Coal Mining

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

The Indians are our latest buyers of mines where i worked in the mines south of Sydney

the curry munchers are reopening old mines.Up here in Qld they are trying to open the

Biggest ? mine in the world i think its called the Adami project

Could be another mass exodus of miners from North Yorkshire to Queensland Brian:-

 

http://www.adanimining.com/

Adani mining - Australia The Carmichael coal and railway project includes building Australia's largest thermal coal mine in the north Galilee Basin approximately 160km north-west of Clermont in Central Queensland, linked by a new 388 km standard gauge rail line to a new terminal at Abbot Point Port near Bowen.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Eggy1948

[James]

Derek Ezra died earlier this month. He succeeded Lord Robens (ex - MP for Blyth) as chairman of the National Coal Board in 1971. Before Robens the Chairman was Jim Bowman from Backworth.

Also in December, Kellingley Colliery closed. This was the last deep coal mine in the UK. There are still a few opencast operations but it's the end of underground coal mining in the UK.

The industry was nationalised in 1947 and there were over 1000 collieries (70 in Northumberland)

At one stage the industry employed over 1 million people.

[Maggie/915]

A dangerous job James but there is nothing to replace this industry and jobs.

We are buying in coal that is produced with possibly 'NO ' regard to safety.

Markets can be rigged and who gains from the closure of a whole industry is debatable.

In the sixties I always wondered who took into account the unemployment benefit and other figures when the mines closed .

Neighbours who were thrown on the scrap heap for a lifetime of benefits.

Even then the 'we do not need the coal' argument was flawed.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi all!

I'm BACK,but it's 2-0 am,and I dinna waant ti start gettin wound up,or ye'll aal get sick o' me,and daylight will come,and aal be nackered,so aam gaana resist,and close doon and say gudneet!!!

.........but tha's anotha day waitin.....!

Happy New Year ti aal wa marra's on this brilliant forum!

[Newbedders]

Never get sick of your shared experiences HPW, but accept that you need your rest.

[Canny lass]

That goes for me too, HPW but keep your rest periods to the minimum or your pay will be docked!

[Maggie/915]

Welcome back HPW.

Hope you and yours are well !

Have a good and happy New Year.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi all!

Been trying ti write a bit more of me story in ink,but a bad time over thi festive season!

Got a press cutting from me Son's paper..[the Independent...a think....],aboot Kellingly Colliery closing.

A brilliantly sympathetic [to thi miners] article,well written,but required a correction or two...[nit-picking..!]

It said that Kellingly was the biggest colliery in England at one time,with 3000 miners employed.

Truth is,that Ashington Colliery was the biggest pit in thi WORLD with over 5000 miners employed,at one time.

James,Northumberland mining history tells us there were 76 pits in our County,before Nationalisation....not nit-picking,only for correctness!

I would suggest,only my own opinion here mind,that greedy coal owners had small drift mines producing coal,"on the quiet",[Fiddling..in other words!],to add to the production of the bigger pits to boost their output artificially,as part of the Power-game.[more profits on sales..less taxes paid on assets un-declared...]..so in reality,there was probably even more pits than were officially recorded!

Am I taaking stupid here,it was just a thowt,cos a was thinking aboot Barmoor...who would have thowt aboot sinking such a smaal pit in such a daft place,when not many folk even knew or heard of the pit when a was young![...not so daft on second thowts,like Choppington High Pit,THAT was a tettie pit,hiddened owa the fields oot o' sight of the public eye,and aal it's workng life,remained the same aad corrugated rusty,faalin ti bits,hell-hole-of-a-place,where thi word "Investment",or "modernisation" still hadn't found it!!].....while Choppington "A"  pit,near ti thi main road,in view of the general public,was,like most other pits situated in the village centres,brick-built,well constructed,well-ventilated [regarding mine-gases],and,better investment spent...consequently a better safety record...[thi high pit was atrocious on safety!]

Mebbe a glaaky suggestion,but summick ti think aboot,seeing that even in modern times,people in high places claimed compen. for hooses they didn't have,or maintenance costs for cleaning oot their castle-moats....etc....etc,so why not a bit of fiddle with getting some easy coal from a drift here and there!

