Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Cheers @James - so I wonder if the Netherton Colliery Brass Band were playing in the Bandstand for the opening? The year for this photo of the band was estimated at c1959 :-

Don't know when the bandstand was built and can't find an image of the bandstand that we might be able to work out the date from any other buildings in that image. Can't make out what the objects between the edge of the Hairpin Bend and the seven sisters are. My eyes think they are various shaped stones at the side of the road not the roof tops of any buildings. The poem - The Poplars was posted on the Facebook group Bygone Bedlington but I can't find the posting to see if the person who posted it gave any info - I'll keep searching

I sneaked in there in 1965, aged 17, and carried on going there until the Domino opened. Like you I remember the engine oil. I can't remember the landladies name but I do remember she used to get a crate of milk in and that was an alternative drink to the Double Maxim and the engine oil. In the Disco lights a pint of milk stood out - as did dandruff. I think the police man that was there at closing time to try and prevent the fights was known locally as Big Jock.

Yep - that's them - poplars

@Anne Gilbert - I remember in the early 1960's I used to deliver the Sunday newspapers to a few house along Stead Lane but can't remember any of the names of those I delivered to. For the Sunday deliveries it wasn't just push the newspaper through the door you had to knock on the day and collect the money for the newspaper. Think I stopped delivering them in 1966 when alcohol, forced on me on a Saturday night at Craigsies Disco (Railway Tavern), used to prevent me waking up early The only name I can remember of a lad, a couple of years older than me, living in Stead Lane is Ken Moor. He used to play in a group called The Olympics and they practiced in the YMCA.

Can't remember our lot ever using 'The Flaggies'. We had a similar system just behind the Bandstand at the Furnace bridge end. Just like your diving areas ours was on the Ha'penny side. There was a flat rock, about 6 x 3 feet, stuck out from the Ha'penny side and we built a dam, with the rocks out the river, just a couple of feet past the flat rock. I can't remember there being access to the flat rock from the Ha'penny side so our clothes, towel and bait were always left of the Free side next to the Bandstand. I think we spent more time having to repair the dam.

@Canny lass this is a map you created for someone else showing the buildings down the Glebe Road @CathAC this is a Glebe Road Now (Google 2022) & Then (Cl's 1924 map) The 'Picture Cinema' building on the 1924 map still exists and is now a gym. You can see on the Now shot that the buildings Canny Lass identified on the 1924 map were all demolished to make way for the roundabout and the dual carriage way. The old Glebe Road still exists, to the right of the dual Carriageway as you look at the 2022 image.

@Anne Gilbert - it would have been demolished before you time but can you remember if your family ever mentioned Puddlers Row that was at the top of Tomlea Avenue? We are always on the look out for photos and info on Puddlers Row.

@Anne Gilbert - before your time but this is the shop before Doyle took it over.

1. Who wrote the play Lady Windermere’s Fan? Answer = 2. Where would you find the Dewey Decimal System in use? Answer = 3. How many games are there in a rubber of contract bridge? Answer = 3 4. Which vegetable is said to have a taste similar to an oyster? Answer = 5. What is known as the Universal Solvent? Answer = 6. By what name is Cherilyn Sarkasian LaPierre better known? Answer = 7. What is a durmast? Answer = Oak Tree 8. In which country is Timbuktu? Answer = 9. Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder teamed up for which number one hit? Answer = 10. What does CD-Rom stand for? Answer = Compact Disc – Read Only memory 11. Which US president made the Gettysburg Address? Answer = 12. Which horse won three Cheltenham Gold Cups in the 1960s? Answer = Arkle I’ll bet you didn’t know …. You use one calorie to read 650 words. Answer = I didn’t.

Can't remember one. All I remember is that we always referred to it as the path on the Ha'penny side. I can't even remember me ever venturing very far along the path on the Ha'penny side. My memory says - narrow track and heavily wooded. I must have obeyed me mam - divn't get lost, stick to black path

Still reasonably quiet on the NE coast = 60 mph and not too much damage, according to the 18:30 NE News but they do report that the conditions will go on, for better or worse, for 5+ hours. Cumbria and the West coast have had snow and more severe wind so if Eunice keeps on the same diagonal path Norway plus West and North Sweden could be the worst hit. Fortunately we are in a bungalow, and the house next door protects us. When we lived in a two story house in Cramlington we did have ridge and roof tiles blown off at the gable end during strong winds in the late 1980's. The damage wasn't too severe but the sound of the wind, after the damage, did result in the whole family spending the rest of the night, from about 02:00, downstairs and no one slept.

I do. We always called it that and I assume because it was the only one, on eithrr side of the river, that was tarmacked. It still exists :-

Since we were shown how to wedge a comic book annual onto a roller skate and sit on it to fleeeee doon the bank

NE coast of Blighty currently - sun shining - the odd rain cloud passing by and releasing a few drops - breezy but still three steps forward and none backwards.

@James - found another photo of one of the cottages along the Black Path down from Beatty Road. This one posted by 'Robert Noodle Hedley' :-

Now if you were really adventurous it would be from the top of the Furnace Bank down to the bottom, otherwise the more gentler slopes - Elenbel - Tomlea - River View or 'Cart Track' from River View to Furnace Bank :-

Hello @Anne Gilbert There are also Albums for all the schools, past & present, in the Gallery>Historic Bedlington section. The Oval/Stead Lane school - we have only managed to get one photo for that album and we think it's for those who were born c1951-52. Can't help with the Whitley Memorial school as our family were shipped off to Barrington CP, as were quite a lot of others from Thee Oval area. As for BGS I left in 1966. I left my name on many desks, especially the class room used for detention

I do - it was on the left as you looked at the front of the building. I lived in Coquetdale Place, 1949 to 1969, and as the Oval shops were just through the cut at the end of Fontburn Road, across the road from us the Terrie shop was not one I used frequently - but I must have attempted to buy a bottle a beer, when I was under age, from that kiosk. In the Gallery>Historic Bedlington section we have an Album (created 2016) named - 'Bedlington drinking establishments - Then & Now' and a couple of images, when the pub was closed, are in there but they don't show the kiosk. I did manage, on ebay, to find one 1957 image of a postcard for sale with the kiosk.

Update on the names from the Bygone Bedlington Facebook group members.