Pony Trek. Working with pit ponies was one the most enjoyable experiences I encountered as a miner. At the beginning of each shift I had to pick my pony up from the underground stables. If I remember correctly the construction of the stables was basically this. The floor was concrete, and just inside the entrance was a recess which contained a water trough where the ponies could drink. This area was also used to hose the ponies legs down at the end of the shift. Each pony had it's own stall which had brick walls, a steel gate, and a built in trough for its food. The walls and gate were not too high, and the ponies were just able to put their heads over the wall, or the gate, so they were not completely in isolation. The whole place was illuminated by electric lights which were fastened to the roof. The roof sides and walls were whitewashed, this brightened the place up considerably due to light reflecting off the whitewash. In the middle section of the stables lay the horse-keeper's store room, the horse-keeper was the man who looked after the welfare of all the ponies. His store room was almost like an Aladdin's cave, all the spares which were required to keep the ponies and their equipment in good condition resided there. Leather straps, collars, bridles, rope, rivets, brushes and combs to groom the ponies, sweeping brushes, shovels, and many, many,more items. There was also a steel gate at the entrance which could be locked for security reasons. Fixed on the outside of each stable were large hooks which held the harness for each individual pony. The horse-keeper would confirm if the pony was fit for work. On rare occasions the pony may have picked up a strain, or some other injury, or a shoe may have come loose and needed replacing. If this happened I would have to use one of the other ponies until my pony was fit again. If the pony needed a new shoe the work was carried out in the stables by the blacksmith / farrier. Jackie Brown and my Brother Lol Riley were the two farriers I can recall. Replacing horse-shoes was a skilful operation, which if it was not carried out correctly could lead to the pony becoming lame. I watched the ponies being shod on a few occasions and it looked so easy. Pieces of the hoof were trimmed where required, the shoe was tapped into position, and nails were hammered in place at just the right angle. The surplus part of the nail would be snapped off, and filed down to remove the sharp edges. Simple, yes, but only because of the skill of the farrier. When I entered the pony's stall I would speak to my pony, "hello Terry", "good boy", and at the same time I would give him a pat, or stroke, and perhaps give him a slice of bread which I had brought from home. The next step was to put his "gear" on ( the harness ), the collar was the first to go on followed by the bridle, then the body section. The body harness was usually folded back, from the rear of the pony, to above the girth strap, where all the loose straps and chains could be tied up to the back pad. This was to ensure a little more comfort for the pony when travelling inbye to the work area, the chains were thus prevented from swinging and hitting the pony on the legs. It was also more comfortable for me if I decided I was going to jump on the pony's back for a ride inbye. It was illegal to ride the ponies but most "putters" ( men who moved tubs, usually with a pony ) did it, if they were caught they could be reported to the Manager of the colliery and fined a sum of money which was donated to a local charity. I recall one occasion when the Safety Officer secreted himself in a small recess just below the stables with his light out. As each pony was returned to the stables at the end of the shift ( most of the putters were riding on the ponies backs ), the safety officer switched on his cap-lamp, jumped out and shouted "I've got you", "I've caught you","I've caught you". He was very fortunate that he was not trampled underfoot that day. That particular stretch of roadway was fairly high and the ponies galloped along at a fair pace, jumping out like that was not the wisest thing to do, the pony would have received a fright, and it could have veered, and collided with the safety officer. The final outcome of this little episode was a dressing down by the Manager of the mine and a fine of £2. In those days, the early 1960's, £2 was a big chunk out of my pay. I had 5 shillings a week stopped from my pay until the fine was paid. Needless to say, I never rode a pony underground again. Well,......that is, I was never caught again. However, returning to the original story, I left the stables along with my pony and travelled to our place of work, where my marra ( work mate ) had already started loading a "betty" ( small tub ) with timber for the coal face. Our first job was to transport the tub inbye, pulled all the way to the face by the pony it was quite a trek. Before that was possible, limmers ( a Yoke-like piece of equipment which is fastened to the ponies harness then attached to a tub, similar to cart shafts except that they are not permanently attached to tubs ) were attached to the pony's harness. This device, along with the harness allowed the pony to pull or push back the tub as required. At the end of the yoke there was a round piece of steel perhaps 6 to 8 inches long, which fit into a hole at the front of the tub and was held in place by a cotter pin. When we were ready I sat on the limmers just behind the pony's rear end, one foot rested on the tub buffer, the other leg was left dangling. My mate would be sitting on the back end of the tub. There were two small handles at the front of the tub and two at the back, one on each side. These were used to pull the tub over to one side if required. The rail track which the tub ran on was very often devoid of fish plates, ( fish plates were used to bolt two sections of track together ), so every now and then a section of track worked itself loose and moved. When travelling I always kept one eye on the track throughout any journey. When I saw a potential problem I pulled the tub to ensure it ran smoothly over the rail joint. If the tub needed pulling to the right hand side of the track I put my arm behind me, grabbed the handle and pulled. If the tub needed pulling to the left I reached for the handle on the same side as I was sitting and pulled towards my body. The trip inbye was not always a straight forward process, to begin with, there were a few turns to negotiate. As the pony pulled the tub around each turn it was often necessary to pull or push the tub over the various joints to ensure it did not come off the rails. If the turn had been constructed correctly, and was not too tight, it was possible to remain