Edited January 16, 2016 by HIGH PIT WILMA
Thanks for kind comments,Bayardm,Canny Lass,and Maggie!

[Canny lass]

Here's one for you HPW - or anyone else who feels able to match the knowledge of our resident coalmining expert.

What is/was a 'spragger'? Also, what is a 'sprag'? And, do we still 'sprag' in coal mines today? I found the word 'spragger' on a census form from 1911.

It's clearly a piece of mining terminology. I´ve looked it up but I'm non the wiser for having done so.

If you know what it is please explain - in simple terms.

[Vic Patterson]

I know it as a pit prop, keeps the roof up or (floor down!) A Spragger would be HPW setting them.... (but only when forst started workin)

[Canny lass]

17 hours ago, Vic Patterson said:

I know it as a pit prop, keeps the roof up or (floor down!) A Spragger would be HPW setting them.... (but only when forst started workin)

Thanks Vic! Is the term 'sprag' still used in mining today or has it been totally replaced by pit prop? I mean, when you say HPW set them only" when he first started working" do you mean that  it's an old mining term or that this is/was a job for an inexperienced young man or an apprentice?

Also, can it have any other meaning? The explanation I found went on at length about wheels and inclines but I didn't understand a word of it.

[Vic Patterson]

6 hours ago, Canny lass said:

Thanks Vic! Is the term 'sprag' still used in mining today or has it been totally replaced by pit prop? I mean, when you say HPW set them only" when he first started working" do you mean that  it's an old mining term or that this is/was a job for an inexperienced young man or an apprentice?

Also, can it have any other meaning? The explanation I found went on at length about wheels and inclines but I didn't understand a word of it.

Hi Canny lass, Pit Props are/ were usually called timbers, and it was usually the young rookies job hauling and setting the timbers, placing them in areas needing support, quite the job for a young 15 year old, thats were they learned mining and miners! nothing like hard work for the old timers teaching the youngsters to be be humble.

HPW would know a lot more about the wooden timbers, today (at least over here) I think they mainly use steel arches and hydraulic rams etc but wood has a bit more "give" in it.

1.a simple brake on a vehicle, especially a stout stick or bar inserted between the spokes of a wheel to check its motion.

I had heard the expression spagging the wheels but just thought it meant using a piece of the timber to wedge the coal tub wheel, but it was a bit more than that, this would explain the "wheels and inclines."

[Canny lass]

Thanks again Vic! The spragger in question, 1911, was a lad of 15.

So, basically it means someone who places pieces of wood so as to stop movement, whether it be in fllos, roofs or wheels.

Why don't they just say that in dictionaries!

[Canny lass]

That should have said 'floors', roofs or wheels

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Hi Folks!

"Sprags" was another name for "Dregs"..the latter term being used in every pit I worked at.

I think "Sprags" might have been a Durham/Yorkshire pit term,maybe even the Midlands.

Whenever you were needing to control the speed,or halt,a pit tub,you hoyed a dreg in between the spokes of..[usually]  the back wheel of the tub or tram.

Why the back wheel?.....think about it!

The tubs and trams had no steering mechanism!...four wheels mounted on two rigid axles,and sitting in rigid,[bearing-less] "Cods",like a half-bush-bearing.

If you dregged the front wheels as a vehicle was taking a turn in the roadway,you were asking for it to jump a catch on the rails and hoy it off thi way!!

[Refer to Eggy's excellent film..."Jowl...jowl..and listen" where it shows you how to lift a tub back on the way....well....suggestively!]

The free-rolling front wheels would ride around a turn,and roll alongside a moderate catch on the rails,while the dregged rear wheels would by now,be skewed

and following the front end.

A "Catch", on the "way",was a bad joint between the sets of rails as they were laid,usually lack of fish-plates holding them in place,or loose bolts on the plates if these were in place,causing the rail joint to open up,and fall out of line,so producing a "Catch",or "Jump".

Choppington High Pit was run on a strand of a shoestring,and we were lucky to even have rails,in the Tailgates,and none whatsoever,in the Mothergates,until the last year or so,when they drifted down to the Top Busty seam,and laid rails in both gates.

