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HIGH PIT WILMA

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Everything posted by HIGH PIT WILMA

  1. Symptoms...you got me creasing up here!,brilliant tales! I started Westridge,the first day it opened,in 1956,and I left in 1959,aged 15 years,to go straight down the mines. In those early days,the school was just getting itself established on the map,and the only exciting thing that we were offered,in 1958,was a trip to Holy Island. Well,seeing as the farthest i had been away from home,was Alnwick,on my old home-made-from-parts from - the tip [at Barrington] pushbike......then this was a trip to look forward to. It was a nice sunny day,when we got there,and the thing that sticks forever in my mind was,the big bully lad,who bullied me every day,decided to climb up the cliff to reach a seagull's nest....trying to show off to the girls,who were saying it too dangerous to climb! Whey,wat happened?.....he got aboot ten feet up....looked doon.....went white,and started to shake with fear..!![i can vividly recall the expression of utter terror on his face,and the laugh on me and my friends' faces,when a teacher had ti climb up and "rescue" him,and bring him doon!] He might come on this site,and if he does,i would redeem him for bullying me,if he owned up to the occasion,for a gud laugh!!
  2. Hi Richard,gud luk wi ya projects,and dinna wurry aboot owt that might be oot o' place , so ti speak,cos we aal hae lapses,where we're sure we are reet,but we find oot wa wrang! Nae harm done,and John and the others will not criticise derogatorily,[spelt reet?...big word!],only for the purpose of correctness....and there's nae bugga worse than me,when it comes ti pitwark,for liking things exactly reet.!!We help each other oot,aakay?! Wagon wheels still on sale,but only a fraction of the original size!....but dearer! Can anybody mind the first chewing gum machines? A remember the first one in Bedlington,ootside Hunter's shop,at the top of Bedlington bank,next door ti the old Wheatsheaf pub....there's a blast from the past!....it was put on the ootside wall,and every fourth penny you put in,you got two packets.....so naturally,people like my scheming older Brother, would encourage the more gullible kids ti put pennies in,[ old pennies mind!]....and then he would jump in on the fourth turn,to get the two packets,with one penny......well...he was only aboot 11 years old...mebbe a bit more,but it was aroond 1952-ish...them post-war austerity years,when the only money we got was at blackberry-picking -and selling -time!![no such thing as pocket-money in wor hoose in them days...hard-up times!]
  3. Even when my Brother and me were 10,and 13 yr old kids,we loved lying in bed,listening to the draglines chains clanking,the wailing eerie noises the dragline made when it was walking,the three blasts on the hooter as a pre-warning when blasting was about to take place,then the long single blast after you heard the loud explosion,followed by the house windows rattling!! What with all that,and also the strong thud from the ground,usually about 9-0pm,every night almost!, when the stonemen down the drift at the Doctor pit,fired their shots on the "caunch",on the coalface....now THAT was eerie! Can anybody else remember all this?...surely the Millfielders wouldn't forget!!...they were closer than us at Hollymount.
  4. Hi Lockey,just saw my older Sister yesterday,asked about Alf and Peggy,and she told me that they swapped Mrs Lowen houses. Mrs Lowen,came from Netherton colliery village,when the second half of the square was completed,somewhere around 1950-ish.[They didn't "throw" houses up in a week,in those days,like they do now.] The whole of that side of the square was occupied by all the Netherton colliery families. She,[Mrs Lowen],lived there for a lot of years,but the swap must have happened after I got married,and moved to Grange Park.
  5. Just been to Bedlington top-end,yesterday,[Thursday 21 Nov.],to get thi wool shaved off the sides of my skull,[cos there's none on thi top ti shave off!] The Gent's Hairdresser's,down Glebe Road,before you get to Forrester's,is run by Alan ,and John,[brother's],and as soon as you walk in you are greeted with a gud friendly "waatcheorr"!! Of course,being a mean sod,I only go in on Thursday's cos it's Pensioner's day,and it's a bit cheaper! Both the lad's,and not forgetting Harry,their assistant,[it is Harry ..isn't it?....aam a bugga for forgetting names!],give you a gud haircut,friendly crack,and excellent overall service! Plus,when you see thi old pics on thi wall,of bygone Bedlington,you don't really want to come out of the shop! How come no-body's mentioned them before? Hope they never retire!! Bill.
