Canny lass

On 18/12/2023 at 12:44, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Canny Lass,ONLY those who were pitfolks knew the hardships the families of the Miners faced in times of tragedy and distress,AND ,in normal day to day living..When an employer takes Six year old bairns carried on their Father's backs asleep,to work underground from midnight to midday..they HAVE TO BE EVIL..they even employed women,some pregnant,to work underground,and on the Screens on the surface...in the real old days..but even when I was 15 yrs old,in 1959,the NCB Training scheme,had us learning underground,how to attach pit tubs to a moving haulage rope,by lashing a heavy chain round the rope three times..[rope moving at two miles per hour..some 4 mph!!],and then clipping the end of the chain to the middle "Cock-hole" on the tub with a Sheckle and pin..all the time this was happening,we stopped the chain from pulling the tub away till required,by holding our pit boot OVER THE ROPE ON THE GROUND.letting the rope pass under the sole of our boot which was held against the chain to stop it from clicking away prematurely..talk about insane?...no health and safety then..many a kid and adults also,were run over by a loose wire strand on the rope snatching the chain away and tripping the haulage lad onto the ground,the pit tub running over their legs or arms..hard to describe..wish I could find a training film showing how this was done..I had many a near miss ,same as everybody else who had to do it!!Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!!

It feels a bit odd to give that horrendous account of pit-life a 'like'. There's nothing 'likeable about the life they had and yet they were a lovely bunch of people. What I 'liked' was you bringing this up to the surface (literally) so that other's may know about it. Thanks HPW!

What Pete said!

Trying to reply to  your posts, Synptoms and HPW, but after entering ypour names I'm unable to write anything else. Nothing is accepted so I'll try a new post instead. 

I read with interest your posts above. What a vivid picture you paint! Horrendous to say the least. It was actually half in jest that I said what I said about the pit not having to pay 2/6 so I wasn't really prepared for your replies. How could the mine owners be so cold and callous? The old phrase 'adding insult to injury' takes on a whole new meaning!

@Symptoms @HIGH PIT WILMA

Thanks Maggie!

100% behind the nomination of Friends of Westlea Cemetery for this year's Piper Award.

On 03/12/2023 at 22:06, Mal said:

I think there is a guide Vic but the cemetery managers have it.  Don’t see why it can’t be put on the building? 

Why not put it on the internet as do the war cemeteries abroad, after all we do have war graves in West Lea. These cemetery plans are a great help to researchers.

On 02/12/2023 at 13:48, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

did the pits just rely on First Aiders in the pit getting the injured to the surface to be collected by the NHS ambulace?

21 hours ago, Symptoms said:

My Grandmother had to pay the Doctor for the home visit and for the ambulance

I wonder why a doctor or an ambulance couldn't attend to the injured at the pit? I mean, moving a back injury isn't the most sensible thing to do. Would it perhaps be because the pit would have to pay the 2/6d.

10 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Therfore the 1920 £800.00 ambulance motor was approximately 350% less the value of a 2023 amblance

it probably had 350% less equipment on board as well.

Found this little bit of information today, dated 8th November 1920:

Wheyhey! now it's official! Mince pie baking tomorrow.

New scarf! Or, the old one's been trimmed with a white edging - but let's not pick hairs.

All we need now is for Wilf to put in an appearance and it'll be all systems go.

Johnson's! I wouldn't know about the fags but you could get a quarter of Jelly babies for 6d in the late 50s and early 60s.

Thanks Eggy! I'm sure I'll manage the Thursdays and Sundays but I think I'll give Tuesdays a miss!

I'd be very happy if anybody can tell me the dates when these programmes are about to go on air.

On 31/08/2023 at 00:45, HIGH PIT WILMA said:

Hi Canny Lass!Long time since we chatted![Health issues with my Wife]

Don't you forget to make time for yourself! Caring for a loved one can be hard work at times and you need time for rest and relaxation if you're going to cope and keep your health intact.

On 23/08/2023 at 20:13, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away" Book of Job (Job 1:21)

"and Lord help anyone who taketh the tree I've had my eye on since early October" Book of CL (CL 1:1)

It's a very small percentage of trees that are exported and we import from Denmark to make up the deficit. There are about 4.5 million households in Sweden and about 3 million of them buy a tree. About 2.8 million of them are Swedish the rest are Danish. Of course, there are plenty of families who don't buy a tree as they own plenty themselves. Funnily enough it's not really acceptable to chop down one of your own so there's a lot of stealing in late December. It usually evens itself out. You take one of somebody else's trees and somebody takes one of yours. Not that I'd ever do anything like that 😇

22 hours ago, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Just wondered with Google showing 63% of Sweden is covered in forests if you had been affected, like Canada, by rising temperatures this year. 

Which "rising temperatures" would that be? Coldest summer I've experienced in almost 40 years here!

On 19/08/2023 at 11:57, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

Hows the weather and forests in Sweden

The weather is mainly COLD and WET! The forests are also mainly COLD and WET! Nine out of ten forest fires here are caused by people rather than climate so this year there have been much fewer forest fires as people haven't been outdoors BBQing and leaving 'single-use BBQs' to smoulder in anywhere near the usual amount - because of the weather

Of the attached maps the first, mainly blue, shows July rainfall this year. The second, mainly green, shows rainfall this July as a percentage of July rain in the years since 1991. July 2023 must have been, literally, a gift from heaven for the fire brigade!

We did have four days of 'proper' summer weather in June and then the BBQers, and the fire brigade, were out in force.

It's not looking good!

3 hours ago, threegee said:

I think the focus there is on the females are able to multitask and males aren't - myth. 

I prefer the word ’notion’ myself because the idea that women are better than men, when it comes to multitasking, hasn’t been proved either one way or the other. ”Myth” rather suggests that it has. Studies have shown a great deal of inconsistency, to say the least with results ranging from: they are, they aren’t, they sometimes are, they might be and they are in some types of multi-tasking – yes there are several types apparently, including even a type where the tasks involved ”do not need to be carried out simultaneously ” (Sorry can’t remember the researcher but it was quite recently, Bergen University, I think) - but you're right, we really shouldn't knock it and just be grateful that somebody can (she says while rocking the youngest great grandchild's 'bouncer' with one foot, scratching her lower leg with the other foot, reading a story to his brother, trying to write this and planning dinner!)

On 05/08/2023 at 20:08, Mal said:

Now if we had said that Canny lass!!!!!😂😂😂

Now, if you had said that Mal, I would have thought ”Now there’s a sensible man who really understands the complexity of the female’s cognitive functioning. A rare animal indeed!

On 03/08/2023 at 21:21, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

New trains will all have automatic doors, like the London underground trains, and operated by the multitasking train driver

On 03/08/2023 at 21:21, Alan Edgar (Eggy1948) said:

 

..... only female drivers then?

On 29/06/2023 at 19:42, Vic Patterson said:

ttps://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/politics/new-name-for-berwick-upon-tweed-constituency-while-wansbeck-and-north-tyneside-seats-to-be-abolished-4200276?fbclid=IwAR3Dt4wiY7vr8-RFjnd4ZbIIKfrRRMXSprS3dcfe6P7LBlIoYxTAWSkGZ9E

Quote:

”North Tyneside and Wansbeck will cease to exist, while new constituencies will be created elsewhere to reflect population changes.

The BCE is under a legal obligation to propose constituencies within 5% of the electoral quota, meaning the number of registered voters for each constituency in the country must be between 69,724 and 77,062” (my underlining)

Procreation! That’s the problem! There’s clearly not enough of it in Wansbeck. Get that  improved and we can swing this the other way in 18 years!