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@stustep Yes, it certainly is but there is a connection between Dunn's the Drapers and the Gibson family. Mary Ellen Gibson, born 1852 to Henry Gibson (credited with being the founder of the chain & nail business) and his wife Mary, married draper Lewis Dunn in 1877 and left the family home (Bank House) to join her husband above the shop further up the street. She and Lewis had four children. Unfortunately, Lewis died aged about 40 years in 1885 leaving Mary a widow at the age of 33 with four children - the youngest only months old. She continued to run the drapery business until at least 1891 and possibly longer. In 1901 she and 3 of her children were once again living in Bank House together with her brother and their now frail and infirm father Henry, Be careful! It can get quite addictive!

I was a bit confused as well Vic. The place I'm talking about is shown above running from the gable-end on the left and covering the first three upstairs windows. Downstairs there's one window on the left of the entrance door followed by the windows of the bank (formerly part of the Gibson home) and the blocked entrance to the bank.This house had originally only 8 rooms and a kitchen. The ground floor plan from the 1970s includes even the adjoining building.

@stustep the photo you have posted in the above comment shows Dunn's Outfitters and they were 88 Front Street East.

Sorry folks red herring the outfitters is further up the street

I'm not too familiar with the building but are we all talking about the same place?

This is a plan of the buildings ground floor in 1970’s when it was City Vending

This is a plan of the building in 2003 just prior to the major works that were done into convert the whole property in to two dwellings … the door for number 36 is bricked up and the 38 door is now 36. It’s interesting what you’ve found about the bank as when we first looked at the house I’d heard that it was once a bank … I actually wanted to call the house The Old Bank or Conal House in time (not sure my wife agrees) but I wanted to hark back to the history of the property and remember it for what it was … in old pics of the street do we think that the building was part of Dunns outfitters at one point?… the building looks in the right place and the buildings around match? The whole shopfront went along the front of the building …. I can’t quite 100% say if it’s the same building as 36 though. im quite enjoying this historian thing!! 😄

Hoping to update The Last of the Nailers by the end of the week.

@stustep Good work Stustep! That’s saved me a great deal of research. At great risk of revealing my age I can say that I remember City Vending early 70s – or possibly even late 60s – though I thought it was a bit further down the street but could be wrong. When you talk about 34 – 38 Front Street are you referring to ’dwellings’ all in the same building, ie the building that housed the bank? I’ve come as far as 1939 and at that point the building may already have been three dwellings. Certainly, there are no Gibson’s living there in 1939. As you can see 36 now has an additional 4. This may later have become number 34. Number 38 hasn’t been there on previous documents where Bank House was the last house on the corner. However, it’s not impossible that the bank was stiil there as well. There was certainly a bank manager living there in 1936 but he was ’indisposed’ (for want of a better word) in 1939, However he was still referred to as a bank manager. More about that later. Somewhat confusing is that it’s called ”Old” Bank House – suggesting that it’s no longer a bank. However, they did have a sub-branch at Bedlington Station.

Hi everyone So I’ve been having a good old rummage through planning and t’internet the Gibson did own 34-38 front street for many years it would seem (still it got lots of history on that yet but I’m waiting for the last of the nailers article … sometime in the 70-80’s the building was taken over by City Vending and they applied for planning permission to convert the building into the commercial units offices and a new flat in about 1978… it’s unclear if this work was carried out but it remained in their hands till the early 2000’s I think during this time the whole building was called Conal House … at that point in around 2002 a builder called Mackay bought all 3 properties and made 2 homes to the front and 2 newer homes to the back 38 front street disappeared at this point from the address and the shop fronts were redeveloped and doors bricked up creating 34 and 36 front street.

Last months local history society minutes ref the Gibsons and the name of the speaker

Noting wrong at all @Tonyp. I was simply contacting stustep, via the '@' name tag method, so they could see what had been said about the property with the Blue Badge that was the initial query. The info on the other premises is good I see Canny Lass - Coming soon This is an interesting family and I've been researching them this week. I'll post soon, probably on John Dawson's thread The Last of the Nailers. It will probably be long so it may need a few posts. - looks like she has been digging on the genealogy site

Thank you all for getting in touch it’s interesting to have information about the houses and buildings nearby … I think the 2 buildings are heavily related to each other from what you all have said and what I’ve previously found out. thanks

I think stustep appreciated it

Sorry I cannot add anything to this story . The Gibsons were a local family. My family knew someone of that name but right now it is too late to ask the relevant questions . Sadly we never ask the right questions and time defeats us all in the end . A track we love starts with ‘ Will these city streets remember us we walked them long ago ! Torn apart by a bitter wind that took us far from home ‘

Just saying

Hi Alan don’t think anyone has gone off track what’s wrong with giving a new member information to there question we are just trying to help about the area where he’s new house is I would be interested never mind

Coming soon! This is an interesting family and I've been researching them this week. I'll post soon, probably on John Dawson's thread The Last of the Nailers. It will probably be long so it may need a few posts.

@stustep as you can see we have gone off track from your original query on your property with the Blue Plaque. Haven't been able to turn up any more info on who had lived in that property through the years. I wonder if @Maggie/915 has any info via the Bedlington History Society? stustep - if you are on Facebook then you could join their group and ask :-