Contributor Leaderboard

Thanks a lot,Canny Lass,and Eggy also.! Aye Lass,if it hadn't been for coal,and the down-trodden miners and wee boys,AND women,the industrial revolution wouldn't have taken place! The Navy wud still have been in wood ships wi sails and oars!...nae aeroplanes....nae steel....nae trains...... ....nae androids......!!!!!!!!!!! Back on thi subject of baits and fleas,wi say,truthfully,jam n breed,and dripping,but as time went by,and money became a little bit mair in miner's Wives' purses,there became a variety of interesting baits!! After having banana sammidges EVERY single day,[ sometimes 7 days a week wi overtime],for NINE solid years!,a came yem and aked me Mutha ti put apple sammidges in the morn,cos sumhoo a just got sick o' banana !!! Then after six years,and noo on the coalface,[as opposed ti being a transport and girder-lad],a started tekkin' Mars Bar sammidges,wi thi bar thinly sliced up,and only six sammidges,cos yi didn't hae time ti eat fowerteen,when yi were on piecework on the fyess!! One auld fella who was a canny quiet aad sowl,was caaled "Saalt",for a nickname,cos he played hell wi he's Wife for not puttin any salt on he's Corned Beef sammidges! Another fella who was a training instructor at the Yard seam training gallery at Bedlington Aad pit,tuk crisp sammidges ivry single day,and he used ti sit on the ootbye side of me,so aa was tasting bliddy crisps,which a detested!!,cos they made me want ti vomit!! When a got oot the pit and into cabinet-making,a used ti tek lime marmalade sammidges,and on a Friday,when the lads did the chippie run,a used ti cadge just fower or five chips ti put on me Lime marmalade butty.........gorgeous!! Anywheh,back ti thi pit,one young lad at Bates didn't tek any bait at aal,but he used ti sit doon aside yi,and pull a Kelsae Giant onion oot o' he's sack,and start chowing at it like it was an apple!! I kid ye not!! That lad noo lives in Perth,Australia,wi his family,and got in touch wi me after nearly thirty years,through seeing me Bates pit photos on Flickr!! When a was only nineteen,a did me coalface training at Bedlington aad pit,then went back ti Choppington high pit,onto a rough coalface,in the 6-0am shift,as a spare coalcutterman. A worked wi an aad fella caaled "Scrammer" Young,so-called because he came from Scremerston pit after it closed. He was a hard,tough aad chep,thin as a rake,strong as a horse,and a gud aad cutterman,wudda been aboot 60-ish,[but ti me as a young lad,he was a dinosaur!]. The face was teeming in wi roof-waata,the roof was brekking up atween ivry set o' gears,[one 6' plank wi a prop at each end,and a prop in the conveyor belt line..roughly in the middle= a set o' gears.],and a fyess-brek [face-break],occurred as soon as ye were cutting the face,and the roof literally lowered as ye were crawling slowly in front of the cutter machine. Where the seam was aboot 2'-6" ti start with,it was doon ti anywhere between 2-0' and eighteen inches high,and grumbling on aal the time...by thi time thi face was filled off. The coalface was under so much roof pressure as the strata started laying-on,and breaking up,that the face itself used ti "Bowk-off",that is...huge chunks of solid coal the height of the seam,and mebbe six feet lang,and aboot a foot thick,wud suddenly crack audibly and loud,and fly out from the face,scattering aal ower,and hurt when it hit you!! Whey one day,we finished cutting the face,we were soaking and up ti thi eyes of clarts,which was a mixture of fine coal and stone curvings,from the cutter jib,and of course,filthy black waata,which ye were lying in aal day,so we crawled through the whole of the face,150 yards,ti get ti thi Mothergate,which was a hell of a struggle ,in a seam that low!! Haafway down the face we smelt summick really foul.....aye,one of the "Pullers"..