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Like a said in me last post,fact and figures not being accurate.....whilst aam chuffed as hell ti see this pic,[which is new ti me!],THIS is not the Harvey Seam! The Harvey Seam varied in thickness between 2ft-2" ...high,down to 1ft-10",sometimes a wee bit lower... When I was transferred ti thi aad pit at Bedltn,in 1965,the only Seams working were the Harvey East,and the High Main. Being a pit "Foreigner"..[as we were called!],we Choppington lads could only get spare shifts to cover for men idle,so one day we might be in 10feet high Bord and Pillar workings,up in the High Main,or the next day reet in the Harvey east,cramped doon almost on ya belly!![dinna forget that with wood timber planks supporting the roof,ya height is lost by average 3inches...sum a bit thicker or thinner.[on longwall faces..handfilling-no Dowty props or Desford hydraulic face chocks...like those in the pic!] Getting back ti thi pic,if ye notice the gud height he is working in,[at least 3feet],plus there's a few inches of top coal left up ti keep a gud "ground"..[..meaning a good roof!!],this seam is aboot 42" high......and at the Aad pit,thi only place where Dowties and Desfords,and also "K" bars were used,was on the two new faces ["1";s...and "11"'s],doon the new drift which went doon ti the Denton Low Main,and which teemed coal off so much that the old-fashioned loader-end at the shaft-bottom area,couldn't cope,couldn't load tubs fast enough,so they had ti stop the belts frequently!! "1"'s face broke the National Productivity Records a few times for a face with props and bars....most faces at big pits were fully mechanised with powered face chocks..[so-called "Waakin' Chocks..."]! We were achieving five shears a shift,for two shift system,plus usually one or two shears in the night -shift,which was supposed to be the "Prep" shift..i.e. preparing the shearer and the face generally,for a push-button start for the fore-shift coming in.....oddly not Midnight like other pits........but 1-40am start!!![who the hell thowt that one up baffled ivry bugga at thi pit!!] Them two faces kept the pit profiting till we reached the boundaries,and conditions deteriorated.So by 1968-ish,[just after my first Son was born],I was on the development team..["Composite"...at other pits!],winning new districts oot. "21"'s face came first,with powered face chocks,[five-legged manual controlled],then after we installed the A.F.C.[Armoured Face Conveyor...all-steel sections,with flygt chain bars],and the powered chocks..[150 of them!],we put the two shearers on.A.B.[Anderson-Boyes] main shearer,and a B.J.D [British-Jeffrey-Diamond],as a "Sumpa" ["Sumping"],at the tailgate end of the face,which only sheared aboot 20 yards each time,to create a "Stall" for the main shearer to "Sump" into,allowing the face conveyor to be snaked over and turn the main shearer around for a fast plough-back to the maingate.[before "Bi-Di" ...Bi-Directional" ...shearers came in,the shearer had a plough trailing behind,on the shear cycle.] When that face went away on coalwork,we then started winning out "11"'s face,again,by arcing out with an A.B.15 coal-cutter,and drilling,firing,and hand-filling onto a rubber conveyor belt. That was mighty hard work,killing,cos the belt box-end was always at least five yards behind the cutter,and every shovel-ful had to be cast [singly!...nae double-casting!!]...owa the top of the cutter and ti thi other side of the face ti eventually slide onti the belt.....very hard ti desribe so folk will understand. By 1970-ish,thi pit was scratching aroond for coal,and drove a roadway owa ti thi Bomar pit,ti steal coal what they had left,we caaled it "Thi Bomar Road"....["Burma Road" ,,,,for thi youngin's!!!],noo a think,if me memory serves me reet,that thon roadway was drifted up from the Denton Low Main,ti thi Brass Thill seam....but a stand ti be corrected on that one,cos they did the same thing at Bates,only we drifted up and owa ti Newbiggin pit,under the North Sea,ti steal the coal what they left. It might have been that one wat was the Brass Thill. Alan Dickson would be the best one ti help oot there,cos a think he might have worked up there....[aa was imprisoned doon the Three-Quarter hell-hole aal thi time,after the Beaumont Seam closed at Bates.!] LBJ waakies....AGAIN!! Hope a haven't bored anybody!

The attached 1860 map shows the Netherton Waggonway that connected Netherton Colliery to the main railway line at Barrington. One could still walk along the section between Netherton Colliery and the Choppington Road in the 1950’s.

You could put a couple of quid on that for me as well.

The same seam often had a different name at another colliery, e.g The Beaumont seam at the Doctor Pit (Bedlington D) was called the Harvey seam at the Aad Pit (Bedlington A). On page 15 of the report, this is clarified with the best piece of technical jargon I’ve read in ages - “Seam nomenclature suffers considerably from homonyms and synonyms, arising both from mis-correlation and from the plethora of local names introduced by private colliery companies.” To prevent the confusion that can arise using the names of seams the NCB assigned letters to the seams, The Harvey is N, The Plessey is M etc. The report makes use of the letters in the report.

Not all of it dad, I have school in the morning :-

It was a surprise to find out that, according to the comment below taken from the report, there are records of coal being mined in this area going back almost 800 years. "The Moorland Seam is named from Bedlington Moor Land, near the present Bedlington Station, where the coal was mined at least as early as the 18th century. One of the earliest records of local mining in England is near Blyth, where, in 1236, the Moorland Seam was worked along and near its outcrop westwards through Cowpen to Bebside.”

Have you tried moving your armchair nearer the stove?

Have you tried shortening the chain to the kitchen stove? She's obviously being allowed to move too far away from it.

Wor lass thinks +18c is cold - she keeps turning the heating up and over the recommend level, 21c, for OAPs !! Iv'e told her if she feels cold to stop lounging and dust vigorously to warm herself and the room up. It's getting late and I'm still waiting for me 10 o'clock with ginger snaps

Still waiting for me ginger snaps