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Happy Christmas to you all Maggie

Following a long absence on this site I have just become aware of Derek's passing today, sad news indeed. A true gentleman respected by all who were fortunate enough to have the pleasure of his company.

Miners picnic 1957

Didn't one of those on the left used to be Wemyss (sp?), the wholesale confectioner, back in the mid 1950s? I can remember carting an unstable load of empty crisp tins there on my bogey as an infant. Yes, those packets of crisps with the little blue bag of salt used to come in oversized biscuit tins to keep them fresh. My motive was purely economic - to pocket the deposit on them. Mr Wemyss, however - god rest his soul - wasn't prepared to cough up the going rate, likely embossed on the tins, and all I got was a pittance (or maybe a few sweets) for my trouble. The sweets are long forgotten, but the bitterness lingers on - such is life! 🤣

You should just be able to drag and drop the video into your post or upload to the gallery. If it's not a playable format inline it will embed as an attachment for download. You can also upload to Youtube/Vimeo and paste the link from there and it will embed inline here. e.g.

I know its a few years since the last post on this thread, but I'm doing some family history stuff and searched 2 gate house... it would appear my ancestors lived there between yours! Mine were there in the 1921 census, and moved on by 1939! Thanks so much for that map canny lass!

Hope everybody has a better 2024 than this year!! Aal thi best Folks!!

My pleasure this morning to give the lasses who are the Friends of West Lea Cemetery their newest award, off our friends at Bedlington.co.uk. This is the 2023 Piper award and given a lot of members on that site are ex-pats it’s nice to know they still keep up with current going-ons in Bedlington. Given in recognition of someone or a group who have made outstanding efforts in the Town over the last year, a well-deserved award. Well done girls.........

It’s that time of year again when thoughts of old friends emerge again and fond memories stir the soul. I hope everybody here is well. Wishing you all good time over the holidays and a safe happy New Year. Sym

.... and the same from me! Merry Christmas to everybody. Take really, really, REALLY good care of yourselves and we'll meet again in the new year.

Thank you Alan, Merry Christmas to you and yours, Merry Christmas to all members.

Had a bit play and I have come up with this template for this year and future years And for 2023 I added the info + our group logo Still need to look at the dimensions of the certificate to match the dimesions of popular frame sizes.

@Andy Millne @John Fox (foxy) @Malcolm Robinson @Vic Patterson @HIGH PIT WILMA @Bedlingtonian @Pete @Jammy @Maggie/915 @_pauls @James @Symptoms @Mal @Tonyp @Beano @7RIrF @carly @Bill Straughan @oldtimer @Dave Twist @6233jane @threegee @Darren Smith @jfk @B Davison @DJA 24 @anniemarr @Katherine Hyde @Jr6468 @Sheila Prouten @Joe McNally @Patricia Wadsworth @SouthernGeordie @rosco @Linray @lynnewatson @sallywoo1971 I have posted the message and the images onto the Facebook page of https://www.facebook.com/Thefriendsofwestleacemetery @Mal had a think, and clart, on what you proposed re certificate and anything is possible but naturally on something that is normally a pure online award there will be some issues to overcome. These are the tnings I am thinking about :- design and produce a certificate using my Winows Vista + Microsoft Digital Image pro 10 (as that is the only software I have print off the certificate - and as I am no professional that would be to an A4 sheet of paper. What dimensions would the certificate be = what are the standard picture frame sizes, between A5 & A4, that TFOWBC could by to fit certificate into Posting a certificate to TFOWC - looking at their FB page they don't have an address for where to post anything to and if they did it would have to have a letter box wide enough to accept an A4 sheet,8.27 x 11.69 inches or 21 x 29.7 centermeters, wth cardboard support to stop it getting bent/damaged in the post. ------------------------------------------------------ I will let you know if I come up with anything

I have made the 2023 award and as long as all are happy with this years award going to The friends of Westlea Cemetery (TFOWC) I will post the following text and images on TFOWC Facebook page. To the volunteers at The Friends Of Westlea Cemetery. In 2020 on the Bedlington community group (bedlington.uk) it was suggested that a yearly award (purely online) be award to anyone that had helped the group or anything to do with Bedlington. It was decided to name it The Piper Award after Ainsley Piper who bred the Bedlington terrier in 1825 in St Cuthbert’s Vicarage. This December the members of the group have voted for the online award to go to your volunteer organisation that has helped so many people in Bedlington, and beyond. So the members of bedlingto.uk would like to say thank you to the work your volunteers have done.

