Symptoms

Or the KKK.

KeithL wrote, "... - a little kitty found its way to my house last year and decided to stay - now it is a huge black and white beast which weighs a ton."

The Beast of Bedlington perhaps?

Spread the story far and wide and maybe Bedders will be the new Bodmin.

Being a devout and practising atheist I think these Humanist bashes are the way to go out - I've been to a few recently and they were refreshingly upbeat affairs. The God bothering jobbies are so predictable by comparison.

Golf ball ... depending how big it is - NSA perhaps. They have eyes and ears everywhere!

The Forum's resident Guardianista cannot be wound up. GGG knows full well that this Guardianista is happy that the English language should be used in all its full majesty and should never be censored (apart from self-censored maybe). However, that right to colourfully declare what most right-thinking folks see as offensive, must come with the expectation to be challenged by the 'forces of reason'.

The hypocracy of the Spanish is amazing when you consider that they were historically the biggest perpertrators of vicious world-wide military colonisation, even worse than the Brits. They even today have a couple of colonies in North Africa, namely, Ceuta and Melilla. Oh, and let's not forget the Canary Islands.

Yes ... but I'm not sure if it's available for nowt.

Here's a photo I found of the wash being done in a barrel ... the poss-stick can just be seen in the old girl's hands

Looks a bit like the 'town gas' process of old ... maybe the solid lumps left at the end could be called 'coke'.

Ancestry is an excellent site for sniffing-out your family past. I took out their 1 month free trial together with their big rival Find Your Past freebie to compare. I found a month wasn't really long enough to delve comprehensively so I had to make a decision which one to subscribe to and at the time Ancestry was a much better site with more records. I looked at their 'pay as you go' sub but decided the 'premium' sub was more useful to my needs - the thing is that once you start searching the whole thing becomes uncontrollably addictive and you realise that you've spent hours (at each sitting!!!) looking so the 'pay as you go' sub would soon mount-up. If you need certificates (birth, death, marriage) a good tip is to use Ancestry's order page but don't send it off to them as the charge twenty odd quid a cert; just use the data their order form generates to order direct from the Government's General Register Office at: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/home.asp and the certs cost £9.25. The FreeBMD site worth using as well and will generate tons of useful stuff for nowt.

I've got back to 1731on my Mum's side and still working on it; I've got back 150 years on my Dad's but I'm discovering orphans ... kids left alone after deaths in child birth and a number of fathers killed in pits. What's up-lifting is these kids being formally adopted by relatives.

Brett ... I wonder if the library edition is the 'full' version or is crippled in some way?

Adam wrote: " ... every area should have a memorial to miners who worked and died down the pits not just places in South East Northumberland but those in Yorkshire, Scotland, Wales, etc.".

When doing my Sunday trawl (see above) for images of colliery pit heads I was suprised at how many mining memorials there are in the different regions; these range from the obvious tubs through to beautiful bronze sculptures ... many funded by the local communities. Many of these memorials are dedicated to those who died in specific pit disasters/accidents rather than 'areas'.

Woodhorn would appear the have tons of resources but little of it seems to be available online ... it's 'hiding' behind a £4.25 'paywall' for EACH image. Yep, I appreciate they have to generate dosh to run the place but ....

Most folks make judgments about a person's worth based on superficial observations and what they may see in Milly is a big conk, a down-turned gob, crooked gnashers, unfeasibly lush locks, and an irritating adenoidal squawk. They can't wade past any of that to discover if he is anything other than a caricature. Steve Bell, the Guardian political cartoonist, has a brilliant take on Camaroonie ... he's rendered as a bright red condom, complete with the 'tit' on top. Oh, and always dressed in an Eton uniform.

Steve Bell has a website of his work and it's worth a visit for a laugh:

www.belltoons.co.uk/

My question about "Suggestions as to how far out from Bedders should the scope of the Memorial Site go would also be welcome." is views on which pits to include. Should we restrict it to Bedders pits A, D, E, F or cast the net a little wider but the problem is where should the boundary be? Should Blyth (Bates) for example be included and others a little further out? The original idea was for a Bedlington Memorial, not a Northumberland one.

