Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

In my opinoin one of the worst antique shows broadcast. it must be years ago when I watched an episode and it was two people inside a shop pretending to barter over a piece of junk. But as it's Bedlington I will record and see if the town gets a mention and if any views of the town are shown

2022 should be 2023

Would anyone like to comment on this years Piper Award going to :- https://www.facebook.com/Thefriendsofwestleacemetery @Andy Millne @John Fox (foxy) @Malcolm Robinson @Vic Patterson @HIGH PIT WILMA @Bedlingtonian @Pete @Jammy @Maggie/915 @_pauls @James @Symptoms @Mal @Tonyp @Beano @7RIrF @carly @Bill Straughan @oldtimer @Dave Twist @6233jane @threegee @Darren Smith @jfk @B Davison @DJA 24 @anniemarr @Katherine Hyde @Jr6468 @Sheila Prouten @Joe McNally @Patricia Wadsworth @SouthernGeordie @rosco @Linray @lynnewatson @sallywoo1971 (= all those thatv have commented or posted photos on this group in 2022)

Don't know Vic - @Malcolm Robinson might know. ps. I forgot to mention that @John Fox (foxy) has also helped in the restoration :-

My thoughts for this year are as this group has been very quite and very few questions asked from members that have resulted in anyone having to dig deep to help out is that the Piper Award should go to 'The Friends of Westlea Cemetery'. They are a group of volunteers that have organised and helped in the restoring of the delapidated buildings, grounds and appearance of the cemetery. @Malcolm Robinson has been involved with them and I am sure he knows a lot about them. For Facebook (FB) members this is a direct link to their Facebook page :- https://www.facebook.com/Thefriendsofwestleacemetery An article published by the Northunberland Gazette :- https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/westlea-cemetery-in-bedlington-to-get-queen-elizabeth-ii-memorial-and-remembrance-garden-refurbishment-4339703 This is their FB cover page :- Some images of the volunteers and some of the items they work on :-

Cheers Bill.

I wonder if they had ambulance transport from the pits in the 50's - 70's after the NHS act was introduced in July 1948 or did the pits just rely on First Aiders in the pit getting the injured to the surface to be collected by the NHS ambulace? @HIGH PIT WILMA & @James would know

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/dont-leave-us-waiting-at-the-station?fbclid=IwAR26POMUwM1oiNOdorVtCWxy512Td7W-kgRwkTfLShxbDV1A1aOezCO950M

So the 1920 ambulance motor value today would be £44,094.08. (8 x £5,511.76) An NHS ambulance today costs £156,000.00. Therfore the 1920 £800.00 ambulance motor was approximately 350% less the value of a 2023 amblance

Should read - 'St Cuthbert's church was used by many families from the two areas of Bedlington = The 'Top End' and Bedlington Station (used to be Sleekburn).'

Welcome to the group @Margaret I Johnson The Discussion section is good for individual posts but if your have a number of old photos to ask questions about then an album in the Gallery section under Historic Bedlington can be more usefull as any comments made are specific to the relevant photo. It can get quite confusing when many additional photos that are not relevant to the original posting are added into a topic. For the wedding photo you have posted I have added the info to your photo and if anyone else matches a name with anyone ifn the photo I will add the name to the photo. You may already know the church and it's location in bedlington but just incase you don't here are a couple of current Google Street View screen shots with info added :- St Cuthbert's church was used by many familiess from the two areas of Bedlington = The 'Top End' and Bedlingtob Station (used to Sleekburn).

hello @Canny lass from Wilf

November 2023 - with a 'Merry Christmas' wish (but same hat and scarf @Canny lass ) - photo from Simon Williams.

Spot on CL. I posted my question + the Google street view image of the Bygone Bedlington Facebook group and the site went crazy. About 250+ replies and there are even more questions and comments been posted now. Johnson's got over 40 comments - these are some of the replies :-

Cheers @Tonyp can't remeber them selling single fags in the early 1960's - we had to go to the 'A' pit institute to buy single Woodbines for 2d

I was asked what the name of the corner shop accross from the Wallaw cinema used to be called. I must have been in that shop almost every school day between 1960 & 65 and many other weekend days but I can't for the life of me remember the name(s) of what it used to be. Can anyone in this group remember any name of the shop between 1950's and 1970's? The current shop is Lifestyke Express and the entrance and shop window moved onto Palace Road :-

Malcolm Robinson Bedlington West Ward. 18 m · With the furore generated about this new hotel idea and it seems I’m somehow involved and not paying heed to democracy, let’s lay out what really happened over the years. When Labour was originally in charge their idea was to build 60 odd houses in what was Tesco’s car park. Around 700 of us turned up at the library and told them in no uncertain terms that we wanted to see commercial development in the town centre not housing! That plan was hastily redrawn! We then had a consultation on the proposed town centre design and were given 4 options for the layout as well as the styles of buildings. Most of us picked the ‘wrong’ design and the scheme went forward with the designs that the great and good thought were best for us! We saw the Make a Noise demo which was supposed to give a kick up the backside and demonstrate local feelings yet still nothing happened. The Tories then came into power at NCC claiming Bedlington was very important to ‘us’. To be fair we did see £12-14M in one year’s budget for our Town Centre redevelopment but as they are annual budgets and no substantial scheme came forward that money never materialised! We finally saw a scheme come forward which had around 45,000sq ft of retail development, of which Aldi was just under 20,000sq ft and the linchpin for the whole development. Covid came along and all the potential retailers went underground with a cull on all their new developments. Aldi were persuaded to carry on with theirs. The Gov then announced funding to get schemes like the one for Bedlington back on track and we managed to secure that funding by matching it. This is what is being used to do the 4 shops and 6 apartments at the Market Place. We then saw potential funding in the Borderlands project albeit on a much reduced level (£3M) but still that could be seed funding to get the main development back on track. (Several community consultations later and we still see a leisure offer as being consistently the number one response. ) Another community consultation on what people wanted to see developed has resulted in over 35 potential projects which are to be wrapped up in a Bedlington Place Plan. We then see a hotel project being put forward not by NCC but by local councillors, of which I’m certainly not one of them. This scheme at Bedlington Station could wipe out all the Borderlands funding for the whole of Bedlington! That wasn’t why I fought to get Bedlington into the Borderlands funding and kept pushing it along! https://www.youtube.com/live/Q4zZGP1LXjI... With that out of the way I do believe we need to see Bedlington as a destination town and for that we need a USP. We do need the normal range of what anyone would expect in a Town the size of Bedlington but we also need a draw so we get footfall from other places too. That’s the opportunity I see in getting the marketplace development right. PS. Back in the annuls of time in the late 60’s just before Wansbeck District Council came into being, Bedlington Urban District Council had plans for a hotel and leisure centre in Bedlington Town Centre. Pity they didn’t see them through!