Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Maggie - have I missed something? Do we now need plans to get the wind to change direction. Me mam always said if a was pulling a face and the wind changed direction me face would stay like that!

So is it just The West End that's getting these Malcolm?

A few names added

No. 30 - Eunice Ferguson ?

Elizabeth Foster (Bedlington Remembered Facebook site) is wondering if anyone can identify any of the kids in this 1950 Class 4 photo? The only info she knows is that her husband, Bob, is in the back row.

I agree - use both lanes and then merge as the road narrows. Use the outside lane and stop cursing those that follow the highway code. The world will merge into a better place - EU says so!

I would assume a Fat Controller listened to the arguments of the Thin Controllers and made a decision based on their vast experience and knowledge of what both the majority, and the minority of the audience wanted. I have nothing against repeated programs and whatever size of team is required to schedule these programs. What I would like to have is a Fat Controller that understands that it is only full programs that need repeating, some people may not have a method of 'catch-up TV' and we have to agree it would be extremely costly to to only show new stuff. I want a Fat Controller that educates the teams :- 1. the news reporter on the ground does not have to start their report with the same lines the news reader has just used and then stammer and splutter out two minutes of totally useless dribble cos there is no news to tell. Especially in tragedies when rescue operations are under way and trying to save lives. Leave the peple at the incident to get on with what they are there for and fully report on the story when everything is under control and some facts are known. 2. Pay off 90% of sports reporters and so called 'experts'. For example, the F.A Cup Final. Have one person in the studio introducing the scene we are about to see e.g. a camera watching the fans stream to Wembley and enjoying the day. DON'T pay someone to stick a microphone under a fans nose and ask stupid questions. DON'T pay a team of so called experts to tell us a) how each team got to Wembley, b ) what each team must do to win the cup c) don't pay a squad of ex footballers or managers wads of cash to analyze the game in hindsight. c) have one person commentating - 1964 Kenneth Wolstenholme on the early Match of the Day told the fans all they needed to know not a load of drivel. The microphone was never past across to another highly paid expert to repeat the commentary. (Don't mind paying for extra camera men so moves etc. from different angles can be shown allowing the viewer to work out what happened.). Scrap the after event analysis - stop paying worn out footballers that can't find a proper job, and failed ex managers to analyse what went wrong and what should have happened if the players, in 'Real-Time' had of just taken a moment to freeze play and work out all the options and then make the best play. In every sport if the commentator is a highly paid expert why do they need someone else to back them up. If they are all such experts how come they disagree with each other. Sack the majority and save a fortune. I could go on, but I would just be repeating myself! We need a Fat Controller to sack sports experts and then when they are all put out to grass and wander round Liverpool saying 'Gis a job, have you seen Yosser Hughes'.

Ooops - not an advert - got carried away when I was looking for the Hyundai advert with the Velvet Underground lyrics - I'm sticking with you, cos I'm made out of glue. Couldn't find it, but found this clip and posted it in error. PS - must try harder.

It was the same in the 50's in wor hoose. Experiment - Tried to get away with something and not get got clipped of me mam. Method - do something I was told not to, get clipped. Try a 2nd time - got another clip. Decision time - try again and get another clip or try something else? Simple - ask me big brothers, they would know what to do. They beat me up so I didn't try and get away with that again. Conclusion - no matter what I tried I got caught out. Eventually I learnt me lesson, 1993.

HPW - Don't know what the final outcome will be! Don't know if there is still to be blocks of flats called Puddlers Drive or is it just the strip of road, between the two Puddlers Drive sign posts that is named Puddlers Drive. I know the planning/building application says 'demolition of 7 & 8 Tosson Close to build .........." but Nos 7 & 8 (as well as 9-14) have been rebuilt and the piece of land that used to be Nos 1-6 Tosson Close is still just a strip, of grassed, land. The strip of land on the opposite side of the road to 1-6 Tosson Close, that used to be Nos 21 & 22 Coquetdale Place is where the photographed sign of Puddlers Drive above was taken. I will try and remember to drive there next year and see what progress there is, and if the estate is Puddling!.