John I'll check your site for images of pit heads ... I only did a quick look elsewhere on the web on Sunday.

Maggs, the trouble is those with deep mining knowledge have either croked or are getting their OAP; shortly there'll be nobody left who knows how to sink a shaft, work a seam, wind a cage, or any of the hundreds of skills needed. 300 years worth of coal below and even if there was a concerted drive by the Government to support deep mining there'd be no expertise left to do it.

In post #72 above I said, "I could promise here to create a 'holding' website but I don't really have enough time."

I had a couple of hours to spare on Sunday and have completed the homepage for it, however, the 'storyboard' I've done for the rest of the site requires photos of each of the pit heads (there'll be a page per pit) but I'm struggling to find images for all the pit in Bedders. I've searched quickly online and got:

Netherton Howard

Choppington A

Bedlington A & D

but need the rest ... any help to locate others would be appreciated. Clearly, any still in copyright then I'd attempt to get approval for their use.

Suggestions as to how far out from Bedders should the scope of the Memorial Site go would also be welcome.

I think that all right thinking folk would have found the previous joke funny had the venue been Royal Tumbridge Wells or Alnwick and the lad been called Kevin.

I'd ban filtered snouts and make plain tabs the only ones available. At a stroke you'd shorten the lives of the smokers and save the billions of pounds that would have to be spent on the long-term care of these wheezing and spluttering fools. There's also the added benefit of plain fag-ends, unlike the discarded filters, being completely bio-degradable, thus addressing KeithL's concerns.

Ref my earlier #331 post above (and apologies for duplicate posting in the windmill thread elsewhere ... smacked bot from Mods accepted) ...

"He's a villain Sarg."

Just to 'head off at the pass' those here who might be tempted to contradict wise old owl Sym's previous remark above ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23655994

"He's a villain Sarg."

Just to 'head off at the pass' those here who might be tempted to contradict wise old owl Sym's previous remark above ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23655994

What ALWAYS 'tips the scales' for these projects to go through is the size of the manilla envelope (stuffed with cash) being trousered by some local politicos and planners.

Oh, anywhere in Greater London you CANNOT park on any pavement unless specific permission is given and there are pavement zones marked with lines. Rules vary elsewhere in Blighty so it's worth checking locally ... someplaces it's OK, others not.

Even if it's obvious that you're parking illegally you can often 'get away with it' by doing some basic research, then applying what you've found out. Very often those responsible for the road signage and road markings will not have followed PRECISELY the guidance outlined in The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (known as the TSRGD). These documents set out the law regarding signs & marks and if they are not followed EXACTLY that will allow parking appeals to go through. So, if you get nabbed it's worth checking out the signage/markings - take photos and measurements - and if even one small thing isn't in accordance with the regs the appeal WILL be allowed.

A couple of examples: a no parking sign on a post ... even a couple of mm higher or lower than that shown in TSRGD will result in an appeal succeeding; control zone parking ... ALL access roads to the zone need signage (you'll be suprised at the number of times the signage will be displayed at the ends of main access but not at secondary access) so the appeal relies on you entering the zone via the un-signed secondary access. There are tons of examples like these.

It's worth going to the site below and downloading the docs ... they're free so there's no need to pay anything.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-signs-manual

Brilliant stuff ... but were there no editorials, comments, letters, articles - or was it all adverts?

But!!! Remember, the beasts who have all the real power are the small band of gorillas who OWN the banana plantations ... let's call them aristoapes.

I'm totally confused ...

I heard this story at the time from my cousin who was a Sergeant in the Northumberland Peelers. He had a role in leading about 20 soldiers (in cops' uniforms) in strike-breaking duties; he told my that there were about 5 Sergeants with his group, each with about the same number of troops, and all under the direct command of an Inspector. His group was based at Catterick Barracks so they could deal with North Yorkshire strikers ... the plan was never to use local plod to thump local pitmen. He said that the Met Police (London) were the worst for dishing-out violence and all the cops were on terrific overtime pay ... he made enough just from the overtime to pay for a deposit on a house.

Of course, the Met Peelers are still dishing-out hidings to the innocent.