Keith Scantlebury

I was just looking through some of the older content when i came accross this. Between Johnsons shoe shop and Carricks the bakers there is a door, this lead into a yard where there were 2 houses #5 and #6 Market Place.We lived in #5 when i was a kid. we moved in about 1958 and moved out about 1965/6. This palace had a sittng room a scullerry and a bedroom. No hot water, no bath and had an outside bog. This was home to a family of 6 till we got a 3 bed council house in Waverley ave, a mansion in comparison. Looking at the photo I am struggling [like many] to put a date to it, but I can remember what it was like before the photo. Next to the bakers was the bank and next to that was the butchers . My dad worked there before he whent to Netherton pit for more money but still worked part time for Billy Miller as a butcher/slaughterman. Going the other way [as much as I can remember] was the Howard Arms, Milnes shop [later the co-op Milne house] The rest consisted of the old post office [Mrs, Potts] Joe Alsopp [the barber] Mrs Gates chipp shop and Peter Bacci's cafe/sweet shop was on the end next to the entrance to the neuk. The house may have been a dump but the memories of living there are happy ones. Brilliant place to live on picnic day , for instance, and when the shows were in Milnes field for whit weekend we just louped the back wall. Shool was just over the road [the village infants, then the whitley] We always got a warm buttered bun from the back door of the bakers for nowt on the way to school.

Would have thought that Netto staff would be transferred under T.U.P.E. regulations [unless they were offered redundancy by Netto -or Asda ]

Graduates first words at work after leaving uni "Would you like relish with your burger sir? "

Hope youre right. Travelling arround the country i did see a lot of retail parks etc. Its seems that what the big supermarkets want, they eventually get. Just look at Inverness, not a big place by any means, they have THREE large tesco stores and TESCO wants to build another

Think you're right it must be about 1973 [pos a little earlier] when it closed. My dad worked there 18 years. He bought a 'G' reg mk2 ford Cortina estate with some of his redundancy money and it wasn't very old at the time.

ASDA in process of buying NETTO UK. Word is they are to pull down NETTO at Bedlington and neighbouring buildings and build an ASDA store on stilts similar to the one at Ashington.

Did you see picture of what it should look like in yesterdays JOURNAL? Looks more like the outside of an airport terminal. It will just be a huge nail in the coffin of yet another small market town centre Half the folk shopping there wont even show up let alone spend money in other parts of the town [thats shopping on line for you] They may as well just build a warehouse/distribution centre in the current car park with access for their own vehicles ....... and if ASDA get their way, who knows "BEDLINGTON,SOUTH NORTHUMBERLANDS VERY OWN RETAIL PARK"

The wife worked behind the bar at the time [RED LION afternoons TOP CLUB nights and Sundays] The band was called PRISM they changed it to that from being called STAG. We can remember Brian Johnson and Angus Young from AC/DC coming in to see them one Sunday morning [stripper day] They got on stage with them and belted out Route 66 ............. by the way the strippers werent bad either.

HELLO ALL I'm Keith Scantlebury, fat, ugly, idle and useless [well thats how my wife HELEN describes me] Most of my background is in dairy farming [not a lot of those in Bedlington] Grew up in Bedlington, attended Marton Boarding School 67-71 and Northumberland College of Agriculture [Kirkley Hall]76-77 Helen and i moved away to work in 1977 . Packed up farming in 1995 and moved back to Bedlington.

The Wade family were farmers. The farmhouse was behind where that large house is being built now which is actually in what was the garden/orchard. The Muters operated the pop business at Liddles st Bedlington Stn [James transport were there at the time too] S&M auto's are there now. I am sure one of the Muters was a founder member of Bedlington & District Motor Club as was [among others] my father Jack Scantlebury.