Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

One of the aliens, a small red chap, can been seen, half way up the black & white pole, checking out the traffic!

There you go, The Nichols Garrow Home for the bind had buried itself under my conker tree brain bank! At the age of 12-15 it was the best place, ie the biggest conkers and loads of 'cheesers', that we knew of and naturally at that age the fact that the residents couldn't see us was perfect. We never knew it was a home for the blind when we first went so we used to hide behind the garden walls, behind the cooking apple tree. Ages before we realised and stopped hiding. Cheeser = conker with flat side - result of two conkers in the shell

12:42 - the mist has cleared and the force subsided.

Had a look through the Netherton Album and there is one photo, but still guessing, that could show where the Dining Centre was. One end of Office Row at the colliery? I will see if the originator, Graeme Ogle, has any idea.

We just new it as the Blind Home and only this year a road sign has been sited at the entrance to the lane. It is through Nedderton; turn right and head for Morpeth; pass the Stannington turn off; pass what was the Thomas Taylor (or was it Monar Taylor!) buildings on the left and before you get to the Hepscott turn off there is a left turn up a tree lined road to what we knew as the Blind Home. 'Ex - Naval Club' rings a bell Canny Lass but couldn't swear to it.

Bedlington is sending out waves of energy to the community! Had a look on Live and here are some images of what you can currently see :-

That's what I was starting to think but only because there would appear to be no alternative. Just thought that if they were added to an existing album, created by an ex resident of Netherton, a more comprehensive picture in one place would be better. Apart from the fact that I always knew Netherton existed the only link for this lad from 'the Oval area' of Bedlington, my only association with Netherton would be that a couple of times, whilst cycling to the conker trees in Nedderton and then the blind home along Clifton Lane, out of pure curiosity I had cycled along the Netherton Lane to see what was at the other end.

I've just posted another old Netherton photo - Netherton Dining Centre 1921. If I was to trawl through all the Netherton postings and add all the photos into one posting could they be added into Carole's Album - Netherton/Nedderton - or Cymbil's album - Bedlington & Netherton Old Photos rather than scattered throughout many postings?

Canny Lass - another one to show the grandchildren what life was like, before your time, in Netherton Posted by Graeme Ogle in Bygone Bedlington :- and a couple of comments posted with it were~:- What was the Netherton Dining Centre? Like · Reply · 22 hrsGraeme Ogle Something to do with the miners strike Eileen Owen its great to see some one on about netherton we lived at 10 first street my dad was fred gibson Like · Reply · 13 hrsGraeme Ogle I was young but I remember going to my Uncle Ernies and Aunty Dollys they lived at the end of one of the streets, do those names ring any bells

It's just me Vic - Shorpy = good pics, hadn't seen that site before. Now we just need names for this lot :- Barrington CP c1920 Barrington CP Class n 1954 Barrington CP Class 6 1955

Posted in Bygone Bedlington as Barrington School c1920. I know with most digital imaging packages the photos can be made 'black and white' & 'sharpened' from 'antique' images but this photo just doesn't look right to me. I'm probably just being too sceptical of an extremely clear image from a bygone era! Previous posting of a 1930 Barrington School photo

First time I've seen one of these - Northumberland News - Autum 2015 - from Norhumberland Labour Group, Blyth delivered through our door yesterday. Headings within the two pages are :- Free at last (car parking and council telephone number across the county) It's a CAPITAL PLAN (construction boom in Northumberland as council tackles years of underinvestment) Labour welcomes 'new beginning for Bedlington' as LIDL annouce multi million investment in new store - apparently there are over 100 'likes' on local councillor Alison Wallace's Facebook page following the post she made - I can't find one with that loads have 'liked' Dr Pitt Park secures green flag thumbs up AND Moves afoot to develop old Bedlington school site :-

I thought here we go again, but at least this season I expect to get something out of this derby fixture, the Mackem's are definitely worse than us. Bloody sods law. Put the lottery on Malcolm, you can't lose!.

Forgot to say - It's a country pub, with two dogs, and customers dogs are allowed in. However the two people who rode up to the pub on horses had to sit outside with their pints, and horses - don't know if there is a place for tying a horse to.