seated on the limmers when negotiating the turn ( on a tight turn my legs could be trapped between the limmers and the tub ). It was also possible to turn around and sit on the other side of the limmers. Then there were air doors to open and shut, these were often erected in pairs and only one door could be open at any one time. This was to prevent the air from short-circuiting and depriving the face men of the correct ventilation. I referred earlier to travelling with my marra, but often I travelled inbye alone with my pony. Once the turns had been negotiated it was more or less a straight forward run inbye to the end of the rails. Well, that was the theory, in reality the route to the face involved many hazards. Rail track which had looked good when first constructed deteriorated over time, wooden sleepers would rot and rails were displaced as a result of that. The roadway could have dips and inclines in it, caused by following the direction of the coal seam, or by the stresses and stains of the strata. Mother nature could be wicked, 12 feet high roadways were crushed and distorted, in some instances the roadway was reduced to 5 or 6 feet. ( If this happened repairs were required ( back ripping ) to restore the roadway to an adequate height ). Timber used to cover the arch girders could break, hanging down at dangerous angles, or it protruded from the sides of the roadway. If care was not taken these pieces of timber could quite easily cause injury to the pony or myself. Looking out in case any bits of stone fell from the roof, large or small, became second nature to me. A finger is so vulnerable and easily amputated if it is resting on a solid object, such as a tub, when hit by a falling object. Any fall of roof which landed on the rail track needed to be removed before proceeding otherwise the tub may have been derailed. Even whilst every precaution is carried out, the inevitable occurred and the tub sometimes came off the rails. If one end of the tub was derailed it was not too serious, I was usually strong enough to lift the tub up and push it over onto the rails. If the tub came off the rails altogether, that was another thing. Sometimes the track was filled with ballast ( filled with small stones ) so it was possible to lift the tub back on the rails one end at a time. But on numerous occasions, as luck would have it, the underside of the tub was probably resting on the rails with the wheels suspended, in this situation the tub was a dead weight. Reluctantly the tub may have to be emptied of all its contents to make it lighter to manoeuvre. If I could still not manually lift the tub then I had to improvise, I may have noticed an old track rail which had been discarded 100 yards or so back down the gate ( roadway ) as I travelled inbye. I would need this, so after uncoupling my pony from the tub and placing it in a safe place, tied to an arch girder, off I went to drag the rail up the gate to my tub. If chock wood was part on the load I was transporting, that would be handy. An old sleeper was also useful, these could often be found behind arch girders where they were placed after past rail track repairs. Sleepers could be placed across the two rails providing a firm base from which to lift. The next step was to place one end of the old rail under one end of the tub, I lifted the other end of the old rail up as high as I could and made a fulcrum (a pivot ) with the old sleepers and chock wood. This was not as simple as it sounds, one part of the body would be holding the rail up while some other parts were trying to position the fulcrum. Arms, legs, shoulders, hands and feet all played their part, it could be so frustrating trying to set it all up ready to lift the tub. At times, just as I thought I had succeeded in placing all the bits and pieces correctly, the packing collapsed and I had to start afresh. Eventually though I came to the point where I could start to lift the tub. The end of the old rail which was up in the air had to be pulled or pushed towards the floor, this downward motion had the effect of lifting the other end up along with the tub ( rather like a seesaw in a play ground ). All that was required then was to slowly manoeuvre the tub over and onto the rails, this was achieved by moving the end of rail which was being pulled or pushed down, to the left or to the right, depending on which way the tub needed to go. The tub moved in the opposite direction. With one set of wheels back on the rails it was easy to lift the other end manually. Once the tub was back on the rails all I had to do was tidy everything up, reload the tub, and continue to my destination. Once I had arrived at the inbye end of the roadway, or at least at the end of the rails, I unloaded the tub and stacked the timber in a suitable place. At times the face men may have been waiting for the timber to secure the roof on the face, so I had to help carry the timber as near to the face as possible. With arms outstretched someone would load my arms with as many pit props as it was possible for me to hold and off I staggered trying desperately not to drop any until I was at the face line. Sometimes the props were saturated ( wet through ) and were very heavy. Sap also oozed out from certain types of wood, my arms and clothes were covered in this sticky substance. It took an absolute age to clean off. One of the loads I disliked transporting were the electric cables which were used by the face machines. The cable had to be coiled round and round the tub in layers until it was all in, 150 to 250 yards long. It seemed a never ending task and my arms used to ache. In an emergency when a cable on the face developed a fault it was necessary to load the cable, transport it inbye, and help the face men to install the new cable. All available personnel would spread out at approximately 10 yard intervals from the face machine to the tub. Some of us found that the easiest method to use was to sit on the floor, lean forward with arms outstretched, grab the cable, and pull with an action similar to an oarsman, where the back and leg muscles were an enormous help. Even so by the time I came to the end of the cable, my arms felt like they were ready to drop off. While we were carrying out jobs like this, the pony was having a well earned rest, no doubt looking forward to an easier journey outbye, pulling an empty tub, followed by the return trip home to his nice warm, clean stable, with fresh choppy (food) in his trough. He was not the only one looking forward to the end of the shift, I was ready also, a quick shower in the pithead baths. A cup of char (tea) in the canteen, then on my bike for the short trip home, where my Mam would have a loverly hot meal waiting for me.