HIGH PIT WILMA

GGG.....Radio constructor.....Practical Wireless was my thing,in the mid-fifties,i was 12years old,learning aboot triode-pentodes and double-diode rectifier valves... and reyrolle condensers...not capacitors!!! Doon ti Barnton tip ti luk fo' aad pre-war wireless's cos the modern "smaala" sets came in....still the size of a suitcase like!,a used ti pull the aad sets apart ti use the bits ti build two-valve short-wave sets by a was 14 yrs aad!!!! A had nae money,but me aada brutha bought the mag for us both ti use.Aboot 1956-9.

Binks's shop,next door ti thi Whitley Memorial School...!I It was a sweet shop when a was a kid,aa nivvor had any pocket money..[too hard-up...],but the Little aad Mrs Binks used ti sell loose "carbine" powder,for the Doctor Pit Men's carbine [acetylene gas] naked caplamps. SO...!...one of me schoolmates,now deceased.[R.I.P.],used ti buy two oonces of carbine,saying it was for he's Dad's pit lamp,[porky's!],and when we got into the classroom,he'd put a knat's whisker of powder into the ink wells....![on the school desks]. The ink frothed and bubbled up like hell,producing a horrible smell,and covering the whole of the desks with black frothy explosive ink!! When aad Mrs Molden,thi teacher waaked in,we aal got sent ti aad Nicky,[Mr Nicholson],the tyrannical Headmaster,ti get caned across the fingers on both hands... "six of thi best"..it was called...three times on each hand.He wud be jailed if he did that nooadays! It was a gud job that Mrs Molden wasn't smoking,as the teachers did then,or we wud have been blown sky-high!! Then on the way yem after school,my mate wud hoy a handfull of carbine inti aal the pools o' rain-waata,gaan thro' thi park on thi way back ti Beattie Road,where Norman lived,[me mate],and he'd hoy a lighted match inti thi pools....which instantly burst into intense flames!!! Soonds bad!!!...in actual fact,aal thi kids just waaked past laughin',cos tha was nae danger ti anybody,or any trees or owt else,just gud/bad harmless fun!!! The flames died quickly,but any adults wudda been sendin' for the police and fire brigade!!! In fact,it wasn't carbine that injured me at the age of ten,as we were when this happened,it was a flying "aeroplane" firework,set of by another mate's Dad,in a supervised display in the street....and i was burned under my armpit through my wooly pullower,shirt,vest,to the skin..and traumatised by the accident..! Eh,aa cud write a book aboot wa kids tricks in Bedltn in thi aad days...[late-40's.....on]

Noo! What aboot thi forst aad grey buses that Raisbeck ran from the Station,[bedltn Station i..e..] reet up ti Netherton pit village in the 1950's that aa used ti get on sumtimes,ti gaan from Beddy's Market place,ti Westridge school......nae picters o' any o' them..er...IT!,cos they just had the one in them days,if aam not mistyekkin...! Can anybody mind o' the gas lamp doon Bells Place,at the entrance ti Hollymoont Square?,we used ti climb the high waal and pull thi chain on the lever,ti close the gas doon,ti put thi leet oot so we cud play hiddeny,[hidy-seek],in the cooncil shrubbry,cos it wuz reet dark then! That lamp,as weel as aal thi otha lamps like doon aad cobbled Hollymoont Avenue,and Terrace,were lit by coal gas,supplied from the Doctor pit gasometer. Did anybody else raid Waaka's apple orchard,what backed onti thi gardens of Hollymoont Square...they were so soor they med ya eyes waata,but wi still raided them ivry yeor anywheh!! Wat aboot Smaily's shop?...aa used t gaan fo' me mutha's tea and sugar,etc,and while aad Mrs Smails weighed the stuff oot inti little broon paper bags from big tea-chests,aa wud gaze up ti thi big tins on thi top shelf,and wonda wat they were for...they were indian or african,or summick like that,and painted aal in dark exotic patterns...weird-lukkin things thet were! Howwww!!,and can anybody mind aad Gunter Metcalf,wi he's riding breeches,lang riding byeuts,and he's horse whip in he's hand...a strange sight ti see,waakin doon thi street!...He bred the forst Bedltn Terriers in the north,so we were led ti naa,is that reet John Dawson?.

