HIGH PIT WILMA

Hi James,i don't know who Paul Mann is...maybe Jimmy Mann's [the policeman in Bedlington at the time]Son?...no? Maybe the official opening of the school was in 1957,as they do with these thing,all the dignitaries etc,and of course the builder's were in the classrooms in 1956,didn't i tell you that we all got sent home on the first day,by Mr Hemming,because the stationary,and pens and pencils hadn't been delivered?Things were cocked up in a few places,such as the outside landscaping,etc. Now we started on the morning of the next day,but didn't commence lessons for a week or more. Don't forget,everybody was new to this school,the Staff and Pupils alike,had to learn where every classroom and facility was,all the fire escape routes,drill,assembly points,fire points,Headmaster's rules,this daft "House system",then there was the whole School curriculum,the selection of those that were considered bright enough to be put up into the "Upper Remove"[and Middle,and lower remove also]....all this organisation had to be put into place,and i can tell you,that,coming from a smaller school like the Whitley Memorial,the organising of 500 pupils,in one block,as opposed to the normal school intake,was a helluva project!! I can distinctly remember just wandering all around the school and grounds with groups of my friends,like it was a holiday camp,just familiarising ourselves with the general layout,marvelling at the Science labs,the Metalwork shop......Metalwork...???????...what was that?!!! Biology lab,.....again...what was that?!!! .....a stage with full theatrical lighting system and control panel....wow!! By contrast,the old Whitley was a run-down shanty school with archaic teaching curriculum.. When we left the Whitley,Maths was long-division,and History was all about the Dinosaur age. Suddenly,at Westridge,we were thrust into simple and compound interest,and pretty soon,Logarithms,and Algebra. Kids from the other Schools were fully up to date,but to me and my friends,log tables were tables made of logs!!We had never heard of Mr Abrahart's Crimean war in 1854!![a bit of a jump from the Dinosaur age....!] Well,here i go again...just can't help myself from rabbiting can i?!! Now when i can get to my school classwork folder,and my reports and leaving certificate,which i have safely filed away,but very difficult to access,i will see if i can scan them and post them,along with my school badge from my blazer,which is still as good as new![quality wear in those days!!] 1956 was a long year,for the builders to do the snagging,till August/September when the big day came for us....no doubt about it!! As for books,no disrespect intended,but to show how mis-prints go through proof-reading,the Durham Mining Museum Archives clearly state official N.C.B.figures,as Choppington B colliery working the "Upper Busty" ,in 1959....... Well,i know it's nowt to do wi Westridge,but by way of good example,Choppington B pit only worked the Beaumont seam,in 1959, and didn't start to drift down to the Top Busty,until about 1961-ish,with a workforce of about 300 men,in 1959 [not 600 as stated] ,but rising to 600 by closure in 1966.[how do i know?..cos i started the pit IN 1959.....!]So am i to dispute these good author's? Let's just rest at knowing what we know,without having to really accept all we read,due to mis-prints and other typo's!!

Symptoms.....iv'e just gotten oot o' bed,after suffering a stomach bug..[diaorhh...and sickness....],,,,,,and now you haven't half cheered me up with this tale!!!...how the hell did you think them up? Keep em coming...!

Noo,back ti Symptoms' wicked tales of a cad ,and a bounder,maybe even a Montgomery....to boot!! A canna wait ti hear aboot the Great Grand Piano Scandal!![me being a musician.....] Sym,aam in the process of writing my life story,[been at it for over two or three years...a bit at a time...], noo hae yi ever thowt aboot daeing thi syem thing,but only recalling your wicked deeds!...aam sure it would make very interesting reading!!! Get started!!

