Northumberland, history, WWII, crashed planes By Bill CharltonCrashed Mustang on HareshawDuring the war years we kids used to go out to view the crashed planes and collect souvenirs if we could. We’d push bike out to Hareshaw Head late in the afternoon then walk over the moors to get a glimpse of a plane which … Read more
Northumberland, farming, history, dialect, humour, machinery, ploughing, plough sock(shares), 1950s By Donald Clegg RocksNot all a Daft Laddie’s knowledge was gained the hard way. Some came simply by asking questions of the boss, or the old hands on the farm. I had been ploughing a field ready to sow corn, or maybe turnips, when the plough … Read more
Northumberland, Bellingham, history, dialect, humour, childhood memories By Bill Charlton I was born in July 1927 and my father, Robert Lowther Charlton ( known as Bob) and mother Lilian ( known as Lily) named me Anthony William Charlton (to be known as Bill). I had a brother Cliff and a sister Joan. The family lived … Read more
Northumberland, farming, humour, dialect, military service, morse code, Korea, history, 1950s By Donald ClegggThe King wants a Daft LaddieFor two years I was a guest of His Majesty King George VI, followed by Her Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse and spent much of my National Service in Korea … Read more
Northumberland, farming, humour, dialect, Daft Laddies, floods, camping , history, 1950s By Donald Clegg Draining the peat for tree plantingAfter National Service I returned to work on a farm in the North Tyne and where I had my Daft Laddie wrestle with the bracken crusher. In those pre-Kielder dam days the North Tyne River was prone to … Read more
Daft Laddies, humour, military service, history, 1950s By Donald Clegg Caad wintors in KoreaKorean winters can be severe, and even in September, the ground round our camp was frozen hard as iron. Our Field Telephone Exchange (FTE) was housed in a sandbagged bunker with a canvas roof. There was a set of steps cut in … Read more
Northumberland, farming, humour, dialect, Daft Laddies, history, 1950s By Donald Clegg Don’s watch by H Samuel’s of Newcastle upon Tyne. It’s now in gentle retirement with a new boot lace to keep it safe Do you remember the H Samuel Ever-Right pocket watch? It cost all of 30/- (£1.50) in the 1950’s and was a must for … Read more
Donald Clegg(Image at left from The Northumbrian Magazine)Don organising his squirrel feeder Donald Clegg was born at Rochester in Redesdale. After Grammar school he worked as a postman delivering mail on foot to farms around the area. He worked on farms in Redesdale and after being called up for his military service and ‘doing time’ helping … Read more
Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on. By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com Whereas the contribution of … Read more
Northumberland, Redesdale, agriculture, farming, history, moor burning, moorland management, dialect, humour Moor burning: A Redesdale Daft Laddie’s burning desire By Donald Clegg The smell of reekFor hundreds of years man has used fire as a means to clear scrub and invasive plants off land so that he could farm it in one way or another. … Read more
Northumberland, farming, history, entertainment, Agricultural show, Bellingham By Clive Dalton Highlight of the farming yearThe highlight of our year up the North Tyne, without doubt, was Bellingham Show held in the last week of August for well over 100 years. We Bellingham folks dated everything in our lives by the Show. Arguments over dates could … Read more
By Clive Dalton Poems and songsBellingham Show was such an important annual event, not only up the North Tyne valley but and on both sides of the Border, and especially in industrial Tyneside where ‘toon folk’ could have a day out by train in the fresh air of rural Northumberland. It wasn’t surprising then that … Read more
By Archie Mason Reprinted from the Bellingham Heritage Centre Newsletter, Autumn 2009.See the contacts for the Heritage Centre on the blog for more information. We left the village by the road over the Tyne bridge then up to the cemetery at the Croft, where we turned right to go as far as Dunterley farm. There … Read more
I think the photo was taken in the Bellingham Black Bull around 1954 – and judging by their dress, it was after a fairly formal gathering or meeting, and not a night out! What Adam Dodd was doing as the sole male among them is intriguing. Adam served as a postman in Bellingham for many … Read more
Photographer: W.P. Collier By Dr Clive Dalton Walter Percy Collier was born in Newcastle in 1875, and moved to Liverpool after his father’s death in 1891 where he lived with the younger of his two sisters. He then went back to Newcastle to work for the industrial photographer, Harry Ord Thompson. After his wife died … Read more
An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com Photo: An old daft laddie (Clive Dalton) deftly demonstrating the ‘hack’ method 50 years on. The scythe generally struck terror into a … Read more
I got my hands on a copy of this email newsletter put together by the North Tyne and Redesdale Community Partnership. Cracking read to catch up on what is going on in the neighbourhood. You can get your copy by emailing adminbct@btconnect.com or phoning Rachel on 220714
Well, to be fair I knew they were – Google Analytics gives me a lovely picture of the woolshed1 blog heading up and down the valley from time to time. But here’s a few other cracking little websites that came to me via the Bellingham Heritage Centre. Bellingham and District Trade and Tourism Association http://bdtta.co.uk/ Wark … Read more
What’s a cracket? In Victorian times and into the 1950s, houses in the North East of England used to be littered with stools called crackets! Every house would have at least one, and many would have two (a large one for grownups and a small one for the bairns). During the second world war, furniture … Read more
Daft Laddies – Is’t fit? Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on.By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg An extract from the book – Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton & Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com … Read more