Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Was going to start a count down to Sunday - 5 - 4- 3 - 2- 1 but thought nah it'll be a count up - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - ...................

Could be regardless of what anyone thinks, the workers of this world will get a day off and have to thank MT

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-naming-the-august-bank-holiday-as-margaret-thatcher-day

I think this guy used to cycle from Pegswood to Bedlington each day.

The film Ken Russell made in the 60s features him and then he is in the follow up film that was made in the oo's.

If I am correct, he was in a brass band, and talks to Ken Russell in the bottom club.

Your right Maggie, it is one of the photos from the Ken Russell article on the Miners Picnic that he did in 1960 and followed it up, came back to Bedlington, in 2005.  

Dad is certain it's Shiney Row with the Dr Pit at the far end.

Rock on your dad, I would say your dad is right. Searched for 'Shiney' and in the topic Double Row, Bedlington Started by johnnie, Feb 02 2010 03:01 PM 

there is an entry by threege Posted 07 February 2010 - 02:31 AM that has a photo of Shiney Row from a very similar angle to the one I found. 

Stop it.

Can't get past 2!!!!!

Reedy - just like to pinch your topic, to identify a street for me. Whilst searching for other stuff landed on http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series7/ (that appears to be an old or redundant site) this story about John Gibson, Bedlington Miner, and shows him riding his bike in one of the pit rows. 

Can anyone identify the row he is riding in?

Pit Rows.jpg

 

In my mind South Row was like the one in the picture with John Gibson riding his bike - each house with a small yard at the back. I can only  remember the 'A' pit rows having the back yard. The Dr Pit rows had the back door straight onto the path.

BUT this picture shows the pit head at the end of the street and therefore could not be South or Shop row. There is a row of houses in the aerial shot that I can't remember being there when I used to cross through the 'A' pit to Barrington School and a photo from that row would show the pit head.

Oooops -ignore that request. I found the picture via flickr.com/photos and every time I attempted to go to the site address to view the full set of pictures I got page not available. I have now found the original insideout posting and John Gibson did take part in the Bedlington Miners Picnic, but not for any pit in Bedlington, he was part of the Pegswood miners band. So I assume that street, that looks like South Row to me (apart from how tidy it is!), is a Pegswood pit row.

Reedy - just like to pinch your topic, to identify a street for me. Whilst searching for other stuff landed on http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series7/ (that appears to be an old or redundant site) this story about John Gibson, Bedlington Miner, and shows him riding his bike in one of the pit rows. 

Can anyone identify the row he is riding in?

In my mind South Row was like the one in the picture with John Gibson riding his bike - each house with a small yard at the back. I can only  remember the 'A' pit rows having the back yard. The Dr Pit rows had the back door straight onto the path.

BUT this picture shows the pit head at the end of the street and therefore could not be South or Shop row. There is a row of houses in the aerial shot that I can't remember being there when I used to cross through the 'A' pit to Barrington School and a photo from that row would show the pit head.

There are two other images I've seen before. One shows the bridge over the A193 on the way down to Atlee Park from front street :-

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/attlee-park-bedlington-set-new-5774964

and following over that bridge you came to the River Blyth where a photo showing Atlee Park on Picnic Day shows the next bridge that goes over the river and the road would lead up to join  the A193 where it turned along the Bebside Rd :-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51143221@N03/6837128082/

Many moons ago I tried a few bottles of Diamond White. It doesn't look much but It was definitely a case of "One small step for man, one giant stagger for yours truly." Potent stuff!! I wonder if you can still get it?

 

Diamond White.jpg

Never been a cider drinker so was never aware of the stuff. 

Yes you can still get it Keith - Amazon deal :-

DIAMOND WHITE Cider 24x 500ml Cans

by Diamond White 5.0 out of 5 stars Dispatched from and sold by Pinglebox. 3 new from £29.49 

Surprised they don't have a price for used cans!

But a research throws up a PDF report at  http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/assets/files/Publications/2011/White%20Cider%20Report%20-%20April%202011.pdf

and could explain your developed stagger, extract from report:-

In 2009 the Chief Executive of St Mungo‟s homelessness charity made a presentation to

Alcohol Concern‟s annual conference. Subsequent discussions between the two

organisations centred around two main questions: whether white ciders had a different

impact on the health of homeless people than other high-strength drinks and if this was the

case how to draw attention to the problem. Funding was secured from Alcohol Research UK

(formerly the Alcohol Education and Research Council) for this brief study, which is largely

based on questionnaires and interviews. Another homelessness charity Thames Reach,

which has relentlessly campaigned on the issue of super-strength drinks since 2005, later

contributed greatly to the research.

The affordability and strength of white cider also make it very attractive to under-age drinkers

with considerable immediate risks, as they are able to get very drunk so cheaply. However,

it is particularly difficult to assess how different drinks impact on the health of under-age

drinkers, given also that it is illegal to sell alcohol to them. The impact of consumption of

white cider on the health of under-age drinkers is beyond the scope of this study, but it is

interesting to note that many alcohol treatment professional interviewed stated that most of

the customers for white cider seem to be either dependent drinkers or children.