Hi James! Westridge opened in August/September 1956,[not 1957],I started there the first day it opened. The farm was just about opposite and to the right,cos me being a nature-boy all my life,i distinctly remember standing at the Schoolgates,at break-times,[we were big lads ,noo,nae "play-times"for us!], with my friends,Martin,Dennis,Derek,Pete,and others,watching the coos waaking in a lang line,up the field, at the same time ivry day,to be milked.[aye!!,we DID used to produce summik wasell's,in them days!] One day,we aal rushed owa ti the gates cos tha was a helluva lot of moo-in' gannin on. Just across from us in the field opposite the gates,aal the coos were in a circle,mooin'like hell! We aal just stood,wonderin wat thi hell was gaan on,when,after a quarta of an 'oor,or sae,sum of the coos moved aroond,and here we saw wat the commotion was..... A mother was giving birth to a babby coo..! Within anotha ten minutes the babby was struggling ti get up onto it's legs,ti waak. Then wa break was owa,it must hae been wa dinner break,for the length of time we stood there watching this miracle of nature. For weeks after we watched that little coo grow,even though the rest of the herd aal calved,but none of them so close to the road that we could watch. A never forgot that. A sad memory about Westridge was,one cold February snowy morning,a was hurrying up to the School entrance,when a heard me name being caaled oot,from behind. Me mate,Pete,was hurrying ti catch me up,"Bill,hae yi hord thi news on the wireless?"...."No Pete,wat news?"...[we had nae telly in them days] "Buddy Holly's been killed in a plane crash"..... A didn't believe him at first,then when he said "Honest Bill,Mother's Death..."...then a knew it was true,and a nearly burst into tears,even though i was 14 yrs old at the time,and in another 12 months time,a would be working underground in the coalmines..like a said before...growing up fast.!! But this news brought a lot older people than me,to tears,it was a day i will take to my grave,i couldn't concentrate on my lessons,i kept thinking about my older Brother,3years older,both born on the same day,three years apart,and he was already a miner of two years experience. He was down the pit and wouldn't have heard this tragic news,and he was the biggest Buddy Holly fan i ever knew,along with myself. To this day,and I am approaching 70 years,next year,i can still play Buddy's songs,like "Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Peggy Sue got married" etc! Only thing is,noo,Buddy had that much energy,he didn't knaa that aad bugga's like me,wi knackered hands [pit injuries],and a knackered pair o' lungs [pit dust][,short o' breath,wadn't be able ti belt his songs oot like he did,more like a feeble attempt ti try and dae thim,purely for nostalgia and self-enjoyment.!!

Naa...!...Mrs Gates,bottom end,aside the Black Bull,couldn't be beaten...Maggie's reet except for a missing "h"....it's "scramshuns"!!!Everybody ti tha aan,a say!

Me luvly aad Mother-in-law,Jinny,lived at Puddler's raa,afore the war,[she might even have been born there,in 1909,cos she lived next door to her Parents....!!],and she used ti say "waatch yi divvent trip owa them "LORKS" in the carpet......! I never heard of that one in my part of Bedlington[East-end] . Also she would often say.."Wa gaana hae sumbody knocking on thi door,tha's a stranger on thi bar.."[referring to biggish pieces of sooty flakes on the coal fire grate bars moving back and forth with the updraft in the chimney!].

Noo,after aal that trivia,aam dying ti hear aboot "Symptoms-the great travelling shop robbery...." A bet it started wi an apple......!!