Aye he takes a canny snap!

"There will be a shuttle bus to get people from one side of the crossing to the other..." Well, I can dream! This one was supposed to be flying by 2018, and it seems there are quite a number of such designs. Maybe it's going to take Elon to bring one to reality!

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.

The aad photo of the shop is hoo aa remember..broon painted shop front..roller shutters in later yrs,probably after the break-ins..the war hadn't been owa just four yrs prior ti my first seeing this Aladdin's cave..the only sweets I ever got at that age was when me Mother tuk me ti Doctor Hickey's Surgery,at Choppington,just up the bank from where a lived in Storey's Buildings,doon aside the Willow Bridge at Choppington Station..Dr Hickey aalwis kept a big tin of sweeties on his table at the side,and every kid who went to see him,even if it was their Mother who was the Patient,they got a sweetie..that was the way to befriend the kids and allay any fear aboot gaan ti see him!![dinna forget..we didnae hae the drugs we hae nooadays..us kids picked aal sorts of infections up..!!

Our Government (Canadian) is giving away millions to foreign companies to come and build facilities for making batteries, we have most of the "ingredients" to make them, but the environmentalists rather we get others mine it, using less friendly methods.

A well-deserved award indeed! Like Vic I also greatly appreciate the hard work that these girls do. It's a great comfort to ex-pats like myself who can't visit often and have no relatives left in the area who are willing or able to do so. I know that my parents and my brothers are well looked after. Thank you.

After I posted the two images - 2023 Piper Award 'ceremony' & Piper Trophy - on The Friends Of Westlea Cemetery Facebook page one of the volunteers has responded on their FB page with this :- Waiting to see what @Mal has done with the certificate image he downloaded.

@Mal there is a fault on the one above - I have corrected it in this one.

10-12-2023..UPDATE!..LOST KEYS RETRIEVED AT LIDL THIS MORNING.MANY THANKS TO THE KIND AND HONEST PERSON FOR HANDING THEM IN!

These programmes maybe of interest to members in the coming months .

Yes 100% for it.

During WW2 my maternal Grandfather was working a double shift in the middle of the night (to help the war effort) when he was injured underground by a rock fall causing crush injuries to his legs and back. His mates dug him out, brought him to the surface and stretchered him the mile-and-a-half back to his home. The doctor was called, meds given and an ambulance was called to take him to hospital in Durham ... he worked at Sherburn Hill Colliery near Durham City. My Grandmother had to pay the Doctor for the home visit and for the ambulance - it cost her two shilling and six pence. You had to pay for all this stuff when the pits were privately owned and there was no NHS. He got plastered-up and was back at work a couple of months later.

Hope everybody's keeping well,apologies for absences,Hope 2024 is a better year than the last four years!![we keep saying that..!!] Cheers Bill!

November 2023 - with a 'Merry Christmas' wish (but same hat and scarf @Canny lass ) - photo from Simon Williams.

Thanks Eggy! I'm sure I'll manage the Thursdays and Sundays but I think I'll give Tuesdays a miss!

Don't you forget to make time for yourself! Caring for a loved one can be hard work at times and you need time for rest and relaxation if you're going to cope and keep your health intact.

