Caps and Lamps. I recall my time at Bates pit in the early 1960's. Although most miners used hard safety helmets some miners were wearing putters caps, these were either made of a cloth material or leather. The leather caps were really the "bees knees", or so I thought. They were not supplied by the colliery, if you wanted one you had to visit the local cobbler and he would make one for a few bob ( a few shillings in old money ). It had a metal plate on the front, just above the peak were the cap lamp could be fixed, the lamp cable ran from the cap lamp around the side of head to the back of the head and was secured by a short piece of leather and a buckle. The cable continued down to the battery which was attached to a strong leather belt around the waist. Some men preferred the cable to run down their back, others preferred it to run down the front of their body. It really depended on the circumstances because the cable could easily catch on the least bit thing. When it did accidentally catch it often jarred your head back, it could also pull your helmet off, many's the time I had to grab my helmet to prevent such a thing happening. Your work mates sometimes grabbed the cable if they wanted to slow you down, or if they just felt like doing it for a laugh. I think a few of the old men were still wearing cloth caps . If my memory is playing tricks I'm sure somebody will correct me. I recall some worked well after normal retiring age, mostly on the back shifts, and working on conveyor transfer points where the work was less hectic. Looking back, using the type of head wear I have described was a little foolish, because if you were to bang your head on an object, or if there was a roof fall, you had no protection and it could be very painful. I speak from experience having banged my head, on more than one occasion. Most people seem to think that miners always wore their cap lamps on their helmets as soon as they picked them up from the lamp cabin. One or two did but an awful lot simply pushed the cable ( near the lamp piece ) under their belt so that a small loop of cable was pulled through the belt. if they needed to use the lamp it was easily pointed ( from the hip ), in the direction required. Others would loop the cable over their head, so that the lamp hung comfortably in front of their body. Some even wrapped the cable around the battery then pulled a loop through the layers of cable and carried the lamp and battery in carrier bag fashion. This method was useful at the end of the shift if you were in a hurry and wanted a quick getaway. The lamp could be removed from your belt and helmet in the pit bottom prior to ascending the shaft. Precious time was saved and this allowed you to grab the best showers in the pithead baths. Clipping the lamp on overalls or on the lapel of a jacket was also a favourite method frequently used. These methods of carrying cap lamps only happened when men were travelling. If and when, they were working of course, they did have their lamps on in the usual way. Unless, they worked in very well illuminated areas such as in the pit bottom, then they were "allowed" to leave their lamps off. Cap lamp's were not all the same which was very useful at times, people such as managers or undermanagers carried "spot" lamps, their lamps were much brighter than ordinary lamps and the light produce was much more concentrated, the beam being narrower and could shine much further. I think there were two reasons why these lights were better, (1) the bulb was of a higher quality. (2) the reflective plate inside the lamp was very highly polished. The men could see them a mile off, no wonder they were rarely caught doing anything wrong. But of course, they never did anything wrong, did they??? A few other miners' qualified for "spot" lights. I had one when I worked with the locomotive team landing the coal sets. The loco driver needed to have clear instructions, and the instructions were given by a series of movements of the cap light ( the lamp was usually, but not always, held by the hand for greater reliability of movement). There were three basic signals which were repeated a number of times depending on the circumstances and the response from the driver. (1) Moving the light from side to side horizontally meant, Stop. (2) A circular movement meant, Advance, towards the light. (3) A vertical movement (light moving from floor to roof) meant, Move back, away from the light. A good quality light was imperative for safety reasons, because the driver needed a first class visual signal. We take lamps and safety hats pretty much for granted, but the improvements made to them over the years have prevented many, many accidents.