HIGH PIT WILMA

Hi Alan, aa was transferred ti Bedltn Aad Pit in 1965,from Choppington B Pit. Bob Muter and his Wife and family are very good friends of ours. They were our next door neighbours for decades, till they, and us, moved from West Terrace. Ken Sellick and me worked together at the pit, then Ken worked in the Medical Centre at thi Aad pit, aa went onto Coal cutting, hand filling, then on the mechanised Shearer coalfaces. A divvent knaa the other two.... aa was aan aad timer (21 yrs aad!) when these youngins came alang!... apart from Sellicka! When they were daeing aal this, aa was on the coalfaces, working different shifts, so a lost touch wi thi young recruits just afore a transferred. Great ti see this pic! Cheers Alan, and thanks for posting it! Bill.

Can anybody remember a small shop on the Choppington bank,in Storey's Buildings,[where a lived in 1947],what sold budget tyres with the brand name of "Colway" on the sidewalls? The guy was as straight as a die when it came to taking a faulty tyre back,nae messing aboot....changed as quick as a flash! A think he might have been the forst one ti deal in budget and remould tyres in this area,even before Gerry's Wasp in Ashington! Alan Dixon will knaa,cos he lived there then,aam sure! Come in Alan ,wheor are ye!! A got two of the Colway tyres put on me wee Ford Anglia 105E 997 cc in aroond 1970-ish...![ a think they were aboot a fiver each,or summik silly like that!]

Happy New Year to all me Marra's on this great forum! Noo! Canny Lass,ahem,[cough cough!],me being a clean-living lad,who nivvor smoked ,nivvor drank,nivvor gammelled,a can HONESTLY say....aam 0 on the shaggy dog scale!....except aam buggaad wi aad age in me bones!! My New Year's Resolution..[same as last year but broke it for domestic reasons..]...Aam determined ti get oot more on me Bike,since this time last year,a did 40-odd miles,and that was gaan for MOT, and CBT!!! Aav written it on me calendar as weel as me second resolution,and that is ti try and write more of me book,which a started in 2009!! Aav been advised by a published Author who me Wife and me met doon Cammis a few days ago,a luvly friendly aad Lady caaled Mary Bowmaker,who has three books on Amazon,and is busy wi a fourth book. She was enthusiastic when a telt her a was writing me life story from a wee bairn,growing up from the late1940's,ti aal me experiences doon the coalmines. SO!...it's here in black n white!...we'll see hoo things gaan at yem! Aal thi best folks!

Whey if John didn't hae sae many connections,A wudda still said that number two was Foster McKenzie! He is the absoloute spitting image..can we find a pic of Foster ti put side by side...a wunda!! A did say in the previous page that a thowt it wud be strange for Foster ti be up in the Dr Pit Park,when he was a Station fella! Gotta mek an appointment wi me Optician methinks!

Wahey!! ...it's noo 2019 ,December 23rd,and aav just caught up with this thread,and there's me Greenheart wood trestles holding the bridge up!!...ye can see by the scale of things,that aa wasn't far wrang aboot thi beams being aboot two feet square! The top pic shows a " Butters" crane,building it's Marra up,[another "Butters" crane],which ran on rails,along the edge of the cut,and which lifted skips,full of coal,and which then loaded the Euclids,and the later 42-ton coal-haulers. The middle pic shows one of the two "Bucyrus Erie" Draglines,which we used to play on,when the site was closed,on Sunday afternoons. I always thought that they were the bonniest designed Draglines of all the ones I have ever seen...including Big Geordie,and the Ace of Spades!! If I am not mistaken,you can see St Cuthbert's Church tower in the background,and to confirm this,you can also see the smaller line of overburden heaps which were deposited at the top of the Picnic field,and which was a haven for fossil-hunters like me,at 11 years old!! I spent hours looking among the rocks,finding loads of fossils of Fern leaves ,and tree bark,some which were really tropical,with pineapple "Diamond-cut" patterns on them. My goal was to find a fossilised Insect,or Animal remains,but sadly this never happened. I took loads of fossils to the old Whitley School for Mr Davidson,wor smashing teacher,and a often wonder what happened to them..they were historic examples which would never be available ever again,once the Opencast site was re-instated to it's former state. Thanks for uploading these great pics,Alan,and thanks also to John Brown for sharing them. Brings back loads of happy memories!

