Keith Scantlebury

Well done Keith (and missus) my wife decided to stop when we were trying for child number 1 and hasn't touched or craved a cigarette since (5 and a half years ago), drink however well that's a different matter

Thanks Andy. We had a little help from the Chemist but willpower is still needed. I bottled some wine yesterday and got stuck into some last night. I was worried that the taste of drink would trigger the craving for a tab, but I was fine. Just goes to show that it was more to do with people smoking arround you [before the ban] in pubs that made you crave a tab rather than the taste of the drink. [although I must say that I smoked helluva lot more while drinking wether it was at home or in the boozer].

Happy birthday Keith, Hope you have a good'un.

Thanks Malcolm.

No chance of me buying them, but my wife would!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh I've not had a tab for 6 weeks me and the wife both stopped together after 35 years on them...... now and then could kill for one. ARRRRRRRRRRGH

i am from bedlington i left 41 years ago . i am trying to find out what year it closed . could you tell me please ./

It was converted into a veterinary surgery in 1968. Dont know exactly when pub closed though

I have spoken to quite a few French farmers and when I asked what they thought about EU rules which should have stopped them doing what they were actually doing they all said they only stuck to the EU rules which made economic sense for them!

Also speaking to a cross section of continental businesses, small local ones mainly, they said the same, the EU is there to provide them with profit not regulation!

I have long since thought we must have some deep ingrained masochistic tendency within the British psyche because it seems we are the only member state beating ourselves over the back with EU regulations!

Yes Malcolm, would this be the French farmers that would be at the port with their second best tractor helping the French fishermen to blockade the said port in protest against the E.U. regulations that dont make economic sense to them. While they are doing this, farmer Smith who lives and works in beautiful Devon is sitting at the breakfast table, shaking his head, reading about "The froggy militants" spoiling it for all of us, then sends his wife off to the post box with a cheque to pay his fine for working too hard the previous year. Now, which one of those need their heads read.

I used to work for an A.I. [cattle breeding] company and part of the job was to take farmers to Europe, mainly Italy but also France,Holland and Germany.We would take them to the major Holstein shows in each country, but we would visit many farms so that they could inspect the progeny of the bulls we used. No matter which country we were in ,when the C.A.P. was mentioned, the "european" farmers would

physically laugh out loud at their U.K. contempories. Without exception they would tell us that U.K. farmers are too soft, and too afraid of our own government and we are only too content to be the beating boys of the E.U.

The same applied to quotas. When we would stick as close as we could to our allocated milk quota, the Italians [among others] would carry on producing milk regardless. This country would spread the superlevy among the U.K. producers and they would simply cough up. The Italians would simply tell their government to get stuffed and the government would just pay the superlevy and the farmers would carry on producing milk regardless.[and get paid for it]

I think being called the beating boys of the E.U. is quite a polite description of us. Please feel free to post more accurate descriptions of us that would amuse our european partners.

''Paid on the nail''………..for my tuppence worth…….

Probably more down to the many Bedlingtonians who made nails and were paid by product.

When Bedlington was the centre of nail production in the world of course, not that long ago!

As for The Nail, I did read there might have been a Saxon cross on the top of it, which would fit nicely with St Cuthbert etc. but trying to find out when it was put up is another thing!

Fascinated with the Boris Karloff story Keith any more to tell?

Afraid thats all I can remember about Boris Karloff, but the real character was Ned Metcalfe, he was a brilliant bloke, well I thought so anyway. He used to spend a lot of time in our garden, and his, with my dad. Threegee may know a little more about him though, whith being involved with the Gardeners Arms

Threegee, when did the Gardeners close, do you know? Reason why is , I was delivering in Inverness earlier this year and believe it or not an old guy [he must have been well over 80] came up to me after seeing the address on the cab door, and asked where I from. He was from Bedlington and moved up there in 1960 the Gardners was the only place he would drink in and he looked absolutely devasted when I told him, among other things, that the Gardeners was long gone, but for the life of me I cannot remember when it actually shut.

Try James'. He still has a coal round dosn't he ?

