pilgrim

I agree with you mercury. (can I apologise for my grammar and typing now!!! - I can spell - I can't type, and upper lower case confuses my aged fingers) There have been recent issues acknowledged in Scotland about the literacy and numeracy of new teaching staff. The CBI have raised the same points in relation to job applicants and, indeed, recruits to firms. So many rely these days on the 'spellchucker' which converts lucid prose into Americanisms and not enough actual reading is done from, dare I say it? BOOKS. I spent some years visiting many universities as a speaker and some 5 yrs research with Green College, Oxford and there was an underlying theme among senior staff in most places. Firstly, that the levels of numeracy and literacy were low in new students entering university, and secondly, and perhaps more worrying, was that new students handing work in that was not up to standard and having it returned seem to have one of two reactions - either - you are wrong as I know my work is good because 'that was what I was told at school', or they couldn't cope with actually being criticised. I think this is a reflection of the attitude that everyone is equal and 'on target', which seems to have crept in over many years. The needs of the individual child are not being met with big classes and non-streaming. i.e. the lowering of the bar to make everyone feel good, and of course make education authorities look good when they do the 'box ticking' There are a lot of very good teachers and very good schools out there, but I feel that their worth have been undermined and their esteem eroded. On a further rant!!! Part of our reasons to exit the state system were; being told the child was academically advanced (she is good but not that good - and the new school are honest about it, whereas previous schools , both middle and academy were not) The fact that I can telephone or walk into her new school at anytime and speak to the head or staff. The meals were appalling!!! how the county thought that contracting out to a company that is basically a pot noodle firm was a good idea is beyond my reasoning. (all meals at her school are cooked on premises from fresh local produce and it costs no more -- but there again how many schools have actually got a 'cooking' staff now? or even a functional kitchen?? On the point about accessing staff and premises - schools have always been fenced to keep the kids in - but there has been a change in direction over the years - the fences are now there to keep people out! - allegedly. (interesting that school meal intake goes up 10% when pupils are kept in?) Two fine examples of this - we were told that for security reasons we must register a password to use if we telephoned her middle school for data protection and to ensure there was no 'risk' from any external party - now considering that myself, her mother, her grandmother and grandfather, aunt etc etc could all be required to contact the school re transport issues etc etc. that knocks a hole in that. I was told it was in case of, shall we call it 'stranger danger', when I pointed out that statistically you would have to be in JUNIOR education for 40 yrs before you could be in 'danger' and that most abductions were actually interfamilial, and the system they had would not prevent that, suddenly I was a lunatic? and finally - one for a laugh - the academy - locked doors, security fences etc etc as they all have now - refused entry to a County appointed NHS school nurse -' because she was not on their list'

I am still bemused why this county retains a 3 tier education system?? waiting to be shot down re next comment ... ahem -- here goes - the child at 14 had only one 'choice' of school and that was an 'academy' --after visiting said 'academy' and her spending some weeks there - we had to think long and hard about it. When the presentation that parents are given (death by PowerPoint) has many spelling and grammatical errors in it (and I was at school with the deputy head) - and when her homework is copy and paste (and very out of context for the work allotted) we bit the bullet and put her into the private system. Amazing !! we get reports every week - the day is from 8:45 until 4:45 - the staff are there from 7am until at least 7pm daily and often later! they have a full time nurse (ITS NOT A SPECIAL SCHOOL) and we as a family have full use of the school facilities in our own time 365 days a year (93 acres of grounds) I know that this will have a lot of folk up in arms --and can understand that - we are not privileged and the cost is horrendous, but you do what you can for your children. At one time we had Bedlington. Ashington, Blyth, and Morpeth Grammar schools within the catchment area - and the 11 plus and the 13 plus were actually great social levellers. (ok I will accept an accusation of bias as I went to king Edwards) Now it all seems to be aimed at a limnality process with complete disregard for the requirements of actual and real education that is required by the child. There are many children out there who are being let down by the 'system' because their needs are not being addressed.

