Mining Memories.

One Moment in time.

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Submitted by Julie Herbert.

I can remember back in the seventies when there was a pit strike on. We were only kids but I can still remember my mam and the other kids mams going out and coal picking as we called it. (going on to the pit tips and scratching about for the odd lump of coal or something that might burn to keep us warm) I can remember my mam trying her best to keep us fed and warm and I can also remember the desperation in her eyes. it must have been so hard for her but us kids never realised or appreciated what was going on we just helped for a short time to coalpick until we got bored. I can remember my dad hated the pit and he tried to get out and took various low paid jobs with other companies but eventually he ended back in the pits because at the end of the day you did get better money and holidays etc. We went to the miners holiday camp at skeggy for our hols as did everyone else from our village. we all went the same weeks so it was really home from home but we used to thoroughly enjoy it and everyone knew you which also seemed to make it better. On the last night there was always a good chucking in of everyone whom dare pass the swimming pool, everyone was drunk and how nobody drown I'll never know. At the last strike I was of course grown up and very much in love with my fiancé who was away for some of the time. I lived on the street right next to the pit and we regularly saw miners being chased over the gardens etc. by the police and the van coming around to collect the miners who worked through the strike, sometimes it was very frightening to see all the police and the miners and the fights that went on. we hated the police with a vengeance and they hated us. the police from London were especially nasty and violent but I can remember going to the phone box up near the Vic pub to wait for a phone call from my boyfriend and there was a line of welsh police who were phoning their girlfriends and wives. I was very nervous of them but stood in the queue anxiously looking at my watch. they asked me what was the matter and I explained that my fella was phoning me at such a time but would not be able to get through as the phone was being used continuously, I'll never forget how kind they were, they let me through to the front of the queue and waited patiently with me as I waited for Pete to call (thank god he did). the only down side was that they saw me some time after that and pipped and shouted to me waving and smiling from their police van and I nearly got lynched by a load of miners who saw me wave back.

Submitted by John Waudby.

Graham Jones reminded me of one of the electricians we both worked with as apprentices at Clifton Colliery in the 1960's. I had completely forgotten about him and one of his habits, his name was Dave Smith, I worked with him on 51's district. Dave used to count all his tools near the end of the shift before he put them away in his tool box, the only problem was he didn't count them once he did it several times. The first time I heard of this I thought the others were "yanking my chain" but when I first worked with him I found the story to be true. Graham Jones told me about the time he "pulled one over" on Dave Smith!! Dave was starting to count his tools and Graham couldn't resist the temptation, he "sneaked" one of Dave's tools without him seeing and hid it behind him and watched as Dave went through his routine, once twice three times etc until at last he realised there was something missing!!! I will have to find out whether Graham "found" the tool Dave was missing!!

During those times I used to smoke, like most folk in the 60's, non-smokers were the exception those days. Day shift, I had got changed into my pit gear, picked my lamp and self rescuer up and made my way up to the electric shop. I used to keep my ciggies and lighter in my inside pocket until it was time to go underground then throw them in my tool cupboard until I got to surface at the end of the shift. I had been "waylaid" by the chargehand and instructed on something or other, so I was running close to last wind time. I picked up my tools, threw my ciggie butt end away and made my way to pit top through the air doors and waited in line for my "ride" down the shaft. My turn to get on the cage, I think it held about a dozen men packed in pretty tight, the banksmen "rang" the ride off and we started down to the usual chorus of farts and belches with the usual smells they release!! About a couple of minutes into the wind I had a horrible thought!!!! panic gripped me!! my ciggies and lighter! I had forgotten to throw them in my cupboard, they were still in my inside pocket! God if they carry out a randem contraband search in pit bottom my jobs gone!! We arrived at pit bottom and the onsetter opened the cage gates and let us off, I hung back until everyone had got off and requested to go back out as I had forgotten something!! Boy had I forgotten something!! He let me out and I couldn't get to the electric shop quick enough. Taking contraband underground was and still is a very serious offense, penalty was instant dismissal, never to work in the mining industry again and possible prosecution, I was very lucky that day.

John lives in the USA now. email John

Submitted by Bill Riley.

I remember when I worked at Bates Colliery in Blyth, Northumberland, England. I was about 19 years of age and I delivered timber, arched girders, and other materials to the workings in the 4th. South. One of the new roadway developments came across an unusual situation. There was a natural crevice which cut across the heading and went both up and down and had some sort of crystallisation ( similar to the Blue John stone in Derbyshire). The colliery overman Tom (Yellowley I think his name was ) allowed myself and my work mate to enter the heading to see this . The heading was made safe by the development team and work was stopped to allow geologists to examine the strata. We had to approach the crevice by climbing up the inside of the supports. We were told to be very careful, I seem to recall that my cap light could not shine far enough up to see the top of the opening and someone dropped a piece of rock down the crevice and we did not hear it hit the bottom. Throughout my mining career I have never heard of this happening in any other coal mine. At 19 years of age I did not appreciate the significance of it all. Does anyone have any information regarding this or any other similar happenings elsewhere?

Message from Malcolm Neslund.

Bill,

Kenny Lawton, and Tommy Rurtherford, discovered it, Kenny lives at Seaton Delaval. Tommy lived at the Seaton Sluice and passed away a few years ago. I worked with them for a few years at the Plessey on composite.

Submitted by Ian Hodgetts..

