My hometown badly needed this

Lovely! ❤

Is there an opening date yet?

Wow massive change to my hometown it is needed

Don’t remember anyone but that would’ve been my last bought on feast as a primary school kid, was the last gilpin intake in 89

Great quality video From blackhall

As we couldn't get there this year, a big thank you to Paul Lanagan

Exciting times ahead!

Slay from 2024

At 3.24, me on the left, Dave Colling in the middle, Alison Close on the right. Mad times.

Lovely

Is it going to be demolished or repaired ?

Wonder what they did with the old shafts, probably fully capped them and built over them. Not the deepest mine at around 800ft

Sometimes a colliery would start a 3rd shaft but due to a war etc it never finished. The 6 inch os maps go back to 1860s, earlier records may be hard to find

Coming along nicely 👍

my parents ashes are going to be spread under the Seven Sisters… Mum was from the Three Tuns, and Dad was from Waller terrace and they met up under the Sisters during their courtship early 50’s!!

…let the Hettonies and Houghtonies Celebrate and unite!! Xx

Last time I walked past there was smoke coming from it that smelt questionable should we say and lots of giggling coming from inside.

Really enjoyed this😊

Spent my childhood here - love the video x so many changes but dear H-L-S still has so much character x

Superb. Well done

8 bells

🙋 Promo-SM

That was amazing nice to see how things have changed since I moved out of houghton

Was that Jack Kinmond in the white coat helping the Mayor carve the ox?

❤

I’m sure I saw Jeff Winter in the bar

❤

Amazing

Too much wind noise - and it's not necessary; there's no commentary!

Once a productive site, now just a shop . . .

More light extra torches would handy.

Wish the video went into the Rectory Park, be great to see the lights, the famous Tree Witch and the massive Dinosaurs etc. :) Happy days

Load of crap la

my dad worked there , broke his back in a roof fall

we lived over the road in Lampton St , my dad had his back broke in a roof fall down there

2:05 Lampton St was there , i was born there in 1951, thanks

Ayyyy, I was watching these be setup yesterday with me grandad

I hope this doesn’t pull business and customers away from Newbottle street shops!!

Very evocative. I was born in 1956 so a little bit too early for me but I certainly walked those streets. One thing that struck me was how easily the men in civvies marched (up church street), all of them former soldiers. We're lucky to have been born in the era we have and those of us that can remember the old Houghton, before the planners demolished it, are the luckiest

Outstanding!! Tears in my eyes… My nanna Marchbanks and family were well known in the area, Lishman’s too… My dad, Thomas (Merchant Navy) married Brenda (a Watson and a Hettonie) at St Michael’s in 1957… he will be 92 in October 2023… now in a care home… can’t wait to show him this… I remember singing in the choir outside St Michael’s church on a chilly Sunday evening during the Houghton Feast week but that wasn’t until the mid ‘60’s, from the age of 6 upwards. I have pictures of me whizzing round on a ride at Houghton Feast too when I was a toddler!! Eeeh, them wuz the days!!

…So many of our historical public houses and other historical buildings of interest are being sold off then burned to the ground, so that developers can then have their way on the cleared land and build new ‘cheap’, ‘plastic’ ‘cr*p’ in their place…

My daughter and I have picked up odds and ends, bits of Lambton brick, odd chips of Sunderland pottery and interesting small stones. When I was younger, I always dreamed of lightly dredging around some parts of the Wear along Fatfield, Coxgreen and as far as nearby Washington Wild Fowl park, just to salvage remnants from keel boats, stones, past residents living there pre 1900’s, relics from the Kings soldiers sent to monitor local miners, and any relics from previous northern marauders!! …to be housed in Beamish or Sunderland library. Perhaps some of you young ‘ns could do this one day!?! Proud of our heritage!!

…My mother (rip, Marchbanks, nee Watson) used to call it ‘Ponshaw Ornament’’!! Just her funny way of making up humorous names - bless her cottons!)

…I remember meeting old Albert Hind (rip) in the early ‘70’s. He told me that in the early 1920’s (I think I remember he told me 1925??) he and his friends (13 -15 yr olds) went up the stairs and climbed to the very top of the structure… and for some reason the wind caught his friend off guard and he fell to his death. I am sure it was the first, or only death to have happened and I believe Albert told that there was an Inquiry into the lad’s death. Albert went on to research/write history books about Fatfield and surrounding Washington villages… and included in the books are his own pen and ink drawings of well known buildings in the area. He helped me research Fatfield for a project and examination I took at Usworth Comprehensive in 1975… before the school burned down (I didn’t like the monstrous size of the school… but it wasn’t me who burned it down!!)…

…my Grandfather worked there - after being gassed in Belgium in the 1st world war, and my dad looked after the pit ponies as a young lad… his mother, (my Nanna- Marchbanks) wouldn’t let him go down the shafts and he joined the Merchant Navy as a young 20 yr old. My uncle George was a hardworking miner down Houghton pit as well, and loved horse racing (betting), Greyhound racing and going down to the club …Glendale I think??? They came from the Market Place then moved to live down Waller terrace… Hall lane end. Nanna kept the family together by doing three jobs…including playing the piano at the Burn Hotel… she entertained and played everything by ear - never had a piano lesson in her life… didn’t have the money! My dad and his little gang -the houghtonies used to menace the Hetton lads (Hettonies) down in Hetton Downs…. Eeeeh man them wuz the days!! My other uncle and his family -the Barnes’s all lived in Easington Village… all miners apart from the youngest who became a butcher. The four sons are still alive in the area and surrounding countryside. I can remember the lads going on trips out to the coast to pick up coal ‘crackers’ from the beach when money was tight…

Good to see the diggers have started, it looked like it might not go ahead at one point, things changing with covid

My mother came from Houghton

I went into there as a kid all the equipment was left in them shafts before they back filled it with all kinds shit nice to see it again 👌

Our government leaders have destroyed the coal industry this is the best way for energy sources it works in war and all weather and it is here in America