Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

The question - "Why is it called Gallagher Park?" was asked on the sixtownships history group - thought they must be taking the 'mick'! One quick Google (or whatever) search will throw up pages of info, wrong. So unless there's some obvious info I'm missing, I can't find any site that gives the reason why it is called Gallagher Park. Checked the Friends of Gallagher Park site; NCC site (Gallagher Park & Dr Pitt Park); Bedlington Remembered; Bedlington Tryst etc. etc. but found no statement for why and when it was named.

Looks like all these old pensioners do all their own odd jobs - but none of them very handy.

If you try it don't be put off by the choice of food. They have what I would call a standard pub grub menu but if there is nothing you fancy on the menu board just ask and the landlady will see what she has in the kitchen. She produced a vegetarian meal for the wife, that she couldn't finish - too much. Car parking for about 15 cars, includes half a dozen, at the back of the pub, that you can't see from the road. www.facebook.com/pages/The-Plough-Inn-Mitford-Northumberland/741969899211974?sk=timeline&ref=page_internal

I see they have closed both their shops, Glebe Road and Cramlington shop and amalgamated them into one business unit/showroom on the Cramlington industrial estate - Unit 6 Network Centre, Nelson Park, Colbourne Avenue, Cramlington, Northumberland, NE23 1WD. Online sales - www.forrestersonline.co.uk.

Yep your right, must proof read my postings - 25th September 1971 it closed (date on Durham Mining Museum site).

You read into the petition what you want to and I read into the petition what I want to. The way I see it is the BBC needs funds, just like ALL the other channels. The other Channels did not have to be launched in competition with the BBC but they were, and used advertising to fund them. My argument stays with me - the BBC needs funds - I don't like advertising - I will pay the license fee.

Details of the protest posted on Sixtwonships - Bedlington Remembered site.

I'm with Symptoms, prefer BBC. I do have SKY sports. Would prefer to go to the pub and watch a match(even more so the way NUFC are not performing and at least I could get some enjoyment out of a pint), but out of the question - can't stand for 10 mins, never mind 2 hours, these days. BBC income per household = current colour TV licence costs - £145.50. Don't know if the BBC will still get an income from UKTV for them showing only BBC programs on Dave? SKY - difficult to work out what the full package would cost but has to be between £70 - £80 per month - so just say £900 a year. Could the BBC do better than SKY on £900 a year? If you scrap the license fee all together would that just mean a ) additional rental charges similar to SKY and b ) more adverts?

Maggie - don't know all the ins and outs of the pit shafts etc. but just a couple of years ago I did a bit of digging for a young lady in connection with the Bower Grange estate on the old 'A' pit. She said her parents plus a few other residents, were concerned about cracks appearing load bearing walls. I remembered the fuss when the estate was first built - 1970s - and a committee was formed to discuss subsidence with Coal Board & Council etc. - the residents got nowhere and no action taken. I said I would try and find out exactly what the response had been from the Coal Board. Passed around a couple of departments within the Coal Board and eventually ended up discussing the Bower Grange estate with the Surveyors Department and with us both using Google Street view I was directed to the house(s) that were built where the pit head shafts were located. The info I was given I still have documented ant the gist of it is :- Subsidence damage has to be identified within 3 years and the building of property and claims, normally, should be submitted within 6 years after the closure of the pit – (that's how I interpreted what he said to me) - the Coal Authority are 100% sure there is could be no claim against them. Pitt closed in 1962, building did not start until more than 6 years after. The Coal Authority records go back to 1872 and show that no mine shafts were less than the statutory 70 meters deep. Therefore it would have to be proved that there were, prior to 1872, shafts with 'bye-ways' of less than 70 meters deep. The Pitt Head Shafts were located where the existing streets, Hastings Court & Delaval Crescent, are built and these areas would be the most suspect, if subsidence was to occur. So any shaft sunk 1872 or later the Coal Board should be able to tell you where it is!