  6. Hi ShynewbieDiane!! Fuggles,up Barrington Road,between Bedlington Station and Choppington station,have a good reputation,and they have a banner outside advertising their function room for free. As a complete an utter teetotaller from birth,I have no idea about the place other than it used to be the old glove factory,but a few friends of mine regularly have a drink of Northumberland ale,or a meal,both of which they highly recommend,so I would say,"A shy bairn get's nae bread",so give them a call and see what happens!!Good luck with your project. Bill.
  7. At the risk of being criticised for "hogging the channel"..[C.B. speak!],may i recount the worst trauma I ever had in my young life,full stop. One day,when I was about 11 years old,in Matty Hall's class,at the old Whitley school,in 1955,I asked to go to the toilet. As I went through the cloakroom,to get to the toilet,[this was in the prefabricated building-opposite the main building],I saw what looked like an important-looking letter lying on the floor,and picked it up and put it my back pocket,intending to tell the Teacher what I had found. Well,by the time i got back into class,i forgot about it. When I got home,I gave it to my Mother,and she put it under the old clock on the sideboard,with the intention of it back to school next morning. Mr Nicholson,[the tyrannical headmaster],announced at morning assembly,that a letter had been stolen,from a coat pocket hanging in the cloakroom. The letter had contained a £1 note,which was a lot of money in 1955! After assembly was over,i told Matty Hall,[my class teacher]about the letter,and he sent me around to report it to Mr Nicholson.[aad nicky!] It's now 1-30 am and i am falling asleep,I will continue this long story,if i may,as i think it shows how victorian it was even in 1955!!
  8. Hi K.L.,what year did Alf and Peggy Brown move into Hollymount Square? From My family moving there in 1948,the only Brown's i knew,didn't have Daughter's with those names.Now i started courting my Wife in 1962,when I was nearly 18 yrs old,and as our five year courtship progressed,I saw less and less of my neighbours. People moved out and new people moved in,but there was a Mrs Brown moved next door bar one,to My Mother,and I'm pretty sure that her name was Joyce. That would have been number 11. She was a real nice canny Woman. As kids,My Brother and Me used to lie in bed,[in the days when you were in bed at 7-0pm,not a minute later!],and we used to rhyme off every tenant's name of every house,starting with number 1. There are 66 houses in the square,many of them privately owned now,and the place,as I knew it,is barely recognisable. I remember the Chiver's family,they lived down near the cut which takes you to Haig/Beattie roads. When I was about Four,or Five years old,Jimmy,[i think that was his name],had hit me,and sent me home crying. My tyrant of a father sent me back around with orders to hit him back,cos if i didn't,he would "bray my bliddy arse..." Can you imagine the trauma I was in? I was a shy quiet kid,being forced by fear,to hit another kid to save my skin,with the idea of learning me to stand on my own two feet! Good old fashioned victorian values eh?!! The Chiver's didn't stay long at Hollymount.
  9. Welcom to the site,Tullybrone,good luck with your search. I worked at Bedlington A pit from 1965-1971,and knew all the men,except some of the surface workers, but i cannot remember anyone of that neme during that period of time. However,i will,like the others on this forum,try and put word out through old pit "marra's" [mates],to see if we can find anything of help to you. Cheers, Bill.
