Alan dickson

There was a Nurse Crowe lived there in the sixties when my two lassies were little

Still think this photo is around 1910ish if you look closely that seems like a shovel the person on left of bridge is carrying.

Also very top right behind the Lord Clyde is what was a very small theatre at turn of 20th cent.

Right character called Clipper Smith lived in house nearest the bridge.

Your about right with the bus Bill

H.P.W been given 2 copies of football team photo/s 1956 and 1957 Whitley Memorial but don't/ know how to put on this page.

Yours if you want them!!

We once found some fossil mussels up the plessey seam at Bates and they looked real enough to eat.And once at Lynemouth we fired a shot INA new heading and when the fumes cleared a complete segmented tree trunk was standing completely upright in front of us.Though I remember ajoker at Bates taking a kipper skeleton and shoving it into a clay fault ,making a great show of finding it.

The Deputy who was/t very popular wrapped it carefully in his bait paper and buggared of sharp to bank with it.

In the meantime a museum official had been called .

You can imagine the managers face when he delivered his verdict on the prize exhibit

P.S I remember Bobby Cross he was transferred from Woodhorn as an Overman. He had been Marra/s with my dad when they were younger.

Lovely little fella with I shall tactfully say sailor/s legs

Divvent know if H P w had the pleasure of seeing the cavern at Bates at the Harvey Seam ,as we both started on same day there.

It was like stepping into a fairy grotto made entirely

out of mica crystal.The weekend shift I was on meant I could help myself to a sample or two,

I could hardly carry me bait bag yem.

I/m sure me and HPW could write a book between us .

It wasn't/ all work down the pit ,there were some great practical jokers down there .

The best one I came across was when a lad sewed a pair of kippers into his Marra/s jacket lining the pit baths were humming the next day

The fancy dress was 1949 Barnt/n Gala and contestants always marched down the road to be judged outside of school.Have a copy of same photo but can only name 19 of them, me memory must be slipping

Your right about Mr Aldis !I remember him doing magic tricks in timberyard sat Seat on Burn.

George Rafferty also taught us first aid.

There was Mr Brennan at that time to ,wasn/t exactly the life and soul of the party

Not to sure about this H.P .W ,I/be got a book somewhere which shows him in his garden and it seems to be on other side of road looking up towards road with big chimney/s in distance.

The old big house was Willow Bridge Farm and the tree/s below it were the remnants of the forest which went down to Cambois.

Last time I looked there was a small brick building behind bungalow which was pay office for brickyard across the road. Owned by Mr Foggo,

Don't/ know exact date but it was hospice for weary travellers in mediaeval times as the road was the main coastal road North.

When they built the new houses on left side some very old skeletons were uncovered said to be monks who ran the hospice.

A few years ago the man who lived there told me the kitchen was being renovated and a big pile of flagstones were stacked up for the next day and the door locked.

On going in the next day they were strewn all over,he moved shortly afterwards. A secret tunnel is said to be rumoured .l think the road split the hospice in two.

Watcheor H.P.W I always remember Mr Smout giving us apiece of advice.He always referred to the pony in the 3d person.Right bonny lads divvent stand at the back cos it kicks like hell and divvent stand at the front cos it bites if it gets a chance.

P.s there was a time team style dig there about5yrs ago but don't/t know any results.

Just a final note from me, There's a smashing book in Guidepost library called A Methodist Victorian Childhood by Sir Victor Murray.He was brought up in what was Wards paper shop. Went on to become something high up in national Methodist movement.

Wonderful description of Victorian times in Choppington lovely map of Choppington in book circa 1890s in book.

Aye years ago I had a walk over Sheepwash Bridge up to where Sparrow HOUSE Farm was. Then decided to have a look at the old Farm I could see from my side of the river.An old lady told me it was last inhabited in the 1940s.

Her granny had worked there and every Xmas got an invite up to Bothal Castle with the rest of the hired help for the Xmas party. She said it was in the Portland Bothalhough Estate.

Also said the Bothal Vicar at one time resided at Sheepwash and walked up to Bothal every day along the river. Alas it is no longer there

the local kids demolished what was left of it.l asked the Farmer to let me try my metal detector on the land but met a refusal

Talking about lonnens can anyone tell me why that path from Netherton Pit to Thomas Taylors is called the Bob and Jones,

Was it named after pits ?

Us Barnt/n lads always called it the White Lonnen,suppose that would have been the cement it was made with.

We used to birds nest all the way up from Barnt/n then owed the heaps and back down the burn to Barnt/n.

The little brick building half way down the lonnen was the

Pits high explosive store.

Little stream beside Francis Pit is the Green letch.

The Allison above was Eric Allison who went on to be Elect Engineer at Ellington.

Them days Barnt/n got its power from the old pit.

When it tripped on overload he had the job of going and resetting the panel at the old pit.

Walker Terrace was on the first left before going down Bedlington Bank.

I think it stood next to a street called Coach Road.

That old big sandstone house for retired clergymen ,is it Spring mount was at the end of the road.

The bottom end was always considered the hard up part of Bedlington

Aye a certain Mr Alison and Mr J Robson were the only guitarists I ever knew.

The Unitarian Chapel stood halfway up the bank on left side facing Bedlington.

It attracted many local noteworthies in its time.

E .g. Sir George Peel and many others.

Why it was pulled down I don't know as it was kept in lovely condition.Demolished in the 70s.

Talking to old barnt/n man today says an old couple named Sixsmith lived in one of them.

Aye the fields across the road were a 9 hole golf course in Victorian times..

The trees there now were planted in 1973.

Johns cousin pulled an original golf course sign out the burn 2 or 3 years ago.

I think the houses on other side of bridge belonged to a Mr Foggo who had the brickyard behind his houses.

There about 6 streets there in first half of last century.Right up to the railway bridge.There was a farmhouse dated 1844 next to the road in middle of village.

German aeroplane was shot down in the brickyard just behind village.

Also there was a pit in Victorian times in the vicinity of the burn.

Arthur Coxon was an onsetter at Bedlngton A pit.

I found a watch medallion on the site of the old chapel there inscribed G .T Scott 1904 a few years ago.My Mothers cousin A Fitzgerald lived there in the 30s

The name Gibbons rings a bell but the other might be Gales.

Have in my possession a photo of Barnt/n fancy dress competition Gala circa 1950_but can/t put hands on it.

Bobby Ramsey is right at front dressed as African warrior with spear in hand.

Geordie Adey etc many others in photo

Will download when found.

My world was lang pit rows .with ootside Nettie's.

Pigeon crees and garden tetties.Men Gannon to work

Wearing auld cloth caps.

Fetching wettor from outside taps.Jinny/ Mary/ Hannah/ May

WOR some of the names of every day.

Kids riding around on ramshackle bikes

Dorty angels raggy arsed tykes.

Nobody had out we wor aal the same

Could/nt tell the difference except for the name.

A divvent regret these times have past

Its just that whey man

They wor the last.

Part of a poem I wrote years ago which I. thought apt for this topic