(The) Lairds House

[Eileen]

No one ever mentions the Lairds House, does anyone know when it was built and who for? Is it true the buildings nest to it including the post office were servants quarters, and the building at the back of the post office stables? Does anyone have any stories about it and the people who have lived there? 

[tonyg]

Lairds House, it was built in 1777 the Marshall family left the house in the 1870s and the Bedlington  Coal company leased the property after 1934 the property became the Doctor Pit manager house  the coal company gave up the lease in 1954 the house  was sold to  Jimmy Millne'

[threegee]

That's pretty good Tony, you even corrected the currently increasingly propagated mistake of calling it "The" Lairds House.  The 1777 date above the front door is in fact the rebuild date. There was a farmhouse on the site since 1500 odd, or so I was told.  At one time there was probably only The Old Hall and this farmhouse on the ridge, all the rest came later.  One interesting fact is that before Glebe Road became the main road North, the road actually went through here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=55.131211,-1.597446&spn=0.000911,0.002275&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=55.131199,-1.59726&panoid=TZ31GBuLg4QKsYEt26Hm_g&cbp=12,14.08,,2,5.08  ..so they've subconsciously put the sign post in just the right place! Maybe there's an ancient ley line or something just there?   My source for this (and much else) would be old Bill Ayton, who spent a lifetime as the gardener.

 

The "building at the back" is only a tiny part of what was there before the 1960's vandalism that engulfed all of Bedlington.  There was a cottage facing East/West immediately behind the Post Office, and a lot of buildings, including stables and kennels running North/South adjacent to Foggan's Yard.

I think you can probably find references to Earl Marshall by doing a search engine search.  Technically it wasn't occupied by the colliery manager, I was told that it was the BCC "Coal Agent" (though maybe this was splitting hairs), and I was told he oversaw both collieries. The last coal related occupant was maybe a Mr Cruddas (sp?), but the famous one would be R.J.Weeks.  There's a reference to him here: https://www.mininginstitute.org.uk/library/definitions/Bedlington.html  Some research there would maybe enlighten everyone.

 

Now I'm open to correction too!

[tonyg]

i have the whole history of it. i just put that down to get the ball rolling'

[Eileen]

Thank you tonyg and threegee,  its a shame more people in Bedlington don't know what wonderful historic buildings we have, and walk past them everyday not knowing what stories these buildings have to tell. I look forward to finding out more.

[Reedy]

Picture of Mr Charles Cruddas (centre) at a presentation of 50 year certificates. He was the manager at Doctor pit from the late 1930s. Could this be the Cruddas mentioned in the earlier post.

[threegee]

Picture of Mr Charles Cruddas (centre) at a presentation of 50 year certificates. He was the manager at Doctor pit from the late 1930s. Could this be the Cruddas mentioned in the earlier post.

 

Magic!  Almost certainly.  I'm not sure about the spelling, but neither, it seems, is the caption on the photo.

 

He'd be the last resident at Lairds House under the coal company.  I seem to remember old Bill Ayton grumbling there there were a couple of small canon each side of the back door belonging to the house, who's disappearance coincided with his residence or vacation of the property.  Bill showed me the places where they'd stood.  I can't remember who Bill named as the exact culprit, though he was rather scathing about them, and seemed to take the loss personally. It was, I think, relatives of Mr C. and not the guy himself.