As an old ex-miner,the question arises in my mind,as to why there are so many variations of gradient at all! When extracting coal seams,you "follow" the natural strata "ground". Generally-speaking,the strata rises to the west,and,obviously,dips to the east,with undulations occurring along the way. If in the days when they mined out the tunnels for the underground railway,they didn't have powerful enough explosives to blast through the "cross-measure" of the strata,to keep a level horizon,then they would have had to follow the horizon of the natural base stone ground where they chose to start the first section of tunnel. Am i making sense to everyone on here? On the other hand,bearing in mind London was still very young as a city,they may have had to alter the depth of the tunnel because of the differing intensities of properties they were mining beneath. I am wondering if anyone has any positive ideas about this?...or am i talking silly here?!!

tonyg,where was Phoenix row?,the name suggests to me that this row was built on top of a demolished row from the past...Phoenix rises again...no?!!

My classroom "Upper Remove"[ fancy name meaning nowt!] was situated in the library itself,next door were two private study rooms. Mr Marley was our main class teacher then.1956-9. I got clipped off Danny Douglas lots of times,cos i hated p.e. and used to "forget" my p.e. shorts etc. I've had a few laughs with him about times past, just a couple of years back,sadly he passed away,and i never knew,i would have attended his funeral...he was great fun in the gym..even though i didn't like sport.

Er.....my last posting should have been in the "Musicbox" topic...how it got here i do not know! On the subject of Westridge,i started in 1956,the first day it opened..and left in 1959 to go down the pits. I would love to see any pics of Upper Remove,as my class was called,between them years! Vic,has Doreen got any?

Keith Coultas or Coultiss?,used to go to France in his little van,to seek vinyl albums,as it was then,that you couldn't get in Britain.He got me Elvis's Silver anniversary box set,which was about £25 then....1981-ish?[keep me right here you Elvis fans!],a weeks pay for me!,cos it was completely sold out in Britain. John was our fitter at Bates pit,and used to maintain all our gear,including the mechanical shovel in my Bates pit photostream on Flickr... Lydia,his sister , was my Sister's bridesmaid back in 195-something!!!! The Musicbox was upstairs at that time,in the 70's/80's,they had some rare posters on the staircase walls. The Record Bar was in Bowes street,Blyth,on the corner opposite the health food shop,opposite Argos. When i played in a pop group,we all hung out there at weekends,all the other local groups i mean,listening to the latest hits,and buying the sheet music,as well as the records,to learn to play them...back in 1963-66. "Are you sure" was a great harmony track,by the Allison.s,but i'm bound to say that seeing as i'm an Allison! Holly was a mate who played in the "shades of blue" group,back then,lead vocalist,and harmonica player,he was great,but he left and went to London, still in the sixties,and got into the top ten,with a band called "Toby Twirl"...can't remember the name of the record,but next time i saw him was at the Club Domino,Bedlington Station,in the early '70's,he was top of the bill,i heard he is now back in Blyth,and running his own pub. Sorry folks....i do go on a bit!!

Hi all!..call me Bill..that's my name. Keith,it was called different names,my wife's parents and grandparents,and other relatives lived there,and they called "the puddler's"...as in ...."aye,when we lived at the Puddler's"[example!] We,my wife and me,would dearly love to see any drawings,or photo.'s of the Puddler's row..["raa"]. tonyg,i aint heard of that one marra!

Aye,it's aal gone noo! Fortunately,a went doon each time there was a part of it demolished,and both video'd,and snapped the operations,so aav got a complete file on the whole demolishion project!

