HIGH PIT WILMA

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.

Hi Micky,i heed your advice with great caution,and like Maggie says,it's a tragic story,it's only when you come to write your own story,like i have been doing,on and off,when i get time to sit and write,that you realise how much work goes into it.

I cannot write for long,due to arthritic cramps due to old mining injuries to my hands,so i only do about three or four sides of the A4 [200 page] notebooks,of which i am onto my fourth book in the story.

The only trouble with me is,i write like i talk!!!!

So i go into every detail,to ensure the reader fully understands what i am talking about,so,considering the pits are all closed now,and the Pitmatic is just about gone out of fashion,except the few of us old 'uns that's left,

maybe i am doing the right thing,by giving explanations and little hand drawn sketches of things here and there.

My two sons,and my Wife,urged me to do this story,cos they've heard my pit tales so much....they could go down tomorrow and start cutting coal!!

Micky,the more i think about your Dad's work being skipped,the more i feel I want to throttle her...and i don't even know her,but surely,surely,anyone with a bit upaheight....would double-check with family,as to what was to binned,and what was to be kept.

I was very close to my Mother-in-law,like her own Son,SO close that when we broke her home up,her little tins of old photo's and documents were entrusted to me and my Wife,for safe-keeping,by the rest of the family,which makes me feel very priviledged.

Many thanks for your concerns,and advice Micky.

Aam wound up Maggie!...."Upper-remove"....! Who the hell thought up a stupid name for a class of pupils who were selected to sit for the G.C.E.?

Also,"Middle Remove",and "Lower Remove"....I am sure that "G.C.E. Stream" or summick else simple like that would have sounded better!!

I still have some of my work from the Upper Remove,i did pretty well in English,Science,Technical Drawing,but was rock-bottom in Maths,so i left at 15 yrs old and went down the pits.

My memory,Maggie!....I have a class photo taken at the Bedlington Village Infants School,opposite St Cuthberts Church,in about 1949,when i was 5 yrs old,and there was 43 pupils in that class.

I have named about 90% of them,basically cos we went all the way through our school life sitting beside the same friends in every class,and also a lot of us were friends and neighbours at home,playmates out of school.

I am trying to find it,to post up here ,for the benefit of all,but especially Vic's good lady!

Heh heh!Thanks Maggie!

Another thing we set of 12 yr old lads from the old Whitley School could never figure out , was the House system,where you gained [or tried to gain!] "House-Points" ,as rewards for doing homework on time,picking litter up in the yard etc.

All 500 kids were split into groups,and allocated a place in a particular house...I was in Bamburgh House,my friend Martin Nicholson [deceased..R.I.P. Martin...]was in Dunstanburgh...and so on.

My group of Pitmen's sons - friends all thought they were trying to make the school like a college,what with having a head boy and girl...never been heard of in old Bedlington community before...

Mind,the first ever Head Boy,David Lees,was so well liked by everybody in the school-including Staff,that Mr Epsley,the Metalwork Teacher Planished out a small trophy cup,out of brass sheet,[personally],Silver-plated it to a proffesional standard,and engraved it to read..."The Lees Trophy".

The Trophy was fought for by the different "Houses",and whichever House gained the most House-points each month,

then the trophy was displayed on a shelf in front of that House's Heraldic coat of arms shield.There was a diagonal row of hooks upon which each shield hung,in the order of how many points had been gained overall,and the top-gainer's shield always hung on the top hook, where the little shelf was mounted to stand the Lees Trophy.

This display was directly in front of the main doors in the vestibule.

See? All this heritage was lost,when the clever for-seeing council of the day,[who also demolished the old hall

and keep...a priceless piece of history!!],decided in their wisdom,to hand over OUR school,to the richest establishment in the world!!

Eeee...let's keep the entertainment light ,Maggie...eh?

Maggie,i had a heart attack seven years ago,and the life-savers i take each have affected my short-term recall..like i canna mind what i did yesterday,but i hav vivid memories of all my childhood as far back as i can remember the riens my mother put on me when iwas learning to walk....brown leather with three leather and white felted star-shaped decorative "buttons" across the front of the harness.

Symptoms,Mr Abrahart left about 1958,not long before i left in 1959,the girls cried when he came to say goodbye,and mind,one or two of the lads,if not all of them,were at least...full,but wouldn't visibly show it of course.

