Your letters & email:Sept
Beach clean is success
About 35 people turned out at our last beach clean, including the Coast Guards. The work was quite laborious, especially when you are getting on as they say.
The youngsters who came enjoyed the day and some had chips on the beach afterwards. Some of the older people had bacon or sausage butties made by Anne Grey to fill a gap till teatime, and Anne Brown made tea and coffee for us.
Personally I was delighted with the work the machine did and we are all very grateful to the County Council for the loan of this vehicle and the driver who stayed with us all day.
There is still a lot of work to do but with work still to happen in mid August we might see a big improvement again.
Thank you to everyone who took part and helped me with everthing especially the support you gave. May this little part of our heritage stay with us in the present or even better condition and someone will always look after it. It is after all something to be proud of and a place for children and adults to share.
Audrey Jones,
Ladbroke St, Amble
More of Sir James Spence
I read with great interest the item ‘Name change for local schools’.
In 1947 I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and children born in May and June of that year became involved in the ‘1000 Families’ research project at the RVI instigated and organised by Sir James Spence and his team with support from Newcastle Council. We became the ‘Red Spot’ children, so-called because of a sticker on our medical records.
The initial study was to be for one year to investigate the high infant mortality rate and depravation in areas of Newcastle after WW2 but the project continued until 1962. Each birthday we received a special card and went to the RVI where we had various tests to monitor our health and general progress. In between times a district nurse visited us regularly at home. Many children remember the ‘jelly patches’ that accompanied these visits.
When the funding was available we had further visits at age 22, 33 and 50. Earlier this year, in time for an ‘MOT’ at 62, I completed a detailed health questionnaire and spent a day at the RVI. As well as having the usual tests I took part in various individual research projects into ‘joints’, ‘gait’ and had MRI scans.
Over the years there have been a number of articles published using the information gleaned from these 1000 ‘children’ who have chosen to remain involved.
I did not realise that Sir James Spence had been born in Amble but it is a very appropriate name for the new school to inspire our local children as he did by his interest, commitment and involvement in improving the health of all children.
Veronica Lisle, Kirkwell Cottages, High Hauxley
Help for war veterans
The A.N.A.F (Army Navy Air Force Help Support & Advisory Group) is said to be the only charity dedicated to helping war disabled. A true charity staffed by unpaid volunteers. No salaries or gratuities and we are proud to be part of such a group. We have raised funds to ensure a better standard of living for war disabled veterans and their families.
Many thousands of people have benefited from our fund raising and the benefits we provide with the help of so many friends and sympathisers. Our organisation was originally formed in 1968 to assist severely handicapped people in the four northern counties of England and the Scottish Borders
Our charity logo states….. Help, Support & Advisory.
Many war disabled, deaf, partially sighted, slightly wounded, still carrying shrapnel wounds, sun induced cancer, chemical induced sickness, loss of limbs, the list is fairly endless. Veterans suffering any form of long term illness or pain caused by the enemy or by accident or illness contracted whilst wearing H.M. Force uniform are eligible for help.
War veterans in genuine need are guaranteed our assistance, from all manner of domestic appliance replacements, household goods, clothing, home decorations, holiday breaks and hundreds of other essential benefits denied many veterans for various questionable reasons.
Many war pensioners have been assisted in obtaining pension awards, and several have had their pension percentages increased with our help and advice, even via tribunals which many pension applicants will be aware of. Our success rate is 99%
Our first contact with any veteran or his or her family member is preferably by telephone or e-mail: kenhatton@btinternet.com.
To date we have raised several millions from sources wishing to help disabled heroes, and every penny raised is paid directly to the vendors of the goods and services for the veterans. We pay our own expenses.
Royal Air Force and Ex-Royal Air Force personnel may be interested to know that I represent The Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society in the regions Northumberland, Cumbria, Westmorland and the Scottish Borders. G4IZW is my radio call-sign.
Kenneth J Hatton, A.N.A.F
(The Army Navy & Air Force Help, Support & Advisory Group)
Gloster Park, Amble
Old photos needed
Amble Social History Group produce DVD slideshow of old and new photos of Amble and district provided by members of the public. We also produce books about the area. All profits go to local good causes.
Our latest donation was to Amble Boys Club. We paid for their pool table to be recovered, bought new goal nets and footballs, a table-top freezer and paid for the bus for a trip to the Discovery and Hancock Museums as well as other smaller items.
We are urgently in need of photos for our 4th DVD. Could anyone who has old or new photos of Amble and district or of Amble people please contact Andy or Mary Sim on 01665 710847 or Frank Swinhoe on 01665 710262. We can scan your original photos and let you have them back quickly.
Frank Swinhoe, via email
Island Views
Many thanks for printing my letter – lovely photo of Island View, there will be people who know my name and remember me – no Gordons live in Amble now – back in the late 60’s, 70’s, 80’s the name of Gordon was notorious.