  10. Hi Micky,you mentioned Allen's field,well,i wonder when it changed hands,cos from 1948,as far back as i remember it was alway's Knox'y's field. We kids used to try and get into the air raid shelter,but in those days,it had been blocked off so you couldn't get in. Once some of the big lads...[....big lads!...aboot 12 year old..!] [when i was aboot 8 or 9 years old..!]..dug out a wasp's nest,at the entrance to the shelter, and when the swarm came out,they ran away,leaving a little tot about 3or 4 years old,if that,in the field on his own. The swarm of wasps came down on the wee tot,and almost stung him to death,there were stings all over his little body,in his eyes ,up his nose,in his ears ,just everywhere......and guess who got his older sister's tongue lashing at him,and gettin all the blame....? Yep!...poor HPW seemed to get blamed for lots of things in those days! Fortunately,after a lot of suffering ,the little tot recovered,but i never forgot the feeling of being accused by folk for something i knew nowt about cos i wasn't even in the field when that happened.
  11. Thanks Vic,pleased to hear that! Wish i could have caught up with Dot,[or Doreen..as I was brought up to call her from younger than four years old!],last time you were over here,for a natter...and a few hugs while you were'n't looking!![give her one from me for Christmas Vic....and aal thi best ti ye as weel marra!...sorry for going off-topic there...carried away with reminiscing!]
  12. My family moved into number 13 Hollymount square in 1948,it was the first building programme after the war ended,by the Bedlington Urban District Council.
  13. Then it must have been after that ,when they started dumping all the ash and household refuse,old prams ,bed frames,old pre-war wireless's etc,at Barrington,which we kids called "Barn't'n tip.When I was about ten years old I used to go down there with the big lads [ my older Brother and his mates]. When I was 12years old I took an interest in electricity,and started going down to the tip,humping massive old pre-war wireless sets,in heavy wooden cabinets with umpteen valves inside,and huge mains transformers,back home to Hollymount Square,with the help of my friends and my Brother. I used to pull the insides out and eventually learn't how to build a two-valve short-wave radio set...[i was about 14 yrs at this advanced stage!! There were fires burning constantly all over,with a characteristic smell.....the place was teeming with rats,ponds with loads of bullrushes,[which were fashionable as ornaments in the sitting room windows at the time,so we risked drowning quite often,to get some for our Mother's.....but they would have killed us if they knew how we got them!] Eeeee.....tek's me back.....!
  14. Aye,Lockey,a realise that,and while a sentimentally agreed aboot protecting the innocent,a canna help but feel it's ALWAYS the perpetrator,or their families that people want to protect,while the victims and their families seem to be ignored and forgotten about. I bet Dennis's family are still hurting,nearly fifty years on..... Nicky caned me a few times as well as all me mates,lads and lassies,for the most trivial things,like being late for school,etc. This was in the mid-fifties.Mr Davidson [Wonk was his nickname!],was a real Fatherly natured teacher,liked by eveverybody,he used to make us laugh during"art" class cos he always had us making things out of nothing!! He showed us how to make a santy out of papier-mache,using a milk bottle to stick newspapers around,in narrow strips,using also what he referred to as "claggum".."staggum".."stuckum"..."tikkt-stuff"....etc..! We used to be howling at his vocabulary!!Wonder if Dot can remember all this ...Vic,have her asked will you please,to prove i'm not romanticising here!
  15. Although I was universally known as Wilma throughout the pit, there was only one miner at Choppington High pit who DIDN'T call me that,and i can't recall his name,,but he was a real canny fella,very warm natured,and he used to greet me during shift changeover with...."Halllllowwwww Bert,are ye still playing that twangy guitar?"!!![mekking thi motion of holding a guitar and swinging his arm up and doon as if he was strumming a guitar!] That was aboot 1962 if my memory is correct,the year a met me Wife at the Clayton Ballroom,only it was on a wednesday neet,and it was a roller-skating neet! So instead of dancing the neet away,we skated thi neet away,and went yem buggaad!