See? Aam not just glorifying Danny cos He's not with us noo,the lads in my class thought the world of him,at the time,cos he took an interest wi thim,mind,aal be honest,a hated the times when it rained,and he would ask the lads what they wanted ti dae......ASKED THEM!!. Other teachers would have told them,not asked them.....anyway,what a hated was when the sporty lads in the class wanted to have a sports quiz,cos the sporty lads also happened to be a group of verbal bullies,and i was their prime target for two years.[for no reason...cos they came from Guide post school,and i came from the Whitley.] Noo,they took delight in making a fool of me,by asking me,[in the quiz..] who won the F.A.cup in 1922...[or stupid questions like that!] Well,if i had said i don't know,but can you tell what Ohm's law states,and how does a cathode-follower circuit work,in a radio......they would have just said i was more stupid!! So i used to look like i was racking my brains...when i really hadn't a clue!! Man,i detested those days!..it was the only part of my time at Westridge,that i hated,these bullies constantly on my back,and you know,i never said a word to anyone about it,not my Parents,Teachers,no-one!! Now a couple of years after i left School,i was working really hard,on heavy transport of machinery etc,at Choppington High Pit,and had grown up a bit from a wee skinny thing,too a lad wi a body,not huge,still slim,but hard muscles everywhere. I was waiting at the Bedlington Station railway crossing,waiting for a coal set to pass,when a car pulled up,and guess who the driver was!!...spot on!......the ring-leader of the set of school bullies! Noo,aa was twice the size of him,cos aa had shot up,a cud see his head trying to peer over the dash on the car,and it was evident that he was one of these lads who were "big",when you were small,but as time went by...he hadn't shot up at all,he had skinny little arms holding the wheel! EEEE...yi naa wat,a felt like saying,howweh,oot thi car,yi had as much ti say when yi had ya gang,noo it's just yi an me!! But as iv'e said many a time,yi had ti grow up mighty quick,when yi worked doon the pit,among older miners,just ti survive!! So a said,"halloww Trev,hoo yi gettn on mate?""Ain't seen yi since we were at school" A think he was relieved that a was civil,and friendly with him!! Mind,a wud luv ti see aal them lads noo,for a gud crack!!

You done a gud job there John. I've been fascinated by that story from the moment i was old enough to understand it,i just lived down the road at Hollymount Square. There was a time,about 40-odd years ago[i think],that i went up to the Sun Inn,and asked the [then]owner/proprieter,for any information that he had,and he told me lots of the story,which i just listened to,but didn't record in any way or form. But what i did do was to take photo's of the original door which was still hung in the frame,in the passageway,and still with the bullet holes in it,if i take this fella's word to be the truth,which,at the time, i saw no other reason,not to. I have those photo's packed away somewhere,along with photo's i took,at the time,of the monument in the cemetery at the head of the Policemen's graves. I haven't been to that monument since,so i wonder,40-odd years later,if it has been ravaged by time,or has it been kept in a state of good repair. If the pics would be of use to the project, i would gladly copy them and provide them for your use. As i am new to the site,and not meaning to go off-topic,i wonder,have you covered the story of "Watson's Wake",on St Cuthbert's Church? That is a fascinating one!

John,aboot 40yeors ago,an aad deputy wus tellin me n thi lads a story aboot a "do" he had been ti, [buffs..or Freemasons ...a think]. He got on aboot the way sum o' the blokes were dressed..."yi naa the way they cum in....two flat sheets,n a brekkin-off plank!"....[as he drew he's hand aroond he's chest,and then med a motion across he's adam's apple wi' he's forefinger.....referring ti a bib n dickie-bow tie....whey,he had me an' aal the lads in tears wi laughin',he had the expressions n actions... A must say,that one was a new one ti me!

Aye John,in the pit communities,it was in the streets and pubs etc,where pitmatic was spoken,it was always funny hearing the older pitmen's wives gassing in the street...using pit terms when referring to whatever the subject was...."ye knaa wat,aav nivvor been owa thi plate-ends aal day..."!! Seeing your point of view,John,it is a mix,and a gud aad mix at that heh heh! A think this site,and aal hoo tek part are great,and really fascinating. Aalwis gud ti be able ti put a point owa,withoot anybody getting abusive,like sum sites aav visited, Flickr is a gud community site also.

The kids team went yem dejected..............one Noel down..........!

Noel used ti ride his moped from Bedlington,doon ti Guide Post, up the Morpeth Road,and into the pit road,ti start his shift. At lowse,[end of shift],he rode up Morpeth Road,through Hepscott,alang ti Netherton Road-ends,up through NeddertonVillage,West Lea, Ridge Terrace,and back home......Clever!! He never had to cross over the road in front of oncoming traffic at all on both journey's. Mind,a never heard of him coming a cropper yet,on that little moped!