Dr Pit - Adam there is a Durham Mining Museam site http://www.dmm.org.uk/collnear/b022.htm that has a page on 'Bedlington Colliery' and lists all the pits etc within the area. Each one, the first being Acorn Bank Opencast  and when selected takes you to a gallery and a group of pictures of the site are displayed. In this case a couple of the headings are :- Sep 1956 - The new road crossing the River Blyth and the A.189 Hartford-Bedlington road & Sep 1957 - Drawing showing the layout of the site

HighPit Wilma - Yes you're right about Joe Raisbeck. He was actually called Joe Austin but was married to a Raisbeck,

 

Eggy1948 - updated team list as follows -

 

Back Row L-R, Don Draper, unknown, McCafferty, Billy Davison, unknown, unknown, Tom Pattie

 

Front Row L-R, Ken Watson, Dobson (lived in Pioneer Tce), Joe Austin/Raisbeck, Dobson, Young.

Thank you sir. I have passed the update on to see if that helps stimulate the ageds!

Eggy sometimes the so called experts get it wrong.

They form opinions based on limited knowledge.

Remember not a lot was written down and they can make guesses that become fact!

but Keith dressed up on a Friday night, nothing quite as delicatus as that.

Whilst searching for other stuff on Bedlington came across this in the  http://www.sixtmedia.org.uk/page7.php site

The name Bedlington is of Saxon origin, as are the names of most of the places in the surrounding parishes. The names of families enter largely into the composition of local place names. It appears there was a tribe of Saxons called Baedlings, and Bedlington would mean the town were the Baedlings lived.

and can't find any reference to this explanation of the Bedlington name on this site.

I searched for the word 'Baedlings' and found this site :- 

Within this you get the explanation :-

Anglo-Saxon dictionary = Baedling, [baed or bed a bed, ling from linigan to lie]

1. A delicate fellow, tenderling, one who lies much in bed; homo delicatus. Baedlingas effeminate….

2. A carrier of letters, as if derived from baed a prayer, or command, ling from linigan or lingan to lie, lie under, tend,, bring; tabellarius

If you then check out 'delicatus' we find the Bedlington males are Slaves that enjoy servicing both Master and Mistress.

Maggie - can't find anything on current Bedlington Leek clubs. If there are still going then I guess it would be the CIU clubs and not whats left of the pubs.

Just checked the Northumberland branches of the www.wmciu.org.uk‎ and even the Netherton Club, where Bedlington leek grower Rob Hall broke the world record, for 3 leeks is not listed. 

Cambois club used to have a reputation for it's after leek show party with leek soup & broth but can't find anything on that either.

They always show the dramatic now pics but very rarely the 'what it was like pics'. Google street view comes in handy, again:-

Not a lot of help on this one but you never, what came out might be totally true and trigger someones brain cells. I passed it on to a cousin to ask he dad (she refers to her mam & dad as the 'Ageds') and the response, copied directly from cousins email was :-

By God-this causes a right owld head scratch kidda!!

Middle man, back row (blonde quiff) is Billy Davison/Davidson. Year or two older than Ageds and living it Stakeford! His father showed my father "the ropes" at the pit! His sister married a bloke called Long who lived at Cambois-I went to school wi their daughter! Lives around where I live apparently! 

Front row, bloke in front of chap wearing black jumper is Dobson's lad-sorry no first name as "there was a lot of them"!! Moved from Barn'ton to opposite the garage (? Near where you lived in the youth?!) 

The feeling is that a lot of them were grammar school boys.

 

The last bit in the email is attempting to identify where the photo was taken

 

Dad thinks the only place he can recall at the mo with an arch would be Cornwall Creacent-this is adjacent to the football field. Pop Clouston n Edie Graham lived on that street apparently! That will be another story which will unravel at some point I'm sure!!

Reedy - just spotted my mistake. I copied the wrong photo to my last post on this subject. The ramblings of my relative were about the possible YMCA photo.

I have never been against the culling of animals. 

I have always believed that people in responsible positions must have common sense and any decisions that they make, knowing they will be publicized and attract the media, are made by majority vote by all members of that group. When we see decisions made by governments; banks; councils etc. etc. and we wonder how could sensible educated knowledgeable adults come to such decisions, I assume they know much more than is being released and therefore I am wrong to judge without all the facts.

If zoo animals need culling and they save money by using the meat to feed the other animals they don't have to play a fan-fare when they do it. Just do it without publicity and the majority will understand. We don't have to like it but we know it makes sense rather than waste resources. 

I explained to my kids, in the wild animals feed off each other, that's the law of the jungle. Zoos protect animals (yes initially it was for someone to make money) and allow children to see them up close, as the majority of children would never get the opportunity to see them in their natural world.

