The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread XXV

Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Newcastle/UK
Posts: 1,477
Summat for the Santa list?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL...&v=akoJ2zBwX1o
Hmmm, PPRuNe is loading very slow tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL...&v=akoJ2zBwX1o
Hmmm, PPRuNe is loading very slow tonight.


Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: EGNX country
Age: 65
Posts: 215
Hardly time to drink your tea and enjoy your ciggie Mr Ricardian.
The clouds are back and with it the missing extra 5C.
The Scottish civil engineer, Robert Thomson, patented pneumatic tyres. He was one of Scotland’s most prolific, but now largely forgotten, inventors. Tyre manufacture had to be by hand and they proved too expensive to be economically viable until Dunlop developed the process in 1888.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_William_Thomson
What I find puzzling is that he doesn't seem to have any connection to Newcastle.
Shurely shome mishtake ?
The clouds are back and with it the missing extra 5C.
The Scottish civil engineer, Robert Thomson, patented pneumatic tyres. He was one of Scotland’s most prolific, but now largely forgotten, inventors. Tyre manufacture had to be by hand and they proved too expensive to be economically viable until Dunlop developed the process in 1888.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_William_Thomson
What I find puzzling is that he doesn't seem to have any connection to Newcastle.
Shurely shome mishtake ?


Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 59°09N 002°38W (IATA: SOY, ICAO: EGER)
Age: 77
Posts: 811
Another trip to Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall for a videoconference with the diabetes specialist in Aberdeen. Could be a bumpy ferry trip as this is the forecast from Radio Orkney:
There will be some bright intervals this afternoon, but generally a good deal of cloud with frequent squally showers, some heavy with hail and thunder, and wintry over the higher ground. Severe gale force west to southwesterly winds.
Maximum Temperature: 6 Deg C (43 Deg F
Maximum Temperature: 6 Deg C (43 Deg F

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: 59°09N 002°38W (IATA: SOY, ICAO: EGER)
Age: 77
Posts: 811
Handsfree - I didn't catch the ferry! After walking down the pier to the waiting room in the gale I was soaked to the skin and my asthma was playing up so I went back home, had a hot shower, put on some dry clothes and went to the island's GP at 0930. Then back to bed for a 2 hour deep sleep.
I did send an apologetic email to the hospital, explaining the reason for my non-attendance.
I did send an apologetic email to the hospital, explaining the reason for my non-attendance.

Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: EGNX country
Age: 65
Posts: 215
Hope you don't suffer too badly from your cold drenching Ricardian. 
Can any of you Northumberland chappies interpret where this place is.
It's the birth place of my late wife's g-g-grandfather. It's in Northumberland
somewhere (the Do is ditto from Northumberland higher up in the column).
I would imagine it from a pit area somewhere in the Tynemouth area or the general Newcastle area but my local knowledge is very lacking.
It's the same place from the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Looks like it's written in the same hand as well.
Any help greatly appreciated.


What looks like a 'el' in the middle of the word is possibly a letter 'd'

Can any of you Northumberland chappies interpret where this place is.
It's the birth place of my late wife's g-g-grandfather. It's in Northumberland
somewhere (the Do is ditto from Northumberland higher up in the column).
I would imagine it from a pit area somewhere in the Tynemouth area or the general Newcastle area but my local knowledge is very lacking.
It's the same place from the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Looks like it's written in the same hand as well.
Any help greatly appreciated.


What looks like a 'el' in the middle of the word is possibly a letter 'd'

Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: EGNX country
Age: 65
Posts: 215

He was born there in 1823 give a year or two.
He's my daughters' great-great-great grandfather. I've only followed up the
male line as yet but they all seem to come from around the Benwell, Benton,
Longbenton area and now a Blakelaw.
The women folk seem to be a bit more adventurous; they're from Benwell, Consett, Hebburn and Corbridge.
I take it the second word on the bottom pic is Fenham then.
A little closer to the present day, RAF Blakelaw
http://www.bunker13.co.uk/

Resident insomniac
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: N54 58 34 W02 01 21
Age: 76
Posts: 1,863
Let me know if you want any information about Corbridge.
Longbenton was, at one time, the location of the longest office corridor.
The Ministry.
Longbenton was, at one time, the location of the longest office corridor.
The Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in Longbenton, Newcastle employed more than 9,000 staff by the early 1960s.
The site was a small city in itself, which comprised 16 cafes, two large canteens, two banks, a post office, two barbers and the longest office corridor in Europe measured at over one mile long.
The site was a small city in itself, which comprised 16 cafes, two large canteens, two banks, a post office, two barbers and the longest office corridor in Europe measured at over one mile long.


Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Newcastle/UK
Posts: 1,477
Here's a good online historic Ordnance Survey Map of Northumberland and Durham Mr Handsfree, well detailed can be zoomed in on and such,might help wi yer researches I use it a lot.
Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland

Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland

Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: EGNX country
Age: 65
Posts: 215
Thank you both gentlemen.
The maps link is excellent Mr D and thanks for the offer of help G-CPTN;
which I may well take you up on when I start to .... ahem ... make my
way up the female leg of the family.
I'm amazed at how far I've managed to get today.
It always helps when folk stick to their local area and don't prance all over the country.
The maps link is excellent Mr D and thanks for the offer of help G-CPTN;
which I may well take you up on when I start to .... ahem ... make my
way up the female leg of the family.

I'm amazed at how far I've managed to get today.
It always helps when folk stick to their local area and don't prance all over the country.


Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Newcastle/UK
Posts: 1,477
Surprising how much people travelled about in the early 1800s,our lot were all over the place,Northumberland Durham and Yorkshire, of course in those days working folks rented their homes or accomodation came with the job, (Pit Houses) so packing up and buggering off a hundred miles looking for a better paid job they were not so tied down.


A Runyonesque Character
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: The South of France ... Not
Age: 71
Posts: 1,209
My granddad, born in the 1860s (yes, I know, how old does that make me?), was a Swedish sailor who jumped ship and set to work in the Durham coalfields. He married my granny, whose lifetime overlapped with mine by about three years, and started moving home, regularly and steadily, from south of the Wear to the south bank of the Tyne, with four or five addresses, spawning kids along the way (the final count was 12).
Although each new address was only about ten miles from the previous one, it must have been a major horse-and-cart job to shift the ever growing family and its accoutrements.
Eventually, around 1900, they made the hop across the river to the north bank, and the family switched from coalmining to shipbuilding.
Although each new address was only about ten miles from the previous one, it must have been a major horse-and-cart job to shift the ever growing family and its accoutrements.
Eventually, around 1900, they made the hop across the river to the north bank, and the family switched from coalmining to shipbuilding.

Resident insomniac
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: N54 58 34 W02 01 21
Age: 76
Posts: 1,863
My great great grandmother was born in Gibraltar.
Her father was a soldier, and her mother was from Scarborough.
I haven't been able to trace the origins of my great great great grandfather, nor what regiments were resident in Gibraltar at the time of great great grandmother's birth (and also her brother).
What rank would be needed to have accompanied posting?
On the death of great great great grandfather, the family returned to the UK to Hartlepool, where great great grandmother 'married' a seaman - I use the term 'married' as I cannot prove that either 'grandmothers' were actually legally married - though I do have the names of the 'grandfathers' (and their professions).
From Hartlepool (I have a couple of addresses in the 'docks' in Hartlepool) great grandmother moved 10 miles inland to the Durham coalfield where she was married to a colliery worker, and raised ten children in a two-up two down terraced dwelling - I have a photograph:-
My grandfather (her son) moved no further than 500 yards along the road where he occupied two houses for his two shops:-

(showing my grandparents and my mother)
Her father was a soldier, and her mother was from Scarborough.
I haven't been able to trace the origins of my great great great grandfather, nor what regiments were resident in Gibraltar at the time of great great grandmother's birth (and also her brother).
What rank would be needed to have accompanied posting?
On the death of great great great grandfather, the family returned to the UK to Hartlepool, where great great grandmother 'married' a seaman - I use the term 'married' as I cannot prove that either 'grandmothers' were actually legally married - though I do have the names of the 'grandfathers' (and their professions).
From Hartlepool (I have a couple of addresses in the 'docks' in Hartlepool) great grandmother moved 10 miles inland to the Durham coalfield where she was married to a colliery worker, and raised ten children in a two-up two down terraced dwelling - I have a photograph:-

My grandfather (her son) moved no further than 500 yards along the road where he occupied two houses for his two shops:-

(showing my grandparents and my mother)

Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Derbyshire, England.
Posts: 4,073
G-CPTN - Back in the times your relatives were in Gibraltar it was not uncommon for a regiment to be posted to a far off place for five to ten years. Officers wives would be accommodated, (don't know if that extended down to junior officers immediately on posting or not). I believe wives of the Other Ranks may have been able to ship out after the soldier had completed a given period of service, possibly they could join their hsubands by making the trip overland rather than by sea. In India it was quite common for the ordinary soldiers to take a local wife for the period they were there but in most cases she would stay behind when the soldier went home.