["Bumpers" at other pits...],had been caught short,in the middle of the face wi nae choice but ti drop he's gears there where he lay..........and we had just crawled like snakes on wor bellies,stryght thro' it!! The pullers were the team who advanced,or "pulled",or "bumped",the face conveyor over into the new track,ready for the coalfillers to start filling the shot-down coal onto the belt. Anywheh!!,we got ti thi Mothergate,and aa scraped me claas as best as a cud,wi a bit of sharp stone,like a knife,ti get thi clarts and sh.... off me,and start ti get me bait. Noo me hands were aal clarty,still,cos nae wesh-basins,so a held me sammidge by a corner,chowed the rest,and hoyed the corner bit away.[as ivrybody else did......except Scrammer!!] He followed me off the fyess,inti thi high,and started gettin a diddle a cupple o yards away from me,and as he did so,he started ti wesh he's hands under he's John-tom,using he's aan waata ti clean he's hands doon. Then he calmly sat doon amang the waata and clarts,cos naewhere was dry!!,and held he's bait,eating the whole sammidge!! Aa was disgusted at him,and sed "Ya mekkin' game aren't yi,Scrammer?" He sed "Hoo's that Wilma?" "Need a say,ye hacky aad sod..."....in banter-fashion of course! He sed "Wilma,it's YE that's thi hacky sod ,not me,aav got clean hands,me aan waata's a lot cleaner than that wat ye've just craaled through,ya sittin theor like aan aad tramp,wi ya clarty,sh......y hands on ya bait!" A had ti laugh,cos Scrammer was a hell of a character,and we got on really weel,seeing the big age difference! Years later,a used ti see him waakin doon from thi top-end ti gaan ti the Market club,in he's late seventies,from a haaf a mile away!.....stryght as a die,a thick crop of pure silvery white hair,and a peculiar gait....he was fit as a lop! Sumbody on here is boond ti hae knaan Scrammer Young!![John Dawson.....where are ye?!!!] It was a party trick for them that had a kink in thier sense of humour,ti throw thi proverbial "Sh..."into the blades of the auxiliary fans which were hung in the fresh-air stream,and which were used to ventilate solid drivages,which had a dead-end,like those in my pit pics. A sure-fire way ti draw the men oot of thi working....but a bit sick aa used ti think. There was a big young lad at Bates pit,on a fully -mechanised face,who was the laziest bloke in thi pit,[whey....ONE of them ....!],who,when aa was a deputy in charge,would tell me ti ....whey....where ti gaan..!,when a asked him ti help carry timber up ti thi face for he's aan marra's doon thi face,where the roof was badly breaking up,and stopping the conveyor belt.,wi falls of roof stone.[he was aboot 16 stone,and wasn't as strong as he's aan shadow!!] Whey as time went by,aa came off deputy-wark,and HE, went ONTO deputy-wark,then as overman. He was very badly-liked,and had a piggish attitude to everybody,especially the young timber-laddies,who hated him. One day,after several of his flasks of tea had been smashed by someone who had it in for him,over a few weeks, we were sitting getting wor baits,[me marra's and me..],when he came owa ti us and said "lukka this.....mind tha stooping low noo..." He had aal he's sammidges in he's hand,in the loaf-wrapper,and they were aal covered in human muck and had been re-wrapped so he wouldn't suspect owt till he had them on he's knee,ready ti eat his bait. Noo ye might say he deserved it,but me,aa wudda rather had it oot wi him man ti man,aa thowt it absoloutely disgusting for anybody ti interfere wi another man's bait. It was sacrosanct in the aad days,just wouldn't be thowt of,but this was in the mid-1970's,when a new breed of young miners came doon,who hadn't been browt up wi a gud greasing atween thi legs as an initiation ceremony, and they were browt up wi mechanisation on reasonably high coalfaces[3-0feet at least] If these kids had been thrust doon a pit like Choppington,or Whittle,or Longhirst Drift,where it was rough......they wudn't last two minutes! Whey,aam tired,hungry,and need me bait,after aal that coal dust chowkin' me throat!!