Hoggy,your Dad was one of those Shaftsmen,who might have known Jimmy Foster,ask him. It cannot be co-incidence that all the Shaftsmen i ever knew were all especially canny blokes..... To all who come on here,please check out my pics of Bates pit,including one of the Two Shaftsmen,standing on top of the cage,ready to go down the shaft,slowly, to carry out their daily examination of the condition of the shaft walls and other things like power cables and water pipes,as well as maintenance of the cage "skeets"....makes me go AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! every time i see it myself![i'm a self-confessed coward...it wouldn't be me for a pension!]

The only other miner i knew who received the B.E.M.,was a neighbour of mine,whom i first got to know at Choppington High Pit,in 1959.He was a shaftsman,by the name of Jimmy Foster. When the High Pit closed,in 1966,Jimmy went to Bedlington A pit,as i did also. One day Jimmy and his Marra,Sid Cole..[two smashing blokes],were taking arched girders [roof supports]from one disused seam down to the shaft bottom,salvaging so to speak. Sid travelled in the pit cage,alongside the girders also in the cage. On the fateful day,the girders became dislodged from their secure position in the cage,and caught the shaft wall as the cage was travelling down the shaft...stopping the cage instantly,in the middle of the 1000feet-deep shaft. When Jimmy,who was in the disused seam entrance,further up the shaft,saw the cage rope go slack,prematurely,he knew then that something was wrong. He then reached around the shaft wall and clung onto the cage "skeets"..[guide rails],which were heavily coated in thick black grease,and proceeded to climb more than forty feet down the shaft,and somehow got into the cage,to find his close marra,Sid Cole,fatally injured by the girders which had slipped from their position. Jimmy never got over it,and had flashbacks until he himself passed away. This was the most death-defying, [terrifying, to most miners],act of bravery i have ever come across. Just looking down a dark pit shaft,and travelling at speed in the cage,makes you realise how brave a feat this was,apart from the sheer physically demanding effort it would have taken,and you never ever,want to be a shaftsman. Maybe this may have been the "someone else" you have heard about,Emma. There were countless acts of bravery among the miners,most went untold..sadly.

Hi Emma!Chris may or may not have received the B.E.M.,but if he didn't,then he should have,in fact he should have received the Victoria cross! I think he did other heroic acts of bravery rescuing men from roof falls of stone,but the one act i know personally,was when he virtually saved the life of a miner called Larry Turner,who,until recently at least, was still alive and walking around Bedlington Station,albeit with a limp. This event happened about 1963-4-ish.[give or take a year or two],down Choppington B pit..[the "High pit"],at the "loader -end",about 400 metres along the roadway inbye from the shaft bottom,at the point in the roadway where coals were transferred from the conveyor belts which brought it from the coalface,into a hopper,which had a compressed-air-operated chute-door. The pit tubs ran underneath the hopper,the "loader " lad opened the chute door using a lever to operate the rams,and the coalswere then loaded into the tubs from the hopper. It only took a few seconds to load each tub,so the "set" of tubs were continually pushed along under the hopper,by compressed air rams acting on the tub axles. Tubs were brought inbye from the shaft bottom by an endless rope hauler,and when each "set" of three tubs reached the loader-end,they were automatically detached from the hauler rope,and allowed to "free-fall" down an incline, running quite fast,and then "bump-stopped" behind the sets of tubs being loaded,with a hard and loud bang,as the tubs buffers met each other....like railway trucks scaled down. On this day,Larry was standing near the set being loaded,and apparently lost his footing,on the rough ground,which caused him to be off-balance. His leg went in front of the buffers of the standing set,and a moving set of tubs came down upon his leg severely crushing it. When Chris cut Larry's rubber wellington boot off,it was full to the top with blood,in seconds...and this was Larry's life blood. Chris acted with the speed of a cat,and tore his shirt to make bandages,and with quick precision,put a "tourniquet" [ torn-a-key],around the top of Larry's thigh,so stopping the flow of blood from the crush injury. Larry was just about unconcious by then,and Chris dressed the injury best he could,with improvisation,[ no ambulance station underground in them days you know!] Larry was taken to the surface ,carried on a stretcher,and rushed to hospital,where surgeons saved his leg. They said that if Chris hadn't acted so quickly,and efficiently,Larry would certainly have died with loss of blood and shock. It has taken 50-odd years,and the power of modern technology,to tell just one story of this remarkable man,who was very well-liked by all the miners at the pit..and that's a fact..no dressing up with nostalgia here..anybody alive who knew him would confirm this. Sorry,Emma,if i have digressed a bit,but that's me!...if i have to say something,i have to say it! I hope Chris was your relative,and if he was,then i hope you will be proud of him,i always was,and he was my gaffa!!

