The opening of Dinnington Village Social Club

Stan Taylor and Tommy Nicholson worked at Prestwick Pit and the Robert Pit, Dinnington (joined as one unit called East Wallbottle colliery by the National Coal Board and its pre- nationalisation owners - the East Walbottle Coal Company) 

Jack the Stripper

When the body of 30-year-old Hannah Tailford was found by rowers on the Thames shore near Hammersmith Bridge on February 2, 1964, the similarities to previous murders of Rees and Figg's corpses were uncanny. Naked apart from a pair of stockings, she had also been strangled, several teeth were missing, and her semen-stained underwear had been stuffed in her mouth.
It was an ugly end to a life that had seen precious little beauty.

Hanna Tailford

Born at Prestwick Pit Houses, Hannah was excluded from several schools as a child due to disruptive behavior. As a teenager she ran away to London, where she was soon "on the game", gaining convictions for soliciting and theft into the bargain. She became so desperate that on one occasion she even placed a classified ad in her local newspaper, offering her unborn baby for sale to the highest bidder.
The last confirmed sighting of Tailford was on January 24, and pathologists estimated that she could have been in the water for a week or more. As with Rees, there were several lines of enquiry that appeared to present themselves.
Tailford was said to have connections in a murky world of underground sex parties and "stag films" She frequented a coffee stall near Trafalgar Square where she was known to have been offered money to have sex on camera. One individual connected to these activities committed suicide a few days before Hannah Tailford was found.
In his book on the case, Found Naked And Dead, Brian McConnell reports that Tailford told friends of being paid to participate in bizarre orgies at the homes of aristocrats. Such stories tallied with the lurid tales of high society sex parties revealed during the Profumo Scandal of 1963, in which a British government minister's affair with a call girl was exposed.

John Profumo

Tailford told a friend she had attended an orgy at the home of a French diplomat named Andre, and on another occasion had been paid £25 and taken by a limousine to a house where a man in a gorilla costume had sex with her while a crowd of upper-crust revellers cheered him on.
Could Tailford have been silenced by someone with connections to this sleazy world? Tempting though the theory may have been, it seemed unlikely. Nevertheless, during the investigation police interviewed hundreds of people who they knew to have consorted with prostitutes, among them an international soccer player, and several clergymen.
Yet the possibility that Tailford had fallen victim to a "maniac," as the newspapers put it, was shortly to become even more terrifyingly plausible.

The Jack the Stripper murders have never been solved.

1953

Received from Newcastle Airport on Tuesday 25th April 2012 following "noise complaint"......

"Due to a single engine fault on an Eastern Airways aircraft, the airline requested a series of high power engine runs over the last three nights. I have been informed by our Airside Operations Department that this testing  was an essential operational requirement.

 

Unfortunately, Eastern Airways have also experienced technical issues with another aircraft and there will be further engine testing carried out this evening.

 

I must stress that the Airport Company regrets any annoyance or nuisance, its operations may cause to its neighbours.  If you require any further information please do not hesitate to get in contact"

Which Badger do you prefer?

Prestwick Park

A modern Logo which I would suggest represents the office development very well. Modern, and rural.

Beneath this green and pleasant land

For those interested in mining in the locality his book by John Graham will be a facinating read.

There was a review in the recent edition of Pont Island News published by Ponteland Local History Society:

"Son of a miner, John Graham dreamed of a life at sea.Sadly ,his fatherdied of cancer when John was 10 years old,so when he left school at 15 he had no choice but to follow his 2 brothers and go down the mine.This was summer 1953.Hestarted as a screener picking out stones from the coal trucks for £2-16s a week and by hard physical work and study worked his way up the coal face heirarchy to be a colliery overman.When he retired in 1987 miners could earn bonuses of up to £125 a week.Realising what would eventually happen to the coalmining industry,he applied for voluntary redundancy which he won after a battle.;he then bought a newsagents business and was very successful. His final verdict on life as a miner was--YES I would do it all again, NO I  would not send my sons down the mine.                       

This is the fascinating story of a coalminer who worked at Prestwick and Havannah and ended up working at the huge undersea colliery at Westoe South Shields. There is a lot of technical information,with illustrations,but it gives an excellent insight into life at the coal face.The opening up of new seams,shoring up the roofs,building the railways to transport the coal to the surface are all beautifully detailed. Soare the dangers involved including  roof falls,methane gas explosions and flooding ,often with apalling injuries.However ,this book is not just a commentary on the mining industry and its developement over the years with increased mechanisation and vastly improved safety and working conditions--it is the very human story of a man A man dedicated to his life as a miner,striving always to ensure the safety of his men,increase production and motivate them. Itis also the story of the miners themselves, theur humour,their camaraderie,their distrust of new techniques and inventions, and sometimes their "bolshiness"If you have ever wondered what life was like at the coalface ,John Graham's book provides a fascinating read.Coal mining is part of our Northeastern heritageand should not be forgotten.This book will help the reader remember."