I enjoyed reading Bills recollections of the "holes" at Bates Pit. I was working there as a fitter at the time, and the coal face had hit a Whinstone Dyke, so the decision was made to drive through it and open up the face on the other side.. They had a team of miners working there using stopers (ordinary drills were no use) to drive into the Whinstone a few feet at a time, and then blast and fill away the rock. When one of the stopers was operating, it suddenly broke through and water began rushing out of the hole. So wood plugs were made and beaten into the hole and then pumps were rushed into the heading and a pipe line quickly built. . A second hole was then punched through to drain the water faster. As I recall, it took a couple of days to empty the upper cavern. When the water stopped, they continued to drive the road through and that's when the caverns were opened up for inspection. As I understand it, they were caused by gas bubbles forming while the molten rock was cooling.

The entire surfaces were coated with large crystals which gleamed under the light of the cap lamps, it was almost like Aladdin's cave. I think that the crystals were calcite deposits. As you said, there was no bottom in sight and a stone dropped down the lower one seemed to take forever before an sound could be heard. Where the water in the lower one drained to I can't imagine.

Anyway, after a couple of weeks, the excitement died down, so we carted away huge slabs of the crystals ( it came off the wall fairly easily) and took it home were it decorated my mothers garden for years.

Submitted by Ian Hodgetts..

I was working in 4th west and went in on a weekend, to do some job or other, I forget now what it was. Anyway, there was nobody else in the section except me, although I think a deputy did look in once during the shift. Because I was working at the far end of the seam. I took the battery loco and man riding set so I wouldn't have to walk. At the end of the shift, I drew the loco up into the siding, and then uncoupled it to move the loco to the front end, ready for going back inbye. As I was to moving the loco, I saw the man set slowly begin to move away from me back inbye, panicking, I shuttled the loco back onto the same track and started to chase the man set, which by this time was doing a fair lick. Not seeming to be gaining on it, I pushed the loco as fast as it would go and went hurtling down the roadway. I was really scared at this point, that if the set jumped the rails, it would take-out quite a few girders etc, not to mention what could happen to me physically what could happen employment-wise if I did escape.

I was better than half way back in with the sides roaring past me when I saw the set up ahead, as it slowed slightly to climb an incline I caught it and was relieved to hear the sound of the loco coupler make contact with the set. I slammed the brakes on and stopped.

I t took me a few minutes for the palpitations and my heart to slow down. Slowly, I took the set back outbye and carefully set the brakes on the man set before I moved the loco to the front.

I was still shaking when I got to the surface.

Submitted by Marie Robson.

My grandfather was a miner from Newburn in Northumberland. He was blackballed from all the pits in the North for a few years because of his habit of speaking his mind. He'd reported that he could hear pitmen at work under the local church during the Sunday services. When it was investigated a local privately owned mine was found to be working a seam illegally underneath houses and, of course, the church. For this he was sacked and subsequently blackballed. He was determined my father wouldn't go down the pits, which he didn't. My father could remember the horse and cart coming round with the bodies of dead miners after pit accidents, which were unceremoniously dumped in the back lanes behind the pit houses. If the deceased was the only earning member of the family, they all went to the workhouse the following day.

Marie has a couple of web sites but please don't miss her Fathers World War II memories.

Ralph's Story. UK.

Submitted by Rita Meredith, Gosford, NSW, Australia, formerly of Teesside.

My husband Brian is from Hartlepool and remembers how they collected seacoal over the years, and especially during the second world war. The men would go down to the shore with their bikes and get a sackful on the cross bar and another slung below, then sell any they didn't need. Brian's great grandad, Dolleye Meredith, shared the licence to collect flotsam and jetsam on the sea shore from Seaton Carew to Easington. He did this with a Mr Gooty. They got everything, including sea coal. This was in the early 1800's. Mr Gooty asked Dolleye to go in with him building steel ships, but Dolleye wouldn't as steel sinks doesn't it ? Mr Gooty went on to become Steel Navigation. During the miners strike my husband did a bit of seacoaling himself. He says it was real hard work !! Hats off to the lads who do it regularly! As a policewoman in Hartlepool in the 1960's, I remember a lot of seacoaling going on. The lads never got into any bother so our policy was to leave them be. I think they helped a lot of battlers with their cheaper fuel. So come on Hartlepool, this tradition goes back along way, and imagine the mess on the beach if no one collected it !! Would you like to paddle ankle deep in sharp black stuff ? I wouldn't!

This story was originally sent to Geordie's United On The Net, it is reproduced with their permission and also Rita's permission.

Geordie's United On The Net are keen to make contact with as many Northerners as they can who now live abroad, if you fit into this category please contact them.
email Sue Kelly

Click here for Geordie's United On The Net.




Submitted by Stu Richards, Orwigsburg Pennsylvania..

Hello From the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania, my name is Stu Richards and I hail from a long line of Welsh coal miners who worked and died in the coal fields of Schuylkill County. Although I never mined coal, I find it an interesting hobby to go down in our old abandoned mines looking for artifacts etc. I also keep alive the heritage of the coal miner by performing living history programs on the life, songs and ballads of the anthracite coal miner. Anyway the story I would like to relate is about my grandfather George "Gigi" Richards who died in the mines in 1942, but this story is about a mule he had named Duke, you see Grandpa was the barn boss at the Otto Colliery near Minersville Pa. Well Duke was injured in an accident and had to be brought to the surface, as you see Duke was underground for a long time, Well grandpa dressed and nursed Duke's wound but the problem was Duke would not drink any fresh water that they put out for him, for a day or two Grandpa couldn't figure out what to do, so he went back into the mine got some sulphur tainted water and brought it to the surface , Duke galloped to the water sucked it down like he had been in the Sahara desert, well grandpa got him some more buckets from down in the pit and that is the only water old Duke would drink. It had to have the smell and taste if the mine. Duke had lived under ground for over two years. Anyway great site, And a memory for my Grand Pa, "Gigi".

email Stu.

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