Blyth History.

[garthwaite76]

We called the red sauce Monkey's Blood. You have to wonder where that came from!
And yes Martino - Whenever someone turned a bike upside down we'd say he was selling ice cream. Presumably because it reminded us of Martino's bike. Ridiculous!
I have a vague memory of a red shop on Park Road with a strange triangular entrance door, that sold home made ice cream that I used to love, especially in a sugar cone. It had it's own distinctive flavour that I've never come accross again. I'm thinking that that would have been a treat on the way to Ridley Park paddling pool.

[Oaker]

Favourite Saturday outing was to a shop we called the Comic Shop on the way to the chain ferry. It was run by two lovely ladies, I think called Dot and Maggie. You took 3 comics in and got two used comics back. I wish I’d kept all the early Spider-Man daredevil Thor Hulk etc comics I had in the sixties, they’re worth a fortune. I’d read all the James Bond books by the time I was 14.

[garthwaite76]

You've got me on that one Oaker - can't recollect the comic shop at all - obviously not somewhere I visited. I was never into the "boys" type of comics, (with the exception of Roy Of The Rovers). I always went for the funnies, Beezer, Topper, Beano etc which my Grandma bought for us every week.

[Oaker]

I read Victor, loved Alf Tupper, scruff Runner who always beat the posh bloke. Gorgeous Gus who came on a football field for 10 minutes and scored the winning goals. Hotspur, Eagle. Lion. I read everything I could get my hands on, We didn’t have a tele till I was 11, watched it at grandmas, I even read my sisters Bunty.
I feel sorry for kids nowadays, glued to their phones. I suppose it’s a form of reading.

[Yossarian]

I'm busy with a blog post about my childhood on Beecher Street in Cowpen Newtown. There was/is only one side to this street, yet the door numbers are all odd. This throws up the question of whether there was an 'even' side that was demolished before I was born (unlikely), or perhaps that side was planned, but never built (also unlikely). I deliver stuff around Blyth and I've noticed that the numbers on single sided streets always go up in single increments, 1,2,3 etc. I think the most logical guess is that the flats were numbered this way simply because it was the norm.

By the way, if anyone happens to have a photo of old Beecher Street that they would allow me to use in the blog, I'd be extremely grateful.

[pityackafromblyth]

Yossarian, Your post caught me eye having grown up at Cowpen estate.
Look in Northumberland>Blyth Street Name..  This was started on Friday, 24th June, 2011.  There are 3 pages re this subject, and Beecher Street is mentioned.  You may find what you are looking for.
I have googled 'Beecher Street, Cowpen' hopefully looking for old maps.  There are some. One was on Pinterest, but I could not explore/enlarge that map, as I am not a member of that site.
Best of luck.
P.S. A modern map of that area has surprised me - in my time, below Beecher Street, and the others, was a field, and the sewage works before you gained access to the river bank. It seems as though all that area has been developed into commercial premises, etc.

[Yossarian]

With regard to the comic shop over by the Travellers Rest, here is a piece I wrote following the death of Stan Lee. I did hang onto those early issues, and I still have eight or so.


 
Way back when I was in my early teens, there used to be a second-hand magazine shop at the Ferry Corner next to the Travellers Rest pub. In the window there were sleazy true crime mags hanging from a line by bulldog clips to tempt those who had a weakness for scantily clad women, but for my friend Stephen and me, the treasure lay inside the shop against the back wall.

This was a large table that was piled high with dozens upon dozens of American comics - and all were available at 2p a pop. Spider-Man quickly became our favourite, and we scooped up as many as we could find. Stephen had issue number nine, but the earliest I could manage was 17. I loved the stories, not only because of the fabulous enemies Spidey would fight (Dr Octopus, Kingpin, The Lizard, The Vulture and The Green Goblin to name but a few), but Peter Parker's home life was also interesting. He went out with Gwen, and later Mary Jane. His friend Harry, whose father is The Green Goblin (spoiler alert), became addicted to prescription drugs, and of course Flash, the boorish jock who bullied 'Puny Parker', but idolised Spider-Man (man that was frustrating - the number of times I wanted Parker to just deck the big-headed get - but he couldn't or he'd give the game away.

[JenB]

Can any of you Blyth experts help with this one, please?
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=841440.msg7077200#msg7077200

[Yossarian]

Quiz time! What is this long-since-demolished building? I know, because I was there when my dad took the photo, but I'm sure a lot of you will recognise it too. The image is a photo I took of a slide projected onto a screen. THe trouble is that the bulb on my dad's old Gnome projector is about as bright as a 40-watt tulip bulb. I have a box of colour slides from the early sixties, and I'd like to upload some of the important ones, like the building in the picture, for posterity. I checked out a 'slide to JPEG' converter, but it seemed quite expensive for something I'd only use once. Any suggestions?