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.........................................................................................................................................................................The next Fandance is Sat 18th May 2024....................................................................................................................................................
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Having taken into account the current COVID restrictions that currently apply in the different parts of the UK, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 reunion.
The Chairman Nick Butler will be heading up the Fan at 0930 hrs on Saturday the 15th May and he will lay a BAFC wreath on behalf of the Club at the summit.
He will also toast The Fallen.
If other members wish to make their own pilgrimage up the Fan at their own risk please follow the relevant COVID restrictions that will be in place.
As a Club we are not able to accept liability for members safety and well being over the weekend of 14/15 May. Our Clubs insurance that normally covers Fandance will not operate this year.
Update to follow reference Aldershot 10 Miler on the 20th November 2021.
...........................................................................................................................................................The 10 Miler will be held on w/e Saturday 23rd November 2024..................................................................................................................................
Truebrit I struggle to find music for my videos we went to Gt Yarmouth the other day and that music was being played on a music stall. Curtis Magee (never heard of him) 25 love songs the clip song "the story I tell you"
About 20 years since I last visited mesen Bob,but talking to an old dear from across the road who visited last week,it,s expanded a lot since then.The threpenny bits open,and they,ve more or less rebuilt a big f.ck off stately home that was demolished somewhere in the North East,and looking at the updated leaflet,it,s twice the size it was when I last visited.
£13 to get in,but thinking about it,you have a good nostalgic day out,and compared to £28 to see shite 3rd Division Footy,ses it all!
Dave , sounds like it's changed a bit since I last saw it, I've got to get up that way sometime because most of my family originate from Hetton Le hole, all pitman. I have just started doing the family tree, and found it's full of characters.
Beamish, great place, when I want a blast from the past that's the place to be ! How much are they charging now Dave, because it's a few years since I last paid it a visit ?
Bob you don't need to visit it mate, you were there first time round.
"We're surrounded on all sides... Good... you're obviously in the right place".
Dave , sounds like it's changed a bit since I last saw it, I've got to get up that way sometime because most of my family originate from Hetton Le hole, all pitman. I have just started doing the family tree, and found it's full of characters.
I wondered where do all the Frog sounding names in Geordieland come from Hetton Le Hole, Chester Le Street. Wikipedia gives this;
The history of the Hetton area can be traced back for up to a thousand years. The unusual name of Hetton-le-Hole derives from two Anglo-Saxon words which were spelt together "Heppedune" or Bramble Hill. The name gave rise to a local landowning family, the le Hepdons who owned part of the Manor from the very earliest times. The ancient manor, which was bounded by that of Elemore, was divided into two parts known as Hetton-on-the-Hill and Hetton-in-the-Hole. This second and more sheltered part, was the vicinity in which the village ultimately arose. Records exist of the many holders of the manor right back to the 14th century. William de Hepdon held half the Manor by deed in 1363 and in 1380, William de Dalden held the other half. Even earlier charters go back to 1187 and make mention of the early village of Heppedune, its people, houses, crofts, ox-gangs and strips of land for the villagers in the three great fields around the settlement. In 1187 Bertram de Heppedune held the manor for the King and the other de Hepdons were his descendants.
The Romans called their fort Concangis or Concagium, a Latinisation of the Celtic name for the area, "Place of the horse people", which also gave name to the waterway through the town, Cong Burn. The precise name is uncertain as it does not appear in Roman records, but Concangis is the name most used today.[17][18]
In Anglo-Saxon times the settlement was called Cuneceastra[19] or Conceastre,[20] the name of the burn combined with the English word for a Roman fort. This shortened over time to Chester, the name used locally for the town, or Cestria in Latin.[nb 1] But "Chester" is a common name for towns in England, and in the Middle Ages "Street", for the Roman road, was added. The Universal etymological English dictionary of 1749 gives the town as "Chester upon Street" (and describes it as "a Village in the Bishoprick of Durham").[21] At some point this was shortened to the modern form.
"We're surrounded on all sides... Good... you're obviously in the right place".
Some great place names round ere Bob int the? As you say,"Hetton-Le Hole","Houghten-Le -Spring","Shiny Row","Pity Me",weer me dear owd grandma came from.
There,s even somewhere quite near Beamish actually called "No Place".
Imagine gerrin a tug from plod,and they ask you where you come from and you answer,"No Place",worra f.ckin laff that would be.Owd P.C. Knobhard ad think yer being a reight cheeky c.nt!
Really enjoyed that Jack,a glimpse of the conditions the "underground savages" worked in,F.ck That! Rather lob out of an aircraft! Am presently reading a book outa the library about WW1,titled,"Underneath Hill 60",a brilliant read,all about the tunneling done by miners from Britain,Canada,Australia and South Africa who put their mining expertise into blowing the Germans off the Messines Ridge in 1917.No military training,give em a uniform and a Lord Lovel and off they went digging like f.ck,their work rate and skill,f.ckin unbelievable.Shaft 40 feet deep,all by hand,then off horizontally towards the German trenches,one geezer with his back against a wooden board,kicking out the clay using a spade,then all the spoil moved by hand to the base of the shaft to be hoisted up to the surface and then a bit like horse shit,kicked about until it blended in with the scenery so the Gerry spotters in Balloons could,nt see what they were up to.