Heh heh! Great interesting discussion, ye two bonny lassies! The only bits aa remember wat was ingrained into us were the 611 AD consecration,and the sleepover of King John at thi Old Hall Tower at thi Market Place,before the signing of thi Magna Carta. When I was a kid,aa coudn't stand History lessons,cos a didn't see thi need for it...a wud rather be fiddling on wi me Electricity experiments in me Mutha's wesh-hoose....[at 12- yeor aad!]. Noo,aam fascinated by History,fortunately we hae thi technology nooadays,ti larn of those who are more edicated...like ye two bonny lassies!! Heh heh!

Hi Maggie!...lang time no read/see/ hear...from! I was brought up at the Bedlington village infant's schyuul from 1949,and in the early days of starting there,the teacher took us across to the Church,to learn about the history of how it all began there. We kids were too young to know aboot the Anglo-Saxons,but persistent teaching throughout every class,and on to the Whitley schyuul,ensured that the St Cuthbert's Church history,and also that of Bedlington Village,was firmly embedded in our minds! We learned all aboot the Chancel Arch being the only remaining Saxon -constructed part of the building,the ancient Font, the Leper's Window, the Gothic Wing,the Norman's influence... Noo, many yeors later,a hev a very well-read Son,who adamantly educates me into the history of the Anglo-Saxons,saying they never ever set foot up this part of the Country! Aav argued the point that we were taught from five years old about the history of this lovely old Church..[ Watson's Wake!...another one I forgot to mention!],and it is gonna take some shifting ,to convince me that all me Teacher's,and History books were wrang!! We had a discussion on this forum,a year or two back,regarding the origins of Bedlington and the Church,and it started off some disagreements when I said that we were taught that the land on which St Cuthbert's Church stands,was consecrated in the year 611 AD. Do you know anything aboot that Maggie?...as a kid,I couldn't have made this information up! Cheers! ...if I don't hear from you,[bad time of year when ivrybody is rushing aroond like madscabs getting ready for the festive season!],I hope you have a nice Christmas and a happy new year!

Hi Steve,welcome to the forum,a canna help ye,but hope others can. Wasn't it a bit daft wat the kids did in them days..if they saw a too-too coming,they would fly up them steps to get among the coals smoke and steam,laughing and giggling! Pure and simple pleasure,which cost knowt except probably a year or two of their lives!..intense heated coal tar,Sulpher,and a million other nasties straight down their throats and lungs!! aaahh...happy days!

Duncan,I had just come to this page after switching my laptop on,and after posting the light-hearted bantering comment above,went looking for the photo you seemed to be referring to,in your comment above. So I went back one page,and saw the photo's of Geordie,and the comment by Alan Edgar,informing us here on the forum,of George's passing. After reminiscing about him,then seeing this sad news,brought me down,and all I can say is I am sorry for you and your family,and if Florence is still with us,then please pass my condolences to her. I will private message you if I can Duncan. R.I.P. Ju-Jitzu Geordie ,a smashing fella.