Hi all! Does anybody have any images at all of Puddlers Row? McCAFFERTYS,Ellen Ruddy,Harry Craize,The Olivers,Rachel Walker are some of the family names who lived there.Surely someone has a pic or two of thier Granny in thier drawer!

I started the WHITLEY SCHOOL about 1952 and i remember nearly all the teachers,above all Matty Hall cos he was such a great character.Aad Nicky the headmaster caned me both hands three times on each,infreezing weather,cos i put one foot accidentally on the grass ti get the ball.when the grass was out of bounds.Every time my foot hits grass,i get a flashback of Nicky swishing the cane in front of my face to terrorise me.Even Matty Hall said recently to me that old Nicky was avery evil man.Sorry for the rant but it's ingrained into me.

And the lassie that he murdered ,i worked with her Dad,and he walked around in a daze,shattered,for years after,it wrecked him,he used to be always joking before that happened to his young Daughter,no reason to keep facts under the table.

John,i'd love to see the high pit underground pics,you might have the original of my Father at 14 years old,as a young putter,at bait-time wi he;s pony,i uploaded it on flickr,its a rarity taken around 1929-30-ish... I don't know how to even put a pic up here for my avater nivvor mind post them on the site! Get cracking John please!

Hi John,i mentioned Ernie Arkle in that long posting above....mind,i was only 16 years of age,and they were all old men to me then,even though they might have only been in their 30's or 40's.I used to trail all of their girders and conveyor belt pans and coalcutters etc,on the bare ground cos there was no rails laid in the maingates at high pit...it was cruelty for the horses and for us too.Her Majesty;s mines inspectors turned a blind eye to the way roadways were driven so low that horses scraped their backs to the flesh but would fine you for throwing your bait papers down in the goaf.....crazy justice!I knew everybody at the pit before they started transferring men from other pits,they doubled the workforce from 300 men in 1959 to 600 men in 1965...but the output per manshift dropped so they deemed it to be uneconomical...just like all the other pits that followed! Lots of men only had nicknames at the pit,John...there Les..."fingers " Dawson,DaaDaa [Alan Dawson]"Salt" Dawson,Harper [Harry]Dawson,..he came from the low pit when it closed ,there were loads of father's and Sons like the Nicholson brothers,the Dryer family,the Barrats,etc,,,,it sure was a close knit community pit like i never saw ever again.

Above Station store John,it was called "krazy-cuts" in the seventies,but it was the co-op since time began! I used to play Saturday nights in a pop group in the mid-sixties,The Avengers did also,Graham Bell recently passed away,he was the Avengers vocalist, and he was great! There was the Locke Hallabove Bedlington co-op,and the Reay Hall above the Bedlington station co-op. Noo......wat was the name of the hall above Keenleysides? When aa left school in 1959,we aal had ti queue up the stairs ti sign on cos it was the Labour Exchange...[posh name for the dole office!]

