O/T - Any ex-miners on here

Young 'un doing local history at school, wants to ask a few questions to someone who worked in coal mining

1. When did you work down in a coal mine?
   
   
2. Which coal mine did you work in?
   
   
3. How long did you work down the mines for?
   
   
4. Did you like your job?
   
   
5. What did you used to take for your lunch?
   
   
6. Do you think you got a good wage for the work that you did?
   
   
7. Did you work with many other people?
   
   
8. Did you work with any animals?
   
   
9. Was your job dangerous, why?
   
   
10. What tools/equipment did you use?

Don't need too much detail. One or two sentences per question would be ample
If you don't want to answer in the public forum, PM is fine but if anyone is willing/able to help we'd be much obiged here at chez Revvie!

 

Oh and 11. Anything you miss about the job assuming you're no longer a miner

 

Not be many who are still miners

 

Yes.
1: 1977 to 1993
2: Houghton Main
3:Approx. 16 years
4:Had various underground jobs, but overall I have to say no
5:Fruit and/or sandwiches ( we called it snap)
6:No, the bonus payments for many were adhoc and unfair
7: Depended where I was deployed, On the coalface you could be working with as many as 10- 12 people in a shift. Sometimes you could be working totally on your own and not see a soul until shift end
8:No, but occasionally some of my colleagues practices and behaviours were akin to certain animal behaviour
9: There was always danger present in a mine, roof falls, unexpected rise in presence of gas, many to list really.
10: All-sorts of machinery really from big heavy cutting machines, various types of boring/drilling rigs to basic pick and shovels
11: Comradeship mainly, from watching each other’s backs at work to having nights out.

 

1. When did you work down in a coal mine?
   Please allow me to answer a few questions for my dad. He worked his complete working life inthe pits.
2. Which coal mine did you work in?
   He worked at Wombwell Main, Wentworth Silkstone and retired from Houghton. Possibly he started at North Gawber with his father and brother, but that is before I was born
3. How long did you work down the mines for?
   forty-ish years
4. Did you like your job?
   He didn't dislike his job. He was accepting of it. He belonged there with his workmates.
5. What did you used to take for your lunch?
   he took sanwiches for his snap in his snaptin. My mother said that he once got bollocked by his mates for taking down smelly boiled egg sandwiches into that tight space.
6. Do you think you got a good wage for the work that you did?
   he was okay wih his wage.
7. Did you work with many other people?
   He worked with others on his shift. He was a deputy... that is a supervisor of a small group of miners.
8. Did you work with any animals?
   He didn't work with animals. Sometimes he mentioned the cats which lived in the pit
9. Was your job dangerous, why?
   It was dangerous. One time, a workmate came to our house and told us he had been in an accident. I went to see him at Becketts Hospital. I was shocked and saddened to see him in his pit muck with his false teeth out and his face swollen and bruised after having his face whacked by a flashing chain. A cutting machine dragged itself along the coalface. The chain was caught and the tension increased as the machine moved along. Eventually the chain broke free and flashed. Previously he'd broken an arm. He had the standard blue scars from the coal dust getting into his wounds.
10. What tools/equipment did you use? He studied at home and passed his deputy's exam. That meant that he was a shotfirer and he and his men drilled he holes and packed in the explosives, wired the explosives and fired the shots and then (I guess)cleared the coal.
11. My dad retired at 55 and died at 77 years old from lung disease. He was a member of NACODS and attended the pit throughout the strike (to keep up the safety so that it could reopen.) He chatted with his mates, the picketers, and sometimes arranged to meet at the gates. They sometimes arranged picketing by phone and drove in together.
12. Thankyou for allowing me to reminisce about me dad... I'm very proud of him and his workmates.

 

1. 1972-88 most of it on the surface. X rayed at 18 (1975) and lung issue found. So couldn't go back underground.
2. Elsecar main 72-83. Fence workshops 83-85 - 1yr on strike. Westside coal preparation plant. 85-88.
3 see. 1 and 2
4 Yes, absolutely. Except my workshops stint.
5. Sandwiches. Bread and pork dripping was my favourite. . Corned dog another. Flask tea. Or owt from canteen.
6. Did I chuffin hell. Surface money was crap.
7. Loads.
8. A couple of workmates passed as animals lol. Else no.
9. I am/was an Electrical engineer. So don't play with electric lol. (Amps fot lamps. Volts fot jolts. Had both )
10 You name it. I used it.

I missed it at the time I left. Comradeship and all that. But I didn't miss the money.

I joined yw. Mon-fri. No shifts. A £3.5k increase in salary for basic 37 hrs. Better T's n C's. And met so many like minded people. Engineers Ex miners. Ex steelworkers. Even dee dahs. Bless em all. So the camaraderie was much the same.

 

These are brilliant! Thanks all!
You can always rely on the BBS!