Hi Duncan,welcome to this excellent forum! If you are talking about Ju-Jitzu Geordie,then you have come to the right place! I was transferred to Bates pit in 1971,from Bedlington A pit,when it closed,and the Manager Mr Fenwick,[an old friendly fella who was my Manager at Choppington High Pit,in 1959],asked me and Alan Dixon to go onto the next Deputy's course,which we did. We were both sent to Bates,and Alan was posted up in the Plessey seam,while I was posted to the Beaumont seam. As time went by,plans were laid out to drift down to the 3/4 seam. My first impressions of Geordie,[he was also a Deputy ],was that he was a cocky bugger,always laughing and carrying on,but sometimes a wee bit sarcastic to us two young Deputies...we were still green,dinna forget...I was only 27 yrs old. Anyway,after 7 years, Alan and me both packed Deputy work in,and Alan went to Ellington,and got set straight on back in the NUM. Aa waanted ti stay at Bates,and Mr Hindmarsh,and both the NUM,and NACOS,agreed that I could be accepted back into the NUM at Bates..previously unheard of! Aa went onti Composite work doon thi drift,and by then,aroond 1978-ish,maybe a wee bit later,Geordie became Owaman in charge of me and me Marra's,as we won oot aal the new roadways and coalfaces. Geordie was the fairest guy you could meet,if ye worked doon theor,then ye shud knaa thi score aboot yardages,and paypoints....nae botha if ye dinna knaa. When ye settle a bargain wi thi Manager,we'll say 20 yards a week advance,from the start of the bargain..or Cyevil,that is ya starting point for bonus. Ye got paid for ivry increment of a yard after that. Noo let's say we got 25 yards advance one week,a gud week,cos the belts were gannin aal shift,and nae delays,like the juice being off or a bust cable. We wud ask Geordie ti just book 23 yards in for us,and keep two yards back,in case we had a bad start the following week. The next week might be disastrous..bust cable, waata teeming in,bad stone,slaa progress,ownly 18 yards advance,Geordie wud book 20 yards in,[which included the two yards we held back the week before],and that,at least paid us,we didn't loss owt. If we were working for wor summer holiday pay for the following week,and even if we had 22 yards advance,we naturally waanted a gud pay for wa holidays,so we wud ask Geordie ti haad the tape back,[his 50-yard cloth tape measure],and put us a couple of extra yards in,on paper,ti pay us weel!! Not strictly allowed!..but Geordie trusted us,as we trusted him,and he knew that after the hols were owa,we wud give him the two yards back,even if we put wasell's "in debt",[paid wasell's short],but which we knew we wud mek up thi following week. We got on really weel wi Geordie,and he was weel-liked,but he wadn't knaa hoo much at the time,cos as ye knaa ,we pitman were witty sods,and ye had ti stand on ya aan two feet or be trodden on!! Aa got on really weel wi Flo,when she worked at the Garage aroond the Haaf-Moon....many moons ago!! Aye,Geordie helped us oot that many times,we had a lot ti thank him for! Cheers Duncan!...ye just crossed swords wi Bill thi gud taaka...and if Geordie was here noo,he'd be saying.."that bugga's toungue nivvor stops..."!! A canna mind ye being doon the drift,Duncan,or did ye hae a daft nickname like mine...."Wilma"![or HPW..to you,my friend!]

Hi Alan, gaan through a rough patch, please nivvor think that aav deserted!... (mebbe AWOL!!.. heh heh!) Noo! When a was a pit Deputy, a was in charge of John Bennett, and Gordon,and Dicky, his two Brothers. We all worked doon the Three Quarter seam.. among seawaata n clarts and bad roof stone.. as time went by, after seven years as a Deputy/Overman, I went back into the NUM, as a Composite man, and funnily enough, both John and Gordon WENT onto Deputy work.. John eventually became an Overman, the man who was in overall charge of the face, or the whole seam, but only responsible for Coal Production. The Deputy was solely responsible for the Safety, Health, and Welfare of the men under his charge, and directly responsible to Her Majesty's Government Inspectorate of Mines and Quarries. Not even the Manager had that responsibilty.. no-one except the Deputy..! Anyway, Gordon was our Deputy when I took these pit photos, he was down in another part of the seam, or I would have had him on the pics as well.. he was a great guy.. gud worker.. nice natured.. helped us all thi time... lost a lot of sweat every day... he used to say, it was thi beer coming oot of him! I haven't seen any of them for years.

Thanks Alan, it's intriguing me noo aav thowt aboot it!

Another memory was jogged ,on the right hand side,at thi top of the bank,them hooses have a walkway built -up so each hoose has a pavement ootside their door. Whey,cos thi bank gaans away doon-owa,and the path is horizontal,a waal is formed,getting higher as yi come doon the bank. Whey, one day,when a was a wee bairn,me aulder Brother,[by exactly three years,born on the syem day!!],was poking aroond in thi holes in thi waal,cos Starlings used ti nest in the holes every year.[in the days when we used ti gaan bird-nesting for eggs.] He got excited this day when a Farthing came oot thi hole alang wi bits o' muck at the end of his stick that he was using as a poker. Whey Farthings were still legal currency,so he kept on poking at thi hole wi he's black-handled Jack-knife.[ye knaa..thi one wi a blade at one side,and a steel slightly curved pointed "progger",at the other side...very common sight in kids' pockets, in them days!] After a while,poking thi lime mortar oot wi thi progger,and using his stick ti rake thi hole oot,he got he's hand inside,and pulled dozens of Farthings,just them,nae other coin denominations,oot thi hole!...Buried Treasure!! We got all excited and started imagining that there might be Gold and Silver treasure in other parts of the wall,so we started howking oot thi lime where could,but we only ever found old Starlings' nests!! NOO! ..there's nae reason not ti think that there COULD be a cache of coins or jewellery inside the wall,cos we never telt anybody,but there MUST have been a reason for somebody,mebbe a hundred years before,ti stash a whack of Farthings inside a hole in that wall,in the days when that amount would have been a lot of money to a poor peasant,in the days before the pits came alang!...mebbe the Bailiffs were coming ti tek aal he's belongings and ti kick him oot...like the Coal-owner's heavies did ti My Mother in 1944,when she was in Hospital having me. I was maybe seven or eight yrs old,at thi time of the treasure trove,probably 1952-ish..I wonder if you could find out when the present houses were built Alan?,and whether them hooses are the original buildings on that plot...mebbe there were ancient primitive buildings standing there before the present ones,even though they are very old. Cheers! Bill.