Hi David,Dad never talked about his rescue work,well none of them did,and I never knew he had been badly burned..that really was a savage way to be injured..and his thinking about the accident being caused by an illegally lit cigarette,underground,was 99% justified..[at the High Pit that is..if that is where the accident happened..].I never saw anybody smoke in any other pit where I worked..the High Pit was different..I have never smoked in my life,therefore I could,and still can,now,at 79 yrs of age,detect cigarette smoke a mile away. I remember being threatened by one Deputy underground,when I was about 17 years old,to be reported and sacked by the Manager,if I didn't get off my pit horse's back..[okay it was illegal..and a horse carrying me wasn't suffering..it was safety issues that made it illegal!]...anyway,I got down off the horse,but as I did,I blurted out to the Deputy.."Ye report me ...and aal report ye for sitting there smoking alang wi the coalfillers..ye are risking blowing us all ti pieces..ya mad..!" He didn't need to reply to me..aal the coalfillers [a dozen of them],said Wilma,ye better f.... off noo the time thi game's gud or else we'll hing ye.."..[hang you]..I quickly went and got on with my work,and they all went inbye to their jobs on the coalface,they had stopped at the halfway point to rest,as all the roadways going inbye were on a steep rise to the west..the coal seam outcropped over the fields past Hepscot. Nowt mair was ever said about the incident,and I got on well with that Deputy,he was a real canny sociable fella,who was the spitting image of the old Television Comedian ,Arthur Haynes..if anybody can recall watching his shows in the 1960's! Choppington High Pit had very poor ventilation,and was really wet throughout the mine..so wet and with never any evidence of Methane being detected,it was considered safe to smoke..the Chief danger down that pit wasn''t Methane,it was Blackdamp..[more correctly known as "Blackdampfe"...from German "Dampfe"= GAS]...and which miners called "Stythe"..or "Styfe".. it was a dead cert that if the Barometric Pressure dropped sharply..the roadways and faces in the pit would quickly fill up withthis deadly gas,which isn't poisonous,it is Asphyxiating to the exclusion of Oxygen..and therefore men used to just suffocate when the mine got styfed out before they got to bank..[the surface!]...that pit should never have been opened in the first place!! Hope I haven't gone on too long David..Cheers Marra!

8 years later... ..and this cool-laid-back is even built in to the software! I did come across a reply to a "how to" technical question on a forum last night posted five years after the question was asked; but it's nice to know that Bedlington.uk is right up there with the best!

"and Lord help anyone who taketh the tree I've had my eye on since early October" Book of CL (CL 1:1)

Now if we had said that Canny lass!!!!!😂😂😂

Ticket office Vic? They are trying to close all but a handful across the country.

That's a bugger as you try and enjoy the outdoor life before this years dark nights keep you Swede's in doors I just another booster last month. Take care CL

Ah CL this explains why we haven't heard from you for some time, so pleased to hear you are recovering, again! Yes Covid is still around, I believe it will always be here and just considered another Flu with more deadly symptoms. Our health is so important as we get older, take care.

Don't let anybody tell you it's over! It's still running amok. Despite five vaccinations and still rigorously hand washing, I am now recovering from my second dose pf Covid in 3 MONTHS!! Feeling, and probably looking, like a half wrung out floor cloth at the minute. Trying to catch up on the reading but don't expect any real input from me for a while. Stay safe!!!

Bedlington Station Entrance Design Options - link posted by @Malcolm Robinson on his Bedlington West ward Facebook page :- https://www.northumberlandline.uk/post/bedlington-station-entrance-design-options?fbclid=IwAR1-e_bna1GnTyjBSsaQ5T0O_EmWcMb9FwxFBJbWKPO0H-enMUVigubf1xo

It's The Guardian for me every day and The Observer on a Sunday. First started reading The Guardian in the school library when in the 6th Form and never stopped - 56 years and counting. When at Uni in London my Mum used to send me The Pink every week to keep up with Toon's news ... back then you could buy a brown paper postal wrap to roll the newspaper in. So, Sym has set himself up for incoming from the sneering right. Poo!!! As with all things Saxe-Coburg and Gotha I am critical of all their inherited wealth and privilage so switch off anything on the telly about them. Of course, H ain't really one of them - some say he's a product of that liason between his mum and 'Ginger' James Hewitt. His biggest crime as far as the loony right is concerned is taking up with a mixed-race woman.

Hi Bill ,I've just read your post about the high pit,I knew mining was a dangerous job ,but I didn't realise how bad it really was.Dad never talked about it.Your story of the pony being trapped in a moving conveyor belt was really sad.What I know about the explosion that burnt Dad;my sister was a baby so it must it have been 1945/6 Mam and the other wives gathered at the pit head when Dad was brought out Mam didn't recognise him he was so badly burnt.He was given a cigarette to make him feel better.There was 7 of them and they were taken to a hospital along the tyne valley.they had to have name tags on their beds as they were all covered in bandages.Dad always thought someone on his shift had lit a cigarette

@Keiren Scott Frank has messaged the site in error instead of replying to this topic. I have messaged you directly with his response as it contains some private info. Hopefully he’ll be able to get logged in if there is anything you wish to share publicly.

.... tanker?