On the Facebook - Bygone Bedlington site Mary Mclean posted a photo with the comment :- "found this photo in my dads box can anyone shed a light on who they are?" She's had two replies - 1 from Brian Parr - Netherton 1937 38 football team the best ever winning 3 trophies in that season sorry no names and 1 from Meesta Sam - 2nd from the right, standing looks like my grandad Charlie Gray. Nothing positive to help her identify anyone that could be her realative. I know this photo is of generations before you two but Canny Lass & bluebary an you two help Mary to add some names to the photo?

Maggie - I have never found a load of info on The Puddler's connected to the Iron Works. There again I haven't really looked that far, just via Google! Never found a photo of the type of puddling furnace that was used at the Bedlington Ironworks. From the info that is around 'the puddlers' were a breed of their own, and imported into many steel & railway production areas in England. As the old maps show the name Puddlers was used for roads, houses and a pub. Extracts from a couple of www sites and and a concocted photo to follow :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedlington_Ironworks Bedlington Ironworks, in Blyth Dene, Northumberland, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron rails were invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825, about 45 miles (72 km) to the south. Blyth Dene, near Bedlington, was an idyllic location next to the River Blyth which had all the right ingredients for an ironworks at the time: there were nodules of ironstone in the coal laden banks of the river, there was plenty of wood for the traditional approach of charcoal making, water for driving the hammers, and the port of Blyth was only two miles downriver for shipping of the products. At the time, a Shropshire man, Abraham Darby had started a revolution in ironmaking by using coke instead of charcoal. The Bedlington ironworks originally consisted of two elements – a mill in Bebside and a furnace at Bedlington Mill The ancient corn mill at Bedlington was taken over in 1759 by Malings & Co of Sunderland, who built a blast furnace for foundry work. However they did not do well. Later there was a forge driven by a huge water wheel and a puddling furnace which needed the coal that was all around. http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bedlington_Ironworks The dawn of the nineteenth century saw Hawks and Longridge still in command of the Bedlington Iron Works. The discoveries by Abraham Darby, the introduction of the puddling furnace and the rolling mills were all contemporary happenings of the early Bedlington iron workers. The "ironmen" of Bedlington undoubtedly established their trade well into the eighteenth century, by expanding business and spreading the name of the firm. 1855 The locomotive factory was closed down. The cost of transit was far too great, and competition was too much to contend with. The Bedlington Coal Co purchased the iron works in 1865 and traded as Bedlington Iron Co. The intention was to manufacture iron mouldings for their own use and for outside sales. But little was made of it and the iron works were finally abandoned in 1867. Bedlington Coal Company did sell one possession of the Ironworks in 1867 and that was the famous wagon way, which went from Blyth to the Tyne Railway Company. From Bedlington ‘time line’ http://www.sixtownships.org.uk/bedlington-time-line.html 1864 Dixon & Mounsey built twenty-one cottages named Puddlers Row Rootsweb site http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NORTHUMBRIA/2005-06/1119510958 has one researcher giving this info :- The terraced "cottages" that housed the "puddlers" from the Bedlington Iron Works were called Puddlers Lane, Row and Road. Today they are Stead Lane and Jubilee Terrace. Today's "Bank Top Hotel" was once the Puddlers Arms. To get "half" a view of the area, go to >communities.northumberland.gov.uk< choose "Bedlington", from left hand menu, click on "Ordnance Maps" The 1st Edition 1860 6" map showing the town/village of Bedlington only shows a wee bit of Bedlington Station, and the Ironworks. See it at extreme right hand of map. See Puddlers Row, running north from Furnace Bank to the Railway Station (Jubilee Terrace today.). The un-named road running west from Bank Top to Bedlington proper, was to become Stead Lane. Although the map does not make it clear, this lane was on the very edge of a gorge, running down to the River Blyth. At one time this was known as Puddlers Lane. Area is also to be seen on 2nd edition 6" map of 1897. Apity that map are focused on Bedlington, and not Bedlington Station. And an extract from a newsletter on the http://www.eastbedlingtonpc.org.uk/ site by Councillor Allan Stewart :- Councillor Allan Stewart, Chair of the Environment Working Group commented that “the Puddlers are now more accessible to parishioners with mobility problems allowing them to enjoy the swathes of daffodils in the spring and the floral displays in summer”. He added “for those unfamiliar with the local name for the Stead Lane, a ‘Puddler’ was involved in the process of puddling which turned pig into wrought iron and has an obvious connection with the former Iron Works nearby”. And finally my image concoction - extracts from two old maps and although they do not join perfectly most of the relevant info is still there + current google aerial view of the new houses - Coquetdale, Steadlands Square, Tosson Close & the location of the two PUDDLERS DRIVE street signs :-

No. 13 - Jim Routledge

41 of the 44 children identified. Anyone know any of the last 3 to name?