I am a bit puzzled about that - an I right in thinking that many years ago S&N managed to get Newcastle Brown Ale registered as a 'regionally protected' product, in that it could only be called by that name if it was produced in NEWCASTLE. They then moved production to Dunstan and I thought at the time it was a bit odd, but now its made in Yorkshire!! I am wondering if they conveniently forgot about that??? (mind you Guinness was bottled at the Vaux brewery in Sunderland and Theakstons was being brewed at the old S&N brewery in Newcastle)

seem to think it was less than 100 yards

totally agree with you mercury - what I think has been lacking is the foresight to embrace this and make the area viable -- build the infrastructure and the services and provide local employment

looks a bit like the 'apus' app interface - nice idea, although does it have the user options to organise the 'cards'? (that last android update has screwed so many tablets!!)

sweet potatoes, yams, aubergines and yeast??? and how much 'wind' could that combination produce?? enough to power a turbine and electricity for 200 homes !!! but I know what you mean. we are very rural and its never easy to get certain things. might seem a bit radical - but I consider it ethic cleansing of the rural communities by withdrawal of services and access to facilities -- post offices - libraries - medical care (cottage hospitals) etc. etc. try harry laidlaws at double row at new Hartley -- excellent produce at damn good prices - but another example of having to travel e.g. a penalty on local communities by imposing expense of travel. ( to renew my driving licence I would have to do a 80 mile round trip to use the 'streamlined service! - and to buy a lottery ticket is 16 mile return) look at the incident at Berwick last Friday when a young man dies and was 35 mins for an ambulance to arrive and afore that Christmas at Norham -- 31/2 hours for an ambulance and it had to come from Scotland. The main concern is the insidious erosion of local services at all levels - but you made a very valid point about what might seem luxury items - its the gradual ingress of 'centralisation' and 'profit margins' which have driven the local retailer out of business. perhaps a revue of business rates would help local economies for the 'small' trader.

I miss DOS -- oh no I don't , its still there!!!!

my grandfather died peacefully his sleep - unlike the passengers in his car who died screaming in an inferno of ignited petrol (sorry that was sick!!)

I am a total luddite and am aghast at what I see as lazy, sloppy coding!! feel free to shoot me down -- but XP was stable and worked and afore that you could get a whole word processer on a floppy disk !! - now you need multi gb just to rub a browser!! they seem to have taken moores law (every 18 month speeds double and price halves) and subverted it to promote sales of something that really isn't realistically necessary - but of course increases at a huge rate by building in redundancy. And touch screens ?? (ok bad grammar ) but do you really think that sticky paws on screens prolong the life of said article ? and of course there's nothing better than a screen covered in the remains of kebab or jam sandwich!

Woodhorn has been promoted over and above many other things for so long - lottery funding etc and the archives being put there. fair enough to make something out of a derelict site and the archives are an incredibly useful asset - but I suspect it was partly because they needed to justify the use of the buildings etc. although I am perplexed as to why they ploughed money into yet another industrial park aside the spine road before the hospital 'to create employment and retrain skilled workers' - (why did they need retraining if they were skilled ??) when most of the units nearby are empty!! The Bedlington picnic was the big event - I seem to think (and most likely wrong) that it was one of the big national events (and I don't mean politically) as the showmen used to turn up as one of their main stops in the north, and then was it the Durham event and then the town moor or the other way round?? Bedlington was always the best location due it being unique in having such massively wide high street. (I have a particular problem at the moment with the council as my mother is - shall we say possibly terminal - at 86 after a heart op and a stroke and the council seem to have not only sold one of her grave plots and buried someone else there -- (she bought 3 when my gran died) but the council have failed to respond to any of my correspondence since I raised the issue in June last year. I think the national press is the next step - particularly on the back of the debacle at the Berwick cemetery (sorry if that was a rant) There are huge amounts of land available in Bedlington for development without impacting on the environment and the population has changed vastly over the decades - there is a skilled young base of people with ability that have to commute to work - working locally is the way the council should look to - and it is very 'green' - less strain on the transport infrastructure (moor farm isn't gridlocked?? nor is the A1 after Gosforth in the mornings?)

