Houghton Main pit disaster on this day in 1975..

5 men lost their lives, RIP. Didn’t realise the date until I saw it on Facebook. My dad was working in another seam on the Afternoon shift (afters) that day. He said we felt the rush of air and the dust etc that followed and knew instantly that ‘pit’d gone up’ When they got to the surface they learned that the Newhill seam hade gone up. The men died were the 6:00 o’clock evening shift. The wife of one of the deceased,Connie was working at the time in the pit canteen. I started working there early 1977. My first underground job was working in the Safety and Ventilation team and we had to visit sealed off areas to check for things like methane sepage. Really eerie and at the same time poignant. Doesn’t time fly

 

Started at Houghton in 1974 was doing my underground training at Grimethorpe at the time .
Connie worked in the canteen serving the Rescue Servicemen right up till they found her husband which was days after .
A bloke who I did my face training with a couple of years after told me he had been down pit at time of explosion and it had brought terrible memories because as a young man had himself been rescued in the Barnsley Main explosion in 1948 .

 

As I Said I hadn’t realised the date, Wife just showed me some stuff on Facebook what former Branch NUM President Roy Vaughan had posted

 

my Mother, Margaret Thompson, was working in the offices there at that time. She went in and did a 24 hour stint on the switch board. Scargill met her and thanked her personally for all her efforts. When she left there she was presented with a genuine Davy lamp . She passed away in 2009. I now have that lamp and I totally cherish it.

 

Great story DT, don’t recall the name, but then again I didn’t really know any office staff

 

I remember it.
Bad times.
Saw the television helicopter at the time.
I know one of the rescue team.
I’ve talked to one of the blokes that survived it.
He got badly burnt.

 

My uncle was caught in it. My grandad Fred luckily not but changed them both a bit.

 

Brought the hairs up on my neck .
Remember it as a 14 year old , my old man bless him was on stand by as a rescue worker at Dodworth.
Dangerous ******* place so glad my sons didnt follow me down that place.
Miss the banter but not the danger.
RIP to anyone who perished underground in a dangerous job who were undervalued

 

I do not miss any part of it.
It was horrendous.
Years wasted working underground.
If anyone says they miss it then God only knows how bad their workings conditions are now.
Surely no working conditions can be worse than a pit.

 

Never missed the pit itself tbh , wouldn’t wish those working conditions on anyone .
But I do miss the comradeship dearly . as much as anyone would take the piss out of you they would be first inline to your aid .

 

I think the banter and laughter was partly due to the situation and conditions being so bad.
I used to say at the time this is like MASH - but underground.

 

Got to agree i miss the piss taking .
Not the conditions .
I hated going underground on the afters shift when the sun was shining.
It gave me a great education of life.
Knowing the mentors o looked up to.
Seeing them now as old frail men is a sad reminder of the hardships they had.
I only had 12 years as an electrician .
Hardly the hardships that most miners had.
Proud of my heritage though.

 

I think the conditions made it more than a laugh and a joke and banter imo .
I think we all knew the danger and consequences of it and we knew that none of us wanted to be abandoned in the hell hole and that’s what made us determined to help each other despite the danger to ourselves .
Not wanting to be gory or anything but I once saw a colleague with his arm fast in machinery and that miner pulled till his arm up to his shoulder was left in the machinery .this bloke turned and walked to to the pit bottom unaided and no one said anything to him .
This is not an exaggerated incident or hearsay this is a true and honest incident .
To my knowledge the bloke is still living .

 

Mick the conveyor belt team overman. I can concur that story. Don’t know if he’s still alive, I,d guess he’d be Aged around 70 now

 

Loosely based on the Houghton Main explosion.

RIP lads.

 

Not many miners or heavy industry men got to retirement age really in those days .
They were far and few between most pensioners were women , wife’s of miners or steelworkers .

 

Price of coal was definitely based on the Houghton Main explosion and the first part of price of coal was based on Prince Charles visit to Prince of Wales Colliery in Pontefract .

 

Barry Hinchliffe fitter from Dodeth painting the brick lol .
Was good bad the ugly.

 

Remember it well was working at Dodworth colliery at the time, was on the nights I think I was working on 25's in the Whinmoor seam every man I remember were full of sorrow for our fellow colliery workers at Houghton Main and me in particular as 3 years earlier had married a Houghton lass whose father worked at the pit. Hope these lads are never forgotten.

 

The miners gala a couple of weeks later held in Barnsley asked the Houghton main lads to lead the parade that year .
The reception we got on every inch of that March was something else and as you know the Barnsley Gala was one of the longest marches of the four .