I don't have the badge, Symptoms reply jogged my memory.There was one for sale on ebay, starting bids £1.00 but it has now been withdrawn, no body wants it! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131464209138

Just confirming Symptoms perfect answer ~:-

Don't know if it was sold in 2012 when this post started but I see it's back on the market via Rightmmove/Mike Rogerson for £165,000 and they even give some history of the building - The Laird's House. Was there a topic/posting asking for places to be nominated for a museum or is it just my wandering mind? Anyway, just the place for the Bedlington Development Trust to invest in, Malcolm must be looking for places to invest this years budget :- *** COMMERCIAL PROPERTY - FRONT STREET - GARDENS TO REAR - NO UPPER CHAIN *** We welcome to the market this impressive building situated in the town centre of Bedlington most recently occupied by and known as Bedlington Top Club. This georgian building bares the date 1777 and was know to be the Lairds House. The buildling also bares the initals of George Marshall who farmed land in the area. His son, George was very good friends with Sir Daniel Gooch, the world renown engineer. In 1870 the house was leased to John Week the agent of the Bedlington coal company. Managers of the towns Doctor Pit Colliery lived in the house until 1954. The property comprises of entrance lobby, entrance hallway, two seperate reception/bar areas with fitted bars and seating. One of which also has a further area currently used as a snooker room. To the rear of the building there are toilets and storage facilities. To the front entrance hall there is a further door which leads to the cellar and access to the first floor. On the first floor there are two rooms currently being used as office and storage plus a bathroom. There is a large garden area to the rear of the building the property also is fully alarmed. NO UPPER CHAIN Lobby - Lounge - 32' 2'' x 17' 5'' (9.8m x 5.3m) - Bay window to front seating area. Bar/Function/Snooker Room - 62' 4'' x 17' 9'' (19.00m x 5.4m) Comprising of bay window to front, seating area plus games area to rear, fitted bar. Toilets Male, Female and disabled toilets are available to the rear of the building. First Floor Landing With feature stained glass window. First Floor Room One - 23' 2'' x 16' 5'' (7.05m x 5.m) First Floor Room Two - 17' 7'' x 16' 5'' (5.35m x 5.m) First Floor Room Three - 16' 9'' x 14' 9'' (5.1m x 4.5m) Bathroom Bathroom suite with window to rear. Second Floor Room - 20' 4'' x 14' 3'' (6.2m x 4.35m) Cellar Rear Garden To the rear of the property is a large garden area.

Canny Lass - the only method I have ever used to insert Old English letters like Thorn - þ - or Wingdings j h k is by 'Copy' from the fonts in Microsoft Word & 'Paste' them into the topic you are writing.

Any luck Malcolm, or is there a department or person I can ring?

http://wholesomebee.co.uk/how-to-start-a-ginger-beer-plant/

Ovalteeny - I think I knew one of the lads on that team, Brian Dixon, and as the other names don't ring any bells I think he could be younger than the rest. We had a Brian Dixon that went to WM in our year, Bedlington Grammar - 1st year 1960 - good defender - Salvation Army member - cousin (didn't play football) John Dixon. I have never used (or even heard of) GeoCities so don't really know what I am looking for but rather than watch soaps with the wife or watch a friendly international I had a Google about! There is a GeoCities archive site www.archiveteam.org. Within the first page is a section "How can I find a page or website I'm looking for?" That passes you to " External links" Within in that section there are geocities addresses that take you to a web site - www.reocities.com/ It's opening page starts with - Welcome To ReoCities... If this is your first visit here, please sign the petition Here lies what we could salvage from the ashes of GeoCities. ....................

A question on the sixtownships history site :- "Does anyone know where the blue plaque off the nail in Bedlington has gone?" - The only view I have had of The Nail over the last 15 years is 3 sides of it (no plaque on those sides) via Google Street view, and have never seen the plaque that the English Heritage site says there is. Anyone know what has happened?

With me forever.