But in the Beaumont seam,where my Father also worked as a 14 yr old putter,in 1929,nothing had changed by 1959,when I started as a 15 yr old.

Now the seams all rose steeply to the West,and it was a hell of a pull for the ponies,taking in heavy machinery,girders ,etc,and the "Way"..[rails-rolleyway..],was

badly deteriorated due to all the water running down the roadways,constantly,and forming 100 yard long "Swalleys",up to your waist in places,nothing unusual.

The rails in the tailgates never had any fish-plates to tie them together,and a scarcity of sleepers,nails and dogs..[dog is a nail with a turned-over head,which gripped the rail flange to the sleeper,as opposed to a proper nail which went through a hole in the rail flange,into the sleeper.]

SO!! .....going up a typical tailgate,was like going up Murphy's Switchbacks!!....zig-zag all the way with most rails having catches on them.

Getting off the way with a coal-cutter stator..[motor section],weighing 23cwt..[nearly a ton and a quarter..],in a swalley in waist-deep black stinking water,with your pony deciding it was toilet-time,and passing 200 gallons of ammonia into the water,as well as other things...........wasn't much fun!

We would get back on the way,heaving with sweat,and knowing that the Electrician would condelm the motor with an earth-fault, would still have to persevere our way right up to the coal-face!!

Now,on the way back outbye,we would be dropping severely in places,so we would put a wood dreg in the rear wheels of the tram,climb aboard,and stick our

wellied-foot through the bars of the tram,and put the sole of our welly onto the flange of the front wheels,and "brake " the speed of the tram down the steepest parts of the roadway,still travelling at speeds of about 15 mph or more on straight stretches!!....which is incredibly fast when the roadway arched girders are only 12 inches from your face!!!!

Sometimes dregs broke,and the tram just went "Amain",[out of control],with the pony galloping like hell as the tram hit his fetlocks.....we didn't have "Limmers"

[limbers],just thin tracing chains attached to the pony's collar,each side,and attached to the tub or tram.

We HAD to rely on dregs all the time.

The reference to a "Spragger",would refer to a young kid,just started the pit,who worked at the shaft top,on the Heapstead,dregging "chummings"..[empty tubs]

as they approached the shaft flatsheets.or at the shaft bottom,either working in the "Dish",dregging the chummings ready to send inbye in "Sets" on the haulage

rope,or on the "Kip",dregging full'uns [full tubs],as they came free-fall to the shaft bottom,ready to send to bank..[the surface],after being filled at the "Loader-end",

which was usually a canny distance inbye from the shaft bottom.

More kids than enough had badly crushed hands doing these jobs,[including my older Brother,AND Myself,cos you had to couple and uncouple the sets of tubs as they were moving..[no H&S them days!]

I often wonder what the average 15 yr old kid would say nowadays if he was stuck into a job like that!

Nice to be back on the forum!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Sometimes you didn't need,or want ,to put a dreg in,and would put a wedge,or even a piece of stone,owt ye cud get a haad of,in a hurry!!,UNDER the front wheels,just as a temporary quick measure,to hold a tub or tram in place......easily knocked out to let the vehicles roll again,used at the Kip mostly when handling large numbers of tubes coming outbye from the loader-end.[talking in "scores" of tubs.......my Brother used to be handling sets of up to 30-score of full tubs,at the shaft bottom at Bedlington A pit Harvey seam.]....a "Score" is 20 tubs....and this would be at the end of the shift when the shaft was riding men,[night-shift coming down],and the last of the back-shift coal would be loaded and on it's way out to the shaft bottom.

[Symptoms]

HPW - brilliant!  You really did bring it to life.

[Maggie/915]

Welcome back HPW.

We need you to put a 'sprag or dreg' in the works.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Heh heh!Thanks a lot for your very kind comments folks!

Ye knaa,it duzn't tek much ti set thi baal rowlin' here wi me!!

Can a just tell ye aal this one?

Me older Brother and me were born on thi syem day..but exactly three years apart.

Our birthdays were just at the end of July,when school was breaking up for the four weeks summer holidays,when aal thi leavers wud be gaan ti thi

Labour Exchange.......a fancy govt word for thi Dole Office!.....ti sign on ti seek work.

