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The Lighter Side / BLYTH/ Ponds above Newsham/New Delaval (and other stuff)
« on: Friday 13 July 18 23:05 BST (UK) »
I was having a chat with a relation about our younger days living at the top end of Plessey Road and some of the "adventures" we used to have with ponds etc. (I am going back maybe 65+ years!)
I can distincly remember what I called the "Timber Pond", a kind of natural pond which lay in the middle of the Timber Yard above Delaval, the yard which I think mainly handled pit props for local mines. The banks of that pond were composed mainly of sawdust, obviously from the years of the sawmill cutting the timber and ejecting huge quantities of sawdust waste. Another big feature of that pond which I remember were the vast swathes of bullrushes growing around the perimeter.
The "Timber Pond", as I recall, had a great variey of "wildlife" - like sticklebacks and frogs - *huge numbers* of frogs, and I do remember collecting frogspawn from there, keeping them in a big jar in the backyard, watching them develop, then eventually watching the poor creatures die as we had no clue as to how to nurture them.
The other ponds nearby were what I called the "Pit Ponds" which were 2 brick lined "reservoirs" handling the discharge/effluence from the old New Delaval Pit which I think closed during my childhood living nearby. We are in agreement about the Pit Ponds (and the Yella Babby!)
(Another question: Did Evvie Chamberlain's shop sell carbide? For we would often discover small piles of carbide nearby the shop, on the side of the street/pavement where I think the miners may have filled their lamps. When we spat on such little piles of carbide they started "fizzing")
Now, the questions are:
1. Was there a "Timber Pond", because my relation simply cannot remember such a pond? Or am I imagining things having read "Wind In The Willows" too many times?
2. Another subject that came up was the "Fever Sink"! These were drain openings in the gutters of our streets which were covered by cast iron open covers with cast iron bars across them to possibly catch leaves etc. I suspect that nowadays they would be referred to as "storm drains" to carry rainwater away from the street surface. Again, the reference meant nothing to my relation but some very distinct memories of the "fever sinks" I do have was that during dry, settled weather, the water at the base of the drain became stagnant and the smell of them is what I believe led to the naming of them as "fever sinks". Also, following a wet spell when the drains had obviously been flushed through with rainwater, we often discovered frogs living in those same drains. I don't know how they got there but I suspect they probably fell into the drain and then could not get back out! And us boys, being boys, would drop stones from the roadside onto them and try to hit a frog!
Definitely *not* acceptable these days, but then we knew no better.
Any thoughts on any of these points, please? *Especially* the Timber Pond for I am sure that I did not imagine it.
Thanks in advance for any comments.
I can distincly remember what I called the "Timber Pond", a kind of natural pond which lay in the middle of the Timber Yard above Delaval, the yard which I think mainly handled pit props for local mines. The banks of that pond were composed mainly of sawdust, obviously from the years of the sawmill cutting the timber and ejecting huge quantities of sawdust waste. Another big feature of that pond which I remember were the vast swathes of bullrushes growing around the perimeter.
The "Timber Pond", as I recall, had a great variey of "wildlife" - like sticklebacks and frogs - *huge numbers* of frogs, and I do remember collecting frogspawn from there, keeping them in a big jar in the backyard, watching them develop, then eventually watching the poor creatures die as we had no clue as to how to nurture them.
The other ponds nearby were what I called the "Pit Ponds" which were 2 brick lined "reservoirs" handling the discharge/effluence from the old New Delaval Pit which I think closed during my childhood living nearby. We are in agreement about the Pit Ponds (and the Yella Babby!)
(Another question: Did Evvie Chamberlain's shop sell carbide? For we would often discover small piles of carbide nearby the shop, on the side of the street/pavement where I think the miners may have filled their lamps. When we spat on such little piles of carbide they started "fizzing")
Now, the questions are:
1. Was there a "Timber Pond", because my relation simply cannot remember such a pond? Or am I imagining things having read "Wind In The Willows" too many times?
2. Another subject that came up was the "Fever Sink"! These were drain openings in the gutters of our streets which were covered by cast iron open covers with cast iron bars across them to possibly catch leaves etc. I suspect that nowadays they would be referred to as "storm drains" to carry rainwater away from the street surface. Again, the reference meant nothing to my relation but some very distinct memories of the "fever sinks" I do have was that during dry, settled weather, the water at the base of the drain became stagnant and the smell of them is what I believe led to the naming of them as "fever sinks". Also, following a wet spell when the drains had obviously been flushed through with rainwater, we often discovered frogs living in those same drains. I don't know how they got there but I suspect they probably fell into the drain and then could not get back out! And us boys, being boys, would drop stones from the roadside onto them and try to hit a frog!
Definitely *not* acceptable these days, but then we knew no better.
Any thoughts on any of these points, please? *Especially* the Timber Pond for I am sure that I did not imagine it.
Thanks in advance for any comments.