John,thanks alot for your reassurance! A sure was frustrated t'otha neet,a sat for more than a hour and ahalf,cos aam a one-finger typer,a told a lot about people and places,and lost it,but aal get there slowly.A am not familiar aboot this wordpad thing,so aal ask me son,he'll keep me reet...a aalwis say,if ye cud cut coal wi a coalcutter....ye cud dae owt heh heh !! A realise noo that aav met ye John,alang West Terrace,aa had the big aad green garage wat was arsoned six years ago. The week a came oot o hospital after recovering from a heart attack. This a mighty gud site John!

Eh Vic!HPW IS Billy!Aav had that daft but now affectionate nickname for over 50 years noo,so aam keeping it cos its unique! Last time a saw Dot and Yasell' was at the shows on the Doctor pit field at the Whit weekend in aboot 1964-5,when we were both courting couples.....lotta waata went under the bridge since then eh?!! Are you still over the water? i heard that Maureen was back,i missed seeing Dot and you last time you came over,i was really gutted. I usually ask aboot ye's and Maureen when a get me haircut,by Alan or John at Bedlington.

Hoggy was agreat fitter,and a smashing natured lad,like a lot of his marra's they were a good set,so were the electricians........hoo the hell have a gotten a bold font?.........a clicked the bold accidentally?.....sorry boot that folks!

Watcheor Marra's.....or....in prroppa spyeek,evening all! Symptoms,the "Three-quarter R" was the N.C.B code name for the seam....another queer one was at Bedlington A pit,called the "Five-Quarter". More commonly worked seams were the Beaumont,High Main,Main Coal,Yard seam,Harvey,and Plessey. A Drift is an inclined roadway,taking you down,or up,as the case may be,to reach other seams,or sometimes to the surface...["bank" in pit terms.] Lynemouth Drift was a good example.The steepest gradient i ever drove through,was a 1-in-2 gradient,that is,every two feet you went on a horizontal plane...you would rise one foot....not far from being vertical,and you had to pull yourself up using a rope tied to the girders,carrying a 50 lb box of Polar Ajax explosives on your shoulder...that was mighty hard work in itself,cos the floor wasn't like the pavements you know! Hi Hoggy,sorry for not realising who you were...course i know you from flickr! Ranger,if you were in the 'Quarter drift from the start,were you in the teams what shot the back drift oot from the 4th north road just past the south loader?....i was the Deputy on that job,i came back into the N.U.M in 1978 after 7 years on deputy-work. Have you checked out my pics on Flickr? I tried to put my avatar on my profile here but failed!

Hi Lone Ranger! No,Storey's buildings ran down the right side of the road from the railway crossings known as Choppington Station. Hi Foxy!...That is a blast from the past,and thank you very much for posting this fine pic!!..this pub was at the top of the Storey's street,which is now the entrance to Barrington road. Tait's shop is a quarter mile further on,over the Willow Bridge,and in the centre of Scotland Gate. I lived in number three Storey's Buildings,from almost born..[i was born in Guide Post..],1944,till my parents moved in 1948,to the new "Cooncil Hooses" at Hollymount Square.....a few doors along from my very good old friend and schoolmate, Doreen Dagless,whom i haven't seen for nearly fifty years! Now who do i come into contact with via this wonderful forum?......Vic!!... Hope this clears up the question about Storey's Buildings!! Hi Vic,if you are in there,tell Doreen that Billy Allison is asking after her and Maureen!

Hi Vic...am i pleased to hear from you!! You took my old friend away to Canada many moons ago...and i'm always talking about her and Maureen,and Linda. How is she,and yourself?Jimmy Bower went to wales,after you emigrated,and i married a station lass and moved to Stakeford. Tell Doreen i lived in 13,Hollymount Square....she'll remember me!! We were friends from 5 years old,went to infants,then Whitley,then Westridge. Kindest regards to you and Doreen,and give her a few kisses from me,to catch up Vic!! Cheers, High pit Wilma. [Real name coming tomorrow night!]