HIGH PIT WILMA

Hi Alan,I would hate to be seen as nitpicking,but only for correctness,there were a lot of years when the "DHSS" was called the "Department of HEALTH and Social Security",did the logo " DSS" not come about in the latter few years?...I still refer to them yet ,in conversation,as the DHSS...canna mind when the change came,but me being a hoarder,I could sift through my DHSS records back to God knaas when!!..probably the 1970's at the very least!!...wor lass pulls her hair oot cos aal thraa nowt away..!! Sorry a canna contribute ti thi topic in question,me being a proppa Bedltntonian....from up in the posh end o' toon...near the Vicarage!.. Hi ti everybody who aav missed having a gud crack wi!! Heavy gaanin at yem,canna cum on as often,will get better in time hopefully,Wor Lass recovering from an operation!

Hi Odin,welcome to the forum! I lived in Hollymount Square in Bedlington,from 1947,from it being only partly completed. When Netherton Colliery Houses were being demolished,around 1948-ish..they moved the Netherton Village folks down into the Square,and Mr and Mrs Carr were our next door neighbours for many years. Mr Carr's name was George,and I cannot remember Mrs Carr's name was.They had a Daughter called Joyce,whose Husband worked at Woolsington Airport,[as it was known,he was an aircraft fitter..so this might be of some assistance to you if you were to trace the Airport staff in the years during and after the war..]. There are a few Carr's knocking around,I worked with a different George Carr when I was only 17 yrs old,at Choppington High Pit,around 1961-5. George was a colliery fitter ,and I was a heavy transport lad . My Niece is Married to another of the Carr family..I tell you,there are a few Carr families..! Hope I have been of some help,even if this is of no connection to your family...at least you can eliminate! Best of luck Odin! Cheers, Bill.

Thanks Eddy,for confirming my memoirs of the High Pit,John Dickinson and John Wardlow were the two I started working with on Transport,and when they both went for face-training down the new Top Busty Drift, Old Ned Cushing came to me and said aam getting ye a new Marra,Wilma,and he seems a reet canny young lad,and a think ye two will get alang great..... So on the Monday Morning ,ye came in wi aad Ned,and mind,wi DID get on great!! Sorry,Alan,drifting again,but aal see if a can post this picture of an article which was common ti every miner,in the country...in latter years! Eddy,can ye mind your number of your Baths Locker key,at the High Pit? ...mine was 294.[was yours 239?...where have a got that from?!!] Mind,this was my last Pit Baths Locker key from Ashington Pit which closed in 1987..and aa was med redundant.[A stll have it for posterity!]

Hi Folks! Dozens of these families were moved to Hollymount Square from 1947 -on as the Square was being built in phases,over a few years..the council budget must have been really low after the War! My oldest Sister married into the Bell's,and ran the Ranch up Netherton Lonnen,with Raymond,My older Brother married into the Smith family,nearly all of my playmates were from Netherton Pit Village,as were a lots of my Schoolfriends also. Jacky Black was my Parents' neighbour down at the bungalows where the post-war Pre-Fabs used ti stand...next to the 20 Acres at Millfield. Seeing this list of names brought a lot of memories flooding back from my youth! Thanks for posting it Alan,hope everybody is keeping ok!

[ Aam showing off noo!...aav fund oot hoo ti post pictures and advorts n things!!]

LITTLE IMPS,MADE IN BELGIUM..TRUE FLEMISH FLAVOUR! SO IT SAYS ON THE BLURB!!

Wat a bonny wee bairn ye were Al.!! For a split second ,and looking through me Varifocals at the wrang angle,[which has a distorting effect to the vision!].. ...a thowt ye had been in the Tardis...it luks like ya haadin' ya mobile in ya hand...!..typical of the world we are in...anywheh,sum great aad pics here,a once got a bar of McGowan's Chocolate Toffee,from me aader Sister,when a was aboot ten years aad..[we didn't get pocket money at aal till we started work after leaving Schyuul,so me Sister,who was then working at the Bedlington Store,next ti thi Lock Hall..],bought me this Taffee bar. It was like a gift from heaven,and a waanted it ti last!!..but it didn't! Vic,THESE are more like thi shape a remember,they weren't the round ones,they were like wee cushion-shaped pellets,but were three-cornered instead of four.Seems there were different versions of the same theme knocking around,and I am now thinking they were called "Little Imps",Wor Lass remembers them,so aam not imagining it! A see tha's loads of Retro-Sweeties being made again....where?....where ivry bliddy thing else is made!! [Naa just kiddin'....ut one or two are made there!] There's summik queer gaaning on wi this Editor,when a try and gaan back ti correct me typo's,it's deleting letters and CREATING TYPO'S! Is it my Laptop,or is anybody else getting the same grief?