Maggie - another Top End Infant school photo . This one c1954 and posted on Bygone Bedlington by Valerie Orr and looking to name any of the children.

Puddlers reincarnates itself! Driving through Bedlington today and decided to have a quick look at Coquetdale Place & Steadlands Square expecting all the new builds of where the aerie houses where to be complete. When I turned in at SteadlandsSquare/Wood Lane and then turned right expecting to pass Tosson Close was a street sign for PUDDLERS DRIVE. As I don't posses a mobile device, for taking photos, I didn't get a picture. Checked on the NCC web site and found :- 08/00413/FUL | Demolition of no 7 and 8 Tosson Close and the erection of 10no two storey dwellings and 2no three storey dwellings (amended plans received 02.02.2009) | Land On East Side Of Tosson Close U6550 Tosson Close/wood Lane Bedlington Northumberland Full Address: 10 Puddlers Drive Bedlington Northumberland NE22 5GZ - Property Description: Puddlers Drive - Street: U6550 Coquetdale Place/tosson Close :- https://publicaccess.northumberland.gov.uk/online-applications/propertyDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=L1ON3FQS03X0P

More pictures in The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2848038/The-magical-job-Britain-Enchanting-story-gas-street-lights-five-men-burning-just-did-Dickens-day.html

Yep, I took it as sarcasm. Oh to be sitting in a pub, relaxing over liquid and enjoyng company. Company where you can see, normally, from their mannerisms, how honest, truthful, funny and sarcastic they are and where they get the opportunity to fully explain, one their beliefs; two regardless of their beliefs what they think is reality and three what they do regardless of their believes and reality. My comment on HPW's comment "Meks ye wonder whaats atween these folks lugs,ti interfere wi Nature,doesn't it?" was also sarcasm as HPW had replied to me questioning why people feed wild animals (and house dogs) and then as the thread of the subject continues that comment was contradicted (in my mind) with ......interfere wi Nature, doesn't it. There are many time I really hate the English language. There are too many words and most of the time ones words are interpreted differently to the meaning one was trying to give. I much prefer correctly worded questions where the answer is either YES or NO and until that simple answer is given the subsequent question has to wait it's turn. My attempt at my simple explanation within what has sprung up is this topic is :- Nature looks after it's animals. Humans look after themselves and other humans. I care about the world. I help humans. I even help animals BUT I don't have animals in my house. Only animals that appeal to humans are give help by humans. There is a current animal that I would assume all humans would like wiped out, the mosquito spreading the Zika virus. Would humans feed the an injured mosquito? Oh to be sitting in a pub!

I know, before lang rather than let the harsh winters assist nature, and force culling, people will start leaving food out for wild animals and some will start creating shelters for them, probably called kennels or hooses! Quote from http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/brc/mammalsurvey.htm - "As the ice receded following the last ice-age, some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Shetland was left isolated without any link to the Scottish mainland. As a consequence man has been responsible for introducing all Shetland’s terrestrial mammals to the islands, either deliberately or accidentally - even the Otter is likely to have been introduced, perhaps by the Vikings who may have realised the value of the pelts for clothing." So if that's the case on Shetland then surely if all the terrestrial animals were culled, and the land returned to how nature created it, then there would be no complaints.

Google only drags back one link to The 'Blyth' Kitty Brewster Well and thats in an article on the http://www.sixtownships.org.uk/bedlington-ironworks-by-chris-bergen.html site. It's about a six-seven page article - extract from the article where the well is mentioned :-

Examples of T-shirts using the above suggestions, without the copyright holders permission.