  16. Acorn Bank site was one of our favourite playgrounds when we were kids! Sunday afternoon's,we used to play in the Euclids,when they were parked up on the top of the cut. No security men in those days,weren't heard of..didn't need them. We played in the driving seats,not locked,didn't damage anything,went down the cut and played on the feet of "Bucyrus Erie",which,at that time,in around 1954,[i was ten years old!]was the biggest walking dragline excavator in Europe. At nights,after school at the old Whitley Memorial,we used to go over and lie at the edge of the cut,and look down a 200 foot drop,to watch Bucyrus chewing out the strata like toffee! It looked magnificent,all floodlit up the jib,and around the cab. It was an amazing sight to watch this huge beast,teeter forward on it's feet,the jib slowly bowing down slightly,then lifting it's whole weight,and slowly moving backwards,always backwards,about ten feet at a time.It's feet would then lift on a huge eccentric camshaft ,then they would move backwards and slowly thump down onto the ground,making the dust rise all around it. What a sight 2,500 tons of steel walking as if it was on eggs! Must rank as one of the finest amazing feats of engineering ever done in the world! Yes,we watched the two Bailey bridges being built,over the Bedlington Bank road,and over the River Blyth. We watched as Greenheart timber beams,more than two-feet -square,were sawn by hand,with two men at each end of a huge handsaw,must have been about six feet long. These were to be used to build the trestle-work pillars to support the river bridge. Greenheart is so dense ,it sinks in water! I found this out,still as a kid,when we played down the river after the bridge was finished,and being used to transport coal to Bebside pit. There were loads of bits of wood all lying around,on the river bed![i mean..BIG..bits!] Loads of happy memories there,collecting fossils from the overburden heaps at the top of the picnic field......etc! Getting rides in the Euclids,by canny drivers,who would let you push the lever to tip up the rear of the truck to empty it's load onto a conveyor belt via a hopper....can you imagine it?.....this was before peoples brains were poisoned,and who,nowadays,would think that every canny bloke was a pervert out for young kids...these blokes just knew that THEY were kids a long time ago.......!
  17. Hi Merlin,I left the mines in 1987,after nearly thirty years underground. In 1991,I was getting small jobs over at the council depot at Stakeford,relief work etc. One day,the Supervisor,called me in,and two other lads,and said to take the wagon ,with shovels body suits [paper ones],brushes etc,and go over to Woodhorn Colliery Winderhouse. Our task was to clean out the winderhouse,top to bottom......what a task! We filled seven huge skips in the first week,with pidgeon droppings,which were a foot thick on every surface,dead rats,dead cats,massive pidgeon's nests,bigger than me!,oh,and loads of dead pidgeons,and their eggs...rotten when they got broke...!! When i asked the Supervisor,why we were doing this,he explained that it was going to be a Museum. Later on,we cleaned the other winderhouse out,and actually Pledge-polished every painted surface till it smelt like wor sitting-room after a gud clean-oot! When John,the [then] Warden,showed me the function room upstairs,with all the silverware on the long Wedding table...i couldn't believe it! THIS was a stinking pig-cree of a place,last time i saw it,and now it would match any big hotel for splendour!! Haven't been for years,but i understand that the pictures i took down Bates Pit,in 1986,before it closed,are on the computer over there,for all to see.[High Pit Wilma's photo's] People i have spoken to,thought that the canary dropped dead,so you had to get out,cos there was gas....! I had to tell them that you needed your canary,for your safety,if you were a rescue worker,and you couldn't carry an aviary on your back[!!],so you watched your bird like a hawk,[pun!],and when he started to twitter or squawk excitedly,in the presence of gas,or oxygen depletion,it's time you got out,and tried to improve the ventilation,to disperse the gas,and bring fresh air in. After an explosion or fire,Carbon Monoxide is the greatest danger you face,as it has an affinity for the Haemoglobin of the blood,which is 300 times greater than that of Oxygen,making it a very dangerous gas to encounter. I could,and would love to be a helper over at Woodhorn,Merlin,cos I taak like I write!,but I care for my disabled Wife 24/7,so it's out of the question. When I get wound up on here,I don't know when to stop!!!