Whey,in them days,it was nowt ti see owa a hundred kids standing in the queue,seeing as class numbers were in the 40's for each class x aal thi schools in Bedlington.

So,in1956,[the year aa started Westridge School on thi first day it opened after the holidays...],me Brother started he's first day at Bedlington A Pit training gallery.

He finished he's training,and was sent to work in the "Dish",down in the Harvey Seam.[the "Dish" was an area not far from the shaft-bottom,which was a collecting point for all the empty tubs which were sent down in numbers of four at a time....two "chummings" in each deck of the cage.]

If you reckon on about 30-40 seconds winding time on coalwork,[fast!],you were getting maybe six tubs a minute,rattling along towards the dish,which was a long dip in the roadway,where the tubs had to be coupled together in sets of a score each time,then "hung" onto a constantly moving endless steel haulage rope,which had no mercy....if you got a hand or even a finger trapped in the "hambone" clips which attached the tub to the rope.

The tubs had a "Cruk"[crook] at one end,and a three-link chain at the other end,at tub-axle-height.[very low  to the ground!]

You had to quickly acquire the skill of holding the chain ready,back bent.. head turned to watch the approaching tubs.......and the split second before the steel capped buffers slammed together with a deafening thud,had to quickly throw the chain over the cruk and get your hand out before it was flattened between the

buffers!

The cruk had a short piece of steel bar at the top at right-angles,as a means of preventing the chains from uncoupling themselves accidentally.

This meant that you had to twist the last link sideways before hoying it owa the cruk.... a bit like trying thi hoop-la the shows!

Sorry this is taking so long but it's hard ti explain!!

Whey wor youngin,[as we caaled each other,]  started alang with another experienced lad for 20 days  close personal supervision.

After that he was on he's own.

One day,I was upstairs,[12 years old still!],and I heard  my Mother's voice very loud and almost crying.

When I ran downstairs to see what was wrong,I saw my Brother...white-faced..and in an awful state of shock.

His hand was bandaged halfway up his arm from his finger-tips......he wasn't fast enough to get his hand out from between the tubs before they smashed into each other,and he got caught between the buffers,which were about seven or eight -inch-square section.......bigger area than an outstretched hand,so not much time to

couple on the tubs and keep safe!!

When he got his bandages off,his hand and arm were all purple and black,and twice the normal size,and excruciatingly painful for weeks.

Mind,it didn't take long to speed up and do the job like an expert,safely,apart from the odd minor finger-end knocks,usually in fore-shift,at three o clock in the morning!!

By the time I was 15 yrs old,I knew a lot about pitwork,from his stories,and reading library books on mining methods and machinery.

I think most kids paid the price for being too slow on a job they would never have envisaged what the consequences might be!..

It's like I have said a dozen times before....you had to grow and be a man....fast!

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

By the way,as Vic said,these were jobs you did,as you worked your way up to be a coalface worker....Shaft bottom,pulling chummings oot thi cage wi thi Onsetter,and shoving  full-uns in.......dish,or kip,loader-end,timber-leading,heavy transport,then face-training.....and onto the face as coal-filler or stoneman on the caunches...etc

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by HIGH PIT WILMA
missed letter..[spelling]

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

20 hours ago, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Sometimes you didn't need,or want ,to put a dreg in,and would put a wedge,or even a piece of stone,owt ye cud get a haad of,in a hurry!!,UNDER the front wheels,just as a temporary quick measure,to hold a tub or tram in place......easily knocked out to let the vehicles roll again,used at the Kip mostly when handling large numbers of tubes coming outbye from the loader-end.[talking in "scores" of tubs.......my Brother used to be handling sets of up to 30-score of full tubs,at the shaft bottom at Bedlington A pit Harvey seam.]....a "Score" is 20 tubs....and this would be at the end of the shift when the shaft was riding men,[night-shift coming down],and the last of the back-shift coal would be loaded and on it's way out to the shaft bottom.

Heh heh!....it should read "Tubs"....not "Tubes"..!

