Canny lass

1 hour ago, Canny lass said:

1939 Alice's parents lived at number 49

Sorry! You were correct. That should be number 41.

1939 Register. Are you following the topic "Moore Family"? I think you may be able to help Karen who is looking for one of Alice's sons from her previous marriage.

1939 Alice's parents lived at number 49

Don't forget to look after yourself as well, HPW!

On 04/03/2022 at 00:06, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Us kids always thought that the figures at each side were Werewolves!...I learned later in life that they were Gargoyles,and the purpose of them was to ward off evil spirits!..I stand to be re-educated on that one Canny Lass!

I've never heard of gargoyles on grave stones HPW. Mind you, I'm more interested in the text on gravestones myself. I've only ever heard of gargoyles on buildings - churches included and there they were allegedly designed to ward off eveil spirits and, I believe, had a secondary use as water spouts for rain water.

It's a pity that this stone is in such bad condition. It's not often I've seen anything from the 1700s. It has some of the typical symbols of mortality: bones  (skull)and hour glass (left of skull) and of the life hereafter (angels wings) but I can't really see what's at the sides though the lower half could be drapes, representing sorrow. Either way, it's quite ornamental for the 1700s with lots of detail. It's not everybody who would be able to afford that so I think the 'occupant' must have been quite well to do.

I learned to swim/doggy paddle in the deep pool near the stepping stones copying the whippets that my father trained. We also went from Westridge to Humford a few times. I never needed an inner tube around the waist to be able to float and I still don't. I've grown my own!

It's not easy with these old B&W photos even with specs on!

31 minutes ago, Jennifer Ann Atkinson said:

I think its the colliery school

I think it's more likely to be the village school because of the stone work. The colliery school was  brick built (with bricks from Choppington Brickworks if my memory serves me right). The bricks were of uniform, standard, size as can be seen in other photos of the colliery school. These are irregular in shape and size and they look more like stone.

Eggy, you've marked a couple of items with red question marks. The object to the right is a bone (probably the lower end of a femur) and the one on the left is the handle of the gravedigger's spade. Both are momento mori reminding the viewer of what is to come to him and every other mortal being. The book represents the pages in the life of the deceased, open because the life was cut short before the book was completed.

You didn't mention them, but there are drapes on either side of the stone. These represent the veil between the living and the dead. If you've ever heard the expression 'it was curtains for him' (meaning he died) the curtains are that veil that is being referred to.

I'm sorry to say I don't recognise anyone except Mr Stafford.

On 11/06/2021 at 00:00, lilbill15 said:

Is it me, or do those stepping stones look bigger back then?

I don't think they've changed for many years. The , original stones were smaller. Look at the collage above, posted by Eggy June 17. The image bottpm left shows stones that were only half the size they are now. I think at some point  extra stones were laid alongside the originals to give more width. The extra stone can be clearly sen in the images centre, top left and bottom right. I think there's a date on the image bottom left but unfortunately I can't read it.

@lilbill15You've got the wrong Maud there. Maud was a popular name in the Bower family - Maud, Elizabeth Maud, Lily Maud and Maud Ellen. It was Elizabeth Maud who married into the Carr family. With the exception of a few friends, she went by her first name - Elizabeth and would be too old for this photo.

I'm still not convinced that nr 5 is Maud. Lily Maud would be about the right age but I never met her so I've no idea what she looked like. However, I don't think she ever lived at Netherton. 

If this is 1948 then nr. 5 (Maud Bower) would be about 14 and that would be about right (born 1934). However, the closure of Netherton Colliery school couldn't have been the reason for the move to West End Council School. It was open long after 1948. I was a pupil there myself for a large part of the fifties.

On 09/07/2021 at 21:49, lilbill15 said:

PLEASE don’t count the chins!

What chins?

On 09/07/2021 at 20:59, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

This photo I would say was 50+ years ago - could be Netherton Colliery - see text.

Definitely bot Netherton. The only windows in Netherton were the four-paned sash type. 

On 09/07/2021 at 20:59, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

some of Alan Dickson's paintings that he posts on the Bygone Bedlington, Cambois and Barrington groups.

Lövely work!

Here's one the right way up, but I still don't know who it is?

13 hours ago, lilbill15 said:

Canny lasson reading this comment again it sounds facetious and possibly even sarcastic. I apologise, this was not my intention

No apologies needed. I didn't find it to be either facetious or sarcastic. I learned a long time ago to look at details rather than the whole. As a child, I loved those "Find five differences" games that appeared im magazines and newspapers and could spend ages perusing all small details. That experience has been very valuable in my job as I learned to look at details, rather than the whole, at a very early age.

Not too many years ago I collected 3 of the grandchildren from nursery and school every day and they stayed with me until mum and dad came home from work. One of their favourite games was "Spot the difference". While we waited outside the door, one child remained in the sitting room and changed one item in some way. Then we entered and had to spot the difference.  Good fun.

I needn't tell you how useful it is when you are doing family research.

I don't think you should change it. It looks like a roof repair and the same type of repair is evident on the single storey buildings. It's a valuable record of repair/building technique at the turn of the century.

2 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

I don't know why but my mam sent me, and my two older brothers, to the Church of Christ in the late 1950's.

She probably knew that you were destinied to do great things with old photos of the area later in life. Mothers are good at that sort of thing.

I had a wander around the area using the enumerator's book for the 1911 census, just 5 years after the photo was taken,. Here are pages 13 and 14. (unfortunately, you get pages 7 and 8 as well as the book has been taken apart for scanning).

Following the enumerator on his rounds from  Hartford Road(Page 13 schedule number 277) you see that he moves west to east along the south of the main street - then called "High Street", recording as he goes:

Doctors Yard - private houses and lock-up shops

High Street - also lock up shops and private houses.

continuing eastwards on High Street, between schedule number 295 and 296 (Page 14) he records: 

Presbyterian Church (Now Trinity Church)

Private house x 2 (Now the garage)

Lock-up shop x 2 ( the single storey buildings with window shutters in the 1907 photo.

Christian Meeting House (presumably part of or behind the next building)

Primitive Methodist Chapel

Garth House, High Street.

So we got it mapped out correctly. Well done!

Page 13 (right side)

Page 14 (left side).

Was that not at Bedlington Station?

... and, as an afterthought, could that be railway tracks in the bottom left of the photo?

Here's another observation/suggestion. Trinity Church is actually the building to the far right of the  picture towering above the other buildngs. Only the roof and a small section of wall is visible but the wall has an interesting feature. Zoom in and you can see a tile-topped buttress and a part of the lighter, horizontal brick stripe. Both are clearly evident in the recent photo.

The building to the left of it and set back further from the road is now the garage.

I'm having difficulty seeing those two buildings as one and the same church.

One is stone built, the other is brick built.

The brickbuilt church has corner buttresses.

The windows have different sizes and placements.

The roof angles are different.

Fetters Springs seems like quite the 'in place to be' in the early 1900s. There's quite a lot to read about it online.