Bob,or was related to him,comes on here for a natter! Eileen,life was so slow and simple when ye got ya groceries,milk,ice cream,shoe repairs,etc aal done wi horsepower!! There used to be a race out in the street to pick up the horse muck,by the aal the gardener's! Auld Bob Reed used ti be at Bedlington top-end finishing his milk round,just as we kids would be coming out of school at Westridge, and he would stop and pick up aboot four of us,aal in the one front seat,in his little van,and race us down home...it was great! ...Not forgetting that nobody except the doctor,police,and the odd business man,had cars,not even our school-teachers,they used to walk down the main street to go home after school,same as us!!,so it was an exciting experience for the other kids as well. Ye knaa,a used ti gaan owa ti the co-op,[the store!] next ti thi Locke Hall,for me Mother's groceries,aboot seven or eight things held in me memory,nae notes in me hand mind!,when a was aboot 11 or 12 yrs auld,and me little black Lakeland Terrier/Spaniel used ti cum inti the shop wi me,sit beside me at thi bacon counter,gud as gold,no leader on,better behaved than kids i see today in most shops!! Aal my recounting here was in the years around 1954-[ ten yrs old ]- 1956-ish.Bill Haley and his Comets had just about hit the pop scene with "Rock around the clock"....then...of course...Elvis!!

Heh heh! Been trolling here,just found this post from Steel--ey-eyed Jim in Perth! A see the topic was started in 2009,but nivvor mind,Jim,a think aam reet in thinking you are who a think ye are,and if aam reet in me thinking,then a think your lass diznae need ti worry aboot getting a new freezer if it breks doon........and aal catch ye up on me pit photo's on Flickr!! Cheers Jim!! Bill.

Hi Eileen,getting back to the Co-op,when I was 11 yrs old,in 1955,I used to go over to the old Co-op Dairy,down Hollymount Avenue,just around the corner from Smail's shop,to help old Bob Reed,the dairyman,to unload the big lorryloads of milk crates,that came from Stocksfield,and which supplied all the Co-op dairy's in the area. Bob had only one arm[his right one],his left one was taken off at the shoulder. Now!!!!When folks get on about safe driving,I always get on about old Bob,cos he drove all around Bedlington,in the small 5cwt bedford van,delivering milk,and I never knew him have an accident. He used to put his right arm through the steering wheel spokes,reach for the gear lever,change gear,[crash gearboxes in those days as well!],and carry on driving and smoking away.....40mph down bedlington main street!! Admittedly,very little traffic on the roads,but that doesn't take away Bob's driving skills. He used to lift the old heavy wood crates full with 20 old-fashioned thick pint bottles,the sort that had the cardboard milktops,what us kids collected and used ,to play "skimmers" with!,by using his only arm and balancing the crate against his thigh,then lifting his leg up to stack the crates three-high. It took the lorry driver,myself,and old Bob,more than two hours,to unload over 40 crates of milk,stack them in sets of three high,pull them across the concrete floor,using long-handled steel hooks and place them in rows. We then had to pull all the stacks of "empty" crates,i.e. crates of empty bottles...across the floor,over to the lorry, and the driver and myself would take turns as to who went onto the lorry to arrange and stack the crates five-high. So one of us did the stacking on the back of the lorry,and the other threw...yes...literally...threw..the crates up onto the lorry for the other one to pick up. In the beginning,at 11 years old,I could hardly lift a crate!,but as time went by,12 years old,and well-experienced,I threw the crates up as if they were made of cardboard!! I used to travel in the lorry over to Seaton Delaval dairy,exchange about 20 crates there,come back over to Scotland Gate dairy,in Choppington,another 20 crates exchanged there,then back home to the Bedlington Co-op. By then mind,I used to be truly jiggered,and ready for bed! The drivers always put a few "Buckshees" on the lorry to allow for "breakages",which very,very rarely happened!....and they would reward me with a couple of pints of milk,and maybe a 1/3 rd pint bottle of orange juice[anybody remember them?] Doesn't seem much now,but remember in those days,rationing after the war had just about ended,and my Mother was very hard up,so it helped her a lot. One of the drivers had family here,so he used to park up,outside of the dairy,usually about 9-30pm,and nip over to the Black Bull for a pint with them before driving back to Stocksfield,leaving me in charge of the lorry while he was away!!!His name was Bob ...i'm sure it was Marley,cos there was a few Marley's in Bedlington..[My Teacher at Westridge School,and the timekeeper in the tally office,at the aad pit at Bedltn Station...]. All this couldn't happen nowadays,cos,apart from the health and safety aspect,the drivers would be accused of being..........well....today's poisoned minds would have something to say about kids hanging round...etc...nuff sed!! There were originally a few of us lads who used to do this on different nights,taking turns,but on by one they all dropped off,i think it was too much like hard work for them! Other people who worked at the Co-op were Brian Rosemo.Tommy Laws,Mr Smith [lovely old gentleman..the Tailoring dept.. old school fella!]My Sister Bett..,Aiden,Lydia Coult..grocery and bacon counter.Wor Fenwick,bakery dept..[my Brother-in-law],Mrs Nichols.hardware dept...[my neighbour].."Hi-Ti"[nickname],slaughterhouse man,did Brian Morg.and George T. also work there? Does this stir any memories Eileen? Hope so!! Cheers!

