Talk:Benwell and Scotswood
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Deleted section "Scotswood was socially destroyed in the early 1970s by the local housing council. The area became a dumping ground for less desirable tenants of the city after the downturn in industry. The area descended into chaos, dissolving the famous Geordie community spirit. Today, most of the original residents of Scotswood live in other parts of Newcastle, as a result of being forcibly evicted. Much of Scotswood has been demolished in an effort to bring new money to the area, as much of the scenic river valley is a gold mine for future real estate development." As it has no basis in reality and does not come close to meeting encyclopaedic standard. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.103.63.213 (talk) 14:41, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
Mary Bell[edit]
I removed a sentence about the Mary Bell murders from the article. It was recently added by IPs associated with the account JohnLickor372, who has been repeatedly and disruptively adding material, or excessive details, about child murders to numerous "places" articles. The edits in other cases have mostly all been removed by admins or other editors as being undue weight, that is, although citations can be found about them, their inclusion was out of proportion to their significance in the overall history of the place. See: Jacksonville: [1], [2], [3], [4]; Sheerness: [5]; Walton & Anfield railway station: [6] (page protected by admin), [7]; and several others.
The removal was reverted by Andy Dingley, who said it "is hugely significant locally". Since the article has been here since 2006, and nobody else thought to add it except an editor who is clearly not following WP:NPOV, it seemed to me that it wasn't of great historical significance to the area. Did it really have an impact that changed the culture, laws, etc.? Otherwise, most place articles typically don't list murders in their "history" sections. Is it truly one of the six most significant aspects of the entire history of Benwell and Scotswood, next to the five others mentioned: the industrial revolution and Armstrong Whitworth, the Scotswood Bridge, coalmining and the Montague Main Colliery Disaster, the Scotswood railway station, and the formation of the districts? If not, then I think its inclusion is out of WP:PROPORTION to the rest of the section. --IamNotU (talk) 01:43, 16 May 2019 (UTC)
- Was the Mary Bell case legally significant? Of course. It was an exceptional case, it generated huge interest nationally, it had a lasting impact on UK law with the concept of a Mary Bell order.
- Was it significant to Scotswood? Yes. It was the subject of extensive coverage, particularly in the national newspapers of the day, and Scotswood was presented in those, in a hardly favourable light, as the sort of slum area which would inevitably give rise to such a crime. One headline infamously described the victim as 'Rat Alley Boy'. A more balanced coverage is in Gitta Sereny's second book on Bell. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:11, 16 May 2019 (UTC)