Maybe he came back after a while,cos my barber told me the reason he left.

Maybe it's not a co-incidence that he was there in '62,precisely when the head had also changed,i'm saying no more!!!!

He had taken up a post at Westmoor school at the time.

When us kids started the first day,exam gradings had nothing to do with it,i didn't pass 11-plus,,there was no Northern Counties exam.

The idea was to stream out potential G.C.E. candidates,of which none of us from the Whitley Memorial School had ever heard of!

J.D.J.1955,did u ever manage to find any pics of Puddler's Raa please?

My wife was born there and would love to see any pics at all..whatever condition they are..as long you can make out the place.

The Puddler's raked the slag off the molten iron with long-handled colrakes,to enhance the purity of the iron.

Wrought iron was made by rolling out sheets and and overlaying them with the grain running at 90 degrees,several layers at a time,like plywood,

then re-rolling them,or sqeezing them with a steam hammer or press,to force the crossed grains of the metal to lock together.

As you say Wrought iron was very malleable used to make rails etc,while Cast iron was very resilient,could stand tons of steady pressure,as in bearing housings,but would crack if subjected to a sudden shock..like a blow from a mel..["sledge-hammer"]

Mr Epsley was a great metalwork teacher at Westridge School in 1956-59..[my years there...]!!!!!!

Hey,aam 69 this year,and aav got vivid memories of me schooldays!

Hi Maggie,and everyone else on here!

I'm an old Westridge git,one of the pioneers,seeing as Mr Davidson,our social studies teacher at the old Whitley

School,took us up during the building of Westridge,to walk around the site,asking questions to the workmen,even up on the scaffolding gangways....health and safety?!!!!!....not even thought of them days.

We had to write essays on what we had seen and learnt on the site,the following week.

I remember vividly being up on the first lift of scaffolding,asking one fella with a funny-looking machine strapped to his chest,with a cranking handle on the side,like a hurdy-gurdy,and he was spraying the mineral ash

chippings onto adhesive which was already applied to the walls,this was around the back of the building.

The front had wood cladding on the upper half,is it still like that yet?

Noo!!as for being a pioneer,i started the first day it opened and was sent home along with 499 other pupils,cos the stationery hadn't arrived,so we started officially the next day.

That was in August 1956,after the school holidays were over...we got four weeks then,but the Grammar School got six weeks,then when Westridge started,we got six weeks also,cos the idea was to upgrade the standards of education

in a Comprehensive School,to be on a par with that of the Grammar Schools,G.C.E.Exams etc...so the holidays fell in line also.

Westridge was the first new Comprehensive School to be built in Northumberland since the War ended in 1945.

It cost £250,000 to build!.....wor aad coalhoose at West Terrace varny cost that much later on!!

Mr Hemming introduced all the Staff who were sitting in a line on the stage behind him,and he had us Whitley kids

baffled with talk of the "Vestibule",and the "Gymnasium",also the "Biology laboratory",we were simple-minded

Whitley School 12-year-olds who hadn't heard of these things before!

Adam,try typing this into u-tube:

U-Tube over the Rotang Pass to Keylong Aug 2010

Please let me know what you think of it as far as dangerous roads go!

Hi all!

Adam,check oot the biker's journey over the Rhotang Pass in India,on a Royal Enfield 500cc bike,[regarded by "bikers" as rubbish bikes!!!!]

It's on U-Tube,i'll try to post it here if i can,or i'll post the exact title for you to check it oot.It's hair-raising!

The bike in the video is the off-road version of the one in my avatar.

Wonder if Councillor Alan Stewart,and he's friend Alan Spowart,can remember Mrs Nicholson,asking them to bring their guitars into the next music lesson,and little Alan[?]Dixon[?]"Dicka" as he was known,they all played and Dicka sang his heart out for an hour...no mikes..just straight from his heart!

"the story of my life" was in the charts,by Michael Holliday,"he's got the whole world in his hands",was another one Dicka belted oot,with the whole class singing along with him...!!

That was the best music class i ever had throughout my school life!!