Right!..it's now 24 hours since I had to abort,doggy is sleeping so i will finish my tale! As we watched the explosion through the window,we saw the old "tin" bin lid lift up into the air like a flying saucer,and ,because it was so near the old stone wall that ran down the bottom of the gardens,at the side of old cobbled-stone Hollymount Avenue,it knocked the coping stones off the wall! The neighbours all came out to see what the loud bang was,and Micky told us all to lie down under the bench to hide!As I was the bairn of the group, i was the most scared that we would be caught and thrashed! Now,when I think about it,lads often used to take the gunpowder out of penny-bangers,and put a lot of it into an old spent roman candle,seal it with clay,and set it off,under the bin lid.....always the bin lid!![ cos they were heavy galvanised steel lids in those days] Anyway,no harm was done,nobody hurt,no windows broken,but it later led me to experiment with the "Carbine" powder that the miners used in the old Acetylene naked-flame lamps![Another story!]

Hi Jen,welcome to the site....i'm sure by the time you've read through some of my midnight ramblings,you'll want to just switch off and go to sleep!!Heh heh!!

Keith,Hollymount Square was the first housing programme to be built in Bedlington,after the end of WW2. When we moved there,in 1948-ish,the square was only half built. I remember seeing loads of high wood poles tied with ropes,around the houses which were still under construction,but didn't know what they were for!! Scaffolding poles have changed a bit since then! When they were pulling the old terraced houses down,in Bell's Place,about 1949-ish,my older Brother,and his friend,Micky,were playing in the ruins of a partly-demolished house,when they found what looked like a ball of tarry string. Micky knew what it was,and proceeded to his wash-house around from where I lived,in Hollymount. It was shotfiring fuse,like the cowboys used in the movies!....some old miner from days gone by had left it in the cupboard,next to the fireplace,to keep it dry,and forgot about it....... Micky said howway,we'll mek a bomb.....and so him and my Brother started to unwind the tarry string,collecting all the black gunpowder on a piece of newspaper.. They got a short piece of copper pipe,flattened one end with a hammer,filled the pipe with the gunpowder,and left about 2 feet of fuse sticking out,also sealing the end. [Where Micky got the know-how to do this at his age,hardly ten years old!!...beats me!] He dug a hole in the back garden,put the pipe in the hole,put the old tin bin lid over it,lit the fuse and we all ran into the wash-house to watch through the window. .....Sorry to leave it there for now,but my little dog is frantic to go out! Priorities! I will catch up later!

Hi again,Wren! Still as a very young child,[3years old],i remember playing with a friend,called Ronnie Andrews,when we lived at Storey's Buildings,on the Willow Bridge Bank,at Choppington Station,in 1947.[ I was born in 1944] I have a wrinkled old photo of Ronnie,and myself,playing on an old tree stump with two short branches sticking out,which we used to pretend was our motorbike....taken around 1947,in the field opposite Storey's Buildings,right next to the bridge,where there is now a mature tree-walk. He had an older brother called Arthur,who would be aged about 72,if he is still with us,but I haven't seen him since i was about ten or eleven years old. The Family moved from Choppington to Bedlington about the same time as my Family did..between 1947-8..ish. Again,Wren,hope this is of some help to you. Good luck once again. Bill.

Hi Wren,welcome to the land of canny fowks! As a kid,living in Hollymount Square,in Bedlington,from 1947,till I got married in 1967,I grew up playing with,and later on,working with,[down Choppington High Pit],a lad called Harry Common,who passed away a few years ago,while still at a young age.R.I.P. Harry. He left behind an older Sister,and two younger Brothers ,George and Ernie. Their Mother was broad Irish,but I don't know if the lads acquired the accent from her,or if they were all born there ,and moved here after the war,because their accent was diluted Irish,not as strong as their Mother,but still there. They lived over Beattie road,just through from Hollymount. I started the Pit at Choppington B in 1959,with Harry,but he left the pits for a few years,and came back to work down Bates Pit in Blyth,till it closed. The whole family were lovely people,those remaining still are! Hope this info is of some help,even if just to eliminate,and narrow your search,Wren! Good luck! Bill.

Acorn Bank site was one of our favourite playgrounds when we were kids! Sunday afternoon's,we used to play in the Euclids,when they were parked up on the top of the cut. No security men in those days,weren't heard of..didn't need them. We played in the driving seats,not locked,didn't damage anything,went down the cut and played on the feet of "Bucyrus Erie",which,at that time,in around 1954,[i was ten years old!]was the biggest walking dragline excavator in Europe. At nights,after school at the old Whitley Memorial,we used to go over and lie at the edge of the cut,and look down a 200 foot drop,to watch Bucyrus chewing out the strata like toffee! It looked magnificent,all floodlit up the jib,and around the cab. It was an amazing sight to watch this huge beast,teeter forward on it's feet,the jib slowly bowing down slightly,then lifting it's whole weight,and slowly moving backwards,always backwards,about ten feet at a time.It's feet would then lift on a huge eccentric camshaft ,then they would move backwards and slowly thump down onto the ground,making the dust rise all around it. What a sight 2,500 tons of steel walking as if it was on eggs! Must rank as one of the finest amazing feats of engineering ever done in the world! Yes,we watched the two Bailey bridges being built,over the Bedlington Bank road,and over the River Blyth. We watched as Greenheart timber beams,more than two-feet -square,were sawn by hand,with two men at each end of a huge handsaw,must have been about six feet long. These were to be used to build the trestle-work pillars to support the river bridge. Greenheart is so dense ,it sinks in water! I found this out,still as a kid,when we played down the river after the bridge was finished,and being used to transport coal to Bebside pit. There were loads of bits of wood all lying around,on the river bed![i mean..BIG..bits!] Loads of happy memories there,collecting fossils from the overburden heaps at the top of the picnic field......etc! Getting rides in the Euclids,by canny drivers,who would let you push the lever to tip up the rear of the truck to empty it's load onto a conveyor belt via a hopper....can you imagine it?.....this was before peoples brains were poisoned,and who,nowadays,would think that every canny bloke was a pervert out for young kids...these blokes just knew that THEY were kids a long time ago.......!