Hi Alan,firstly,the Bates pic,No 7 is Derek Burt,a smashing really weel-liked lad,who went on deputy work and was posted back onto the face in charge of his own Marra's!!...Unconventional for that to happen,they usually sent new deputies to a different face. Derek used to shout and bawl on at the men ti keep the coal coming ...then play football with them all on a Sunday...highly unconventional,he's Marra's used ti say,jokingly,that he was "Crackers"..!! No 1 looks very much like Davy Wood who took part in the short documentary called" Report from the Northern Coalface",also featuring Alan Dixon,[one of our contributors in the past],and John Douds,who built a model of a pit in intricate detail,which also features in that documentary,and which was on display at the Woodhorn Museum a year or two ago. It's a brilliant well-made Pro. film Doc, and if ye haven't seen it Alan,it is really worth watching. It was made by "Crinkle-cut Productions", and it's advertised on the web. Noo! Thi 1956 pics doon Bedlington main street,and doon Bedlington Bank ,were taken when aa was only twelve years aad. Aa lived just aboot 30 yards doon the street and in ti Hollymount Square on the left turn in, doon Bell's Place. A divvent knaa anybody on thi pics,Alan,but a dae clearly remember an older fella,who used to dance side to side doon the road aal the way from the top-end doon ti thi Field,drunk as a newt,and there is a bit of footage of him on this gallery in one of the short cine films on one of the picnic days. But that fella did that every year!,and he was a lot older,and not as tall,as this lad,in these pics. A can only remember the one fella daeing that,Alan,a cud nivvor mind of anybody else daeing it..he was so funny,we kids used ti watch ti see where he was going to drop onto the road!! Great ti see thi aad Gas lamp on the Bank..nivvor seen that since aa was a wee skittering young ched!! If ye look closely,ye can see a hundred years..[it seemed!], worth of Graffiti on the big wall on the bank,there used ti be some great bits of artwork,only lads in the old days didn't hae spray cans of paint..not even chalk...it was aal done wi a bit o stone,or a bit of red hoose brick! ...AND!...it wasn't caaled "Graffiti"...it was just "Aal thi writin' on thi waal doon thi bank"...ti local folk....and thi Cooncil weren't bothered aboot it...they didn't mek any effort ti clean it off..the weather gradually did a lot of the clean-up. After the Wartime rations ceased,and import restrictions were relaxed, My Mother came in one day from Hemsteads,with a few bananas..the first time we had ever seen one,apart from in Bob Hope films at thi top-end pictures!...they were huge things,and as I grew up and started the pits in 1959,me Mutha used ti put 14 sammidges up for me bait,wi one banana!..YE try putting SIX sammidges up wi one Banana noo..!..aa dae ivry day for me midday bait at yem...and these wee banana's are an insult! Then another day,me eldest Sister,aged aboot 16 yrs,in the mid '50s,came in wi a Pomegranite..the name alone freaked me oot,when a was aboot ten,and it seemed weird to me that we aal sat aroond wi sewing pins,picking sweet seeds oot o this queer-lukkin' fruit! Aam digressing again Alan,but pics like this bring back floods of happy memories of me yem toon,and that bank was the gateway ti wor childhood living!.. Cheers Alan!

Alan,as regards Heather needing Mining Memorabilia,I wouldn't mind any of my pics being used that doesn't have any body appearing in any of them,cos some of those Marra's are now Deceased,and others I haven't seen for years,to gain permission,but on the other hand,they are on here for the world to see! I would be happier if I knew which Home it was ,and especially if I thought it was Holmside,at Bedlington Station...cos a Heather,and her Mother used to be in Charge of that home when my Dear old Mother-in-law was residing there, a few years ago. The wee picture of Heather on her post,looks like the Heather I am talking about....cud be a million miles wrang mind! Is there any way ye cud find out for me Alan? Cheers! Bill.