Really tough f.ckers them underground savages!
Really enjoyed that Jack,a glimpse of the conditions the "underground savages" worked in,F.ck That! Rather lob out of an aircraft! Am presently reading a book outa the library about WW1,titled,"Underneath Hill 60",a brilliant read,all about the tunneling done by miners from Britain,Canada,Australia and South Africa who put their mining expertise into blowing the Germans off the Messines Ridge in 1917.No military training,give em a uniform and a Lord Lovel and off they went digging like f.ck,their work rate and skill,f.ckin unbelievable.Shaft 40 feet deep,all by hand,then off horizontally towards the German trenches,one geezer with his back against a wooden board,kicking out the clay using a spade,then all the spoil moved by hand to the base of the shaft to be hoisted up to the surface and then a bit like horse shit,kicked about until it blended in with the scenery so the Gerry spotters in Balloons could,nt see what they were up to.
Really tough f.ckers them underground savages!
there's a pretty good aussie movie out from that book Dave. Another great book is Birdsong, once you get past the first boring 50 or so pages, some great descriptions of life in the tunnels.
Last edited by stephenfrank; 10 September 2013, 00:28.
I have always set myself a very low standard, and constantly fail to achieve it.
Good bit of filming Jack; very informative. My Grandad worked down the pit when he was ten years old. I found that out from Census records when he was long gone. I'm not too far from Beamish, I might get up there for a closer look.
Working coal mines. The first was a small mine with only 18 inch seams. Miners in shorts , with knee pads, lay on their backs or sides hewing coal, which they threw over their shoulder. This was in turn swept up by a scoop attached to a chain. They did this for 8 hours a day. The second pit, Horden Colliery, was one of the largest in the UK and went below the North Sea for 7 miles. Pumps were used 24 hours a day, otherwise the pit would be lost to flooding. Initially you went down in a cage to several hundred feet, ending in a large whitewashed cavern , where the pit ponies were kept. From there you sat on a belt which took me down a steep incline. At the bottom of this, then get on a train for 45 minutes to travel the 7 miles to the "Workings".From the rail end , one would walk through low tunnels, lit only by the helmet lamps ,to the face.The roof was supported by Dowty props and one would be told to move in unison, and part of the roof fell behind us. Scary stuff. The face was being gouged out by a huge rotating disc called the Miner.The coal was whisked back to the waiting rail carriages on long conveyor belts. They spent a couple of hours down there before retracing their steps to the surface, which was a welcome sight. Horden Colliery was closed by Thatcher, and the rubble and old machinery dumped down the shaft, which was then sealed. The only evidence that a pit ever existed there is a half pulley wheel set up where the gates used to be. The village died to a large degree, and many of the older terraced houses were demolished and replaced with modern houses. In retrospect, closing the pit was not a bad thing as it was an un-natural way to earn a living. But it did tear the heart out of the community, and the Horden Colliery of old disappeared.
Working coal mines. The first was a small mine with only 18 inch seams. Miners in shorts , with knee pads, lay on their backs or sides hewing coal, which they threw over their shoulder. This was in turn swept up by a scoop attached to a chain. They did this for 8 hours a day. The second pit, Horden Colliery, was one of the largest in the UK and went below the North Sea for 7 miles. Pumps were used 24 hours a day, otherwise the pit would be lost to flooding. Initially you went down in a cage to several hundred feet, ending in a large whitewashed cavern , where the pit ponies were kept. From there you sat on a belt which took me down a steep incline. At the bottom of this, then get on a train for 45 minutes to travel the 7 miles to the "Workings".From the rail end , one would walk through low tunnels, lit only by the helmet lamps ,to the face.The roof was supported by Dowty props and one would be told to move in unison, and part of the roof fell behind us. Scary stuff. The face was being gouged out by a huge rotating disc called the Miner.The coal was whisked back to the waiting rail carriages on long conveyor belts. They spent a couple of hours down there before retracing their steps to the surface, which was a welcome sight. Horden Colliery was closed by Thatcher, and the rubble and old machinery dumped down the shaft, which was then sealed. The only evidence that a pit ever existed there is a half pulley wheel set up where the gates used to be. The village died to a large degree, and many of the older terraced houses were demolished and replaced with modern houses. In retrospect, closing the pit was not a bad thing as it was an un-natural way to earn a living. But it did tear the heart out of the community, and the Horden Colliery of old disappeared.
Jack, I worked at Lynemouth Colliery, in Northumberland, and a lot of what you described brought a lot of memories flooding back, the chain and scoop you described was called the treppaner, although I did work the old hand filling conveyors , we never used that. But Lynemouth did have mechanised coal movers such as continuous miners, and disk shearers. Whatever the job mate, it was all hard graft !
there's a pretty good aussie movie out from that book Dave. Another great book is Birdsong, once you get past the first boring 50 or so pages, some great descriptions of life in the tunnels.
Beneath hill Sixty. Its on my CD Player right now. Get it Dave it is a cracking film. I just rented it from the library
Last edited by trubrit2411; 11 September 2013, 14:53.
"If they control your speech.....they control your life" Me
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