Symptoms

Best wishes to all ... hoping you all have a good Xmas and a great New Year.

The Morpeth Herald is archived at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ Dead easy to search for what you want and if you know the exact date of publication you get 3 views for free, otherwise you can pay as you go or pay a monthly or annual sub for total access. Hope this helps.

It does't matter what industry it is, it'll eventually be overrun by the tick-box Nazis in their sharp polyester suits and sporting 100 quid haircuts ... they always spoil it for those getting their hands 'dirty'. To make matters worse they believe what they're doing makes things better! I think I posted once before about visiting the Doctor Pit as a lad and was shown into the winding house to watch the winderman operate the tackle. I clearly recall some hand-painted marks on the big green winding drum to indicate the position of the cage on it's journey down the shaft and the winderman would watch these really carefully to slow and then brake at the correct moment ... I don't know how accurate these marks were as the cable must stretch and different loads must affect the behaviour of the tackle. After the visit to the winderhouse we were taken on a visit below ground ... Jack Dixon, the pit electrician (and our next door neighbour in the Riggs), took us on this visit.

Part of me rejoices at the news of a new deep coal mine in Cumberland (I've never liked the name Cumbria or Northumbria ... I still address letters home to Northumberland). I'm at a loss, however, to know where they're going to get enough skilled workers to create the place; is there anybody alive who knows how to sink a shaft or build the necessary underground infrastructure? Watch out HPW ... you could get drafted. https://www.westcumbriamining.com/ The other (small) part of me worries about the polar bears choking on the fumes from the coke works. Still, the Chinese seem to building loads of coal powered power stations (one new one a month) with little regard for the environment.

Yep, I'll send him a copy of the snap. I was at school with him.

I'm still in contact with Barry Muldoon

Even the Lesbian March was better supported

The Great Kipper Slither Here's some quick & dirty comparisons from history: The Peoples Vote March (this weekend) Selma to Montgomery Suffragettes

The asbestos never got us ... we're both still 'fighting fit'. Mind, he still smokes! I've been thinking about those redundant boilers and I'm sure they were heated by combusted coal dust blown into the furnaces - I recall big blowers as part of the tackle. I doubt gas would have been used as this pre-dated North Sea gas so enormous quantities of Town Gas would have been needed. Maybe there's some 'old timers' out there who'll confirm.

1968 not 1969 ... perhaps my brain is turning to mush!

It was used as engineering manufacturing company that produced nuts and bolts, and other fittings. How do I know this? My old man knew the boss and arranged for me and my brother to have a holiday job there during the school Easter hols of 1969; It was arranged that I could use some of the facilities to finish off my A'Level Engineering project - a racing kart (some folks call them go-karts but this was a serious bit of kit). I bent the tubular chassis there on their pipe bending machine and welded it together with their oxy-axcetelene gear ... the school didn't have this type of tackle. Anyway, what i recall was banks of multi-chuck automatic machines producing bolts in their thousands, turning the hexagonal bar stock to size, threading and then parting-off ... the finished items cascaded into metal bins for fork lifting away. Whilst I worked on my kart my brother got the job of stripping the asbestos lagging off three (it might have been two ... memory fade) huge boilers using a hammer, saw and crowbar. This was 1969 and well before H&S at Work Act ... no protective gear apart from a mask and dust everywhere. So these boilers play into baths theory. I can't recall the name of the firm.

I wonder how many "patriotic Kippers" will see it through to the end? I wonder if we'll be able to make comparisons with all those other great marches from history?

I rest my case m'lud.

I wonder where Cympil (the orignal poster) is now ... he was last here in 2013. I often wonder where all our 'lost friends' end up - some must croak and other might just get fed up of the Forum. I don't post as often as i used to ... I just got turned-off by the infestation of all those Kippers a while back. The place seems to have been fumigated so perhaps it's time for some more Symwisdom.

Every summer a load of us lads* spent a month or so staying in Keswick (in the town's camping site) basically getting p*ssed and funding it all through our weekly SS Giro sent 'poste restante' from the SS Office ( in Bedders Council Offices on Front St) to Keswick post office ... it was for 4 guinees or £4.4s. We were all in the Woolpack pub in Keswick watching the moon landing and getting p*ssed - the pub was operating a 'lock-in'. Anyone who was 15+ and still in full-time education could 'sign-on' with the SS during the school holidays and get the the Giro; if you were at home you had to go into the SS and sign a green card to collect the Giro. But, if you said you were going on holiday, but were prepared to return if a job was found for you, you could arrange to have the Giro sent to a forwarding address, hence Keswick Post Office. We operated this weeze for about 4 years every summer. It's funny, but years later when I was in my early 60s I applied for an old age pension forcast - they sent me a list of my history of NI contribution and I got 3 years of credit due to this signing-on weeze. I'm amazed they kept the records. *some of those lads are members of this forum or have been rediscovered through it.

Looking at those photos ... they obviously enjoy their grub, perhaps most of them have a season ticket at Greigs. Pies all round, I say! Yep, I know ... fat shaming. Naughty Sym.

Done some checking and it was a Winchester Model 1897 pump-action shotgun - it's now held at the Royal Armoury having been transferred by the Northumbria Peelers back in 1971. For all the facts go to: https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-34963.html

7 = Alan (Cowt) Coultas, 29 = Alan Greenacre, 30 = John Harmmerson (or Harmerson).

Eggs - if you number the Parliament snap I can ID Alan Greenacre, John Harmmerson, Alan Coultas as a starter.

I understand it was a Winchester Model 1890 (a .22 pump action). I've been a Firearms Certificate holder for 54 years and went shooting with my Dad when we lived in Bedders back in the late 50s and 60s. One of my Dad's guns was a Model 1890 and he always said it was this type that was used in the Sun murders. When he died I was left his large gun collection and so still have this Winchester. I have no difinitive proof, just what he told me.

Could be East Riggs ... perhaps a census enumerator wrote it down incorrectly (it happened often!).

George 'Geordie' Hemming's wife taught music at Westridge during my time there (61 to 67). If she wasn't a 'qualified' teacher then she would have been an 'instructor'; back then you could teach in schools as an instructor. The reference to "Assistant Schoolmaker" in the 1939 Register was probably an entry mistake (very common) ... it probably should be "Assistant Schoolmaster" and his wife down as "unpaid domestic duties" just means 'housewife'. Mr Hemmings taught Geography and French. Every year, at the end of the Summer Term, he would arrive at the school with his caravan hitched to his car ready for a quick getaway for his touring holidays in France. Oh, in Geography he had this technique for drawing 'cartoon' outline maps of different countries on the blackboard ... I loved this trick and still employ it even after 50 years!

And ... what about Nigel Farage alleged 'get rich quick scheme' - hedge fund betting against the pound on the night of the referendum? Shysters, the lot of them!

Eggs ... sorry for delay in replying. The banner was commissioned in 1949 by the Bedlington 'A' Colliery Combined Levy Fund Committee; the pit was also known as Sleekburn 'A' and originally the 'Auld Pit' when the first shaft was sunk in back in1838. So, it's the same pit ... perhaps, some of the old boys just continued to call it Sleekburn Pit after Nationalisation. West Sleekburn was a different pit, sometimes called 'The Winning' or Bedlington 'E'; its shaft was sunk in 1859. Its banner was made from silk in 1950. Hope this helps

Perhaps I'm just a pompous broadsheet faux intellectual kettled within a heaving PC crowd but, but, but ... am I the only one who is uncomfortable with 1970s humour appearing here?