It helped inspire me to take up guitar when i left school and could afford a cheap one,bought at Gallons shop in Morpeth, in 1959,for £7 10shillings.[paid for at 5shillings a week for six months!]

Now,in 2013,at 69 yrs old,in July coming,i still plonk on with my beloved instruments..all 15 of them!!!

Anybody remember Mr Epsley,the metalwork teacher,he was very stern and strict,which in a class with a forge burning,and a £600 lathe...[in 1956!]...he would HAVE to be strict......!Taught me a lot, he did!

Mr Abrahart,the History Teacher,used to crack the whole class up,we couldn't write owt for laughing,when he was giving us "dictation".

He used to take on the characters of Disraeli,and Gladstone,in the wars,and stride back and forth across the classroom floor waving his arms about and shouting the characters words from the book...very dramatic,but very much like Harry Worth,the '60s sitcom comedian.

Everybody,including the lads,were really sorry to see him go,when he left to take up a post at Westmoor,Newcastle.

Mrs Nicholson,music teacher,was really lovely,so was Miss Thew,art teacher,but she had a temper like you've never

seen!She nearly bust my eardrum with an almighty crack across the side of my face from behind,[i didn't see her coming]because i spoke to my friend for a second!...you soon learned not to talk in her class!!

Mis Short and Nancy McLean were the P.T. teachers for the girls,also both lovely,i worked with Nancy's Dad at

Bedlington A pit,as the years went by,he was a Deputy underground,a real nice bloke,he was.

Eeeee,a could gaan on and on aboot the teachers at Westridge....

Mr Hossler lived just down the road from us - if that who 'Nicky' is. The other teacher I remember was Butler. But Matty Hall had us practice kicking a football into his desk. Here's some photos. I can name some of the kids but not all. (I'll post named ones later.) But if anyone can put monikers to faces I'd be obliged. Neil watson is holding the football and there is Stu Dobson, Lol Cummings, Phil temple, Rob Lee, Derek Wilkinson, one of the Olivers(?) - the rest unknown. And of course Matty 'don't I look like George Clooney' Hall.

No Keith,aad Nicky was the Headmaster before Mr Hostler...Mr Nicholson was his name ,but,like you said,living family weren't responsible for his actions,even when he caned a seven-year - old little lassie,for being late one mornng,there was no school run in 1950's,pupils and teachers all walked to the school cos everyone lived in the vicinity of the school.He was a brutal tyrant,enuff sed.

I also agree with you about the person who burn't the school down,no names to protect family with respect.

When we played down the free woods,and the picnic field,and we got the jungle drums to say he was coming along the woods,we used to climb the thinnest,highest trees we could find, cos if he caught you,he would delight in throwing you fully-clothed into the deep river,even if,like me,you couldn't swim.

I have vivid memories of all my childhood,so much so,that i am writing my life story for my family,so far i have written about 400 A4 double sides,and i am just up to my first few weeks working down Choppington B pit,in 1959-61...the start of nearly thirty years undergound,straight from my school desk at Westridge school!

Hi Maggie! I still have my old school badge with St Cuthbert's cross,and the School Motto embroidered on it...."De Profundis"...

which was latin for "From the depths",to indicate Bedlington Community's links and heritage due to CoalMining.

I wouldn't part with it,it dates back to the day Westridge School opened in 1956 after the summer holidays ended,we all got sent

home the first day cos the stationer's failed to keep contract on time,and we had no books,pens or pencils etc!

We started the next day,but all that week we wandered around the school freely,on Mr Hemming's permission,to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the school.

"Gymnasium....."???...we from the old Whitley Memorial School hadn't heard of the word,so didn't know what we looking for!

It was forbidden to walk in there with shoes on,cos the floor cost over one thousand pounds,a lot of cash in 1956!

So what did Wilma do?..i was with a few of my friends,Martin Nicholson,Dennis Green,[his Dad was Engineer at the A pit]...

and a few others,and when we saw the gym....i couldn't resist running straight over the virgin floor..[i was probably the first ever pupil to walk on it/!]..caught one of the virgin beautiful thick white climbing ropes,and shimmied straight up to the roof in seconds,using only my hands,my feet dangling loosely.A rough sargent-major's voice boomed up to me.."get down from there...now!!!.......i had just met Danny Douglas,our new P.T. Teacher!

