bluebarby

I have had loads of blackberries from the sides of the 'toxic tip' and enjoyed all of them in all sorts of pies and crumbles. So what? You glow in the dark for a day or two after you have eaten them but you get ower it!

These pictures were taken in 1960 believe it or not.

I am quoting myself here! Well as promised here are the photos of the viaduct that took the railway up to the pits. Hope it is appreciated 'cos they took some finding!

This is a photo of the Francis Pit near the 'lonnen' at Netherton. I have never seen another but surely there must be one. It was taken with my first camera and I was attending Stalag Luft Guide Post so that makes it about 1956. Sorry about the quality but a Lord Snowden I aint!

The description of the lonnen or wagon way as I knew it as has been pretty accurately described I have mentioned elsewhere that I must have walked up it countless times, mostly in the dark and after midnight after missing the last bus! I learned how to ride a bike then a motor bike and a car down there.But it wasn't until I be came interested in early railways and waggonways that I looked at it in a different light and realised we had early 1800's technology on the doorstep. Starting from Bells ranch end it drops steadily around a gentle left hand curve past where the Francis pit was and by this time it is level. It straightens out then turns a rather sharp right hand bend again on the level and crosses the culvert over the Green Letch. Just before the top 'powder fund' (as we knew them. There were two the other was at the bottom about half way) there is a fairly sharp drop on the concrete part but not on the verge next to the powder fund, the verge remained a steady fall. Why? Well, when looked at closely, had the levels for the full waggons been kept at a steady fall between Bells ranch and the Sunniside houses it would not have suited either the horses nor the leaders as there was insufficient fall to keep the wagons moving and at the same time the leader would have to keep coupling and uncoupling the horse. The use of the sharp dip therefore was as an accelerator ramp that would give the full wagons enough momentum possibly to reach as far as the Sunniside houses without coupling up the horse again. Probable load would be 3 or possibly 4 loaded chaldron wagons of 53cwts each net. Different coming back with the waggons chum however where a gentle slope was required hence the difference in levels between the concrete road and the verge. Why not concrete the verge instead of the slope? the verge only needed to be the width of a wagon and the verge didn't go from top to bottom only past the sharp dip which suggests that there was a passing place and the wagon way was single track. Could there have been a dandy cart for the horse? This is speculation but there is a good chance that there was. Finally the wagon way was laid with horse drawn Bedlington Iron Works fish bellied malleable rail, how do I know that? Because I have a 15ft length of it from the waggonway on my back garden!

From the information I have read it was 'next to the cross'. But it wouldn't surprise me if Jimmy Milne had something to do with it. Shame they did not have class photos then but with my luck the day they were taken the school would have had a note from his mam saying she was keeping off 'cos he had measles!

Thank you mercuryg I have a feeling I am going to enjoy writing them, and why not?

Just a bit of an after thought, just imagine what Dan Gooch could have achieved with a Westridge education.......................

Not quite Chief Engineer, Brunel would not have put up with that! Initially he looked after the engines that Brunel had already ordered to his own specifications. Brunel was many things but one thing he was not was a mechanical engineer. His locos were rubbish and that is putting mildly, just like his Great Eastern engines. But just why he decided to knock out his own loco's spec instead of ordering ready made ones from Bobby Stephenson’s outfit at Forth Street is a mystery (Gooch learned his trade there as a draffie long before he met Brunel) and loco building by this time was a well known technology. Anyway poor ol’ Dan stood no chance and the GWR directors were non to chuffed with this state of affairs. He came very close to getting his P45. So what did he do? He did what any other Bedlingtonion would do in the same circumstances, he shopped the gaffa! Brunel was not too chuffed about it but it got Brunel off Dans back. Only one loco was worth talking about and that was the North Star (and even that did not conform to Brunel's specification but they had picked up on the cheap from Forth Street) it was a standard loco for the time and built by non other than Robert Stephenson & co. So what does Dan do? He uses his draffie skills, draws it up and emails the drawings to the family concern in Bedlington and calls the new engines Fireflys. Dan then is recorded as visiting Bedlington supposedly for a night or two on the beer with his old mate George Marshall, I don't believe it. I think he was up collecting his back handers from Longridge, and the rest, as they, say is history! In fact pulling Brunel out of the clarts became a bit of a habit. The South Devon for instance when Brunel got himself in a bit of a pickle with atmospheric propulsion it was good ‘ol Dan who got him out of bother, again, at a price of course. Dan wouldn’t charge a penny where a pound would do or two pound fifty in the case of Brunel. His selling of coal from his own pits to himself and charging the GWR for shifting it was classic. Ah, don’t you just love history?