the Millions had a son called Christopher and I was at school with at choppington primary -- (that's choppington as in Scotland gate to avoid any confusion!!!)

always amused me over many many visits to the city hall - the acoustics were just as you would expect -- like a city baths!!! although many happy nights there -used to start at the carriage then the city tavern - city hall then the biker pub in the haymarket (pulled down now and I cant recall the name!!! - not the percy) and if you had too much snakebite you could always go for a fight in the farmers!! the trent house used to have some decent stuff on - but who can forget the mayfair?????????? Cream, the Who ect etc - although I did see the Stones at St James Park, the support was the J Geils Band who were actually better

best of luck with the project!! we managed several very successful years and won a few 'gold' -- its the watering that can cause the problems, just have a careful planting plan.

i vaguely recall one of the 'Millions' had something to do with the chapel that next to the shop? (I went to sunday school there) and I do recall that they kept loads of firewood etc at the back of the shop.

I am thinking that it was owned by Jimmy Milne at one time -- his book -- ;No shining Armour' makes fascinating reading. I recall my first 'illicit' film at Bedlington station -- was 'tarzans greatest adventure' and nom it wasn't that exciting

I seem to recall that the seats had ashtrays on the backs and in the picture house at Ashington (the one opposite the old hospital) it had double seats in the back row?

and those bizarre triangular packs of juice -- 'jubbly's'???

Symptoms.. you are spot on re the info -- during the 'cold war' there were many area depots where emergency 'civil defence' equipment was kept and that was one of them. the basic idea was that the mobile column would bugger off to the hills if it looked like a nuke was going to be dropped and come back when it was safe and try to restore what was left of civilisation. the scenario of a bomb drop was worked out very carefully and the zones of radiation for different megatonnage was plotted if it should happen. the general populace would be left at home as all petrol stations would be closed and held by armed guards. roads would also be closed. strange thing was about the mobile columns was that they selected young fit folk for them and trained them -- i.e. breeding stock.

I recall Mr Hall and his house. (the site is the 'new' house that is there which was built by a builder who also had the club buildings at Red Row). Mr Hall had a harmonium in the loft. I believe he was responsible for redesigning the market place at some time. He had a huge Pyrenean mountain dog. When his wife died he caused a bit of a stir as he wanted to have her buried in the garden - in the air raid shelter as a mausoleum!!!! He was educated at Morpeth as far as I recall. A bit further up the bank past the masonic lodge was a house owned by Joicey - he was an engineer and designed and sold the 'Joystripper' which was a clever bit of kit for stripping the copper sheath from fireproof cabling. He moved up to Widdrington and turned the pit head buildings into a workshop and house. his son, Phil, lives down south now and is a solicitor.

I used to go there by train!!

just looking back over the thread re the chapel at Choppington Station - there is a jpg attachment on the 7th post on here - halfway down the bank on the right side you can see the chapel with the wall and elder tree growing over it (no the pic isn't that good to id the tree - I remember it - same as the lilac tree across the road from the Railway tavern. hope that helps

To me Scotland gate was always starting from the post office opposite what was the club (Scotland gate club in fact) to Tates shop and down to the prefabs. peas bush seems vaguely familiar but I just cant place it. I recall that that on the roadway to the pit which was just after the Travellers was the miners welfare club and institute and opposite it was a showmans guild site. Rices chip shop was opposite Tates shop where the greenlay shop is (I think it is greenlay - or was - it sold mowers etc )

well all I can say is -- if farage (or his minions) cant work out how long it will take him to get somewhere how the feck can he run a country?? the Al Murray vote still has appeal

the more of this type of thing I see - the more I would vote for Al Murray --after all he cant make more of an Ar** of it than most -- and he has to be better than Farage