My time at Island View was ‘bitter sweet’ (I literally built the extension to the front of No. 6 with my husband and help of local man) it was pure Catherine Cookson, it was all there, family feud, property dispute, the original mother-in-law from hell, drunkeness, illness, death, treachery, wilful betrayal, which resounds to this – a real blockbuster.
I am told I should write all this down but it is too fantastic to have happened to one person.
Oh, Happy Birthday – I have only just bought myself into the 21st century with a computer so have missed 10 years of you.
Could you please send me a copy of The Ambler, I enclose cheque to cover costs and donation to the vital tea/coffee/biscuit fund.
Kind Regards
Sally Gordon
Devonshire Road, Prenton
Please find attached two photos of Island View (Salt Pans) which were taken 60 years apart.In the last edition of The Ambler there was an article on Island View and I thought these photos may be of interest to your readers.
The older photo I purchased as a postcard from the internet and it was sent in 1948 so the photo must have been taken around that time.
The newer photo was taken in 2008 and I tried to capture the same spot but erosion of the links made this difficult but it shows the outline of the wall has hardly changed in 60yrs but the houses definitely have.
Also find attached a photo of a crab with an extra claw growing on its original claw. Like the lobster with an extra claw in the last edition of The Ambler this was caught by the same fishermen in 2005. Doug Handyside and Alan Brown. Unlike the lobster which went to an aquarium the crab ended up in a sandwich.
Regards
Ian Modral
via email
Following up on the Island View Saga…I bought #6 form Charlie Gordon in the early 90’s, it was major project to say the least. I gutted the whole building and put on a new gable end, at one point, one stormy December night, a wave came over the sea wall and washed through the living room, after I had just cut a hole for the new patio door, I remember sitting on the workmate having a sandwich and lifting my feet as the tide fowed through. I could also see the stars through the roof from within the living room….thinking “I must be puggled buying this place !” I also repaired the sea wall a number of times, mixing by hand about a yard of concrete, setting in re-bar that had been “borrowed” from the pit. Nothing ever lasted that I put in, the sea was just too powerful.
All these epics aside, this was the best place I have ever lived, with many fond memories of #6 Island View and the folks of Amble, living there and working at Phoenix Mountaineering…it doesnt get much better than that.
By contrast…my neighbor here in Olalla, Seattle USA shot and killed a burglar…”I must be puggled living here” :o)
I really miss Northumberland.
6 Island View has a Racy past! It had the Curse of the Gordon’s.
When the extention had been built,there was still more work to be done. Everything came to a halt in 1974,when the Feud started.
Nothing more was ever done. Time stood still. This is the reason the house was in such a bad condition, at the time of the forced sale ,nearly twenty years later- it was in a ‘time warp’.
On the plus side: You did not have to clear the septic tank – it did not take 4 hours for the bath to fill. Main sewage + high pressure water supply came in 1980.
I’d had the phone line put in. Nice,friendly people are now living at no.1 – Island View is at peace – an idyllic place to live!
The shooting and killing is 70s Island View. If there had been guns, blood would have been shed, no doubt about it. As it was ,the police were never away from the property.
You needed SAS training to survive in my time, Particularly,when the workmen from Harbour and General Works Ltd.of Gateshead,decided to join in the feud and locked the access gates together,when they had finished laying the sewage pipes.
Now a prisoner in Island View, I managed to escape and become a Builder.
Peter, you needed a cement mixer for the running repairs to the sea wall.
Sally Gordon.
.
can somebody please explain to me what exactly it was that was happening back then down at Island View??
Yes please, I never knew what was going on – didn’t have time to find out – too busy surviving!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi
I was there in the 70s as a child I lived through it all. Only 5-7yrs at the time ! My father(No 6) had a dispute ( putting it mildly !!!) with his parents (No1).
We were the only people living there at the time. It was a strange life for a child.
I saw the telephone being connected for the first time in the 70s. Also proper drainage & water supply. Life in 1970s Island View was more like Victorian England.
Do the waves still come right over No 6 in the winter ? I thought it was brillant. Also I (as a child) used to fish over the sea wall at high tide – good catch !
PS To the person who said “what went on there in the 70s” – you wouldn’t believe it – I saw & experienced it all as a small child.
Linda Gordon ( formerly of 6 Island View, Amble)
Hi
I was a small child back then. If you didn’t know what was going on that was a good thing !
I love Amble to bits.The shore, coquet island etc. I could probably fish there better than most of you !
But as to the rest – put it down to history & move on !
Linda Gordon (formerly of The Salt Pans).
Noticed the kids doing a bit of history, check out Northumbrian railways and check out the Amble Branch, makes for interesting reading, gives an idea of the industry that Amble grew around, moving more coal by sea than Newcastle did at one time.
Buy a copy of ‘The Amble Branch’, Kestrel Railway Books. Well worth the read and fascinating old photos of railway life.