Well, i shimmied down quickly,hand over hand,and stood to attention....expecting a few canings,like aad Nicky at the Whitley would have done....but Mr Douglas said " Very impressive boy,where did you learn to climb like that?"

I replied that i learned it by climbing trees down the woods from a young age.He said "Well,unfortunately,it's the wrong way,so i'll show you the right way,and if i catch you doing it your way again,you will be in trouble,right?!

He never mentioned the fact that i broke rules by being in the gym unsupervised!Danny was A great character,he clipped you,and made friends within minutes....R.I.P.Danny Douglas..the best P.t teacher ever lived.

Where is the site?

Maybe start a new one.

Anyone remember the wires to the caretakers house being cut?

Circa 1960

I was hit by a hockey stick. Several stitches later I never did like competitive sports.

A prize list I have tells a tale.

Ghostly voices from the past

Aye..!..Wat happens ti the sites?!

A came back ti catch up on new postings and thi pics....nowt there!!!

A lad called Ernie Middleton,[i worked with him at the Aad Pit at Bedltn,in the mid-'60's],had a Bond Bug,and if a can mind reet,he smashed it up....in his words......"daeing ninety"......!!!!!!!!

Canny lad Ernie,a wonder if he is still knocking aroond.....

....if ya theor Ernie,wi a nom-de plume,correct me if aam wrang wi me musings!!

Yes Shane Fenton and the Fentones did appear on the Monday night and it was all ticket, cost three shillings and sixpence. You mention Craiges, do you remember the disco in there? The lights used to make your pint look like a pint of sump oil and if you were wearing a white shirt it became blue.

The Clayton Ballroom used to be a skating rink on a Saturday afternoon (Roller Skates)

The skating was on also on Wednesday nights,and it got jam-packed!

My first visit was in 1962,and thats where i met my Wife...on skates,!!

test ... Scunthorpe United.

Captain Pugwash was great for the little we'ens was't it?....as weel!

Aye,great characters they had in them days,not like it is nooadays...wi aal this obscene stuff gaan on...aye,gud aad-fashioned characters like

Master Bates,and Seaman Staines..........wor kids loved it...it was SO INNOCENT... wasn't it?

Mind,it was my Son,in later life,who wisened me up,cos i was an old-fashioned "green" pitman............

Then there was the gud aad Cornflakes box,recently,giving tickets in a contest to see the new blockbuster film...starring the main character.....................

.........Owan Kinobi.......

The Shane Fenton show was an all ticket. I seem to recall it was Monday night, the Friday night was the hop and nothing clashed with the hop. I arrived at the Clayton at about 10pm after a few drinks at Craiges. Only to discover that the Bedlington boys had been throwing pennies onto the stage and Fenton had packed up and gone home. I was not happy, but maybe it was a lucky escape. Does anyone else remember that incident ?

I also seem to remember in those days the pubs closed at 10.00pm and the dance hall close at 10.30. Times have certainly changed.

I was at the Shane Fenton and the Fentones show,at the Clayton Ballroom,i was a big fan of the Fentones on ther own,cos they did some great guitar instrumentals,

i played lead guitar in a group and played on that stage on Friday and Saturday nights sometimes,it was a great place to be,cos i met my Wife there on a Wednesday rollerskating night....in 1962!!!!

The Fenton show was brilliant,and i certainly don't remember him packing up quick!!...not saying it didn't happen,but i seem to think it went really well,and me,being a lead-guitarist,stood all night with my nose under their lead guitar's guitar...watching like a hawk how he did his riffs..[but they weren't riffs in those days..they were "solo's"]

Aam posting inti thi wrang place again...not my daeing...hoo has that happened?

GGG.....Radio constructor.....Practical Wireless was my thing,in the mid-fifties,i was 12years old,learning aboot triode-pentodes and double-diode rectifier valves...

and reyrolle condensers...not capacitors!!!

Doon ti Barnton tip ti luk fo' aad pre-war wireless's cos the modern "smaala" sets came in....still the size of a suitcase like!,a used ti pull the aad sets apart ti use the bits ti build two-valve short-wave sets by a was 14 yrs aad!!!!

A had nae money,but me aada brutha bought the mag for us both ti use.Aboot 1956-9.