  18. I lived in Hollymount Square from age three years,having moved from Choppington. One of the things that sticks in my mind vividly,was that on Sunday mornings,i used to be lying in bed,listening to the sound of pigs squealing,one after the other,with the sound of gunshots in between each set of squeals. After each gunshot there was silence for a few minutes,then squeals again,gunshot,then silence. It was "Hi-Ti",over the road,at the Co-op [store] slaughterhouse,around the back,doing the killing,to provide the weeks meat supply for the bacon counter. One day,when we about Ten years old,we went around to watch Him,as we often did,eagerly waiting for the bladder to make a football with....! He was in the process of cleaning the ..........er....raw tripe...,and boiling them in the open yard on a big "set-pot". I can remember him dropping one of the "bags" onto the ground,cos it was heavy,and just picking it up and chucking it into the boiling water,and me feeling like....ugh...it's been on the ground...and me not even knowing what it was! There was a big full-page spread in the "News of the ....."in the '50s when an inspector prosecuted the Co-op,for breaches of hygiene laws,and he said that on his visit,"the walls of the buildings outside the slaughterhouse,were covered in stale blood ,and literally...shimmering..with maggots.." The joke was,as years went by,"saves you buying bacon..!"[figure it out!] My older sister worked at the Co-op,after leaving school,and often used to be on the bacon counter,with the old hand-slicer....
  19. Heh heh!!....noo THAT'S a blast from the past!....[Play in a day!] R.I.P.Bert. In 1959,I started Choppington high pit,straight from school,aged 15 years. I never had the inclination to want to go drinking,as I had a tyrant for a Father,who treated my Mother really bad in the old days,and during the war,by going away on drinking sessions and gambling his pay away so Mother had nowt to bring us four kids up with. SO,when Duane Eddy released "Rebel-Rouser",on 78 rpm!,and on Shellac!,all i ever wanted to do was to play guitar. Then when Bert Weedon released "Guitar Boogie Shuffle/ Bert's Boogie"..[both sides of the disc],my Brother and Me invented Air Guitar!!! The last straw was when The Shadows released "Apache"....I HAD to get a guitar to play like Hank! Along the way,I bought Bert's "Play in a day" book,[i still have it!],and although I coudn't grasp reading the dots,I learned a lot from it about techniques,tremolo's etc,and also chord shapes. Every guitar hero over the years,incl. Clapton,Knopfler,Brian May,and even Hank Marvin,have all confessed to having bought that little book when they first started to learn to play! 50-odd years later,I still enjoy playing all The Shadows music to backing tracks,and I finally,only recently,nailed the sound of Hank's "rippling" echo ,as on "Wonderful Land" etc. I love plonking away with arthritic hands,that have been ravaged with injuries through nearly thirty years of coalmining! Might sound terrible to the listener,but I don't care two hoots....it's magic to me! Pleased to know that we have a few muso's on here apart from Myself! Be gud if we could all have reet gud jam together wudn't it?!!
  20. Hi Lone Ranger! I'm pleased you have confirmed who you are,cos i already knew when i first saw your comments donkeye's ago!! Didn't you remember that i asked if you still mended watches?,and also i asked if you still had your wee spirit level in your pocket,and did i not ask if you knew that your old marra Bob Keel., passed away?[i was looking for you at Bob's funeral,and thought you musn't have known..] As regards my name,you got it here now!! Wilma was the nickname that everybody at Choppington High Pit knew me by,nobody knew my real name,except the pay office staff![Keith Cooney -deceased..R.I.P. gave me that knickname cos i had long wet straggly hair,doon the pit,and he said i looked like Wilma,off the Flintstones!...and it stuck!] But in latter years,as a young pit Deputy,in 1973,i was driving the backdrift doon ti thi 3/4 seam,where you and Bob K.and me all met up again. My real name is Bill A.....n,and i chucked deputy-work in,just as you went onto the job,so at first,i was in charge of you,then,occasionally,you were in charge of me!! But my vivid and lasting memories of you are,as i already said before,doon thi high pit,when i was only a 16 year-old laddie,on transport,with John Dickinson,and John Wardlow,in stinking conditions, and deaing a heavy ,man's work,for a laddie's pay. You were friendly and learn't me a lot aboot thi ways of pitwark,apart from just general cracking on,aboot cars,bikes,watches,and ivrything else under the sun! It was very daunting for a young laddie ti be thrust from a school desk,inti them conditions,so when thi lads accepted yi inti thi fold,as you,and other lads did,it made the tasks a lot easier ti face! So noo that a naa,aam pleased ti be cracking back wi yi again.....53 yeors lata!! Cheers B.!
