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2s MAIN ROAD HAULAGE WAY - THE ROPE HAULED SET HAS JUST GONE IN BYE

Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)
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high pit wilma :-

This is looking down 2's backroad,AFTER the 6 month long,million pound farce to take out all the swallies[dips] ..and to shoot down all the hilltops in the roadway,to make it look like this...because management didn't want the chairman of british coal ,plodging

through 100 yard long swallies of black freezing cold water,coming up to the knees,sometimes higher, like the men had to,every day-several times a day,for nearly a mile each way....BUT NOW... it was pretty....

AND HE THOUGHT SO AS WELL.....AND HE SAID SO...IN THE PRESS NEXT DAY..

HE SAID ...COAL..OR BUST...![AND WE WENT BUST.....AS WELL...!!]

jojojood :- canister hanging from the rib on the left,stretcher and blanket inside that?

high pit wilma :- Spot-on ! It is a first-aid canister,got to have one in every district,by law.
Thanks for your query!Cheers!

hoggy03 :- Wilma did bates ever see many VIP's while you worked there or just the chairman of british coal?

high pit wilma :-

Hi Hoggy!
Mostly area directors,like Archibold,the swine who had a personal vendetta against Bates pit,[it was well known that HE wanted it closed apart from thatcher the hatatcheter..].
Before i started there in 1971,[when Bedlington A pit closed],there was a district called "82's",in the Beaumont seam,and the Duke of Edinburgh and a big entourage of v.i.p.'s tagged alang wi him.
The deputy of that face told me in detail.the lengths they went to for him coming.The evidence was still there long after he went....!!
Like laying a mile [well,it seemed like a mile...!!],of duckboards,all the way inbye,so they wouldn't have to get there booties wet,whitewashed different places along the way,like 
transfer points,etc,had everyone on the face ready and waiting for a signal,shearer man with his hand on the switch handle,button men with fingers on the conveyor belt start buttons,........[the proverbial "press-button start"..]
As soon as the Duke showed his head "under the low"[starting his crawl onto the coalface
which was 36 inches high...],the manager gave the pre-arranged signal to "GO",[start coalwork-in other words....!]
Every man at his station,started up the conveyor belts,simultaneously,then the shearer man switched the shearer on and started shearing away full speed up the coalface.
NOO THAT'S THE WAY TI TELL THE WORLD HOO BAD AND DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS A MINER;S JOB IS,ISN'T IT......WITH ALL SAFETY ASPECTS COVERED,LIKE THEY WOULDN'T NORMALLY BE,COS THEY WOULDN'T SPEND THE MONEY...NORMALLY.......[ask if your dad was in that district at the time,he might have been a bit young,not being disrespectful ti wor Russ,like,cos a divven't knaa hoo aad he is.....]
If yi check oot me pic of 20's t/gate,in the 3/4 seam,where it was a hell-hole,noo THAT'S 
the place his Highness should have been taken,AND the chairman of the N.C.B.!
It was gud enough ti tek a Sqadron of R.A.F. fighter pilots doon thon stinking dangerous wet hole,and a think it was honest enough ti say that thon face,and 21's,23's,50's,and most of the other faces,at some point,were actually life-threatening places to work in...[DOON THE 3/4 DRIFT...I.E.]
...AND I'LL WAIT TI SEE IF ANY BODY WHO WORKED ON THEM,DISAGREES AND THINKS I'M EXAGGERATING.......[WI AAD AGE....!!!!!!!]

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Bates Pit by High Pit Wilma

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Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) 1,198

Posted

bewildebeeste :- In reference to your original comment under the photo - if this wasn't long before closure, then was the roadway improvement just another way to add costs onto the mine balance sheet?
And why did this Archibold have it in for Bates in particular?

high pit wilma :- Spot-on!
Mind,this tactic was employed as far back as 1964/5,by the Labour Government who were in power at the time.
Dr Beeching closed all the scenic and small railway branch lines,and the Minister of Fuel and Power started closing all the "Uneconomic" pits.
They transferred men from all the pits around ,in batches of a dozen here and a dozen there,like from Newbiggin ,Hartford,Hartley,North Seaton,Seghill,etc,TO Choppington
High Pit,doubling the workforce from 300-odd,to 600-odd,virtually halving the output-per-manshift,while,at the same time ,demolishing the perfectly working steam winder/house,
and building a brand new electric winder/house...which was more trouble than enough.
It tripped out every two minutes,and lost a lot of coalwork time.
Also,they decided to "modernise" the shaft top and bottom areas,installing rams to push tubs into the cages,and doing away with the flat sheets.
All this investment and no increase in coal production[which was impossible,cos they 
hadn't organised winning out more faces,to take the extra men],deemed the pit to be
"Uneconomical"
Mind,a was pleased at the time,cos a went ti Bedlington A pit...a much better pit for conditions. 
They put £30million Dosco Roadheaders,in stripped down sections,on trams,into a disused seam "inset" halfway down the shaft, at Bates Pit,just to exaggerate operating costs artificially,as well as other costly measures,to justify the plan to close the Pit...
then when closure was officially announced,they quietly shifted the Machines from their hidey-hole in the shaft,and moved them to Ashington Colliery,and did the same thing there with them,deeming Ashington Pit for closure like the rest of the pits in the coalfield,under thatcher's pre-conceived plan.
Noo,that's not hearsay,i actually saw the same machine sections at Ashington,when i was transferred there![STILL WITH BATES 3/4 SEAM SCRAWLED ALL OVER THEM!]
Archbold,for a few years,kept sending grossly under-powered face supports,down the Three-Quarter Seam,hence the depressing photo's of R20's on this set.
Lots of times men were injured,and nearly killed,by the legs on the face chocks bursting,under severe roof pressure,and a lot of pressure from goaf-breaks,pushing the whole line of chocks,[70 at a time] forward towards the coal,and flattening the whole chock-line like a box!!
I think [only my suspicion],that if Budge hadn't destroyed most of the records at Team Valley head offices,when his staff took over,a lot of skeletons might have been found in Archbold's cupboards....
It had already happened in the past,where officials had accepted holidays abroad,gifts,etc,for presenting contracts to these mining companies......
Why was he risking LOTS of men's lives by refusing our Manager's request for more costly,but more efficient sets of face supports...[it would have been for 200 per coal face]
...a lot of money to wangle contracts with eh?
DO YOU SAVVY,BEESTE?

Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) 1,198

Posted

high pit wilma :-

Now that it's 30 years since the strike,in 1984,official secret documents are being released,under the 30 - year rule,which are revealing the true facts about thatcher-thi -hatcheter's plan to destroy the NUM,and any other union who dare to suggest militant action against her....and in doing so,she destroyed the whole of the coal industry.
There's gonna be some interesting facts released in due course...
it's now 20-9-14,Saturday,1.07 am.

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