Extract from Wikipedia only the 'Club' brand had gift tokens the earlier brands had picture cards :- Club (or Kensitas Club as it was once known), is a brand of cigarette distributed by Gallaher tobacco and available only in the United Kingdom. Club comes in a distinct blue packaging with club written on it and a lion's head on the packet. Each cigarette contains 10mg of carbon monoxide, 10mg of tar and 0.8mg of nicotine. Unlike other brands, Club is only available in a King size variety with no lighter or menthol substitutes. Although lights were available at one time, they have since been discontinued. The brand built its popularity using gift coupons enclosed within cigarette packets which could be saved and redeemed at Kensitas Gift Centres in major UK cities.

Probably R.N. - uncle in the Navy or Senior Service, older uncle pretending to be in a better armed force. Various Polish & American cigs bought, very cheaply if you had a sister, off the boat crews that tied up in Blyth where we fished for poddlers. Capstain Full Strength, nicked from the packet of granda the pit deputy. Woodbine - what relatives would give you at age 14 for running a message, putting coals in etc. .

Name added to petition and link to petition posted on the sixtownships 'Bedlington remembered site'.

Barrington School Football Team season 1947 - 1948 Left to right: Back row - Brian Patterson, Billy Foster, Jimmy Bailey. 2nd back - Billy Cook, Billy Spratt, George McCauley. 2nd front - Stan Bowey, unknowm, Tommy Chappelhow. Front - John Lowe and Tommy Kinghorne.