Never a defined period for conker hardening via soaking in vinegar so I would say soak for a couple of days and then allow to dry out. If you haven't drilled a hole in, for the string, before soaking then don't even no if the vinegar would soak through to the nut.. If you have drilled hole then I guess the drying out of the nut. According to http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/html/conkers_about.html in the section 'All about conkers' one of the weirdest methods of hardening is :- "There are many underhanded ways of making your conker harder. The best is to pass it through a pig. The conker will harden by soaking in its stomach juices. Then you search through the pig's waste to find the conker.†No photos of this method.

Jp Brewis of John,s Car Parts (was the Bed. Station Post Office) posted this aerial photo of his shop & the YMCA grounds with the date of c1973.

Still open - 5 of us went today - all enjoyed all the home cooked food - even Mrs Eats (a non meat eater) commented on how fresh the veg was. Only place I have ever been asked - Do you want chips or veg with your bangers & mash? And if you got kids just out the pub door and across the bridge used to be an excellent place for conkers. If I had of been fit I would have gone that 50 yards to the river wansbeck and collected some conkers for Canny Lass.

Monday 12th October 2015 - the 50th World Conker Championships were held in Southwick, Northhamptonshire, a village in Northamptonshire, where spectators watch competitors from 10 countries do battle with a nut and a 12in piece of string http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2015/oct/12/50th-world-conker-championships-ashton-conker-club-southwick-in-pictures

We would steep in vinegar, for as long as the smell could be tolerated. Even those in the weshoose weren't allowed to stink it oot too long. If no vinegar available, one had had ones chips, then it was the airing cupboard. We always worked on the theory that you shouldn't let them dry out too much as the inners would shrink and the outer shell would therefore have no support and crack easily when whacked by the opposing conker. In the 60's one of the hobbies was model making with plaster of paris and often heard of kids boring a 1/4" hole in the top of the conker; scooping out the innards; make a small hole for the string/shoe lace/leather strip.... in the bottom of the conker; feed the string through and knot the end of the string on the bottom and then filling with plaster of paris. Rub brown shoe polish onto the exposed plaster of paris to camouflage it. Our rules were - toss a coin to see who went first to belt the opponents conker - whoever lost had to hold his arm out straight, conker dangling from it's string from his hand - each player carried on swinging until he missed the dangling conker and then they switched roles. If any one of the conkers, dangler or basher, came off it's string then the other was deemed the winner and the winning conker was awarded a point to be added to the number it had already smashed. So after win number one your conker was a 'oneser', then twoser et.seq. There were always arguments over conkers that had not smashed to bits but were just come off their string. Was it classed as a defeat or were they allowed to re-string the conker and continue the fight = local rules apply. Another debate would be over how many wins were attributed to a winning conker. If a sixer beat a fiveser then did it become a sevener or were the two totalls added and the winner became a twelveser = local rules again apply. Just for fun I Google the subject and the method of hardening from a 212evser was :- THE ONLY way to actually harden conkers, despite what many people say, is to store them in a cool, dry place for at least one year. It is best to store about twenty or more in a shoebox in a garage. Many of the conkers will go mouldy and the insides will become full of a green dusty substance, but one should survive. In play it is normal that the shell will break off - this is because the inside will have dried out and shrunk. Do not worry if this happens, as it is the inside that is the strongest. It is also helpful to have a good quality string. This should be an old shoelace, preferably a round one, with a small amount of give to absorb the shock. With your now invincible conker you will be able to defeat the unbeatables: the "oven-baked", the "vinager-soaked" and any other strange methods that your friends may come up with. Be prepared to destroy everyone else's conkers! N.B. It may be advisable to make holes in your conkers before storing them, as it will be extremely difficult to drill through your Super-Conker. Sam Davies, nr Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Two more Netherton, and 1 Nedderton, for Canny Lass, said to be early 1950s - Netherton Colliery School Netherton Colliery School2 Nedderton village school Photos posted on Bygone Bedlington by Andrea Warner.

Threegee - can these 2 photos of the old Naval Club be added to the album 'Netherton/Nedderton old photos' created by Carole?

I can only confirm your memories. I remember the building. Never went, we just used to pass it coming through that cut from Steadlane past the Ambulance station, on the left. My memory has the 'Youth Club' building on the right hand side just before you came out of the cut onto Millbank.