Blyth

[Bill_r]

Thank you for the wonderful picture.

We may not have had much money but we could imagine Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, Tom Mix etc. riding along with us on our journey.

Bill.

[pityackafromblyth]

 Gloucester Lodge, Blyth.
Who knows the history of the building, and the family(ies) connected with it ?  As youngsters when at the beach we never went beyond Meggies Burn.  But when in our teens and riding bikes to Seaton Sluice, etc., we would see it as we passed along the road.  I do not think it was inhabited in the 1950s.  Is the building still standing, or has it been demolished ?  I should have thought it would have been a listed building, but presumably it no longer exists.  However, having said that, I think it was on Rootschat that I learned that Malvin's House, at Malvin's Close, Cowpen/Blyth, was demolished - legal vandalism ?  Anyone with any history of Gloucester Lodge, please post.

[eddie21455]

Thanks for that. I know now that it was not a figment of my imagination.

I also remember the roundabout on the market But not the bookstall.  I seem to remember a lady who lived down the street to us used to hand crank it.  She was a mrs Tulip and her husband worked on the fruit and veg stall,  name I can't remember. 

Barbara

yes your right and her husband was called George he used to wotk for Deans. iI also lived down the road

[emmadog]

Yes Eddie that was right.  I couldnt for the life of me remember what the fruit shop was called, Deans   They lived down the street from me in Salisbury street in the sixties.

Barbara

[blythboy]

Caller Herring is a very famous Scottish folk song words by Carolina Oliphant, to a tune by master Scots fiddler, Nathaniel Gow

Wha’ll buy my caller herrin’?
They’re no brought here without brave darin’
Buy my caller herrin’
Ye little ken their worth.
Wha’ll buy my caller herrin’?
O ye may ca’ them vulgar farin’;
Wives and mithers, maist despairin’,
Ca’ them lives o’ men.

Used to sing it in the old Grammar School

[pityackafromblyth]

blythboy, How old are you ?  I went to the GS, and we never sang that song.  I am ** yrs of age, so you must be 9*, or 1**.   Who was your music teacher, or would that be giving away secrets?
What I came back to this subject for was how did 'Monkey's Island' get its name ? It is not even an island, and is just up river from the site of the old power station, at Cambois.
On the south side of the river, roughly opposite Monkey's Island, there was a fever hospital at one time, about the 1920s.  I saw an old photo of my grandmother outside the wooden(I think)huts.  She was standing there in a nurse's uniform.  On the same side of the river, and up river towards the sewage works there was a considerable wall built of large stones.  Anyone have any idea  what took place there ?  Was it built to prevent flooding(as the river is tidal in that area) ?

[emmadog]

I also went to the "Old Grammar School" and have never heard that song.  It was amybe something peculiar to one class or year.

[c-side]

It isn't something I remember either but I gave up music at the first opportunity - or did it give me up?

Did you know that our beautiful old school has been flattened and is now a muddy field?

Christine

[pityackafromblyth]

I think most classes and years at the old BGS were peculiar - except the ones I was in. Yes, I was aware it had been razed to the ground; a friend, still living in the town, sent me some photos by email.  I suppose nowadays, it is financially easier to build a new one, than spend more modernising a school.
What happened to the ice age boulder, which had been dredged out of the river, and stood on the lawn opposite the school dinner building entrance ?  I could have asked for it for a souvenir.
Anyone with info as to the naming of 'Monkeys' ' island, or the fever hospital there, please add.