Symptoms

Spot on GGG ... trashed boundary deal so maybe the Camerooon fix went in to stuff smarmy Hoooney. It amazes me how many so called bright folks get nabbed because of email/text/phone stuff. That Metcop last week using her own phone to leak to the NofW ... she was a top anti-terror Peeler yet didn't use an untraceable 'drop phone' or even a public phonebox - our safety in their hands!!!

My Grandparents lived in the Prospect Hill station* house (West Allotment) in the early-mid 1950s. Over the rear lane there was a shared outside netty for the use of 3 families ... I can recall a wooden bench with a bum-hole, the proverbial nail/string/torn News of The World combo, wooden plank door with heart-shaped vent hole in it. The Council's night soil men would come once a week and use a big long rake to drag the stuff away to the end of the building and out through a steel door. My Grandad continued to use a potty even after moving to a new house in the mid 50s but his plan was to use the contents for his leeks ... I've posted here before about this in a Leek Show thread. *Prospect Hill station was where the winching engine was for the inclined waggonway used to hump the coal trucks up from Backworth; they'd then release them down the otherside of the hill where gravity would sent them to the Tyne. The incline was still there in the 50s but obviously the tracks had long gone and even now you can see it on Google Earth.

the lone ranger wrote: "i remember the coal fire we used to toast a slice of bread on it". Of course, this classic technique wasn't restricted to folks like us here ... remember the ruling elite always got their fags to toast their crumpets by holding the toasting forks in their clenched, naked buttocks. Ah, happy days at Eton, Harrow, Winchester, et al.

Yep, there were 2, just checked here: http://www.dmm.org.uk/colleng/5709-01.htm click on the various Figs for photos & site plan.

The more I think of it I'm sure there were 2 drag lines operating. It was amazing to see them 'walk' ... I'm sure there must be film of that action somewhere.

Yep, he was at Bedders ... I was in his bucket down the hole. Below are a couple of my earlier posts about Costains. A 2007 post: "Is this the golf club built on the the old Costains opencast site (been away since the 60's)? Any prospective buyer/developer would be amazed at what was dumped in the hole before being cover over - this was in the days before the concept of environmental impact studies. Has anybody ever seen anything seeping out the ground at the river level below the site? I saw lorry loads of steel drums (contents unknown!), rubble, industrial waste, etc. being tipped. The most memorable was a huge quantity of cosmetic products, especially stuff like shampoo being left - somebody brought a load of it to Westridge School for use in the showers after PE lessons ... foam everywhere!! Probably infected loads of lads with skin infections." A 2009 post: Brilliant! Just to get some sense of scale of the drag-line buckets the Dad of a pal of mine (he was the top spark at the site in the mid to late 60s)took a few of us 'down the hole' in a Land Rover which he parked in the bucket ... there was still plenty of room at each side even after we opened all the car doors wide to get out. The Euclids in the film (tractor/trailer jobbies) I seem to remember were superceded by the mid to late 60s by those yellow American brutes ... but maybe others here have clearer memories. There was a rather interesting 'grave yard' dump for all the old & knackered tackle (including some of the types shown in the film) ... yep, it all went in the hole at the end. The explosives shed (a big red steel box) was never locked! - oh, what fun us lads had on the site. Wasn't the coal screening site at Bebside ... I seem to remember another Bailey bridge going over the road next to Jacky Reed's garage?

I sometimes get the smoke billowing in but apparently here it's due to weather occlusions ... high pressure 'holding the smoke down'. I got my chimneys swept when I moved in here and the sweep left the bagged-up soot on the hearths for me to get rid of - cheeky sod. I get them done annually but I bin the soot - couldn't put it on my garden 'cos the dog would roll in it. It bad enough that the woof rolls in steaming horse apples and seagull squits (they REALLY do honk) but I couldn't cope with soot.

I can't remember ... but at least it was one less aristo. I'm with old Mohamed Al Fayed on this one ... I reckon it was Phil The Greek who ordered the hit.

During nearly 40 years living in London I wasn't allowed to burn real coal fires due to the London Clean Air Act even though some of the houses I lived in retained the fireplaces. The place I now live in allows coal burning and as a result I light one every evening - it's all very satisfying and brings back those memories of being a kid. I've got a coal man who delivers bags of Black Diamond coal in big sacks humped on his back from the lorry just lke the old days ... sadly not the hessian jobbies of old but polypropylene ones. Crumpled newspaper, sticks, coal and a paper bleezer, but you're right about the size issue ... only Mrs Symptom's Sunday Times is the correct 'old' size; I've been meaning to get a lump of steel sheet to make a bleezer since I moved here but haven't got around to it yet so the flaming bleezer usually goes up the chimney.

Keith wrote: "...committed suicide after suffering nightmares." He'd be arrested for that these days Seriously though, perhaps the reason why Emily is such an inspirational figure to many of us is because her action was caught on film. We can access the event and bear witness unlike many other important historical figures and events.

I feel that everybody in England should have the chance to vote on the Jocko question ... I'd wager a majority would vote to chuck 'em out of the Union.

A few years ago Kathryn did a BBC2 show with The Cramlington Buggie Strangler (Sting) ... she was brilliant, he wasn't!

Palace in Bedlington Station 1963 watching It's a Mad, Mad World. The projectionist put-up one of those slides telling us that JFK had been shot ... so the phrase "you'll always remember where you were when he was topped" is true.

