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Messages - blythboy

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1
Northumberland / Re: Blyth History.
« on: Sunday 11 September 22 11:31 BST (UK)  »
Re pictures of Bates coal waggons.

Look up Batess on the Durham mining museum website, many pictures there.

2
Northumberland / Re: What Are The Large Jars For?
« on: Wednesday 15 April 15 12:41 BST (UK)  »
These are known as Demijohns and Carboys - the difference being that the first was used for potable liquids the latter for chemicals, particuarly acids. The wicker was to protect against breakage. The word Carboy is still in use in the chemical industry for large plastic containers of acid.

3
Northumberland / Re: Malvin's Close, Cowpen
« on: Thursday 12 March 15 10:11 GMT (UK)  »
Quote from: Phodgetts on Wednesday 11 March 15 17:32 GMT (UK)
A real photo postcard of Malvin's Close.

Thanks to Joan for sharing the image with me and letting me put it up on here for you all to enjoy.

P :)
This must be pre-war as their are iron railings as oppposed to the brick wall I recall from the mid 50s onwards. I still do not understand why the knocked this down, the farm , Fallowfield and Harpenden House, promised development and all that is their now is a metal fence with a builders name on it. Blyth institutional vandalism at its worst.

4
Northumberland / Re: Malvin's Close, Cowpen
« on: Friday 30 May 14 09:14 BST (UK)  »
Re TriciaK's comment on "people need house" - very true but the only things that seems to have been built in Blyth since I left (1974) are swathes of houses on greenfield sites. Does no one have the wit to have converted into apartments/dwellings Malvins Close House, the old Grammar School and all of those empty rooms above the endless banks, charity shops, pawnbrokers etc that now constitute the centre of Blyth? In any event, shouldn't some of these buildings have been listed?

What is required is someone to entice a major employer paying good wages into the town, what we have now is a dormitory suburb and a dead town centre. Along with the traffic nightmare as people leave and return to Blyth.

5
Northumberland / Re: Red house farm, Cowpen
« on: Monday 05 August 13 13:27 BST (UK)  »
Quote from: pityackafromblyth on Monday 05 August 13 13:21 BST (UK)


Greetings from a very warm Switzerland, no clouds and 34C
"Whe waants ti liv in Switzerland with aall the cheese and cuckoo clocks ?  Giv iz Blyth any day." ;D
[/quote]

It's just like Blyth, full employment, high wages, world's best standard of living, a health service that works, great schools, an integrated public transport, mountains and lakes. The cheeses are very good but cuckoo clocks originate in the Black Forest region of Germany.

Now I would welcome Blyth having any of the above (the geography might be tough) but the last time I was there it made me despair and that was in March. The great grey desert, aka Market place; the Coop closing, the litter, the lack of shops, the crumbling infrastructure, the lousy public transport, the empty pubs on a Saturday and that's after 13 years of a labour government, much as I have little time for the other parties, Ronnie and the council have some serious questions to answer.

6
Northumberland / Re: Red House Farm, Cowpen
« on: Monday 05 August 13 11:08 BST (UK)  »
If you use the "Keys to the Past" maps and mark the position of the Red House farm on the 1938-51 screen and then move to the present day, the farm is where Redesdale Place is. That is just off Axwell Drive.

Greetings from a very warm Switzerland, no clouds and 34C

7
Northumberland / Re: Red house farm, Cowpen
« on: Saturday 03 August 13 14:39 BST (UK)  »
Go to the following and load a map of Blyth.

http://www.keystothepast.info/Pages/pgResult.aspx?SEARCH=Blyth

Move Malvins Close to the top right-hand corner and then select older maps 1938-51. Right in the middle is the Red House farm.

8
Northumberland / Re: Blyth History.
« on: Saturday 27 July 13 08:58 BST (UK)  »
Buried in my bookshelf for years I found "The Stars Look Down" by A. J. Cronin (of Dr. Findlay fame). Cronin spent many years working as a doctor in pit towns.

If this pre-First World war novel is not set in Blyth,then it is set in its twin. Fantastic story and available for Kindle for a couple of quid. Gives a bleak picture of life as it was but is inspirational as well.

The novel was apparently the inspiration for Billy Elliot and guess what the closing song in the musical is called "The Stars Look Down"

9
Northumberland / Re: Blyth History.
« on: Friday 26 July 13 14:16 BST (UK)  »
Re the Coal Industry and Blyth

Google Huw Beynon, Andrew Cox & Ray Hudson, "The Decline of King Coal"

Ray Hudson is Professor of Economic Geography in Durham. His papers are readable, thought provoking and informative.

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