  21. Contributors 236 posts Posted 05 June 2013 - 01:14 PM HIGH PIT WILMA, on 05 June 2013 - 12:10 AM, said: Anybody noticed hoo once a get wound up,a tek sum stopping!! A write like a taak.....!Sorry if aav hogged the channel....[C.B.-speak...circa 1981!] Now just listen here Wilma, just keeping getting wound up. There are loads, like 'tonyg' and me, that were turned away from the pits by parents that enjoy the stories. You should move off this Puddlers Raw topic and start a Pit Story page. I have one uncle left alive, born 1937, that worked at the pits, ended up at Bates, but has always lived in Choppington since getting married. Must be loads of good reading. I had a mate at the 'A' pit that they us to say - who's that little lad lad on the end of that cxxk? I just copied and pasted this comment above,and i bet the little lad was either D.B. Senior,or his Son,also D.B. junior! 0 .Back to top
  22. Nae gud me syeing owt...yi aal soond too fancy bay-window twang for me!! Aal agree aboot Keenley's,Joan aalwis greets folk wi a smile,and the two youngins are bikers,so it's gotta be gud...! But aam not havin Sonya's browt doon,cos Marcus and his staff are equally as friendly and helpful,and if he hesn't got wat yi waant,....whey tell him,and he'll try and get for yi!!! [doesn't tek a college education ti figure that one oot noo duz it?.....heh heh!!] Aye,seriously,we hev got a canny place in Bedltn,it's a pity Matty Robinson's isn't theor noo,cos mind....that was a mind-boggling place ti shop in!![and HE knew where ivrything was,in that den!!]
  23. Jukebox?....! Dinna tell me the aad juke is still gaanin strong.......naa....it's gotta be a newer one! Aav got pics of thi juke that was in there,what was tekkin' in thi mid-sixties![mind,it was accidental,that the juke got itsel' in thi pics!] Anybody mind o' big Derek that had thi Wharton in the 'sixties? Am a teetotaller aal me life,but Derek kindly let me and me marra's practice wa repertoire in the big room on neets when it wasn't being used.[in the days when a was a lang-haired rocker from Bedltn!][noo aam a baldy-aad biker from Bedltn.....some things nivvor change......!] A remember it being a cosy little place,and in the days when we were a proper mining community,aal thi pubs and clubs were usually full. A think,the aad juke was a Bel-Ami,but a wud hae ti sort me pics oot ti confirm if aam reet. So what sort is in there noo?
  24. Hi Threegee! Aav just reluctantly passed wat lukked like a fake £2 coin,ti the lass on thi till at me local Supamarket. A say reluctantly,cos a was on me way ti thi bank at Blyth,and a was gaana ask if it WAS a fake,when a pulled it oot me pocket wi other change,and away it went,afore a realised! Like yi say,it was stamped off-centre,rubbish-like,was very sharp-edged,bright yellow,with a distinctly different soond when dropped onti the bench. Only one aav ivvor seen,mind!
  25. Aye,but yi see,why Ian and his team are a massive success,is ,cos when yi gaan in,even just ti browse aroond thi bikes,Ian,or Ron,[if Ian's busy],will treat yi as if YE were thi ownly customer they had.THAT'S the secret ti daeing gud business,aa think,an aaa knaa from porsinal experience! Aam a born-again-er,after being off thi wheels for 46yeors,and BOTH thi lads went oot their way ti mek me feel comfortable in the shop,and on me forst bike,after aal them yeors....[a used ti deal wi Ian's Dad in thi 60's...a lang time ago! So yes,a BIG congratulations ti Ian and aal the staff for putting Bedltn on the biking map,both as a businessman,and a race-winner,alang wi Carl,his Son.
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