Er,just to clarify things here,Pitmatic isn't what's being spoken here,it's Northumbrian dialect. Two different things,but maybe Northumbrian is classed as Pitmatic,through slang usage. "EE,LUK AT THE TIME,IT'S TEN O' CLOCK AN' AAM NOT REDD AROOND YIT..." "NOT REDD AROOND YIT"....THAT is Pitmatic..it refers to "redding a caunch"..or ya stretch of coal on the fyess....or generally cleaning up underground. "HOWW,HOWWEH MAN,YA STANNIN' THEOR LIKE A BROKKEN PAOR O'LIMMA'S" "COME ON THEN,YOU ARE STANDING THERE LIKE A BROKEN PAIR OF LIMBERS" [sHAFTS ON THE PONY'S GEARS]This refers to anyone slouching against a wall,or even just standing idly doing nothing.Useless really! "YE TELL MAIR LEES THEN A COLLRY POLIS"[YOU TELL MORE LIES THAN A COLLIERY EMPLOYED POLICEMAN-NOTED FOR MAKING FALSE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST MINER'S OR ANYONE ELSE TO SECURE THEIR OWN EMPLOYMENT WITH THE OLD COAL-OWNER'S] "KEEP YA TIMMA IN MARRA"[sO LONG MY FRIEND] These are examples of true Pitmatic,apologies for long passages of capitals,didn''t realise caps lock was still on,i have to look at the keyboard!! Anyone disagree with me about this subject?

The trouble with our teaching at the Whitley School was,it was archaic. History was,for me,great,cos we were learning about the Dinasoars,and fossils etc,and i used to go over to the Acorn Bank opencast site,Bedlington,[where the golf course is now],and collect fossils from the overburden heaps,mostly bracken leaves,but a lot of pineapple bark trees preserved in stone, to take to school for the teacher. Noo,when we went Westridge,suddenly,we were learning about the Crimean War,1854,and the Treaty of Paris 1856,[courtesy of Mr Abrahart!]....a bit of a jump from the Cretaceaous [?]period,to the Crimean War!!! Consequently,i had no interest whatsoever,and considered History lessons to be an absolute waste of time...were it not for our brilliant teacher making it seem interesting by his dramatic displays! Now,of course,in later life,i wish i had taken the time to learn more,cos i find History fascinating! We all learn by our mistakes in life,don't we?

John,you got me puzzled noo!! First you quote my posting aboot Puddler's Raa,saying it was called Pisspot Raa,now you posted this pic of Phoenix Raa,and are saying THIS was Pisspot Raa....come on,which one?,cos this is the first time i have ever heard this nickname used..and i was at Bedlington A pit for six years,working with really old timers who were born in the early 1900's,and knew the area's history very well,and also married a lass that was born in Puddler's Raa...and SHE,and Her Family,including Her Mother [born 1909],hadn't heard of it either.

The guy with the thick-set glasses on,in the bottom pic of the first set,smiling,was a fella called Noel Howe,he was working down Choppington High Pit,when I started there in 1959,and was there when I left,in 1965,a few months before the High Pit closed. The pit closed in 1966,so if Noel went to Netherton pit,then it had to be at LEAST late 1965,when the Coal Board transferred a lot of men in different directions,i was sent to Bedlington A pit,my marra's went to Longhirst Drift,Netherton,Whittle,etc. I can mind when Noel bought a N.S.U. "Quickly" 50cc moped,to travel to High Pit,and home. Bet he wished he had kept it now....they are a rarity!!