Not quite the wrong track. The footballer was Jimmy Adamson from Ashington and played for Burnley, later managed Sunderland for a while. His uncle had Adamson's shop opposite the Wharton pub and Fullatons shop at the top end.

Ah, now I see where you are coming from, well I too have had a run in with socialism. 1960/61 I delivered papers for one Raymond Watson from his Glebe bank shop. Up at 6, Shop at half past, 1st delivery at 7, home at 8.15 then school, Westridge at 9, 5 days a week. A 'lang lie' till 7 on a Saturday and Sunday off. Great, all for the princely sum of 35s a week. I worked the West Lea, North Ridge and old folks cottages run 'til Christmas 1960 and then the Netherton / Nedderton one after that. Red House Farm wasn't there then. Just down from the shop at West lea, before the store shifted from the colliery, was a few houses, two with front doors together. One got the Daily Herald - (remember that paper?) And the other got the Daily Worker. The Daily Worker bloke taught the 'fiddle'- that is if you vote labour or the 'violin' if you vote anything else. I used to deliver the Daily Herald then stick my arm through the hedge and push in the Daily Worker next door, sometimes I did it the other way round just for a change. One day, after shoving in the Daily Herald I found the recipient of the Daily Worker had put a bit of pen wire, (chicken wire if you are posh) just far enough so that I could not deliver either paper through the hedge and meant I had two garden paths to walk up. That, my friends, finished me with socialism and boy, every time it rained 'he that taught the fiddle' got a very wet Daily Worker and sometimes a wet one when it wasn't raining. But I digress, come on Threegee, all was done and dusted before Gooch sailed in 1865 and voting was not the same then as now and neither was the political system. It was a totally different era with totally different values. Gooch never made a speech in parliament and just could not handle the life style changes of the time. It is hard to believe such a guy could vote against 7 year olds working underground - good for him - unless of course the seams were thin!!!!!!!!! He was as big a rouge as George Hudson, like Hudson he fiddled the odds of he time and got the Great Eastern for a song. No, such stupidity as calling the facility at Ashington after 'Brunnel' is totally down to the lack of us - yes US - educating our children as to just who they are and where they come from. I think it is called heritage and it matters not one jot what your political affiliation is, it is simply pride in where you come from. If it were not for the likes of this website our children would not know the difference between 'Rocket's' boiler and 'Treasure Island' Chartists, left wing plots, Gooch's paternalism and your ranting for heavens sakes have no place in the 21 hundreds Have a good day............................

Sorry, but you have totally lost me here!

When?

Being a new guy on the block I find this topic very interesting but so much missed out regarding the railway front. The area has its share of famous people, Stephensons, Gooch, Birkinshaw, Longridges especially. So why oh why has the new facility at Ashington Tech been called The Brunnel Building? After a little half Frenchie who only ever set foot north of the Tyne once in his life and never engineered anything north of Watford? Sad, sad, sad..................

When the 'store' burned down it was no longer a store. The 'store' bit was occupied by a local engineering company Beatie and Simm. The first manager of the new store opposite the 'tute' was George Todd, later a liberal councillor for Wansbeck Council. Still very much an active man and I was at a lunch do with him just last week. Next time I see him I will get some dates.

That brings back memories! Between the railway and the Willow Burn there was an area that we always knew as the golf course, was it ever a golf course? I have a drawing some where of the wooden viaduct that the railway to the Pit went over.

Going towards Bedlington after the gates to the stables was another row of houses that extended to where the Netherton waggon way crossed the road these were called Sunnyside for some reason. I used to get off the No3 bus from Ashington tech then walk up the waggon way home after a pint in the Lord Clyde. I remember the barman in there towered above me and I am over 6ft! I had a look over the bar to see if he was stood on something! Can't remember the name of the second pub though.