An interesting article posted in the Sixtownships History Group site about a secret army of resistance fighters from our region and their leader from East Riggs Bedlington. The link to the Evening Chronicle article of 1968 is :- http://www.auxunit.org.uk/chronicle250468.htm As a 'backup' to the 'auxunit' site entry I vae copied the article into this page. If there is any problem with this then I am sure admin will delete and just leave the link. Auxunits in Northumberland Newcastle Evening Chronicle April 1968 Evening Chronicle logo 25th April 1968 The North-East's secret army of resistance fighters undertook vital tasks in testing the defences of airfields and army headquarters throughout the invasion "scare years" of 1940-41.But until now, their pledge of secrecy has concealed another more unusual role. At least two North-East groups, composed entirely of Bedlington miners, formed the Royal Family's personal bodyguard during residence at Balmoral. Their task: To fight off German paratroopers who may have landed with orders to kidnap or even kill the King, Queen and the two Princesses. One formed of Scremerston men headed by Mr. Lambert Carmichael. Today he remembers his guard on the Royal Family with pleasure and pride as the highlight of his war service. He performed two periods of duty at Balmoral and recalled that the Queen had a good memory. "She recognised me the second time as 'the Tweedside farmer'". He spoke of grouse shooting with the late King, striding side by side over the hills surrounding Balmoral. Then there were the moments of relaxation when the Royal family and their guard got together at informal functions. The Bedlington miners were led by Mr. Robert Charlton Hall, then a 42 year old bank manager who lived in a semi-detached house in East Riggs Road Bedlington. It was a house with a difference. Stored at one time in the wooden garage was "enough plastic explosives, gelignite, detonators and other paraphernalia to blow up not only Bedlington, but Ashington, Morpeth and Blyth to boot". Mr. Hall lived three roles, by day, he carried on the respectable role of bank manager, at weekends he was a Home Guard Major. At night he played out his third more secret role, "Obviously, my wife never knew what I was up to. But I had been appointed a group commander of the resistance in our area and most of our training had to take place in darkness. "It was not until years later that I dared tell her what I'd been up to. It was safer for her not to know because if the invasion had come she would have nothing to tell interrogators". Mr. Hall was recruited to the secret army shortly after the outbreak of war. He was a first war veteran who already carried hand wounds from the Battle of Passchendaele. He personally recruited each man in his five patrols for "Maquis" work in Bedlington, Chevington, Stobswood, Ellington and Cramlington. They were then despatched to a secret headquarters at Colesworth House, in the South for training in unarmed combat, demolition, fieldcraft and blowing up railways. Each man was told that if he was wounded after occupation and proved a hindrance to his colleagues—he would be shot. "I suppose that in the event I would have carried out that distasteful job" said Mr. Hall. "But you must remember, the feeling of the times. They were, of course, quite desperate and invasion seemed very likely. "The patrol members had to know the truth to a large extent and were told what to expect if the Germans came. In spite of family responsibilities, they volunteered to a man. "I had a splendid bunch of chaps-mostly all pitmen-even today I regard them as the salt of the earth. Frankly, I recruited them on unusual grounds. I liked to hear of trouble makers, rabble-rousers and fighters, or the chaps who obviously wanted excitement. "I would then interview them to try and establish their adaptability to the job required. Then they had to sign the' Official Secrets Act'—and as an additional incentive to secrecy it was sometimes mentioned they'd be shot, if they broke silence!!". Among the first tasks required of the newly formed Bedlington group was to establish suitable places for their underground hideouts. Some, Mr. Hall recalled were "gems" of ingenuity. They were situated at widely scattered points throughout the area. One near the Mona Taylor Maternity homes, Stannington, was next to a stream. "It was almost on the Bedlington-Morpeth boundary in a small wood. You lifted a small tree to reveal the entrance. At Stobswood, the hideout was next to the pit heap, in some scrub. There was a third near Acklington airfield where you had to squeeze behind a tree, the entrance was in the bankside covered in moss". Each hideout was constructed of brick and contained bunks for 9 to 12men.There was food to last a month, explosives, ammunition, weapons and usually a "concealed air pipe". "There was a hide in Hartford Woods, the entrance consisted of a flat tray on balanced rollers. Over the tray we grew a pile of brambles. It would have been near-impossible to spot it even inside the clump of brambles as the entrance opened by pulling a small ring attached to a wire" said Mr. Hall. "On another exercise I was shown a flat expanse of lawn about living room size. "I was told there was a bunker beneath and instructed to find the entrance, I discovered _after examining almost every blade of grass—that it was opened by a partly concealed matchstick attached to a wire" Such were the kind of concealment places constructed for the miner "maquis" of Bedlington. Their exploits sprang readily to mind for Mr. Hall "What a fantastic bunch of chaps they were. Their fieldcraft was magnificent. I had one man who could actually catch rabbits with his bare hands and proved it to me repeatedly. On one occasion we saw a rabbit in a field rubbing his whiskers, Tommy I can't remember his second name, but he was a leading poacher said "D'ye want that rabbit, Sor?" then off he went on his stomach. "You could not see him move but if you looked away for a few seconds you could see he had advanced a couple of yards. "He just crept up to that rabbit and lifted it. It was truly amazing—and can you imagine what damage a chap like that could have done after an invasion. Mr. Hall who now lives in retirement in a cottage in Newgate Street, Morpeth, recalled other exploits of the Bedlington miners when they were chosen for personal guard duty for the Royal Family in Balmoral. "They were so good that they were invited to remain longer. During that time I met the Royal Family personally, even