Aye yi skittering young ched!! Symptoms,ye reminded me aboot me friend Norman,[Deceased R.I.P.],who was in trouble every other day,at the Whitley School,in the early 1950's. Banger time was his favourite time of the year! One morning,just before Guy Fawkes day,we were walking through the Dr Pit Park,on the way to school,adjacent to the Whitley,when Norman lit a Ha'apenny banger,and put into another lad's jacket pocket..it blew the pocket off the coat,and started burning the coat lining. For the younger ones,if you had a shilling,[five pence in today's money],you could get 12 penny bangers,or 24 ha'apenny[halfpenny] bangers....Norman always had bunches of either ones in his pockets,along with several "Jumpy-Jacks". Come on,you started the ball rolling,what else did you get wacked for?....i got Danny Douglas's sandshoe across the back of me legs quite often,for "forgetting" me P.T.kit,cos i hated sport. I always loved being in the gym,doing the circuit training,or especially all-in hand/football,cos Danny always went on one of the sides,alternating each time,for fairness,and when he was on the other team,our team would chase him down the gym,and pull him down,even if he didn't have the ball,and we/i wouldn't half give him a few digs in the ribs to get our own back on him!!...he would curl up in a big ball,and laugh his heart out! I talked about this to him just before he died,and we had a good laugh about it,he said he always liked to do that,wherever he taught,cos it gave the lads a legitimate chance to vent off....[we couldn't hurt him...we weren't big enough!!],but it helped us to grow to like and respect him. He said one night he went down to get fish and chips,for his Wife,and Himself,for supper,about 8-30pm,when he bumped into some of his old pupils ,who were heading for the Cherry tree pub,they asked him to join them for a pint....he never bought a drink,and went home legless,about 11-0pm!.....that's how much he was thought of. He said it nearly caused a divorce in his house!This is nothing confidential,Danny had me laughing,he was surely the greatest P.T. Teacher there ever was!!!

Much,much better than the big heap it was before they lowered and planted it! It was the biggest pit heap in the country,burning fiercely constantly,in one night of Hurricane force winds,the flames were whipped up so hot that they melted the bogie rails what took the stones up to thi top the heap! We kids climbed up to the top after the storm died down,and the heavy rails were melted and distorted like bent pins!! One day when the contractors were preparing the site to build Bower Grange housing Estate,the Safety Officer from Bates Colliery,was called out to the site. A huge JCB machine and its driver,plunged 20 feet into a hole which turned out to be old mineworkings from the days when the monks used to mine coal primitavely. The coal seam was very low,and roadways had been "natched"out from the solid coal,without any explosives,with walls and sides straight as a dye!! I am just waiting to hear of a house disappearing down a hole,like the one in Florida!

Symptoms,you reminded me,Mr Hemming had a proud? record of never EVER having to use a strap or cane in all of his teaching career. Until the Suth. twins,and a lad called Ken H. decided to smash milk bottles all over the brand new toilet blocks,damaging hand-basins and breaking tiles on the floor... Mr Hemming hauled them all up in front of the morning assembly,500 of us,in the school hall,wept openly,and wiped tears from his cheeks, as he announced how sad he was to have to break his record of never using corporal punishment,until today. All thi lads in the assembly quietly sniggered as Mr Hemming proceeded to give them [the bad lads!] three of the best on each hand with a leather strap! Whey ,for the damage they did to an expensive brand new school,he would hae been better ti send for AAD NICKY....HE would have had them shaking in their shoes!! Anybody who ever had the strap across the hands,knows it was a hell of a lot better than the cane! A think a have Ken's name right,i always got him and his brother's names mixed up..it might have been Brian... Funny thing was ,in adult life,Ken.[or Brian]...whichever one it was,grew up to be a real nice lad,running his own business!! Musta been one of those testosterone moments when they just went crazy for a few minutes....still no excuse..i wouldn't have dared to do owt like that...mutha wud kill me!!

Maggie,i've always wanted to go back,to have a look around,but in these days,where a man is a perv,if he says isnt that a bonny babby in the pram...[like we used ti!],a wudn't think aboot it noo...the society we live in has poisoned everybody's brains.Mr Johnson,[science teacher and an old R.A.F. WARTIME RADIO OFFICER],used to coach me in electronics,from age 12yrs,and by the time i was 14,i could build a 2-valve short-wave radio set from the theoretical circuit diagram.We used to stop in the science lab till 10-pm most nights,engrossed in our electronic building work,cos we had to physically make the steel plate chassis,and drill out for all the huge components,big radio valves,heavy mains transformers,wind our own aerial coils....it was a lot of work! Mr Johnson was a typical down-to -earth person,better to me than my own father,who had no interest in what i did,and it would have been inconceivable to even think about him,or any other of our teachers,to act "improperly"!! I wanted to be a radio/television engineer,but failed maths miserably,rock bottom!!,so just gave up and went down the pits! I just couldn't grasp numbers...like dyslexic people with words.....

