Canny lass

From the frozen North - a very Merry Christmasto everyone.

Don't know about the qualiity of the singing in that video but the dialect was music to the ear!

Could be 'The Road Not Taken', Maggie. (Robert Frost)

I would just take that as a compliment, Malcolm! You're clearly doing the job too well and it's ruffling a few feathers. Keep up the good work!

.... that must have been one of them bonny coloured, chequered bath towels that they sold in the pit canteen.

Sometimes it does refer to the actual 'open and close' type of gate but not so often. It all depends on when the name was given.Citys and towns became walled in to protect the inhabitants and to allow some control over who could enter. (Why am I reminded of America ?) Naturally those walls needed the odd opening to allow entry and exit. Of convenience these openings were placed over the existing roadways - then called 'gata'. Over the years the word gata/gate was eventually used for the door itself. A sure sign that the road and not the door is being referred to is when you see the words 'within' and 'without' in the street name either side of the opening. Oldgate Within, Oldgate Without or Bondgate Within, Bondgate without are two of the most common I've come across. As miners use 'gate' when referring to the roadways in the mines, you can be assured that it's been in use a long time.

Great news! Not so great news!

... or take more water with it, maybe.

November 16 2010, according to The Journal: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/local-news/jobs-boost-bedlington-wetherspoons-prepares-4444986

Thanks, Rigger! This is a long överdue and very welcome addition to the material available for research today. I'll be using this quite a lot!

You can never go on too long HPW! Every word is valuable to me. I all helps paint a picture of the life and times of my ancestors. It's not always a pretty picture but it's vivid and full of detail. As you say, pitwork isn't an easy thing to describe to someone like me, who's never been, let alone worked down a coal mine. It isn't easy for us either when the 'experts' write about it using a terminology which only miners can understand. I really appreciate the time and effort yourself, Vic and Pete take to write about coalmining and the way you explain the terminology as it crops up in the text. Now, here's something from my field of work that you miners might find interesting: You mention "Gates" - tailgates, dummygates, mothergates and panelgates and you say that these 'gates' are "roadways". I, in my naivety, when these 'gates' have previously been mentioned have thought that it was a gate of the open and close kind. Now I know otherwise!But did you know that you've been speaking a bit of Swedish (Old Norse, to be precise) every time you speak of gates down the pit. Gate - meaning roadway - comes from the Scandinavian word gata - a word, still in use today, meaning 'street'. It can be found above ground as well in some street names like: Oldgate, Oldgate within, Newgate etc. So, I think you have earned the title 'HPW Honorary Swede'.

We may not always see eye to eye politically, 3g, but on this occasion I'm 100% in agreement. A second referendum would make a complete a-hole of democracy. Signed!

Moi? Never!