Like...!..Easing of Coronavirus Lockdown rules...! Great ti get back doon ti Cammis!

...then we cud aal gaan aroond singing.."Thas a Moose Loose...Aboot thi Hoose.."!!!

Nippits were black Liquorice sweets wat got inti ya teeth and were hard as hell..and hot! A tiny bag wat lukked like nowt ,wud last a kid aal day at school,slyly slipping them aroond ahint him ti pass them ti he's mates, sitting behind him...cos tha wud be hell on if aad Mowldy Cheese got her beady eyes on ye chowing in class!! A wonder if Dennis Green can mind o' them days,he's Dad was Engineer at the Aad Pit in Bedlington,and Dennis used ti caal in ti Binksy's shop next ti the Whitley Schyuul,and get 2 oz of Midget Gems,[or wine gums],and 2oz of Dolly Mixtures,and occasionally,a packet of Nippits,he knew we were hard up and got nae pocket money,and he used ti share his bullets wi us reet through oot the day.. One kid who had everything he wanted but was nivvor a spoilt brat,a real canny kid..in later years a played at hes' 21 st Birthday party,wi me group. So howweh,folks,hoo can mind o' "NIPPITS"! They lukked like wee chippings of black pitch wat we used ti chow,when Tarmac became the new road surface,and big chunks of pitch were hoyed at the roadsides for the tar-sprayer machine to fill up with alang the road,as he was gannin...! Heh heh!...aam gettin auld...!..[taakin' as if aa was an aad - timer.......aam oownly 17 yr aad...in me heed!]

NIPPETS! It just came to me while weshing me brikfist dishes just noo! They were tha smaalest sweeties on this planet..the size oof a wee breadcrumb...but hot as hell...queer shaped little things.

You gotta remember we were green as grass in them days..nea telly,nae wireless,nae phones ,nae food hardly..rations were still on from WWII,we used to pinch a baigie oot the farmer's field,bite the peeling off and sit high up a tree chowing away...famished...even better if ye fund a field o' milky baigies!! There was also "Saucer-eyes"..who used to terrorise us...in wor imagination..Gilly the Ghost..a fella who used to jump oot the hedge at neet wi a white bedsheet aroond him...poor bugga needed help..and Tramps who would pinch aal ya claas and shoes if they caught ye oot at neet in the dark...!

Hi Cheesah! Welcome to the forum. We kids from Hollymount Square used to go down the Bedlington Bank to what became the Miner's Picnic Field,in the early 1950's,it was a lovely grazing meadow wi lang horned coos in in them days. Hunter's Farm was the lovely old Hoose at the bottom of the bank which the guy has re-built in recent years. Hunter the farmer had a Jelly gun,and if he caught you he fired it at you ,and clumps of jelly would be aal owa ya claas..... Ownly he never caught us..but we were terrified of thi gun....the imagination of the bigger lads was amazing!! A aalwis thowt that we were the ownly kids who had a farmer wi a Jelly Gun!!

Tragic isn't the word for it is it?...makes me wonder if,at that time,it was so commonplace,that they would expect at least one part of their family to die young,and also if they became so despairing,that they just accepted it, whole communities would be affected by plague etc,we were the lucky ones to have been born and immunised against so many of these terrible diseases. St Cuthbert's Church has a few VERY interesting headstones from the old ages..the oldest I can think of is one where I took photos of in the 1960's,pleased I did cos last time I saw it,just a few years ago ,it had weathered so much,that the inscription was barely legible. It has a Skull and crossbones in the centre,with Gargoyle's carved at each side of the Skull..and it was dated 1760 if I remember correctly. I have often wondered what was the cause of death,and why such a gruesome looking Headstone?[ Death by plague?...or similar?] When our two Sons were just wee Bairns,we went to Scotland a lot of times for Summer Holidays. One place we stayed at was up in the Mountains called "LeadHills"...an old Leadmining village...absoloutely ancient. We went to the Churchyards,while we visited the old Churches,and almost every headstone had lists of very young children,who had died from Lead poisoning..a lot of them were employed from six years old,to climb up and sweep the flues clean,cos an adult wouldn't be able to fit into the narrow flue ways. Made me wonder..why didn't they just build them so adults COULD get into them!! Stinks of greedy Mine-owners,employing cheap or free child labour. That place had an eerie presence that Cath and me both felt..it was creepy..dilapidated looking buildings...not a soul to be seen..the whole area just one big slag heap,not like coalmining where at least we had a big pit heap....but just ONE!..this place was slag heaps everywhere we looked around us..obviously ancient and no organised transport system like rope haulage or owt like that to transport the slag waste. We never went back!!