It probably the pointy heads doing some Seismology. They'll be using explosive charges to create seismic waves which travel through the earth which are then bounced back toward the source by the different underground layers ... sort of mapping what's below. Yep, they could be looking for gas, oil or other minerals .... Bedders the new Klondike! Or, it could have something to do with looking for somewhere to put all that nuclear waste now that Cumberland County Council have told Windscale they don't want it ... Bedders seen from deep space glowing at night.

" ... Hampstead-dwelling elites .... cosy intellectual pursuits" Just imagine 3G - all that could be ours here in Bedders. The joy which is to be had frequenting Hampstead High Street could be experienced on Front Street - folks would come from miles around.

A worky ticket? Moi? "... but if I could vote this posting down I would. " Gagging 'little old' Symptoms - poo. You know a lovely Waitrose would look great there!

Blimey Mal ... can he only afford to spend an hour in Bedders? Yep, I know MPs are busy people, what with their directorships, property empires (2nd homes), taking lots of time to 'network' so lining-up lucrative jobs for the present and when they leave the Commons.

"Light that barbie", "... stoke up your outside oven" - no wonder the place is ablaze. Don't encourage them boys and girls

Perhaps we could arrange roundal targets to be strategically positioned upon Northumberlandia's voluptuous form as aiming points.

Just in case anybody missed it I wrote the following in "The Lion Garage" thread: "Bedders needs a Waitrose ... folks would come from miles around. Waitrose would be an 'anchor store' attracting other worthy retailers and various top-notch refreshment outlets. The prices would ensure the shell suit hordes didn't infest the place resulting in a rather pleasant shopping experience for the visiting 'county set'. All could be centralised around the Market Place with Waitrose built on that empty patch at the back; obviously all those bland buildings would have to go and be replaced with nice bijou establishments. Just imagine the scene - smart couples clad in expensive designer gear promenading up and down Front Street, quaffing their cappuccinos in some pavement cafe, loading their quality groceries into their Range Rovers before heading home to their Georgian piles 'up country'. Tons of dosh being spent and plenty of work for the villagers. You know it makes sense. " Oh, if the Moderators want to 'smack my bot' for double posting I'll happily bend over and take my punishment.

Bedders needs a Waitrose ... folks would come from miles around. Waitrose would be an 'anchor store' attracting other worthy retailers and various top-notch refreshment outlets. The prices would ensure the shell suit hordes didn't infest the place resulting in a rather pleasant shopping experience for the visiting 'county set'. All could be centralised around the Market Place with Waitrose built on that empty patch at the back; obviously all those bland buildings would have to go and be replaced with nice bijou establishments. Just imagine the scene - smart couples clad in expensive designer gear promenading up and down Front Street, quaffing their cappuccinos in some pavement cafe, loading their quality groceries into their Range Rovers before heading home to their Georgian piles 'up country'. Tons of dosh being spent and plenty of work for the villagers. You know it makes sense.

Years ago on the telly I saw a programme about the tube and I recall a couple of geological facts mentioned. Imagine London as the face of a clock. Between 7 o'clock, through noon and then around to 3 o'clock London is essentially built on clay so it's relatively easy to tunnel. Between 3 o'clock around to 7 o'clock it's built on mainly gravel type stuff and so is relatively difficult to tunnel through (keep the water out). This is one reason why SE London has few or no tube lines (until recently). It was also cheaper to run surface track into SE London ... lots of it on 'elevated' track for Southern Region (or whatever they were called way back). I also think that some of the tunnels had to go down deep (one is 200ft down) to miss the numerous rivers which ran north/south into the Thames. I'm sure there must be other factors. Of course a lot of the lines are near the surface and were constructed by 'cut and cover'. Anybody here who's ever travelled on the Underground will remember the strange sensations of the movement of the carriage - up and down, left and right - as the train moves forward through tunnels that are not straight or level. Factor in the building development of SE London ... this FOLLOWED after the surface tracks were built. So all those agricultural spaces between the small villages and hamlets south of the Thames got built on

Yeh, but what sort of Rover? A Range Rover?

When I was a student I came back up to the North East for the Summer and got a holiday job in a meat processing factory on the quayside in Newcastle, this was 1970. The factory made pies and sausages for the street sellers who flogged the stuff on the streets in the Toon ... our older viewers will remember these sellers with their bicycle-powered stalls (they were really tricycles with the white painted stall at the front); swarms of them would also be seen flogging their stuff at Toon matches. Anyway, there were big open vats with gas rings below for heating the ingredients and my job was to stir the mix with a big paddle. The problem was that the factory had glass roof windows (northlights) and exposed structural steel roof supports. Quite a few of the windows were broken so the pigeons got in and roosted on the roof beams. There was a high mortality rate in this resident bird population so in the mornings on arrival at work one of my jobs was to collect the corpses and dispose of the bodies. I was told by the foreman to drop them in the cooking mix as this is what they had always done ... I worked there for three weeks. This is a true story. Needless to say that I have NEVER eaten bought pie or sausage since I was 19.

I can still remember the signal box gadgie manically rotating the wooden control wheel (it was like a big old-fashioned ship steering wheel) to open and shut the crossing gates for the passing trains. We used to dare each other to run through at the last minute before the gates clashed together ... very naughty. I don't have a clear memory of a pedestrian side-gate ... was there one?