[Canny lass]

On 2016-04-17 at 01:55, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

The reference to a "Spragger",would refer to a young kid,just started the pit,who worked at the shaft top,on the Heapstead,dregging "chummings"..[empty tubs]

as they approached the shaft flatsheets.or at the shaft bottom,either working in the "Dish",dregging the chummings ready to send inbye in "Sets" on the haulage

rope,or on the "Kip",dregging full'uns [full tubs],as they came free-fall to the shaft bottom,ready to send to bank..[the surface],after being filled at the "Loader-end",

which was usually a canny distance inbye from the shaft bottom.

More kids than enough had badly crushed hands doing these jobs,[including my older Brother,AND Myself,cos you had to couple and uncouple the sets of tubs as they were moving..[no H&S them days!]

Thanks for this detailed description, HPW.

[Canny lass]

On 2016-04-18 at 20:56, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

By the way,as Vic said,these were jobs you did,as you worked your way up to be a coalface worker....Shaft bottom,pulling chummings oot thi cage wi thi Onsetter,and shoving  full-uns in.......dish,or kip,loader-end,timber-leading,heavy transport,then face-training.....and onto the face as coal-filler or stoneman on the caunches...etc

 

chummings, onsetters, dish, kip, timber-leading, caunches"! I thought you'd taken to writing in greek for a minute!

[mercuryg]

HPW has a knack for putting you right in the thick of it! Love these posts, truly educational.

[HIGH PIT WILMA]

Thanks Merc for your kind comments,and Canny Lass......,Aa cudn't mek aal these stories up if a tried,noo a shudn't a sed "Stories"..[!],cos every single word aa type is,to the best of my memory,true and correct.

One little snippet of info a missed oot,but ye's folks 'll probably knaa aalriddy,regarding lifting tubs back onto thi way,when they become de-railed,was what the lads at the shaft areas had, slotted through the belt haading tha breeks up..!.....an "A**se - Flapper",med oot o' a scrap biit o' aad conveyor belting,shaped like a Grandads old fashioned shirt tail, and placed as suggested......to prevent serious back damage due to lifting and pushing sets of tubs along the way, using thier backsides and legs to push with.

Us lads on heavy transport and timber or girder -leading,inbye,never used a flapper,but the shaft lads could be lifting lots of times during a shift,they were dealing with sets of tubs every minute of the day!

A pit-term dictionary would probably start with that term!When ye hear aad-timers,[of pit village origin!] sayin'...."Whey,it's time aa was in kip"....or....."Aam not ganna get nae kip wi aal that bliddy racket...".......then read on!

"Kip" was the area leading to the shaft,as described above,and was formed by splitting the horizon of the roadway,usually aboot a hundred yards,sometimes less,so that the tubs ran slowly,free-fall,to the shaft ,after being detached from the haulage rope which brought them outbye from the conveyor belt loader-end.

The creation of a lang, man-made, swalley,["The dish"],where the chummings could run into,from the shaft-sidings,ready to be coupled up into sets,meant that the "Dish-lad",hanging the sets onto the rope to go inbye,was working below the "Kip-lad",who was "Lousing-off" the sets [from the rope],and occasionally,dregging the tubs,and de-coupling them,so they would be sent singly to the shaft......

SO!...."Kip" refers to a raised area such as that which leads up thi wooden hill to thi bed-shed!.......Phew!,wat a thing ti try and describe to thi lay-person,withoot sending them ti sleep!

At Choppington high pit,the kip and dish weren't separated by a great deal,so when you went inbye from the shaft,you were walking past  full tubs of coal whizzing past you at approximately shoulder-height.[that was the wheels level with your face!!].

One of my marra's was working in the dish,hingin'-on,[attaching sets to the hauler rope to go inbye to be filled at the loader -end..],when he tripped and instinctively reached out to the kip to save himself from going down,....hand went onto the kip-rails.....tubs came by........fingers off....[have I not already told of that one?.....]

That was in 1960-ish....other pits had a false floor laid,completely separating the kip,and the dish,with a small hatch through which the kip-lad would pass the clips........["Jockeys" ..as used in the High-Main at Bedlington A pit],down through the hatch,to the dish-lad.

To describe the different types of rope-clips for anybody to understand,would take me a day,going at my pace!