But this is one of those cases where you thing - 'What the f*** are they doing'. I hope an online campaign is started to bring charges of child cruelty against those responsible. 

I used to manage to get into the Bank top when about 16 or 17 Tommy Richardson had it then. Anne was the barmaid and she was there for donkeys years. John Exton had the Railway and took no crap from anyone. Tommy Tait was in the Clayton. I can remember Margaret & Bob Nesbit in the Percy (his brother was of Millican & Nesbit fame )I did get in there before they ran the place but cant remember the previous names. When Spike had the Percy (High House as many called it )rumour had it that if you won a domino card you had the choice of the money or 10 minutes upstairs with his Mrs (or barmaid) !!

Seem to remember it was with one of the barmaids if one won a domino card. Think that was the same owners that allowed your Forst Pint, of the day, any time after midnight or when you had just come off shift from the 'A' pit.

Has anybody got Photo's of these Forst Pints?

Cheble - ah, that's brilliant. I can mind some beers had a soapy taste - quite liked Double Maxim though when ah got roond te it. Me an' a mate used te buy Broon Ale at an off license, say it was fo' wa mam an gan' inte the woods an' drink it. Fed was the best draught pint though. Ah was happy when a got me club card an could drink Fed cheap.

Could never work out why such a big difference in the price between Fed ordinary & best. My memory of the market place club was 1966 - 1s 4d for ordinary & 1s 8d for best.  

So it was another 25% dearer to drink best. So for every 4 best you could have 5 ordinary. Quality or quantity? 1966 quantity every time, never did like best!

The Railway Tavern when I was about 16.  Trouble was it was a mackem Vaux pub so the first pint I had was Vaux Gold tankard and it tasted awful, it had a sort of 'soapy' flavour.  But, 'pints' were what all the blokes drank so I persisted with beer and developed a life long taste for the stuff.  Obviously, Blue Star* beers were much, much better than the mackem muck and of course there was always the Federation beers at the clubs - yum, yum!

 

I seem to remember the girls usually drank a porter sort of beer that came in a very small gill bottle (1/4 pint) but its name has slipped the memory for the moment.

 

Drinking and driving was never a concern back then, I remember regularly driving miles to boozers, having a skinful, then driving home.  Many stories to tell but I'll hold-off telling until others post theirs ... what's the 'statute of limitations' for out-running the Peelers whilst pissed at the wheel?  Obviously, I don't do that sort of thing now ... the Bizzies have guns here!

 

*for our younger viewers Blue Star was the trademark for the Newcastle Brewery.

And when the disco lights were switched on the Vaux beer looked like a pint of engine oil.

Brilliant and thanks for the help everyone. My Dad recognised Albert Hayley and a couple of others who possibly moved to Westridge when they left the Whitley.

 

Here's another one for you to have a look at.

 

We think it's possibly a Bedlington Station YMCA team. The player at the front left is called Watson. I went to school with his daughter Ann.

Not a lot of help on this one but you never, what came out might be totally true and trigger someones brain cells. I passed it on to a cousin to ask he dad (she refers to her mam & dad as the 'Ageds') and the response, copied directly from cousins email was :-

By God-this causes a right owld head scratch kidda!!

Middle man, back row (blonde quiff) is Billy Davison/Davidson. Year or two older than Ageds and living it Stakeford! His father showed my father "the ropes" at the pit! His sister married a bloke called Long who lived at Cambois-I went to school wi their daughter! Lives around where I live apparently! 

Front row, bloke in front of chap wearing black jumper is Dobson's lad-sorry no first name as "there was a lot of them"!! Moved from Barn'ton to opposite the garage (? Near where you lived in the youth?!) 

The feeling is that a lot of them were grammar school boys.

The last bit in the email is attempting to identify where the photo was taken

Dad thinks the only place he can recall at the mo with an arch would be Cornwall Creacent-this is adjacent to the football field. Pop Clouston n Edie Graham lived on that street apparently! That will be another story which will unravel at some point I'm sure!!

Off you go Joe.....

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/joe-kinnear-resigns-director-football-6666815

Now the flooding will be worse.,The tears of joy will bring more tidal waves!

This might help with that last 'YMCA' photo. It's one of Foxy's again, I believe. It shows the Whitley School but look above it to the top right to the football field and then the houses beyond. They look similar.

 

whitley school ground.JPG

Keith - I know what you mean,  - I will keep looking but doubt if I will find anything else.

Reedy - it's just when I used to go to the YMCA the field at the back had been tennis or bowling. My memory (often wrong) seems to recall it was not big enough for football and any house in the background would be Waverley Drive and they are semis with chimney stack in the middle.

The team is the Whitley Memorial Seniors team and the player holding the ball ("the captain") is Derek Wilkinson. Our team photos were all taken at the school so I assume this one was taken at the Whitley.

James - see the image attached. We have managed six of them and there names are embedded in the photo, including Derek. Any ideas on the other 5?