played games with the Princesses. The task of the Royal Guard was to spot intruders inside the Balmoral grounds. Outside the boundaries, guard duties were performed by regular troops. Each of the 12_man patrol was instructed to stay under cover and to keep out of the way of the Royal Family. They flitted from tree to tree with faces blackened or maintained watch in hideouts strung along the hill slopes above the castle. Each incident was reported to Major Hall "One of our chaps was actually spotted by the King and Queen when they strolled in the grounds. I was rather annoyed about it at the time" he said. At Balmoral, however, there was time for recreation when informalities were relaxed and the Royal Family joined mess functions and chatted with their guards. Thus it happened that Major Hall accidentally "flattened" the future Queen. "The two princesses-aged then about 10 and 14-insisted on playing a game called 'Statues'. The idea was to touch an opponent, who froze until touched and rescued by a colleague. "Princess Elizabeth could run like a hare-really good at the game ,then I saw her creep out of a door and peeked out of the window. Sure enough, she was passing beneath, so I just jumped on her". Mr. Hall still retains copies of a 'plan' of the party games drafted by the two princesses. "Unfortunately, my wife did not know where I was. My brother died during Balmoral guard and so tight was security that the news did not reach me until after the burial". Back in the North-East, his group continued with their night training. Each patrol was armed with a specially-built high powered .22 rifle with telescopic sights. The familiarity with this was awesome. "Each man was trained to hit a man directly in the eye in darkness. The weapon was silenced and a near miss in war conditions could have spelled disaster. It had to be a direct, quick killing shot—if there was doubt, the men had to use their 'Fairbairn' daggers for a silent 'kill'. Former patrol members today can still demonstrate the knifing methods used. They were also taught killing karate blows. Their effectiveness was fully demonstrated during a mock raid on Acklington airfield when the patrols broke silently through the prepared defences overpowered guards and within a couple of hours demonstrated their ability to blow up every installation and aircraft on the field." It was a terrible night—we were all soaked to the skin within minutes but we got through unseen. I was with my second-in-command Jack Whitfield from Barrington and together I recall sneaking up on a guard who was just walking round and round a plane on the runway. "I grabbed him behind the neck and told him: 'move and you're dead'. We tied him up then went around the planes chalking swastikas everywhere to prove we could have put them out of action". "Meanwhile, the rest of the men were chalking swastikas over the main buildings, at one point, just for fun, we set off a flare, then climbed the roof of the main building and watched the guards running about." Towards daylight, Jack and I gave ourselves up and were taken to the guardroom .Another couple of my chaps were there, so to avoid boredom we shoved a guard in the toilet. We then told the other guard-on duty with bayonet and loaded rifle that his mate had disappeared into the toilet and hadn't emerged. He went to look—then we bundled him inside too and went to cause a bit more bother". Mr. Hall recalled that they were years of 'great fun' but the strain of the early days proved testing. "The worst part was being able to tell families what we were doing. And of course, during the time when invasion was a real possibility, there was the worry of what would happen to our families after we went to earth and started to fight, I had one sergeant at Stobswood, for instance who had seven children. I used to worry about him". Preparations made for the threatened invasion in the North-East were extensive —and only now have come to light. In the Mid-Northumberland area, the resistance men secretly earmarked for destruction key points on railway lines and bridges. On one secret manoeuvre they even blew up colliery railway wagons to give practical effect to their knowledge. It caused quite a bit bother—no one knew, of course, that we were responsible". The bridge carrying the main line through Percy Woods, near Morpeth had a stone removed ready for an explosive charge. Potential supply routes for an invading force were reconnoitred and made ready for sabotage. "We would have made things damn awkward for Jerry", said Mr. Hall. Today he lives a life of quiet retirement among the roses in his extensive gardens. He has a three months holiday each year in the Canary Isles and corresponds regularly with his daughter Mildred-a former member of General Eisenhower's staff during the invasion. His son, Major R.Hall, has had a distinguished military career and was mentioned in despatches for his recent exploits in Aden. Mr. Hall has a constant reminder of his days as a resistance leader in the North-East. He had a finger and thumb blown off when demonstrating explosives to his men in the 1940's.His other hand still bears the 1914-18 war wounds. Top Next / Previous Back to Auxunit News Text supplied by Mr. Charles Richards from original articles in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle ã Newcastle Chronicle & Journal Limited StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter

Reedy - can't remember if this photo has been posted on this site before. It was posted on the sixtownships history site a couple of days ago and an ex Bedlington resident, Sarah Moore (now living abroad and I don't know if that is maiden or married name) added some comments that made me remember the list you posted on behalf of your dad. This is what she said :- Sarah Moore That is Liddles Yard .Cruddas,s shop on the corner.Two sisters ran it one Cruddas the other Williamson. i used to tick my sweets on here when I was a dot and use everybodys coupons up .It wasnt a post office at that time.I dont know how I still have my teeth.I was born at no.13 in November 1945 but I still have a few good memories of living there.The big house on the left wasnt there when I was a toddler but,me and my cousin Carol McSparron used to play tea parties on the base of it.I also remember the bad winter of ,47 especially the men getting off the bus from Blyth at the Bank Top and pushing it because it got stuck even though it had chains on the wheels. I know some people wont believe that I can remember that far back but,I can.