William Gooch was Governor of Virginia. Not sure why half of Bedlington would be expected to know that

Now Sir Daniel Gooch, that's another matter.

ha-----HEM............ Just testing

Ask half the poulation of Bedlington and they wouldn't be able to tell you who William Gooch was Andy. Thats the first Iv'e heard of the origins of "Paid on the nail" , I must admit. All I'm saying is, if asked, people should say where they are from, not , near here or close to there. If you are from Bedlington, say so. If it bothers you that they don't know where it is, let them ask you. Just don't say near Newcastle and be done with it.

Does anybody remember The Gardeners arms?.

I was looking back on some previous topics today and was reading with interest about Bedlingtons claims to fame and how Bedlington could best be promoted throghout the world to bring in visitors

Camille continued on the theme of the Bedlington terrier and how it may have been created because of a bet in the Gardeners Arms. I do not know if that is how the Bedlington actually came into being what it is today [ I know it was bred fom a Rothbury Terrier] but she is possibly not too far away with her facts.

As I have mentioned before, I used to live in the market place when I was a kid. On [very odd] occasions my dad used to take me with him to the Gardeners Arms on a Sunday morning. The landlord was a friend of my dads , he was a character called Ned Metcalfe. Ned was a prominent and well respected breeder of Bedlington terriers and he bred them in kennels behind the pub. [behind front st. east]. Ned and I shared a birthday and he used pull me a "special" pint [1/2 a very weak shandy]

On one such occasion, I could only be about 6 or 7 years old, the Gardeners was a bit busier than normal and a few of the "strangers" were very well dressed. Ned introduced us to a couple called Bill and Evie, Bill was a breeder of Bedlingtons and was here to take one or two away down south and maybe to America he said. This guy, Bill, I remember, was the perfect gentleman and seemed very popular [i remember being a bit peeved at not getting my normal attention from Ned], probably because he bought more than his fair share of rounds. Also I remember telling my dad that the bloke gave me the creeps, Bill heard me and broke into hoots of laughter.

I later found out that this couple were none other than Boris Karloff [real name William Pratt] and his wife Evie. I know he came back to the Gardeners a few times in the 60's before he apparrently became crippled with arthritis, then he used to send someone else.

On the point of promoting Bedlington, it would help if some people would actually admit to coming from here when asked where they come from. Where ever I have been in this country, or abroad , if someone asked where I came from I would proudly say BEDLINGTON then let them ask where bedlington is and then I would tell them that it is a small town in Northumberland. I saw Jayne Middlemas being interviewed on telly not long ago and she told the interviewer that she was from "near Newcastle". Yet Ross Noble told an audience on t.v. that he came from Cramlington. Could be that Ms Middlemass feels that Bedlington is not up there with the best places to come from , unlike Ross Nobles Cramlington or the Charlton brothers' Ashington.

everyone seems happy! funny how a bit snow can ruffle people up so much!

at the end off the day its here deal with it!

Snow? what snow? somebody got snow like?

Spoke too soon, small snowploughs just been through my estate!!!

Although it might have taken the top off the dammed speed hump right outside my house!

Couldn't agree more with your second point Claire.

Point him this way Malcolm, tell him to look for a fat git with a red fleece on [me] and dig him out

How about those people on the dole who are nice and warm in their houses going out and clearing some of the snow for their money!

Or if everyone in their own street cleared outside their houses it would make things a bit better. Get some community spirit going.

The thing is Claire some people have had a bollicking for clearing up themselves. They apparrently throw the snow to the wrong place, someone might "fall over it" and make a claim for injuries recieived.

As for all of those people on the dole, I am one of them. I am out of work through no fault of my own and claiming benefits for the first time in almost 40 years. I am far from proud of that fact and I am doing my utmost to find work. So as far as "earning my dole money" is concerned, I feel that all of the contributions I have paid over the years could be helping me through a [ hopefully short] but difficult time. What I do object to is being put into the same categorie as those who make a carreer out of signing on every week [and seem to do well out of it]

Sizsells,

I am not trying to promote excuses for NCC only pointing out what I think are relevant financial constraints. At the end of the day NCC decides where it spends its revenue and there are plenty of regular NCC 'lurkers' reading these boards who can and should be answering the questions! I really do think we are going to have to make difficult decisions in the near future as to what gets funded out of local taxes.

As for councillor Armstrong, his ward is at Cramlington so he should be well aware of the problems hereabouts! As a point of interest he is also the 'portfolio' holder who will be responsible for things like the introduction of parking charges here, when they come, so he is really popular anyway!

