Symptoms

Could be East Riggs ... perhaps a census enumerator wrote it down incorrectly (it happened often!).

George 'Geordie' Hemming's wife taught music at Westridge during my time there (61 to 67). If she wasn't a 'qualified' teacher then she would have been an 'instructor'; back then you could teach in schools as an instructor. The reference to "Assistant Schoolmaker" in the 1939 Register was probably an entry mistake (very common) ... it probably should be "Assistant Schoolmaster" and his wife down as "unpaid domestic duties" just means 'housewife'. Mr Hemmings taught Geography and French. Every year, at the end of the Summer Term, he would arrive at the school with his caravan hitched to his car ready for a quick getaway for his touring holidays in France. Oh, in Geography he had this technique for drawing 'cartoon' outline maps of different countries on the blackboard ... I loved this trick and still employ it even after 50 years!

And ... what about Nigel Farage alleged 'get rich quick scheme' - hedge fund betting against the pound on the night of the referendum? Shysters, the lot of them!

Eggs ... sorry for delay in replying. The banner was commissioned in 1949 by the Bedlington 'A' Colliery Combined Levy Fund Committee; the pit was also known as Sleekburn 'A' and originally the 'Auld Pit' when the first shaft was sunk in back in1838. So, it's the same pit ... perhaps, some of the old boys just continued to call it Sleekburn Pit after Nationalisation. West Sleekburn was a different pit, sometimes called 'The Winning' or Bedlington 'E'; its shaft was sunk in 1859. Its banner was made from silk in 1950. Hope this helps

Perhaps I'm just a pompous broadsheet faux intellectual kettled within a heaving PC crowd but, but, but ... am I the only one who is uncomfortable with 1970s humour appearing here?

Now, the important question: Does anybody here know where my old classmate Alan Temple is now as I'd love to get in contact with him?

Cor Blimey 3G!!! Normally your stuff is well researched and often with quotes from 'mainstream' sources but quoting stuff from some obscure FB page ... poo. Yep, there'll always be crackerjacks looking for a ruck but most folks on the left (including Corbs) want to 'overthrow' the vile Tories and their fellow travellers peacefully.

My money's on undercover Express and Mail reporters (easily spotted - fat blokes with back-to-front baseball caps and polished black leather shoes) kicking it all off on the demo to create the story; a bit like the Met Peelers and squaddies starting all the bother during the Miner's Strike.

For a moment I thought I'd landed on that hateful Mailonline website ... no mention there (or here) of evil Thatcher's (or shagger Major's) secret talks with Jerry & Martin. Hooray for Jezza. What a few weeks ... first the Kippers consigned to that dark place from where they were spawned and next, the vile Tory scum.

The King of Sweden ... another inbred Euro monarch! We've got Betty Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and her dim-witted brood so I must do some research to see if the Swede is from the same stock.

"Events, dear boy, events." Oh, how Theresa May must be glad her wrinkly and dementia tax is off the front page.

I was in contact with Malcolm (Allan) at the weekend about this proposed reunion and we've agreed to cancel it due to so few folks signing up to attend. There was plenty of interest here and loads of 'hits'on the http://www.westridgeschool.com website but that interest wasn't converted into a sign-ups. A few folks did want to attend (some from overseas) ... I'll be writing to them with the news.

Eggs - use my Bedlington nom de plume.

Eggs - I'm more than happy for you to spread my snaps as widely as you like but if you can apply an acknowledgement of source that would be great.

There always appears to be plenty of Peelers around when some mentally disturbed bloke gets killed in the cells. Anyway, back to knocky-door ... our version of 'remote' knocking was the black sewing thread wheeze. Bobbin of thread, tie one end the the old biddies knocked, pay the thread out to across the street, hide behind the wall/hedge opposite, tug, slacken the tread when the door gets opened, repeat, repeat, repeat. What a laugh! We were just kids!!!!

HPW - my woof's just the same as yours ... hours spent on the beach (most days) with ball thrown dozens, and dozens, and dozens of times into the surf, soaked woofa emerging to gallop through the sand, then back into the water. A walk home, hose the sand off the woof, then off she goes running around the garden getting covered in clarts. Out with the hose again, then in it comes to dry off in front of the stove and falls asleep. Now to get some work done ... only for it to wake up and demand more fun and games. Mind, I wouldn't change a thing (it's watching me now out of one eye ready to interrupt this typing task) - yep, here we go!

HPW - that last post of yours has confused me ... who got murdered and who did the murder? Have I missed something?

Oh, dear! Ted will now have to keep looking over his shoulder in case the Peelers grab him. No Statute of Limitations for arson in Blighty.

I too have been caught by the Forum's word thief in the distant past. If I intend to write anything long here now I create it in Word (or any free text editor will do) then copy & paste it to here; if anything goes wrong here then the original is safe in the text editor or has been saved elsewhere. Mind, I tend not to write reams any more so just work 'live and dirty' here and run the risk (a bit like unsafe sex ... ).

Mrs Sym insisted that I watched it last night (free via Kodi on the telly) ... both of us agreed at the end that we'll never get those hours back. Simply an awful film and the leads no Fred Astair or Ginger Rogers; yep, they had the dance steps but it was wooden - all a bit 'Dad dancing'.

Here's the link to the "Battle of the Bastards" in The Game of Thrones (it's in two parts, so let it run on at the end of part 1; part 2 will start automatically): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsFeIVJfKsA Enjoy ...

Maggs - I'll not be getting my juices tested 'cos I'm sure that at some stage the Peelers will hack into those Ancestry DNA results and Sym'll get his 'collar felt' and 'fitted-up' for some bank job back in the 70s. I'll break under questioning as the phone book is being applied to my lugholes and name Maggs as the 'brains' behind the operation and HPW as the getaway driver.

HPW wrote: " Templars....?!........maybe....eh Sym?!!....... " Yep, all those fellas and much further back ... Mind, the other strands on Sym's bloodline don't make for happy reading ... escape from the Irish Potato famine to work in the Cumbrian iron ore mines, deaths in those pits, walking over the Pennines for work in the Durham coal fields when the iron ore ran out. Others were the Jocko fishermen from the Outer Hebrides settling in Shields. The real nightmare for Sym is all that Jocko blood flowing though his tubes with the only relief being that it's been diluted by Norman juices from "1066 and all that". Some amazing characters have cropped-up in the Sym Saga and there's still more to do. Maggs, you're right, once you start you can't stop the research.