For reference,where google might be of assistance,here are some types.........:[1] Hambone  [2] Jockey [3] Pigtail [4] Victor Dog-grips  [5] Lashing-chain

[6] Illegal [!!!] Improvisation....such as a "Belt-hinger" ....[a thin steel stranded wire sling]....or a short length of lighting cable [armoured..and very strong!!]

....or anything you could lay hands on that would work.....even a length of conveyor belt cut into narrow strips and half-hitched around the rope...!!!

Howw!!,ya taaking aboot pitmen heor,ye knaa,thas nae cranes  doon there ,or shops like lord tool hire......ye had ti get thi job done in stinking conditions,and if ye didn't have the proper gear,ye invented it!!

Noo it's just come ti me,come on here, any aad pitmen who can say they remember,or used,the Victor Dog-grips...the most dangerous rope clip ever invented,and

they were used on steep gradients ...[every Westerly roadway at Choppington high pit],and never failed to detach themselves and send sets of timber and girders and machinery,......amain![running back doon the bank at ninety miles an hour.....ripping the roadway girders oot and closing the place!!!]

Most of the time,in mining,aal these clips were attached to the tubs,and to the haulage rope,[usually 1/2" or 5/8ths " ]....with the rope constantly in motion,so when ye put thi clip on,ye had ti jump oot thi way in a flash,cos the tub wud "click"away,suddenly,from a standstill!

Imagine us kids,aged 15 years aad,down the training gallery,at Seaton Burn pit,learning from a supervising instructor,[mostly aad-timers who had health problems and had ti do light work...],hoo ti put a lashing -chain onto a moving steel  rope and hing it onto a tub......straight from wor classrooms ye knaa!!

Sum of us didn't reach the blokes elbow height!!

Anyway....ya standing beside ya tub,ye have the chain ready in ya hands.the chain is heavy,and aboot 3  or 4 feet lang,with a big round link at one end,and an oval-shaped link at thi other end.

The links are made from 1/2" steel bar,the moving rope runs on the floor through a deep groove in a wooden sleeper,put there for this purpose.

The tub is standing back,aboot three feet from this grooved sleeper.

Every now and then ye hear a click,it's okay,it's JUST a loose wire sticking up out of the rope [like barbed-wire!]...catching the wood sleeper.

Right!....ye step forward,put ya boot OWA the rope on top of the groove,in effect trapping the rope under ya sole of ya boot.....[H&S....?]

The rope is actually rubbing up against ya sole....ye bend doon,IN FRONT OF...ya tub,hold the big link up against ya boot side ti anchor it,slip the rest of the chain under the rope,[avoiding ya leather glove being caught on  a loose wire and dragging ye away ....],catch ya chain and dae the same again three times forming loops of chain aroond the rope,which all the while is slipping through the loops up against ya boot.......[hoping all thi while a loose wire doesn't come alang and rip ya boot,and ya foot...!].

Noo!The smart bit,[authorised by Her Majesty's Inspector of Mines,and the Regulations....1954 M&Q Act...]........!!

Quickly,ye slip the small oval lnk through the big round link,keeping it loose....mind......!!....then...get ya sheckle,[a "D" link with a threaded pin/bolt],and put it through the oval link and hook it onti thi cruk,[or chain...as the case may be..],of ya tub,keeping the chain slack or else it will click away and pull the tub over you!

Once ye have the sheckle bolt in and screwed up tight,ye step back and tek ya foot off the rope and the chain quickly tightens on and yanks the tub set away,with no mercy or forgiveness for any mistakes made!!...[ye had ti quickly learn ti hae ya wits aboot ye!]

All during that operation,you are bent double in front of a set of tubs,with a moving rope,and the possibility that other tubs might bump the set from behind ...knocking you under the tub wheels.

Which brings me nicely to another old pitmatic saying........"Aye poor owld Billy bumped the set last neet....".....old Billy came into a misfortune of sorts,either in the pit,or even crossing the road.......you know what it means.

"Divvent ye **** aroond wi me,son,or else ye'll bump the set.."!....[a different connotation!]

Well folks,a ownly came on ti say thanks ti ye's aal!!!

Little Black Jess [LBJ],is biting me leg ti gaan waakies.......and luk at thi time.....again!

Edited May 1, 2016 by HIGH PIT WILMA
Trying to remove cross-through lines but don't know how they appeared!