Symptoms
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Posts posted by Symptoms
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Is the old school building still standing? One of the posts above suggested it was going to be demolished but Google Street View dated 2023 shows it still standing. It would be great if a local could stick a camera around the gate post during the Easter holiday (no kids about!!!!) and then share with us expats what the place looks like now.
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Is it possible to upload short video clips to the forum? I asked this question many years ago but didn't get an answer; maybe back then the technology didn't exist here to do it but maybe now the guy with the Forum's toolbox (is it one of the Gs?) has added this enhancement. I've got 1960s 8mm film (now digitized) taken by my late father of some Bedlington related stuff that it would be good to share, eg. school karting.
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It’s that time of year again when thoughts of old friends emerge again and fond memories stir the soul. I hope everybody here is well.
Wishing you all good time over the holidays and a safe happy New Year.
Sym
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Canny - I don't know for sure why he was carried home but my guess would be the pit owners didn't want to fork out; remember these were the guys who stiffed the miners in the 1920s AND during WW2 when they attempted to reduce wages. They clearly wanted to pass on the cost to the family.
My Grandfather returned to work and lasted underground until just after Nationalisation when he had to quit due to getting pneumoconiosis, commonly known as 'black lung disease'; he died of it in 1950. The NUM (for our younger viewers - The National Union of Mineworkers) in late 1948 fought the newly formed NCB (again, for our younger viewers - The National Coal Board) for compensation and my Grandfather was the first miner in th UK to get a payout from the NCB; my Mum told me it was £500 (today worth about £22,000).
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During WW2 my maternal Grandfather was working a double shift in the middle of the night (to help the war effort) when he was injured underground by a rock fall causing crush injuries to his legs and back. His mates dug him out, brought him to the surface and stretchered him the mile-and-a-half back to his home. The doctor was called, meds given and an ambulance was called to take him to hospital in Durham ... he worked at Sherburn Hill Colliery near Durham City. My Grandmother had to pay the Doctor for the home visit and for the ambulance - it cost her two shilling and six pence. You had to pay for all this stuff when the pits were privately owned and there was no NHS. He got plastered-up and was back at work a couple of months later.
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It's The Guardian for me every day and The Observer on a Sunday. First started reading The Guardian in the school library when in the 6th Form and never stopped - 56 years and counting. When at Uni in London my Mum used to send me The Pink every week to keep up with Toon's news ... back then you could buy a brown paper postal wrap to roll the newspaper in.
So, Sym has set himself up for incoming from the sneering right. Poo!!!
As with all things Saxe-Coburg and Gotha I am critical of all their inherited wealth and privilage so switch off anything on the telly about them. Of course, H ain't really one of them - some say he's a product of that liason between his mum and 'Ginger' James Hewitt. His biggest crime as far as the loony right is concerned is taking up with a mixed-race woman.
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Just found the photo in Gallery ... Geordie is 1st left back row. Kitted as an outfield player so my memory of him playing in goal was muddled. He was part of our group of lads from the 'West End' (the Hartlands, the Riggs and the Leaches Estate) who'd play football all day on 20 acres (a large grass area alongside Hartford Road). The goalie in the photo is Micky Routledge.
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Heather - George (Geordie) Nesbitt was in my class at school; he'll be 72 now. I don't know if he's one of your Nesbitts. He lived in The Hartlands estate. He was a good footballer and played for the school teams as a goalkeeper - there's a school football photo of him in the gallery somewhere ... I look for it when I've a bit more time and post the link.
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More like Emergency Ward Ten* or even Quatermass and the Pit**
For our younger viewers: * = 1960s telly, ** = 1950s telly.
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More of the same news from The Engineer Magazine today:
Let's hope those long Aussie jump leads do the trick.
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In an earlier post I said, "... what we need is for Amanda at the Toon to phone Big Mo in Saudi to come to the rescue, ..." - I know it was tongue-in-cheek but what about this as a solution (based on a recent article in The Engineer Magazine):
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/kaust-spinout-will-extract-lithium-from-seawater
Big Mo buys Britishvolt then uses the seawater sucked-up the old powerstation outfall pipe to get the lithium to make the batteries. You heard it here first - another bright idea from Sym.
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HPW - I've just sent you a Personal Message.
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Deep down I always felt that this would happen ... what a shame! Anyway, what we need is for Amanda at the Toon to phone Big Mo in Saudi to come to the rescue, or, failing that Sir Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos to pick-up the tab after buying MankU.
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Even a bit more info in The Guardian today:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/10/britishvolt-deal-dealab-battery-startup
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More news from The Guardian today:
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A comment piece from The Guardian last Saturday:
This posting is not meant kickstart the Brexit debate here!!!!
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The workers suffer AGAIN with pay cuts ...
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So, this is what the Tories 'levelling-up' scheme looks like in practice. I wonder if site was in Royal Tumbridge Wells the money would be found. Remember what Rishydishysunac said to those Tories there ... he'd diverted support funding from deprived areas to affluent ones!
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Tony - I have no suggestions for a Bedlington fridge magnet but don't be tempted to get your wife a Bedlington Terrier dog one ... as she's Hungarian born why not get her a Hungarian Vizsla fridge magnet from Amazon? I am biased - I've owned Vizslas for over 50 years. Go on, you know Sym always speaks good sense.
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Jump leads at the ready as it seems the Big Battery Factory might be going flat.
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I've not watched the video ... so my comment is about the misleading use of language especially spouted by some politicians. The term "affordable housing" is often used to disguise the lack of rentable 'social housing'. There's a chronic need to build affordable rented properties in the UK, not loads of housing stock that folks can't afford the mortgages for!
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An investigative journalist from one of the National newspapers should get their teeth into this situation - who knows where it could lead. Useless local officers not following the rules to corruption ... we need to know! Local journalists are likely to be too close to those needing to be investigated.
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Stephen - you wrote: "... he was in the home guards during the second world war (don't know if he would still be working down the pit at that time)...".
It's likely that he continued working down the pit at the same time as being in the Home Guard - my Maternal Grandfather was in a similar situation in County Durham. One of the tasks the Home Guard had was 'guarding' their own pits and linked railway lines. They would finish their shifts, home for a wash in the 'tin bath' and a bite to eat, then down to the local hall for parade and patrol/guard duty.
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Canny -
I remain unconvinced that loads of women were able to benefit directly from the facilities offered in the Mechanics Institutes even where there was a half-price subscription. I suspect that it was only those with some disposable income who could afford the subs; I’m not sure that the vast majority of ‘working poor’ women fell into this group. I can accept that perhaps those women from the ‘trading classes’ – wives and daughters of the butchers, bakers and candle stick makers were the ones who had the time and resources to access these places. The Institutes in the big cities would have had much bigger populations to draw on so the proportion of women wishing, or able, to use the facilities would have been greater. I can’t see many poor wives and mothers in places like Bedlington, enslaved to the tyranny of the poss tub having the time, energy or resources to join the Institutes. Of course, there would have been exceptions but I can’t see it being widespread. My own maternal Grandmother was an exceptional woman who led an incredible life – I’ve posted her story on the Facebook page of her Co.Durham home village … perhaps I might copy it here to illustrate that Victorian/Edwardian working class drive for self-improvement that we’ve been discussing. What do you think?
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Uploading short video clips
in Chat Central
Posted
Thank you both for the helpful info. I'll do some editing of the school karting footage and then attempt to upload ... fingers crossed.