 

Yes, I'll fill it in.
1 1965 to 1990.
2 Dodworth and Redbrook
3 See answer 1
4 Yes
5 bread and fat and a bottle of water or cold tea no milk no sugar and I always a tin of Twist, chewing backer I liked a chew.
6 No
7 Yes
8 No but on one face I worked on some of the men kept seeing a rat. true.
9 Yes there was always the chance of something going wrong with the machinery or some stone falling on you.
10 Anderson Boyer Shearers, Dosco Dint headers, Dosco Road headers, Holman borers, I carryed an adjustable spanner on my belt I could go on forever,

 

My dad was EE at Elsecar.

 

Evening,

I've got some of my late Father's mining certificates and a single photo of him taken in the very early 80s at Bullcliffe Wood Colliery if of any interest to your young 'un? Also got an image of his last tally check, again from Bullcliffe Wood, as well as one from what would have been my great-grandads tally check from Wigan in the 1920's. Happy to post them on here if you like, just let me know.

 

1. I'd like to answer on behalf of my grandad and the stories he told. It's great kids are learning of the heritage of this and other mining areas. I always thought it took a special kind of person to be a miner and had deep admiration for them.
   
   
2. 1. When did you work down in a coal mine? 1929, aged 12 to 1935
   2. Which coal mine did you work in?
      Darfield/wombwell main
   3. How long did you work down the mines for? 6 months to start with until his mother and uncle made his dad get him a pit top job, she felt it was killing him. Trained as a pit bricklayer then went back down for a couple of years
   4. Did you like your job? Worked 12 hour shifts, came home collapsed on floor, got woken up when it was time to go back, still in the same pit muck, 6 days a week. Less than 100 years ago, it was akin to child slavery.
      
      
   5. What did you used to take for your lunch? Not sure, on Sunday it was his day off. The family had "bacon shapes". Bread pressed onto pieces of bacon- his dad then ate the bacon, the kids ate the vaguely bacon flavoured bread
      
      
   6. Do you think you got a good wage for the work that you did? Whatever he earned he tipped up to his dad
      
      
   7. Did you work with many other people? He hauled coal tubs and had to jump into a tiny bolt hole when they came hurling back down empty, hence they used kids. He was on his own in a tunnel the size of a coal tub
      
      
   8. Did you work with any animals? Pit ponies who never saw the light of day he said they were worse off than him. My mum later worked in a few pit offices, most pits had colonies of semi-feral cats. She brought a kitten home from dodworth, made a decent pet.
      
      
   9. Was your job dangerous, why? If he didn't make it into the bolt hole when the tubs were released, he'd have been crushed. He lost a cousin in a pit disaster, as did my gran. If you go to darfield graveyard there's a needle commemorating the lundhill disaster (over 100 died) and on the other side, a Celtic cross which names around 20 in another disaster, its striking that families worked and died together.
      
      
   10. What tools/equipment did you use? Only talked about the pit ponies and the tubs, communicated by pulling on rope.

 

I would definitely know him if he was there between 1972-85

 

Ron

 

Ron Arxxxaxe. By any chance. Top bloke. Got some funny tales between me and him. If so.
He once offered to pay me out of his own pocket after I'd given him some grief. Lol. Then just shook his head when I didn't turn up one weekend. Very knowledgable and popular with all those including myself under his charge. Impossible to fall out with. Best engineer I've ever worked under.
If it isn't it's brought back fond memories anyway.

 

Hi Michael, I’ve replied to your PM. I would add that a Deputy was much than a supervisor for a small group of men. They signed off every shift that their ‘ district was safe and that all available safeguards were in place and working. No mean feat for all the hazards that could easily present

 

I worked for just over 8 years in the industry , at Barrow & then later Houghton Main , underground electrician at Barrow & class 1 electrician in coal prep plant at Houghton , snap was mainly bread & dripping plus water , wage was half decent although any bonus was poor when working on the top , regarding danger well yes especially underground but it never affected you, tools were mainly bog standard spanners , screwdrivers , megger etc , made some great mates who always had your back , I left 12 months after the strike as the working atmosphere was never the same .

 

I wonder if you knew my Dad; Tommy Gibson, sometimes know as Top Cat. David Gibson

 

Hey up Red. I fell out with a union rep over the bonus scheme. Whilst at Elsecar. Bonus was S41T. I said face workers and headings should get 100% as they were the ones that had to put the effort in.
Everyone else the next highest level. He said those that worked outby of the face should get more than surface workers because they WORKED UNDERGROUND eg transfer workers. I said bo11ox. The RATE covered conditions worked in underground . yet you know as well as I do, the prep plant was as dusty if not more so.
My dad who worked at platts common on the face got less bonus than the canteen staff. They (canteen staff) usually got more bonus than him. Being able to choose between pit average or area average at 40%. My dad working in 18" seams and terrible conditions unable to achieve a decent bonus.
You would know a good friend of mine and fellow spark who was on the cpp with me at Elsecar before moving to Houghton. John Rogers.
My dad also ended his career at Houghton. Never returned after the strike and took early retirement. Pneumo took him in the end. Broke my heart to see him suffer so much at the latter end.

 

Very dangerous job.My dad was killed down the pit when i was 11 in the 60s.