Well!Where do i start?! First,Symptoms,on the first day that Westridge officially opened -August 1959-i was a 12 yr old kid with no knowledge of School politics. All i know is,Mr Hemming made his introductory speech,told us how much the school cost,that we should all be very proud to be here on the first day,on the opening of the first comprehensive school to be built in Northumberland,since before the war.[the war was only 11 years gone by!!!] Now,it's official name was "Westridge County Secondary School"["modern" didn't come into it!-although you are right in that it was referred to in the press etc as a "Modern" school. I still have my School reports,and also my embroidered uniform badge from my jacket pocket,which has the school name on it,and the school motto "De Profundis" [as discussed before on this site],along the bottom edge of the badge. I wonder how many of these badges survived from that day! At the time,they just moved loads of kids from all the neighbouring schools [500 in total],and turned the other schools into Junior schools. I can remember that day as if it was yesterday,a ginger lad standing next to me,from Netherton school, [a stranger],in the morning assembly,just before Mr Hemming started his speech,spoke to me,and said "Hallowww Killer!" That started a good friendship with the lad,who lived at Westlea...his name was John Moore,i wonder if Dougie Moore [deputy at Netherton colliery],was any relation...... Noo,Lone Ranger!I am puzzled as to what significance being a pupil at Westridge,is,to being a pitman at Choppington High Pit?!!! I will answer your question gladly,if you clarify your question for me please! Orloff,spot on wi West Terrace,also the R.E.in my Avatar...my Dream Machine since the 1960's. Unfortunately,i never got my test back then,spent my 5 shillings pocket money on a guitar,so that was my Dream Machine out of the question! Noo,nearly 69 in July coming,i been a born-again biker for the last two years...done 3000miles on my little pocket-rocket! Honda CBR125RW-7 [2008 MODEL]Pokey little thing!![bit different to the putt-putts of the sixties!] Canna place ya family at East terrace,we knew everybody when they were pit hooses,great little community wi a lot o' spirit!! all gone now....thanks to maggie thatcher-the-hatcheter.

Hmm...i thought the car was a Vauxhall Victor 101,i'd say mid-sixties. Now,after we sort that one and put it to bed,can i pose another question afore i forget?! Why only one set of headgear?

Maggie,i think your life starts to become history,when the time comes and you find yourself reminiscing about "the olden days"....! Not long ago,my younger Son used to to say i wasn't old....i was a dinosaur!![he was about 11 yrs old then]. Now he is 40 yrs old in May coming,HE is at the point where he talks about things he used to do when he was a kid! Noo,when he was 11 yrs old , I was 40...a dinosaur.....what am i now,? HE will be a dinosaur in the kids in the street's eyes,and ME.......? Well.....I AM HISTORY!!!!!

Heh heh!Sorry Keith....please excuse my being glaaky.!! On the subject of "Aad Nicky",the Headmaster of the old Whitley Memorial School,many moons ago,i thought my story about him caning a seven-year - old little lassie for being late one morning,was bad,but just to confirm that my memory isn't starting to go,i was talking to Councillor Alan Stewart, a couple of days ago,and got onto reminiscing about Nicky. Now,up till last year,when i saw him ,once,in the street,i hadn't seen him since the 1960's,to actually speak to. He told me that on the first day we started the Whitley School,from the village infants school,in the morning,in the playground,he fell and his backside went onto the grass..............the dreaded grass! We hadn't even got into the class cos the bell hadn't even rung at 9-0am to start class........and Aad Nicky saw him on the grass...as he fell... [accidentally...mind...].....and...yes,you've guessed! "Boy", "come to my office"....caned each hand....just like me and all the rest who crossed his path. They say Mr Hostler was a very nice man,well-liked by pupils and Parents alike.