Keith,

Is it just me but doesn't all these dammed speed humps mean snow ploughs couldn't operate on the estate roads anyway?

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I would have thought they would make it very difficult for them to say the least,as with the chicane type traffic calmers.

I would also hazard a guess as to one reason why the estates are not a priority anymore, speed humps. Could equipment or the humps themselves get damaged? We have not seen the speed humps or the kerbs on our estate since the middle of last week, [i know we aren't the only ones in Bedlington not to]

Malcolm,

I do agree with with what you say, you can't please all of the people all of the time and there will always be some of us that will feel hard done by. But, as I said a little while ago, well before the snow came, all councils should expect the winters to be like last winter, that way they should be better prepared. I have delivered salt to councils up and down the U.K., Many of them have these new dome shaped salt barns and i have never seen a full one yet, a lot of them are being used to store other equipment not related to the gritting of our roads.

The winter of 1983/84 saw us snowed in for 10 days. The council opened up the A69 and the military roads within a couple of days. Hexham and the villages closest to us Humsaugh, Chollerford, fourstones and Newbrough were opened up fairly quickly. We had 350 cows to milk twice a day and were throwing out nearly 800 gallons of milk daily because no-one could get to us, including a milk tanker. We were running out of feed for the livestok and ourselves as well as fuel, yet we were not a priority. Maybe it is just all my fault, I just happen to choose to live in the wrong places at the wrong times.

Heard today that N.C.C. are on top of things. All crews are out, concentrating on all A & B roads in the county. I had to google something about Bedlington the other day, apparrently Bedlington is in Cumbria, that could be why we are being ignored by N.C.C. Also heard that, by law, they are not obliged to treat roads and footpaths on housing estates. Pity help anyone who needs an ambulance or fire appliance on our estate in a hurry cos we still cannot see the kerbs, speed humps or footpaths and almost everyone was out with shovels digging cars out this morning.

Check this one out...

I could do that!

HUH, not bad but I was doing that on Tommy Mullins butchers bike in 1965 [with a full basket and flat tyres] . pmsl.

Malcolm, thats a disgrace, I totally agree. Everybody knows it should be spelt SKOOOL

Well, i've just finnished painting all the rocks in my gaden white in case the ethnic minority family next door fancy a snowball fight. :dribble:

Is that them who own Ba Ba the ethnically challenged sheep

Isn't it awful !!! The owners of the Market Tavern have obviously spent a lot of time & money on redecorating their pub, improving the look of our town. No sooner has it been done when the 'Riff - Raff' graffitti sprayers have been out ..... Why oh Why ????? Do they get some king of pleasure from this ????? Please everyone, support the Tavern and patronise them !

The thing is, that when they get caught they get away with it because they are the victims of a depraived society and they have nothinng better to do. But, if I do so much as FART in a clean air zone I will get nicked for it.... that is a guarrentee

Took me 30 mins to get from Bedlington to the A1 yesterday not a grain of grit on the road and Hartford Bank was something like Eddie the Eagle used to ski down and this was at 5.30 am........ this morning same time got to the blyth side of the bridge and the roads were a lot better but our roads are just the same........... travled to just north of Morpeth tonight and the roads leaving Bedlington are an utter disgrace where are the GRITTERS?

I used to park my wagon in the Milne car park over the weekends when I worked for a haulier from Nottingham. They complained to N.C.C. on many occasions about the lack of gritting and how difficult it was to get out to the A1 in bad weather and that a 44ton , 56' long vehicle with a 2.5 ton fork lift hanging off the back of the trailer was not the best of things to get stuck on these roads at 5 am on a Monday morning. N.C.C suggested to my employer that I should leave the truck where it was, in the H.G.V. parking bays until the weather cleared. They were not in control of the weather and it was not their fault that it snowed when none of their gritting crews were at work. My gaffer was well impressed with N.C.C's commitment to road safety.... not...

Just had a quick look at Koast Radio's web site , didn't take too long to read. I don't think I have ever read so much self righteous twaddle. The station manager Vicky Oakley [ an accountant] says she worked for the council and left because it seemed "she wasn't making a difference anymore" Seems like she was in charge of clearing snow and gritting the roads. Oh, and an accountant that is not out to make a quick buck or two, if thats true I'll eat HAY WITH A BLOODY HORSE.